“A terrible mistake?” Ike asked.

She punched his shoulder. “We’ve done it in the wrong order again! We need to raid the treasury first, then help the inhabitants.”

Ike snorted. “You already raided it a little, right?”

“I mean a real raiding. I just did a cursory look, and then played around in the gold a lot,” Wisp said.

“But there’s no chance we’ll find it before we take out Lord Nors,” Ike pointed out.

“Find it again. Ugh. I should’ve truly raided it the first time,” Wisp complained, tilting her head toward the sky in regret.

“Well, we didn’t. Sorry, Shopkeep,” Ike called toward the other man.

“No, no. It’s quite fine,” Shopkeep said with a business smile.

“But we’ve struck a deal now, so we do get to raid the treasury, even though we missed out on the first time,” Ike pointed out.

“Right, yeah. I just don’t like depending on this human trust bullshit,” Wisp complained.

“It’s not bullshit. It’s how societies operate,” the Shopkeep patiently explained.

“How is it not? All you need to do is change your mind, and we’re fucked,” Wisp pointed out.

The Shopkeep smiled. He raised a single finger and shook it slightly. “You’re thinking of this wrong, my monstrous friend. You see, this isn’t mere trust. It’s an investment.”

“Huh?” Wisp tilted her head.

He nodded. “You see, at this moment, I’m investing my treasure in you. In return, you give me control of my city once more—an investment in kind. A fair trade. In the future, you two will remember me fondly as a man who pays my debts. When you grow stronger, you might think of my name when it comes time to sell a precious item you no longer need. Even if it’s a hundred years, I’m willing to wait for that day. And when it comes, I will hold the auction. Once more, you will invest your trust in me. In return, I will obtain a price beyond anything you could obtain on your own negotiations. I will receive a fine cut, as sales commission, and you, after the sale, will still walk away with more money than you could have obtained alone. As we grow closer and continue to trust and invest in one another, we will both receive exponentially increasing benefits. The small benefit I would obtain by lying to or betraying you now is completely outpaced by the future benefits I receive by fulfilling our promise.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“And what if we die? Or we forget about you and never look back?” Wisp asked.

The shopkeep spread his hands. “Then I will have still received the benefits of our initial interaction, and so will you. I lose nothing, and stand to gain much. It is a small gamble, but one I am willing to make.”

Wisp frowned. She looked at Ike. “Why do I suddenly feel like we’re losing this exchange?”

Ike laughed. “Not everything is about winning and losing.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. At the end of the day, someone eats, and someone else gets eaten,” Wisp said. She waved her hand. “Enough talk. Let’s go get our treasure.”

“Think about it this way. We’re gaining way more than we did from that last city we saved,” Ike pointed out.

Wisp twisted her lips and shrugged. “Arguably. No Unique skills, so it’s hard to say for sure.”

“Are Unique skills that precious?” Ike asked.

Wisp snorted. She gave him a look. “Are they not, where you’re from?”

“No, no. They are. I just. You know. Never had a proper chance to take stock of the economy,” Ike said, waving his hands. I definitely shouldn’t mention that I can just make more Unique skills from Lightning Dash.

I should try messing with my other Unique skills, too.

“They are, but not immeasurably so. There was a lot of gold in that room. It might be worth more. Depending on how much we have to leave for this loser.” She threw a spool of thread upward. It soared into the sky, gleaming bright red the whole way. It stuck to the ceiling, where the hole remained.

Ike squinted. “Did Lord Nors not bother to close that?”

“I bet he’s sitting right at the top, waiting for us to pop up so he can cut our necks,” Wisp grumbled. She tugged the thread, then offered her hand to Ike. “Let’s go beat him up, so we can get our treasure.”

“On it.” Ike clung on. As Wisp hauled him hand-over-hand into the sky, he cast Ice Armor on both of them. To his surprise, the ice was thicker and more flexible at the same time. He checked it, peering at the cross section. The armor had layered itself automatically, with ten distinct levels of ice stacked up.

He raised his brows. Is that because I multicast it so much that it became part of the skill to multicast itself? Or is it a Rank 3 thing? Either way, that’s handy. He cast a second layer, and another ten layers of ice accumulated on him and Wisp.

As they reached the top, Ike gestured for Wisp to slow. He leaned out, then in, swinging the thread back and forth to get a variety of angles on the castle above the floor. On his fourth swing, he found Lord Nors. The man stood just out of sight. His eyes locked onto the hole, and his sword hovered close, ready to dart in at the sign of anything crawling out.

“He’s right there, just like you guessed,” Ike whispered.

Wisp nodded. “One sword, still?”

“Only one. You thinking what I’m thinking?”

She grinned. “On three.”

Ike took a deep breath. Letting go of Wisp, he grasped the thread himself. “One. Two.”