011 - BREAKING BREAD WITHOUT BREACHING TRUST

“YEAAAAHHH!” rang out a woman’s voice from behind where Conrad was performing the grizzly task of ‘collecting XP’ from the wounded still trying to crawl away from the battlefield.

“YOU DID IT! YOU CRAZY SUMBITCH!” She yelled, beginning to clap.

Conrad smiled back up at her, not sure what else to do. Beside her the crossbowman joined her, clapping and whooping his thanks.

Troy sheathed both his swords over his shoulders in a fluid motion then, striding over to Conrad, grabbed his arm and held it up in a victor’s pose.

“Woulda been finished without you, Conrad,” Troy said, he let Conrad’s arm down and gripped it tightly with his own, “You ever need me, I’m with you.”

“Couldn’t have stood without you there with me,” Conrad said, gripping back, “I’m just glad you all made it.”

Troy grimaced, “Not all of us. We lost two. Been on the run since the eighth floor and the more of these things we killed, the more of them came running out of adjacent passages to join the pursuit.”

“Just how many did you kill?” Conrad said.

Troy waved away the question and started guiding Conrad up the slope to where his companions had restarted their climb to the level plain outside the canyon, “A lot, but let’s get your wounds taken care of. You’re pretty new to this aren’t you?”

Conrad chuckled, and suddenly his leg buckled. He caught himself but might have tumbled back down the slope were it not for the steadying support Troy was giving him. He looked down at himself and really took in the result of the battle.

His armor was in shambles. Plates were hanging like trashy ornamentation on thin threads of leather and cloth, his left pant leg was torn open completely and he’d lost virtually all of the padding he had had on his arms. He gave his left hand a gentle shake and the remains of his caestus fell to the ground, unrecognizable as even a glove any longer.

And under it all he was a mess. He was bleeding profusely from dozens of small cuts and, with shock, noticed he had shards of bone weapons actually still sticking from his ribs on his right side.

For the first time since the fight started he checked his health indicators in his interface. He was down nearly half his health and a light bleeding status was causing a slow tick lower.

Remembering the question he put on as brave a face as he could in the realization that he was literally half dead, “How could you tell?”

“Shock. The pain from all that is going to set in pretty soon, but we’ll get you patched up. We’ve got enough potions to get our group out of here and in good health, it's the time for them to work that we’ve been missing. Order and Chaos! What I wouldn’t give for a Healer in our group!” Troy said.

That was the drawback to potions and delving deep into a dungeon. The healing properties that could be achieved through alchemical means were astounding, even going so far as to bring adventurers back from the very edge of death. But they needed time. Time to work, rest, and ample amounts of food to feed the regrowth of new tissue and blood.

Healing magic, on the other hand, was incredibly rare. Though Conrad had heard of Healers as a class he had never actually encountered one at the shop or in Edge. Magical healing worked instantaneously and could be employed even in the middle of combat to keep adventurers hale and fighting.

They approached where the group was gathering at the top of the slope leading down into the canyon. The crossbowman was already building a small fire and tossing ingredients into a pot, and the women approached Conrad holding a vial full of red liquid.

“Drink it,” she said.

He downed it, not even giving himself time to process what it was she was handing to him - and especially, not wanting any compulsion from the magical contract to somehow have him refuse.

The potion began taking effect immediately and with a groan Conrad sank to the ground. It seemed the healing properties of the potion, which he registered must be what he drank, made him more aware of all the injuries he had taken as it worked to increase his body’s natural healing processes.

“You’ll be alright,” the woman said, “I’m Mara. Sky Spell.”

“That’s a new one to me,” Conrad said, “Sky Spells specialize in lightning magic I take it?”

“It’s a big part of it, but I’ve got other tricks up my sleeve,” she said, then looking over his shoulder nodded her head, “That your band then?”

Conrad turned from where he was sitting and saw Karina, Buck, and Joy walking casually toward them from the outcropping they had been watching the engagement from to begin with. He hoped that whatever took them this long to show their faces didn’t spell bad news for this band of kind people he was already feeling himself growing fond of.

“That was some fight!” Karina called out, “Well met!”

“You lot just catching up then?” Troy asked, skeptical, “Your man here, Conrad, really saved our bacon.”

“Sure sure, just catching up now,” Karina said, “Is this everyone then? You’re delving with a small party.”

Conrad saw the question for what it was, a probe about any additional reinforcements that might come to their aid if the Seekers decided to… be more direct in acquiring leftover loot. He wanted to warn them, but Mara seemed to have met up with these types in the past.

“Two more of us, separated but we’ll camp here while they catch up. Shouldn’t be too much longer,” she lied, “Seventh floor is actually pretty small.”

“Banged up our boy something fierce!” Buck said, “Gave ‘em a good show of it though, didn’t you Conrad? Good fight. We’ll collect the loot off these corpses for you then.”

Conrad checked his interface briefly, “Looks like ten of them are mine. And I got credit for another twelve assists.” He had to let them take whatever it was they wanted from him but he wanted to make clear how much of that loot was his. The Seekers were not welcome to Troy or Mara or the crossbowman’s kills.

“Take full credit for those partials, Fighter,” Troy said, “You more than earned it.”

“Joy, if you’d be so kind, that’s loot off of twenty-two of these corpses,” Buck said, patting his brother on the shoulder.

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

“Sure thing, Buck,” Joy said, heading off.

“Mind if we join you for a bit?” Karina said, “Just till the others show up.”

“Not a lot to share but you’re welcome to the fire,” Mara said, and the whole group minus Joy went over to where the crossbowman, who introduced himself as Karl, a Watchman class, was tending the stew.

The group set to making uncomfortable small talk, but Conrad didn’t fail to notice all three of them had downed potions, including what looked to be stamina restorations, and were making no moves to remove their gear and get comfortable.

He took the brief time of respite to look over his combined notifications for the fight:

Proficiency Level Up

Skill: Tireless 2/5

Description: At level two, the cooldown for Tireless reduces from one minute to 45 seconds.

Reward: 5XP

Status Modification

Endurance: +1

Agility: +2

Toughness (Advanced Attribute): +2

That was good news. The first level up to Tireless’s proficiency was expected, the stats were a bonus, but Toughness going up two whole levels was testament to just how much punishment he had taken during that fight. And it would, over time, make him that much more difficult to take down.

He looked over the XP. For the twelve partial kills he had received 50% credit, and then with ten kills fully credited to him he was netting 650 total experience points for the whole fight! Not wasting any time, he opened up his progression interface and highlighted the Inventory ability:

Name: Inventory

Classification: General / Passive

Description: While the path to power can be traveled alone, one must always have access to the tools required to go further. Gain access to a magical one square meter storage space and store and recall items at will. Only non-living items that can be lifted by the user may be put into the inventory. Higher levels of proficiency increase storage space and reduce usage cooldown.

Cost: 450XP

Worth it. He invested the total amount needed.

Ability Earned

Inventory

New category available in your Path interface: Inventory

He wasn’t sure how the contract would interact with the inventory, so he decided to send the dagger gifted to him by Mara into it and just let the chips fall as they may.

“You know,” Troy said, leaning in and speaking low, “If you wanted to join us, we could use a man like you. Mara’s definitely taken a shine pretty quickly too.”

Conrad smiled and looked down trying not to show how pleased it made him feel. Both of the compliments. He looked over at Mara who was mid conversation with Buck, who was leaning in and hanging on every word the pretty woman was saying. She caught his eye for a moment, smiled, and returned to her conversation and a more serious face for Buck.

“I appreciate it. And I want to. I just can’t right now,” Conrad said, feeling the compulsion preventing him from saying anything further about his situation.

“I get it. Especially mid dive, trying to change groups is a gamble. But I mean it. Come find us when you get back up top,” he added, voice even lower than before, “Your group gives me a bad vibe. The way they came out once everything was cleared. Not all of our profession are the most scrupulous of types, if you know what I mean.”

Conrad nodded and, noticing the man had held out his fist, bumped it with his own.

“You’re a good man,” Troy said, getting up, “Stay that way.” Then to the rest of the group, louder he called out, “We should be going, the others might have found the exit another way so best we check up on the next floor.”

Mara and Karl seemed to have been waiting for this and stood up immediately - other than the cookpot they had left nothing on the ground and were already prepared to move. The short break and some food already having allowed their wounds to heal, it was time for them to head out.

“We’ll tell the others we saw you if we run into them” Karina said cheerily, “Wouldn’t want them waiting on you if you’re up and off so soon.”

“Much obliged!” Mara said.

The whole group of them started walking away, frequently looking back to wave at the Seekers, still seated around the fire. Nobody mentioned they had left the cookpot entirely.

“Two others,” Buck mused, “But nowhere to be seen. My money’s on them not making it, and if we go now we might find the bodies before the dungeon claims them. Doubt the King is on this floor anyway, after that group ran through it pulling all the monsters after them.”

“Conrad, Joy, check the rest of the bodies and see if the Watchman looted them all properly. Might be something left in there worth grabbing. Definitely a few bone weapons laying about that could fetch a fair price.”

They got up to obey but Buck held back Conrad a second, “You didn’t tell them what we were up to did you?”

“You mean about the King?” Conrad asked, “No.”

“You know I don’t mean about the king. Everybody’s after the King. I mean about the salvage,” Buck was clearly annoyed and keeping it down, “That group was on guard the moment we showed our faces even after you - a man out of our own party - saved their stinkin’ lives.”

“We didn’t have a lot of time to chat. We were busy surviving,” Conrad said, “You could have made a better show of it, once it was clear we were going to make it.”

Buck stared at him, anger clear in his eyes. Conrad stared back, daring him to strike.

There was an idea. If Buck attacked him, would the Contract prevent him from defending himself? And to what extent? With his wounds all healed up he was feeling more than ready to give Buck a piece of his mind.

“Check the bodies,” Buck said, returning to his place next to Karina.

Conrad did, but he could just make out Karina’s voice as he walked away, “That one is figuring out the rules. Might be trouble.”

He would have liked to slow and listen more, but the bodies were further down the slope and he had been given a direct order for what to do.

It was troubling though. They thought they had him on a tight leash, but by running into the fight against orders he had shown his hand - the contract allowed wiggle room. And if he could wiggle, maybe, just maybe he could run.

And Karina was not about to let Conrad just get away.