009 - THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION IS GRIND

The next morning Conrad was up with the sun, which meant well before the Seekers. Karina’s armor and equipment, still filthy from their dungeon run the day prior, were piled just inside his door where she had deposited them the night before. He picked up the bundle, with two tasks to work at before any of the others awoke.

The first was to test the limits of his range. Karina hadn’t commanded him to go out with Joy or Buck, and she hadn’t given him explicit boundaries. But she had given him boundaries the day before. Would those still apply?

He set off down the street from the Inn going as far as his feet would take him. She had said for him to stay within shouting distance, and he knew the woman could yell based on her performance in the dungeon the day before. She had also said a couple of blocks, but if he was playing the Merchant then exact wording mattered, and when people used the word “couple” they didn’t always mean exactly two. He often supplied customers with three, sometimes four or even five of an item when they requested “a couple” and was rarely asked to put any away.

It turned out in this instance his ideas and intentions let him travel about three and a half blocks. As he reached the limit his heart clenched up with deep, causeless anxiety, and his mind became consumed with the thought of heading back in case Karina couldn’t find him.

At first he turned right around, not having noticed the alien nature of the thoughts and feelings that had pushed their way into his head and heart. He found himself muttering, “Don’t wanna disappoint her. Karina is good,” and recoiled at the brazen lie, but it was in his head all the same. Insistent.

But once his head cleared again and he could think of what he was trying to do, he started nudging forward and watching the thoughts and the feelings spring into place as he reached his limit.

It wasn’t ideal, but it was a good radius if it extended in every direction - and since Conrad didn’t see why it shouldn’t and the magic seemed to work on his intentions and conceptions about what he was doing - this became his default and thus, the actual limit to his distance away from the Seekers he could move on his own.

With distances like this, he could run, train, and take on small tasks to earn XP without the Seekers ever really knowing, and if they called, he should hear them and he could come running. And if he couldn’t? Well he would have to see what happened.

He set off to the armorer to begin since the initial task of polishing Karina’s armor was supposed to be done before she had her breakfast. He greeted the man, Jim Hammer, who knew him from their occasional dealings over selling his items in Conrad’s parents’ shop.

“Polishing job, Jim,” Conrad said, glancing around the open shop where Jim was preparing for the day.

The blacksmith nodded, “Sure, I’ll get my apprentice on it. Should be done in an hour or so. Anything else I can help you with? Got a few new pieces I’m having trouble moving if the Border Zone is buying.”

“No, nothing like that,” Conrad said, feeling the mental compulsion to not mention anything about his situation to Jim for his parents to learn. He glanced around, “You have any scrap though? I’m thinking of trying my hand at crafting or tinkering. Thought I might fiddle a bit before buying better material.”

Jim chuckled with good humor, “Good lad! Never too late to start doing something with your hands.”

He motioned for Conrad to follow around to the side of his shop which shared a narrow alley with the building next door.

Down its length were various piles of refuse - broken crates and furniture, bent metal, torn up leather, and busted everything else. To most people it was trash. But at that moment, to Conrad? It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Almost giddy with vindictive pleasure over bending the rules of his contract he walked through the rows of garbage, selecting a bent plate here, a crate lid full of nails there, until he had all that he could carry.

“Plenty more where that came from if you find you need something else. Maybe drop by with what you’ve got and I can help you hone it into something worthwhile,” Jim offered.

“I’ll do that,” Conrad lied.

As much as he wanted to accept the offer, if Jim succeeded in helping him make anything halfway decent he was sure he’d either be obligated by magic to give it up or the Seekers would just directly take it from him. It was bizarre to think it, but there was no sense in risking spending what little time he had on something that might turn out to be decent. No, for this he was on his own, and the garbage he slapped together - ugly as it would be - was going to be a far cry better than going back into the dungeon practically unarmored.

He said his goodbye and resolved to spend the next hour looking over his haul in an alleyway near the Inn. He had some ideas but execution might be challenging. The plates he could probably slot into his own leather armor as reinforcement, maybe stitch them into pockets made of scrap, held together with some of the thread from the torn up pillow cushion he had found… the nails presented an interesting opportunity too and he yanked them free of the wood.

He worked the problem, extracting value from garbage but careful not to do too good a job. And yet still, Order rewarded him for his progress.

Status Modification

Dexterity: +1

Skill Discovered!

Crafting

XP Reward: 15

Skill Discovered!

Tinkering

XP Reward: 15

It would be slow going but after an hour of effort on only his second day this was excellent progress. The harder he trained, the more ways he stretched himself the more prepared he would be for the next time they entered the dungeon.

What felt like a very short time later he collected Karina’s armor and headed back to the Inn to drop it off, then back to the common room to grab a quick breakfast. Buck was there already, eating slowly as he evidently studied his cup. Conrad tried to avoid him but, despite appearance to the contrary, Buck was aware of his surroundings and signaled Conrad to join him.

“Morning,” he said, “Job for you.”

Conrad waited silently for him to continue.

Buck glanced at him, rolled his eyes and did exactly that, “Just listen while we eat. Enjoy your breakfast and listen for anything, anything that might be connected to the King. From what I gather, nobody knows a damn thing and them what does are the ones who haven’t come back. So whatever we can learn here, any edge we can get, is worth investigating.”

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So this was the Seekers way of doing things? Sit around, wait for others to do the work and blab about it, then rush into the dungeon and try to beat them to whatever tip they thought they had. Not quite the way Conrad would have done things if he were in charge but, okay. At least the order was easy enough and had a definite end - finishing his breakfast.

So, Conrad listened.

Mundane chatter was all around them. The weather, the food. The ache of an old injury on the big man at the bar. Some guy muttering silent curses over a letter clutched in his hand. And then…

“...roaming deeper than five, but seems to avoid the tenth floor…Yeah, swears he saw him…Cause he wasn’t prepared. Came back for us..”

“Buck,” Conrad said, nudging his ‘companion’ and gesturing subtly at the conversing pair of adventurers, “He said something about floors five through nine and seeing,” he put quote marks up with his hands, “him.”

Buck took a big swig of coffee and leaned slightly, trying to hear anything for himself, “You sure?”

“Sure about what I heard, not that it’s what you’re looking for,” Conrad said.

Buck eyed him, probably wondering if the contract had any space in it for misleading with his words, but Conrad knew he had just been as accurate as he possibly could be.

“Okay. Good enough to check on. We’ll give it the day and if nobody comes up with the win, we check it out tomorrow.”

A day. Conrad checked up on his path of progression, specifically the Fighter constellation of skills. He mentally selected the option for abbreviated information - what he needed was a budget, not flavor text:

Name: Tireless

XP Cost: 150

Effect: Incur no fatigue for the duration of the ability

Name: Adrenaline Rush

XP Cost: 150

Effect: Enhance agility, speed, and perception by 25%

He wanted every skill available in the skill tree, and all of them together would make him deadlier than any single one, but he had to be choosy and so it was down to these two. He had nearly enough XP for one of them, if he could earn another thirty XP before entering the dungeon it would be down to one or the other.

With Tireless he could likely make his attacks more deadly, putting more power, speed, and ferocity into his swings without feeling any fatigue, possibly even taking down the Lesser lizardkin with a couple of haymaker style blows or doing actual damage to a Mauler or something larger. That was if he managed to land his hits. A miss would mean a waste, and Tireless had a significant cooldown of one minute at the first level of proficiency.

That drawback made the decision clear. The only guaranteed win was Adrenaline Rush which would help him in any situation and at this point he needed versatility over power.

Task ready, he knew exactly how he was going to earn the XP he needed to push himself over the line.

He excused himself from the table and Buck simply waved him off without comment. He headed straight to one of the most popular shops in town, Last Chance Outfitter, and waited outside until he saw an adventuring band of five, obviously fresh from the dungeon and exhausted.

And obviously in need of coin since their first stop was the outfitter.

“Hold up a second,” Conrad said, holding out his hands. He felt like he recognized some of these faces, they might have been customers of his once but he couldn’t be sure.

“I’m tired, man,” the lead adventurer said, “I’ve got nothing for you and no time for your sales pitch.”

“I need to earn a tiny bit of XP,” Conrad said, activating Silver Tongue as he did, “I can get you twenty, maybe 30 percent better on your gear. No charge.”

“Get out of my way,” another of the group said, “or I’ll kick your ass 30 percent closer to death.”

“Makes sense you’d see it that way,” Conrad said. He focused in on a curved, non-metal sword in the speaker’s hands - clearly ready to sell - and used his Merchant’s Identify, combined with his Appraise skill:

Lizardkin Bone Scimitar

Quality: Exceptional

Description: Lighter than steel but nearly as hard, this weapon was made by a skilled craftsman. The material is imbued with the magical essence of a dungeon creature, giving it unnatural hardness and a keen edge.

Damage Potential: ☆ ☆

Defense Potential: ☆

Appraisal: 2 gold, standard. Some small observable flaws may allow for a lower negotiated price of 1 gold on buys (depending on negotiation skill). Ceiling of 3 gold on sales. Maximum profit, 200%.

“When the shopkeeper offers you one gold, and you think you’ve hit paydirt, turn him down and come back to me. I’ll get you two, minimum. No fee. I just want the negotiation XP,” Conrad said.

“Whatever,” the adventurer replied. The whole group pushed past Conrad and into the shop.

Ten minutes later the one with the sword came outside and looked at Conrad, arms crossed.

“One gold?” Conrad asked.

“One gold,” the man said. He held out the sword for Conrad to take, “This is mine. Don’t try to screw me.”

“When has a merchant ever tried to screw an honest adventurer?” Conrad said, then thought better of it, “Except what literally just happened to you. Come on then, let’s get you paid.”

Some minutes later, after an intense haggling session, Conrad handed over two gold and twenty-five silver to the adventurer, and for himself he greeted a prompt awarding him 15XP for excellent haggling.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Conrad said and gestured to the group, “Got anything else?”

Suddenly they all had knicknacks they had been loath to part with for the sums the shopkeeper offered, but with Conrad doing their negotiating? It was an offer they couldn’t refuse.

When all was said and done Conrad had netted himself nearly a hundred XP. A little more of this and he wouldn’t have to choose among skills - but he had work yet to do before Buck took them back into the dungeon.

“What’s your name?” the adventurer who sold the scimitar, a man sporting a bow, said.

“Conrad,” Conrad replied, “Merchant. Well, Fighter now.”

“I’ll remember it. I’m Jibs. Archer,” the man, Jibs, nodded in respect and waved as he turned to follow his companions, “Be seeing you.”

“Hope so,” Conrad said back.

XP Earned, he invested in Adrenaline Rush.

Skill Earned

Name: Adrenaline Rush

Level: 1

Progress to Next Level: 0%

With only half a day left before night fell, Conrad felt like there was far too much left to do. He still needed to run himself ragged trying to increase his endurance, lift heavy things to increase his strength, invoke Adrenaline Rush constantly to grind the proficiency up a level or so, and sometime during all of this he needed to finish preparing his “weapons” and “armor.” Oh, and squeeze in a moment or two to eat while trying not to get suckered into wasting time with the Seekers’ pointless requests.

It was do or die now, and holding back anything could get him killed.

He invoked Adrenaline Rush and started running.