As I dragged the unconscious and bound man into the entry hall, I spotted Ska. He was covered in blood and sported more than a few small cuts.

"You ok?"

"I am fine, the fight... was exhilarating," he replied, testing the word. Martin had been teaching him new words again, I noticed.

"Who is that?" he asked, pointing toward my package.

"Someone that needs to answer some questions. Can you go see if the others need help? If they don't, tell Martin to come here but keep everyone else away."

Ska nodded and lopped away. "I probably should have washed the blood off of him before I sent him off. Oh well."

I roughly tossed the man against the wall, eliciting a groan.

"Wake up sunshine," I said, kicking him in the hip.

The man opened his swollen eyes and glared at me. "Try anything and I'll juice you again."

To make my point I pointed the crackling staff at his sensitive bits.

"Why are you here?"

"Fuck you, slave!" the man said, spitting a glob of blood in my direction.

"Wrong answer," I said flatly, jabbing my staff into his groin.

I held it there while he screamed. I made sure to heal his injury, wouldn't want him to die... before I got my answers. After thirty seconds I pulled my staff away.

"We're just here to level, please, stop!" the man cried out, trying to slump over and cover his groin.

I pushed him upright with my foot.

"None of that now. Did Sharla send you down here?"

"N- No... we defected when we found out she was dead. Her father has a temper and wouldn't hesitate to hunt her followers down for their inability to protect her."

"Even if you weren't there?"

"Wouldn't matter to him," the man groaned.

I laughed. "Her father and Obidiah are dead," I said.

"Obidiah? The Master's slave, who would care if he was dead."

I raised an eyebrow. I guess this man didn't know everything.

"Tell me what you know of her family?"

Turns out the man knew quite a bit about the Cotton family tree. At least on her father's side.

I learned about the older brother of Harold. One that was far more violent, if that could be believed. According to Thomas the Fire Dancer, the brother was in New York during those events. Thomas was stationed at a remote Black Dragon outpost during the insurrection. After which he fled the area, making for the south.

I had to think back. That was what five, six months ago if I recalled correctly.

The rumors that Michael had returned to Chicago to avenge his family, I admit was a bit of a concern. It took a bit of torture to find out how he learned of this information. Someone with a scrying skill was all I was able to get out of him.

The last information I learned caused me to end our discussion. If it was true it would spell trouble and I hurried to find Martin. According to Thomas, Michael and his cohorts were on the trail of the perpetrator. They were under the impression that Sharla was still alive.

Normally I wouldn't care. But if they managed to track that stupid ring I tossed into the desert, that would mean they were less than a day from Arman. While I didn't care if Martin's sister died, I would feel like an ass if I didn't tell him and at least try to stop it. I realized that his sister may have been right, I did bring trouble.

I found Martin and Ska heading through the bandit camp. I waved them over.

"What's up?" Martin asked, winded from the jog over.

"Arman may be in danger," I said tersely.

"Wha- What do you mean?"

I explained to Martin what the man told me, then about what happened before I came to Arman. He knew some of it but I left out details in my previous retelling.

He reacted as I expected.

"What do we?" he asked, pacing back and forth.

"Nothing for the moment, until the base is up and running it's much too dangerous for us to try and take on these men. Especially if they are anywhere near the level that the other leaders were."

"That could take months!" Martin shouted.

I blew out a breath. "I didn't want to resort to this because people are going to start asking questions, but we can purchase cheap weapons and I can enchant them. Then we just sell them back for a profit. Quick and dirty to get the resources we need."

Martin nodded quickly, "Thanks for doing this, Paul."

"You don't need to thank me, we're friends, and that's what friends do. Now let's go collect our reward and get to work."

I followed Ska and Martin to where the Marshall was. Their fight did not go as well as ours. Two of his men had died. Others were wounded. I healed everyone, getting a round of thanks in return.

"Marshall, sorry to hear about the two dead."

"Thank you, if it wasn't for Ska, we may have lost a few more. How did your fight go?"

"All three leaders are dead. They ran into the dungeon to try and hide."

The Marshall grunted in acknowledgment. "A tough day for everyone. Feel free to loot the three you killed. Come by the office tomorrow to collect your bounty."

I nodded to the Marshall.

The three of us left, while the Marshall and his remaining men collected the bodies and searched the camp. Ska and I had already looted the three men. They had nothing fantastic. Mine had a couple of small storage rings, the sword, some studded leather armor, and a few thousand credits. The archer's items were lost to the fire which was a shame, pretty sure his bow had been enchanted.

Ska's target had two enchanted daggers, a storage ring, and a decent leather chest piece. Martin managed to collect a few items from his kills but nothing magical. We pooled all of the credits, totaling forty-five hundred. It would be a good starter fund to help us build out the house.

I knew Martin wanted to leave as soon as possible, but we needed to wait for Fiona to return anyway, so it was better to make use of the time wisely.

I took all of the items we were selling and went to the Bazaar. It was one of the temporary layout kinds. That was better for us, less likely we would catch the eye of someone that didn't like what I was trying to do. I couldn't imagine flooding the market with enchanted items would be seen in a good light.

I purchased cheap, yet well-crafted items. Swords, daggers, shields, maces, spears, etc. After selling the other gear, I was able to spend around six thousand on the weapons. I purchased them all at one shop but once they were enhanced, they would be sold to multiple shops.

I had to put my shoulder into the ill-fitting door to our house, to get it to open. It was on my to-do list for fixes, I just didn't have time at the moment.

Ska and Martin had talked the Marshall into letting them run the dungeon in the valley. I warned them about the traps but wished them luck. They couldn't help me with my work so there was no point in having them waste their time sitting around when they could level. We were going to need all the help we could get if we had to go up against another head of the Black Dragon.

It took three days to finish the first set of weapons. Martin and I cashed them in at the Bazaar, netting nearly thirty thousand credits. It was a hefty chunk of change but not enough to do even half of the upgrades to the house. We spent half of it on procuring new weapons. I even threw in some armor to enchant. Armor would take less time and sell for more but the market for it wasn't as large. For one, armor, even magical, didn't resize itself to the wearer. So most people preferred to get tailor-made armor.

Magical items were also an item I could craft but those tended to take far longer and required a finer touch. For now, I decided to not fiddle with those.

Five more days of work allowed me to finish most of the second batch of items. Ska and Martin had both leveled. Martin was now level twelve, he picked up an ability called Baleful Slash. It imbued his summons with corrupting energy. This made their attacks far more deadly. It had its drawback though, making it so the summon could only last half as long. Ska finally got a new skill called Debilitating Strike. It allowed him to render an opponent's appendage useless for ten seconds.

Of course, he immediately wanted to challenge me to a duel to test his new skill. I had to disappoint him.

"Sorry, Ska. I have to finish these items and then get to work on the house."

He grumbled and walked off to sulk.

I finished up the last few items and called for Martin. We unloaded the items to several different merchants. Even that didn't alleviate some suspicious questions. I met up with Martin to get his half of the money so I could purchase the materials I needed. As always the Mithril was the most expensive portion.

Unlike the previous house and the individual plates, I was going to combine all of the plates into one massive array. I figured this would even out the ride and possibly make it so the house truly floated through the sky, instead of just bobbing up and down.

The directional plates would still be individual, but there would be twice as many of those. I found a smith capable of making the plates to the specifications I requested. That was the easy part. Now I needed to locate two more mana hearts. One to power a shield and one to power the cloak. I already knew I couldn't run them concurrently based on previous tests but this way we could fly without worrying about being spotted during the day.

I also picked up a remote viewing device. It was a crystal ball that allowed you a third-person perspective over an area. It was used in castles during sieges to direct troops. The one I purchased had a limited range of a thousand feet. Just enough to give us time to turn and avoid something. There was one last item I picked up but I wasn't sure if it would come together in time so I stuck it on the back burner. I had a lot of work to do and Fiona should be back in about a week.