After eating a second pizza, Bazel could barely move. Samara took him back to her house, a fine home she called an "apartment".

Bazel couldn't believe how grand the apartment was. Everything looked clean and new – made of the finest materials he'd ever seen. The floor had that wooly stuff all over it and felt good on his feet when he removed his shoes.

The cooking area had a sink that magically dispensed water of any temperature from a shiny metal pipe. There was also a large white box that was cold on the inside and could be used to store food!

Bazel never imagined he could experience such luxury.

The best part of the house was the bathroom. Another sink adorned one wall with a large mirror hanging above it. The mirror was so well made, his reflection was just like looking at the real thing! The latrine was a large white chair that used water to flush away the rubbish. It didn't even smell!

Then there was the bathtub.

"I cleaned you up as best I could earlier," Samara said as she showed him the tub, "but you could still use a good soak."

"I haven't had a bath since I was a child!" Bazel turned on the faucet and watched as the tub began to fill up with hot water, "This is going to be great!"

Samara showed him where all the soap and scrubbers were, then took his clothes to get them nice and clean as well. She said there was a tool in the apartment that could magically clean clothes in minutes.

Bazel hummed an old tune as he scrubbed himself clean and soaked in the hot water for a while. Once he was done, there was a soft towel that he could use to dry himself. And Samara returned his new clothing so he could dress again.

Outside, the safe zone was getting dark which signaled the end of the day. Bazel went out to the back porch to look at the ceiling. He marveled at how a fake sky could look so real. It had all the stars and moons he saw every night in vivid detail and color.

Samara said she was tired from the day's activities and Bazel wasn't against getting some more sleep. She let him rest on the bed and took the large cushioned chair for herself.

In the morning, Samara woke Bazel up by shaking him gently.

"Time to get up, you lazy beggar."

"Already?" He asked as he stretched and sat up on the soft bed, "I could use a few more hours."

"Sorry," she said with mock sympathy, "We've got things to do. We need to get ready for our next job."

"Okay." Bazel hopped off the bed and stretched a bit more, "What did you have planned?"

"We're going to shop for a weapon that you can use, then we're going to get a couple supplies. After that, we'll go to the office and get a job."

"I feel it's only fair to warn you I've never used a weapon before," he paused his stretching routine and looked over at Samara, "What kind of weapon do you use?"

Samara held her hand out and a weapon appeared in her hand. The short metal shaft of the tool was wrapped in leather strips and ended in a large head shaped like a diamond.

"It's a mace." She twirled the deadly hunk of iron, "It's what I've always used. I bought this one here in the dungeon."

"Neat. Think I could learn to use one?"

"Probably, it's not hard." The mace disappeared from her hand and went back to her inventory, "But I think we can find you something better."

"I'll trust your judgment on this one." He said.

Samara led the way back into the safe zone and they walked back to the same street where they ate the pizza. Samara took him to another store called a "cafe" where they purchased some sweet biscuits with holes in them and a drink called "coffee". Bazel liked the coffee, but it wasn't as good as soda.

After they ate their breakfast, they went to a weapon's shop. The inside of the store looked even more expensive than Samara's apartment. Display cases made of real glass took up most of the floorspace and inside were every kind of weapon imaginable – as well as some that weren't.

Bazel looked over the tools of death on display in amazement. He didn't know anything about weapons, but they were neat to look at.

A man dressed in blue pants and a t-shirt similar to Samara's clothing came over to greet them. He was heavily muscled and Bazel felt a bit inadequate since the man's arms were bigger around than his waist. The man's bald head shone like a brass doorknob.

"Welcome to Thano-mart!" He said cheerfully, "What are you kids looking for today?"

"We need to get a weapon for my partner," she gestured to Bazel, "Something easy to use, but takes strength into account."

"Strength?" The man squinted at Bazel, "You don't look very strong, boy."

"I'm certainly not as strong as you." Bazel pointed to his ridiculously large chest.

"What's your level, and how many points of strength do you have?"

Bazel was about to summon his interface to show the man, but Samara stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder.

"He's level two and has fifteen points in strength."

"Really." The man folded his arms and glared at Bazel for a moment.

Bazel thought the man would call out their little lie, but after a few seconds, he shrugged and turned around. He began walking and beckoned them to follow.

He led them over to a wall where large metal objects sat on shelves. Each of them was a round tube with handles on them. Bazel thought they looked unwieldy and awkward.

"Hand cannons." The man said, "Not many people use them because of the strength requirements, but they do a lot of damage and don't require much skill."

"Cannons?" Bazel raised an eyebrow at the man, "What are those?"

"Oh, right," the man grinned sheepishly, "this world doesn't have gunpowder weapons."

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The man picked up one of the cannons and held it so that Bazel could see down the tube.

"With a normal cannon, you put explosive material down the tube, then load in a steel ball. The explosives push the ball out at high speeds and cause a lot of damage." He turned the cannon around so Bazel could see the back of it, "This is an Aethertech weapon though, so you use this switch to 'load' it with your own aether reserves and use this trigger to fire."

He handed the cannon over to Bazel who nearly fell over with how heavy it was.

"This particular model shoots a spray of shrapnel, like a shotgun." The man pressed his palm to his bald head, "Sorry. You don't know what that is either."

"I think I understand." Bazel said as he inspected the weapon.

The tube was made of metal that looked like dull brass, and had two handles sticking off of it so it could be held by the hip. Silver bits in the shape of birds decorated the front of the cannon. On one side, the word "Xanadu" was engraved.

"Xanadu?" Bazel asked.

"Zan-a-doo," the man corrected, "It's an ancient place where this type of weapon was invented. This one is called the Xanadu Gun."

"What do you think?" Bazel looked over to Samara.

"Well," Samara pinched her chin, "It certainly looks deadly. Pull up your interface and look at the specifics."

Bazel didn't know his interface could do such a thing, but he summoned it anyway. He willed the black tablet to show him information about the cannon.

< Xanadu Gun, level 2

91-147(17) damage (piercing, slashing)

Causes bleeding effect

Effective Range - 200 feet

Reload time - 00:00:10

Requirements:

Level 2-6

12 strength

6 Stamina

Consumes 10 aether per shot

"Ancestral voices prophesying war! But fear not, the Xanadu Gun can rip your enemies to shreds! Patented Aethertech firearms technology allows the Xanadu to be loaded with nothing more than the flick of a switch! Pull the trigger and all should cry, Beware! Beware!" >

"I like it," Samara said as she looked over his shoulder at the interface, "I say we get it."

Bazel thought the description was a bit strange and he didn't understand all the information displayed, but just looking at the damage was enough to prove it was a powerful weapon.

He remembered back to when he fought the rat. If he added up the total damage it took, then it had just over a hundred health. The Xanadu Gun could have killed it in one shot. With a reload time of ten seconds, he would be able to attack five times after using [Drain Strength]. The amount of aether he would use between the drain and five shots would be seventy-five – less than half of his total.

Meaning that if his opponent wasn't dead after inflicting around five hundred points of damage, he could just do it again.

Bazel felt a bit sick at the fact that he was breaking down the lives of other beings to nothing more than a bunch of numbers. However, if they were all monsters like the giant rat, then he probably wouldn't lose any sleep over hunting them.

Hunting monsters. That's all this is.

He made up his mind and decided that he would try it out.

"How much is it?" He asked the shopkeeper.

"Two-thousand, five-hundred scrip." He answered.

"I got it." Samara pulled up her interface and put a hand on the cannon.

"You don't have to–" Bazel tried to stop her.

"Don't worry," she said as she completed the purchase, "We'll make that back quickly."

"O-okay."

Bazel stored the gun in his inventory. They bid the shopkeeper farewell and walked outside. Once they were where the man wouldn't be able to hear them, Samara turned to Bazel.

"You should probably carry it on your person even when not using it." She said, "It will be tiring, but it will help build your strength and stamina."

She made a good point, but Bazel was reluctant to do it. The Xanadu probably weighed close to fifty pounds, and carrying around that kind of weight would wear him out quickly. Nonetheless, he pulled it out of his inventory and put it over his shoulder with only a little struggling.

"There you go!" Samara smiled like a proud mother, "You'll toughen up in no time!"

"Easy for you to say." Bazel shifted uncomfortably.

"Tell you what," Samara crossed her arms, "put up with it until the job is done, then you can rest."

"Deal."

"Okay," Samara turned and pointed to another shop, "I need to go there and get another vial of ambrosia, just in case. After that, we'll go to the job office."

"Right behind you."

The second store they went into dealt in all sorts of medical items. Shelves full of elixirs and potions of every kind lined the walls. They also had a large glass tank full of weird looking fish, snakes, and insects. He went to the tank and observed the strange creatures as they swam around in the water.

"Are you interested in symbiotes?" A pretty, young woman in a skirt approached him.

"I don't even know what that is." Bazel answered.

"These are symbiotes." She giggled and waved a hand at the tank, "They are artificial creatures that can be implanted to increase your stats."

"Implanted?"

"It's not as gross as it sounds," she said, "Once they are put in, you barely even notice them!"

"I think I'll pass for now."

Just the thought of putting another living creature inside his body made Bazel shudder. Maybe they could increase his stats, but so could exercise and hard work. He would rather carry the Xanadu every day for a year than put one of those things inside of him.

Once the woman realized she wasn't going to make a sale, she shrugged and walked away. As soon as she was out of sight, Samara walked up and looked into the tank.

"Don't tell me you're thinking of putting one of those things in you." She said as her face twisted at the sight of them.

"No," Bazel shuddered once more, "I think I'll just stick with exercise."

"Good move."

Bazel and Samara left the store and walked down the street to a large building that seemed to be made completely of glass. Samara stopped before they went inside and turned to Bazel.

"So, the guy that hands out jobs," she pointed over her shoulder with her thumb, "He's a nice guy, but he's not exactly… human."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll see for yourself," she turned back to the building, "Just try not to stare. He gets upset about it."

"Right."

Bazel didn't know what to expect after a warning like that, but he tried to mentally prepare himself anyway. He'd already seen plenty of strange things in the dungeon and didn't think that someone's appearance would throw him off.

They walked up to the doors of the building – they too, were made of glass and slid open of their own accord when Samara approached. They walked across a marble floor and up to a counter at the far end of the foyer. There, behind the counter stood a tall man wearing a black and white outfit that looked rather sharp. A red piece of fabric hung around his neck down to about his navel. He had short brown hair combed neatly to one side.

Once they approached the counter however, Bazel immediately realized why the man was so tall. His bottom half was a horse. It was as if a horse's head had been removed and the body of a man put in its place. Bazel remembered Samara's warning, but he couldn't help it.

He stared at the bottom half of the man in shock.

"Ah, Samara!" The man-horse greeted her with a smile, "Come back for another job?"

"You know it, Chris!" She punched Bazel's arm to make him stop staring, "I have a partner now, too."

The man-horse – Chris, apparently – put his hand down in front of Bazel.

"Nice to meet you," he said, "I'm Chris."

"B-Bazel." Bazel did his best to make eye contact and shook his hand, "Bazel the Beggar."

"Okay, then!" Chris let go of Bazel and summoned an interface.

"Let's put you kids to work!"