We quickly get ushered into the Sheriff's office by the sheriff as they do indeed hold a grudge.

“Grant Smith,” Jackson says cooly, leaning back in his chair and mustering both of us. “I didn’t expect you to show your face here after last time.” I am honestly impressed that he remembers my name.

Kara looks over to me with a raised eyebrow. “I’ve never heard that story but I can assume what happened.”

I just sigh and remain turned to Jackson. “I didn’t plan on it but I ran into some trouble,” I say. “Sorry for last time.”

“More trouble than Idanu chasing you?” he asks rhetorically, “ I highly doubt it. What did you get yourself into?”

I catch him up on what happened, leaving out the entire interactions with the Death deities and reframing the murder of an entire village as me taking care of a Monster infestation. I don't want everyone to know about them and still regret that I didn’t get Idanu in the end.

He soaks it all in, silently listening. “Okay. The Dunecrawler nest would explain why all of the Stokes are staying in the city instead of their barracks. Natalie will be relieved once you take care of it and the Stokes stop visiting The Open Dress, you should probably visit her and see if she has another job for you.”

“Yeah,” I agree, “ We still have two days before we are supposed to show up at the mine so I might go around and check up on people.” I only ever interacted with very few people in this town but I don’t want to admit that openly.

“Sure,” he says, “I can’t fine you for last time because it wasn't technically you killing them but I will take you down if Idanu shows up again and kills someone else. Do you even know how many people it killed last time?”

“...no,” I admit.

“It killed a dozen people while walking through the town, searching for you,” he points out.

Someone else bursts into the sheriff's office with a complaint. Kara and I quickly excuse ourselves, leaving Jackson to his worst nightmare, work. I am really glad about it, wouldn’t want to talk about the bereaved or get dragged into something.

“Who do you want to visit first?” Kara asks as we stroll through the market, exploring the different shops and slowly making our way to the Inn I stayed at last time.

“About that,” I say, “I kind of lied about that. I only really talked with Natalie and the Sheriff and I don’t think she will want to see me either way.” I hope Idanu didn't kill anyone she knows.

She nods sagely as she answers “That makes sense, you aren’t exactly the most social person I know.”

“Aww,” a familiar voice coos from the side. Natalie is leaning against the wall of The Open Dress, having a smoke with two of her employees. “I wouldn’t say that he is asocial but he does strike me as a heartbreaker.”

“Heartbreaker?” snorts Kara. “Yeah, right!”

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“Hey!” I protest, joining the three.

Natalie takes a long drag from her cigar. “Ignore her, I think she is just jealous. Back here for another Bounty?”

Kara looks over to me incredulously “Jealous? Why would I be jealous?”

“Why do I have to get a bounty to visit you? I can visit just because I want to see one of my old friends again!” I defend myself. Why does everyone think I never check up on people?

Probably because I never did, even when I figured out how to keep Idanu away from major settlements I kept on the move and never interacted much with people outside of bounties.

Natalie and Kara just look at me unimpressed until I relent “Yeah, we have a bounty here to eradicate the Dunecrawlers in the mine.”

“That makes sense,” Natalie says. The two other girls excuse themselves and leave, going back to work while she extinguishes the rest of her cigar, sighing “And here I thought you had reconsidered my offer. Take care of him, will you?”

Kara leans onto my shoulder and answers her “Of course, he’ll be useless down there anyway so I will have to do the bulk of the work. We will be fine.”

I squirm out from under her and glare at her before reassuring Natalie “We’ll be fine. I have a new pair of revolvers that should work in the mines without detonating any firegems and automatically recocks the hammer using the recoil. I am quite interested in how the ejector interacts with [Rapid Shot] because I might have to go back to six-shooters.”

“Alright, Alright,” she says, raising her hands. “I get it. Just make sure to visit us after you’re done, there is someone who wants to meet you.”

“Okay,” I answer simply, caught off guard by someone seeking me out. I don’t know what they want from me If it’s one of Natalie's employees but I am definitely intrigued. I can’t remember anyone else than Natalie and Jackson I heavily interacted with so it has to be one of their acquaintances.

She gives me a few seconds to continue before turning around to leave, returning to work with a wave.

“What now?” Kara asks, turning to me. “We’ve got two days and I refuse to believe that you can work on the revolvers still. ”

I let a grin spread on my face as I continue walking towards our destination. “I could work out some way to include a blast gem firing pin. I opted against it earlier but I can probably make it work with the two extra days.”

She groans and stomps after me, suggesting “We could also take the two days off and decompress for once.”

“We already decompressed in Brightgate and we don’t know where Idanu is,” I argue. I’d rather not meet Idanu while in the mines although the Dunecrawler’s poison might actually help against his power depending on how much mana he has but I’d have to hit him first with a special bullet or get them to attack him.

She slaps my shoulder before answering “Brightgate was weeks ago! You aren’t seriously wanting to travel months at a time with no breaks?”

“Uhm…” I did kind of get into a routine of that but doesn’t the week of Crafting count as a break for her? She did run after me in fear of the Range Inhibitor activating so I guess she couldn’t relax much. “Alright, you can take the two days to relax, I’ll probably stay in my room and tinker with runes.”

“Do you do anything other than work?” she asks incredulously. “I can understand being prepared but you don’t need all of this just for that.”

I make a non-commital noise but I can instantly see that she isn’t convinced so I follow it with an explanation “I dislike being unoccupied, it’s not good for me.”

She looks over at me with a complicated expression but thankfully doesn’t press the issue, drifting away from any important topic to inane chatter while we walk to the inn.

I spend the next two days not exactly locked in my room but staying in it for the majority, tinkering with runes while Kara periodically stops by to check up on me. I manage to find a new rune that induces a shock when activated which gets saved into the Library but it currently only shocks the one activating and powering it, me, but I think I can modify it given time.