The broken weapon at the general store proved to be the key to what Ben was looking for. His mind kept wandering back to it. Rust could be cleaned or scrubbed, the cracked wooden stock replaced, and the worn gears replaced. If he couldn't manage it himself, he knew someone who could. The first step was buying a bottle of whiskey from the Inn. The innkeeper looked at the two bottles of wine Ben had already drank, showing his displeasure at the thought of mixing wine with whiskey. Ben assured him that he wasn't drinking it himself, it was a present for a friend. Bottle in hand, he purchased the damaged x-bow from the general store and went to see Jorges, the smith, and his apprentice, Miriam. The smithy was simply a roof over an area of ground cleared of anything flammable. The forges to heat metal couldn't operate in the rain, and the open sides of the smithy conducted heat away from the workers.

"For me? You know we won't turn down a good drink, but I wonder what the true cost might be."

Miriam found three crude wooden mugs and poured shots. "Fuel for the fire!"

Ben nodded and smiled. "A small project. I doubt my hands have the smithing skill they once had, but I know what I need." He produced the worn gears. Jorges looked at them. "Easy to do. I can hammer out a rough blank and file the teeth. Should have them done by the time you've designed my stoves and fireplaces."

"Excuse me?" That was the first Ben had heard of the jobs."

Jorges pointed to a drafting table with sheets of parchment and charcoal for drawing. "I don't want open hearths in the new building. That's a fire waiting to happen. I'd rather have small stoves made of metal. I trust metal. I want something similar to the early Franklin stoves. I recall later modifications to the flues and baffles improved them, but I've never made one myself."

"And you assume I know?"

"No assuming to it. I used to watch some of the productions you were in. I saw 'Young Franklin at Sea', 'Captain Franklin in the Pirate Isles,' and 'Franklin's Revenge!' In all three series, you had a cast iron stove in the Captain's cabin. The scuttlebutt was that you invented or designed all the sill inventions you used in the shows. A simple stove should be easy for you to design. We'll trade the work to fix your weapon for the stove template I need to heat the new place."

"Ah, a trade. And the whiskey I brought to bribe you?"

Miriam handed him a cup, "We drink it together to seal the deal."

They touched mugs and got to work, Ben trying to remember the correct shape for the curving baffles that kept the smoke flowing through the stove and flu, and Jorges hammering a piece of his best iron flat to cut out the gears. The work on the stove went quickly, once he put his mind to it. He started with the modified stuff created by David Rittenhouse, a contemporary of old Ben. Ben's design didn't work when the flu was hot, but smoke filled the room while it was warming up, like any fireplace with a bad chimney. Rittenhouse fixed the issue and Ben was tweaking the design even more. When that was done, he got to work on the broken hand x-bow.

Immediately, he found another problem and the reason it was broken. Cocking the weapon after a shot required a small crank. The crank turned a gear that connected to a screw drive that turned another gear to cocked the weapon and drew back the wire. It was overly complicated and put too much torque on the mechanism, which had bent the gears and ruined it. Ben got rid of the screw drive and one gear, then moved the cocking gear to where the wrench's force was transmitted directly where it needed to be to cock the weapon. Less force required, less wear, and fewer broken x-bows. By the time Jorges was done, he'd made a new wooden handle and had what he needed to fully rebuild the weapon.

Jorges looked at the stove designs, and Ben went over the details of the curving flues that drew more heat from the smoke as it wound a path to the chimney. "These look good. I'll get one made and test it out. If there are problems, we'll figure them out." Ben retreated back to his workbench and got to work cleaning and oiling the rest of the parts and doing the final assembly. Loading a bolt, he aimed at a haybale and pulled the trigger. The bolt went through the hay and stuck into the side of a stall. An irate bray from the Donkey let him know he'd disturbed her nap. Before he could grab an apple to appease her, he got a message.

[Skill: Inventor (INT) is now available to you.

One of your ancestors left his mark upon the world with the mechanisms or magi-tech that they created and you seem to have inherited the knack. You have two options if you wish to gain this skill.

1. Pay the cost of 5 Enhancement points and gain the skill: Inventor as a secondary skill.

2. Walk the path of your ancestors and gain Inventor as a primary skill as part of your Heritage.

Accepting this Heritage will open up the door to crafting inventions of your own and gaining a set of linked subskills. However, other doors will close. Choose wisely.

This Heritage is available to you. Do you accept?: Y/N?]

Ben sat back and considered the message. Buying the skill with Enhancement points was safe. Gaining it through his Heritage could have a downside. He could play it safe and talk to the others. Maybe even get some advice from Suzette’s friend, the alchemist. Or he could just take a chance and go with his gut. His gut said yes. So did the wine and the shot of whiskey.

"Yes."

[You have embraced the bloodline of your ancestors and now follow in their footsteps. Time to work on inventing a pair of Seven League Boots, because they took great strides! You have made choices that complete your paternal heritage.

The House of Franklin welcomes you back as a long-lost son. From this day forth you will be recorded in the Great Book of Franklin as Benjamin the 7th.

You have gained the Inventor Heritage.

You have learned the Inventor Skill as a Primary skill (INT).

You may gain the following crafting skills as sub-skills to Inventor. Subskills may not surpass the parent skill: Any type of metalsmithing. Any magi-tech crafting. Glass Blowing, wire and filament crafting, clockmaking, leather crafting, wood carving, locksmithing, chain crafting, sigil crafting, runic crafting, and tool crafting. Other skills will become available as knowledge increases. You may need prior training for some of these sub-skills, or a mentor. The number of crafting skills you may learn this way is equal to 3 plus your level as an inventor. Sub-skills may be learned with one year of study under a skilled master or they may also be purchased with Enhancement Points and learned through experimentation. ]

The House of Franklin? It seemed there was a House of Franklin in the game. Wasn't that just interesting as all hell? He'd have to look up the family if he could. Did they have family reunions?

Crafting was something Ben had dabbled with in other games. He wanted to commit more to crafting here. He didn't have a lot of choices right now for other skills and could devote his off hours to it. If he could craft gear and items to give himself and his group an edge, he'd feel like he was contributing more. He decided to celebrate and use some of his dwindling cash on a good dinner at the Inn.

After half a roasted chicken and boiled potatoes, he was ready to crunch numbers. He had 18 Enhancement Points to spend.

He could select three crafting skills to start. He needed to be careful, as he'd have to use those skills to create some type of invention to raise his skill and gain more options. He had a few ideas and selected leathercrafting, copper smithing, and woodcarving. The copper pieces he needed were going to be intricate, and he'd need levels in the skill so he paid three points to make it a Primary skill while leaving leather and wood crafting at tertiary. That took up 5 of his points. Magical Sense was a must-have for 2 more points. His thoughts on how to spend the next 11 points were interrupted by an overhead conversation from another table.

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

"...which is why Brandon wants to get all of us in town..."

"Yeah, and what about their hit squad?"

"...can handle them, what else is the brat good for?"

"...so, we just march up and take the place over? What about the lightning?"

" ...and we don't mess with it. She has a better plan..."

As much as he wanted to hear more, the Inn Keeper yelled, "Last call, and out with you all. Have a good night." Ben let the gentlemen move towards the door before he moved from his table. He got a look at them but recognized none of them. But he'd know them the next time he saw them.

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

"Stand and state your name or by all the gods of the Light I'll burn you where you stand." High Paladin Reeves was scowling at the shadow approaching him. His eyesight was getting very bad at night, so lighting up his hands with holy power helped him see into the gloom.

The shadow paused and then spoke. "Paladin-in-Training Sundiver, coming to relieve you, sir."

The light in Reeves's hands died down. "That's a good lad. Thank you, son. Once upon a time, when I was younger, staying up all night was easy - not so much anymore. Stay vigilant until dawn. There is some evil afoot, mark my words." And with that, the old paladin wandered off to his bedroll under the wagon a few feet away.

The junior paladin was not much impressed with his senior. The guy was blind as a bat, and when he rolled out from under the wagon they were guarding, he freaked out. Probably half asleep, which is what Sundiver planned to be. This glorious campaign to the north was sheer bullshit. He and the guys were logging in constantly to do this quest, and mostly just getting wagons unstuck from mud. If he didn't need to finish the quest to get to Tier Two, he'd say to hell with it. Plus, they were headed to some ancient evil city from hell. He wanted to see that and maybe finally hit a dungeon.

There was a small noise near the front of the caravan, and a fire flared up. A voice nearby whispered at him. "We have wine and sausages grilling up at the front. Tell the next two wagons. The old farts are asleep."

That was much better! Something to warm them up and some interesting conversation made the night go faster. The seven players sat around the fire chatting, totally ignoring their training that being so near the fire made it impossible to see out into the dark.

Chartok was appalled at how easy this was. They weren't even paying attention to him! He was only ten feet away in a bush and they hadn't even said anything like "Hark, what’s that sound?" or "By my stars! I can smell evil out in the dark." Nope, the only thing these guys were smelling was sausage. They did smell good. He was tempted to just go in and steal one, but he needed to do this right. Every day he delayed their march was more experience!

He'd started subtly, practicing some of his new curses. Curse of Rain had ruined the roads. If they had bothered with scouts, they'd have noticed the rain was suspiciously only within a half mile of their caravan. Then he'd started using the Curse of Rot, trying to use just a little power. But one of the old ones was canny and smelled it out. So now he needed to up the stakes.

He considered several clever plans, but finally, the smell of sausage got to him. One of them was holding his sausage in his hand while sitting on a log. Chartok went for the snack, along with the baby paladin’s hand. The strike was totally unexpected causing a critical hit. Chartok's teeth were sharp, doing the damage of one of the great swords these idiots had leaning against the wagons.

Paladin-in-training William felt a tug on his hand and looked down at the blood spurting from his wrist. Chartok swallowed the sausage but spit out the hand, you never know where those things had been.

Following his snack he unleashed a Curse of Withering on one of them. It would come in handy, draining the victim’s life while healing him if he got hit. Then it was time to scamper off into the darkness and howl. Hopefully, they'd follow.

"Dammit, what the hell was that? It's killing Sundiver and Willie lost a hand."

"Shit! Get your sword and follow me. It must be a rabid wolf, it never would have come so near the fire otherwise. Danny, get a tourniquet on Willie, then catch up. We're going to kill this bastard and show the old farts how it's done."

And, if allowed to surround the wolf and unleash a couple of rounds of hits with big swords and holy fire, they certainly could. Which is why Chartok wasn't sticking around. He ran back into the darkness, making sure not to step on his own Glyphs of Hellfire. The glyphs went off a few seconds later, burning the little paladins and making them run faster; but not as fast as a wolf. Chartok kept retreating. He wasn't trying to kill them, although that was a bonus if it happened. He only needed some commotion to draw the old sleepy heads up to the fire. He was partially successful. Gabriel and most of the Paladins raced to the front of the camp. Three kept sleeping, being old and mostly deaf.

"I don't like this." Gabriel didn't know what was going on, but it felt wrong for a full-on assault by the dark forces. The young idiots were running around chasing something in the dark, but there was a distinct lack of battle. "Be alert, it's got to be a diversion. Wait, who's guarding the horses?"

The sound of two dozen horses screaming answered that question. The horses had been picketed at the back of the wagons. A better move would have been to put the wagons in a circle with the horses inside. But half of the caravan was brand new and the others hadn't been on a dangerous campaign in decades, if ever.

Chartok’s pack had increased greatly when he advanced to level six and Tier two. It had grown more when he hit level seven. Now with fifty undead wolves under his control, he had an army. And tonight his army had been ordered to attack the horses and mules as soon as they were unguarded. Wolves ran amongst the horses and mules needed to pull the wagons, tearing out picket lines, nipping at the heels of their prey, and letting loose blood-curdling howls. They weren't trying to kill the horses, just stampede them.

A few of the warhorses had fought wolves before, and a half dozen wolves had their skulls crushed by flashing hooves. But the bulk of the herd went thundering into the night. When that happened, all but Gabriel’s horse ran with them. Gabriel found his trusty mount finishing off a wounded wolf, alone in an empty and muddy field. He knew they'd lose days finding the horses, and some would never be found, food for the pack.

As Gabriel heard the powerful howl from the forest, it all came into focus. This was a monster of the dark sent to delay them. And it was smart. The rain, the rot, and now the attack on the horses. The wolf wasn't here to kill them, just keep them in place and whittle them down with exhaustion, delaying their march. The situation in the North was more serious than expected. From his pouch, he pulled a small wooden box. Inside the box was a fragile charm which he crushed, releasing the spell. Any Imperial Courier within the area would hear the call and respond. He needed reinforcements, and he needed them fast.

Meanwhile, in a small clearing where his pack was dining on horse meat, Chartok read the message the System sent to him.

[Congratulations! You have successfully delayed the Order of Paladins for over one week. You have earned 5 Enhancement points and experience attained level 8. Complete the following quests for more rewards.

Kill each of the Paladins-In-Training, making them fail their quest: 1/7

Ravage the countryside. Peasants ravaged: 0/100

Kill a full member of the Order of Paladins: 0/1

This is a repeatable quest. Collect them all.]

Chartok had his work cut out for him, but questing was so much fun.