I’d always wondered why important talks took place over dinner. I never had much cause to attend such functions back on Earth, but when I did, I could never remember how the food tasted, after. The nerves prevent you from tasting much of anything, which always made it seem like a waste. Especially with the sort of expensive-looking food the waiters were bringing out.

I didn’t even want to guess how much this dinner would cost. Or who would be paying for it.

Luckily, Aerion’s informant, a warrior who called herself Isolde, got straight to the point.

“What is it you wish to know?” she asked.

Aerion set down her fork, gracefully wiping her mouth with the tablecloth before replying. Unlike me, she seemed to be in her element.

“I’ll be frank,” Aerion said. “I am worried our mutual acquaintance may be behind the recent… events at the parade.”

Isolde, who’d maintained an easygoing smile until now, set her knife and fork down and stared at Aerion with a hard expression.

“That is a serious allegation. I assume you have proof?”

Aerion shook her head. “No proof. Just…” she slid the piece of paper over the table.

Isolde picked it up and scanned its contents. “A manifest of goods? I don’t understand.”

“I don’t either,” Aerion replied. “He wants me to deliver this to the Central Stamp Forge in secret by tomorrow.”

“The one operated by the Blacksmith’s Guild?” Isolde asked, raising a brow. “What does… I see. You think this could be a plot to frame the Guildmaster?”

“Possibly,” Aerion said, squirming in her chair. “As I said, I don’t have proof. Yet. I was hoping you’d know more. Has he been up to anything suspicious lately?”

Isolde fell silent for a moment. “I wouldn’t know about suspicious, but I did spot him sending one of his Boonworthy—a Divergence ranker—and I saw him clutching a similar piece of paper. Can’t say for certain if it’s the same or not, but you might start there.”

“The deadline is tomorrow,” Aerion muttered. “How in Dominion’s name are we going to do this?”

“This is about your collateral, isn’t it?” Isolde asked. “He put you up to this, holding your collateral as hostage.”

Aerion nodded.

“Can’t say I’m surprised,” Isolde said with a sigh.

“Where can we find this Boonworthy?” Aerion asked. “And what is his power?”

“I’ll give you the location of his home. You might already be too late, I don’t know. But you could at least try. As for his power, it’s strength. Physical strength. He’s a big man known to fight with his fists. I would not recommend getting into a tussle with him if at all possible.”

Strength, huh? I had to wonder if it was a full sixty points of Dominion, though. Even as a D Ranker… Plus, Aerion had more unspent stats. I gave her good odds if it came to that. It’d certainly be an interesting encounter.

“We will,” Aerion said, prompting Isolde to give me a once-over. “How much do I owe you for this information?” She reached into her robe to pull out her coin purse, but Isolde raised a hand to stop her.

“No need,” she said. “I do not wish to gain the ire of a god. Least of all Dominion. If Tarquin does have anything to do with this, I’d best leave immediately.”

Isolde looked genuinely spooked, and why wouldn’t she? What could a mortal do in the face of a god’s wrath?

“Thank you, Isolde,” Aerion said with a bow of her head. “Fear not. If this is his doing, we will speak well of you.”

“Thank you, Aerion.” A small smile crept up Isolde’s face. “I’d say May Dominion be with you, but in this case…”

Aerion nodded.

“Oh, and don’t worry about the payment,” Isolde said. She wiped her mouth with the tablecloth and rose from her chair. “It’s on me.”

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

After swinging by the inn to pick up my poleax, we headed out to the place Isolde described. The home was in one of the seedier parts of town, and we found it after only a few minutes of searching. A door at the end of a small street, sandwiched by two-story buildings on all sides.

“What now?” Aerion asked.

“What now indeed.”

Aerion looked at me incredulously. “You’re telling me you don’t have a plan?”

“No. I have several. Just trying to decide the one with the lowest likelihood of landing us in jail. Or worse—Tarquin finding out what we’re up to.”

Night had just fallen, and my hope was this Boonworthy would use the cover of darkness to plant his piece of paper.

We were making several assumptions, of course. That this guy’s mission was the same as Aerion’s—which seemed likely—and that he hadn’t already completed his task.

Nothing we could do about that, so we kept watch from a flat rooftop nearby. The nearby external staircase had given us a convenient vantage, and ever since, our eyes had been glued to the door, even as the sun dipped below the horizon, giving way to a sky full of stars and the cool night’s air.

“With [Reave], I stand a good chance of winning. I could—”

“You stand a chance of killing him,” I corrected. “Whether it’s a good chance or not, it’s hard to tell. And I’m pretty sure killing someone would land us in jail. Even if he is a criminal, it’s too risky.”

I’d had the same thought earlier, but risking murder for a pendant? No matter how valuable the thing was, this was going a step too far.

“Besides. I don’t think it’ll come to that,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“If we tail him to wherever he’s going, we can just catch him red-handed, can’t we? It’s after hours, which means he’ll be breaking in. Just like how you would’ve had to break into the Stamp forge.”

“Right. I see. We see him go in and call the guards.”

“Exactly. Then we’ll have good cause to chase him, and if the worst should happen… Well, at least the law would be on our side. At least, I’m guessing it would?” I asked, looking at the elf.

Aerion nodded. “Yes. Civilians may apprehend criminals in the process of committing a crime. They’re even encouraged to. If the fight turns lethal, you are well within your rights to use whatever means necessary to stop it.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Great. Wouldn’t have been nearly as cut and dry where I’m from, but that’s one problem solved.”

“So, I shouldn’t use [Reave]?” Aerion asked. She sounded both relieved and let-down at the thought.

“We’ll be in a dangerous situation,” I replied. “You should be prepared to use it if you need to. And I think now would be a good time to spend some of your free points. You hit your Dominion ceiling while we were out, didn’t you?”

“Nearly. I’ve 25 points available to spend. My Dominion stat sits at 23, while my Vigor is at 25 and my Wisdom is 10. Both Vigor and Wisdom are at their current limit.”

“What about Grace?” I asked.

“13. My limit is 17.”

Her Vigor and Wisdom were maxed out, leaving no room for growth. It was always a balancing act with this System. Allocating points to one stat deprived us of growth in another, but while it was tempting to make sure all stats always had growth potential, that was a mistake. It’d create an all-rounder, which, for Aerion, wasn’t optimal.

That was what the raw math said, anyway. Aerion was frightful about her Vigor, so I figured allocating some made sense. Even if was just for her peace of mind.

“I’d dump 20 into Dominion. Your Vigor is about the same as mine right now, so maybe put a couple into that, and the rest into Grace.”

“I thought you said to only spend points in Dominion, and possibly Wisdom once you figure out what it does?” Aerion asked, tilting her head.

“I did, and that’s the overall strategy that I think will work best for you. That said, you don’t want your other stats to hinder your full potential. You’re light and agile and move fast in combat, so investing a bit into Grace isn’t a terrible idea. We don’t want to get into a situation where you’re too slow to dodge or hit opponents, so we’ll sprinkle some points into relevant stats as needed.”

“Understood,” Aerion replied. “Done.”

“Great,” I said. “Actually, gimme a sec. I want to test something.”

I concentrated on sharing my info with her, and sure enough, a prompt popped up.

Do you wish to share your Status information with Aerion?

I noticed how it no longer called her a weapon. Had Cosmo changed that when he’d removed my ability to de-Initialize her? Whatever the reason, I was happy to see it.

Yes, I thought, and another screen came up.

Select information to share.

There was a whole slew of options, but I had nothing to hide. I shared everything.

“What is this?” Aerion asked, her eyes going wide.

“Information sharing. I figured it was about time we got to see each others’ stat screens. Too hard to keep track of all the numbers, otherwise.”

“Oh,” she said, biting her lip. “Very well.”

I put my hands up placatingly. “No need if you’re not comfortable. You can spell out every stat and its ceiling if you like. Just felt that would be tedious.”

“Indeed. You already know everything about my class. It makes little sense to keep it to myself. Just… I’m unused to sharing private details with others.”

“Fair,” I said. “Like I said, you don’t—”

Aerion is requesting to share Status information with you. Accept?

I did, and her stat screen popped up.

“Thanks,” I said, looking her in the eyes. “Means a lot to me.”

Aerion nodded.

I turned my attention to the stats hovering before me.

Points available: 0

Vigor: 25 (Max: 28)

Order: 8 (Max: 8)

Wisdom: 10 (Max: 10)

Passion: 2 (Max: 2)

Grace: 13 (Max: 19)

Cunning: 5 (Max: 5)

Dominion: 23 (Max: 56)

Current Stat Sum: 86

I whistled. Her Dominion ceiling was just absurd. When maxed out and combined with [Reave], she’d be an absolute monster.

I pulled up my own stats for comparison.

Vigor: 31 (Max: 31)

Order: 10 (Max: 11)

Wisdom: 19 (Max: 22)

Passion: 13 (Max: 29)

Grace: 16 (Max: 16)

Cunning: 17 (Max: 23)

Dominion: 25 (Max: 29)

Current Stat Sum: 131

Unlike Aerion, I very much was an all-rounder. Mostly because I had no control over what stats my Initialized gear bestowed. To specialize, I’d need far more armor and clothing than I currently had. Multiple sets, which I could then mix and match to synergize efficiently.

Once that happened, though, I could shift my stats to be as min-maxed as possible in just a few minutes. For Aerion, shifting her specialization might take weeks or months of dumping stat points. This was where [Initializer] really started to shine. Well, that and upleveling my party members to epic badass levels.

I took a look at my Essence Utilization, which sat at 163/190, and decided it was high time I Initialized the steel mace I’d picked up from Dominion’s Trial. I’d held off since I wasn’t very comfortable using the vicious-looking spiked maul, but I needed to get over my squeamishness. A weapon was a weapon. The goriness of the wounds it inflicted shouldn’t really matter to me. The opposite, really. Its brutality was an advantage.

I retrieved it from my inventory and Initialized it.

Spiked Steel Mace [Common]

This mace is decently constructed, using mid-grade steel. Originally designed for armored opponents, but against flesh? Hoo boy, you better prepare for a bloodbath. First we had Vlad the Impaler. Now we’ll have Greg the Butcherer. That’s not a real word. In case you were wondering.

Essence Cost: 6

Condition: 50/50

Abilities: Bleed [Foundation - 0]: As if this thing wasn’t gory enough on its own, now you can make the gruesome wounds you inflict bleed even more! Inhibits clotting in wounds, making them bleed for longer.

I grimaced.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing,” I said. “Just… Promise me you won’t freak out when I use this thing.”

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

Turns out hours of waiting will knock the tension right out of anyone—no matter the stakes. We waited and waited, and I was glad I’d asked us to bring along extra food.

Now I knew what hunters felt like, waiting in one spot, waiting for their prey. It sounded glorious, but the reality was much closer to mind-numbing monotony. It wasn’t like we could chit-chat either. We were trying to keep a low profile since we weren’t supposed to be on this rooftop.

It finally happened in the middle of the night, when the sky was filled with a gorgeous mosaic of unfamiliar stars. This world lacked a moon, so it got dark in an unlit alley like this one. So dark I missed the black silhouette that exited the door we’d been watching.

Aerion didn’t, though. She tugged on my robe. I nodded, and we were off.

Thankfully, the guy matched the description. He was big and bulky, and that was probably the only reason Aerion managed to notice him. We needed that, because the alleys and side roads he went through were nearly pitch-black, and I worried we’d lose him. Of course, it was that very same darkness that kept us hidden. Well, that and Aerion’s uncanny skill at darting through the streets without being seen.

She’d had practice with this. A lot of it. And I could guess why. From the bits and pieces she’d shared, I’d pieced together that she’d had a pretty rough childhood. It sounded like she’d lived out on the streets for years.

Which made me question how she knew so much about mechanical systems, but I shelved that thought.

Our prey seemed to have arrived at his destination, and it was nowhere I could’ve expected.

It wasn’t a factory. Or even a commercial building of any kind.

No, we were in a posh residential neighborhood near the center of town. A house which had a couple of extremely bored-looking City Guard posted at the front door.

And the Boonworthy was currently eyeing the backdoor to an especially opulent manor.

“Aerion. Get near the guards. I think we’re about to witness a break-in.”

She left swiftly and silently, while I snuck closer to Tarquin’s agent.

Let’s do this.