After a while, Wazsh shook his head.

“Videos? You mean like movies you used to play in cinemas when I was there,” Wazsh asked.

“Yeah. Short recordings of fights,” Duncan replied.

“Come with me,” Wazsh said as he went upstairs.

They came to his room door. As Wazsh opened it Duncan saw not a room but a whole apartment that probably covered the whole top floor of the bar. The doors to all the rooms except one were opened and Duncan could see what purpose they had. There was a living room, bedroom, a small kitchen, bathroom. Wazsh walked to the closed door and it turned out to be a storage area.

There were armors and weapons on display racks inside which Duncan happily observed as Wazsh looked through a bucket full of swords.

“I am looking for blunt ones,” he explained as he continued rummaging.

Duncan used identify on all the weapons and armors he could get close enough to. They were made from leather, iron and steel. Quality ranging from good to excellent.

“You could equip a small militia force from these,” Duncan exclaimed.

“Ahh. Those are just some stuff adventurers left behind in the hay day,” Wazsh explained as he came with two swords. They were iron and blunt.

“Let’s go outside and you can show me your Swordsmanship,” Wazsh said before he walked out of the walk-in closet.

Duncan followed him from the backdoor of the kitchen to a sprawling garden. There were patches of vegetables growing behind a grassy area on which now Wazsh stood swinging his sword.

“Show me what you have,” he said to Duncan before throwing him the other sword.

Duncan failed to grab it and had to pick it up from the grass.

Suddenly he went into a crouch. There was an awkward silence for a while.

“What are you doing?” Wazsh asked.

“Notttttttttthing,” Duncan replied as he remembered this was the way kendo matches start. Standing up he awkwardly placed both of his hands on the handle of his sword. It was entirely too short for that.

Wazsh shook his head.

“What kind of stupid swordsmanship did you learn? This is a one-handed sword,” Wazsh said.

“I know. I am using what I know with the tools that I have,” Duncan replied angrily.

“Alright. Alright. Be careful here I come,” Wazsh said before launching himself forward for a stab.

Duncan was prepared. With the soles of his feet raised he could respond immediately. He moved to the side and deflected Wazsh’s sword deftly. Wazsh flew by him and got hit gently in the back with the flat part.

“What level is your Swordsmanship?” Duncan asked.

“Level 5,” Wazsh admitted as he raised his back in pain.

“And here I thought I am fighting an expert,” Duncan said.

“Shut up. Not everyone has your cheat-like class and I haven’t used a sword at least five time longer than you are alive. I am just rusty a bit,” Wazsh replied taking offence in being mocked.

“Alright. Old man. Come again!” Duncan replied while laughing.

“I will give you an old man’s whooping!” Wazsh yelled angrily before he once again launched himself forward. This time he tried to strike one handed from above.

Duncan blocked it and then used the strength of two hands versus one to move it out of the way and into the ground on the left of Wazsh. Wazsh tried to kick him away with his right foot. Duncan pulled away from pinning Wazsh’s sword. He moved to Wazsh’s right and Wazsh missed, kicking empty air. Being totally off balance he had no time to respond when Duncan planted another blow on his back.

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“Not only is your Swordsmanship not high, even your strength is not what I expected. What level are you Wazsh?” Duncan asked since he was surprised, he could push Wazsh around so easily.

“I am level 12. I had enough,” Wazsh said with a grunt and threw his sword on the ground.

“I am sorry,” Duncan said after he figured he overdid with the banter.

“Don’t be. You opened my eyes how weak I am here,” Wazsh said.

After a moment of silence, he continued.

“I can’t level with anything but rats and it’s been ages since I got a level up. After level 12 it stopped completely. I don’t get stats from skills like you do. Strength was not my priority at the beginning when I came here so I am weak and I have no way of fixing it. Damn, this hurts more than I remember,” Wazsh explained before grunting.

“Your style of swordsmanship is weak but effective. Looks like it’s more focused on defense and counters though,” Wazsh said next.

“I only watched 30 minutes of video of it. I am sure I can find more,” Duncan explained.

“You got this from 30 minutes of video?” Wazsh asked.

“Actually, I watched the same video twice,” Duncan replied.

“Effing cheater,” Wazsh just grumbled, raised his hands and went inside.

When Duncan followed him, he saw Wazsh already downing a beer.

“It’s not your fault. I know it’s not. You just pressed all the right buttons as you should in a bout,” Wazsh said as he looked at him. Duncan stayed quiet, a few meters away in fear he will make it worse if he said something.

“You know I actually volunteered for this prison. I can’t even level my cooking anymore with just rat meat and the few spices I get. Every day is just almost the same. Well, it was till you came along and broke the illusion that nothing is wrong. I am in a big jail cell. Hell, even my stats and skills are locked up.”

“I don’t need your pity. I am just angry. Angry, at how this all worked out and that there is nothing I can do to fix it,” Wazsh said as he saw the way Duncan was looking at him.

“There is some more rat meat if you want to raise your cooking skill,” Wazsh offered an olive branch of peace as he calmed down.

“Sure. But I only know the roasted leg recipe,” Duncan quickly replied.

“Let’s do one by one then”, Wazsh said before he put out a rat carcass and removed its limbs. He put everything but the one leg in his inventory as he gestured Duncan to do his magic.

After the first one, they repeated the process until they ran out of rat legs. Duncan leveled his cooking skill to level 4 and Wazsh was left with a lot of limbless rat carcasses.

“It’s stew time. Observe,” Wazsh said as he diced up a carcass into manageable pieces, added water and some spices in a pot and let it simmer. Duncan was cursing in his head as the 2 hours needed for the stew to simmer was like watching a boiling pot for a day. As it was finally over, he let out a sigh of relief.

He didn’t level his cooking but got a new recipe instead. Duncan used it right away and got cooking to level 5. He wanted to make more but Wazsh stopped him.

“I don’t have any more inventory space. You can do more in a week,” Duncan nodded.

“Come with me upstairs again. You can choose a sword and armor for yourself from my stash. I have no use for them anyway. You can take it as an apology for going off on you,” Wazsh said.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Duncan said.

“I do. I have been tricking you into BLEEPing since you got here so the thrashing and banter was well deserved. Come,” Wazsh said and left for the upstairs area.

Duncan followed and soon they were in the walk-in closet.

Duncan tried a couple of swords but most were too heavy for him. The same went for armor. The steel ones weighed him down so much he could hardly move.

Finally, he settled for a one-handed good steel sword with a bit longer handle than the rest. For armor he chose a leather excellent one. He was a bit hesitant when he saw the quality until Wazsh urged for him to take it.

“When you can handle heavier stuff, you can come back and exchange them,” Wazsh said as they left.

“Thank you. You really didn’t have to,” Duncan once again expressed his gratitude.

“They are just gathering dust here. Maybe you can get me some new ingredients from your adventures,” Wazsh said as they came back into the kitchen.

“Now, if I could only get the key from Bolgar,” Duncan said.

“Bolgar is not the only one who has it. The mayor has one and also the captain of the guard. You need to be cautious of the two of them though,” Wazsh said.

“What do you mean?” Duncan asked.

“The main reason we don’t get better ingredients are those two. They stop the traders from approaching us directly and act as middle men. I suspect they skim a little from both sides,” Wazsh said.

“But wouldn’t better ingredients raise the prices?” Duncan asked.

“If there was a market for it sure. Who the hell would buy an iron sword that breaks after a few uses? Don’t get me wrong. Bolgar is a good blacksmith but you can only do so much with crappy materials at those prices. He tried offering them steel swords with almost no profit to be made and he was denied. The same goes for every crafter in the village,” Wazsh explained.

“So, what do you suggest?” Duncan asked.

“If you are going to ask for the key, make sure it does not cost you more than it’s worth,” Wazsh replied.

“I have some gardening to do. At least that is leveling up. Do you want to learn it?” Wazsh asked.

Duncan considered but then shook his weary head. He had enough for today.

“Next time,” he said before they parted their ways.