Arthur returned to the market where he first took action against the thieves and pick pocketers before drawing the ire of Misery's end. He knew that their former headquarters was located nearby and he knew the front was of a bar, he just needed to find an old abandoned building that used to be a bar.

Arthur considered asking around the market to see if anyone knew, but he stopped himself from doing so. If they started asking why he wanted to know about that he wouldn’t have a real excuse or good reason to give them, and that would look suspicious. So he decided to tough it out and look around the area to see if he could find anything.

‘If I were a part of a criminal organization where would I keep my base of operations? For starters I would want it to be out of the way from anyone accidentally stumbling across it, but not so hard to find that those under me could not. There are a few narrow alleyways that might lead to a few abandoned buildings here and there.’ With but a single idea as to where to find the place Arthur set off down several of the narrow alleyways in his search.

Eventually he did find it after two whole hours of searching what was basically a slum of old and decrepit buildings. The building had just a rotting wooden sign that displayed a mug presumably of beer. The front door was locked with a chain forcing Arthur to look for other means of entry. Around the back side he found an open window on the second story that for a normal person would require a ladder to reach, but for a mage like Arthur it was of little consequence.

With a few gestures of his hands to help direct the mana within his body Arthur conjured a ladder from conjured earth. With a swift climb up Arthur was inside a small room reminding him of the tavern he used to sleep in. It was a small and cramped room with a bed and a closet and little else aside from the door to the hallway.

Thankfully the door to said hallway was not locked and Arthur simply pushed it open. The hallway only had seven more doors and a staircase leading down, the other doors were just other similarly decorated rooms that the tavern presumably rented out,

As Arthur looked down the stairway he took note of just how dark it was downstairs. Since all of the doors and windows were closed and barricaded to prevent anyone from gaining entry very little light was able to enter. Even without those sources of light it still relied upon candles and other sources of artificial light to keep the room adequately illuminated.

To combat the darkness Arthur conjured a small flame that he held just above his left hand. The fire produced enough light to be comparable to a torch giving him a suitable amount of light to see most of the room. In his right hand was his mage staff and his sword was on his left hip just in case he needed it, you never know what crazy people you might find in these places.

As Arthur slowly crept down the stairs more and more of the room came into the light. A large assortment of chairs and tables cluttered the room in a disorganized mess, several mugs and plates were also scattered across the room as if someone was throwing them around for fun. But the most notable thing Arthur noticed was the fireplace still held some smoldering logs, someone had lit them not too long ago.

For the time being Arthur turned his attention towards the floor and listened for any noises, specifically the sounds of the rats he came looking for. He was forced to slowly walk around the room and eventually into a storeroom with large amounts of preserved food and alcohol still sitting. It was only in the storeroom where he found a few rats huddling into the corners of the room, from what he could tell they were nibbling on a few of the bags of food that were on the floor.

‘I found you now little ones.’ Arthur smiled as he kept the flame floating in mid air, he reached out with his now free left hand and with a bit of aeromancy he caught one of the rats in a small ball of air and lifted the rat up and towards him. Taking a moment to place his staff against a nearby wall Arthur reached into his dimensional bag and pulled out a small cage he chiseled out from a rock before he began his search for the building.

Using geomancy he opened a small hole and pushed the rat into the cage before closing it back up. Arthur repeated the process with the second rat and now had two rats in his little cage. ‘I just need three more before I have enough material for a prototype tiny flesh golem.’

Arthur continued to scour the room for more rats but unfortunately he couldn’t find any, he could hear a few hiding within the wall and scurrying around, but he did not see them. Arthur exited the room a little disappointed, but he expected to find a few more rats in some of the other rooms. But suddenly as he was walking through the dining hall he heard footsteps of someone walking down the stairs along with a dim light.

Arthur froze and hid behind a table while the other person stayed out of sight close to the top. For a good half minute both Arthur and the unknown individual waited in anticipation for what might happen, but eventually the person on the stairs who was far more impatient shouted out. “Who are you and why are you here!?”

The voice was of a young woman in her early to at most her mid twenties, and she sounded a bit unnerved by Arthur’s presence in the building. “I’m just someone passing by, and I mean you no harm as long as you don’t either.”

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To show he had no intention of hurting the woman he exited from his hiding place and walked into the open where she could see him with little exposure on her part. As he stood there he noticed a set of eyes peeking from around the corner wall that extended partway down with the stairs. Soon the woman also stepped out into view, she wore some old commoner clothes with some tears and sewn up patches lightly scattered across it.

The women looked down to Arthur’s left hand carrying the small stone cage with the two rats shivering and squeaking out of fear. “What are you doing with those rats?” The woman looked quite confused as to why someone would be collecting live rats in such a way.

“I need them for an experiment I am conducting. I need them alive and in good condition.” Arthur gave a brief explanation and hoped she would move out of the way for him to leave.

“Are you using them for necromancy?” The woman asked, Arthur flinched at the question and how unconcerned the woman sounded by the possibility of him being a necromancer. Most people didn’t like necromancers all that much. Noticing Arthur’s reaction the woman spoke again. “It's fine if you are, as long as you aren’t hurting innocent people.”

“You aren’t worried by the possibility I might be performing necromancy? From what I understand necromancy isn’t exactly well liked around here.” Arthur eyed the woman, clearly she wasn’t exactly normal if she wasn’t shivering out of fear at the possibility of a necromancer.

“Even if you are, it wouldn't matter all that much. I have encountered far worse people than someone who just creates zombies and skeletons. Like the thieves guild that used to operate here called Misery's end, they took my husband from me, no necromancer has done anything like that to me.” As the woman got to speaking of her husband her eyes filled with tears. “Sometimes the people who cause the most harm are the most normal looking and acting of them all.”

“Well even if I was a necromancer the experiment I am doing has nothing to do with undead skeletons or zombies.” Arthur then attempted to step by the woman and exit the building.

“Then what are you doing with the rats then? I doubt you came to catch and keep them alive just for fun.” The woman refused to move from where she stood, she appeared to be quite interested in what Arthur was doing.

Arthur gritted his teeth in annoyance as he noticed the woman was waiting for an answer. ‘Telling her can’t hurt, there is no way for her to tell the guild of what I am doing and she might be able to help me catch more rats.’ Arthur weighed the risks of telling her and eventually relented.

“I am using them to build a flesh golem.”

The room went silent as the woman looked to the rats and back to Arthur several times. “Wouldn’t that be necromancy since you are using corpses?” The woman appeared to be unfazed by the concept of a flesh golem further shocking Arthur.

“No, I am very sure it isn’t necromancy. Golems can be made up of several different things, not just inorganic stuff like metal and stone.” At this point Arthur was more annoyed than worried and just wanted to leave to find more rats.

“I can help you with finding more rats for your necromancy, but not for free, I will need a bit of money for my time. How much are you willing to offer me per rat I catch for you?” Arthur looked at the woman with a bit of shock at her offer before he paused and thought about it. This woman clearly has been going through this building and likely several others, and since he has already outsourced collecting ingredients from the forest it would only make sense to do the same when someone offered.

‘I need about five rats to make one of these little flesh golems excluding the alchemical requirements, assuming she were to find me five or so a day paying two copper for each would amount to ten copper a day. I can easily afford that, and if she brings me more its small enough that it won't spiral out of control.’

“I can offer you two copper coins for each rat you can catch for me. But keep in mind I need the rats to be in good condition, so no broken bones, large cuts, or anything along those lines. Otherwise they won't be useful for what I need them for.” The woman thought for a moment and started to count something using her fingers, when she was finished she started nodding to herself.

“I can work with two copper per rat, that is more than anyone else would ever pay for them, and I know all sorts of places where they hide.” The woman reached out her hand to finalize the deal, Arthur took it and gave her a shake. “My name is Vibia by the way.” Vibia said as the two shook on the deal. “And my name is Arthur.”

The two walked up the stairs towards the open window as they finished up the minor details of their agreement, such as where Arthur would pick up the rats and how often he would do so. “Is this a good place for me to pick up the rats every day?” Arthur asked as they entered the room with the open window.

“Oh yes, that is perfect for me. If you come at noon I’ll have the rats for you downstairs.” Vibia smiled at the speed in which Arthur would collect the rats from her, now she wouldn’t need to worry about feeding them.

With the finer details of their agreement worked out Arthur conjured a ladder of earth to climb out the window. Vibia looked a little surprised by the magic Arthur performed. “That explains how you got up here with all that stuff you're carrying with you.”

“How did you get up here?” Arthur asked.

“Oh I just climbed up the wall, I'm really good at that.”

“You climbed it with a ladder?”

“No, I just climbed the wall.”

“You scaled the wall without any equipment to help you. Just with your hands and feet.” Arthur looked at Vibia as if she was spouting nonsense, but he had to confess she wasn’t wearing or carrying any equipment with her throughout the entire encounter.

And her answer to Arthur’s question sealed that fact in stone. “I did, I'm quite good at that.”