“You’ll take it? It’s nineteen thousand krad.”

“I’ll take it.”

We both stared at {The Glass Cannon}, astounded for different reasons. The employee was probably wondering why someone would be crazy enough to buy a nineteen thousand krad weapon that could potentially do one damage, but I was too busy adoring it to care.

Now I had to work out how to get it out of here. I started small.

“So, uhhh—"

“Tren.”

“Tren, thank you. Would you like to talk terms here? I think that would be nice, doing business in a room like this.”

My first priority was to make sure we were nowhere near the other employees, especially Mr Chest Hair.

“Oh yeah! I think that would be nice. This is the biggest deal I’ve ever done, so yeah, yeah!”

Perfect. Now just a couple white lies and I’m outta here.

Taking advantage of the guy made me feel like a bit of a rat, but if the Asterians were as big of a threat as I expected, I needed this. Bill’s Yard needed this.

Badly.

“Right, so, financing,” I started.

“Yes, financing,” he replied, leaning on the red cloth.

“I understand that my first loan was given to me on such generous terms because the amount was so low, right? Your boss didn’t bother with any interest or anything, he just told me to pay him back when I could.”

I’d gone in hard with my first lie. Lines creased Tren’s forehead, clearly surprised that his tough-ass boss would offer such terms.

“He did? I can’t say I’d expect that from him…”

I pushed on. “Oh! Well, he must have seen something in me. Considering I paid him back in three days, he’s probably keen to do something similar this time, you know?”

The lines returned. Tren wasn’t stupid.

“This is a much larger sum. Nineteen thousand isn’t nothing, you know. How about I go ask him? He’ll be able to tell us straight away.”

He pushed off from the table, making headway towards the door.

“Woah. woah, wait!” I called, pacing over and grabbing him by the arm. I’d hoped to wait till the end, but my trump card had to be played. Otherwise, this was the end.

“Tren, can I ask, if you make this sale, will you get a bonus?”

He thought for a moment. “...Yes.”

“And the bonus from a nineteen thousand krad sale would be…sizable, right?”

He paused, and I could almost see the gold coins in his eyes.

“Yes.”

“Well, Tren. Hear me out. I’ll agree to two things right now. Firstly, to account for that fact that, yes, {The Glass Cannon} is a bit more expensive than my previous purchases, I’ll pay some interest. An extra two thousand krad, all repaid in six months. Does that sound nice?”

He nodded cautiously. “And what’s the second thing? Two thousand isn’t that much.”

“Well, look at me. At some point, I’m going to come back in here looking for a shield, a javelin, maybe one of those fancy armour sets on the wall over there. I wonder, if I were to come to you, and only you each time, how big would your bonus be for fully outfitting me?”

Realisation dawned on him. At this point, someone may as well have pasted dollar signs to his pupils.

He held out a hand. “That would be…delightful. I’d be happy to accept your terms…”

“Ollie.”

“Ollie, yes. {The Glass Cannon} is yours.”

It was nearly impossible to contain myself. I bit the insides of my cheeks to hold back a smile, pretending this was just another day, another transaction.

“Lovely! Now, have you got a case or something to put this in? Might be best if I sneak this one past your boss. You know, save that discussion for another day?”

Tren readily agreed, no doubt imagining himself fronting up to his boss, the coarse hairs rubbing on his face and poking his eyes as he defended the sale.

He retrieved a long, narrow case. It was hard to conceal a spear, but the important part was which spear.

We snuck out of the room like bank robbers, pretended to barter over a comparatively crappy spear in the midst of the shop, then shook hands before I hustled out of the store. The two guards didn’t even grace me with a grunt.

Once I was out on the main street, I had to resist the urge to break into a sprint, yelling [Dash!] and head down the road in a mad escape. Everything I did was above board, though I’d owe Tren an extremely heartfelt apology and a bucketload of krad if he got fired.

An issue for another day.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

For now, I was undoubtedly the highest damage-dealing player in Bill’s Yard. Maybe even the Fields, too, assuming Esko could teach me how to use the thing properly.

Of course, with no armour and only a {Wooden Shield} to protect me, I was far from the strongest player. A stray arrow could put me down no problem, no matter what spear I carried.

Still, I was feeling good, so I sent a message to the new group chat consisting of just Duri, Annette and I.

O: [Heyo, just out of curiosity, what kind of damage numbers are you Fields folks looking at? Just bought a new spear for an absurd amount of krad.]

D: [Yo yo. My club does 114 on a good day, but I’m not really DPS. Annette probs much higher.]

A: [How much was the spear? I’m looking at around 260 Damage with a decent hit.]

O: [Nineteen thousand…]

A: [EXCUSE ME????? Where exactly are you going to find that kind of money???? I won’t be bailing you out if you can’t pay.]

D: [Bro…]

It was hard to tell if my purchase was reasonable or not. On one hand, I had the capacity to do six times more damage than Annette, but on the other, my krad balance was bleak.

| -20940 Krad |

Yikes.

Somehow, my current balance didn’t hurt as much as the 1000 krad debt I’d had earlier. The number was so massive that I wasn’t able to feel twenty-one times worse about it.

Plus, I wasn’t getting scammed this time. I was the scammer.

Equally absurd was the fact that there were monsters somewhere out there that could take a thousand-damage-hit and walk it off. Adding in [Spear Charge] would allow me to deal double damage, so the HP of those monsters had to be horrific.

I wouldn’t be upgrading my Strength or taking any more spear skills until things balanced out. I was far too squishy.

A notification from Claire greeted me.

[You busy? Found a dungeon. Meat-shield would be handy.]

This girl.

[Where is it? I can probs fast-travel.]

[Parm. You know it?]

[Yep! Meet at the fast-travel place.]

Claire had found her way to Parm, for reasons unknown. As I’d learned earlier, there wasn’t much to see there.

I made the trip, appearing in the charred town-square to the sounds of crows and crackling flames. Smoke rose from a few streets over, like the first obliteration of the town wasn’t enough. Birds picked their way through the square, pecking at rotting bodies and cawing when another came too close.

My dungeon-crawling comrade waved to me from just outside the square. She was dressed so differently from the other day that I almost didn’t recognise her.

Where there had been mottled greens and greys, there were now striking blues, like the trident from the shop. Her bow shimmered from top to bottom, even the string itself being enchanted. The change was unbelievable.

“Jeez, Claire! Which lottery did you win? That gear looks wild.”

She gave me a twirl as I approached, making sure I saw the new dagger that flashed from her hip.

“Not telling! I can see you’ve remained the same. Aside from that extremely odd spear, I suppose.”

There was a condescending tone in her voice, but I ignored it. She was absolutely correct, after all.

“I’m looking to snag a late lunch after this, so we better get cracking,” I said.

“Very well, not one for chit-chat today! Follow me, young grasshopper.”

We ventured out of Parm, crawling our way over fallen boulders and navigating bushels of thorny trees. I couldn’t imagine how Claire had stumbled upon this place, unless she fancied herself a rock climber or a horticulturist. We were well and truly off the beaten path.

“See that cave down there? That’s us.”

‘That cave’ was a pit of darkness hewed into the stone cliffs around us. From afar, I would’ve labelled it as a snake den and kept well clear.

Not Claire, apparently.

“How on earth did you find this? There haven’t even been any monsters out here, what were you doing?”

She stopped for a moment to pick the best route over there. I caught up, and we stood shoulder to shoulder.

“I have my ways. You’ll see. This game isn’t all about whose stick is the pointiest.”

Interesting. If it weren’t for the impressive battle-gear, I might’ve suspected she was going down the path of being a Tracker. Guilds often employed players to find dungeons or interesting quests for them, and it was one of those ‘fringe’ careers that didn’t require B&B prowess.

Of course, there was no issue if you had both.

We made our way into the cave, bowing our heads to avoid the roof. Insects chittered and disappeared into their cracks and crevices, and I became acutely aware that our light was quickly faltering. It wasn’t as simple as flicking on a torch.

I followed Claire through a hazy sort of barrier and was immediately notified that I’d entered the dungeon.

Yoltur’s Den

***

Reward(s) unknown!

Never seen that before.

In answer to my luminance-issue, the cave was cast in a pale blue, like little moons were implanted in the ceiling, guiding us along.

“Any idea what the stars in the notification mean?” I asked.

“They rate the difficulty. Not sure if it’s based on our current party size and gear, or if it’s like a set rating for, I dunno, a proper raid team.”

“That’s not encouraging,” I decided.

“Suck it up. You’re a big boy with a big stick now, aren’t you?”

She wasn’t wrong, but she was missing the part about my lacklustre armour barely withstanding a mosquito bite.

“I hope you’re right.”

We went deeper, almost to the point that we were climbing down rather than walking down. I steadied myself by planting a hand on the roof as we travelled.

Oftentimes, I pulled it away with a slimy substance attached. Never a good sign.

When the terrain levelled out, so did my stomach. The constant up-down-up of looking where I was going, watching my feet, then checking if I was about to whack my head on a rock was nauseating.

Then the monsters began.

We’d had our fun with the [Darthogs] and the [Goblins], but these were serious. Their cries reverberated along the walls, a screech that had me looking for a volume dial. Claire crouched down behind a rock, and I found one for myself.

“You know what that is?” I begged. The tinniness was starting to do my head in.

“Nope. This is my first dungeon,” she replied.

Good to know we’re both inexperienced.

“Me too. You might want to string an arrow, sounds like it’s getting closer.”

She nodded, reaching behind her and pulling a silvery arrow from her quiver. It left a trail behind it like snow or flour falling from the arrowhead. The screeches multiplied, and she grabbed a few more arrows, placing them on the rock at about waist-height where they’d be easier to access.

I pulled out my javelin. Compared to my spear, it was like flicking a needle rather than using a shotgun, but it was valuable practice.

The sound transformed as the monster approached, its screeches turning to guttural howls as it homed in on its prey. I was glad that a death wouldn’t hurt me too much — my stats were all so low, and the game couldn’t hurt my krad balance even if it tried.

Out of the dull light came a monstrosity. Its lizard-like head was translucent and bobbled like jelly as it ran. Tusks extruded from its scaly shoulders and chest, dripping sizzling liquid onto its blistering abdomen and feet. It was rabid, like the pain from the acid had sent it mad.

Claire readied her first arrow, and I caught a glance of the monster’s label.

[Dissolutaur : Level 38]

I abandoned the javelin.

This was a job for {The Glass Cannon}.