"Can we set down for a few days?" Martin moaned.

I agreed with the man, we needed some downtime. It had been over a week of constant travel. With the way the house rocked, it was pretty exhausting. Our westward journey had come to an abrupt halt when a mountain range blocked our path. Technically, we could levitate over the mountains but with their extreme height, it seemed like an unnecessary risk. We decided to head south and hope that the desert was still where the ocean had been.

"Yeah, I was planning on setting us down when we reached the desert or found a way through this monolithic mountain range."

I had actually thought we would have come across the desert by now but maybe we had gone farther north than I realized. Even Fiona's scouting hadn't located the desert. The land was rocky and barren with small stands of sickly-looking trees. There were little to no signs of earth-like life in the area.

We had spotted a few rock creatures ambling about the terrain, but they seemed content to meander and ignore us as we passed. That was probably for the best since the creatures looked like an earth variant elemental, and we all knew those were a pain in the ass to fight. It was also why I chose not to set down in this area.

A plateau was our first indication that the terrain was changing. Fiona had flown back to warn us about the change, and the fact that a town resided less than a mile south of that, with the ocean beyond.

The problem was getting the house over the sharp rise of the plateau.

"Hold on, I gotta boost us to max height."

As we neared the rise, I started slowly increasing our height. This would make for a smoother transition. Still, the house shook and rocked as we climbed over the edge. I made a mental note to look into the issue when time permitted to see if I could smooth the ride out. The house gave one last lurch forward as we completed the transition.

I reduced power until the house was only skimming five feet above the ground. This would help hide our approach even if it was still night out. The town we were approaching didn't have a wall, it didn't need one. It had the mountain range on the west side, the plateau on the north, and the ocean to the south. My guess was the plateau covered the east as well.

According to Fiona the town was quite spread out, with farms and buildings over a wide area. This would work to our advantage as she had located an empty plot of land that once had a house. I deftly maneuvered the house into position, having to rotate it almost a hundred and eighty degrees to line it up with the street, then set it down. It didn't even stand out all that much as there were a few other three-story houses similar in design on the same street.

"Perfect," I said, clapping my hands once. And no I wasn't one of those people that clapped for a safe landing... I was just happy we could rest.

"Alright, I'm going to bed. I figure we got four or five hours before sunrise and I'm beat."

"Sleep well, Paul," Fiona called.

"I think, I'll take a look around the neighborhood," Martin said, standing up and stretching his sore legs.

"Mmm, Ska will come with."

I waved the two off and wished them a safe journey as I walked up the stairs.

***

"So this is a human village?" Ska asked quietly.

"It is. It reminds me a lot of my hometown," he replied, looking at the southern-style homes. The only difference here was they weren't set on stilts to keep them above flood water. But all the southern charm still existed with a hint of Spanish influence creeping in due to its proximity to Texas and Mexico.

There were no signs of people on the street, but that wasn't a surprise given the early hour. Martin did see a few flickers of candlelight coming from a few homes so they knew people at least lived in this town.

They were rounding the block when Ska stopped. Martin paused, watching him stiff the air.

"What's up?"

"I smell blood... fresh blood," he replied, turning to face a house across the road.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Martin thought he saw movement through the window and maneuvered Ska behind an abandoned car, shushing the grimalkin just in time.

Two men came out through the front door and walked down the street without a care. Martin didn't recognize the men but he recognized the bandanas wrapped around their arms. A shiver of fear ran through his body. This was followed by rage and only Ska's presence prevented him from unleashing his magic on these men. It was enough to get his emotions under control.

The two of them waited until the other men were out of sight. "Come on, I need to verify something," he said quietly to Ska.

Ska nodded silently and led the way across the street and into the home.

They found what Martin was afraid of in the living room. There were two dead, a man and a woman, both were tied to chairs. The man had his tongue ripped out and stuck to the table with a knife through it. The woman... well she had it worse.

"What is this," Ska hissed.

"A message," Martin replied, "come on, let's get back. I need to tell Paul what's going on."

***

"You're sure," I said through bleary eyes. An hour of sleep had hardly been enough.

"Yes, it's definitely a cartel-held town."

"Well, fuck!"

"I'll go take a look around," Fiona offered.

"Hold up... we don't want to get involved with the locals unless we have to. I propose we enter from outside the town and see what happens. Fiona can alert us if any of these cartel goons show up."

"What about the house, won't it be dangerous to just leave it here?" Martin inquired.

"Not if we make it look boarded up. It won't take me more than an hour to do that... with your help of course."

"You sure that will work?"

"No, my first thought was to take off and leave the town behind. But if what you've told me about these cartels is even half of what they are capable of, these people could use our help. Plus killing bad guys is a good way to level."

Turns out nothing happened when they walked into town, other than a few odd looks at Ska.

We walked around town, purchased a few things, and left, all without any issue. Once we were out of sight of the town and Ska was sure nobody had followed us, I took out my invisibility tent.

I knew Fiona could find us so I motioned for the others to step inside and I followed, closing the opening and activating the spell's effects.

"Ok, this should hide us in case we were followed but keep quiet because it doesn't block sound."

"Hmmm, someone did follow us around town but I could not see them," Ska rumbled quietly.

"Yeah, I'm not surprised," Martin replied, "they tended to keep a low profile even before the System. Now with skills, they may only show themselves to deal with trouble makers."

I rubbed my chin in thought, before smiling.

"What's so funny," Martin asked in concern.

"Oh you know me, just thinking. I'll let you know after Fiona returns."

She floated through the tent a few minutes later. "It's clear. There were a couple of people watching you but nobody approached. The townsfolk didn't appear to be any the wiser and nobody looked worried or frightened."

"Good. Now for my plan," I said, smiling wide.

We waited until dark and make our way back to the house. I made sure to utilize my all-seeing-eye tattoo. Nothing hidden appeared and I removed the boards from the door. My plan was a simple one, stir up trouble until the cartels were forced to send someone to deal with us. The best way to do that was to enhance the local's weapons. That would be too much for an organization bent on controlling a populace to ignore. Eventually, they would come to deal with the trouble makers.

I did make one more change after removing the boards over the windows. Instead of requiring an oath for every bit of weapon or armor I made, I simply added runes to my door frames. This way anyone that passed through was automatically agreeing to the oath as soon as they took a weapon or armor out with them.

This actually solved some issues I had had with my previous verbal agreement. Namely, skills that may let people lie or somehow undo my oath. If they didn't know they were under the terms of an oath they couldn't break it. That last bit was the tricky part but the Odin rune came in clutch again.

Of course, it had to be tested. I made a quick rune plate. Another perk of doing it this way was the ability to modify the oath on the fly. I changed it so Martin would only suffer a minor headache and be unable to drop the item if he broke the oath, at least until I released him from the magic.

"Are you ready to test it?" I grinned at Martin.

"Only if you stop smiling at me like a fat person at a buffet."

"Fair enough," I added, dropping my creepy smile.

He motioned for me to hand him the plate and he walked out the door activating the oath.

"Well?"

"I didn't feel anything," he replied.

"Ok, try hitting me with it."

He slapped me hard on the arm and I flinched in surprise. "What was that for?" I asked rubbing my elbow.

He shrugged, "It works, I can feel the headache and I can't drop this plate."

"Serves ya right," I mumbled. I let him suffer the headache for a few more seconds before verbally releasing him from the oath. He was able to drop the plate and his headache went away. That done, my real oaths were going to be a bit more bite to them than a headache.

Now that the oath was tested and working, I got to creating the most important thing for my plan... a sign. How else would people know I could sell magical weapons. I guess that wasn't true, I didn't actually have any weapons to sell. Martin had sold them all to get funds for the house project. I changed the phrasing to say magical enchantments instead.

"Check it out," I said, turning the sign towards Martin, who was relaxing on the couch.

He whistled appreciatively. "You should add first enchantment free, that way it brings people in quickly."

"Ha, that's perfect," I turned the sign around and painted the words on the sign. It looked half-assed but it would work. I quickly went outside and flew up to place the sign on the roof over the porch.

Now I only needed to wait until morning. But first, some sleep.