Lucky-Heart’s axe was slung on his back as he walked back into the barroom, after shutting and locking his apartment door behind him. He noticed the older man scrubbing his face with a washcloth and water that he must have pulled out of a storage device, while the two women were looking over the dead bodies. Lucky was surprised they hadn’t already looted them. They all looked over in his direction as he walked up behind the bar and poured four mugs of ale, and then brought them over to the table where the man was cleaning himself, set the drinks down, and then sitting down himself. He slid a beer over to him.
Sam nodded his “thanks” to Lucky, but then looked in Jen’s direction, signaling to Lucky that she was in charge.
Lucky then said, “You’re welcome to all their loot. I want none of it, and I’m sure there is a bounty on that siren you killed.”
Jen nodded at Tamako, and messaged her, “Please loot them while I figure out what we involved ourselves in.”
Tamako nodded back and started gathering the loot. Lucky eyed the tiny woman as she went about looting the bodies. He knew she must have incredible strength. Very, very few people besides himself could lift the door-bar into place like she did.
Jen flipped the chair around and rested her arms on the back, and took a long pull on the ale before asking, “So, what’s the deal?”
Lucky-Heart replied, “I’m guessing those mercenaries were hired to kill or kidnap me and my granddaughter and pressure my daughter for something. I can't guess anymore than that because the mercenary in charge killed himself before I could question him.”
Jen commented, “He was that afraid of his employers!”
Lucky shook his head, and said, “No. He just knew my questioning would only end in a painful death anyways.”
Jen nodded her head in understanding, and said, “Look, we’re happy that we were able to help, but we’re not interested in getting involved any further.”
Lucky held up his hands, and said, “Nothing to worry about there. Me, the girl’s parents, and our guild can take care of this, now that we know someone is up to something. I can sneak you out the back tomorrow and no one will ever know of your involvement. However, I owe you a debt for your help. If there is something reasonable that you need help with, just let me know.”
Jen really, really wanted to ask what a “siren” exactly was, but she didn’t want to do anything to give away that they were noobs to the Second Deck, so she said, “We just teleported over from Venetia City last night. What recommendations can you make for a place to stay for a few months, and who to do business with?”
After Lucky-Heart gave them his recommendations on the different vendors and merchants that were reliable, he said, “Look, I want to make us square. Before retiring and opening this Inn, I used to be the Director of the Highland Games Guild. My ex-wife is on the guild board of directors, and my daughter and son-in-law are also both well established with our guild. You don’t need to get further involved in what happened here, but our guild does have a few properties that we rent out to visiting guild members from time to time. My ex-wife’s name is Crapshoot. Go see her at the Highland Games Guild, and tell her what happened and that I sent you. She can probably set you up with a place to stay for a reasonable rent for maybe as much as 3 months. The guild wouldn’t agree to rent to non-guild members longer than that, but that should give you time to get settled and find something more permanent.”
===============
Venezia City was half-destroyed from the guild war, but Bot City was a sea of merchants bustling with activity during the day.
“The steam builds up pressure inside the steambow and then it launches the bolts with enough force to puncture through all but the strongest of armors,” said Razz the merchant.
“How long does it take for the steam to build up the pressure?” asked Sam.
“About five minutes, but if you can afford a steambow, you can afford a storage device. After you charge the steambow, you simply place it in storage until you are ready to use it.”
How does the weapon make the steam to build up the pressure?”
“The gnomes make all the steam weapons and mechanical devices. I don’t know how their enchantment makes enough heat to turn the water into steam, but all you need to do is pour water into this tube and direct your mana into the handle right here, and in five minutes it is ready to go!” replied Razz.
“Does a steambow have more power than that wagon-mounted ballista you have for sale over there?”
“The mounted ballista is much cheaper, has a bit more power, and does not take any mana, but even if you placed a loaded ballista in a large storage device, you could not withdraw it, brace and mount it, and aim it in less than 20 minutes. However, you can draw and fire a steambow within seconds.”
“Do you have any steambows that can fire more than one bolt at a time?”
“I have a double-shot steambow, but the two bolts only contain half the power. Great for some low-level beasts, but doesn’t have enough punch to get through the toughest hide or armor.”
Tamako was looking at several shields being offered for sale, and asked, “Do you have any shields that can stop a bolt from a steambow?”
“The mana-imbued steel shields will stop just about anything, but to stop a steambow bolt, I would need to special order a triple-welded shield. Only the largest customers order this type of shield. A small lady like you might have enough strength to lift and maneuver the shield, but I suspect you don’t have enough body weight to counter-balance the shield when you lift it up.”
Tamako nodded towards Razz with understanding, just as they all noticed a noble lady walk in, followed by several servants.
Razz’s merchant skill was at a level where he already knew the three that introduced themselves as Sam, Jen, and Tamako were not serious about buying anything, but might be in the future. He didn’t mind answering questions and building customer relationships, so long as there was no one else in the store actually interested in buying his goods.
Upon seeing Noble Lady Shuxter, Razz inwardly groaned with the necessity of dealing with the arrogant brat, and swiped away the gambling quest that offered him euphoria and ability points for putting Lady Shuxter over his knee and giving her a spanking. However, to stay motivated, Razz thought of the commission he would make from selling her fancy over-priced weapons.
Razz turned to his three customers and said, “Excuse me while I attend to the other customers. Please look around as much as you like and I will be happy to help you once I am finished.”
Jen’s psych skill gave her a hint of the dynamics that would play out between Razz and the noble lady, and said, “Thank you for your hospitality, Master Razz, we will return another day when we are in a better position to purchase your excellent goods,” and waved goodbye as she left the store with Sam and Tamako following her.
As they left Razz’s store, they continued to marvel at the steam devices being used in the streets by the elite and wealthy, Sam said, “The gnomes steam-powered devices are mana-cheats like I’ve been trying to create.”
Tamako replied, “what do you mean mana-cheats?”
“I don’t mean that anyone is being cheated. I just mean that they have come up with a method to get around the high mana cost of creating raw power.”
“How did they do that?”
“For example, my storage devices don’t actually create trees or crossbow bolts, and then shoot them out at people. They use very little mana because they simply store the kinetic energy of the trees and crossbow bolts that are manually placed in them. The gnomes are creating steam instead of raw power from mana. The steam builds up the pressure in the steambow that creates the raw power that shoots the bolts out. For example, you see that self-propelled steam buggy over there?”
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Jen replied, “Yea, that’s pretty amazing!” as she simultaneously declined and swiped away the gambling quest, offering her euphoria and ability points to steal the buggy.
“It’s kind of like the steam train engines back on Earth, but instead of using wood or coal to create the steam pressure, the gnomes have come up with an enchantment that creates the steam pressure from mana in a much more compact and economical way.”
Tamako asked, “Do you know how the gnome’s enchantment creates enough heat to make the steam?”
“Not yet, but that may be the easiest part to figure out,” Sam replied as he declined and waved away a gambling quest to build a steam-powered buggy with a reward of four ability points and 20 euphoria.
Jen gave Sam a confused look and said, “Why is that?”
“My Words of Understanding skill may allow me to figure out the enchantment the gnomes are using, but the heating enchantment is only one small part of the thermodynamic engineering of the steam-powered engines and weapons!”
Jen looked thoughtful for a second and replied, “fortunately, I don’t think it matters. Based on the prices we’ve seen on steam-powered items, only the super wealthy can afford them. Your enchantments and charms should still be able to fund our needs for preparing to jump to the Third Deck.”
Tamako looked unimpressed as a steam-bike puttered past them at about 10 mph, and said, “I understand why someone might buy a steambow, but most of these gnome inventions are just over-priced toys. Useless!”
Jen replied, “I know, can you imagine how many pairs of shoes they could buy with all that money!”
“Exactly! No sense of priority!” replied Tamako with a grin.
Sam groaned, and said urgently, “Wait! Before you two get started, let’s go to the System Shop, retrieve our bounty for the Siren, and then find a place to stay.
Almost 30 minutes later, they made it to the System Shop. Jen looked exhausted as she commented, “These gambling quests are relentless. I’m exhausted from steering us around all the idiots with quests to pickpocket us!”
Sam blew out a breath of air, and said, “Well, let’s make this quick then. It looks pretty empty with plenty of terminals open.”
Tamako walked up, placed her storage ring carrying the bounty ticket on the terminal. They were all curious on how much the bounty was. Tamako had received the bounty ticket when looting the siren’s body, but it hadn’t shown how much it paid out.
When the System screen popped up in her vision, she shared it with Jen and Sam. When she selected the bounty ticket, the message linked them to a new screen that read:
Bot Battle City Daily Gambling Bounty’s:
A. Collect 75 gold by bringing in another restricted human bounty within 24 hours.
B. Collect your 25 gold reward for the weak siren death ticket.
Tamako selected option “B”, and 25 gold was transferred to her storage ring.
Jen commented, “What's a ‘restricted human’? Tamako, select the Bot Battle daily bounty link and see what other bounties there are.”
When Tamako selected the link, they all started reading through the list, and then Sam said, “What the hell!”
Jen looked at Tamako expectantly, but Tamako just shrugged, “I’ve never heard of any of these. I don’t know what they are. Why do you two looked so surprised?”
Jen replied “Well, I don’t know if the are the same, but on Earth we have fantasy stories about supernatural creatures like these vampires, werewolves, beastmen, banshees, mermaids, zombies, bugbears, gremlins, and there are a bunch of others on the list that I vaguely remembering hearing the names, but I have no idea what they even are.”
Sam’s paranoia was starting to make him jumpy thinking of vampires coming out at night and trying to suck his blood, but he was also curious, and said, “select ‘vampire’ and see what it says.”
A moment later the screen read:
***
Private Gambling Bounties: Bot Battle City
Vampire – reanimated body of a dead person that drinks the blood of humans. May morph into a bat, has the strength equivalent to a human with a 25 strength stat, speed equivalent to 25 agility stat, and hypnotic powers on children and weak-willed adults. Can be killed with a wooden stake through its heart, complete burning of its body, and beheading. Also known to be killed from direct sunlight, and can be hurt with silver weapons.
Amount:
25 gold for killing any vampires in the city
30 gold for capturing a vampire alive in the city and turning it over to the arena guards
30 gold for killing a vampire in the city with your bare hands
100 gold for killing a nest of 3 vampires in the city at night by yourself
***
Tamako snorted, “I can kill one of these easily. Why do you both look so worried.”
Jen replied, “I guess you’re right. With our increased abilities in the Seven Decks, vampires wouldn’t necessarily be that much of a challenge for us.”
Sam added, “But for the merchants, farmers, gamblers, and just about everyone that is not a soldier, guard, or fighter of some sort, these vampires could be a real terror.”
Jen took Tamako’s place at the terminal and for a few minutes quickly flicked back and forth between a bunch of screens before saying, “Wow… you can actually purchase potions from the shop that will turn you into some of these creatures. No experience points needed, take the potion and become a werewolf with a strength stat of 35. Only downside, on the full moon you become crazed and try to eat anything, including your family and friends. It says upon becoming a werewolf, you lose all mana manipulation ability, but you can still gain system experience. All system experience will be limited to growth of your strength and agility.”
Jen continued to read through the bounty screens, but Sam was getting anxious, and said, “Jen, we can look at this more later. We need to get over to the Highland Guild and check on a place to stay. Otherwise, we are going to need to stay at one of those other Inns that you said were crazy expensive.”
“Found it! I just purchased a city guide containing all the information on the current private bounties the city is offering. Now we can go.” Jen replied.
An hour later, Crapshoot was looking at the three people her ex-husband told her about earlier that morning. They were being escorted into her office by Splits, the guild’s head of security. Her Ex had said, “There was no sound. Can you believe that ‘I’ heard nothing? The siren’s head just exploded, and then imploded! Somehow, they’d moved around the Inn without making a sound, exploded the woman’s head, and were doing something that made it hard for me to focus on them. Ohh! I almost forgot, the tiny woman lifted the Inn’s door-bar, putting it in place by herself!” Lucky had made it clear that he thought the guild should try and create a relationship with them, but more importantly, he owed them for saving their granddaughter. Crapshoot wasn’t so sure, she didn’t owe them anything, and really didn’t have the time or temperament to deal with three nobodies.
Crapshoot’s office, or more accurately a workshop, was a disaster. Sam looked at the tools and equipment everywhere. “Idiot!” he thought to himself. They’d asked around about the Highland guild, and it appeared they had a good reputation, but they clearly hadn’t asked enough about Crapshoot. Sam messaged Jen and Tamako, “All this stuff in her workshop screams that she is an enchanter.”
As Jen started to introduce them Sam picked up a rod discarded on Crapshoot’s side table, “Mistress Crapshoot, I’m Jen and these are my companions…”
Crapshoot cut off Jen impatiently, and said, “I don’t care who you are or what Lucky thinks he owes you, why should I help you!”
Jen was surprised by Crapshoot’s response because her psych skill didn’t read anger from the woman, but maybe this was just her normal attitude. Maybe I need to calibrate my psych skill for “bitch” detection Jen thought. However, before Jen could reply, she felt Tamako’s mood turn, and Tamako replied, “Fuck off!” and then said to Jen and Sam, “Let’s go!”
Tamako noticed Jen’s surprise and Sam’s raised eyebrow, but they only nodded and turned to leave with her. Tamako was tired and the bitchy lady tweaked her last nerve, but she’d also agreed that Jen was the boss when it came to situations like this. she knew they would support her decision in front of other people, but she also knew she would need to apologize to Jen later.
“Dammit!” Crapshoot thought as she looked at Split’s reaction. She was sure he was going to tell Jacks, the guild director, about this meeting. She wouldn’t get in ‘trouble’, but she would have to hear him refer to it in every board meeting for months. She then called to the three people, “Wait! I’m sorry for being rude. I’m always rude. Lucky said you needed a place to stay for a few months.”
The trio turned to Crapshoot and Jen replied, “Yes, we are looking for a safe and clean place to stay.”
Crapshoot fumed inwardly, “Why the hell does everyone feel the need to repeat everything I say!” She then looked to Splits and said, “Splits, escort them to Chip's office, and have him set them up with a place to stay at guild rates on my account.” She saw Splits raise his eyes at her with annoyance. “God! Everyone is so sensitive!” and she followed up with “please!”
As they turned to leave with Splits, Sam said to Crapshoot, “If you don’t want to waste anymore time, you better fix the ignitor rune on that rod before you do anything else.”
Crapshoot shot back, “What do you know?!”
Sam replied with a roll of his eyes as they continued to leave with Splits, “Probably nothing. Thank you for seeing us.”
Crapshoot knew she should get up and stop them. Splits would definitely take this information to the guild director immediately. If this man was an enchanter, they needed to keep him on good terms, but she couldn’t bring herself to grovel. She would see if he was correct, and if he was, she would find some other excuse to contact him.
A few hours later when she finally fixed the ignitor rune on the rod, she cursed at the world. Her skills as an enchanter were considered average for the Second Deck, but since there were only two other enchanters in Bot City, and so few enchanters in general on the Second Deck, her skill maintained her position of importance on the guild’s board of directors. This man was able to find the faulty rune on the rod in a matter of minutes. She needed his help, and she would stoop to kissing his ass to get it if needed. She remembered Lucky always saying, “It’s not kissing ass, it’s simply being polite!” She then grumbled to herself, “Fuck his 'being polite'!”