Bee spent the next week training with Buck.

They sparred often, sometimes with weapons but mostly without. She got a little better at predicting and dodging his attacks in that time, but never once managed to land a hit on him. She had a feeling he hadn’t even exhausted his bag of tricks to use against her.

He would also deliver lessons on the various tenets of pit fighting. These lessons were of varying usefulness, as many of them were centered around how to put on a good show and please the crowd. She understood why that would be important to an Entertainer, but it held little importance to her.

They also worked on a strategy for her to use during the fight. Since they wouldn’t find out who her opponent was until the day of, they focused on developing a general game plan that would work for most matchups.

When she wasn't doing any of that, she worked out on her own, going as heavy as possible in the hopes of leveling up at least once before the fight. She used large rocks as weights in tandem with bodyweight exercises, working her body ragged each night and relying on healing potions and her Healing Factor to restore her enough to repeat the process the next day.

It was an addictive cycle. In her previous life, she had been forced to pace her workouts to avoid overtraining and adjust her exercises to accommodate for any injuries that cropped up. Now she didn’t have to worry about any of that. She could push herself until she felt like she was one breath away from dying every single day with the knowledge that it would only make her stronger.

Will spent almost all of his time cooped up in the workshop. Apparently, he was cooking up some special potions for her fight, since she would be allowed to take one between each round. She usually only saw him before bed as he took his meals in the workshop, and both of them were far too worn out to even attempt anything intimate. They would go to bed every night in each other’s arms and fall asleep almost the same instant their heads hit the pillows.

Two nights before the fight, her work paid off. She reached Level 4, giving her 4 extra attribute points, and she allocated them all into Strength. This put her at 7 Strength, and the difference in her output was immediately apparent. Her body swelled with new mass

She felt dangerous.

The day before the fight was a rest day so that she could completely recover and be in peak shape for the fight. That evening, everyone gathered around the living area to have dinner. For some reason, Nix had gotten into the habit of cooking every day. Even Will was there for the first time in days.

He looked terrible—eyes sunken, lips dry, his tunic stained with sweat. He only took small bites of stew, and looked like he had to force himself to swallow even that much.

Bee had been too preoccupied to notice his condition before, and her stomach knotted with guilt.

“Are you sick?” she asked, reaching across the table for his hand. He felt cold. “Have you been working too much?”

Will’s lips twitched into a wan smile. “It’s n—”

“If you say ‘nothing’ I will break your fucking nose, William. What’s wrong with you?”

“Sorry. I don’t know why I lie about these things.” He glanced around the table at everyone, then down at his plate.

“Making the potions wears him out,” Mongrel supplied helpfully, talking around a mouthful of food.

“Yeah. It’s because of how my build works—there’s nothing to be done about it, I just need to rest for a little while.”

Bee didn’t really understand. “Yeah, but… why would it make you like this? You’re looking less like Cancer Ward Will and more like Open Casket Will.”

He gave a tired chuckle at that and stirred his stew around with his spoon. “It’s this skill I have, Dash of Love. It lets me put a little bit of myself into my potions. My essence, or life force, or…” He trailed off, losing focus.

“I don’t think he nuts in the potions, but you can’t be sure,” Mongrel grumbled. “Whenever he starts talking about his ‘essence’, I get nervous.”

Bee punched Mongrel on the arm hard enough to make him flinch with an offended hiss. “Mongrel, shut up.”

Will cleared his throat. “Anyway, using Dash of Love makes the potions stronger, and it means I’m more likely to create higher tier potions, so I’ve invested a lot into it. I’ve taken a few advancements for it, and my divine vow makes it so I can put even more of myself into Dash of Love.

“So when I go all out brewing the crazier potions like I’m doing now, it takes a lot out of me, that’s all. I’ll take it easy for a few days, and after that I’ll be fine. Besides, it was worth it.” He turned up his arm and tapped a thirteenth AP crystal with the back of his spoon. “I thought I’d completely plateaued, but it’s because I pushed myself that little bit extra.”

Bee wasn’t sure how to feel. Guilt and worry and pride got all wrapped up in a confusing tangle inside of her. Was this how Will felt when she insisted on doing something stupid?

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Maybe I should try to be more considerate of him in the future, so I don’t turn him gray-haired.

“There’s something else, too.” Despite his raggedness, Will looked pleased with himself.

He pulled out a small potion bottle and held it up to the candlelight. Unlike his other potions, this one came in a prismatic glass bottle that sparkled like diamond. The liquid inside it was pale and milky, and there was barely a mouthful of the stuff.

“Oh, shit,” Mongrel said. “You did it?”

Will nodded with a grin that split his cracked lips open. “I did.” He shook the bottle, sloshing around the liquid inside. “It’s an elixir—the pinnacle of alchemy. They give permanent positive effects. I’ve only managed an elixir once before, so it’s a pretty big achievement for me.”

“What does it do?” Bee asked.

“I don’t know yet. My Identify skill isn’t high enough to work on elixirs, so I’ll need to take it to someone in the city to have it identified. With any luck, it’ll be one you can use before your fight.”

“You’re giving it to me?”

“Of course—if it’s something useful to you. But I’ll give it to whoever gets the most use out of it.”

“Here’s hoping for an elixir of fellowship,” Mongrel said with an evil glint in his eye, a look perfectly replicated by Number Five, who was clinging to his shoulder.

Will sighed. “I never should have told you about that one.” Clarifying, he added: “It’s an elixir that only works on familiars. Personally, I hope it’s an elixir of power so that we can abuse your double attribute gain.”

At that moment, Bee found herself feeling very blessed.

He always works so hard for me.

She would make him proud.

*****

Everyone came along on the trip to Sheerhome. That included Nix, who had entered a far more human shape. She had retracted her spines and horns, and had even gone so far as to wear a whole outfit of proper human clothes, an absolutely mindblowing development. No one knew what had gotten into her, but Will looked very concerned by it.

Buck had used the Illusion skill on himself to alter his face, making him look so chiseled and handsome that it was mostly off-putting.

The fighting pits were dotted around the city in various locations, but the one they were bound for was in the northern part of the city, near the palisades. It was called the Furnace, and as it turned out it actually was a literal pit—a large circular hole in the earth bordered by logs to reinforce the structure. The spectators would watch from up above on the ground level, and several dozen people were already loitering around by the time Bee got there, with bookmakers paying out the winners of the previous bout.

The smell of sweat and smoke and blood hung heavy in the air, clinging to Bee’s skin. For some reason, she liked it, and it sent a shiver of excitement down her spine.

Will went off to get his elixir identified while Bee and Buck went into a nearby tent reserved for fighters. There they met an odd, rotund man with a perfectly bald head whose skin shone like gold, reminiscent of a living statue. He was shrouded in a gold-threaded robe, too, giving him a positively blinding appearance. Apart from his bejeweled rings and necklaces, everything about him was gold.

Bee assumed that maybe he had used Ideal Self to achieve his golden skin, but without Will to lecture her about the topic she had no way to be sure. His sheet showed that he was a Level 8 Artisan.

“This is the girl?” the man asked as he stepped up to Bee, barely reaching up to her chest.

“This is the girl,” Buck confirmed. “Fumble Bee, this is Freddie Glutton, the ringmaster. Freddie, this is Bee. She’s Cancer Ward Will’s new thing, if you remember.”

Freddie grasped her by the jaw, tilting her face back and forth as though she were a horse. “Yes, they’ll like you, I think. A little plain, but they’re always excited to see a woman fight. Gets ‘em nice and hard.”

Charming.

The ringmaster went over the details with her. The match would be fought using the standard rules, and adhere to the Level 1-5 bracket as agreed upon. She would get 2 500 graces if she won and 500 if she lost. She was finally given the name of her opponent, as well—someone named Tryhard Henke.

Buck laughed when he heard the name. “He’s still doing this? Damn, that takes me back.”

“You know him?” Bee asked.

“Sure. I’m gonna be honest kid, that’s just about the worst pull you could have gotten.”

“Why?”

“He’s a weenie stomper. It means he’s taken a really powerful low-level build that throws aside any leveling viability. Basically, he wants to stay at Level 5 forever so he can keep on beating other low-level fighters in the pits and rake home all that cash.”

“Got it.”

“He’s a Level 5 Jeweler, and his build is focused around this soulbound ring he has—the Night’s Eye. It’s, uh…” Buck scratched at his head. “So, basically it works like this. Hmm...”

A long, rambling explanation followed, He wasn’t as concise of a lecturer as Will, and it was clear that he barely had any idea what he was talking about.

From what Bee could glean out of it, the ruby set into the ring was enchanted with Chill, Tryhard being a Jeweler. Then he’d soulbound it, further increasing its power, and taken a divine vow to make it even stronger. Supposedly, he might have even made a deal with a demon to empower the ring.

Basically, she didn’t want to end up on the wrong end of that thing.

Apparently it worked like a melee weapon, triggering on contact with an enemy. Even though weapons weren’t allowed, the ring technically counted as an ‘accessory’, so it skirted around the rules that way.

“Best you can do is play it safe,” Buck said. “Just like we talked about. Wear him down, wait for a solid opening, and don’t let him tag you. If you can find a way to disable the arm that has the Night’s Eye, that’s probably a good way to go.”

Will returned just before she was set to enter the ring. His expression was black as night.

“It’s a fucking elixir of fellowship,” he growled.

Well. So much for that.

She probably could have used the boost, too, considering what she was up against.

At least Mongrel would be happy.