Fin closed his window and looked unsteadily at Eugal, “Where’s dessert?”

“It’s at my estate. I will send my servers to retrieve it now,” Eugal said with a defeated voice. The dessert would be a small investment to try to win back all his losses.

“I don’t think so,” Brando halted the room. “We asked the innkeeper to prepare thirty meals. If the innkeeper didn’t include dessert with his meals, you have no right to thrust them upon us now. Constable?”

“I have come here to witness these two men eat thirty meals, and by the look of the empty stack of plates, they have more than achieved that goal,” the constable said flatly. “If dessert wasn’t presented at the start of the meal, I don’t see why it would be fair to include it now. My job here is done.”

Fin was down to two basic stat points. At the rate he was going, he would need to use his golden stat points to upgrade strength, which he did not want to do. When Felix gave the gem back, he tucked it into his pocket and asked the servers for their names. “Thank you for serving me this evening, Patrick, William, and Maddox.”

“I call trickery!” Eugal shouted and rose to his feet. “You cheated, and you know it! Constable, I demand you arrest these men until we get to the bottom of this!”

“Calm down,” Brando said after taking a sip, “A deal is a deal, remember? Anyway, all this was your idea. You basically forced this meal on him. Instead of increasing the portions, you could have made them smaller so you wouldn’t have lost out on so much. I still can’t believe you are willing to let this animal eat all your dessert.”

Eugal looked under the table in hopes of finding where Fin had been stashing the food. He then circled the table. “It’s not possible for one man to eat that much. I think these two are agents of the dark underlord!”

Fin stood and leveled his glare at the pudgy merchant. “I don’t know what backwoods village you’re from, but in the backwoods village I’m from, those are fighting words.”

“Gentlemen, I think we should call it a night.” The constable’s voice was calm but stern. “Eugal, let me escort you home.”

“I’ll see you again.” Eugal’s voice dripped with venom. “When I do, you better watch your back!”

After the two men left, Brando slapped Fin on the shoulder, finding him much sturdier than expected. “That was amazing! I can’t believe we did it!”

“All thanks to you and those last two ales,” Fin laughed. “One day, they’ll sing songs about those last two brews.”

“Hold on, I think I got something,” Brando said, looking concentrated. Finally, he nodded and sang out a verse, “The trick to a tap is Fin at your back, to drink all the ale with a mug in his hando.” He stopped singing and said, “And so on. I set it up to rhyme with my name.”

“I think you’re onto something,” Fin found the innkeeper cleaning up and asked, “You got that, Felix?”

“I’ll start working on it forthwith,” the innkeeper replied. “I think the song should be about the bottomless abyss you carry around in your stomach. At least, that’s the tale I’m going to tell. And I will be telling that tale for as long as I live. I stood there watching the whole time and still don’t believe it.”

“Don’t forget to mention how Brando heroically polished off the last two mugs,” Fin added, “oh, you might want to mention the most beautiful, poetic, and heart-filled prayers to Frome you’ve ever heard.”

“You’re supposed to pray to Frome?” Brando asked. “I thought prayers were more of an inspirational thing.”

“I felt inspired,” Felix said, holding a bread plate and a fruit bowl. “I’ve never heard anything like it before, and it worked!”

“Felix, do you mind if we take some of that bread and fruit with us tomorrow?” Fin asked. “We’re going to need provisions for our journey, and I don’t think your mercer is too keen to trade with us anymore.”

“As far as I’m concerned, you can take all of it,” Felix answered, waving a hand over the bread, fruit, and cheese. “How many days’ worth do you need?”

“We’re trying to find the dwarves,” Brando stated, “or Lokardale.”

“I’ve never heard of Lokardale, but I’m sure there’s plenty of dwarves in either Clive Rae or Brax Fort. Clive Rae is about a day of travel, so that’s probably your best bet. Unless you plan on taking a significant journey to the East?”

“By the looks of Heidle’s map, we shouldn’t need to go too far in that direction,” Brando stated. “Since Clive Rae is so close, maybe we should see if anybody there has any information.”

The innkeeper gave them similar directions to the ones from earlier that day. Then he wished them a good night as they climbed the stairs to their beds.

The next morning Fin woke up, stowed his two favorite gems to sleep with, and tucked away his favorite rock. His muscles seemed more relaxed than they did the night before, which he attributed to his Treasured Sleep ability. He checked his status page to see how he had progressed.

Level: 5

Class: Warrior. Dual Affinity: none. Path: Blood, Treasure, Strength and Power, Precarious Blessing

Strength

Dexterity

Constitution

Intelligence

Wisdom

Charisma

-10

-8

-5

4

7

4

Basic stat points: 2 Gold Stat points: 8 Ability points: 1

Passive Attributes: Pain Resist, Treasured Sleep. Shroud Control, Discern Magic, Earth Resistance – Locked, Discern Earth – Locked, Hydro Lung – Locked, Dark Sight – Locked. Active Abilities: Crushing Grip, Fear Howl, Lesser Stow, Violent Healing, Caustic Breath – Locked, Stone Vizard - Locked.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He had forgotten about the Hydro Lung quest he completed for the water affinity. The thought of being able to breathe underwater was exciting, but he didn't like the idea of growing gills. He would have to ask around to see if water dragons have gills and hold off trying to commit to an affinity until he decided that's what he wanted to stick with.

The Discern Magic ability he unlocked at level five was interesting. If it was a passive ability, he should be able to see magic now. He looked around the room and didn't notice anything. He imagined magic looking like vibrant colors that moved around like smoke from a fire. When he was dressed and ready, he took his belongings and went to find that colorful smoke.

When we walked downstairs, he saw Brando drinking a steaming cup. Wondering if it was a magic potion or just hot, he ordered one for himself. He sat down and greeted Brando, "Good Morning."

"Almost," Brando replied, blowing on his drink. "Felix says that this is his secret family recipe and that it's supposed to cure hangovers."

"It tastes awful, but it works like magic," Felix said, mixing herbs into a cup of hot water.

"So, it's magic?!" Fin asked excitedly.

Brando flinched at the sound of Fin's outburst. "Not so loud."

"No, it's not magic." Felix waved the idea away with his hands. "Mostly just herbs, salt, a little lemon, and butter. It'll put lead in your paint."

"Oh," Fin regretted ordering the drink before asking what was in it. "Are you going to be ready to go soon?"

"If you left now, you should arrive before nightfall," the innkeeper set a steaming cup in front of Fin. "I've packed the fruit and bread you've asked for. I even added a couple of water skins."

Fin reached out his hand. "Thanks for all your help, Felix."

"Don't mention it," the innkeeper said, taking his hand and firmly gripping it. "Here, I'll help load your horses."

After they were finished, Fin removed the bundle of procured weapons and handed them over. "On our way here, two men attacked us because they thought we were bad people. We managed to get the upper hand and took their weapons so they wouldn't attack us. Can you hold on to these and return them if they ever come back?" Fin described what they looked like and what they were wearing.

"I think I can do that," the innkeeper said, taking the pack. "I don't care what Eugal says about you. You two are as decent as they come, and you're always welcome at my inn."

"We might not be able to find your inn if you don't put a sign up," Fin said, only half joking. "What's the name of it?"

"The Village Inn," Felix said proudly.

"No offense, but you might consider naming it something more eye-catching. My family farm is called, The Dragon's Throne Farm," Fin explained, "but I suppose 'The Village Inn' is better than nothing."

When Brando had finished both his and Fin's tea, they mounted their horses and moved South. When they reached the fork in the road, they took a right and raced the sun to Clive Rae.

The mundane motions of moving across unremarkable terrain lulled both of them into introspection. The sounds of Fin grunting and slapping his forehead broke Brando out of his thoughtful state, and he asked what it was.

"I've been so excited to use my Magic Sense ability that I didn't think to just create it myself," Fin said excitedly. "I'm going to run through everything I have and see what it looks like."

He held out his hands and mentally channeled Crushing Grip. A colorless light materialized in his arms and shot toward his fingers. He could see a strand of light in each arm rise and dive into uniformly arching waves. At his hands, the strand broke off into five smaller strands that ended at his fingertips. He canceled the ability, and the light faded.

"Anything?" Brando asked, riding next to him.

When Fin explained what he saw, Brando asked if it looked like lightning.

"Kind of," Fin said. "Lightning is shaped more randomly, and it thins out the farther down it goes. What I'm doing looks more like the trace a fish would make swimming up and down. Hang on, I'm going to put some gems in my inventory."

Fin pulled out his sack of gems and took one out. Holding the gem in his hand, he activated Lesser Stow. A small tendril of power sprung out towards the gem. It retreated just as quickly, snapping the gem out of existence. Having a full inventory already, Fin was surprised when one of his gems didn't dislodge. He pulled his inventory up and noticed there were still only two boxes, but one of them had two gems inside.

"I think my inventory got bigger," Fin said, looking at the invisible window.

"How big?" Brando asked.

"Let's find out." Fin stowed one gem after the other, watching as tendrils of power snapped the rocks out of his hand. When all the gems were stowed, he noticed that fifteen of them were neatly displayed in the inventory slot that included the large gem, and ten gems were stowed in the blue topaz slot. "I think it's up to thirty-five. There's only one way to tell. Can you give me six copper coins?"

Brando carefully set down his apple and produced six copper coins. Riding closer to Fin, he handed them over.

Fin tried to stow all of them at once, but only two disappeared. When he stowed the sixth coin, the large gemstone popped into his hand. "It must have something to do with my increase of strength."

"What, like five or six per level?" Brando asked.

"I don't think so," Fin said after doing some quick calculations. "It doesn't really make sense. If it was five per level, then it would be at around forty items. If it was four per level, then I would be at thirty-four. No other number really makes sense."

"What if it's increasing, like one, two, four, eight, and so on?" Brando conjectured before trying to add it all up.

They both silently added numbers to themselves while the horses trotted forward. Finally, Brando shook his head. "It's not adding up."

"I have an idea," Fin finally said. "We take into consideration that before I gained eight points of strength, I could stow two items. Now I can stow thirty-five. When I upgrade my strength again, we'll see what it is and go from there. I still have an ability point."

"Going for the nails?" Brando asked, trying to re-secure his money.

"I could spend it on a wing ability, but since I don't have wings, it might be risky," Fin reasoned.

"Just get the nails. You've been talking about it non-stop," Brando said. "I say you just do it and get it over with already."

"I've been talking about it this whole time?" Fin asked ironically. "You've been talking about it this whole time. But you know what? I'm just going to do it so I don't have to hear about it anymore."

"It's your best option," Brando declared. "Anyway, if you're going to stand a chance to rip the heart out of someone's chest, you'll need it."

"Just because I have a quest for that doesn't mean I have to do it, but fine. I'll upgrade the nails." Fin selected his ability point and mentally attributed it to Strengthened Talons. The ability disappeared from his list, and he felt a tingling in his fingertips.

He channeled the ability and saw a thick, colorless glow form around his fingers, forming sharp tips at the ends of his fingers. He couldn't feel the power until he touched his fingers together, creating a sharp clicking sound.

"This is cool," Fin said, holding his fingers up in the air. "It's like I'm wearing finger gloves that make my fingers pointy."

"Are you sure?" Brando asked, looking at Fin's bare fingers. "It just looks like hands to me."

Fin clicked his fingers together loudly, "Can you hear that?"

"Can I hear you slap your fingers around like a bunch of sausages? Yes, I can hear that." Brando said with a grin. "Why do you ask?"

Fin got off his saddle and then stabbed his fingers into the dirt. They passed through the packed earth like a fork through bread dough. "I think this was a good choice."

When the sun began setting, and it was finally out of their eyes, they saw a black outline of the city against a dark orange sky. Not wanting to run out of daylight, they charged their horses forward until they arrived at last at the gates of Clive Rae.

Two guardsmen halted them at the gate and asked what their business was. Once they were satisfied with the jumble of answers they received, one of the guards held up a hand, "That'll be two copper per person. The money goes towards keeping the street lamps lit for you latecomers. Don't need you running into things and breaking stuff this late in the evening."

Fin held up a hand to tell Brando, "I'll take care of this," and pulled out four coins from an otherwise empty leather pouch. He handed it to the guards and asked where they could find a good inn.

"If you go straight down this road and take your second left, you'll find yourself at the Hornblower. Good place, decent prices, and soft beds. There are others, but I wouldn't go near them with a ten-foot polearm."

Fin tossed the guard a coin and thanked him.

As quickly as he caught it, he tucked it away, "Thanks, but we aren't allowed to accept tips; we're on official duty."

Noticing that the guard made no effort to return the coin, Fin smiled and led the way into town.