“Nineteen and twenty… It’ll probably be coming out to more than that but the Mayor ain’t gonna take a loss on this, hard enough to get the town to buy it from ya in the first place. He’ll get ya the rest after it sells, minus a little for his troubles,” Sheriff Teddy said as he laid the last of the bills on the table.

  “Thank you, Sheriff,” Will Muttered.

  He was amazed… twenty whole dollars to his name… A bit more than that actually. He had no idea how much that was worth but he knew he could buy a bakarna if he wanted and then some. Even without a full appreciation of the value of the currency, Will could understand a bit about why it had historically taken so long for the world to switch over to digital currency. Besides the logistics and risks of having a currency that was technology dependent, it felt amazing to hold a wad of cash in your hands. It was far more satisfying than getting an update saying thirty credits had been transferred to his accounts.

  And it was because Sheriff Teddy wanted to keep the dungeon under wraps, it had led to a predicament for Will. He needed to sell what he’d gotten in order to afford to live but luckily a compromise was made. The town bought his carapaces with a few stipulations. For one, it was a one-time deal and for two, if he decided to go back down in the dungeon he had to hide his spoils somewhere. Out of town, under the floorboards of an abandoned house across the river, under a rock… It didn’t matter. As long as no one got wind of the dungeon. He also had to agree to join the posse if the Sheriff called on him but he’d already decided to do that. If it was bad enough that they needed armed men to protect the townsfolk, he wasn’t going to just sit back and do nothing.

  Oh, and he wasn’t allowed to talk to Kate Landry at all but that seemed to be directed at the two younger deputies and the Mayor. In fact, Teddy stopped just short of admitting that he knew she had a skill to get her way by saying that if they so much as saw her approaching they were to turn tail before she could get within fifty feet. If they needed to, as a last resort, they were all instructed to find him. Her charms apparently were lost on Teddy. They were lost on Will too but he didn’t mention his new skill.

  “Well, what’re ya standing around for. Think it’s fake?” Teddy asked and Will realized he’d been staring at the bills in his hand.

  “Ah, no, Sheriff. Again, thank you,” Will quickly answered and made his way out the door wondering what to spend it on. After a moment he rushed back in to reread the details of the bounty for the horse thief. Teddy ignored him and just pulled his book back out. He was nearing the end of his romance novel.

  Will wasn’t sure if he was ready to take on a potentially armed horse thief in the high desert but still memorized the information before donning his hat and heading back outside. He had it if he came across someone that matched the description. It’d be some pretty bad luck if he just let even more money than he currently had just walk away.

  “So… what to do now?” he asked himself. It was too late to go to the dungeon, he’d get there in plenty of time but he’d have to walk home in the dark. Instead he made it a point to get a few supplies and find a home for himself. He’d go back to the dungeon in the morning, start stocking up for when he actually could put the items and monster parts he recovered up for sale. It felt like insider trading in a way considering he was among the few that knew but it was his discovery, so why not.

  So he walked across the road to the general store to get what he needed before he searched for a place that wasn’t occupied and wasn’t run down.

  “Ah… welcome back. What can I get ya?” the shopkeeper recognized him immediately and watched him like a hawk as he grabbed a few food rations that would last longer but was more than stale bread.

  “Yeah… Also, do you have any lan- Oh, there they are. Never mind,” Will went to look at the various lighting devices along a wall. A group of them were just sitting out and looked like an old-timey lantern that ran off fuel, while two others that looked just as out dated were behind a case with what he recognized were a couple wands and various crystals.

  After inspecting them a bit further-

  “Huh,” Was all he could say. They were magic and ran off crystals. The two lanterns were enchanted but were powered by crystals. He could tell the first part just by looking at it with his [Analyze] skill like he did with the hotplate and there was a handy sign saying the light crystal was included, the mana crystal was not.

  It made him realize and then wonder, what all could magic manipulate. In order to create heat it needed to change the energy state of electrons within the atoms involved.

  “The crystals must provide the energy, otherwise the first law of thermodynamics would be shot. They’re batteries?” He mumbled to himself, rationalizing magic in his own way. “The enchantment changes the energy to heat and light.”

  After that the heat would transfer like normal, either through conduction, convection, or radiation. At least in the case of the hotplate.

  It was kind of exciting to Will because it gave him a bit of scope on what magic could potentially do. If it could manipulate waves of light, then all waves of light were potentially possible. From the frequencies used by radios in the broadcast band in the far infrared to pure gamma radiation in the far ultraviolet. Though it might depend on the light crystals too, he didn’t know enough.

  But even more exciting was what you could do with electrons. He wondered if the enchantment could be reversed on a hot plate. Taking heat from the air and fueling a mana crystal. It would both act as a cooler or air conditioner while also refueling a mana crystal… he wasn’t sure if that was possible to put energy back into a mana crystal but the throught crossed his mind.

  He also thought about the flow of electrons. Could he create electricity with-

  “Ahem… did you have any questions about the lanterns?” The shop keeper said from behind the counter, he looked annoyed. Will shook his head and grabbed one of the non magical ones and a bottle of lamp oil. He thought about matches but remembered his fire-starter wand. He’d have to take a closer look at that too.

  A couple minutes later, with a sack full of food and a lantern, with a sleeping bag tied to the outside, Will headed back out into the street to complete his next task. Pushing aside his musing about magic for the sake of finding a place to sleep at night. It was going to be slim pickings.

  He moved his way to the outskirts looking at the houses trying to determine if someone already lived there. Without signs like having the lights on or a well landscaped yard it was harder than he thought but eventually settled on a small stilt house of some kind built near the river. It looked sturdy enough at least.

  The next day Will woke up before the sun so much peaked over the horizon. The air of the house he’d commandeered was slightly chilled but he didn’t mind.

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  “Feel like I slept for half a day,” he said as he stretched his back only slightly aware that his statement was more than accurate with the 30 hour days. He felt refreshed at least, even if his back was a little sore from sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag. “Still beats a rock surrounded by giant scorpions.”

  It felt strange waking up in such a dimly lit place while being fully rested. The ship's day/night cycle was like clockwork because it was. Each shift had two bays, male and female, and an hour before duty time the lights would ramp up to blindly bright. That was how he was used to being woken up. Bright lights and a bunch of marines strutting about getting ready. Even as a Sergeant he lived with the rest of the men on his shift. He’d have to get promoted again before he could have gotten his own semi-private berthing.

  It also felt strange to wake up again and have nothing to do. Well, there were a few things he could do.

  “Breakfast, sh- Ugh…” He exclaimed and tried to wipe what was all over his sleeping bag off, which only made himself dirtier. He gave his hand a sniff and swore loudly before looking up.

  He hadn’t noticed it when he’d set himself up for the night but then again maybe they weren’t there. But he knew for a fact that the house was already occupied as a few dozen small winged mammals hung from the rafters above him. It dawned on him what was on his hand, “Uggh! Fucking bats.”

  His louder exclamation sent a few of them to flight and he ducked before quickly gathering his things and heading out the door…

  “A wash, shave, breakfast, the mine for a bit, then find a house that’s not covered in batshit. Jesus fucking christ,” he spit repeatedly after revising his plan, wondering how much crap he’d inhaled through the night. He added ‘find toothpaste’ to his list and packed away his belongings before putting on his holster outside of the newly reabandoned house. He hoped he could find one that was a bit better.

  An hour later he was still annoyed and on his way out of town again, deciding not to deal with the mine just yet and to just go hunting. Relax by killing something that doesn’t involve it attacking him or deep dark holes in the ground. Though as he got to the edge of town he stopped.

  Instead of going back across the river, he figured he would head out towards Lemar Ranch. There were obviously things to hunt out that way, the goblins weren’t surviving off what Lemar had told him they’d stolen. They had to have something else going for them and he couldn’t imagine they were the greatest hunters with what they had to work with.

  But as he left town he saw a column of smoke rising outside of town about a mile away. He looked around for someone to ask what it was about as it looked to be coming from the ranch but noticed that the town seemed empty.

  He hoofed it for the mile out there but again stopped at the sight. He’d found the townsfolk or at least some of them. In the distance, he could make out the Sheriff and his two deputies standing next to a half-charred house that was still smoking.

  Will finished the distance and walked up to the group.

  “Now, Sheriff. Do you really think we had anything to do with this?” Kate Landry stated as Will came to stand by a few other onlookers. “I only arrived just before you did. The smoke was pushing towards our ranch, we could smell it before you could see it, that’s all.”

  “A man’s dead, Miss Landry and it isn’t a secret that you and your kin have had issues with Mister Lemar,” Teddy stated the facts.

  “What exactly are you implying, Sheriff? We had our issues but there weren’t no reason to kill over it. In fact poor Mister Lemar owed my family a considerable amount of money. Wouldn’t be right to see him dead, wouldn’t make sense neither. I’ve never heard of a dead man paying up after all,” She responded with an innocent tone to her voice. Will felt something strange at the same time as most of the townsfolk around her started nodding their heads and muttering that she was making sense. It did make sense but Will looked around in a bit of surprise. The only person in town that was still looking at her and the people around her with suspicion was Sheriff Teddy. “In fact… Mister Tempest. It’s good to see you again, it’s a shame it’s under such horrible circumstances. You were out here at this here ranch just a day ago, were you not?”

  “Talking about implyin’. What are you getting at Miss Kate?” Teddy nearly snarled at her.

  “Mister Tempest, would you kindly remind the sheriff and let the good folk of Silverstead know what you were doing out here yesterday?” She smiled sweetly at him and he could feel the strange feeling again but unlike before he didn’t find himself completely dumbfounded by her and answering without thinking. He understood immediately what she was getting at.

  “He had a bounty up on some goblins that were camped out in a cave maybe two miles from here. I hunted them down,” he stated with a few murmmers from the townsfolk.

  “Did any of them survive?” She asked.

  “Yeah. Some ran for the hills,” His statement led to a series of gasps and a few harsh looks at him. He partially hoped that the man had been murdered by the Landry’s and not the goblins.

  “You see, Sheriff. There’s no ill intentions here despite any animosity. Poor Mister Lemar paid to have Goblins eradicated before they could do harm and some lived, though I don’t blame Mister Tempest. I know he doesn’t have a mount and wouldn’t be able to hunt them all down if they scattered… But what remains is, isn’t it far more likely that the goblins came back? They’re dumb little creatures but they’re also vindictive. If they knew Mister Tempest came from the ranch, then-” Kate stated but was cut off.

  “Are you saying it was goblins that caused Mister Landry to sign a new will yesterday?” The Sheriff asked. It obviously flustered a few of the Landry’s sitting behind Miss Kate but for her part she put on a politely confused look and smiled gently.

  “I’m afraid I don’t know anything about changing a will,” She stated simply.

  “He signed over his animals to Deathbane Ranch. Know anything about that?” Teddy said and waited for a reply.

  “Well, I’m sure he was just being prudent. Ensuring his debt was paid in the end. Maybe he was more worried about the goblins than he let on,” She said with the same smile on her face though Will began to realize something. She sounded like a politician. Every question answered vaguely, with hypothetical ideas, or with another question. She couldn’t commit to a single answer.

  “Very well. We’ll be gettin’ a pose together to hunt down these… goblins. Now if you all don’t mind, get back about your business,” His order was directed at everyone but he pointed at Will and gestured him to join him. Will had expected a bit longer before the posse was called up but complied.

  “Sheriff, We’ll be by once your done to collect our inheritance… Mister Tempest. Good to see you again, hopefully it will be a brighter mood next time,” Kate flashed him a smile and rode away without rising form her saddle, a group of her kin following behind.

  “Told ya it wasn’t them boss. Your skill-” Skunk spoke up when they were alone.

  “My Skill didn’t do shit but if you didn’t notice the way she worded it… She said she got here right before we did. She didn’t say anything about the rest of them… ‘Weren’t no reason to kill’… that’s a double negative… But we’ve got nothin’ We could tie the whole lot of them up and drag them to Fairpoint to see a judge and all that’s gonna happen is they’ll get thrown back out,” Teddy was mad and Will could understand why. He walked up to the house and looked down at the ground, activating his tracking skill looking for goblin tracks but there wasn’t a single one that his skill could pick out. All he could see was the two long claws from bakarna milling about a ways from the house, a bunch of boot and shoe prints, most running a line from the well to the house, and one set of Bakarna prints near the house itself…

  He looked at the last ones again. The rear prints were for sure hoofs but after looking at the front. They lacked the distinctive look that bakarna left. Mainly the two massive claws and what looked like a split hoof print.

  “What’d ya find?” Jakob walked up, almost stepping on the tracks.

  “Do the Landry’s have horses?” Will asked.

  “Pfft… Landry’s have horses? No, got two stables out there, every stall with bakarnas. They breed ‘em ya see,” Jakob laughed but then followed Will’s eyes downward, “We’ll I’ll be damned… Sheriff, I don’t think it were the Landry’s or them damn greenskins. Look!”

  Teddy and Skunk walked up and the Sheriff knelt down to look at the impressions in the hard soil.

  “Well, I'll be... Been shod… this wasn’t a wild horse…” Teddy stood back up and huffed before looking over the three of them. “You know how to ride Mister Tempest?”

  “Ah… No,” Will admitted and got the looks he expected from the deputies. How could someone live in a fantasy wild west world without knowing how to ride a meat eating demon horse…

  The Sheriff signaled them to follow him to the barn and swung the doors open, “Well bout time you learned how. As Sheriff, I hereby commandeer one of these Bakarna to be used temporarily for the sole purpose of justice. Mister Tempest, be quick and pick out a ride. We’ve got an outlaw to hunt.”