As we stepped out of the last portion of the fields I felt as if a pressure that had been building behind my eyes was released. It had been a beautiful, haunting, and culturally fascinating place, but there was also a lot about it that would’ve fit in well with a horror movie back on Earth.

Elle and I walked Zevrack back to the edge of the town. He was deep in thought for the walk, scratching at the scales on his face with a clawed hand. When we reached the edge he turned to face us.

“I will go to retrieve some buried claws to share information, and help with stonemen traps. Then we hunt for their nest.”

I nodded and he began skittering away, back the way we’d come. I didn’t know him that well yet, but I liked him. I was a bit concerned about him heading back alone, but if I hadn’t engaged with the stonemen earlier they likely never would’ve seen him. He was probably safer traveling alone rather than with a murderous half-elf stumbling through the dark and a dwarf with no combat ability.

Once he turned into a cave and we lost sight of him, Elle led me to one of the stone buildings in the center of town. The glowing mushrooms on this one were in the pattern of a great table laid out with food and other items. We walked in, and I found it was a warehouse. There were rows of tables, and shelves lined up throughout it. They were full of tools, food, and even pencils and paper. The place was buzzing with activity, with people carrying things in and out or even just gathering what looked like their night’s dinner. In front of all of it sat a middle aged dwarf. He had dark brown hair and beard streaked with gray. A cane sat next to him against the desk. He was stroking his beard while writing in a massive black ledger.

Rockelle and I approached him and he held up a finger to us, scribbling a bit more into the ledger and muttering to himself. After a minute of that he looked up with the familiar dead eyes of someone in charge of inventory. “Can I help you? Need more paper Rockelle?”

She smiled. “Hey Lokren, yes but the council has also given Cor here free run of the pantry.”

“Yeah, I heard about that.” He sighed heavily and looked at me. “Alright, what can I help you find?”

“Do you have any weapons?”

“Not really.” He leaned back in his chair. “We have some farm tools. That’s what the men who’ve been patrolling have used.”

“Alright, I guess I’ll start with that.”

“Two rows down, halfway back. Let me know what you take.” He tapped his ledger for emphasis.

Elle and I separated so she could pick up some fresh parchment. I walked the two rows down, but got sidetracked. There was a large pile of small circular balls with fuses on them. They were a motley mix of colors. I gave them a smell and realized they were the spice bombs that Elle had used. I looked around and found a canvas pack, then filled it with a dozen of them. After that I went to keep walking for the tools. I made it to where I was standing in front of them, but before I could take proper stock of what was there a glimmer of light at my right distracted me. I looked over at it and realized it was bleeding out of a long wooden box. I went over and pulled the lid off of it. Inside was a shortsword. It had a thick blade and a short handle with a simple leather grip. It would look like a completely normal sword, except for the fact that it was glowing. I grabbed it and walked back to the dwarf at the front desk.

He once again held up a finger and made me wait for a minute while he finished what he was writing. He finally looked up at me, looked down at the glowing sword, raised an eyebrow and frowned. “What did you do to that sword?”

“Me? I thought you said you didn’t have any weapons?”

“Hmm, let me check something.“ He flipped the ledger a few pages and pointed to a section showing it to me. It was in dwarven and so totally unhelpful. “I had it marked to trade. Someone found it digging out a cave for a new worm farm. It uh… wasn’t glowing before though.”

I hefted the blade and swung it a few times. It moved well, and It felt perfect in my hand. “Any chance we can figure out why it’s glowing?”

Lokren shrugged. “Uh, not really. We don’t have a lot of magic items come through here. No one has a skill or ability for it that I know of. Maybe one of the central clan towns would have someone that can identify it.”

I swung it a few more times. “Alright if I take it?”

“I’d rather you take that than farm tools to be honest. It’s only a matter of time before some idiot tries to play with it and loses a hand. That’s one of the reasons I kept it boxed up.” He made a mark on his ledger. “Done?”

“I’d like to look around a bit more.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

He nodded, and I finally walked down to where the farming tools were. There were some bidents with points I could use as spears, except they were too short for me. I grabbed five anyway. I had a half of an idea what to use them for. There were also some of the sickles I’d seen the dwarven men use, but I saw no reason to carry them along with my dagger and new sword. There were also some mining picks and other various tools, but nothing I was comfortable using, and overloading myself didn’t seem like the best idea. I picked up a backpack, a belt with pouches on it, and the longest set of clothes they had. After that I grabbed a couple posts and thick bushels of hay.

When I returned to Lokren, he and Rockelle were chatting and both of them looked questioningly at me when I returned with all the goods. “I was thinking it may be beneficial to try some things out. I thought I could make a kind of training dummy.”

Elle's eyes twinkled. “Oh, I think we can figure something out.”

I tallied everything with Lokren while Rockelle began dragging the hay, stakes, and few other things out of the pantry. When I was done I was surprised to see that she’d manage to create not just one, but three dwarf sized dummies in the middle of what I’d consider the town square. “Wow, that’s impressive.”

She smiled. “It is, yes.”

“Do you think this is the best place to set it up?” I glanced around at the various dwarves milling around and going about their business. Aside from the occasional stare, they seemed to be starting to get used to me.

“Well, this is the widest open space. It’ll also be clear until everyone’s done with their work for the day which will likely take several more hours. Besides, this way we can return what’s left of them to the pantry more easily when you’re done.”

I looked around. It was true that everyone was mostly keeping out of the square, with only a few people cutting through it, and those people being very careful to avoid the area the dummies had been placed. From what I’ve seen the mushroom dwarves were a very communal people. It may not have even occurred to her that I wouldn’t want to train and figure out my limits away from the eyes of dozens of pedestrians.

I tried to push down my discomfort while I took some time to arrange the pouches, weapons, and other items into something workable. Once I was satisfied I started by backing away around 15 feet, drawing a bident I’d secured in a pouch at my back, and throwing it at the nearest dummy. While they may not work as traditional spears for someone my height, I figured they’d make perfectly acceptable javelins. My throw wasn’t perfect, but I was satisfied to see the makeshift missile embed itself toward the bottom of the dummy. The next one sailed just a few inches above it, and the third landed a solid if off-center hit. I aimed the fourth and fifth at the next furthest dummy and managed some decent, but still not perfect hits on those as well. I went, retrieved them, and tried again.

By the fifth set, I was managing decent hits every time. I started attempting them while moving, and even after rolling. After a couple of hours of work I was sweating hard, but also received a nice reward for my efforts.

Congratulations! You’ve increased the skill Spears!

I smiled, that confirmed what I’d already assumed. You can increase skills with training as well as fighting. Though it was clear that the skills were earned more quickly in higher stakes situations. As I paused I realized there were a few of the dwarves sitting and watching me train. I’d gotten so wrapped up in what I was doing, I hadn’t realized, and now that I’d already worked up a sweat I didn’t find myself as uncomfortable with eyes on me as I'd expected to be. Rockelle was taking notes on a nearby bench, and I took the javelins and sat them next to her. She kept focused on her work.

I walked back to the dummies and drew my new sword. The glow drew a couple intakes of breath, and I have to admit that made me feel pretty cool. Before I could start training with it Elle appeared at my right, and moved my arm so that it was in her view. If it had been combat she would’ve been able to kill me before I’d even realized what had happened.

“Where did you get this?” she asked.

“From the pantry. Apparently Lokren had it marked for trade. It, uh, wasn’t glowing until I got near it.”

“Hmmm,” she said and her gray eyes began to glow, as she stared up at the sword. I thought I saw a flicker of a smile before she shook her head and let my arm go. “Well, I can’t quite tell what it is. Haven’t had any experience with magical items.

“I assume it’s got a particularly keen edge, or it feels lighter to me than it really is. It feels very good in my hand.”

Her face twitched, but she just shrugged and went back to her bench.

That was weird, but I started to attack the dummies with my sword. Going through simple movements and letting the skill levels I already had guide my movements. By paying attention, while also leaning on the ranks gained from my class, I was able to develop a simple form of sorts that let me get used to my newfound strength, and speed, while also further developing an understanding of the weapons.

I began rotating, sword, dagger, and even fists, trying to get as much of a handle on everything as I possibly could. I found quickly that I liked to keep one weapon in my right hand and my left hand free, for grabs, throws, and the occasional jab. It was especially useful for casting spark, and throwing my new spice bombs. They took a few moments to explode, and lighting them with my left hand by snapping and then throwing them took some practice, but I also found that if I threw them hard enough, they’d simply turn to powder against what they were impacting. This gave me the option to set them on a delay or simply throw them right into an opponent's eyes. After another hour and a half I had gained a level in sword, and one in improvised weapon. I’d also gained an even larger audience.

Galgrum and his posse along with about a dozen other men and women wielding sickles, bident pitchforks, and mining picks. Unlike the people that had gathered just for the entertainment, they were squinting, focusing on what I was doing. When I stopped to look at them, Galgrum approached. “You seem pretty handy with a blade.”

“Apparently so. I only just got the combat class, but it came with ranks in every weapon.”

“Could you uh, teach us a few things?”

“Well, it's not like I know the moves, but maybe if I try using the same weapons as you and you follow along we can figure something out?”

Galgrum stroked his beard and nodded. “Aye, I think we can try that.”