Nora quickly ushered him out of the Arena. It was a blessing, he supposed, that the crowd was so rowdy after his quick victory that no one noticed them slipping out. Quickly, she brought him to a nearby restaurant and pulled him inside. She motioned to the waiter before sitting him down and glancing at Dan with concern.
“What in the blazes was that?” There was a smile on her face, but worry colored her voice. “I know Ishlar is an asshole, but you had him down. Do you not have spars where you come from, or is every fight to the death?”
“I… I don’t really know,” Dan replied, shaken. “The adrenaline rush from the battle just didn’t fade, and then suddenly I could almost taste his mana. I couldn’t think about anything else, other than how much I needed his mana. I just knew how easy it would be to crush his head like a grape, and I couldn’t stop myself.
“Thank you.” He gazed up at her, a hint of fear clenching his stomach. “That’s never happened before, but I don’t know what I would have become if you hadn’t stopped me. I don’t have a problem with killing people, but murdering an incapacitated opponent isn’t something that I want to be comfortable with.”
She nodded, deep in thought.
Dan shuddered thinking the way his mana sang while he used it. Every moment of casting took on a more sinister tone. For the longest time, he had thought that it was simply the adrenaline rush of combat, but it was time to face the possibility that it was something else. Even now, magic and combat held a seductive allure to him. He wasn’t sure what exactly was going on, but he would need to be careful. Dan snorted. As if that would even be possible. His mission was to develop his magic and kill enough monsters to rank up. He wasn’t sure how careful worked as an element of that equation.
“Well, don’t do it again,” she said with finality. “The good news is that you were pretty impressive out there. Ishlar isn’t anywhere near a top-tier warrior, but he’s a local bully with a bit of renown. You handled him quickly and efficiently. If we’re going to take on the more lucrative missions, we will need at least another two party members. I’m a known commodity, but you just did a great job advertising yourself. If we put out word that we’re forming a new party, we’ll probably be able to get a couple applicants pretty quickly.”
“What kind of adventurers are we looking for?” Dan leaned back in the poorly-crafted wooden chair. “I have no idea what classes are even out there.”
“We have a mage and a ranger.” She shrugged easily. “That leaves mostly combatants. There are a number of qualifying classes: duelists, fighters, warriors, crusaders, and berserkers come to mind immediately. That said, around here you aren’t going to see too many fancy classes. If we can get two to three fighters, I’d be happy, but we can settle for warriors. I’m not too favorably inclined to thug or brute classes unless they’re high-level.”
Both of them nodded as the waiter came back and plunked a bowl of soup down in front of each of them. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was until the steaming wooden bowl was set down in front of him. Through an unspoken agreement, neither spoke while they ate. The soup was surprisingly good, if a bit brothy. Dan wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know what the balls of meat floating in it were composed of, but they were well-seasoned. He wished that he had some bread to go with the soup, but at the end of the meal, he was more than satisfied.
“I just realized that I don’t have any money,” Dan began slowly, only for Nora to interrupt him.
“You’re paying after a fashion, anyway.” She gave him a quick, mischievous grin. “I earned five golden sovereigns from Ishlar and another ten betting on you. I think it’s only fair to give you five of them. I staked the claim, so I’ll keep the other ten. A girl’s got needs, after all.”
Theatrically, she dropped a small sack that hit the table with a satisfying clunk. Dan picked up the bag, a smile flashing over his face as he felt its heft. He didn’t have any idea what a sovereign could get him, but the coins were heavy and gold. Even if they weren’t much in the grand scheme of things, there was something satisfying about having a heavy bag full of gold.
“Good,” she leaned back in her chair with a harsh scraping sound as it skittered across the stone floor. “That should be enough money to get you some better gear. If you aren’t going to have a combat class, you should look into getting some runescripted armor. I don’t think you’re going to find anything impressive or efficient around here, but you’re already pretty strong and agile. A little bit of a magical boost could be all you need to fill in as a front line fighter in a pinch.”
Dan nodded at her slowly. The Foundation was aware that the armor the imperial marines wore was covered in runescript. They hadn’t been able to decipher all of its meaning, but they had exhibited physical characteristics firmly in the comic book range. Dan might be fit for a normal human, but he certainly would need something a little extra if he planned on fighting superheroes.
“This place has an inn attached to it,” she continued. “You should rent a room from Jeffrey here, and I’ll come back tomorrow. I’m going to see if I can recruit a couple fighters for us. It might be a bit ambitious, but I think we can give the Mashress silver mine a try. The thing is lousy with monsters, but if we can fight our way through them, silver is a pretty straightforward product to sell.”
“Won’t the mine’s owner have an issue with us just wandering in there and collecting silver?’ Dan asked with a frown.
“Where is he going to find miners willing to work in close proximity to monsters?” She shrugged quizzically. “No, he’s happy to have adventurers come through. The monsters tend to dig the ore out of the walls, and we pick it up. The contract requires us to sell it only to him at 50% of its market rate, but we don’t have to put anything down. Of course, the mine is considered to be a challenging contract in this area. He lets anyone try that wants to, but a good portion of the teams come back empty-handed or missing members. I’d never be willing to risk the mines with Ishlar, but if we can get a good enough team, there’s good money to be made. Plus, plenty of high rank monsters for you to rank up on. If we do the mine run a couple of times, we might even get you ranked up.”
Ranked up. Dan liked the sound of that. He agreed with her plan then paid the innkeeper. The rate was one silver sheaf for the night and ten copper bits for dinner and breakfast. Apparently there were twenty silver sheaves to a golden sovereign and fifty copper bits to the sheaf. Hopefully, Jeffrey didn’t short him. For all he knew, the actual values were three times that. At least the bed was comfortable and the food was warm the next morning.
Nora walked in while he was eating breakfast. Her face was covered with smiles, the perfect contrast to the two large, well-muscled frowning women who followed her in. She sauntered over to Dan’s table and grabbed the fork from his hands. A mouthful of Dan’s eggs later, she was sitting down across from him.
“Daniel,” she stated cheerfully. “I would like to introduce you to your two newest employees, Emily and Andrea Cragson. They’re both classed as fighters and well-acquainted with the arena, where they have more than respectable records. In short, I think we’re ready to give the mine a try.”
“Wait.” Dan frowned, forkful of eggs halfway to his mouth. “What do you mean by employees?”
“Well it’s obvious that I’m the charismatic face of the party,” she replied with a winsome smile. “But our real selling point is that we have a combat mage. Therefore, you are the party leader, and I am the charming and intelligent advisor with all of the real power. A very simple equation, really.”
“It sounds needlessly convoluted to me,” Dan said, slowly putting his fork down on the table. “I still don’t understand why Emily and Andrea are employees rather than members of the party. Also, can you tell me why they’re frowning at me; it’s getting unsettling.”
Nora glanced back over her shoulder at the two tall women. They were both standing about ten feet behind her and glaring at Dan. She turned back to him and grinned.
“Well the sisters may have heard rumors about your insatiable proclivities.” She snickered slightly. “I didn’t start the rumors, but Ishlar apparently won’t shut up about how you’ve bedded every maiden in town. Frankly, I think it’s hilarious. Despite out-massing you by about fifty pounds, I believe they think you’re going to try to forcibly bed them. Please try, by the way; I have money on the outcome.”
“I guess that explains the staring.” Dan sighed. “You still haven’t explained why they’re my employees or what that means.”
“Obviously, it means you or an agent operating on your behalf…” Nora pointed at herself, “…signed an employment contract with them. In short, you have to pay their wages for the missions we go on, one sovereign per mission plus 10% of the loot each, but they aren’t entitled to any say in the missions selected or the strategy employed on said mission. Also, part of their frowning might be that they didn’t realize that they were signing on for the silver mine. Oh well, they probably should have thought of that before signing on with an unknown thrillseeker of ill-repute such as you.”
Dan fixed her with a baleful gaze. Slowly and meaningfully, he ate another forkful of eggs.
