“We’ll fuck.” Pan said, “Now we need to walk our happy asses back home to bring her back to life. Just to come back here.

“Well, you see. The thing is.” I started saying, “I’m not going to bring her back to life just yet. I want to get a handle on the dungeon out here first. Finding out what resources we can get from it and what skills it has to offer. I also don’t want to deal with any unnecessary backlash caused from bringing her back to the place where she was murdered.”

With a nod she said, “Yeah that's a good point. Wait. What skills? You guys get skills from doing dungeons?”

I showed Pan how to access her skills. Excited, she dug through her interface for a moment. Turns out that she had an option to choose her skill. Her choices were between adding a new type of monster or natural resource that her monsters could take advantage of to potentially augment their existing power.

Also, Pan’s dungeon was way higher level than mine. I was sitting at level 5 while Pan’s was a whooping 25. A bit jealous, we talked about what would be the best course of action for her to take. Eventually settling on adding a resource to collect. If a party made it to Pan’s throne, they would be able to find quartz inside the ponds on either side of it. Though it doesn’t transfer mana as well as Emerald, diamond and the like it’s extremely versatile allowing for any kind of elemental augmentation. For each run you would be able to collect about 2 fist sized quartz stones.

Giving me a curious look Pan said, “Speaking of skills. What did you guys get for completing my dungeon?”

Whisper was the first to speak, “Wind Step. It allows me to walk on air as if it were solid ground for short periods of time.”

Shaking her fist in excitement, “That's so badass. So that’s how you’ve been getting to some of your vantage points lately. Awesome.”

Whisper nodded, satisfied with Pan’s reaction.

When they were done chatting about Whisper's new skill both of their gazes fell on to me.

Building the tension for just a moment I said, “Gate.”

They both waited for me to elaborate. When I didn’t Pan tackled me, staring me down, eyes wide.

“So, what does it do?” she said while pinning me to the ground.

Laughing I told them, “It allows me to open a gate from anywhere back to the dungeon. I can also set up Gate Locations where any of my dungeon defenders can teleport to from the dungeon itself. Though I have to put in a lot of manual labor to create those gates. Worse, those can be damaged or destroyed. I also have a limited amount of them I can have at once.”

Both Whisper and Pan looked at me with widening eyes.

“You mean to tell me that we can just poof back home whenever we want?! Damn, your skill is way more badass than mine.” she said grumbling.

“I have to agree. Yes, I can do some minor tricks with wind magic now, but you can fly. Now you’re telling me you can teleport. Yeah, I’m siding with Pan on this one. Your skill sounds far more useful than mine.” he said in thought., “Are you going to turn your skill into a school of magic you have access to. I believe teleportation is spatial magic if I’m not mistaken. So, things like telekinesis, Force magic, and the like all fall under that category.”

“You can do that!?” Pan shouted.

“I hadn’t really thought about that. Now that you mention it I probably should. Just to give me access to more tools if nothing else.” I replied.

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Worming my way out from under Pan, I sat down by our fire and created another new spell. Telekinesis, the entry level spatial spell. Throughout the entire process Pan just kept talking. Asking question after question until she fell asleep.

In the morning we packed up our gear and continued towards The Twin City after I scanned Busha’s body and collected her equipment.

Scan Results

Creature - Half Human, Half Dwarf

Name - Busha

Combat Type - Special Warrior, Special Rogue

Threat Level - E

Special Skills - Multi Sword Mastery, Flash Draw, Stealth, Deep Wounds, Parallel Thinking, Heavy Strike, Sword Block, Sword Break, Unarmed Fighting, Augmented Acrobatics, Darkvision, Weak Fire Resistance, Weak Earth Resistance.

The rest of the trip passed in peace, finally making it to the city. It was a strange sight to see. There was a main road that cut clean through the town leading to a massive manor that had two distinct wings. Walls were erected down the road isolating the two halves of the city from each other. On one side I could see people walking around with swords hanging from their belts and sashes. On the other side were people that looked like regular presents, but on closer inspection they had weapons hidden all along their bodies. One thing stood out to me more than the rest though. Their clothes.

They had the coolest looking outfits. They were ornate yet simple, complete with intricate designs and patterns woven into the cloth. Excited, I made my way to the gate. Where I was promptly stopped by a guard.

“Hello there, newcomer. What business do you have in Twin City?”

Confused, I thought to myself how to best answer the question. Before I had a chance to answer he spoke again.

“Right then. Seeing as you’re new around here I’ll explain the rules. Weapons are permitted to be carried in the city only by men. There is a 10 copper fee to enter the city per person for each entry. If a woman caused trouble in the city that you’re associated with. You will be held accountable for her actions.”

The list went on. Most of it was about the kind of trouble you can get into for the trouble caused by your wife or any woman you’re associated with. With each passing sentence I grew more nervous. Sneaking a glance at Pan I saw her standing there. Not listening at all while picking her nose and scratching her rear.

The guard caught my glance and gave me an understanding smile. Looking at her and back to me. Shaking his head, trying to warn me of the trouble she was definitely going to cause. I turned around and placed my hand on Pan’s shoulders, gaining her attention.

“Did you hear anything he just said?” I asked her.

Panic in her eyes she chuckled nervously, “Of course. I just have to behave right?”

I glared at her. She stared back into my eyes, nervousness building. Whisper tried to hide his laugh by covering his mouth with his hand. I kept staring.

Letting out a sigh, Pan drooped her head and said, “Yeah, I know. There's no way I’d be able to follow all those rules. In fact, the only one I remember is something about how women are supposed to speak loudly when addressing men.”

I shook my head, “No, Pan. Women are not to speak loudly when speaking to a man.”

At this point Whisper was trembling with laughter. Tears silently filled his eyes and streamed down his face as he tried to control himself. The guard, overhearing our conversation, just placed his face in his hands. Attempting to wipe away the ridiculousness of the situation. Looking to the guard and then back to Pan. I stared at her once again. She finally relented, Whisper offering to stay with her while I was in the city. With that handled, I was finally able to pass through the gates.

Twin City was self-governed by two lords each called by a different name. The Lord of Day and the Lord of Night. From what I heard around town visiting the stalls they are twin brothers and so were the lords before that and the ones before that. Each governing the laws during the time represented by their titles.

After our numerous dungeon runs I had quite a bit of money saved up. 3 gold coins in all. So, I bought plenty of cloth, even working out a deal with a tailor to have bolts of cloth shipped to the village in my name with regularity. That cost me an entire gold coin. Next on my list was to find someone who could help me with weapon production. I was sick of doing it by myself. It left me very little time to manage my own projects.

I spent the entire day searching, visiting every shop on both sides of the city. Nobody. Not even apprentices were willing to travel or work large bulk commissions. Defeated, I began to make my way out of town when the sound of breaking glass reached my ears. Curious as I was, I decided to investigate the noise. Once I finally reached the source of the sound, I found a drunk man sitting on a pile of refuse drinking bottle after bottle of something strong. Smashing the bottles against the wall once he finished with a dead look in his eyes.