Chapter 10

I left a note for Fel to let her know I was headed into the city to make preparations. I wasn't expecting to be gone for long, but... I didn't know for sure. A lot would depend on things. For the first time ever, I made sure I was as prepared as I could be outside of a dungeon setting. This could go really, really bad, or I could get things done before anybody noticed. The sun was rising as I left the gates of the academy, and it was a sleepy Sunday for everyone but me.

I grabbed a mug of tea as I made my way towards the portal, the vendor pouring it right into my own tankard. I sipped it as I walked. I had a few places I wanted to visit. The first one... The graveyard. I'd always thought about this, always dismissed it. Yesterday at least had proven to me that I did not have enough power or influence to protect even myself, let alone Fel and her parents or my friends. I needed to stack the deck in my favor, and what's a bone man without bones?

"Help ya?" the graveyard attendant asked as I walked into the hut that doubled as his office and napping spot.

"Yeah. I need bones," I told him. "Skeletons. Intact."

"What kind of weird potions you brewing, sonny?" he asked.

"They don't have to be sentient," I told him. "I'm told you have many interred pets, that you're making room for new... customers?"

"Ya be a necromancer?" he asked, his eyebrows raising.

I nodded.

"What would you do with them bones?" he asked.

"Use them in the dungeon to summon minions so I can grow stronger.

Protect my family and friends," I admitted.

"You'll swear that you won't use them for evil deeds and randomly attack citizens of this here country?"

"I won't rule out self-defense, or striking at my enemies who themselves have evil intent... but no. My plans are dungeon use only."

The man looked torn. "You pay in gold?"

That's when I knew I had him.

I NEXT WALKED the streets of Highspire after storing six skeletons, and I was six gold lighter. I stopped in at a market stall selling eggs, and bought a wooden crate of them. Next I went to another vendor and got onions, peppers, and potatoes. From a third, I bought spices. A fourth spot was selling meat by the pound. At a silver a pound for raw beast meat it was expensive, but I noted they had what looked like an Earth elk they were using to make cuts. I spent a gold on it, and stored it in my spatial storage.

I headed back through the portal to the Cromwell barony and saw how even though a fraction of the massive forest had been cleared to build the city around the portal, it was surrounded by what looked like millions of miles of pine trees. I had nothing specific to buy here, but I had time to kill.

I wanted to see what was here. It was sort of amazing to me to see that the town was waking up as slowly here, as it was in Inneshys. I guess I put that on the weather. It seemed a constant 70 degrees in Inneshys most days and nights, but here it felt like snow might be around the corner this morning.

"Yer destination?" the guard who was near the portals asked.

"Honestly... I'm restless and walking off some anxiety," I told him.

The man rolled his eyes, then motioned me forward. "Yer lady asleep and you don't want to wake her?"

"Pretty much," I told him. "I want to head to the instanced dungeon portal and do some shopping north of here, but it's too early. So I'm sort of killing time."

"Aye, lad. Aye. Better restless legs, than shenanigans, ya hear?"

I did. "Yes sir. I can head back if it's a problem."

"Perhaps it best might be. You're looking for something, and it isn't here. I'm betting it's back with your lady friend, but who am I to speak?

Two wives left me and a third is trying to do the same. Just... be true to your friends. When everything else falls to shite, you always have your friends, lad."

I took in a deep breath and felt that. Like, it hit me right in the feels.

"Thank you," I told him, walking back to the portal before going through.

"I WASN'T EXPECTING to see you back so soon. Couldn't get enough of me?"

The smell of tobacco should have warned me she had snuck up, but I was lost in my own world.

"Sorry. I'm... restless," I admitted.

"Did you get Felicity home safely?" she asked.

"Yeah. I gave her a potion and she sobered up as I pulled her boots off.

She found out I'd had to carry her home after she passed out."

"Did she beat your ass?" Bamera asked, sitting on the steps next to me.

"I thought she would. Instead? She just... hid her face and asked me to hit the lights for her."

"Her pride was damaged. You're wanting something. What is it?"

"I..." I wanted to ask Samantha about this, but she wasn't here. "After I bought a potion making kit, I finally got the skills associated with it. I've been doing stuff like that for a year and a half now and until last night..."

"You're wondering why now? It wasn't just because you bought gear, it was all intent and will. How much was it?" she asked.

"Coin or…?"

"No, levels," Bamera asked.

"Four in gathering and harvesting. Seven in making potions," I told her.

She whistled. "You were born on Earth. How long have you been here?"

"Um... Right after the Duke closed off the portals for the first time?" I said, a bit of uncertainty in my voice.

"Ah ha. Yeah, gotcha. Listen kid, you gotta really want it for it to happen. That's it. That's the secret. You have to consciously decide you want it, and if you've put in the work, you can get it. You might fail, stub your nose, fall in horse shit face first... who knows. But if you don't want it and you don't try, you won't get it."

"It can't be that simple," I whispered.

"It is. Now, how's Samantha doing?" she asked.

"I... didn't see her yesterday."

"The fuck you doing here then?" she asked, slugging my shoulder playfully.

"I was hoping to get some camping gear. I realized that what I have is pretty basic."

"You want a tent that's bigger on the inside than the outside?" she asked.

"Yeah, like the wizards in that one movie," I told her.

"Luckily for you, we just did a ton of them special order for the Duke. I have two models I could sell. They're basic, but..."

"How much bigger on the inside?" I asked.

"A pop tent to a living room sized? The other one is bigger," she said.

"How much?"

"If you take care of the Nesbits, I'll give you the bigger one. You'll be my official product tester."

"Deal," I told her. "I promise I'll do my best with them."

"You better. You know, empathetic connections aren't my thing. Lust, love, sex, jealousy? Those are my affinities. Part of who I am. I don't know why, but the strings of fate are thick around you and your friends. It's out of my wheelhouse, and I don't know what it means, but if you screw things up with your friends... it'll destroy you. Not to mention, I'll beat your ass worse than Samantha will."

"You keep bringing her up... What's she like?"

We sat for an hour talking about nothing. I didn't feel any of the stabs of lust like the others did. Bamera just seemed like a lady who genuinely cared for her friends and, for some reason, that made me feel closer to her, despite only having just met her. The sun finally made it over the pine trees and I said my goodbyes. I'd packed up the tent Bamera had given me to test out.

She had gotten the idea from the same Earth movie I had, and had teamed up with Yaskel, the Duke's spatial mage for the Duchy, to design a few models of such things. The one I'd got would fill a good eight by ten foot space on the outside, like a wall tent. The inside? Bamera said I'd just have to see about it, and if I felt bad about getting it for free, I could always come back and give her gold later.

I made my way back to the portal and towards the academy. I found myself entering the grounds and back to the West End dorms in time for breakfast. A very hungover looking trio was in line with a perky short woman. I walked up to them.

"Mind if I join you?" I asked.

"Hey, get in the back of the line, asshole," a woman snarled.

"Master, I have saved your spot," Fel said. "I also got your note. Thank you for letting us know. Were you able to obtain the items from your shopping list?"

She was doing this so the crowd would chill out, I think.

"Yes, all except the bread," I told her. "I figured you might know better around here where I should buy it in bulk?"

"I've put some consideration into it, and I'll give you a list after I've filled my stomach."

"Why does she sound so much smarter after drinking so much and staying out later than I did? Dude, my head..."

"Cast cleanse/cure on yourselves," I told him.

"Oh shit," he said, and his hands glowed and then the three of them all stood up a little straighter.

"I was so hungover I forgot," Gavin said with a grin.

"My head was definitely feeling it," Seery said.

Myra snickered and I chuckled.

"What?" Seery asked.

"Are you sure it was your head that was sore?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"O. M. G.," Seery said. "I'm going to forget you said that. In fact, it's now scrubbed from my mind. How?"

"I almost got into it with that aggressive guy, and Myra talked me down from doing evil super villain shit," I told them, not wanting to say or admit to anything more.

"Where was I?" Fel asked.

"You zonked out hard," I told her. "I just needed to blow off steam, and the guy decided to throw a couple of punches."

"Did he connect?" Myra asked. "I missed that part apparently."

"No, but I did warn him next time he comes at me I'm not going to hold back. Pissed Zeke off pretty badly, I guess. He shoved me across the room with my ass practically acting like it was on wheels."

"That would have been funny to see," Seery said. "And this morning?"

"Had to get materials. I'm not going to be taken off guard. Bamera's golems gave me an idea, and since I can't put live things in my spatial storage, I went the other way."

"Uh... that's not creepy or anything," Fel said.

"We're up, bro," Gavin said.

We all filled our plates with food. It was free, but again, their choices for breakfast made my heart ache. Grits without butter or salt. Some kind of veggie stir fry rice shit with small vestiges of fried egg in it. No toast.

Well... unless the cafeteria upped their game, I was going to start cooking myself.

"Oh man, my favorite. Breakfast rice scramble," Fel said.

"I feel so sad every time you say something like this," I told her, sitting down across from her.

The girls sat on either side of her, Gavin to my left.

"So, spill it bro, you went shopping?" Gav asked.

"Yeah, I needed some skeletons to make minions. I figure without them in the dungeon, I have to wait for somebody to take something down to use it. Also, it'd be great if the Blackman family comes at me again to have options to defend myself."

"You know we're here for you. We got your back," Fel told me.

"I do, but they didn't know we were all together when they made their move... and holy shit did they make it in the wrong place."

"Yeah, I think that Sergeant Johnson probably needed a change of pants after he got himself locked up," Seery said. "Did you hear any more from them? Is that why you're... being careful?"

That was a hell of a nice way to ask if that was why I was scared.

"I didn't, but... honestly, I'm the weakest one here. I know you joke about being a glass cannon," I said looking at Myra, "but I am. I'm physically the weakest, with the lowest health stats. I need to stack the deck in my favor for the dungeons and real life. That's all. Oh, and I know Fel has horrible taste in food, but this shit sucks. I bought real groceries.

Anybody want to toss this shit, I'll cook us some real food, and then we'll hit the dungeon?"

Gavin had been letting the grits plop off his spoon, giving them a disgusted look. This former Michigan boy could empathize. I tried the breakfast rice stir fry egg shit, and about puked. I stood and went and scraped my tray off into the garbage, and then put my tray up on the shelf above it.

"Good God, I was hoping somebody was going to do something. This sucks," Myra murmured, following suit.

Fel walked up looking guilty, shoveling two or three more quick bites into her mouth before dumping her food.

"Do we need anything?" Fel asked.

"Grab us a few trays? We can turn them in at lunch or tomorrow's breakfast," I said.

She nodded and moved off. As soon as she headed back, the five of us moved to our suite. There, I pulled the heat stone out, as well as the enchanted skillet (waterless cookware!). I snickered and put the stone on the table, knowing that with it runed, it wouldn't transfer the heat when it wasn't activated, and went ahead and pushed my mana instead into the skillet. While it heated, I got out my ingredients.

"This is what a real breakfast scramble is. I learned this one from the Duke," I told her.

"Wait, really?" Seery asked.

"Yeah, he always loved to stop into the orphanage to cook. He's really weird about having enough eggs and veggies to start the day. I even have some cheese to add to this."

"Cheese in eggs? What madness is this?" Fel asked.

AN HOUR later we'd all eaten our fill, cleaned up, and returned our trays, as the cafeteria was in the cleanup stage, so we didn't have to wait for tomorrow. Fel hung back with the girls and I walked ahead of them with Gavin beside me.

"Dude, like, those noms were epic. I had no idea you were so worldly. I knew your energy was legendary, but those eggs..."

"If he keeps cooking like that, I might have to find a new boyfriend," Myra teased.

"Hell, if he keeps cooking like that, he might find a new boyfriend chasing him too," Gavin said, dropping me a wink.

I shook my head as we traded barbs. Amusingly enough, we were ready to roll in record time, and It wasn't even the morning's tenth bell when we made it to the instanced dungeon near Highspire's northeastern corner.

"Excuse me folks," the guard said, holding up a hand.

"Oh, sorry," I said, pulling the medallion out from my shirt.

He relaxed. "I thought that was you Morgan, but lad, you've sorta gotten taller, you have."

"Yeah, and I got a new haircut," I told him.

"Is it a result of the ladies 'ya surround yourself with?" he asked.

I shrugged, gaining me snickers from everyone around me. "We're a new group, but friends. All mages. I'm the lowest at level 3, but Felicity here is a level 7 wind mage. The others are level 5. What are your recommendations?"

He scratched his chin a moment. "I think you could probably manage a level six dungeon without a tank and your mixture of magic, if you have enough potions and a healer," he said, looking at Gavin.

"I got the heals if you got the feels!"

"Uhhhhhh, that one went right over our heads too," Myra told him when he gave Gavin a funny look.

"Dang. It's so hard to stay in character and be witty at the same time," Gavin said in a normal tone, making us all turn his way in shock.

"Dude, I'm totally kidding," he said, back to normal.

"Anybody got shielding spells?" he asked.

We shook our heads no.

"Alright, then I suppose a level six goblin or kobold dungeon wouldn't hurt. It's good for XP, but not for coin or loot. If you want more loot, I'd say go for undead. If you want crafting materials... well, you already know what to ask for," he said, looking at me.

"Good XP and coin?" Gavin asked.

"It's more that you can get more crafting materials to make money if you have the skills," I admitted. "Personally, I'm looking to catch up to you guys level wise, but I'll go with whatever you guys want."

"We can run more than one a day, can't we?" Myra asked the guard.

"With his token, he can run as many as he wants, as long as they're under level 10," the guard told her.

"Schwing!" Gavin said. "Let's level him up, and then see what the other stuff looks like!"

"Goblins?" Seery asked.

"Kobolds," Fel muttered. "Please."

"Ok, that sounds good," I told them. "Anybody disagree?"

"It's good with me, man," Gavin told me.

"Ok, we'll hold onto your shoulder as we—" "Dude, you're obviously under the misconception that I'm going to even pretend to be the leader of this party," Gavin said, giving me the stink eye.

"I... no. I'm not—" Fel stomped on my foot, but not hard enough to hurt much. I looked at her way and she stuck her tongue out at me. "Quit being a whiny bitch. Do leader shit."

"Ooooooohhhhhhh," was pretty much chorused as the armored guard chuckled.

"Ok, let's go. Gavin, you're beside me. Ladies, I need Myra in the very back, my two DPS specialists in the front."

As everybody got in position, basically a 2-2-1 formation, I touched the ladies' shoulders in front of me, as Gav and Myra touched mine. Then we walked through the shimmering portal.