It took until the next morning for Doris to return to us. We had been given a nice, little cottage in the middle of town, where everyone could keep an eye on us, and spent the night in comfort. I used that time to delve into the boundary of the Astral River, carefully examining the way Tani had anchored her magic to reality itself, learning quite a bit and gaining two points in Astral Meditation, bringing it to fifty-six. Other than that, the night was wonderfully peaceful.

We were having breakfast, using our carried rations, when Doris walked up to the cottage.

“Good morning,” she greeted us, looking far too cheerful for the early hour.

“Morning,” I gave her a nod, waving towards one of the empty chairs, “Have a seat. You need some breakfast?” I asked, just to be cordial.

“No, thank you,” she waved off, looking at the simple porridge in Sigmir’s bowl, “Though it looks delicious, I already ate,” she assured us, managing to keep any possible sarcasm out of her voice.

“What I’m here for is quite simple,” she began, “I got into contact with a couple of others last night, and we decided what we would like to ask of you. Olivia, if you are still willing, we’d ask you to join one of our teams that canvases the remote villages, those places distant from the main trade routes, healing and offering help. You will be posing as Adventurers, so there should be very little danger involved, but obviously, without danger, there’s little opportunity to gain power.” she explained, getting a thoughtful nod from Olivia.

It sounded like our journey with Olivia, temporary as it had always been planned to be, was coming to an end. For better or worse, I wasn’t sure if I was happy or sad about it. On one hand, having her with us had been an excellent safety net and support, allowing me to focus on the more direct and offensive aspects of my magic. On the other hand, there had always been the nagging worry that she wasn’t loyal, that she always had the greater loyalty to her deity, with all that entailed. Either way, it would be an amicable parting.

“Now for you,” Doris looked at the four of us, specifically at me, “You said you want to travel further south and could do some work for us if it is suitable.” I nodded at that but didn’t bother to reply verbally, instead I continued to shovel the porridge into my mouth.

“There’s a section of forest between us and a base near Hatterion that has always been plagued by wild magic, causing a wide variety of weird effects, dancing lights, random discharges of magic and other things. There also seems to be a component that drives people insane, but that part is unconfirmed. By now, it might be a field dungeon, but due to its strange nature, the remote location and a couple of other factors, no faction has taken claim of it.” she paused, letting out a sigh, “If you could find a path through the area, or get us some additional information what we are dealing with, we’d be grateful.”

“In addition, the group near Hatterion plans a large-scale raid, you could join as a distraction team, there are a few valuable targets that could be incredibly lucrative to hit. They managed to locate a few vaults, where different nobles try to hide some of their wealth from the Imperial Tax agents. We considered giving the information to the Empire, and if you manage to get in there and steal their treasure, that would add some wonderful trouble to people we don’t like, especially if you manage to get their wealth without letting them realise they were hit. Makes it less efficient as a distraction, but would cause so much more chaos in the long run,” she explained, the last part with a wide grin on her face.

The idea to tell the Imperial Tax agents where the ill-gotten gains of those nobles were, only to take the gains away and let the nobles try convincing the agents that it hadn’t been the nobles that hid the monies sounded like a rather good one. If there was one thing I had learned in my real-world job, it was that tax bureaucrats had no sense of humour, and could be incredibly petty when someone tried to make a fool out of them. In the real world, they often were hampered by various loopholes in the rules they were supposed to enforce and from what I knew, a lot of them hated those loopholes and were all too glad to nail someone that they could catch. Maybe it would be the same on Mundus.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

“How do we find that other base of yours?” I asked, quite certain that they wouldn’t just give out a map to their secret base. Landmarks to meet someone on their side were a possibility, another was to send a guide with us. If I were in their shoes, I would send a guide, simply because such a guide would likely gain quite a bit of EXP on the journey.

“We debated it, and if you were amicable, we’d like you to take one of ours with you,” she replied and I had to control myself to keep from being smug about having the right idea. “We asked for a volunteer and Jenn offered to join you.” Hearing that, Sigmir let out a very soft snort, making me raise an eyebrow.

“We will discuss it amongst the four of us,” I replied, neither agreeing nor declining.

“Another thing,” Doris took my response as an end to that part of the discussion and changed the topic, “There’s another traveller among our numbers. He asked if you would be willing to meet and talk with him.”

Now, that was an interesting idea. If I were in that person's shoes, I would want to keep my involvement as secret as possible, simply because there might be some sort of meta-gaming going on. Being known as a rebel could come with some severe disadvantages and if he had the option to remain hidden, he should certainly take it, not seek out another Traveller.

That he did so made me automatically put up my guard.

“I can meet with them,” I agreed, already considering what sort of safeguard I might have to put up. “Are they covered under your hospitality?”

“So suspicious of your own people?” Doris asked, sounding a little surprised.

“Always,” I nodded, “We Travellers are all individuals, all with our own needs, interests and motivations. Just because someone else is a Traveller, I don’t trust them any more than any other being. Maybe even less, given that I cannot fall back on their cultural background to assume general patterns of behaviour. Not that such prejudices are always true, but they exist for a reason,” I explained, only to add, “At least, they exist for a reason most of the time” I considered my words for a moment, before changing them even further, “Or maybe they exist for a reason sometimes?”

Shaking my head, I decided not to dwell on the validity of prejudices in comparison to cultural norms any longer and focus on the problem at hand. An unknown Traveller wanted to meet me.

“What can you tell me about them?” I asked, curious how their ally would describe them. If nothing else, it should give me an idea about Doris, depending on how her description compared to the actual person.

“Leonard is a bit of a strange fellow,” she began, her tone rather amused, “Parts of him are incredibly dependable, especially in regards to his work. He loves to work metal and is incredibly talented but in some other ways, he can be a complete dunce.” she chuckled, shaking her head, “Extraordinary focus, to the point that there might be a battle going on right next to him and he’d ignore it, trying to get his work done.” She let out a sigh, her amusement somewhat fading.

“Sadly, his focus sometimes takes him in strange directions. He heard about the steam technology of the dwarves, over in Aretia, and decided that he could do something similar. So far, he died three times, trying to make it work and have it explode in his face.”

I could only blink in disbelief at her words. Sure, I had done a few questionable things in my pursuit of magical excellence, but so far, I hadn’t died from it. Almost died, yes, but I had always managed to keep control.

Looking back at a few of my stunts, I wondered if I might have more in common with that Leonard than I might want to admit.

“I’ll meet with him,” I repeated my earlier reply, curious what kind of person he would be. If nothing else, he might have some ideas in regards to magic, as anyone planning to play as an inventor would pick up a bit of magic, just to keep options open.

“Great, I’ll send him over once you are done with your breakfast, say in about an hour. That way, you can discuss whether you want to take Jenn with you or if you’d prefer another method,” Doris excused herself and it was only after she left that I realised she had basically assumed we’d agree to her arrangements.

Looking at the others, especially at Olivia, I raised an eyebrow, “Now, what are we going to do? Do we want to work with them, and do you want to leave the group, Olivia?” I asked, putting the important question out front.