I followed the trail of broken branches and footprints left by Mary for six hours. I could have caught up long ago; however, I am curious where she is going. Turning a bend, I see a tower in the distance "damn, I hoped she would lead me to a village." Sprinting forward, I quickly closed the distance between the two of us. Then, sending a fireball past her, I let it explode, knocking her back toward me and on her ass.

With a groan, Mary sat up and glared at me. "Just get it over with male. You already murdered my sister in cold blood, and probably Jessica too."

Nodding my head, I didn't deny killing her sister. "I may have killed your sister whom was getting ready to torture children much like you did all day. However, I did not kill Jessica I released her family and let them deal with her in whatever way the locals deal with traitors."

"Why don't you put down that magic staff and fight me? I'll show you how weak you males are. I see you have a mace lets have a fair fight." Mary asked with a malicious grin.

Shrugging, I place my staff back in my inventory and take out the massive sword I got from the minotaur. While it shrank down enough to use, it is still almost as tall as me and half as wide. "Alright, let's have a nice fair fight." Although I'm tempted to blast her with a fireball to see her face when she realizes I don't need the staff. After waving the sword around for a second to get them used to the weight, I Can't help but wonder; if I get sword mastery, will I be able to handle it better like the mace.

Mary, who is now standing, looks pissed. "How many stat points did you start with to not only cast spells but also swing that monstrosity?"

I only glanced up at her for a second. I don't think I should admit all my points were single-digit except charm initially. "Are you ready?"

Screaming like a crazy woman, Mary charged at me, swinging her sword down in a chop toward my head. I stood still, staring at it coming. It was moving at less than half the speed of the skeletons I fought on the fourth floor. Sidestepping, I had to ask. "How did you guys even get to the tenth floor if you're this weak? The skeleton boss on the third floor swung its sword faster than that, and it was a mage."

Scoffing at me, she said. "Who are you trying to fool? The first ten floors have been the same stupid molerats that slowly increase their difficulty and numbers."

"No, the first two floors had molerats, then on the third floor skeletons showed up and on the fourth floor most of the enemies were mages. Except the fifteen foot tall minotaur at the end." That beast was mostly immune to magic; I nearly died on that one. Then, of course, I died on the eighth to a slime.

"The fourth floor boss we faced was molerats, one with a machete and the other with a bow." Mary said, sounding confused.

Maybe the tower changed because I taught myself magic on the second floor, or was it the first? I can't remember. These stupidly long days are throwing me off. "Anyway, are you done I need the ten gold bounty from you?" Since I didn't get any when I blew up your sister, I assume you're connected somehow. Or maybe the system thinks you're both the same person.

With a yell, Mary lunged forward in an attempt to skewer me. I snorted as I sidestepped then swung my massive blade at her neck. Instead of cleaving her head off as I imagined in my head, I heard a dull thunk and a wet cracking sound. Then like a ragdoll, Mary was flung away, slamming into the trunk of a large tree.

After placing the oversized sword back in my inventory, I walked toward the fallen woman. I winced as I got closer realizing that she still breathed, albeit in short ragged breaths. Not wanting the woman to suffer any longer, I bent down, snatching the broadsword from Mary's limp hand. Not bad keeping a hold of her weapon even in that state. I thought just before plunging the sword through her heart.

Before I could try and snatch anything else from the body, it broke apart into motes of multicolored orbs. Some floated into my pocket while the rest drifted for a moment before they seemed to fold in on themselves and blink out of existence. I frowned when I noticed no pile of loot but remembered the stream of light entering my pocket.

Pulling my phone out, I saw a blinking notification.

You have defeated Climber -Mary/Barbera- Race - Human / Female

Acquired - 2g 1s 438c

Acquired - 1 berserker class crystal {ucommon, upgradable} Acquired new title - Bounty hunter {common, upgradable}

Only two gold? Didn't Martin say that the bounty increases by one per completed floor? After scanning my status screen for a moment, I glanced at my own bounty, curious if it went up after killing another climber. Instead of increasing, my bounty now sat at zero. Interesting, so I can reduce my bounty by collecting bounties. Not entirely sure I wouldn't rather have the gold instead. I might be able to buy five more inventory slots with the gold.

I took out the berserker class crystal and looked over it carefully but couldn't figure anything out. No system notifications appeared asking if I wanted to change my class. I am not interested in becoming a class as crude sounding as a berserker. Placing it back into the inventory, I shrugged. Maybe if I can find a city or town, I can learn more about this class system possibly even trade this crystal for one more fitting my fighting style.

Lastly, after reading the description, I winced and quickly accepted the prompt, asking if I wanted to equip the title, Bounty Hunter. While its description made it sound extremely useful, the upgradeable part has me worried. According to the description, when I have the title equipped, I can perceive if another bounty is within three hundred yards of myself. However, the fact that it is upgradable tells me that others can and probably do have a higher level of ability.

----------------------------------------

I was following Mary's trail back toward my broken tower when I heard a faint noise off in the distance. I had to stop and listen for several minutes before I heard it again. Intrigued, I began to make my way toward the noises carefully. After several minutes, I stopped again when I could hear faint voices. The voices sounded muffled like they were behind a barrier. At first, I figured they sounded that way because they were in a carriage; however, I still could not hear the sound of clomping hooves nor the sound of an engine.

Slowing down, I began closing in on the muffled voices; after a couple more minutes, I started picking up some words from one of them.

"I'm tellin' ya Vince my wards picked up some movement nearby.

"And I am telling you, Lutz, your crappy wards are probably sensing a wild hog. Remember last week when ya got in a tizzy over that toad?

"Hey, no reason to be that way, Vince that 'toad was a Toad King. If my wards hadn't seen it coming, we might have woken with bedrolls covered in slimy warty toads.

I could almost hear this Vince rolling his eyes as he spoke again. "Lutz, even if the toad did happen to wander into our camp, which is very unlikely; the Toad was barely at Lvl three, it could call at most ten frogs.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

I almost began laughing at the duo's banter but refrained as I circled the place I was sure they were camped. The strange thing was I still couldn't see them nor their camp. All I could see were more trees and undergrowth. After circling the spot several times, I decided to speak. "I hate to break it to you guys, but if you always talk this much, I have a feeling the Toad King would have no problem finding your camp."

The silence was my answer. When I was about to speak again, they beat me to it.

"Who are you actually? Never mind that come out where we can see you with your arms up." It was Vince who spoke. I recognized his voice from their constant chattering.

Lutz spoke up immediately. "See, Vince, didn't I say so my wards are not crappy."

I snorted at that but wasn't sure how to make myself more visible. "I apologize for the scare. I heard you while passing by didn't mean to alarm anybody. As for coming out into the open, not sure how much more visible I can get."

There was silence again, this time lasting longer. until finally, I heard a new voice, this time female. "Dammit, Lutz, did you mess up the illusion again. A head with long straight red hair appeared before me, floating in mid-air a second later. We both just stared at each other with wide eyes for several seconds before the rest of her came through. I immediately took a couple of steps back since she was far closer than I expected. It must be the illusion spell muffling their voices.

The redheaded female apparently got over her shock, and cooly looked me up and down. She had an arrow knocked in a bow made of some blue material the entire time she did. Although she didn't draw back the string, I felt if I made a wrong move, she could fire that thing faster than I could get to her even though we stood with less than ten feet between us.

That's not to say I stood there defenseless I had a fireball the size of a basketball spinning in a lazy circle around my forearm. I found that if the fireball moves slowly, it takes slightly less magic power to keep up. Maybe it's feeding on the oxygen as it moves instead of relying solely on my magic, I am not sure.

The woman watched my fireball for several seconds before holding her gaze with mine. I admit her bright green eyes slightly entranced me. Then she ever so slowly lowered her bow and placed her arrow into a quiver hanging at her waist. I relaxed aswell and reabsorbed the magic inside the fireball. I had to be careful when doing this because a tiny mishap and the stupid fireball would explode. Apparently, I am not immune to the explosion of my own fireball.

When the fireball had fully reabsorbed, the woman relaxed slightly, or at least her shoulders did. Her eyes never left me, and I could tell that she noticed every slight twitch of my muscles. Definitely not someone I should mess with, I decided and slowly held out a hand. "Names Wall pleasure to meetcha." I winced slightly when my southern accent came out. I thought I had beaten that habit, well not like I am dealing with some bigshot fortune five hundred company or slimy politician.

The redhead accepted my handshake, but I noticed the frown when she saw the specks of blood on my hands and clothes. "I am Milfiore, but everyone calls me Milly. Can I ask why you seem to be covered in blood and why you are traveling through these woods?"

I winced at her words, but I had no reason not to answer since she seemed like a decent person. "Well, I'll answer the second first, I live nearby in a small cabin. As for the first, I got into a fight with a couple of warriors torturing some family from a nearby village."

At my words, she gave a surprised gasp, and the other two men I heard talking came out of nowhere. Lutz looked annoyed while Vince frowned at me. Lutz was tall, I would guess seven and a half feet tall, with a narrow face and two buckteeth that gave him a rather comical appearance. He also had long golden hair that reached halfway down his back. He really needs a haircut. How on earth does he not get it tangled in every branch or shrub he walks by?

It took me a moment to realize he carried a small wand that looked like it would go perfectly with a pink princess costume from back home. On the other hand, Vince was just shy of six feet and nearly three-foot-wide. And all of that mass looked to be pure muscle. The guy is built like a tank. Unlike his ugly tall friend, this guy was handsome in an Arnold Schwarzenegger way without the makeup, of course. On his back hung a two-handed hammer that probably weighed more than his tall friend and the redheaded archer combined.

I held my hand out to them both. However, Lutz only scowled at my hand while Vince wrapped his shovel-like hand around my forearm, giving it a shake. After introducing ourselves, Lutz pushed to the front, speaking in an arrogant tone that immediately put me in a bad mood. While I may have grown up around arrogant rich kids, I never copied their attitudes. "The two warriors you fought were they woman, both carry broadswords and claim that all men should be no more than pets or some such garbage."

I didn't bother to answer the boy yes, boy. The closer they got, the more I could tell these three couldn't be more than eighteen at the oldest. Also, judging by the rough way they all speak, I have serious doubts that they come from a wealthy family. So that begs to reason why this boy thinks he can look down on me the way he does. Judging by his ill-fitting robe, I am fairly certain he is no fighter, so the illusion and wards they talked about most probably come from this guy.

Turning away from Lutz, I asked Milly since she seemed to be their group leader. "My turn to ask questions. what brings your group to this small section of the jungle?"

"How dare you ignore me? I a..." However, I didn't catch him because Vince grabbed him and yanked him back toward their camp.

In his strangely soft voice that didn't fit his he-man look, Vince spoke to Lutz. "Let Milly handle this; this is why we don't take you with us when we gather intel or supplies. It would help if you got it through that scrawny head of yours that your little illusions don't make you an arch magus. No! don't talk back. One of these days, that mouth of yours will get you killed, and more than likely, Milly and I will fall right behind you."

With an indifferent expression, I turned my attention back to Milly. When she saw my face, she cursed under her breath but shook her head before giving me a hard glare. When she spoke, her voice was cold. "I think you should answer Lutz's question."

Instead of answering her, I stared at her for several seconds before turning around and walking back into the woods. I could hear her shouting at me to stop, but I ignored her and moved on quickly. As soon as I lost sight of the archer, I began making a roundabout way back to my tower.

After thirty minutes, I stopped while listening. I frowned when I heard the unmistakable sound of heavy feet stomping through the underbrush. It would seem that they have some method to track me. Shrugging, I gave up on losing them and made a beeline for the tower and the safety of its shield. At the moment facing these kids would no doubt lead to my demise. Luckily while they seem powerful, they are still kids way out of their depths.

The moment I started dashing away, I heard the sound of Vince crashing through trees. I guess they discovered that I noticed them. I frowned as I left the woods, noticing two fresh graves where the psycho twins were torturing that family but other than that, I didn't react and stopped just inside the tower shield to await my uninvited guests.

The first to arrive was Vince, who came crashing out of the woods with various vines and other shrubbery dragging behind. What really caught my attention was that his eyes were closed, and he kept charging in my direction. I raised my eyebrow and watched as he slammed into the invisible barrier. I almost laughed when he bounced back, falling on his back with his eyes rolled back.

Milly ran out of the trees a few seconds later and stopped beside Vince before glaring at me. "What did you do to Vince" she demanded in an angry tone that was far cuter than I'm sure she meant it to be. I shrugged, looking away from her as Lutz sauntered out of the woods stopping in his tracks when he too noticed an unconscious Vince. Then his face turned beat red as he looked my way, and this time, I did laugh.

I looked between the both of them one last time before I waved and turned around to walk leisurely toward my cabin, completely ignoring the shouts and taunts coming from the two children. If they, too, tried to enter or attack the barrier, I had no idea since I could no longer see them once I entered the small woods surrounding the tower and my cabin.

Walking toward my cabin, I noticed that someone neatly placed the worktable and all the tools on the side, and a note left on the table caught my eye.

Dear nub, I respawned here, but you must be inside. I placed all the stuff piled against the tower, either inside or on this table. Good luck, maybe we will see each other down the road. John Henry 1870.

I stood in a daze, staring at the name so cool I wish I had been outside. Meeting John Henry would be way cooler than Martin. Well, assuming he is the same man from the books I've read. I really want to know if this version is from before or after the contest with the steam drill.

After reorganizing the worktable, I went inside. They set the forged plate inside a stone fireplace in the corner, and although I forgot to draw in windows, there is plenty of light to see by. The floor is a smooth stone with some cement for mortar, and the ceiling is several log trusses supporting the roof. Although the cabin is near identical to the one Dad and I built, everything fits together too snugly as if someone made it in a factory. I sat down against the back wall and dozed off.