<>(Zack)<>

"Hello," I greet the lady in the General Goods store.

"Hello, Zack," she responds. "How are you feeling?"

"Rested," I answer.

I ended up resting the last week instead of training, partly due to slipping on ice walking home from meeting with the prince. I caught myself… but still sprained my ankle. Ever fought on one of those before?

Not fun.

It was hell trying to even be active, and I thank the Crystals that Gold came to me before that. Though I think Nik would have kept me at the Dark Temple, had I been alone. He'd want to keep an eye on me. So it may not have been as bad.

The Priests can mend wounds and regrow destroyed hands… but a sprained ankle is beyond them. Apparently, the magics that work for healing the body itself, and not just restoring Health, don't allow for things like that.

Yet they can regrow hands.

Yeah… that's complicated. And weird. And confusing.

So I basically sat or laid down for the last week, which was a pain in the ass. Nik laughed when he saw me slip and fall.

I had the last laugh, though.

He slipped and fell on his way out of town this morning, spraining his own ankle when it twisted on the ice. There's been a lot of that lately, and they're advising people to be careful. Eight cases in the last week in a town with a hundred and fifty people. The ice is everywhere, and no matter how much they thaw it, by morning, it's returned.

The paths outside of town are easier, though. The ice isn't as bad, for whatever reason. At least, that's what I've heard. Something tells me that it's something restricted to Cities and the paths themselves.

Right now, I'm grabbing some supplies for… stuff.

"How can I help you today?" The clerk asks.

"Do you have blank books?" I ask. "Along with something to write with?"

"Sure do," she answers. "Give me just a few minutes."

I nod, then she heads into the back of the building. After around six minutes, she comes out, setting several books on the counter, along with a variety of quills and inkwells, along with a slender box made of a polished, dark reddish wood. It's around five inches wide, three and a half thick, and around a foot long.

"We have here," she taps the books. "Several blank tomes. The thinnest one, simply bound with string, holds fifty pages," she taps on the next tome, the first of the ones with an actual leather cover. "The next one has one hundred, then two hundred, then five hundred, and finally," she taps on the thickest. "One thousand pages."

I examine each one. The last one – the one with a thousand pages – is a few inches larger than the other four. It also costs the most, sitting at a whopping forty-five silver. She sells individual sheets of paper as well, but that doesn't matter to me, as the thick tome will work for what I want.

After I purchase that, she shows me the different quills and inkwells, opening the box at the end to reveal one of the Absorption Quills, along with nine different inkwells: one for each color, then two black ones.

The Absorption Quills work simply by pressing their tip into the bottom of the inkwell. They'll draw in ink until either they're full or you stop pressing it, and when you're done, simply press it back into the bottom of the inkwell, and it will release the leftover ink back into it. They're magical, of course, and in the quality ones like what comes with the kit, the ink won't stick to their outsides.

The set costs thirty silver to purchase, which is a little bit more expensive than buying them individually, but the extra two silver is probably for the box, which is quality and durable. I purchase two of those, to have the extra inkwells and quill, just in case.

After I finish those purchases, I buy some more food, as we depleted almost all of my stash while I was recovering. That, and a little more. I think I made Gold's night when I handed him the Spook Treat. He clearly knew what it was, and how valuable it was, and not just because of Nik's comment.

With those purchases done, I thank the lady, then head to Jackson's forge. He's talking with a customer, a knight I don't recognize, when I walk in, so I look at the equipment while waiting for them to finish. He's asking for a commission on some new equipment. It seems Jackson's getting a lot of those, and has a list of equipment that will take him almost three weeks to finish. For some reason, though, Jackson's giving him a sort of queue jump.

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When the customer finishes placing his order, he thanks Jackson, then leaves, giving me a curious look as he does. I approach the counter and drop a Turkey Ingot on it.

"Are you wanting information on this?" He asks.

"I am," I glance at the door, then look at Jackson again. "Who was that?"

"You probably wouldn't have seen him," he says. "He arrived in Maelnor yesterday. He's one of the nobles serious about helping with the war and getting stronger, and before you say something about him not being here, he's been hunting in the mountains far to the east, obtaining rare materials. He just dropped a fair few off for me, including Blood Fangs I can use for some equipment for Nik. I'm the only smith he wants making his weapons, and he pays a higher price for it to be rushed, in addition to bringing me the rare resources to use."

Then that's better.

"So this," he taps the ingot. "Is a Turkey Ingot, as made clear by the dark brown coloring with white flecks. It's durable, and can be sharpened to fine edge, as well as has the inherent resistance to grime that all Special Metals do. Not as quality for weapons and gear as Spook Ore, Turkey Ore, when forged into equipment, but it can decrease one's hunger and rate of getting hungry. The more of it you're wearing, the stronger the effect, though it can't stave off hunger forever, even if you're wearing full white armor."

White armor is plate armor that covers the entire body and every joint. That's about as much of wearing this ore as you can get.

"Alright," I say.

"It sells for twenty gold an ingot," Jackson informs me. "I'm assuming you have twenty of them?"

"I do."

"Would you be willing to sell three of them to me?"

I stare at him intently.

"Not for weapons and armor," he says. "It makes for a good chain for amulets, and if it needs it, the back plate for the amulet as well, such as ones with a stone set into them. Dishes made from it will also keep the food at the temperature it's at longer, and pots and pans will heat more evenly if made from it."

I'm pretty sure he'd need more than three ingots to make full sets of dinnerware and cooking dishes, plus the chains and plates for amulets. I stare at him even more intently.

"I want," he says. "To get a head start on the amulet chains and plates, for the next long run into the mines. If I can get some made of Turkey Ore, it'll cost them more, but it'll help them a bit better than regular metals. If I can get started on it now, then I should have them ready for the jeweler by the time he gets the demand."

After debating with myself about it, I sell him three of the Turkey Ingots, then leave, touching the necklace around my neck. I don't want any jewelry other than this skull, and while having a decreased hunger rate sounds good to me, I'm not sure if there's something I could have made out of Turkey Ingot that would count. My current equipment looks damn awesome.

Even if, in the future, I swap it out for that strange equipment made of black and white metals. At least, they might be metals. They could be something else entirely.

As I walk through town, I realize that I went into a different part of the City than I normally stick to and look around.

Standing in the center of the square is a rectangular building built of a dark grey stone with glowing violet lines running along it, forming a pulsing pattern. Walking around it, I determine that there's no way to enter the building. It's roughly ten feet on each side, and the same high. Other than the strange material and glowing lines, it doesn't seem special.

But from what I've heard, and it's location in the center of a square, I know what it is.

The Enchanted Hall that houses the Altar of Elements. So long as the City Barrier stands, so too will the walls around the Altar of Elements. The Altar itself powers the Barrier, and it takes immense force to destroy one. That's why the Shadow of Life sends a Dragon of some sort to each destruction – they focus on destroying the Barrier, to cause the Enchanted Hall to break and the Altar to turn dormant.

I run my hand along the wall of the Enchanted Hall, sensing the magics within it. It's nothing like the magics we use, the magics of the System. A little of this type of magic can be wielded through Enchantments, probably, but this…

This is something else entirely. Something the Crystals likely won't reveal to us. It likely has to do with the creation of the Boundaries themselves, and that magic.

Turning, I look around the square, noting five large circles near the edges of it, each one identical to the others, each one fifty feet in diameter. This could probably be called a plaza, but we called them 'square' at home, even if they had a rounded shape like this one.

The circles, in addition to being massive an identical, are made up of multiple rings of runes. I can sense a sort of magic in them similar to the Enchanted Halls', though I already know what they're used for.

The right Classes of magicians can use the powerful Teleport to return to the nearest City. It warps them onto one of these circles, avoiding hitting anyone or anything on them. If they're in another City and standing on one, they can use Teleport to warp to any City they've been to before.

Powerful. I might take advantage of that Class one day, though probably not for a long while. I know what my first five Classes will be. Dark Knight is my first, Blood Priest will be my second. Dark One will be my third. They have a Spearman Class that upgrades to Dragoon later on, and that will be my fourth. My fifth… will likely be another Knight-based Class. Buffing up my Strength, Endurance and Health as the founding Classes.

By the time I hit my fifth Class, I'll probably be ready to acquire a magical Class and gain Teleport. It isn't really a priority to me right now.

It probably should be, though… but I don't plan on that ever happening again. By the time I have new teammates, I plan on being a Dark One and able to handle myself, even against a horde like that.

The timing of that horde…

Did he know that Bryce and I were brothers? That we could both screw things over for him? Or did he only know about me? Did he send them after us because we were a threat and he wanted to deal with us, and we'd given him a chance? Or was it because Nik and the other two Dark Knights managed to survive and bring others back?

Why did he choose then to send them after us? And what will he do now, since I'm still alive and am much more powerful than I was before? What will he do now, now that I have better equipment and a fiercer dedication to his death?

And what will he do, when the day comes that I enter Kaelmar and kill his Avatar?