I lowered my arm and made my way across the arena to Zevrack. A life priestess reached us at the same time and started looking him over.

“Will he be okay?” I asked.

She nodded. “Just a light concussion. I wouldn’t worry much. His kind are known for their thick skulls.”

I let out a relieved sigh and walked over to Tib, who was already sitting up, a priest ministering to his shattered shoulder. His face was twisted into a grimace. I gave his good shoulder a squeeze and he nodded up at me. “That was very noble of you.”

“Yes it was. Thank you for noticing.”

He chuckled, but that turned quickly into a grunt of pain. I left him to walk back to the dugout. I was a little surprised at myself. It wasn’t like I hadn’t killed before. I’d killed multiple stonemen without a second thought, slaughtered some bandits, but this had felt different. Those fights had been quick and brutal. Watching Duncan slowly crawl toward me on shattered limbs before I killed him would’ve just been grotesque.

I walked into the dugout and suddenly Prima grabbed my bad arm.

“What’re you-” I yelped as she popped my arm back into place. I let out a breath to calm down and when the white cleared from my vision I turned my attention to the Smash Queens, who were all standing around me. “Thank you, but I would’ve been happy to wait for a healer.”

Prima shrugged. “I always prefer to get these things over with quickly.”

I nodded, gingerly moving my arm and finding it much improved. “Sorry we didn’t win it for you.”

Secunda pulled out three small purses and handed them to me. “Don’t be. We weren’t even sure you’d make it through the last round, let alone this one. You saved us from having to pay a fine, and you gave a good enough show that the crowd shouldn’t turn on us next time we compete.”

Krush looked out on the field, listening as the announcer gave the Blackhearts the victory. Two of them were back up to accept it, but Duncan had been carted out of the pit, with multiple healers working on him at once. “You did the right thing with that one,” she said, turning back to me. “If you’d killed him the crowd would’ve left in a sour mood, and a death on your first time at the arena would’ve been a serious black mark on both you, and us for bringing you here. Still, if he’d had any honor, he would’ve tapped out himself.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think he could’ve tapped out if he wanted to. Those chain tattoos on his arm. I think they were forcing him to keep going.”

“Strange…” murmured Secunda. “I know that the Blackhearts have been trying to win a tourney like this for quite some time. I guess they found a method to strengthen their wills.”

Zevrack and Tib found their way into the dugout, along with several healers and someone who seemed to be a tournament official. He went to talk to the smash queens and I took a moment to rest my eyes and check my notifications.

Congratulations! You’ve resolved an encounter with humans (Lvl 7-9) non-lethally! You gained 1000 xp!

Congratulations! You’ve completed Triple Threat!

You receive 1250xp, Improved Renown within Heracleum! 20 gp!

Congratulations! You’ve reached level 8! You receive 2 stat points!

Awesome, I smiled and put both points into PER. I knew it was a risk, CON was just sitting there begging for an increase, but if I kept leaning on it in my attempts to start a guild of some kind, I should make sure it was ready.

Cormac

Half-Elf

->Lvl 8 Mercenary

->XP: 16970

->HP: 110

Stats:

STR: 14

DEX: 18

SPD: 18

INT: 14

WIS: 10

->PER: 13

CON: 12

LCK: 8

Known Skills:

->Sword (LVL 12)

Club (LVL 6)

Mace (LVL 5)

Axe (LVL 5)

Spear (Lvl 8)

Hammer (LVL 5)

Bow (LVL 5)

->Dagger (LVL 14)

Improvised Weapon (LVL 7)

->Barehanded (LVL 15)

->Stealth (LVL 6)

Feint (LVL 7)

Trapfinding (LVL 4)

Negotiation (LVL 2)

Trapping (LVL 2)

->Acrobatics (LVL 5)

Abilities (Racial):

Half Borne of Magic

Abilities (Class):

Anything in a Pinch

For the Right Price

A Job is a Job

Abilities (Unique):

Left Hand Free

Borne of Two Worlds

Reduce Magic

Spells:

Flash Step 1x per day

Grease 1x per day

Spark unlimited uses

Stone Toss 1x per day

Fireball .4x per day

Invisible Steps 1x per day

After I finished looking over everything, I paused. This seemed fast. I’d only just spoken with Millicent about the next three levels being a slog, and I’d reached this level after just over a month. I walked over to Zevrack, who was pushing away a life priest so that he could get back to tinkering with his gear.

“Zev, can I ask how much XP you just got?”

His eyes went blank for a moment as he looked over his notifications. “Six-hundred-twenty-five.” He said, before returning to his work.

That was half of what I’d just received. It could be that I received more because my contribution to the quest was more significant, but that wasn’t really the case as far as I could tell. I’d only actually fully taken down one of our opponents, Zev’s performance had been far more impressive. There was something else going on. Either it had to do with my role as a chosen, my class, or perhaps some general system fuckery I just wasn’t aware of. Whatever the case I decided to keep it to myself for now. There was a chance that I’d be able to ask Ren about it later.

I gave Zev his cut of the gold, and then gave some to Tib. After they were all healed we left the dugout, and headed back onto the street. The Smash Queens all gave us their thanks and offered to take us out drinking. The suggestion made Tib turn a little green, and I decided to refuse as well, though the look in Krush’s eyes as I was invited had made me sorely tempted to take them up on it. After the queens left us, Tristus, Nica, Millicent, and Patience found us.

“That was very well fought cousin! I never knew you could be such a showman,” said Tristus as he approached, his usual winning smile on his face.

Tib blushed a bit and shook his head. “I was just honoring a promise. I wasn’t attempting to show off.”

Tristus smiled, “That’s what makes it so impressive! You did it without even trying. Perhaps you should join the circus as a performer!”

Tib sighed and shot him a glare.

“I liked the move with the hair,” said Patience looking at me, “Poor guy expected you to fight fair,” said Patience.

I nodded. “Everyone always seems to expect that for some reason. No clue why.”

“Probably has something to do with you looking like such a good honest Elf,” she gave me a light pat on the cheek.

I felt a little jolt at her touch, but pushed that down to shrug instead. “I’ll take any advantage I can get.”

“You’ll take advantage, you say? I can’t believe the Smash Queens chose to work with someone so crude.”

I chuckled. “I think it’s safe to say that they’re the ones that took advantage of me.”

As me and Patience traded light barbs and flirtations, Zevrack was asking Millicent to provide his gear with a fresh charge, and Tib was under assault from Tristus’ relentless teasing, while Nica double checked the work the healers had done on his shoulder.

“Should we head back to the apartments? Seems like everyone could use a little downtime.”

Everyone agreed, and we made our way back to Tristus and Tib’s place where, after a heavy late lunch, I took a long luxurious nap on a comfortable bed. Unfortunately, what I had hoped was to be a dreamless restful sleep turned to nightmares of men bound by chains, marching relentlessly forward while moaning in agony. I was stirred from my sleep by clawed hands.

“Zevrack?” I coughed out, still in that uncomfortable place between dreams and reality.

“Yes.”

“What’s going on?”

“Tib wants to talk to you.”

“RIght away?”

“No. He just said at some point he’d like to talk.”

“And…and you woke me up to let me know?”

“Yes.”

I sighed. “Thanks bud. I’ll go see him now.”

He nodded, and walked quickly out of the room, back to whatever project he’d been working on before he woke me.

I got up, drank some water to clear my dry throat and walked out into the main rooms of the apartments. Tib was in a casual toga, eating some grapes while Nica sat on his lap. They were laughing, and I realized quickly that they thought they were alone. I turned around to leave so that they could have some privacy, but Nica looked up at me before I could complete a full step away. Her perception as a ranger beat out my stealth apparently.

Tib noticed her noticing me, and turned around. He coughed a little, and started blushing. Moving Nica quickly, but gently off his lap. “Cor. Hi. Nica and I were just going over…plans…for…”

I decided to interrupt him for his own sake. “Zev told me you wanted to talk?”

He squinted. “I told him specifically that he didn’t need to wake you.”

“Zev is a firm believer in maximizing productivity.”

“Well, since you’re here anyway.” He stood up and went to a small pile of papers, pulling out what looked to be an unopened letter, which he handed to me. “I received a letter for you. Not sure what it’s about, but it’s from a patrician named Dominus. He’s got three adventuring parties he sponsors, all above level ten. Apparently he sent all three after that dragon.”