The needle didn’t move for days and I got a sinking feeling that something was wrong. I flew the fortress back to the first valley and secured it. Then I ran toward the village. I didn’t enter right away, electing instead to wait until it got dark. Then I flew over the walls, setting myself down inside the city. I donned the cloak and hood, looking like the shadiest fuck you could imagine. I decided against the hood, remembering a book I had read once about penetration testing. Act as you belong.

I understood the social engineering aspect of it, but I had never been good at the physical portion. I strode down the street instead of acting like a criminal and skulking about. It seemed to work. Nobody gave me so much as a second glance. I think a lot of it had to do with me looking like a beggar.

My appearance was haggard from the worry and recovery. As I neared the plaza by the cave entrance I had to slide into the shadows of an alley. Not that I was any good at hiding.

Earthen barriers had been set up facing the tunnel entrance. Two dozen heavily armed soldiers kept their eyes on the dark tunnel. The space between, illuminated by magic.

I let out a soft curse, there was no way I was getting past those people.

“Mr. Fuller,” a sharp woman’s voice spoke from behind me.

I’m not afraid to admit that I jumped. How the woman had snuck up behind me, in a blind alley, I didn’t know.

“You left before we could finish our conversation,” Miss Farley said, as I turned around.

I noted that she wasn’t alone as I activated my All-Seeing Eye. There were six, dark-robed men hiding in the shadows behind her. A glance over my shoulder showed three more. I was well and truly surrounded. I kicked myself mentally for returning to the city unprepared. My worry over my friends clouded my judgment. If she had meant me harm, it was a good chance I would have died.

“Yeah… sorry about that,” I replied, trying to sound laidback.

She said nothing, but I saw a slight raise to her eyebrow.

“Let us find someplace more comfortable to chat… shall we?”

I didn’t think her invitation was optional. And while I was confident that I could take these men on, even with my disability, I didn’t want to risk bringing the town guard down on my head.

She brushed past me without waiting for my response. I grit my teeth in frustration and followed her, keeping my eyes on her shadows.

We arrived at a house I recognized, It was the same one I had escaped from. She motioned for me to sit in a comfortable-looking chair across from her. The furniture was all quality and wouldn’t be out of place in some upscale English-style residence.

I noted the others had left us alone as she closed the sliding door. The room was some sort of parlor, I think they called it. The fine wood accents and stained glass were really out of place for this town.

“So, Mr. Fuller.”

“Let me stop you there, just call me Paul. I never liked being called Mr.”

“Very well, Paul. I must say, your news came as quite a shock to the council of West Exit. Even more so your escape. Some wanted you brought in for collusion but calmer heads prevailed. That had more to do with the fact that your information proved truthful. Less than ten minutes after your escape a message arrived. As you can assume, it covered the events of what happened but not who caused it or why.”

I wasn’t surprised that they had message tokens. It made sense considering the Bazaar had a building near East Exit.

“So, why bother to question me more?”

“While the information you provided was helpful, my bosses are angry. They want revenge against the force that attacked. Paul, let me tell you, do not anger the Mohai, they may seem calm and peaceful but they are one slight away from tearing a person apart with their claws. The attack was a slight on them and eroded trust in the tunnel and the cities. We have already gotten word that the forces of East Exit and Mid Point are mobilizing.”

“Is that why you are guarding the tunnel?”

She shook her head. “No, they are to prevent the dewgon from breaking out. While my spies have indicated at least two of these Black Dragons have entered after your friends, the leader and the rest of his men have fled.”

This information got me to sit up. “Do you know where my friend are now?”

“They arrived at Mid Point a few days ago along with the two Black Dragon pursuers. You need not worry, those men will be dealt with before they can cause any more trouble.”

I heaved a sigh of relief. “Then why are you telling me all this?”

She sat back in her chair and crossed her legs. “You may not have been aware but we track everyone that enters our town above a certain level.”

“To make sure they don’t cause trouble,” I replied.

“That is one of the reasons. The other is to try and recruit strong individuals or forge alliances. One cannot stand on their own in this new world, Paul, one needs friends.”

I had a feeling I knew where this was going, “you want me to help with the dewgon issue?”

“Yes,” she replied without preamble.

“I hate to break it to you, but I lost my main hand fighting the Black Dragon and it's not growing back.”

“We are aware of your condition. But I see you have already come up with a workable alternative,” she said, looking at my metal claw. “You are a man of decisive action and unknown abilities. I think it’s safe to say you are still a formidable warrior, otherwise, you wouldn’t be level nineteen.”

“I’m sorry, I can-,”

“Before you finish that sentence, Paul. If you help us with our little problem, we will guarantee the safe passage of your friends from Mid Point.”

I clenched my hands tight, causing my metal hand to clack loudly. “And if I don’t?”

“The tunnels are dangerous Mr. Fuller… anything could happen to a beastkin and a ghost within the dark.”

“Is that a threat?” I growled.

“No, Mr. Fuller, just a fact of life. Now, I’m going to need your answer,” she replied coldly.

This woman knew more than she was letting on, I had no doubt she knew about the fortress. It wasn’t like it was inconspicuous, sitting uncloaked. She didn’t appear to be afraid of my skills or level, but resorting to veiled threats to compel my assistance said otherwise. Did I really have a choice though? If she knew about Fiona and Ska, that meant she or her people were confident that they could deal with them.

“Fine, I’ll help but I need a decent crafter to upgrade this hand,” I said, waving my crudely crafted hand, “this thing is barely serviceable.”

She nodded, “very well, one of my men will take you to our best crafter. You will need to cover the cost of materials though. And you need to be ready before noon tomorrow.”

“As long as your crafter is competent, it shouldn’t take more than an hour.”

I followed another man out. I wasn’t happy about the situation but if I got something out of this deal and the safe return of Ska and Fiona it was worth it. I could only take their word that the two were safe in Mid Point. I knew they were at least alive, according to my tracker.

As for my hand, I really only needed one thing, a way to rotate the fingers. As it was now, they were stationary, which reduced my combat effectiveness quite a bit. Adding rotation would restore me to seventy-five percent. I would never be back to a hundred percent unless I found a way to restore my original hand.

I stopped as the man pounded on the door to the building. It didn’t look like a blacksmith, there was no furnace as with the ones I had seen in the Bazaar.

I heard a man yelling from inside, “I’m coming. This better be damn good, waking me up in the middle of the night.”

I heard a thunk as the lock was released and the door scooched open.

“Miss. Farley requests your services for a few hours, please assist this man with his request. She will cover your time but he must cover any material costs.”

The grumpy man from beyond the door yelled, “and this couldn’t have waited for morning?”

“Afraid not.”

“Fine! Get in here so I can get this done and go back to bed. Tell your boss, this little stunt will cost her triple my normal price.”

The man simply nodded as we followed him inside.

I finally got a good look at the man. He was skinny to the point of ribs poking out through his skin. I used Identify on him.

Borlas | Metal Mancer | Level 15

‘That might explain the lack of blacksmithing tools,’ I thought.

The man walked around behind a workbench.

“So what is so damn important that you need to wake me up?” he groused, looking directly at me.

I showed him my prosthetic. “I need to have the claws rotate.”

“Show me the current functions.”

I manipulated the fingers but didn’t activate the cannon. I would save that.

“Hmm, fascinating. I don’t feel any enchantments but I can tell there is magic powering the device.”

He grabbed my arm and yanked it forward with surprising strength. He examined the fingers closely. His eyes roving over the runes and the mana heart. He didn’t say anything but I saw him quirk an eyebrow. I hadn’t been able to hide certain runes as it impacted the design. Mostly the containment runes.

I felt a pulse of magic and the next thing I knew all of the fingers had come off and were floating in the air.

I tried to jerk back in surprise but some sort of field held my arm as the man mumbled to himself. He turned around and dug through a bin of material. I saw him produce two disks of steelium along with some mithril. He tossed them into the air and they hung there, reforming.

He turned back towards me, “do you have your weapon with you?”

I produced my staff and he looked it over from a distance. I saw the inside of my fingers reforming to curve slightly, allowing for a better grip on the staff. Next, the disk of metal slammed down, fusing with the base. I winced in pain from the impact. The man smiled, a little bit of revenge for waking him up I assumed. I could see the three metals had merged into one disk with the mithril sandwiched in the center. Next, my old base along with the mana heart connected, much softer this time. This was followed quickly after by the fingers.

“Are we nearly done?” the man who brought me here asked. “It is almost morning.”

I had to blink. Somehow I had lost track of time.

“Nearly there,” Borlas grunted. The last finger attached itself and I felt the magic release its hold on my arm.

Borlas slumped back exhausted. “There is a lot of magic in those little pieces, it took time for my skills to work around it all without disrupting whatever it is the magic does. I would be interested to learn about that,” he stated.

I grunted noncommittally, “perhaps if I live through the week, I may tell you about it.”

He smiled, “fair enough, well, test it out.”

I looked at the hand, it didn’t look much different, other than the additional metal that was now fused to the base and the half-moons in the fingers, allowing me to grip the staff. But I thought about twisting the hand. It rotated effortlessly and I had to gape in astonishment. There was no need for mechanical connections when you had magic. The hand could rotate around three hundred and sixty degrees and it wasn’t slow.

I sped it up until the fingers were a deadly blur of metal. The other two men took a step back, just in case. The fingers stopped as fast as they started. I took out my staff, grabbing it with the metal hand. Giving it a spin. I learned quickly that if I didn’t have the staff held at exactly the right spot it would wobble my whole arm.

I had to give up on the idea of turning my staff into a deadly blender. I could spin it faster than my old hand though, so there was no issue there. I nodded in thanks and paid the man a ridiculous amount of coin for his work. For the six thousand credits I could have hired a master smith to craft me an enchanted hand that had full functionality.

The man winked and whispered in my ear, “the additional charge is to keep that fabulous weapon a secret.”

I needed to collect my friends and get out of this damn town before they got any other funny ideas.