Sir Argvald snorted in disapproval, staring at Ander like he was a stain on the world.
“How, logical.” He said, disdain dripping from his voice. “I suppose you can make such an argument. I wish I could say I disagreed.”
“So, what now?” Ander asked. It was hard to hold Sir Argvald’s eyes. He knew that some part of that anger was justified.
“Nothing, unfortunately. What you did was truly horrifying, and I will hate to see what you do when you leave this place. But for now, I do not believe you to be a threat to the population of the pit.” Sir Argvald stood, looming high over Ander. “It is the decree of the High Lord to cultivate strong warriors. Thus, you are protected. But if I get wind of a rumor that you have killed another person, I will send you to the depths faster than you can blink.” Ander’s breath caught in his throat for a moment as he stared into the dark visage of Sir Argvald. Sir Argvald then started off towards the door.
“Sir Argvald.” Ander called, and the man turned around, his visage clouding further.
“What, killer?” Ander winced again.
“I have two questions, if you will answer them.” Ander watched as Sir Argvald ground his teeth in anger.
“As a pit trainer I am obliged to answer if I can. What do you want?” Sir Argvald’s voice was full of acid, and his outrage was fully manifest.
“First, how did you know I had gotten my class change? Do you know Identify?” Sir Argvald snorted.
“No, but there is a difference in the feel of your aura. Get your aura senses up to snuff and you can tell too. What was your other question?” Ander gave an internal sigh of relief. Despite how much Sir Argvald hated him, he wasn’t going to stiff Ander on the questions just because he had accidentally asked two the first time. The man had some honor, Ander could give him that.
“How did you get into this room? I know Karsish wouldn’t have let anyone in.” In response, Sir Argvald held up a key dangling from a chain. The key was ornate and made of adamantite, but Ander could see traces of gold plating.
“This is the key to this treasure room. Whenever one is opened, we confiscate the key afterward to make sure it stays around in case anyone accidentally locks themselves inside.” A smile came across his face. “I suppose you will be wanting this, correct?”
“Yes.” Ander didn’t like the look on Sir Argvald’s face. “What do I need to do to get it?”
“Not much, it only costs a thousand contribution points. Shouldn’t be too much for someone of your talent.” Ander looked to Karsish in confusion.
“It was part of the orientation you would have gotten had you joined a faction. Contribution points are the main currency in the pit. Collecting artifacts and monster parts in the pit and selling them allows you to gain contribution points you can use for weapons and gear.” Karsish sighed. “The problem is…”
“The problem is,” Sir Argvald interrupted, “That there are quite a number of ways to lose contribution points. Don’t contribute enough? You lose points. Damage something that does not belong to you? Points are taken until the item is repaid. Kill someone?” His grin got wider. “You lose a thousand points per person murdered.” Ander’s stomach dropped.
“So my balance…”
“Somewhere around -119,000, though more will be docked for the injury of the other man on your first day.” Ander looked at Karsish, and the horror on his face told Ander everything he needed to know. “Those are some rare books you have here. I will offer a generous 10 points per book you give me.”
Ander stared at Sir Argvald, and then at his library. He had a lot of books, and his ship had another separate library he could pull from if necessary. But that would be so much lost. He would come nowhere near reading all of these, but they would be of so much value. He couldn’t give them away for 10 points apiece. He couldn’t give them away at all.
“Karsish, what is the most valuable thing that could be sold?” Karsish screwed up his face in confusion.
“Don’t know why you care. Relay nodes are the prize of prizes. They generally go for a million points each. Spatial bags go for around three quarters that much, but nothing else is close.” Ander froze as he looked at the relay node in his inventory. No way. No way in hell he was going to give that up. He nearly died to get that thing.
“Um, give me a moment to go through my stuff.” Ander said as he hobbled to his study.
“Fine, but don’t keep me waiting.” Sir Argvald’s voice was getting annoyed again. Ander started to dump out everything he had found in the ruins, making a small mountain of cloth and other goods. With Karsish’s help, he then carried it all to the main room to present to Sir Argvald. Sir Argvald sorted through it all for a minute.
“This… is rather impressive for how long you have been down here. I can give you a preliminary 30,000 points for all these items.” Ander sighed at Sir Argvald’s response, looking resigned. “Oh, do you know the penalty for going into the negative on points is?” Ander’s heart went into his throat.
“No, I don’t.” Ander waited for a moment, but Sir Argvald didn’t elaborate. “Would you kindly enlighten me, Sir Argvald?”
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“Happily. It isn’t exactly debtors' prison, but if you are left a week without paying your debt you must come under the employ of the pit itself, doing what we want for as long as the debt exists. Your pay goes back to paying the debt, and you will have no chance to go exploring for treasures, or fighting monsters, or progressing at all. If I remember correctly, it has been what, five days since you killed those first two men? And your debt has only grown! What a shame. Though I think we are in need of a new training dummy for the higher level individuals in the pit. Unfortunately, it doesn’t pay all that well, so it might take you some time to pay off your debt.”
Ander’s stomach dropped with every word, and he started to scroll through his inventory faster and faster. He had to find something he could sell so he could keep from parting with his prizes or being locked down for as long as he was here. He briefly considered feeding himself to the spider ants and starting over with a new body, which would be so much easier and meant he didn’t have to give up anything. But no. That was a last resort. Ander had already dropped everything he had found in the ruin that he was willing to part with. He had only kept the jar with the spider in it, the intact spider egg sac, and the relay node. Now he was looking through the stuff he had found in the Aetherworks Foundry and hoping he could find something not too suspicious. Then again, Sir Argvald had already seen everything in the treasure room, so what more damage could he really do?
“Are rare items more valuable?” Ander asked.
“Yes.” Karsish said.
“Of course.” Sir Argvald said.
“Then what do you think of this?” Ander reached into his study and acted like he was pulling something off the shelf. He then summoned a magical microscope, he had five, and brought it into the main room. He presented it to Sir Argvald who looked taken aback. Sir Argvald took it from Ander and started to examine every inch of the magical telescope.
“It is obviously magical. The use of runes and spell diagrams make that plain. Do you know what this thing is or does?” Ander shook his head at Sir Argvald’s question, and noticed that his expression was growing dark again. “Very well. The going rate for an unidentifiable magic item is 100,000 points.”
Ander grinned. Between that and the stuff he had looted below that would leave him with 10,000 points, which was apparently a really good number. Sir Argvald was back to gritting his teeth, but Ander had a hard time caring.
“May I purchase the key please?” Ander said with perfect politeness, giving an awkward bow at the same time. Sir Argvald almost threw the key at Ander, but restrained himself at the last moment, instead handing it to him politely.
“I will make sure that your items are properly accounted for, but if you want a receipt, you will have to come to the town. I will take these, but I am no delivery service.” Sir Argvald then proceeded to touch a small leather pouch on his belt and one by one the items started to disappear. Ander watched with wonder. Was this one of the spatial tools Karsish had mentioned?
“Aren’t those rare?” Sir Argvald glared at Ander for his question.
“Whenever they say just two questions, it is never just two questions is it? But very well. Yes, they are exceedingly rare. But there are enough floating around that the nobles get their pick. Some find their way onto the market and get sold to the common folk for exorbitant prices. This is on loan from the High Lord Torden himself, for use with the pit. It helps when murderers go on a killing spree and we have to collect bodies. Though we didn’t have to do that this time.” Sir Argvald’s voice somehow turned more acrid. “I suppose I should thank you for that now shouldn’t I.”
Sir Agvald then turned around and stomped out the door before Ander could formulate a response.
“Was antagonizing him really worth it?” Karsish asked as Ander sank back onto the couch. “You seem to have made him really mad.” Ander waved off Karsish’s concern.
“He already hated me. There really wasn’t anything I could have done at that point to make things even worse. Besides, a polite request is hardly antagonizing him.” Ander thought for a moment. “I think he is an honorable man. I do have to say I regret the circumstances that led him to be my enemy.”
Karsish sat fidgeting on the couch across from Ander.
“Spit it out, I won’t bite your head off.” Ander said.
“You regret killing over a hundred people then?” Karsish said, cringing back from Ander.
“No.” Ander looked at Karsish. “That was self defense. I don’t regret destroying a threat against me.”
“Um, Ander? That's really cold. I mean we, commoners I mean, are expendable. Everyone with a decent memory skill knows this, but you don’t seem to care at all.” Karsish looked at Ander hesitantly, fearfully. Ander looked at Karsish for several moments before his eyes went wide.
“Karsish, you have nothing to fear. I understand what this looks like to you, but I would never kill someone without a damn good reason for it. Much less you. You have been a friend, and I won’t repay that by killing you should you accidentally say the wrong thing.” Karsish relaxed, but only slightly. Ander figured that was ok, this was probably a lot for him to process.
“When I met you, you were quiet and focused. I thought that made you like me. When I heard that you had killed so many people, I thought it was a lie. I thought that they had fabricated this to cover up their own mistakes. Do you even care about people at all?” Karsish started slow, but by the end words were tumbling out of his mouth at lightning speed. Ander winced. He remembered shouting those same words at his mother years ago. Do you even care about people at all? Ander supposed he knew what his mother felt when he asked her.
“Yes, of course.” The same reply his mother had made. He realized he had far less reason when he asked than Karsish did now. His mother hadn’t killed over a hundred people. A dozen maybe, but not over a hundred. “Look, blood and stuff like that doesn’t bother me, never has. More than that, I really don’t care about most people or their problems. When people do right by me, I try to do right by them.”
Ander’s grandparents had been very diligent in trying to teach him to be a good christian. The golden rule had been top on their list, and they continuously reiterated it until it became one of his basic tenants. Still, it didn’t apply at all when being attacked by a mob of people bent on your destruction.Though he now wondered if things would have gone that far if he hadn’t goaded the troops into following him. He didn’t regret killing them, but maybe there had been a better way of dealing with this.
“Look, man. I promise that I won’t go crazy all of a sudden and kill you. If that is what you are looking for, you should meet my mother.” Ander grinned at the confused Karsish.
“What does our mothers have to do with this?” Ander sighed and waved Karsish off.
“Nothing, just a poor joke.” Ander sat back in his chair. His missing leg had been hurting the entire conversation, though the adrenaline had pushed the pain aside. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, Ander was overcome with both pain and exhaustion. However, instead of allowing himself to rest, he retrieved one of the jars holding a small spider and removed the lid.
“What in the darkest planes are you doing?” Karsish screeched, jumping to stand on the couch. The spider climbed out of the jar and onto Ander’s hand, where it bit viciously. Ander immediately scraped it back into the jar and stored it back in the ship.
“Training. My regen skill needs to be higher before I can use it effectively in combat. It is very draining to use it as it is.”
“Ah.” KArsish said weakly. “Didn’t that hurt?”
“I mean, yeah, but I got bit by these things over a dozen times after I lost my leg. I know what to expect, and next to the pain in my leg, it is really only a nice distraction.” Ander grinned at Karsish tiredly. “I’m not crazy, promise.” and then he passed out.