[24]

My two companions and I went to Raxx’s house after leaving the auditorium so that he could grab his things. The Sea Dog insisted he wanted to move in with me after the attack. His protectiveness was touching, and it relieved me to have an extra set of eyes at night. Doubly so, once I remembered just how sharp his other senses were. Raxx even said he had no issue with lying on the floor of the place, because he had grown up sleeping on the deck of a ship for most of his life. Fortunately, with a spare bedroom that would not be necessary.

Though, I wondered how Ugz would take to having a new roommate. Hopefully, the gnoll's ears were not sensitive to being bitten.

Joy told us she would move in as well, but I told her that would not be necessary. Her offer was exceptionally gracious since she did not share the same pack-like emotions that motivated Raxx to protect us. Even more considerate once I learned Wildlings preferred to sleep close to the earth.

Really close.

We stopped at Joy’s place on the way back so she could water the plants in her garden. One of her “drageas flowers” worried her; she felt it needed extra moisture for a reason that was beyond my skill in herbalism to understand. Upon seeing a padded sleeping bag nesting at the center of a pit in her living room, Raxx and I had questions.

Wildlings, it turns out, liked to extend roots into the ground when they sleep. It was not a requirement for them to be healthy, but it made them sleep more comfortably. Joy said it had to do with the way she dreamed.

Also, they got a sense of wellbeing just from touching the ground. That was also the reason they preferred to go barefoot. I just assumed that it was because halflings had always gone barefoot in the old stories, for some strange cultural reason. Joy defied that convention, wearing stylish black shoes with a silver buckle.

Raxx and Joy continually amazed me at how similar and different we were from each other. We had to be one of the oddest looking bunches on campus, and it would be hard to convince me otherwise.

I told her we would have to revisit the conversation if Ashmere did not catch my attacker soon. Anyone willing to send a demon would have no qualms about targeting Joy to hurt me. To ease our worry, Joy agreed to take extra precautions while she slept.

Raxx had a lot of crap. It took all three of us to carry his stuff back to my new place. Joy found it hysterical how much jewelry the Harak had in his luggage, claiming it was absurd for a six foot gnoll pirate to pack like a diva. Raxx responded to the contrary, saying it was only because of all his shiny knick knacks that he qualified as a man at all. I kept quiet for my part, though I implicitly agreed with the wildling. It took more effort than I would ever admit to Raxx, just how close I came to laughing.

Eventually, we made it to my house, and I set the wards to allow my new companions in. I already had a spare key sitting on an empty cabinet, which I gave to Raxx before heading to my room to check on Ugz.

I knew at once that Ugz had eaten the demon core.

Not just because the glowing violet stone was missing, but because Ugz had grown half again his length. From nose to tail, the monster newt was a foot and a half long, but that was the least significant of his changes. Ugz now had several black plates along his back and on the top of his head. It looked like someone had dressed him in plate armor, and it was absolutely adorable.

I could not resist the temptation, and I burst out laughing, waking my still tired familiar from his nap. Ugz knew at once what I was laughing at and gave me a glare, thumping his tail back and forth, irritated.

“I’m sorry, Ugz, I couldn’t help it. It’s just been a hell of a day, you know? I don’t know why it’s so funny.” I pleaded.

“Are you talking to some--” Joy came into my room to see what the fuss was about, but Ugz ended that by leaping at her at an extreme speed, and tucking into a rolling black sphere mid-air. Fortunately, Joy was a lot quicker than she looked, and ducked under the speeding amphibian.

Well, that’s new, I thought.

Raxx, who was behind her, was not so lucky.

“OOF,” the Sea Gnoll exclaimed, staggering backward and holding both paws to his stomach.

Ugz landed on his feet, then scurried up the wall to begin another assault.

“What in the abyss is that?” Joy looked on in horror. “Is it another demon!?” She screeched, backing up.

“Ugz! No!” I commanded. “They are our guests! Everyone, please, calm down. This is Ugz, my familiar.”

Ugz was probably still a little rattled from the attack last night. I could feel his annoyance with the situation, and with me for not warning him.

“Joy, give him some of your worms. Once he sees you are the person I get those from, he will calm down. Probably.” I said.

“You think I just walk around carrying grubs? Who would do that?” Joy said.

“Ugz, I will make it up to you, promise,” I said, giving my attention back to my familiar. I sent him a mental image of grubs being fed to him for emphasis.

That seemed to do the trick. The little glutton hissed out a breath of air he had been holding and leaped back on to the bed from across the room.

“That thing packs a punch,” Raxx said, still idly rubbing his stomach. I could tell the attack did not truly hurt him, but it definitely caught him off guard. I mean, who expects a flying ball newt?

Ugz hissed again in what was an openly mocking gesture; as if to say, don’t be a big baby.

“All right, everyone knows each other now, so let’s head over to the tower.” I said.

Now that I lived in the northern part of the trade district, it was a quick walk to get to the tower. Along the way, I explained to my friends about my interrogation at the hands of a [Truthseeker], impressing them both. I tried to explain that it was mostly a series of yes and no questions, but they thought I was trying to fake humility or downplay the event to ease worry.

We entered the tower and joined the mass of students that circled the Godstone hovering on the floor level. I recognized several faces from our classes in the crowd, but distracted as they were by screens, did not notice us.

In no time at all, I had several bestiaries and one journal from an excursion group detailing information about the Barghest, my first monster report. I made do with skimming over the subject for now, only to ensure that the creature was actually present in the books I copied. I planned for doing more research later that night.

No, what I really wanted to look at was the Store. Ideally, most of that would go toward securing a future with Angelina. But in case that failed, I wanted to have a back-up plan. Having recently learned about essence stones, I already knew what I wanted to do.

First, I verified that my Contribution Points were 1,040 in the tab.

After that, I searched for items, trying to gauge the typical price for essence stones. To my despair, I discovered they were a one-to-one cost and buy ratio, and that by tower rules that value could not change.

Meaning I would only get 1,040 essence from trading in all the wealth that I had. Doing some quick math, I guessed that would take me from rank three to rank five. Two entire ranks were not a terrible deal, but I felt like I might do better. In my estimation, they kept the cost high to prevent the wealthy from simply ranking up doing no training what-so-ever. As I understood it, doing that was too much of a bad idea, because monsters that were weaker than you gave progressively lesser essence each time you ranked up. The Gods granted us their power so that we might improve ourselves, and the world.

Next, I looked at items and ingredients. I found a few things that were useful to creating cursed items, but none of it stood out to me as being overtly useful. At least, not at the cost that was asked from the tower. Most tempting for me was a ring that gave +2 to your constitution, but again, needing to save my money to catch Angelina, I could not afford the 200 point cost of the item.

In the end, I found a poleaxe that was being offered for 28 points. The item had no magical quality, but was present in the tower simply by virtue of it being found in the Ruinlands. A simple note from the adventurer that recovered it said, “found inside guard tower armory, Belhaven.”

It took a careful look over my new purchase. With a five-foot haft, the weapon was only a foot longer than the one I practiced with the day before. The blackened wood had a smooth feeling, created by a process I was unfamiliar with. Its blade looked positively evil, dyed red and scrawled with a language that was unknown to me.

Thankfully, the weapon came with a leather strap and cover for the head so that I could walk around with it in comfort.

Raxx and Joy did not have many points, and I felt guilty showing off my new purchase in front of them. Not that either of them seemed to mind. Raxx loved the weapon, saying that my enemies would think I already covered it in the blood of their fallen. Joy simply said, “Men” and rolled her eyes.

We had a pleasant lunch; I returned to the house to give Ugz some grubs, then together we went to our Spell-casting class.