"Sic," Axel ordered Drago just before the hole he'd formed beneath the deer's hoof was revealed and the beast was falling onto its chest as its front leg suddenly sank to the knee in the ground. At Axel's order, Drago dashed forward eagerly and sank his sharp, iron-coated teeth into the creature's hindleg. Crying in pain, the deer attempted to kick back at the Rockwolf to free itself as Drago sharply jerked back on the deer's leg and snapped the bone viciously.

Once the beast was crippled, Drago jumped back just before the other hoof impacted his face while Axel pulled the gravelly soil he'd found a few hours ago to coat his hands up to his wrists. Concentrating, Axel pushed his Manipulate Earth into the gravel on his hands and shaped it together into a pair of spikes on his knuckles as he approached the crippled deer. With a hard punch, he drove one of the spikes into the back of the creature's head, drilling a hole into its skull and brain, ending its desperate thrashing.

"Good job, Drago," Axel told his Tamed Creature as he dropped the gravel from his fists and tried not to watch the blood and fluids soak into the ground. "Let's get the skin from this one and head back to town. My bag isn't that big and this'll fill it up."

As Drago settled himself on the ground and began to bite at his paw, chasing a persistant itch, Axel knelt beside the slain animal and drew his skinning knife. With a deep breath, he began his work and, throughout the process, cursed the developer that had insisted that the current system of looting was the one that would be used.

"No one wants to get their hands covered in blood," he muttered as he examined his hands after cleaning them with one of his waterskins and the cleaner grass around him. "They have the unused parts and all that other stuff turn to smoke after five minutes, did they have to leave the whole corpse to stay there until you were done with that stuff?"

Still grumbling, Axel rose to his full height and with a whistle to Drago, set off toward the city.

"Inkfingers, good to see you," Axel greeted the Gnome as he stepped into the nearly empty Hunter's Guild. "Are you guys still processing completed Jobs and Bounties?"

"We are," the Gnome nodded tiredly toward Axel with a smile. "You arrived just before we closed up shop for the night, actually."

"Yikes," Axel winced in apology. "If this is going to make you stay late, then I can come back tomorrow."

"It's fine, it's fine," Inkfingers told him. "Besides, it'll give me that chance to meet this fine gentleman you've brought with you."

"Oh, right," Axel grinned. "Inkfingers, this is Drago. He's my Rockwolf. Drago, this is Inkfingers. He's a friend."

"Oh, you wound me," Inkfingers said with a dramatic sweep of his hand toward his eyes. "You could have called me your Gnome. I wouldn't have minded."

"But if I did that, then all those possessive hearts you've stolen would have come after me," Axel told him with a grin and a wink. "I can't have that happen. I'm a busy man."

"You do know how to play the game," Inkfingers said with a happy grin. "And how to make an old Gnome smile."

"I'm learning," Axel said with a shrug. "Now, how bout we get on with this before the other secretaries throw me out so they can go home?"

"A not unheard of possibility," Inkfingers nodded sagely. "Come on back with me. We'll sort this all out."

"I've also got some extra stuff that weren't Bounties that I was wondering if I could sell to the Guild," Axel told him as he followed the Gnome through a door and into a room with a table in the center.

"It will depend on what sorts of things you've gotten," the older Gnome told him as he climbed into the chair on the other side of the table and stood so his head rose above the table's surface. "For now, let's start with what's been completed and then we'll move to the other things."

"In that case," Axel said reaching into the Bag of Holding he'd bought before logging out the day before, "I've got some stuff from wolves and some stuff from boars."

Gingerly, Axel pulled out ten wolf tails and laid them on the table for Inkfingers to examine.

"Do you want the skins and other stuff too?" he asked.

"We'll accept all of it," Inkfingers told him. "Of course, we won't pay anything extra for them, but most of our members find it easier to turn all such items in to us and accept the loss of the few extra Coppers or the Iron they'd have gotten for selling them directly to tanners and alchemical processors."

"I have enough money," Axel said after a moment of thought. "Every Copper adds up, but I'm not too bothered by it to hunt them down."

As he spoke, Axel removed the skins he'd taken from the wolves and any intact teeth and claws he'd pulled from them. As he laid them on the table, Inkfingers inspected each one carefully before accepting them and sliding the three Iron coins and two Coppers over to him. Swiping the money from the table, Axel pulled out the tusks and skins from the nine boars he'd hunted and traded them for the Bounties.

While he was pulling the antlers and skins from the deer from his bag, Inkfinger stopped him.

"We can't accept either of those," the Gnome told him kindly. "White Horned Deer, while dangerous, are hunted regularly enough that there has never been a Job for them. I recommend that you take the skins to Whitley's Tannery and the horns to Maren's Potions. They'll treat you well enough and pay good money for them."

"Okay," Axel nodded as he pushed the items back into his bag. "What about this stuff?"

"Come on, Drago," Axel said as he stretched. "Let's get over to the Minotaur and see if we can't talk Willow into giving you a bone or something."

Panting, Drago padded after Axel as they set off for the tavern. On the way, Axel nodded amicably to the guards standing watch for pickpockets and thieves as the sun set and the other citizens moved to end their days.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Wow," Axel muttered to his Rockwolf as they stepped into the alley leading to the Minotaur. "They really are popular aren't they?"

With a chuff of acknowledgement, Drago moved past him to stand impatiently at the door to the tavern before looking back at Axel as though wondering what was taking him so long. Chuckling, Axel stepped around the Rockwolf, scratching him behind the ears, and pushed the door to the tavern open.

Entering the well-lit, crowded room, Axel looked around before he saw Jim sitting with Markus at a table. Markus was talking seriously to a man in gray robes and Jim was bent over a stone tablet as he made a carving on its surface carefully. As Axel approached he heard Markus dismiss the robed man and Jim curse as his tablet cracked, ruining his work.

"This is such bullshit," Jim swore as he grabbed Markus' tankard without looking and taking a deep drink. "It's like the damn thing doesn't want me to get the skill!"

"That was mine," Markus complained rather than offer some help to his friend with his project.

"I'll buy you a new one," Jim muttered unhappily before finishing the last of the ale inside.

"You guys have a good day?" Axel asked as he seated himself at one of the empty seats. Rather than answer, his two friends looked at him.

"It was something else," Markus said. "A lot of moving and talking to people to try and convince them to go along with my idea."

"I died to trolls," Jim griped as Axel motioned to one of the waitresses for three ales. "Then I spent the day trying to learn a new skill so I could use it to kill the trolls."

"Can't have been all bad," Axel told his friends with a grin. "Markus is in metal armor. Don't think anyone else has a full set of that yet. And Jim, if you're having trouble with learning your new skill, doesn't that just mean that you're trying too hard at it right now? Maybe if you take a minute to step away from it and have some fun, when you go back to it, you'll have fresh eyes and the whole thing will work better for you."

"I guess you have a point," Jim sighed as a waitress exchanged the one empty mug for three full ones. "Just want to get these trolls before I forget about them or they cause more problems for people."

"Then, we'll help you," Markus said as he grabbed one of the mugs and took a drink. "Maybe we'll have some sort of insight that you don't have into the whole thing and that'll help you out."

"Maybe," Jim agreed. "What about you, how did your talking go? I caught some of what you were talking about with the other guy, but I didn't pay too much attention."

"Yeah," Axel said with a smile as his friend's mood improved. "What was that about?"

"I told you guys that I did a Quest for the Princess, right?" Markus asked as he looked around carefully. "Well, apparently, I did so well at it that the King got involved in my reward and made me a noble. A Marquis."

"Sounds important," Jim said.

"It kind of is," Markus said as he prepared to explain. "If I understand what I was told right, then Marquis is the rank that someone can rise to and then they can make their own nation. Claim some land and call themself king."

"Whoa," Axel said with a grin as he watched Willow walk toward them. "That's awesome."

"Markus, my father's here," Willow told him. "He's waiting for you in his room upstairs. Go ahead."

"Thanks again Willow," Markus said as he stood up. "Here's hoping this whole idea works."

"Tell us what's going on when you get back," Jim said as Markus moved away from their table.

"Hey, Willow," Axel pulled her attention to himself for a moment. "Do you have any bones or something that you can give to Drago? Like uncooked bones that you'd usually use for soup stock or something?"

"I'll see what we've got for him," she nodded. "Good to see you, Axel."

"Thank you," he called after her before wrenching his gaze from her and turning his attention back to his friend.

"How was your death?" he asked Jim carefully. "I know that they went all-in on realism for Astrana, so I'm sure it was pretty bad."

"You have to talk with your Helper before they let you back into the game," Jim explained to him, avoiding the question. "They work you through the whole thing and when you're more stable and calmer, they let you back in the game."

"But do you want to talk about it some more?" Axel asked. "I remember that some doctors did a study on the Beta testers and they found that at least one of them had like PTSD or whatever. They interviewed the guy for the article and he said that he had nightmares about the ways he died, even though the company's psychologists were all trying to help him. It might help to talk it out some more."

"I'm alright now," Jim said bluntly as he made to change topics. "I'll be even better if I can work out these runes; they're driving me nuts."

"Well then, what do you do for the whole thing?" Axel asked.

"You have to carve the rune physically into the stone or whatever medium you're using," Jim explained. "As you're doing that you have to, I don't know, push your mana into the carving to hold the whole thing steady."

"What's the problem then?" Axel asked as Willow moved by and tossed a meaty bone toward Drago who began to gnaw happily at the treat.

"I don't think I'm pushing my mana into it properly," Jim said as gestured helplessly toward the broken stone tablet. "It's like the whole thing is supposed to be intuitive but it's not."

"Ripspell told me something about moving mana around," Axel said. "Said that my spell was telling me how to do it intuitively."

"What's it feel like?" Jim asked.

"What's red smell like?" Axel responded. "It's like breathing to me, I don't think about it, it just happens. Sure, if I want to take a deep breath, then I'll think about it a little, but otherwise, it's kind of automatic."

"Can you show me what it looks like?" Jim asked hopefully.

"I can try," Axel shrugged as he reached toward the stone tablet. "Let's see what we can do."

Activating his spell, Axel pushed his mana into the stone tablet and willed the stone square to be one whole piece again. With a liquid ripple, the tablet and the discarded shavings and dust flowed together and smoothed out into an unblemished tablet. Jim glared at the stone for a moment before picking up his chisel and hammer again and beginning to tap out the design of the rune again. As he watched his friend work, Axel observed how Jim's motions moved his own mana through the stone. Each tap of the hammer opened an empty trough in the stone that Axel's mana rushed to fill. Finally, Jim finished his carving and stared at the tablet for a moment before breathing a sigh of relief.

"I've got to work out some sort of way to control my mana," he said before pulling out another tablet and setting his chisel against the surface. "Can you tell me if I'm doing it right?"

"I'll try," Axel shrugged, pushing his spell's awareness into the new tablet. As Jim worked, Axel felt a small trickle of something fill the empty troughs before he could use his own mana for it. Eventually, the tablet cracked and Jim sighed unhappily as he set his tools down.

"Well," he said as he waved a waitress down and indicated that he wanted two bowls of food, "I got something from that. Let me check my notifications and I'll set it aside for the rest of the night, cool?"

"Cool," Axel nodded as the waitress set two steaming bowls of stew and a loaf of bread in front of them, curling her lip at the tablets dirtying the table with dust.

"Oh sweet," Jim said. "Check this out."

With a flick of his wrist in Axel's direction, he showed him the notification that he'd gotten.

You've learned the Skill: Mana Manipulation(Lesser)!

Mana Manipulation(Lesser): Manipulate raw mana with your will and shape it. This skill is critical for manipulation spells. Higher mastery increases skill’s fine control

"Congrats," Axel said as he read the notification and took a bite of the food in front of him. "Good job."

"Thanks, man," Jim said with a grin. "I wouldn't have been able to do it without you, you know. My other skill that came from it said that it couldn't be learned without Mana Manipulation."

"It's no problem," Axel said as he grabbed some of the bread and dipped it into his stew before taking a bite of it. "What are friends for if not to help?"

"That's true," Jim said.

They ate in silence for several minutes as Drago gnawed his bone before Axel suddenly jerked upright and swore.

"That crafty son of a bitch!" he exclaimed loudly. "He was trying to get me to help Pear out!"

As the people at the tables around them stared at him in amusement or concern, Axel called up his messages and started a new one to Pear while Jim looked at him in confusion.

"What?" he asked Axel.