I rode into Biloxi on Bella, we were greeted on the main road like we were before, this time it was a different group that greeted me. None of the men hassled me like the previous time.

The city was quite busy, considering its location and the Bazaar I wasn't surprised.

I kept an eye out for trouble as Bella made her way down the streets and towards the Bazaar. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary but the crowds still made me nervous. Before my imprisonment, I wouldn't have thought twice about being around this many people. Now, I measured everyone as a possible threat to me. Humans more so than the other races. It wasn't a healthy way to live, I knew that, but it would take time for me to change.

I let out a sigh of relief as I entered the Bazaar. I couldn't wait to get back to Arman or hunting dungeons. Anything to be away from the mass of humanity. My last time in Biloxi was less stressful because I had people I at least worked with, along with me. Fiona was with me but she needed to remain invisible and incorporeal to heal the damage she suffered in the last dungeon.

I would deal with my phobia, I wasn't planning to spend a lot of time in the Bazaar.

As soon as I located a weapon seller, I negotiated a price for the cleaver. I ended up getting 1100 credits for it. The merchant refused to budge on the price even though I could tell it was worth quite a bit more. I took the offer and moved on to sell the ring. I ended up getting 500 for the ring.

It took a bit of wandering before I found a merchant selling mana engines. I also learned what powered them. I don't know why it never occurred to me that they were powered by mana hearts. You could power it from any fed mana, as well, but it wasn't as efficient. I couldn't take the gem out of my armor to use that so I ended up having to purchase a few mana hearts. The mana engine itself was cheaper than I thought at only 400 credits. The two tiny mana gems cost me more than the engine at 500 credits.

The merchant assured me that a fully charged gem would last two hours. This explained why the devices were so weak, I couldn't imagine the fifty mana that I could pour into the gems was enough to power much of anything. The magical interface on the device was smart enough to supply only the power needed for something to work, at least until it hit its maximum output. It made me wonder how many mana engines they needed to power that stupid tower in Chicago.

I also purchased an item called a hidden enclosure. It was a circular tent with an invisibility enchantment placed on it. Once the door was closed the enchantment activated.

The tent only cost me 250, it was cheap because it had no other defensive enchantments on it. This meant it wasn't any stronger than a normal tent. I was fine with that, only wanting it for its invisibility.

My next stop was a shop that sold enchanting supplies. I figured I might need ink capable of holding mana to power my tattoo idea, the other option was using ink made from my blood but I figured that was a bit tacky. Fifty credits later and I was on my way.

The merchant did ask me a few questions about what I wanted the ink for. He wanted to know what guild I was a part of and who my mentor was. I managed to deflect his questions and get out before the man caused a scene. I didn't need to get on the bad side of some unknown guild monopoly on enchanting.

I had one final stop to make before I left.

It took me four stops before I found a skill dealer, at least one that had a skill I was interested in. I thought about what I could use in my repertoire for a while. This skill came to mind from my time in Chicago. My human meteorite combo was highly effective. The only problem was not every place had high buildings I could leap from. I also wanted a bit more control over my descent. I also needed the skill to work with my dexterity stat.

The skill I located was a fifteen-second ability called Wings of the Falcon. It was enough time to gain altitude and come into a controlled dive. If I used Blink Step's agility boost I could slam into the ground much faster, causing much more damage. The spell would also give me an ability to fight flying creatures, or escape in a direction that enemies might not expect.

The cost of the ability was significant at 2500 credits, that was after haggling with the merchant for ten minutes. I paid the beastkin and activated the skill plate, feeling the knowledge of the ability form in my mind. I would wait until I left Biloxi to test it, no point showing possible enemies what I can bring to a fight.

Now that I had everything I needed I headed back to the portal. I was just about to exit when I heard someone call out. I turned to see who it was.

"Excuse me, sir," a reedy looking half-elf said.

"Can I help you?" I asked, scanning for possible trouble.

"Are you from the new world that recently joined? If you are... could I hire you?" the man asked in a nervous tone.

I scanned the individual, expecting some sort of trap.

Balarius | Researcher | Level 11

The man wasn't armed but he could be storing items or weapons in a ring, like me. I decided to hear the man out, if I didn't like what he was selling I would just walk away.

"Hire me... for what?"

"Oh... right, sorry, my apologies. I tend to get a bit frazzled and scatterbrained at times. Yes, anyway where was I. Oh, yes. My name is Balarius. I study worlds, well, ecosystems, and the changes that the system had on them. As you could imagine this is rather difficult, what with no new worlds joining in over a thousand years."

The man rattled on until I stopped him.

"Stop, please, just tell me why you want to hire me."

"Oh right, again, apologies. I need a guide to your world. Well not to your world, I already transferred over to your cosmic coordinates. I need a guide to show me around and protect me while I study. I will pay quite handsomely for your time and effort," the man finally added.

I chewed on his words for a bit. The man waited with pent up excitement for me to answer.

"I won't always be out in the wilds, sometimes I will remain at my home for weeks on end."

"Not a problem, in fact, that will help me even more, if you could provide a place for me to go over my notes and rest."

"Uh-huh... do you have a mount?"

"I do, standard horse, is that sufficient?"

"Yea, that will be fine. I want 500 credits a day," the man's face paled at the cost before I continued, "this will include food, shelter, and protection. If I have to save you from your own stupidity that is going to be extra. If you try and harm me or others I care for... I will cut you down. Do we have an agreement?"

I figured if the man was serious about finding a guide that he would accept my offer, if not oh well.

"Do you need payment upfront?" the man asked, mulling over my offer.

"Each day's payment upfront. If you miss a day I will tack on additional fees that need to be paid before I will continue my services. Agreed?"

"I agree," the man said, holding out his hand to shake. I shook the man's hand with a bit of hesitation.

He seemed almost too eager to agree. He handed me the credits and we exited the Bazaar.

***

Reginald cursed, that damn half-elf had managed to give them the slip. They knew where he was going but if he got too far ahead the tracker wouldn't be able to locate him.

His boss had sent the four of them to this new world to scout resources and possible locations to plunder or control. Rumors of the new world spread quickly through the System. Stories of meteoric rises in levels as well as beasts and dungeons everywhere. His boss wanted a stake in that new world and had invested 40000 credits to send three of his strongest people over to establish a base.

While a researcher wasn't the best asset to use for something like this it was what they had to work with. They had captured the man a few years ago and kept him around to identify rare objects that they came across. If his boss found out the man escaped they wouldn't find any sympathy.

"Do you have his trail?" Reginald demanded.

Oslo rolled his eyes, "Of course, he is only an hour or so ahead of us."

Reginald looked at the strange buildings of glass and stone that made up the town in this world. He was human as were his allies. It made it easy to blend in with the locals. Although, he did see a few other races already trying to establish their presence here in this new world. They would have to work quickly if they wanted to secure a section for themselves.

The three pulled out horses from storage and rode off, following the trail. Reginald looked toward Zal, he had been quiet the entire time. It wasn't out of place for the large man but Reginald had given him a tongue lashing after he failed to keep an eye on the half-elf. Zal had the intelligence of a child, he made up for that lack of intelligence with brute force that few could contend with, being half-orc and all. The man followed orders but he got distracted at times.

***

I ignored Belarius's non-stop chatter as I scanned the forest while we rode. The man acted like he hadn't been in a proper conversation in years. He reminded me of a guy I knew that was homeschooled. That man had no sense of social interaction.

I sighed, "Belarius, you need to calm down and be quiet. This is not a safe area we are traversing, in fact, there aren't really any safe areas besides towns and villages. First, we are heading to the place I'm staying but with it getting late we are going to have to camp for the night," I stated coldly.

"Sorry," he replied, sheepishly.

I wasn't too worried about being attacked. Fiona was scouting and I had Bella, who had better sensed than I did. I just wanted the man to shut up.

We rode in silence for another hour or so before I pulled off the main road and found an area I was comfortable camping in. The jut of rock rose above the surrounding swamp just enough to keep it dry and free of water. I placed the survival tent down.

"Alright, you might as well rest inside while I scout the perimeter."

"Are you sure?" the man asked, looking around nervously.

"It'll be fine. I'll be back in half an hour. The tent has an invisibility enchantment on it, so nobody will know you are here."

The man nodded as he stored his horse and entered the tent, closing it up. I watched it vanish.

"Keep an eye on him," I whispered to Fiona.

She faded into view only long enough to give me a wink before she vanished again.

It was time to test out my new ability. I walked into the trees until the camp was lost from view.

"This should be far enough," I said, stopping to examine the skills stats

Wings of the Falcon: Produces large wings capable of propelling a person into the air for 15 seconds. Cost 50 mana, cooldown 2 min

The cost was manageable even if I needed to multicast. Now it was time to test the skill out.

I cast the spell and examined the result. Large black and grey wings sprouted from my upper back. They didn't seem bothered by the fact that they went straight through my armor. My armor was unaffected as well.

I gave the wings a test flap, lifting a foot off the ground with one powerful stroke. The feeling of suddenly having two new appendages was odd. I flapped them a few more times, rising fifteen feet into the air. One of my wings hit a branch as I was rising and I tilted over and slammed into the tree and then the ground.

I groaned softly as I pulled myself off the muddy ground. The fall had cost me 25 health and 15 points on my shield. I really needed to make a helmet and leggings to go with my armor. That way the shield would cover me completely. I would have to redesign the runes or get two more mana hearts to do this though.

I wiped the dirty mud off my face. I wasn't worried about the armor, it was self-cleaning. I waited two more minutes for the spell to reset to try again. This time I wanted to see just how far up one cast would take me.

I cast the spell and rocketed into the air with powerful strokes of the wings. I watched the timer tick down as I continued to climb. I was easily as high as a five-story building. The spell ended and I was still traveling upward from sheer momentum. I smiled as I hit the apex of my flight and started coming back down. It was hard to tell from my vantage point but I think I managed another ten feet or so of unpowered flight. I flipped over, facing the ground, and activated the spell again, using Multicast.

The wings spread from my back and I corkscrewed through the air as I dived at the ground. Before I got to the tree line I flapped the wings to slow my descent.

I misjudged my speed as I plummeted below the trees. My foot slammed into a branch and snapped. I choked off the scream as the pain shot into my mind, causing me to lose focus as I tumbled the rest of the way to the ground, trying to correct my flight.

I landed with a loud crash taking over 200 damage from my escapades. I hissed in pain as I tried to sit up. My healing was already activated and I could feel the bone in my foot pop back into place as the pain lessened. I laid back on the moss.

'This is why I wanted to practice first,' I thought.

Once the healing was complete I stood up. The spell was everything I had wanted. Hell, with my Blink Step added I could probably rise 200 feet into the air. I wanted to try it out tonight but I chose to wait. If something attacked I wanted to have Area of Denial available. If I tested out the wings right now I would probably need to use AOD to make a safe landing without dying. I wasn't going to rely on Second Chance to save me, who knows what would happen if I broke my neck in the fall.

I walked back towards the camp as I brushed off any remaining dirt.