I pushed open the door to my shop, annoyed at the missing glass. I’d need to do something about that, if for no other reason than it looked terrible and an unranked might cut themselves on the shards clinging to the edge of the inner frame. I wondered idly if there were any little kids around still. I hadn’t seen any at Finnegan’s.

“You find what you were looking for?” Vyrania asked. She was in the process of cleaning the dirty front window while Koren appeared to be trying to get the coffee maker to work.

“No,” I said darkly.

She glanced up at me and was about to speak, but stopped when she saw the state of my clothes. Her eyes widened. “What happened to you?”

“Spiders. Lots of spiders.”

Koren stopped what he was doing and turned to face me.

“Why are you smiling?” I asked wearily.

“Spiders, you say? They make an excellent test for my abilities. How large were they? Did you get a look at what class and level they were?”

“Yes, but they’re all dead. Well, not anymore. They came back. Now they’re living in the safe zone. In the courthouse, weirdly. Not sure why she chose that place. I guess it’s among the more roomy. I think it might have something to do with the name though. Wish I had my phone to look up the word. Or I could figure out this stupid interpreter.”

Vyrania was just staring at me blankly.

I waved her off. “It doesn’t matter. Point is, she’s staying there with her subjects.”

“She?” Vyrania asked.

“Yeah,” I said, moving to the cooler to grab a beer. I needed one right now. “Queen. She talked and everything.”

“That’s unusual,” Vyrania observed.

“She implied they got here through other means than forming here or a gateway. Which is funny, because Australia is kinda notorious for giant spiders. If they’d form anywhere, you’d think it’d be here.”

“A shame they’re in the safe zone now,” Koren said, returning to his task of attempting to make coffee.

“Were there any other monsters?” Vyrania asked. “And why’d you leave the safe zone? That was unwise.”

“Wasn’t given any choice in the matter. It yanked me right off a building.”

“In the safe zone? That shouldn’t be possible.”

“Oh yeah, because giant corporations are renowned for their honor and fairness.”

“Any Fragment Masters?”

“No,” I grumbled. “I found some locals, but not many. It was weird, they were just eating, like normal, like the world as they knew it hadn’t ended.” I shook my head. “It's weird how quickly people have adapted.”

“People are adaptable,” Koren replied, banging on the top of the coffee maker. “What else can they do?”

“That’s not how you work it,” I said, heading over to him. I tried to push him out of the way, but he didn’t even notice. “Jeez, you’re like a stone pillar. Move, I’ll show you how it works.”

He stepped back and watched me prepare coffee.

“That’s a lot of effort,” he said when I was done.

“Worth it. Just wait till you taste it.”

“Can’t be worse than that vile burbly swill.”

“Eh, that depends on your tolerance for bitter.” I turned to Vyrania, who had gone back to scrubbing years of gunk from the front window. “You don’t have to clean up.”

She paused her cleaning and smiled at me. “It’s my job. I don’t—”

The already-broken door to my shop slammed open, bounced once, then snapped off its hinges and flew into the shop, three large men following in its wake, having to duck not to hit their heads on the doorway.

I, unfortunately, recognized all of them.

“Oh come on,” I complained. “This is supposed to be a safe zone.”

“What did you do with him?” the one at the head of the pack shouted with no preamble.

“Nice to see you too. Jadriel, is it? Surprised to see you so soon. I guess you just can’t get enough of me.” I gave a modest shrug. “Understandable.”

He stormed toward me, tried to grab me, but failed. He wasn’t repelled, his hand didn’t go through me. He simply failed to grab me.

It was actually a little disorienting.

Good to know at least some aspects of the safe zone still worked.

“Safe zone,” Arcturus said casually as he perused my bookshelves. I wasn’t worried; shoplifting wasn’t possible. I just hoped he didn’t decide to light them on fire. “Told you the Hero Board thing wouldn’t make a difference.”

“Where is Rilen?” Jadriel fumed, mere inches away, leering down at me. He was really tall. This close I could tell he truly wasn’t wearing pants, just some kind of too-small loincloth. Maybe even a skirt. I averted my gaze. “What did you do with him?”

“What did I do with him?” I asked incredulously. “Are you kidding? He’s Steel, I’m Copper. What could I do?”

Jadriel squint-glared down at me.

“Your steely gaze isn’t going to change my answer. No matter how handsome you are.”

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“Your flattery is pathetic.”

I snorted involuntarily. “Okay,” I chuckled.

“This is no laughing matter.”

“No,” I said mock seriously, “this is a matter of life and death.” I was finding it very difficult to take a man without pants seriously.

Jadriel sneered. “I’m going to find out what you did with him and make you pay.”

“You’re going to discover my balance will be zero, because I did nothing with him. I don’t work for free.”

“You’re not as clever as you think.” He looked around, frowned at Vyrania, gave a dismissive grunt at seeing Koren, then walked over to a coffee table. He turned to glare at me.

Eyes still locked on mine, he slammed his massive fist down onto the table.

It exploded.

I was upset, but I also was struggling not to laugh. It was so absurdly immature.

Then he picked up a chair—also without looking—and hurled it toward the window at the front of the store, barely missing Vyrania, who didn’t even seem startled.

The window didn’t shatter, luckily, but the chair did. And it was the one I’d fixed after Semermen broke it.

He glared at me for several moments longer, then turned toward the door. “Come on,” he grunted, heading out.

I waved at his back. “Pleasure doing business with you.”

Daranth, apparently feeling left out, kicked a chair across the room toward me. It somehow missed hitting me, crashing instead into my destroyed cash register, which let out a pathetic wobble of a ring. “Get some new clothes,” he told me. “You look disgraceful.” Then he followed Jadriel out.

Arcturus stopped before exiting out the now-doorless doorway. “Sorry about the mess. They get overly excited sometimes. You should look into putting the furniture up for sale.” With that, he, instead of ducking, shifted into a bird and flew out, leaving me, Koren, and Vyrania staring at the doorless doorway.

“He didn’t even call me slop,” Koren said in a hurt voice.

‌

∎ ∎ ∎

“So?” I asked.

Koren, Vyrania, and I were sitting at one of the few remaining undamaged tables.

“If you can power them, I don’t see the harm,” Vyrania said, sipping a beer. She grimaced with each sip, but unlike with Koren, kept drinking and didn’t complain.

“I concur,” Koren said, drinking his own beer despite swearing off of it earlier, and seeming increasingly sloshed. Given that he’d pounded down about a fourth of a bottle of gin not long ago, he was more sober than expected.

I was showing the two of them descriptions of Ephemeral Armament and Dreadnaught. I wanted to make sure continuing to use them wouldn’t hurt my advancement.

“With how different they are from what you have,” she said, “I’m surprised you’re able to use them.”

“Charging them the first time was hard, but feels pretty easy now.”

“That’s impressive. You have more cards than either of us now, and you’re only Copper.”

“Really?” I asked.

“We’re also poor,” Koren added gleefully.

“You might get some new ones from Gambler’s Redoubt,” I pointed out.

“Which is taking a long time,” she complained. “It’s only at twenty-five percent.”

“Anticipation is great, isn’t it?” Koren asked, even more cheerful.

“Only twenty-five?” I asked. “My second item’s at…” I checked, “fifteen percent. Was eleven not long ago. Maybe it’s because your rank is higher.” I looked at Koren. “Didn’t you say something about reaching Iron in relatively short order?”

“Relative to not reaching it at all, sure.”

“So, not before I have to leave the safe zone for my ‘Adventure’?”

“No. But, before the tower reopens? That should be doable.”

“That’s assuming they drag out the reopening as long as they can,” Vyrania said.

“How long is that? I feel like you told me, but I forgot. I know Torath said a few months.”

“I’m not entirely sure. He’d know better than I would. Less than a year, I think? If they haven’t located the keymaster by then, they have to assign a new one. Hopefully before the civ’s grace period ends.”

I shook my head. “I’m still peeved they have so much control over something I supposedly own.”

“You can’t let people do whatever they want.”

“We do here on my world. Mostly. Not all countries, but most of them.”

“So you could do whatever you wanted here?” she asked, gesturing at the store. “You could build floor upon floor of this place, as high as you like, and no one would have stopped you?”

“Well, I guess you have a point. Though Finnegan managed it with bribes.” I shook my head. “It’s still annoying. Is there any way to get updates on their investigation into the missing keymaster?”

“I imagine they’ll let us know when the tower is open again. Other than the staff, we’re the only people allowed in until the first floor is cleared.”

“Is that really still true? I mean, we weren’t supposed to be able to leave, right? And there’s the Gold-ranker who’s not supposed to have been able to use a gateway.”

“I don’t know what her deal is, but the rules for the tower wouldn’t have changed. Something similar happened a while back. A keymaster died doing some kind of experiment and had to be replaced. I didn’t follow it very closely, so I’m not sure of the outcome, other than that the tower did eventually reopen and those inside were able to resume things where they’d left off.” She gestured at Koren, who was holding his hand in front of his face, smiling at it. “He likely knows more.”

“Koren?” I asked when he didn’t respond.

“Hm?”

“What do you think?”

“About what, my boy?”

Maybe he was drunk after all. “Never mind.”

“I think I could use another bottle.”

“That’s the last thing you need. Finish that coffee you made.”

He grimaced. “It was very bitter.”

I shook my head, studying my two new cards, Ephemeral Armament and Dreadnaught. “So it’s a good idea to keep using them you think? It won’t hurt my other abilities?”

Vyrania tilted her head back and forth. “You risk specializing your mana toward an aspect you’re not going to use, but like I said it’s so weak at Copper that it’s not something you should worry about.”

“It was nice of them to let you keep them,” Koren said, trying to take another drink but finding the bottle empty. He swiped Vyrania’s beer so quickly from her that she didn’t even notice. “You must have made an impression.”

“I don’t know about that,” I said.

“Oh, you definitely made an impression on at least one of them,” Vyrania chuckled.

“It makes me suspicious. Like, why would they let me loot them?”

“There was a note in the message we got when we were kicked out of the tower,” she said, finally noticing her beer was gone and grabbing it back from Koren. “I’m not up on all the rules of working in a tower, but I think it meant they’re not allowed to sell anything they get in the course of their work. I’m not sure they’re even allowed to loot it. And they’re still being paid, so I imagine fall under the same rules.”

“Yeah, that’s what Koren said. But why let me loot them, not you or Koren?”

“I’m sure they don’t have any nefarious intentions,” she assured me.

“Can you really be though?”

“Yes.” She drained her beer before Koren could swipe it again.

I sighed, rubbing my face. “I think I’m going to get some sleep. I haven’t been back to my apartment and want to check on it. Good thing I don’t have a pet. Well, unless you count Dingo, but I don’t really need to do anything there. He finds his own food, I just basically give him treats.”

Vyrania frowned at me. “What? That’s coming through strangely. You have a wild animal as a pet?”

I groaned. “Don’t get me started on this. He’s not actually a wild animal. Like, there’s no difference between them and dogs. I mean, sure, one grew up in the wild, but that’s like, farm pigs turning into boars.”

Vyrania’s frown deepened.

“Don’t worry about it.” I got up. “Uh, I guess you guys don’t need much sleep, but you’re welcome to my couch if you need it.”

“We’ll be fine,” she said, looking at Koren, who now seemed to be asleep sitting up. “Maybe. Your drink is much stronger than ours.” She looked around at the destruction of the place. “We’ll get this mess cleaned up for you.”

“You really don’t have to.”

“Nonsense. It will give us something to do. Besides, it’s nothing compared to what you’ve done for us.”

“Let’s just call it even.”

“No,” she said firmly. “You freed us, Noah. When so many others who had the chance, far more powerful than you, didn’t.”

“Yeah, well,” I said, awkwardly, “I just try not to do anything that would cause people to cheer at my death in a movie.”

She smiled. “Uncomfortable with gratitude, are we?”

“I think we’ve already established that it’s not my favorite thing.”

“Well then, I don’t know how we could ever repay your supreme kindness and charity. You’re the best person I’ve ever met.”

“That’s just laying it on so thick it goes past the point of embarrassment.”

“That was the point,” she said, voice raising at the end. “Go get some rest, Noah. By the time you get back, the place will be spotless and ready to host all the high-rankers who deign to grace you with their patronage.”