I was helping clean up the mountain of corpses. I knew I didn’t have to stick around and do it but that would be a dick move. I might be an asshole, but I wasn’t a complete prick. Dead civilians were lined up and covered with any available fabric. Eventually, survivors would have to go through and see if their loved ones were among the dead.

As for the Sons of Autumn dead, they were tossed into a pile in an open pit. A few eager fire mages were making sure that everything burned properly. I couldn’t blame them for wanting some way to enact revenge on the people that had attacked them.

It was during this cleanup that I spotted two people approaching me. One I recognized as Don but the other well-dressed man I didn’t know.

“Paul, I finally found you. Let me introduce you to my boss, Charles Lemont.”

“It is a pleasure to meet our savior,” the man said, holding out his hand.

I gripped the man’s hand and gave it a shake. The man seemed unconcerned about the blood and dirt that now covered his hand.

“I couldn’t just stand back and let them kill everyone,” I replied.

“And for that, I am ever in your debt. Not being in control of your body is a disconcerting experience and one I never wish to go through again. I am curious as to how you broke free, but I will set that curiosity aside, and instead, I would like to offer you a reward. How would you like to come work for me personally?”

“No offense Mr. Lemont, but I don’t plan on sticking around long after this clean-up is completed. If you wish to offer me a reward, how about you give me access to the Bazaar?”

“Well, it was worth a try. As for the Bazaar, that shouldn’t be an issue. If you ever change your mind, Mr. Fuller, feel free to seek me out. I could always use more capable people.”

The man reached into his coat pocket and handed me a black card about the size of a credit card, but made of metal.

“This will allow you through the wards. Until we meet again, Mr. Fuller.”

The man turned around and walked away. Don gave me a short nod and hurried after his boss.

The cleanup took hours, despite the number of people chipping in to help. I finally got sick of the smell of roasting human flesh and had to walk away. Ska had already returned to the fortress and was likely asleep. Being under the influence of the gem seemed to take a lot out of a person and most people were finding it difficult to continue moving only a few hours after the fight.

I found an aid station for injured people and lent my help to them. It was really more an opportunity to clean the blood off my hands, both literally and figuratively. I didn’t regret killing all of the church members but that didn’t mean I reveled in their demise. They were pure evil and had no remorse or compunction against slaughtering anyone and everyone that got in their way or didn’t submit to their twisted worldview that mankind needed to be purged from the planet.

Healing the injured didn’t take all that long. Most that had survived, healed on their own, and the ones that were usually too far gone had succumbed to their wounds before other healers got to them. There were only people still suffering lingering damage like lost limbs or poison attacks that others weren’t able to Cleanse.

I finished up at the aid station and headed back through town. I was exhausted and needed rest.

As I was passing a café I heard my name called.

“Mr. Fuller, a moment of your time please?”

When I looked I spotted an unassuming man dressed in a brown smokers jacket and matching pants. He was waving me over from an outside table with a cup of coffee or tea, steaming away on it.

I grunted in annoyance but headed over. He wasn’t the first person who wanted to thank me today and probably wouldn’t be the last.

“Look, you don’t need to thank me, I was just doing what I thought was right,” I stated flatly, wanting to leave as quickly as possible.

The man laughed, which I found odd. I chose that opportunity to use Inspect on him. The man's information came up blank, no name, no class, no level.

“Who are you?” I asked accusingly.

“Nobody of importance, please, have a seat so we can have a chat?” he asked, gesturing to a chair across from him.

I looked around, scanning the area with my eye tattoo, but found nobody hiding. The man only lifted an eyebrow as he sipped his drink.

“You didn’t answer my question,” I said.

“Let’s just say we had a mutual acquaintance. I hear she was a real stone in your boot.”

“So you work for Stone?”

The man chuckled, “hardly, if anything I work for humanity but I doubt you would believe that. Come now, Mr. Fuller, or should I call you, Paul, as you prefer?”

“What I would prefer is if you people would leave me the fuck alone, but it seems that isn’t likely to happen now is it?” I stated angrily, taking the seat across from him.

“Yes, there were a few overzealous members of our organization that thought killing you would solve our problem.”

“And what problem would that be?”

The man smiled but didn’t answer.

“It has been decided that fighting you is not in our best interests, Paul, despite what you may have seen in the past. I know, hard to believe, but it's true. If you want answers to your questions, you could always join us… but I don’t see that happening after what Stone did in Houston.”

“So she was the one that leaked that information?”

“She was, it was a miscalculation on her part that cost her dearly. You won’t have to worry about her anymore,” the man replied, taking another sip of his drink.

I assume he meant she was dead, but with these people who knew.

“So is that what you came here to tell me, that Stone is dead and I’m safe from your organization? As if I should just take what you say at face value.”

“Hardly, but for now you are not a concern. We are more interested in what occurred with the dream crystal and the Sons of Autumn. Your presence here made us miss this scheme.”

“Are you saying it’s my fault this happened?” I asked angrily.

“No, but if you hadn’t been here we would have learned of it sooner and been able to stop it. But you need not worry about that. I would advise you to keep a low profile, but I don’t see that happening either. Your actions tend to be far-reaching, Paul, despite your attempts at trying to remain out of the spotlight.”

“I’m not going to just hide away in a dark corner just to appease your group. And who made you the arbiters of humanity?”

“No, you wouldn’t but even simple acts like your runic magic will eventually bite you in the ass, Don’t expect the Enchanters Guild to sit back forever while their profits are worn away. As for your second question, decades upon decades of experience, not to say we were perfect, but we always have the best interest of humanity in mind.”

“Oh, and you can see the future now?”

“No, experience and human nature tell me what will come about. But again, I’m not here to fight you, just here to open your eyes to the bigger picture. Our actions have a purpose despite what you may think. Whether or not you learn from this discussion is up to you. Now, as much pleasure as it’s been to finally talk to you, I must be going, there is never any shortage of issues that need to be dealt with. Have a good day, Paul,” the man added, standing up and adjusting his suit before he walked away. I quickly lost sight of him among the crowd.

I wanted to call bullshit to all his accusations. I knew my actions had consequences but it seemed like what they did was decide right or wrong for everyone. As for what this man said about me, I wasn’t entirely surprised. I had witnessed it myself over the last ten months. Trouble seemed to find me, despite my best efforts to stay out of it. Some of that could be attributed to wanting to help people or revenge from people I wronged, but other stuff just seemed to come out of nowhere. Take this attack for example. I hadn’t seen hide-nor-hair of the Church since I left Chicago. Yet here, at the one time I visited Vegas, they decided to attack.

The statistical possibility of that happening was slim unless they had come to target me specifically, which based on their method of attack seemed unlikely. I took away one thing from the Stygian Order agent, I needed to be stronger and beef up my defense. If shit like this was going to keep happening, I needed to be prepared. His warning about the Enchanters Guild was also concerning. It wasn’t like there were rules against having your competition killed off. This was going to have to be my last bulk sale of runic items. I would need to find sources of income in other ways.

Another surprise was the fact that Reaper failed to work on the man, even when he was sitting right across from me. I knew from experience that if I had a general description of a person I could track them. The better the image or memory, the more accurate the tracking was. This man was like a ghost. It led me to the conclusion that that was not what he truly looked like.

***

After resting the night, I made good on the entry to the Bazaar and sold off my gear. I also sold that massive dream crystal to a specialized buyer that was immune to the effects. That one item alone netted me almost ten thousand credits. I purchased a large quantity of gear to complete the third barge along with some spare mithril for making more long-term sensors.

After that purchase, I found a skilled armorer that let me watch as he crafted my new armor for me. It cost me extra for the tutoring but I learned a lot. The new armor was made from some scaled leather, almost like snakeskin, only much thicker. The scales were about the size of a penny and were harder than steel. It also had good elemental resistance. The upper chest was covered with a solid piece of Mithril with a smaller piece that was articulated below it.

With magic and skills, making armor shaped to deflect didn’t do much so most armors were highly ornamental instead. I just opted for a simple body-hugging outline considering I would be doing up the runes myself. My arms were now no longer exposed as flat diamonds of metal linked with chains covered down to my elbow, with the remains of my arm covered by just the scaled leather. I had tested out many different armor types thanks to the man’s inventory and found this to give me the best protection without losing out too much on mobility.

The back of the armor had overlapping pieces of mithril in the shape of short spiked backbones going all the way to the bottom. That protected my spine but I had also opted for a mesh of mithril that covered the entire back. It added much more protection than just the scaled leather but didn’t inhibit me in any way.

To complete the armor I had a helmet constructed with no open hole to see through. I had a way to fix that issue. The pants were also made from the same scaled leather and I was glad the material was so soft and flexible. Affixed to the front thigh and shin were plates of mithril. That left only my hands exposed. I did commission a pair of leather gloves made from the same leather as my armor, but I would only ever wear one of them. People might think it weird or some requirement to use my magic.

It took four full days to finish up the armor and I had learned enough that I could begin trying to make my own. When I put the armor on, it made me look like some sort of hero General. It was a perfect fit and the material had even a little give to it so it could stretch or shrink to always hug my body. I couldn’t wait to get back home to add the runes to it and make it a true masterwork.