“A deal?” the orc leader asked.

“Yep,” Aya said. “As you can tell,” she kicked at the layer of settled debris, shooting a dust cloud in the group’s direction, “we just had a major tunnel collapse so the main copper vein is currently… offline.” Sheryll started coughing obnoxiously but Aya spoke right over her.

Aya smiled when her words evoked the exact disappointed faces she had expected.

“Unfortunately, I can’t guarantee when we’ll have all the debris cleared out of the way.” The words rolled out of her mouth as smooth as velvet ice cream.

“Sorry…” Sheryll said, not sounding sorry at all. “But uhhh… that sounds like a shitty deal to me.” Turning to her friends she added in a lower, yet still clearly audible voice, “Come on guys. Let’s get out of here. There’s obviously something weird going on. No one said the foreman was a…” the female orc looked her way before fake-whispered, “convict…”

“Seriously,” a tall orc said in exasperation, “shut up, Sheryll!”

He was comparatively skinny compared to his orcish counterparts, but the guy could still probably break a rock with his fist.

“Whatever, ‘Napoleon’,” she mocked.

“Okay, I’ve had it with you,” he lashed back. “I only ever brought you along because mom made me. But you’re such a stuck-up little…”

The leader of the group sighed and said, “Sorry about those two,” as they continued bickering in the background. “But Sheila has a point; if there is no copper— ”

“Ah,” she interrupted. “I should have been clearer, we are opening up another section of the mine. The vein is already almost dead, anyway.”

She had no idea if that was true or not, but Obelisk had said something about how copper was getting harder and harder to come by in the tunnel they were digging in. She worried if he was okay but she used the plans he had shared with her to help her fill in her story.

“We were planning on opening up the second tunnel on the east side. A group of players recently hit the motherlode…”

Aya watched as her words sprinkled player greed in all but the still-bickering siblings’ eyes. They were hooked.

“I wish I could direct you to it,” she said, pursing her lips in resignation and shrugging her shoulders. “But they flat-out bought the rights to that nook before they let anyone know what was in it…”

Fortunately, that particular bit was true. Obelisk really couldn’t keep his mouth shut when he was alone.

“Well. Enough of that. Point is, we are opening the tunnel, but we can’t until we clear out some of the junk ore in it. So you have three choi—”

“I’m telling mom!” Sheryll suddenly screamed before she beamed out of existence in a flash of blue light.

Aya’s hold over them was broken. They all started talking over one another while ‘Napoleon’ both trash talked and apologized for his sister logging off and abandoning the party so suddenly. Taking the moment of inattention, Aya turned around to see if the foreman was anywhere in sight. She didn’t know how much time she had before he decided to come back. Turning her attention back to the group, her right eyebrow started twitching in annoyance. She wondered how old they were in real life.

“If you don’t wanna hear it,” she said in a calm but firm voice. “I have better things to do.”

She even turned around again, pretending to walk away while she hung the torch she still held in one of the metal hooks on the wall.

“Wait!” the leader shouted. “We’re listening, sorry! We just had to—”

“Look, kid. Doesn’t matter to me. Just get your shit together before you come wasting my time.”

“Yeah, we got it,” he said, eyes downward. “What are the three choices you were talking about?”

Aya made a great show about trying to remember her carefully planned offers, scrunching her forehead in concentration before she finally cleared it and said, “Oh! Right!”

That time she took gave them all the chance to finally focus on her again.

“One. You can wait for the crews to clear out the collapse of tunnel four.”

She didn’t know for sure that was the tunnel that had collapsed but none of the other tunnels ever had any other players in it. It was as good a guess as any.

“No, I don’t think we—”

“Let me finish,” she said with a stern look.

He quieted down and apologized under his breath, Aya tried not to smile.

“Two. You can take your pick…” she motioned to the cage of picks behind her, smiling at her own punnyness in a stressful moment like that. “... and pay ten percent of the ore you get from any of the tunnels one, three, five and seven.”

All four of them had their full attention directed at her, like a class of well-behaved pupils.

“Three. You can help us make tunnel two… the one I was telling you about… ready for general use.”

“And how would we do that?” the leader asked.

“Good question,” she smiled and said, “By taking a total of five hundred junk ores from the tunnel. You have to take it all the way out though… I’ll show you on a map. Basically… their unnecessary weight messes with the integrity of the mine… as you can see from what happened today.”

All four of them frowned slightly at her last statement making Aya quickly add, “But don’t worry. The mayor has given me the go ahead to exchange that particular favor for a free pick…” Thinking of the foreman her salesman smile took a darker shade when she added, “of your choice.”

---

Manipulation Success!

Your tree flourishes.

Stage I: 88%

Aya sported a bright large white smile which contrasted starkly with the rest of her grimy appearance. The self-satisfied look came to full fruition when the group of four orcs disappeared behind an outcrop of trees in the direction she had directed them to. Having a map to show them where to deposit the junk ore they were carrying had turned out to be the most rewarding result of her meticulous notes.

Turning back to the mine, she quickly tiptoed toward the tunnels. Standing just outside of the one she usually took she listened for any signs of activity. The usual sounds of pick hitting rock were nonexistent but every now and then she heard voices echoing off the walls. She approached cautiously, lifting one foot after the other after making a conscious decision where to lay it down. Her heart drummed in her ears as the voices grew louder and she began to differentiate them.

Suddenly she could see light as well, flashes of blue light that lit up the tunnel enough to scare her. Deciding she had come far enough, she listened as a word or two floated her way.

“Can’t hold… longer…Many spells… finish….To town… elixirs…”

Aya turned around and left in the same manner she had come, trying to make as little noise as possible. It felt useless to her as all other sounds were soon drowned out by the rapid drumming of her heart. Her breath came ragged by the time she reached the entrance. It was adrenaline, not exhaustion.

“Ugh, there you are!” a high pitched voice exclaimed.

Aya felt her heart in her throat and her eyes widened in apprehension, but then she laid eyes on the responsible party. Sheryll. Having absolutely no patience for the girl, she simply glared at her, not even bothering to hide one ounce of contempt she had bottled up over the last couple of days. It was probably unfair to the girl who was innocent of everything other than being an annoying brat, but in that very instance Aya didn’t care.

Sheryll shrank back, and her condescendingly pursed lips turned into a worried frown.

“S-sorry… I… ah… W-was looking for Th-I mean Napoleon…”

Aya sighed, clearing her face from all traces of anger. A look of aggression coupled with her convict symbol probably wouldn’t look good to the girl. It probably wouldn’t look good to the prison psychologist either, but that was a bridge for later crossing.

“Go to the second tunnel from the left.” She motioned to the path from which she had just come. “Pick up 500 pieces of junk ore and take them to these coordinates.” Aya quickly opened the file with the screenshot of her notebook and sent it to her with a flick of a finger.

Sheryll looked like she was about to object when her tusked little mouth opened but Aya merely crossed her arms and leveled her a look. She left to do the same as her friends had done. Aya smiled when Sheryll’s footsteps retreated behind her.

She waited impatiently as the orc came by a few minutes later, carrying a pack full of ore on her back. It still astounded Aya how their characters could lift 500 pieces of ore in one go without breaking a sweat. Granted, they were a different race with different strengths but she hadn't expected the difference to be so great. Their levels were not that much higher than her’s, early teens at the most.

She shrugged. At first she had felt stupid for not requiring they take more ore but as she watched the fifth orc disappear behind the same outcrop of trees, she wasn’t worried anymore. They had taken a total of 2500 ores between the five of them, exactly enough to cover her remaining trips to the smithy.

Manipulation Success!

Your tree flourishes.

Stage I: 97%

Shaking her head to dispel the self-satisfaction, she ran over to the cage and opened it. Seeing its contents, Aya had to force herself not to grind her teeth; the pick he had given her wasn’t even in the cage. It was propped up against the wall right beside it. From the gleaming appearances of the others, it was quite clear why. Some of the picks had carved handles with engraved patterns on the side of the metal. They were beautiful.

She took out three of the most valuable picks. They were ordered by value, simplest on the left and most ornate on the right. Slinging them over her shoulder, she realized she could take on one more and picked a random one from the middle of the selection. The orcs would be back soon and she didn't want to be obvious about taking away the best options before they arrived. They were kids but who knows what they would do to her in a game where that didn’t matter.

As she quickly walked out of the mine, she realized how much stronger her training had made her. When she had first started out at the mine seven hours before, the one pick had given her trouble and here she was, carrying four at the same time. She couldn’t leave them too close to the mine because someone might run into them, but if she went too far, she wouldn’t be able to get them out on time.

She made a decision and veered off into Layhen territory, north of the mine, in the opposite direction to the city so she wouldn’t run into one of the orcs. The land was the same as the rest of the town’s surroundings, a dry wasteland. It was sad to see, everything was in the process of dying. Trees were losing their leaves, creating a layer of dead leaves on the ground. Aya kicked a couple of them up in her hurry to get rid of the picks.

A three-minute walk from the mine, she was trying to find a place to deposit the them when saw a little, dilapidated shed. From the broken boards, rotting and half-collapsed roof, as well as the missing door, it was quite obvious no one had used it in a long time. Aya gracelessly dumped the picks in the corner, turned around and sprinted back to the mine. Luckily, no Layhens appeared.

The round trip took four minutes and she managed to get another one in, taking a random assortment of picks before she decided to wait for the Orcs to come back. It was the right decision, as they showed up not a minute later, Sherryll in tow, laughing and joking loudly to each other. Apparently the siblings had forgiven each other, as siblings do. It made her think of Rin, but she quickly pushed the thought aside and focused on the task at hand.

Not in the mood to waste time with them, she hurried them inside and instructed them to choose their picks. She had taken the liberty of reordering them before they arrived so they didn’t know which ones were the most valuable at first sight. She hid a grin when most of them, other than Sheryll and their leader, chose quite mediocre picks.

Minutes later, they were on their way to the tunnels, their laughs and loud voices echoing off the walls long after they were gone. She hoped it didn’t bring the foreman back to the entrance because for all intents and purposes, the guy was still MIA. Aya spun on her heels and continued her pick migration. With every trip, her breath came harder but she continued to push herself past her limits. Whenever she thought her legs would lock up and she wouldn’t be able to continue anymore, she just remembered the foreman’s face. His look of contempt, of condescension.

In the last two trips, she wondered if she should let it be. She had already taken most of the picks and she didn’t need all of them. In fact, she probably didn’t need any of them but it wasn’t a question of necessity. It was retribution. She loaded up on five picks during those two final trips. It took her over an hour to take all of the picks and on every trip, she kept thinking that it would be the last, the one where her luck ran out and she was caught. But that never happened.

Then, at the moment she thought she would get away scot-free - in fact, the moment she got overconfident and took five picks at once - it happened. She had almost reached the abandoned shed, just visible in the dry overgrowth, when he came running out of nowhere and attacked her, winding its leather-feather covered tail around her arm and pecking away at her face.

Only after she dropped the picks around her and was also brought down did she realize it was a Layhen. Lying on the ground, she considered taking out her dagger and killing it but she remembered all too well what had happened the last time she did that. She couldn’t have all of the Layhens in the region attacking her out of grief. Not when she had a stash in the region.

The space around her was a gaggleof leather-feathered wings and rock-hard pecks to her face. She lifted her arms up protectively around her head, but the Layhen was attached to her arm so it just went for her ears instead. Aya screamed as the pain got to her and jumped to her feet as she tried shaking her arm enough to dislodge the damn lizard bird. It just squawked in territorial defence before renewing its attack.

Not able to use her dagger for fear of killing it, she tried to think of another weapon she could use to fend it off. She remembered the ropes she had untied from the sack. With chicken lizard and bag hanging off one arm she looked like a circus number as she took out the rope. She wanted to tie the bird with it but it didn’t sit still for that to happen.

Smacking the rope around she hit herself just as much as she did it. The rope lashes burned but she kept at it until she landed a lucky shot that put the bird out cold. Breathing heavily, she fell onto her butt as she tried to get some air. When she could breathe without sounding like an asthmatic dog, she realized she had an audience. There were over twenty Layhens in the vicinity, watching her with their coal-dark eyes. A shiver ran down her back as she jumped up defensively, holding out her arms in front of her.

One arm looked quite effective, rope in hand and all. The other didn’t quite measure up with a bag hanging lifelessly beside a limp body of a Layhen. She shook it, trying to get rid of the unconscious bird. When that didn't work, she tried prying it loose with her other hand. She felt decidedly awkward doing it with all of its friends watching.

After a minute, she realized it just wasn’t going to happen. The tail just tightened up the more she messed with it, so instead of getting rid of it, she took a different approach. She tied it down, first tying its wings to its body, but remembering how it kept flopping around to reach her face, she also roped it around her arm. Eventually, she managed to have a poorly concocted rotisserie chicken around her arm.

Its friends suddenly started clucking at her and when she returned her attention to them. She realized she didn’t have a weapon anymore, with the rope used up and all. She thought they were readying themselves for attack, but instead they showed flagrant disregard for her and her arm ornament and started clucking away at their own business, pecking at the dry grass or leaving, lizard tails suspended in the air behind them.

She was left standing with an unconscious chicken strapped to her arm, but when she saw the picks still scattered around her, she decided to deal with it later. It didn’t weigh much so it wouldn’t get in her way of transporting the picks. After dumping the five picks in the shack, she went to the mine, picked up the remaining five and returned again. When she returned to the tool cage, the only pick left in sight was the one propped up against the wall.

Pursing her lips, she tried being logical but in the end, she couldn’t help herself.

---

After getting rid of the keys, Aya hurried into one of the tunnels, the fourth one where she had heard voices and footsteps She took her time filling the sack and bag with junk ore, as if she had been doing it the whole time. As she approached the entrance, she could hear the foreman was back. He was yelling at someone so loudly that she couldn’t make out the words from how much the echoes overlapped.

When he came into sight, he immediately quieted. The only sounds that followed were the echoes of his yells as they subsided along with her measured, quiet steps. He glared at her but she never looked in his direction. She kept her attention on him from the corner of her eye, but she refused to look at him and chose to wear the same stoic face she had used on him all day. Most of all though, she was afraid she would burst out laughing if she saw the solitary pick locked behind him in a cage, no key in sight.

Her lip twitched at the thought, but she bit it from the inside, forcing herself to maintain composure. She couldn’t give herself away at the last minute but the moment her face was out of his line of sight she dropped the blank facade and a gleeful grin spread across her face.

Things couldn’t have gone more smoothly but she should know better than to celebrate before the show was over. The bird chose that exact moment to wake up. Cringing, she tried to keep it quiet but it pecked at her hand. Aya tried to reason with it using quite forceful eye contact. When that didn’t work, she tried shaking it into silence with her other hand. When that didn’t work, the only option left to her was to let it’s loud squawking ruin her previously graceful exit.

“Stupid bird,” she muttered under her breath.

---

With all of the ore so much closer to town, Aya was able to finish the second half of her task in just over two hours. By the time she was finishing up, the strength and endurance stat gains were fewer and farther between. Aya made it more difficult on herself by trying to load up on more ore at once but eventually ran out of bag space.

Instead of strength, she started focusing on speed again, trying to make her trips as fast as she could even while strapped down with weight. It worked to her advantage and she saw steady progress in that area as well until she made it to the nineties in terms of stat completion for level five. She knew she was going to run out of ore before she was able to level up but she was getting very close, so she started actually going for some kills.

The one stat she thought she should have gained after hauling ore from the stash was patience. She tried to forget about it, but the bird remained securely attached to her arm and continued to make its presence known by its incessant screeching. By the tenth time she walked into town with the loud bird on her arm, even the townsfolk were starting to frown as she passed by. The initial strangeness and novelty of her situation had worn off and they were riding the boat of annoyance with her.

Eventually, she decided it could tarnish her reputation or give her too much unwanted attention. She found a strap of leather from the countless mobs she still killed in exchange for water and tied it around its beak. The moment the loud ear-splitting screech turned into a muffled struggle, she sighed in relief. It wasn’t completely quiet but she would at least be able to ignore it until she got the task done.

She kept at it, watching hopefully as the pile dwindled in size. Every now and then she would encounter Xavier’s other pupil progressing through the stages of learning whatever Xavier was teaching. Clenching her teeth she tried to keep her focus on her own task when on her penultimate run her inbox suddenly pinged and started flashing. She opened it to find a message from Obelisk.

Hey Kid,

I wanted to tell you face to face but you never showed up at the mine again. Thankfully, Tundra and I were in the nook during the tunnel collapse so we just went right on mining but some people, like our foreman, had quite a bit of trouble today.

I heard he lost the keys to the cage as well as any special rep he had with the mayor. He had to pay for all the picks out of pocket which of course he couldn’t…. Some of that shit is damn expensive. Those special spells man… I’ll tell you, not easy to come by. He got really unlucky I guess, people said they saw a rock golem walking away with a couple of the picks. They say he belonged to a convict guild… You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that… would you? ; )

Side note though, kid. If you do know something, keep your head down. Anulir (that’s the foreman) is a pretty connected guy with the Truthsayers guild. Just… take care of yourself. And next time you start a fight, make sure you have an army to back it up. Well anyway, Tundra is out for the day so I might as well go too. Can’t all be convicts, right? : P

Aya kept thinking about the way that even Obelisk, who had come to know her a little, couldn’t completely hide his contempt. She sympathized with him, especially since she wasn’t guilty. However, as a prisoner herself she also sympathized with being a prisoner. Most prisons didn’t allow for their inmates to play all day. Instead they gave them horrible food that only cared about caloric and nutrient intake, locked you deep underground with a bracelet that somehow messed with your perception of things, watched you twenty-four/ seven and made you play a game that encouraged violence while your pain setting was at the maximum. More than anything, she had learned that prison was physical and psychological torture.

She rounded the corner to Xavier’s smithy with her last load. Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t bothered to fill her flasks for the last trip and when she dumped the ore in the corner and came face to face with the other player drinking greedily out of the water barrel in the corner. Xavier was nonchalantly hammering away at another piece of red hot metal and Aya couldn’t stop it when the words gushed out of her mouth like angry venom.

“Fifty sacks,” she said breathing heavily from the exertion. “Now you going to be a decent human being and let me have some water or is that a courtesy reserved for… others?”

Xavier didn’t say a word as continued to rhythmically mold the metal. His silence popped her bravado like a hot air balloon and she was left shifting from foot to foot uncertainly when he wiped his hands and turned to her.

“I admire your guts, kid,” he said. “Go ahead, get some water.” He looked at the other player he was tutoring.

The guy was of medium build and age, of the human race. There wasn’t anything that really stood out about him, not in comparison to all the crazy options available in the game. He had black hair, brown eyes and a semi-handsome face. It was nothing to write home about.

Xavier’s tone of voice almost agreed with that exact sentiment when he added, “However. If you expect me to teach you than I expect you to be courteous. If you disrespect me again…”

Aya lowered her head in shame, clutching her hands in front of her, chicken and all.

When he didn’t continue she slowly raised her head and saw that he was waiting for some kind of response from her.

“I won’t,” she said. There was silence, with the exception of the player slurping in the background and the chicken resisting in the foreground. “... Sir,” she added carefully.

“Good,” he said. “Well. In that case why don’t we get started on purifying all that ore.”

He walked her through a procedure where he cracked open the ore, melted it, rock and all, and then siphoned off the impurities. It wasn’t a hard process just very laborious. Xavier patted her on the back as he went back to his own work, leaving her to face the tons of ore she had hauled in.

“Don’t look so discouraged,” he said in a light and comforting tone. “The purer the ore, the faster it goes.”

The smile on his face was anything but benevolent.

---

A/N: Just wanted to thank Jakesonfirken again for the math help last chapter.

Also. Unice has been helping me recently with grammar and such. If you guys haven't yet... you should go check out her fiction: Fantasia. It's hilarious. So yea. Big shout out of thanks to her who I haven't really been thanking sufficiently... at all!

Oh. yea... thanks to cur as well. But he knows that. ;)