When we made it to Lloyd's house, Henry said to stand slightly behind him and don't say anything. This time, he really would do the talking. He knocked on the door.

The wife answered and Henry delivered the news. She fainted standing up and Henry had to catch her and safely lower her to the ground. She woke up a few minutes later and began to sob uncontrollably.

After she had finished crying enough so she would hear what he was saying, he told her we wanted to give her something as compensation for her loss, but we didn't want to do it in public in case someone saw and tried to rob them.

She led us into her home and we sat in chairs around a table.

"I can't take credit for this, because it would be dishonest. Jarnathan and Allison earned the money on their own and it was Jarnathan's idea to give the money to your family," Henry said.

"You two did? How?" Lloyd's wife, Jane said. She introduced herself earlier.

"We completed a dungeon," I said. "Now nobody touches the money. I have a magic ability to do with money and I don't want anything to interfere with it."

"Ok, I guess. Have you completed a dungeon? The two of you? What are you both S-rankers or something?" She smiled and laughed like that would be ridiculous.

Abigail and I exchanged a glance. "Actually, yeah," I said. "We're both brand new S-rankers. We grew strong enough as we completed the dungeon to defeat the boss."

"Wow! That's amazing! So how much did you make? I assume you sold some of the rewards," she said.

"I think it's better if I show you," I said.

I began pulling coin purses out of the bag. I pulled out 6, leaving 1 for me, Abigail, Henry, and Stu. Then I pushed all 6 bags across the table to Jane.

[Multiplied Generosity activated!]

The six bags of gold instantly turned into 18 bags of gold.

"What?" Jane said.

"What the hell just happened?" Henry said.

"No way," Stu said.

Abigail just grabbed my hand under the table and squeezed it while smiling at me.

"Yeah, uh, I have this ability where the first time I gift anyone money, it multiplies by 3. It's sort of a reward for doing a good deed," I said.

"Well, thank you! I honestly can't thank you enough. This is more money than Lloyd could've made for the rest of his life. This means a lot to us. We needed the help," she said.

"You're welcome. I'm happy to do it. Lloyd deserved better, but this is the best I could do," I said.

"And I thank you for it," she said.

"And again you're welcome," I said.

We said our goodbyes and walked behind the house. There I gave everyone their share of the money. I gave Henry a coin purse which turned into 3, I gave Stu 1 which also turned into 3 and I gave Abigail 2 which turned into 6.

"What about you?" Abigail said, looking sad.

"Well, if you feel it in your heart to give, I'll take 1 purse. The old me wouldn't have trusted anyone with his money, but I figured I would trust you and give you the remaining purses so that we could all have more. You can keep the remaining 5 though. I'll let you know if I need you to lend me any, but I think 1 will do me just fine," I said.

"Ok! Here you go!" Abigail gave me one of the purses.

I obviously couldn't game this too much, because it only worked the first time. But at least we got 2 extra coin purses out of the deal.

Now that all that was over with, it was time for the real work. I activated Soul Inquiry and asked Henry's soul a question.

'Do you know who runs the mercenary company?'

'No. I know a guy above me and that's it.' His soul said.

'What is his name and location?' I asked.

'His name is James. He operates out of a shady bar called Beer.' He said.

'The bar's name is Beer?' I asked.

'Yes.' He said.

I waited for him to elaborate but he didn't, and I remembered this was a question-and-answer situation.

"Henry, can we still work with you tomorrow?" I said.

"Of course! You make me rich on the first day, I'll bring you back as many times as you want," Henry said.

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"Good," I said. After what I planned to do tonight, I wasn't sure if there would be a job tomorrow. But I figured it would be good to keep up appearances.

"See you later, kid," Henry said, walking off.

"Goodbye," Stu said.

"Bye," I said, waving at both of them.

Once we were all alone, Abigail said, "What are you going to do?"

"Am I that obvious?" I said, taken aback.

"Not to others. Just to me," she said. "You barely contain your emotions. You should work on that if you plan to do the kinds of things I know you're planning to do."

"Duly noted," I said. "I'll try, but it's hard for me to see people get taken advantage of and do nothing about it."

Abigail put her arms around me and kissed me. "I know. That's why I'm telling you to be smart about it. Don't get caught."

"I'll do my best. See you later tonight or are you gonna go to bed?" I said.

"I'm not sure. Wake me up if I'm asleep when you get back," she said.

"Ok," I said. I kissed her and then started walking away, only to turn back around, come back, and say, "Wait, how do I get to Beer?"

"Straight down that street. Turn left at the angel statue, then keep going until some guy yells at you about stealing his balls, then take a right and it'll be on your left, 3 buildings down," she said, smiling at me.

"Thanks," I said. I walked down the street carrying my half-empty pack and maxed-out capacity coin purse.

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

"You stole my balls!" Said a man sitting on the corner of an intersection of the road. He didn't have any visible teeth, but I wasn't doubting the possibility of him having invisible teeth.

"Were they bouncy?" I said. "I love bouncy balls." I shouldn't have engaged. I wasn't trying to torture the guy. Sometimes my mouth just spoke before my mind had a chance to stop it.

The man looked at me up and down and said, "You're a weird fellow."

"Thank you for trying to keep me informed, but I was already aware of that," I said, and turned right and walked down the street.

I kept my eyes peeled for a sign that said "Beer," and I almost missed it. The sign didn't say Beer. It was just a sign with the image of a mug of beer painted on it. Interesting marketing. I mean if I was looking for a beer and just saw a sign of a beer, I'd probably wander in.

I opened the door, not knowing what to expect, but it wasn't what I found. The place was dead just a couple of hours after the sun went down. It should've been packed, but there were only a few people at the bar and one guy sitting in the corner shuffling cards. Must have been an off night.

I guessed the guy in the corner was probably James. He looked like the kind of guy who was advertising he was open for business, while also pretending like he wasn't. As I walked up, I realized he seemed to be shuffling something similar to tarot cards, but the symbols and names on the cards were nothing like any tarot cards I'd ever seen.

One was a black card with a big eye on it. Another one looked like a shriveled witch pointing to the left of the card. Then the last one was a picture of my face with glowing red eyes, and long red hair the color of ketchup.

I sat down across from him and didn't say anything. I felt like his game was to get you to say something first. So I didn't. He shuffled the cards a few times but left the three cards on the table facing me.

Several minutes passed by like that. I didn't say anything and just studied the cards. The artwork was incredible. This was when I noticed the writing describing the name of the card. The eye one was called 'The Eye', the witch one was called 'The Withered Witch', and the one with my face on it was called 'The Visage'. Hmm. Interesting.

"It's usually by this point where the other person says something, but since you seem to be mute, I'll speak first. What do you see?" He said.

"I see a picture of my face but a little different, a withered witch pointing, and a floating eye. Is there some variation to what people see? Are they magic cards?" I said.

"Some of them are. Some of them aren't. But I was asking you what you think the cards mean in relation to your life," he said. He was wearing a hood that obscured his face. Which wasn't cliche at all.

"I don't know. I'm not good at these interpretation things. The Visage makes me look crazy. Maybe it means I have a boiling rage inside me that may take over my mind if I'm not careful," I said.

"The withering witch just looks like my grandma telling me to take out the garbage. Like I needed her to point because I didn't know where the garbage went after years of living in her house."

"And the eye is kind of just staring at me. Maybe it means people are watching me. I don't know."

There was a silence, and then he said, "Wow. You are bad at this. The Visage on your left represents your past. The crazy rage face means you have unresolved issues with your past. That still make you angry even to this day."

"The Withering Witch, which is in the middle represents your present. She's telling you to choose a direction and stick with it. Decide where you want your life to go and work toward that."

"The Eye is on the right, so it represents your future. It can be interpreted similarly to how you interpreted it. It could mean that people will be watching you in the future, or looking for you."

"Interesting. That doesn't quite have anything to do with why I came here, but here are two gold coins for your trouble," I said. I pulled two coins out of my purse and slid them across the table.

"Thank you," he said. Pocketing the coins. "Then why are you here?"

"I came to ask you a few questions. What is your favorite fruit?" I said. I realized I could have questioned his soul during the initial silence, but the past was the past.

'Who are your employers?' I asked.

'The Red Tail Fox Company.' His soul said.

"What kind of question is that? The answer is obvious. Blueberries," he said.

"Why are you alone?"

'Where do they operate out of?' I asked.

'The building across from Sally's. Their office is on the top floor.'

"Because I don't have any friends," he said.

"What is the average weight of a fully grown red-tailed fox?"

'Is there a password to get in?'

'It's "vermillion".'

He stood up from the boot but the table was in the way of his legs, so he half stood up. "How did you hear that name?"

"You told me," I said. "Vermillion."

'Are you evil or have you committed evil acts upon the innocent?' I asked.

'No. I'm just a regular guy trying to make a living. I don't have any kids or family, but I do have a cat that I love very much. Her name is Sprinkles.'

Dear god. He's relatable. I can't kill him now. As soon as I said "vermillion", he stiffened. "Did I fail the test, sir?" He said.

"No. You're fine. I just didn't want to fight you, because I'm not in the mood to kill someone tonight," I said. I was lying. I was in the mood to kill someone tonight. Just not him.

"Oh, good thank you. I hope you liked your fortune, sir. Have a good night," he said, in a high-pitched voice.

"I will. Thank you. You as well," I said. I left Beer and began making my way toward Sally's.