In the moment after he finished reading his prompt the world began to blur and shift. Soon he found himself back in his real body laying back on the table in Ryker’s enchanter’s workshop. The world felt like it was lacking something. The lights weren’t as bright and the colors more dull. The sense of loss was almost overwhelming.

  Ryker’s face entered Bjorn’s vision. “Did it work?”

  “I think so.”

  The man moved over to the magical core and leaned over it blocking it from Bjorn’s view. He sat up and his head swam. He sat there for a minute letting his head clear before standing the rest of the way up. Pins and needles ran through his muscles as if they hadn’t circulated for a long time.

  He stumbled over to where Ryker was at and gently pushed the crazy man a side so he could get a look at the orb. Ryker didn’t resist. The orb looked almost the exact same as it had before, unsure if what he did actually did anything he used W.A.I.L.A. on the core.

  “What happened in there?” Ryker asked.

  Bjorn filled Ryker in on the major strokes of what he experienced, but he didn’t tell him everything. “Now, how long was I in there for?”

  “19 minutes and 31 seconds.”

  “What? It felt like hours, probably even days.”

  “What can I say? Time moves differently while we dream.”

  Bjorn narrowed his eyes and looked over at the man. “You knew that was going to happen didn’t you?”

  “Something like that. I didn’t know for sure, but I was fairly certain that you would have ended up in a dreamlike state. It’s all complicated but your consciousness detached from your body and entered the core. This effect was achieved through alchemy, if you were a mental mage than you could have entered the core yourself. This mental energy was what Araxos used to corrupt the core.”

  “Have you ever done something like this before?”

  “Nope!”

  Bjorn couldn’t take it anymore and wrapped his hands around Ryker’s neck and began to throttle the man. “You did this without knowing for sure what would happen? But you somehow knew that I would end up in a dreamstate. Why didn’t you warn me? Why didn’t you give me a heads up?”

  As he was shaking Ryker back and forth choking him he caught sight of his wooden hand. It looked almost the exact same as it had 20 minutes ago, but something about it was slightly off. Forgetting about his quest to kill Ryker he took a closer look. His pinky was gone.

  The missing extremity made Bjorn suspicious and brought his attention back to the Enchanter that he still had his hands around his throat. “What happened to my pinky?”

  He let out a garbled response. “What?” Oh sorry. He had forgotten about his hands for a moment and he let the pressure up just enough so that Ryker could speak.

  “Which question do you want me to answer first?”

  Ryker’s answer made Bjorn angry enough again that he couldn’t help himself and went right back to choking out the man. He didn’t want to kill Ryker, but he was annoyed enough that he wanted to get the emotions out. After several minutes of trashing and choking the man Bjorn finally relented.

  Ryker flopped backwards onto the ground gasping for air. “You are surprisingly strong for your level. Anyways, I can see that my actions have caused you ire, that wasn’t my intention.”

  “I’ll show you ire.” Bjorn said taking a step towards Ryker again.

  He scrambled backwards hand outstretched to try and stop Bjorn. “Wait. I will answer all of your questions I promise.” This placated Bjorn just enough to get him to stop.

  Taking in a raspy breath Ryker started speaking. “To answer your questions I will go from newest to oldest. I cut away your pinky to study it. I figured that if there was a part of your hand that you wouldn’t miss it would be your pinky. “ He held up a little glass vial with the cut off member in it. “It was a calculated risk. I figured that if there was a significant chance that you would regrow the finger, as your hand isn’t your hand. It is a plant based lifeform that lets you control it for the moment. Plants have this uncanny ability to regrow anything that is cut off them. Ergo I figured that your finger would regrow and you wouldn’t be left dismembered. Besides, even if you remained disfingered than all I was doing was helping remove a parasite from your body.”

  “What happened to ‘No experiments on Bjorn.’ As Duke Dornan said?”

  “Technically speaking, I didn’t do an experiment on you. I did it on the Spriggan.”

  Bjorn had to take in a deep breath and hold it for a few minutes before he spoke again. During that time Ryker just lay there half seated on the ground staring up at the looming man. When Bjorn let the breath out he felt his entire body relax just a little bit, which allowed him to speak. “The Spriggan is fused with my nervous system, which means that it is me. Think of the plant and myself as one entity.”

  “But you aren’t, not yet. The spriggan is the spriggan, and you are a human. Even if the creature will eventually consume your entire body it is still not you. Even if the creature is incorporated into your body that doesn’t mean that the creature is you. You are slowly becoming one but you are not one yet. Besides, I have a theory that constantly hurting the creature will actually slow down the spread across your body.”

  “That is actually where you are wrong.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Bjorn sighed and pulled a stool out of the refuse pile he sat down and gestured for Ryker to do the same thing. Hesitantly he got up from where he was on the floor and made his way over to the chair he had brought over while Bjorn was under.

  “I don’t want you sharing this information with anyone else you got that?” When Ryker nodded his head Bjorn began speaking. “I have had a few chance encounters that have augmented my body. I was once a slave and during that time I had an encounter with a flesh abomination. I can see you aren’t familiar with them. They are creatures born out of piles of corpses, the remaining life energies of their body condense to form these small ruby colored beads of pure life energies. These beads animate the flesh surrounding them and create rather grotesque creatures.”

  “Okay.”

  “So one of my friends and I managed to kill both of them, as you can imagine I assume they are quite valuable as I haven't come across any of them since. My friend and I didn’t want the gnolls that had enslaved us to get their hands, paws? Claws? On the beads so I did what any sane man would do and ate them. They tasted quite vile if you were wondering. But these beads augmented my natural regeneration.”

  Understanding dawned on Ryker’s face and his vision went cloudy as his mind began to run through the implications. “So what you are saying is that even though you are human your natural regeneration isn’t set at 1% of your maximum health per day. It is actually higher.” His eyes narrowed as they cleared and settled on Bjorn. “How much higher?”

  “I regenerate 32% per day.”

  “32%!” Ryker exclaimed as he reeled back. Even though the news was impressive it shouldn’t have garnered this type of reaction.

  “Yes 32%, anyways getting back to the matter at hand. The spriggan always takes a portion of my considerable health regeneration. I have already tried removing the Spriggan from my body when I did so it actually somehow consumed more of my health regeneration to regenerate itself. I have little doubt that If I didn’t have the increased health regeneration then I would already have died as the spriggan took more than I normally would have had to reconstitute itself.”

  “I doubt that, as if it did so it would effectively be killing itself. The ultimate goal of a parasite is to take as much from its host as it can while not killing the host. I believe that if your health regeneration was slower than the spriggan would heal itself slower as well. But what concerns me is that it is constantly sapping your health regeneration, what is it doing with the vital energies that it takes from your body?”

  “Honestly, my best guess? I think it takes the life force from my body and turns it into experience or growth. Although it is hard to see, the creature has grown since I got it over a month ago.”

  Ryker furrowed his brow. “Show me.” He got up from his seat and made his way over to where Bjorn was sitting. A show of bravery as not 5 minutes ago Bjorn was choking the life out of the man.

  Bjorn pulled back the cuff of his shirt to expose his upper wrist and lower forearm. When he examined the new hand before there were tendrils of wood that spread up from the main part of the hand and spread into his forearm. The line of where his wrist had met his hand had moved up his arm roughly ? of an inch. On top of that the tendrils of wood were longer and reached further up into his forearm. Bjorn pointed that out to Ryker and explained the changes.

  “Hmmm. You might be onto something there. How long did it take for the spriggan to reach level two?”

  “Roughly 10 days?” Bjorn said, guessing.

  “There are no indicators as to how close the creature is to level 3 is there?”

  “Not that I have noticed.”

  As if no cue Bjorn received a notification.

  Bloodroot Spriggon Taproot had leveled up. It is now level 3. It has +3 natural armor and increased regeneration. Your health regeneration has decreased by 3%

  “Uh. It just reached level 3.” Bjorn said.

  “Let me see again.” Ryker took Bjorn’s wrist in a surprisingly strong grip and held it up to his eye. The hand seemed to look the exact same. The only difference was that the red lines that emanated the soft red light turned a slight shade darker of red.

  “Fascinating.” Ryker said.

  “I fail to see how it is.”

  Ryker pulled out a small tool that looked to be a mix of a knife and a spoon. He began to bring it closer to Bjorn’s hand. Seeing that Bjorn snatched it back away from the crazy man. “Oh no you don’t.”

  “Come on. It would be great to get a sample, I would have a sample of the creature before and after it leveled up. I could run tests on it and see what if any major changes happened to the creature between levels.”

  “Absolutely not. You have already taken some off of it without permission and I won’t let that happen again.”

  “It might help lead to a cure, or at least a way to incorporate the power of the spriggan into your body. That way you don’t have to lose it either, I have a feeling that the creature will become a boon for your growth, or at least help you survive.”

  Bjorn thought about it for a moment before he relented. He held out his hand and let Ryker dig at the hand with his tool. Even with the considerable natural armor that the wooden limb had, the tool was able to cut and scoop out a large chuck of the wood. He collected it in a vial and set it aside.

  He immediately began work looking at the wood but was drug back by Bjorn. “No you don’t buddy boy. I have more questions for you.”

  “What?” Ryker asked a bit of heat to his tone. Bjorn gave him a flat stare. That seemed to do the trick as Ryker sat back down.

  “That’s better. Anyways, my next question. Did you know what I was going to experience what I did while under?”

  “Yes and no. That is a complicated answer. Based on the description of the item and the story that you told I was fairly certain that the core had been corrupted by some sort of powerful mental mage. I didn’t know how that would manifest but for us to make any use of the core we needed to remove the influence on the core. If we didn’t do that then whatever we made with the core would be corrupted and would probably serve the mental mage, much like what I suspect the Mauler did.”

  Ryker paused and took in a deep breath as he spoke all of that with a single breath. “It would all depend on what the mage had done to the core to begin with. I was fairly certain that he still influenced it. Whatever you did while in there actually managed to remove his influence but it took a toll on the core. If you realized you removed over 4000 durability on the item. Not a small feat seeing how you didn’t touch it and it only took 20 minutes. Now however it is attuned to you or at least is a blank slate, so we can now use it to our purposes.”

  “And that is?” Bjorn asked.

  “A golem of course! This item even though it is almost destroyed is a magical item of impressive power. If we can harness some of that power then we should do so. Even though the core is in a weakened state it should have more than enough power to fuel a golem. Depending on how I do in building the golem it might actually be able to accelerate the rate at which the core repairs itself.”

  “How does that process happen?”

  “Honestly? I haven’t the faintest idea! And that excites me!” He let out a mad laugh that was bordering on evil based on Bjorn’s evaluation.

  Bjorn just shook his head. “Alright where do we go from here?”

  “That is simple. You leave and I get to work. If everything goes as planned I should be able to have a golem fully completed in two weeks.”

  “Two weeks?!” Bjorn exclaimed.

  The frown crossed Ryker’s face again. “I can assure you that is more than a reasonable time. Most golemancers take months at a time to make a golem.” He obviously misunderstood Bjorn’s misgivings. He thought that Bjorn was exclaiming at how amazing it was that it only would take two weeks. Bjorn however was hoping it would take less time.

  “How can I help with this? I want it to go faster if at all possible.”

  “Are you an enchanter?”

  “I have the skill.” Bjorn said.

  “Have you ever enchanted a weapon, or a piece of armor? What about a simple piece of wood?”

  “No. I have used soul stones to recharge enchanted items however.”

  “Then you would do nothing but hinder my work.” Ryker said. “You would just get in the way and slow me down. If you want the golem in the amount of time that I said earlier, then I need to work alone.”

  Bjorn understood what Ryker was saying. Even though he was happy to teach people his alchemy craft he hated having someone look over his shoulder as he worked. He would gladly explain what he was doing as he worked. He wanted a modicum of space as he worked. On top of that he had other work to do, he would have liked to learn how to craft golems, but tracking down Kairon’s crew took precedence.

  “Alright. I get the picture, I can take a hint. Send me a letter when you are finished or tell Duke Dornan, he will be able to find me.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Ryker’s words made it obvious that Bjorn was already an after thought and he had dismissed the man from his attention.

  Taking a hint Bjorn got to his feet and left the room. After the door closed behind him he finally paid attention to the blinking icon at the edge of his vision.

  Congratulations you have advanced your skill level in: Inner peace. Reaching skill level 17. Your emotional stability has increased by 17%. Your resistance to mental manipulation has increased by 8.5%

  Congratulations you have advanced from beginner to novice in inner peace. You have gained a perk. You gain 10% resistance against psychic damage.

  This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

  Congratulations? You have advanced your skill level in: Torture. Reaching skill level 5. The pain that you inflict upon helpless individuals is increased by 20%

  He stood there for a moment drinking in everything that happened in the last few hours due to the insane man Bjorn got a random hair up his ass and used W.A.I.L.A. on the door led into the enchanter’s workshop.

  Well that just created more questions than it answered. Buildings could level up? And as they were built they would gain more powerful effects? Is there a limit to the level? How hard is it to level up a building? With his new found information he got from the prompt his mind began to wander. How could an alchemists lab increase the potency of his potions that he brewed? Why hadn’t he thought about that before?

  With that being said he was pretty sure he had never used W.A.I.L.A. on a building before he had built the buildings on his farm with Meira. Why hadn’t he thought to do so? After all, all people and items in this world had some video game aspects to them. They all had character screens and descriptions. Why wouldn’t buildings have video game aspects and descriptions as well.

  As he was lost in his musings he lost track of time, he wasn’t sure if it was minutes or hours before he woke himself from his revelry and realized he had been creepy. For the last undisclosed amount of time he had been standing in front of the enchanter’s table and been staring off into nothing.

  Completely disregarding his awkwardness he looked around and found the corridor empty. Good thing no one saw him otherwise that would have been embarrassing. With that happy thought Bjorn left the Enchanter’s Table and began making his way up back into the palace proper. It was now early afternoon and he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with himself.

  He wanted to begin his search after Kairon’s crew, he knew deep down that they were still here somewhere inside the city, he could feel it. He just didn’t know where to start. In a city that spanned several miles and filled winding city streets, finding the ones he was looking for would be like finding a needle in a hay stack. The only thing he had going for him was that most of the races that they were were rare or even uncommon. This should make them stand out even in the normal diverse crowd of races that filled the streets of Blackrock Bay.

  So he figured that the best place to start would be in the various different inns and taverns throughout the city. What he would give to have Tayla’s urban expertise to help hunt down his prey. Her uncanny ability to find the darker underbellies of cities would have came in handy. Especially in a flourishing city like this there had to be a dark underside to this city.

  As he made his way back up to the main floor of the palace a thought struck him. All of his assumptions so far was based on the fact that Kairon’s crew only had 12 of the bandits affiliated with them. But as Killian had told Bjorn before he died, there were many different agents that worked for the tiefling. He wasn’t dealing with 12 unorganized bandits, he was dealing with an organization that had likely infiltrated different parts of Escar. They probably didn’t have to even come out of hiding they probably had other people that Bjorn was unaware of doing most of their above ground work.

  He was composing his questions that he would ask or information he would try and uncover as he explored the city when he made a detour. If he was going out into the city he wanted to check in on Adriana beforehand. After making a stop at her rooms and finding them empty he asked a passing servant if he knew where Adriana was. To his surprise she was still out in the training fields getting instruction. With a word the servant led Bjorn to the training grounds.

  To call them “Training grounds” was entirely a misnomer. They were more like a patch of beaten down grass that happened to be used for people to beat each other up. When he entered the clearing in the palace grounds he recognized the space. It was actually the marshaling yard that Gram had gathered his first wave of guards before they were slaughtered by the snatcher spiders.

  In the middle of the field stood Adriana with a rapier held at ready. On the ground next to her a wooden weapon rack had been set up and was filled with weapons of all different types and sizes. There were whips, swords of all different sizes, maces, axes, spears, throwing knives, daggers, and what looked like a chain attached to a knife.

  That last one caught Bjorn’s eye but he quickly put it out of his attention. “Sloppy, with a step like that I can easily knock you over.” A man said as he stepped next to Adriana and used his foot to swipe her leg out from underneath her and she crumpled to the ground.

  “Oh come now. That was harsh even for you.” A woman who was built like a body builder said.

  “No, it was a fair assessment. If she doesn’t get this right then what is the point?” A third man said.

  There were only three other people in the clearing with Adriana and from the look of them they were without a doubt instructors. The first man who spoke was what you would expect from a fighter. Tall, Broad shoulders, and an extremely athletic build from there. The woman had the large tusks and green skin of an orc. The last man was short like a dwarf but he didn’t have the other traits that pointed at being a dwarf. He was actually very thin in both his shoulders and waist making him look like a reed.

  “What’s going on here?” Bjorn called out.

  Adriana immediately dropped her stance to turn around and greet Bjorn. Just as quickly the tall built man whipped a switch out and cracked it on the back of Adriana’s thighs. She yelped and re-entered her sword form.

  “I take it that your master Bjorn.” The thin man said. As he made his way over to where Bjorn was standing on the edge of the field.

  “I don’t know about master, but I am Bjorn ward if that is what you are asking.”

  By the time he was finished speaking the other two instructors started making their way over to where Bjorn was standing. This left Adriana where she was standing holding her form like she had been instructed to do.

  The orc’s face broke out into a grin as he approached. “It is a pleasure to meet you, the stories about your exploits against the snatcher spiders are legendary.” By the look on her face and the bounce in her step she obviously believed the words she was saying.

  “So I have heard, however in practice they seem to not mean much.” Bjorn said.

  The athletic man walked over, obviously sizing Bjorn up. “I don’t know about that. I imagine that they go a long way to opening doors, especially here in Blackrock Bay.” There was almost a hint of contempt in his voice, or maybe it was just Bjorn’s imagination.

  Apparently Bjorn wasn’t the only one who noticed as the thin man gave him a side eyed glance and went back to Bjorn’s question. “We were tasked by Duke Dornan to help whip Adriana here into shape. He didn’t give us any details about what you are going through, only that it was very important for us to teach her how to fight.”

  Bjorn nodded his head. “That it is. Anything you are able to teach her would be helpful.”

  The tall man scoffed. “That it would be. She is as helpless as a new born puppy. I would have thought a travel companion of the legendary ‘Bjorn Ward’ would be more competent than she is.”

  Bjorn had already decided he didn’t like the guy. The jury was still out on the other two. The orc seemed to be getting into Bjorn’s good graces so far. “We have been on the hunt, and if you can’t tell she is fairly young. She was a farmer’s daughter just a little over a month ago. We haven’t had much time to train her up. With all of that in mind I feel like she is doing quite well for herself.”

  “I have to agree with master Bjorn.” The thin man said.

  “Where are my manners?” The orc cut in. “My name is Chta. This is Ivan.” She gestured to the short thin man. “And this is Owen.” She finished speaking by gesturing to the tall man.

  “Pleasure.” He said. The way he was talking he was not impressed.

  “Anyways.” Bjorn said completely unperturbed by the obvious posturing that was going on. “I was just checking in on Adriana. I’m heading into the city and have no idea how long I’ll be there.”

  “She will be in good hands.” Ivan said giving Bjorn a small polite bow. “I promise that we will whip her into shape and she will be able to hold her own in no time.”

  “Good.” Bjorn said, turning to leave. “Oh and don’t worry too much about proper fighting technique. I find that in a real fight to the death all technique tends to go out the window and you just survive. At least that has been my experience.”

  Owen scoffed again. “I think I know how to train someone how to fight. That is my job after all. I think you should concern yourself with learning a thing or two from us. I believe it would do you some good.”

  Chta gave the blustery man a disapproving glare and turned back to Bjorn. “You have a nice day and good luck with whatever you are doing.”

  Bjorn made a mental note to have a word with Dornan about Owen. Why was it always the large muscle bound men who ended up being the complete tools? “Have fun Adriana.” Bjorn called out over his shoulder as he was leaving.

  “I will!” She called back.

  There was another whack sound as the switch smacked into the dirt. “Less talking and move into form 3.” Owen called as he walked away from Bjorn.

  Bjorn just shook his head and made his way back into the palace and out the main front gate. At least out the sally port door built into the gatehouse. There was no need to open the 15 foot door to let a single man out.

  He didn’t have much of an idea of what he was looking for so Bjorn began to wander. He spent the majority of the rest of the day exploring the streets of Blackrock Bay better than he had last time he was here. Which honestly didn’t mean overly much. As he explored he found out that any piece of land on top of the rock itself was actually very well kept and clean. There wasn’t really a bad side of town on the surface of the rock.

  That is how he learned that the more seedy parts of town were actually built into the giant crisscrossing cuts running through the center of the city and separating it into 4 parts. Those areas were where they hadn’t really spent much time while they were here last.

  On the surface level there were well built stone bridges that spanned the gaps between the section of rock. But over the 200 feet to get to the river level there were tons of other, less well built bridges that spanned the gaps. Standing at the precipice of the drop Bjorn was able to see that there were actually houses and streets dug into the cliff face.

  It made sense, a city this large would end up making as much use of the land available to it. The last time he was here they had been swept up in the miles upon miles of sewage systems. That in and of itself was like a city, well more of a labyrinth than a city. It made perfect sense that homes and businesses would be cut into the stone as well, even if Bjorn hadn’t thought of it before.

  Much like how on the surface as you drew closer to the center of the rock that Blackrock Bay was built on the houses got nice, the undercity was much the same. The closer you got to the center of the city the nicer the homes and businesses got.

  That is why Bjorn ended up near the outer ring of the walls. He doubted that the bandits he was looking for would be so well connected that they would be in the upper echelon of society. Though he could be completely wrong with that assumption, they could be so well connected that they had people in Duke Dornan’s palace for all Bjorn knew about them, but he still had his doubts. He thought it was more likely that they would have to be in the slums of the city.

  That is how Bjorn found himself in a bar that was built into the cliff face. He had to access it by climbing down a set of stairs and taking a road that ran parallel with the cliff face. It dipped in and out of the stone sometimes being completely underground and other times open to the drop into the river.

  The bar actually had to be accessed from the cliff face. There were a set of stone steps that were built into the cliff jutting out over the 50 foot drop down to the river. The bar was completely enclosed on three different sides by the same black rock that everything was built out of. On the last side it was completely open to the drop. Almost surprisingly there were no safety precautions built into the open side of the bar. No guardrail separated people from their fall.

  The interior of the bar was surprisingly grungy for the fact that it was open the all of the elements. Or it was surprisingly grungy because of the rains and winds blowing dust and grit into the bar whenever a storm came up. Bjorn would have thought that it would be shut down during the winter because of its open nature but he was wrong. The only difference was that the stairs down to the bar were just that much more slick.

  Surrounding the exterior of the bar there were red fire stones that were set into the rock that emitted just enough heat to make the inside of the room almost bearable. There weren't many patrons inside the bar and the ones that were there were wearing heavy winter clothes. One fashion choice that the Eld got right was cloaks. They just looked so cool and were warm. It was like wearing a blanket that was attached to your neck.

  Bjorn made his way to the bar, ordered a pale beer and took it to a table in the corner of the room and waited. Over several hours he heard several hushed conversations from various groups that came and went. As the early evening turned into night there was only one group who had been there the whole night.

  Over the course of the night they progressively got more and more drunk. This led to them just progressively getting louder and more obnoxious. There were 3 of them, humans, all three of them looked like typical gangsters from back on earth. They all had almost coordinated and baggy clothes. Neck and face tattoos covered their skin, which was weird as they were the first tattoos Bjorn had seen since he came to the Eld.

  Roughly halfway through the night they switched from drinking and general debauchery to a card game. From where Bjorn sat in the corner he wasn’t able to see what exactly they were playing but the deck of cards looked familiar to the deck the guards used when he was underneath Blackrock Bay. Occasionally one of the other patrons would join their game for a while before losing their money and leaving the game. Without fail they all lost.

  A few hours into the card game a new group of two, a guy and a girl that stood out entered. Both middle-aged and both elves, and well dressed. As Bjorn watched them enter the bar he got the sense of a coiled spring. It was just in the way they moved, they screamed danger. They looked to be both relaxed and alert at the same time, their weight was constantly shifted forward with how they stepped with their whole foot, making them seem grounded.

  Bjorn was distracted watching these new threats when his attention was pulled away from the new couple by the sound of a hand slapping onto the table he was sitting at. One of the three gangsters was standing there. “Did you hear me ‘My lord’? I said, "Why don’t you come over and play with us?”

  He was taken aback by the ‘My Lord’. That was when he realized he had made a mistake. He was still wearing the nice fine clothes that he had gotten from the palace. He did a quick look around the room and realized that the clothes he was wearing was likely worth more money than the rest of the patrons had ever seen. If he was going to be digging through the undercity he would need new clothes.

  “I would rather not. I would like to be left alone.” Bjorn said in a disarming tone.

  The thug got a vicious smile on his face. “I insist. We have seen you over here in the corner for a while now. It would be both our duty and an honor to provide company for you.” He leaned over Bjorn in an attempt to intimidate Bjorn.

  Sighing, and not seeing a way out of this, he did need to get more information he got to his feet. When Bjorn first came to the Eld he had been almost exactly 6 feet tall. Over the course of his stay here he had slowly actually grown taller. When he first used ‘Latent potential’ he was closer to 6’ 4”. When he reset his stats he shrunk down to 6 feet again. Now he was closer to 6’ 2”.

  Still he had to crane his neck up to look at the thug that was standing over him. He had to be close to 6’8” or even taller. “What is the game you are playing?”

  The vicious smile on his face grew. “Durak. Have you heard of it?”

  Bjorn had actually heard of the game, he had actually played it. It was actually one of the card games that he learned from his fellow soldiers. “No I haven't, will you teach me how to play?” Bjorn lied.

  The smile grew predatory and he could see the visible greed in the thugs eyes as he looked at Bjorn. “Of course, it is easy enough to learn. Why don’t you join us?”

  Together the pair made their way over to the table. As he walked he surveyed the room again trying to see what happened with the newcomers. They had made their way to the bar and were leaned over whispering to the barkeep. There were two seats open at the table the gangsters were seated at. One of them faced the bar, the other away. Bjorn took the seat facing the bar even though it was where the thug had been seated.

  The smile faltered for a moment but then it reasserted itself on his face. He sat down across from Bjorn and the group began explaining the rules of Durak. For the most part they told the rules as they actually were. Occasionally though they told Bjorn a rule that was actually wrong, not how the game was played. They were sly about it though, the way they told the rules gave them a slight edge, you would have to be intimately familiar with the game to realize.

  After they finished lying to Bjorn giving him the rules to the games that were lies they then proceeded to tell him that the average starting bet to the game was 5 coppers a hand. While in the army they played 1 copper a hand. They also lied about how the increments of betting worked. Normally in a 4 person game the pot would end up being around 10 coppers a hand. The way they worded the betting the pot would get to at least 50 coppers per hand easily.

  That wasn’t that bad as Bjorn had that much money in spades but he still didn’t want to give these thugs any money of his. As they played Bjorn watched the couple and the bartender, they were still leaning in talking amongst themselves quietly, much too quiet for Bjorn to be able to overhear.

  Around 10 minutes after Bjorn started playing with gangsters the couple slid something across the bar to the bartender and then they left. This caught Bjorn’s attention but he didn’t know how to extricate himself from the game without making a scene, so he kept playing. Finally when Bjorn was over the obvious cheating the group was doing Bjorn was down 3 and a half silvers. The straw that broke the camels back was when they very blatantly stacked the deck before dealing.

  “No, I am not playing this hand. You cheated. I literally watched you stack the deck so that I would have a losing hand before dealing.” Bjorn said, they obviously thought they were untouchable.

  “What are you going to do about it?”

  “Well seeing how for the last 20 minutes you have been cheating you are going to give me my money back and I am going to leave.” Bjorn said in a calm voice. His calm demeanor should have been the first clue that Bjorn wasn’t intimidated by these thugs.

  However they were stupid and drunk on their perceived power. “No, I think you are going to hand over the money you have and we will let you leave.” One of the thugs said. At the same time he said that he lifted his shirt to show off a rather wicked looking dagger that was stuffed into his pants.

  Bjorn sighed. “Really? You are so cliche. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. You will give me back my money and I will leave and not hurt you. Or you can refuse and I will take it back by force.”

  His words had the effect that he expected. All three of them stood up and puffed up trying to intimidate Bjorn. Two of them pulled daggers out of their clothes and the last one pulled out a set of metal that looked similar to brass knuckles. Leaving the money on the table.

  Bjorn slowly stood up and said. “The hard way it is then.”

  The first thug, the one who talked to Bjorn, was the first one to make a move. He lunged at Bjorn with his dagger. He was honestly kind of slow, his lunge was telegraphed and as such easily dodged. Bjorn put his hand on the outside of the man’s hand and redirected the lunge. It was easy, his strength was nowhere near Bjorn’s 31 points. Once the dagger passed Bjorn he took his left fist and with all of his strength drove it into the thugs side, right below his armpit.

  There were several crunches that Bjorn felt as several of the man’s ribs broke under the force. He crumpled to the ground. The next one was the guy with the brass knuckles. He was faster than the first man but weaker. Honestly, he was just as harmless as the first. Bjorn sidestepped two punches, and blocked one. The last punch was a right hook that left him wide open.

  Bjorn straightened and flexed his fingers. He used his other hand to grab onto the upper arm of the man he was fighting and used his arm to leverage him into Bjorn’s hand as he shot it forward. His hand shot into the man’s jugular. The force was enough to knock the man out and he crumpled to the ground. Bjorn’s aim was just slightly off and the blow landed in between the jugular and the larynx. So the man’s breathing became labored as he fell.

  The final man threw the table out of the way, scattering cards and coins everywhere. He closed the distance between them and in his haste tripped over his friend on the ground. As he fell to the ground Bjorn caught him with his left hand and with his right he grabbed the blade of the dagger. He wrenched it from the man’s grip and took the blade and buried it into the back of the thug. He went limp and fell in a pile on top of the man struggling to breath.

  “What the fuck?” The first thug said as he got back to his feet, one hand clenched to his side where his broken ribs sat just under the surface of his body. Bjorn turned and started his way back to the man, who promptly began stumbling backwards trying to create distance.

  That didn’t affect Bjorn as he walked closer. Finally seeing that fleeing was futile he made another lunging attack at Bjorn. Bjorn put his right hand out catching the tip of the dagger in the palm of the wood. The blade sunk into the wood and got lodged. He tried to withdraw it without any success. Bjorn pulled the man in close as he didn’t want to let go of his dagger and gripped the taller man by his throat. He began to choke the man and lifted him off of the ground.

  His feet dangled uselessly as he threw ineffectual punches at Bjorn. His hand outstretched he carried the dangling man over to the edge of the bar. Dangling him over the edge. “Please.” the thug pleaded.

  “You cheated.” Bjorn said matter of factly and let go, letting the man fall 50 feet into the river below. He didn’t wait to watch the body hit the water below. He turned back to the bar to see all of the 6 other people in the bar staring at Bjorn with mouths agape.

  Bjorn walked over to where the bartender was standing, his hand below the bar. He would have rather done this a different way but he walked up to the man. While he approached the bartender slowly shrunk back. “What did they give you?” Bjorn asked the man in a stern tone.

  The man lifted his hand and shakily held out a letter. Bjorn took it rather aggressively out of his hand and put it into his bag of holding. He then picked up a small pile of coins that had gone flying with the table and turned and left the bar.

  When he got back to the surface he pulled the letter out of his bag of holding and opened it.

  Hey sister, we wanted to congratulate you on your new baby. We will make our way to you in the spring to see the little girl. Hope all is well.

  -Love, Zyra.