Lucas was walking the streets of Camp Hearth, his walk aimless. Seven months had passed since the retaking of the settlement from the forces of the General and the town was finally showing first signs of recovery. He could see murky shapes from inside the taverns as he passed by them, adventurers on pause from jobs intermingling with the guards who were of duty and other locals. The newly established Adventurer’s guild did wonders for the prosperity of the settlement, as crafting parts and other loot collected by the adventurers flooded the markets of Camp Hearth. In turn, more and more wandering merchants were visiting the city, hoping to trade their exotic material collected from around the Earth for the specific ones found here. That brought even more adventurers hoping to score big, growing the two months old Guild even further. Of course, that precipitated strengthening of the Town guard as a way to deal with the more unsavory adventurers. And to be able to defend the town successfully, Guard needed state of the art equipment, which made sure crafters never stayed without work for long and brought new people on the daily basis. That circle strengthened the Camp Hearth immensely, almost enough to completely forget the massacre at the end of liberating the settlement from the mercenary unit.

“Almost” Lucas emphasized the word, knowing full well that ones who were directly involved still had traumas and nightmares about it, being extremely twitchy to any loud sound that happened anywhere nearby. On the more personal level, his training has been coming along great, except for the fact that the large amount of newly arrived adventurers started pushing him out from his usual hunting grounds a bit. It didn’t matter, as he could always found new one using “Sharpsight”, but today was his day off. The rest of his party had gone out to hunt and Lucas felt a sense of pride surging in his chest as he remembered how much all of them progressed, but nobody more than Margaret. Due to her limiter, she was stuck at level 25 for six months when she served in the mercenary unit. But now, she was almost equal with the rest of them, reducing the gap from ten level difference to three. But in the terms of pure power and stats, Lucas had the upper hand. His Advanced class gave him such big number of new stats that he was probably stronger that people ten levels above him. During this seven months period, he hadn’t been in a fight that he could sincerely said put his life in danger. He arrived at his destination while he was lost in thought, so he pulled himself back to reality and entered. The tavern was same as he remembered it, simple wooden tables and benches adoring the room that was just an ordinary square. Behind his counter stood the old innkeeper, the same old man who served Lucas and Michael during their glory days. Memories of Michael still stung Lucas deeply, so he tried to focus on the task at hand. He approached the innkeeper and ordered ale, taking a sip before getting down to business.

“I heard you have fallen on hard times” Lucas said, deciding honesty would probably give him the best results.

“Aye, good sir. Since those blasted troopers chased away the good folk of the old” innkeeper also replied honestly, setting the tone for the rest of conversation.

“Well then, I have an offer for you” Lucas said. He felt a little bad exploiting the old man, but as he and Bruce discussed, their fledgling information network was getting to big to share the space with the Town guard without raising suspicions, so they needed the space. After some back and forth, Lucas remembered his tavern of old and Bruce concurred it was a good choice. Now, it fell to Lucas to persuade to old innkeeper to abandon his lifelong job and take on a new role of being the doorman for the spy network. Lucas started narrating his offer, the innkeeper more shocked with every word that came from Lucas’s mouth. In the end, the price for the man’s troubles was mentioned.

“I’ll accept it, under one condition” the old innkeeper said. Lucas just looked at him questioningly before the man continued “this have to remain a tavern. I was but an innkeeper my entire life, as was my father before me”

Lucas took a moment to think about it. Extra cover they would get from this still being a commercial business was a good thing and having a place to unwind would certainly help with the morale of agents. On the other hand, alcohol and keeping secrets didn’t mesh very well.

“But then again, they would just go to some other tavern. Here at least, we would immediately know if someone loosens his tongue.” Lucas thought at the end and then turned to face the innkeeper.

“It’s a deal” he said and offered his hand which the innkeeper took and thy shook on it. Lucas finished his ale and bid farewell to the man, remembering to transfer the funds for the ale to the man. Exiting the tavern, he picked up his pace, arriving back at Bruce’s office in under five minutes. Bruce decided to nest himself in one of the skyscrapers, in the massive lobbies that were once used as waiting rooms. Now, it was large space for everything the old Loremaster had to do and his eyes darted to Lucas as he entered. Lucas nodded his head, that action bringing a small smile to Bruce’s face, before he signaled Lucas to wait a bit. Lucas guessed he was in the middle of some reading and his guess proved correct some fifteen minutes later, as Bruce muttered “Archive” and brought his full attention to Lucas.

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

“I guess everything went well in the tavern” Bruce asked him. Lucas recounted the conversation he had with the innkeeper, including a slight change in plan about the role of the establishment.

“I can’t say I’m happy the old man wants to keep it as a full - fledged tavern. If it was up to me, I would simply buy him out and found a new doorman. But I will trust your judgment” Bruce said. “We have some more matter we need to discuss. Some of the adventurers returned from the wreckage dungeon, reporting ships made completely from ice are at the shores. They managed to avoid much contact with the crew there, a little contact they had being hostile.” he continued.

“Any more details?” Lucas asked

“Not much, they actively avoided them. I guess this is the job for you. Maybe this will prove as the final hurdle to your first legendary skill” Bruce said.

The skill in question was still murky to Lucas. After they cleared the rubble and repaired the immediate damage from the General’s last stand, Bruce used his “Evaluate” on Lucas, advising him not to spend his skill points because he was extremely close to unlocking the legendary skill, which was sure to prove expensive in terms of unlocking. From that point, seven months had passed and the skill still hadn’t showed up. Lucas was getting more and more impatient with every passing day, but he still held to his skill points, trusting Bruce’s judgment.

“I can only hope so. I will go prepare for the job now and when the rest return from their daily hunt, we will be off” Lucas said.

He soon found way back to his old house and entered it. During these seven months he mostly lived here, seeing no point in looking for more luxurious place of living. He said “Status” and a menu appeared before his eyes.

Name: Lucas (surname N/A)

Class: Blade of Doom level 54 (Skill points available: 10)

Attributes:

Strength: 83

Agility: 130

Constitution: 26

Intelligence: 35

Willpower: 35

Perception: 70

Charisma: 30

Luck: 40

Health: 2158

Stamina: 14.170

Mana: 1225

Skills:

Sharpsight

Aura severing

Doom infusion

Dodge

Strikes of doom

Soul – shattering strike

Punch parry

Doom – infused punch

Infused Piledriver

Guiding strike

Battlerush

Blade spin

Bulwark of balance

Equipment

Exquisite Naga steel coral breastplate

Exquisite Naga steel coral shoulder plates

Exquisite Naga steel coral gauntlets

Ceramic – laced gorilla gloves

Exquisite Naga steel coral leg guards

Gladius of the Viridi

Ring of the Abyssal Depth

Quests

Titles

Monster Slayer

Colossus Muncher

Home – schooled

Scenario dungeon diver I

Vengeance Bringer

Class Advancer

His Agility raised through the roof and with the amount of free points he got, he was able to push his mana through the one thousand points threshold. After finishing the goal for mana, he started freely dumping his free points into Luck, hoping that would be enough to get him over the hump for that mysterious, yet highly coveted legendary skill. While he was studying his status, the rest of his party returned. They were gathered in his living room, giving Lucas a quick rundown of what they have encountered. Once Ted finished speaking, Lucas took the chance to introduce them to their new task. They listened to him intently and after Lucas finished, they agreed they will take off first thing in the morning, allowing for the people who were out hunting a chance to get some rest.