Since I'm having a hard time getting a cover art, my little sister made me one to help out. Not the final CA, but I like it.

She'd also appreciate feedback :p

I've been taking the time to read the stories of some of my more active commentators, and I'll give one shout-out per chapter.

-Spine, I really like This Game We Call Life. Especially how we both used the name "Rostwood" :p. Keep it up!

Enjoy guys!

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Morning found Steel back in his room pacing around. His thoughts had been so jumbled yesterday he had stumbled up to his room and fallen asleep much earlier than he had previously planned out. Nothing bad had happened, but now he was left with little time to plan out the day, especially with the VIP he'd have to take care of.

"Hue." He breathed out, "Wish I could take Mary with me, I bet she'd know how to take care of the princess." He was really going to have to restrain himself around her, especially if what the Archmage said was true. Seeing one Mary had been bad enough angry, a stronger one might actually kill him.

A knock at his door brought him back down to reality. He opened the door, curious.

It was Mema, and she had a curious look on her face. "Hey Steel, a gentleman is looking for you downstairs, are you expecting him?"

"Yes Mema, do you mind telling him do meet me here?"

Mema shook her head, "Not at all, but if it’s for business remember only you get free meals." She sauntered back down to the ground floor. Steel left the door open and sat down on a chair, waiting. Soon, a hand knocked on the open door,

"Come in." Steel announced.

Surprisingly, it was the overseer from before that walked in, leading the slave behind him. The slave looked a little better than he had before; less dirty and normal looking clothes. Steel could read a mix of emotions on his face: resignation, anger, happiness, and hope. An odd mix indeed Steel noted.

"Good morning to you sir. I see you have brought my, err, merchandise." Steel nodded.

The overseer had on his merchant smile today, a perfect poker face in Steel's opinion, and said, "Ah yes dear sir, here it is in perfect, untouched condition. Now, about delivery charges."

Steel chuckled, "Oh my dear overseer, is this not my first time purchasing from you? Can you not just waive the fee?"

The overseer put his hand over is heart, "Oh, but my poor body would be one the line for such a failure. Why, I shudder to think what my superiors would do to me for such a failure." He grinned at Steel.

"Really? Interesting how you failed to mention it yesterday. Perhaps a quick chat with Master Yorick. . ."

"Unfortunately, the guild master has a full schedule today and is unavailable to assist even his dearest friends."

Steel inwardly fumed. It was greedy bastards like him that gave merchants a bad name. Unfortunately, Steel couldn't come up with a good argument to refuse him. He looked over at the slave, and his eyes widened.

"Sir, did you not claim my slave to be untouched?"

The overseer's eyes narrowed, "Yes, why do you ask?"

Steel pointed, "Unless my eyes are deceiving me, he looks injured to me." The overseer whirled around to find blood trickling down the side of the slave's mouth. Roaring in outrage, he raised his hand to slap the slave, who winced and held up his hands in self-defense. As his arm came down, Steel caught it and glared.

"First you try to lie to me, and then you try to injure my property. Shall I call the guards to come deal with you?" He said threateningly.

The overseer jerked his arm out of Steel's grip and glared. He growled and said, "Unless you pay me, I will not perform the magic to tie it to you, and you'll have to take care of him whilst watching for a stab in the back."

"Then leave you arrogant fool!" Steel exploded, "I've had enough of your greed and lies for one day. Rest assured, Yorick will hear of this."

The overseer laughed arrogantly, "Really? It's my understanding that you’re actually a poor adventurer who Master Yorick let into the hall on a whim. I doubt he would may you any mind."

With that, he slammed the door behind him, leaving Steel and the unbound slave behind him.

Steel shook his head and sighed. Of course the man would have done some research first. Still, he'd try to let Yorick know later, with the hope he wasn't in on it.

He looked at the slave, who was sitting with his feet crossed on the floor. "So little one, you have a name?"

The slave cocked his head, thinking. He shook it, pointing at Steel. "You want me to name you?" The slave nodded eagerly.

"You don't seem like you hate being a slave?" A nod, "You just hated being that guy's slave." He nodded again and gave a growl.

Steel crossed his arms, "Now, why in the world would you want to be a slave? Isn't that a poor choice for your future?"

The slave shrugged, and then pointed at himself followed by Steel. "You're okay being my slave?" Nod, "Why?"

The slave grinned, showing a missing tooth and a red fruit. Steel stared, and then laughed, "I see you’re a little trickster aren't you. You wanted to help, so you feigned injury Hm?" The slave nodded happily.

"Now, why do you want to be my slave?"

The slave pointed at the sky, than at himself, than at Steel. "The sky told you?" He shook his head.

"The gods told you?" Another shake of the head. Steel sighed, "Can you not speak?"

The slave shrugged, opening his mouth to show off a working tongue.

"Is it that you don't know how?" The slave moved his head side to side.

"Huh, well I'll call you Echo then, my irony's sake." Echo glared at him, before sighing and nodding.

"Good, now that that's done, I need to figure out a way to make you my slave officially. It wouldn't do for someone to steal you make into slavery from me." Echo nodded.

"If I had a shield, then this would be a lot easier." He mused to himself.

Upon hearing his words, Echo jumped up excitedly and ran over to the bed. He grabbed a pillow and threw it to Steel, who caught it. He returned and knelt in front of the pillow.

"You expect this to work?" Steel asked incredulously. Echo nodded in agreement.

Raising an eyebrow, Steel equipped the pillow to his shield slot, and read the results:

Pillow Shield Type:ShieldDurability:1/1Quality:EliteRequired Stats:N/AEffects:Cannot cause damageExtremely rare because no one would be dumb enough to use this in battle, or even consider equipping it as a shield. Perfect for pillow fights, but not much else.

Steel face palmed after reading the description. Thankfully, the system did not register the item as the first elite item, otherwise he'd have to explain it to the world, and would look like a complete idiot.

Still, it would work for his purposes. He pointed the "shield" at Echo.

"Domination!"

The darkness swirled out of the pillow and covered Echo in its cocoon.

Slave Echo has accepted your DominationName:EchoSpeciesHuman, variantClassN/AHealth:90/90Master:SteelLevel:1Attack/Defense:10/10Skills:NoneDescription:A companion purchased by Steel from the slave auction. For reasons unknown, this person desires to be a slave, and willingly accepted it. Classified as a variant human, it is unknown what this means at this time. Does not have the ability or knowledge on how to speak.

Note, status menu will become available upon Echo's level up, allowing for stat distribution.

The cocoon disappeared, leaving a smiling Echo in its wake. Steel smiled back, "Well then Echo, welcome to the Shield Scout Squad."

Echo tilted his head, held up three fingers, than rolled backwards in wordless laughter as he processed the name. Steel groaned.

"Note to self, get Harkin to change the damn name!"

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After a hearty meal from Mema, the two of them left the guild for the mage's tower. Echo wasn't hungry, so Steel didn't have to pay for his meal. Mema had raised an eyebrow at the boy, but hadn't said anything. She just pursed her lips and went back to serving the other hungry patrons. On the way to the tower, Steel had bought a long cloak for Echo to wear, deciding that an outfit of old clothes didn't suit his slave. The dark blue robe hung on Echo's body like a mage's outfit, and he had seemed delighted to wear it. He skipped beside Steel as they walked, his blond hair bouncing and shining in the sunlight.

'He's an interesting one, that's for sure.' Steel thought, watching the boy jump up and down, 'Too bad he can't talk, I bet he'd have an interesting back story with quests." He rubbed his hands excitedly. He'd had too many big quests recently, he wanted to take a few little ones so that the stress wouldn't overwhelm him. Maybe kill a few cellar rats, or collect some herbs out in the grassland. Yeah, that sounded good.

The tower today had rings of stone orbiting it, reminding Steel of pictures of Saturn. It had a rustic look to it, light brown with small cracks and bricks on the outside. 'If I ever make a house, I want it to change just like that.' Steel thought as they approached the doors.

When they entered, they found the receptionist waiting for them inside the doors. She gave Steel a wry smile,

"Good to see you again young man. I hope you know what you are doing."

Steel chuckled, "Well, not like I have a choice in the matter." He shrugged.

The receptionist patted his shoulder, "Don't worry Steel. Just treat this quest as if you were transporting a beautiful statue. Look at her, admire her, but don't touch or damage her. I'm sure a young, experience man like you will do just fine." The words were encouraging, but half her face kept trying to twitch into a laughing pose.

She led the two to some of the marble looking chairs around a marble table. "On a quick note ma'am. Why don't you change the inside like you change the outside?"

"Oh, it would be too much trouble. Besides, this kind of material is hard to come by, and speaks well of our wealth." She said with pride. She returned to her desk after they were situated, sending a magical message to the Archmage.

A sudden flash of fire brought the Archmage into the chair directly across from Steel, startling Echo out of his own and onto the floor. The Archmage gave a mock salute to Steel, "Morning young Scout. Are you ready to begin your adventure?" He caught sight of Echo struggling to get back up, "Ah good, you brought your slave with you. Excellent start my boy." He nodded in satisfaction.

Steel, who had also been startled by the sudden appearance, recovered and asked, "Did you find out when the dungeon would open?"

"Yes, thank you for the remainder." The Archmage pulled a letter out of his robes and read it, "Master Yorick and I have been monitoring the stability of the cave since the expedition returned. It’s finally started, so Yorick has begun the preparations to set up a base near the entrance. I estimated that the cave would be ready for raids in about 5 days. That should give you plenty of time to train, so be happy." He put away the letter with a smile.

'Huh, guess the overseer wasn't lying about Yorick's duties today.' Steel mused, saying out loud, "So, where is this famous daughter I've heard so much about?"

Archmage Archibald pointed, "Why, she’s right behind you of course."

Surprised, Steel turned around to find himself completely mesmerized by the sight.

Tall, with a body with curves that would make models jealous, and long reddish, blond hair that stretched down to a perfect ass. She moved forward with the grace of a majestic cat, and seemed to inflame the very air around her. She wore a long purple gown that covered her from neck to ankle, yet it seemed to open in eye catching places that were covered in ever moving chapters. The only thing marring her beauty were her narrowed eyes that glowed red and black, but they softened into bright blue eyes as they took in Steel.

Steel had never seen a girl as beautiful as her before. Even Sarah couldn't compare to this vision, though he still felt more toward her. He got up out of his seat and bowed to her, "My lady, this humble scout greets the vision of loveliness that comes before him."

While he was bowing, she quickly raised an eyebrow, but lowered it as he straightened up. "Noble scout, it is good to see one who shows such respect. It is my pleasure to meet the one my father has told me so much about." She held out her hand.

Steel smiled, than kissed it as he took hold of it.

He forgot about the geas.

It didn't forget about him though.

Immediately, his lips and hand began burning and his health bar began to decrease. It wasn't horrible pain, the game designers would never do that, but it felt uncomfortably hot on his hand and his mouth felt like he had eaten some very spicy food. More alarming was that with each pulse of sensation, his life decreased by 10.

Thinking he was on fire, he dropped to the floor and began rolling around like an idiot, yelling out "Not Fire Again! It burns!"

The daughter, who was terribly alarmed, began trying to help him. Unfortunately, that meant she was trying to smother the invisible fire with her hands. Every place she touched began burning, making Steel even more uncomfortable. Echo had also dropped down, though his solution has to hug Steel in an effort to put out the flames.

The Archmage was struggling to control his laughter, though he managed to cast a heal spell to prevent Steel from dying. His beard began twitching uncontrollably from the scene in front of him.

Steel finally managed to get out, "Stop touching me, it’s a geas!", before returning to yelps of fire. Her eyes gleaming, the daughter put two and two together. She got up and crossed her arms, glaring at her father.

"Father dear, perhaps you should have told me about your spell before I touched the poor man."

At that, the Archmage let loose a booming laugh as he rocked back and forth on the sole of his feet. He beckoned her closer, and whispered to her, "Think of it as payback for the damage to the tower. Also, feel free to take advantage of his. . . condition."

She blinked, and a sneaky smiled appeared on her face before being replaced by her previous serenity. "Of course father. As usual, you always know how to keep me safe." As she turned to look at Steel, the hand behind her back patted her father's in thanks.

It took a few moments for the geas to fade away, leaving a panting Steel on the floor, still being squeezed tightly by Echo.

"Echo, I'm okay now, please let go." He moaned, wincing in the boy's tight grip. Echo complied, but shot Steel a worried look. "It's just a condition of the quest Echo, I'm not allowed to touch her without feeling pain." Echo nodded, and put himself between the daughter and Steel, his arms out in a wall to prevent her from getting closer to Steel.

She giggled at the cute sight, "My, what an adorable little boy. Who is he master Steel?"

Steel winced, getting back to his feet, "Forgive me my lady, but I'd prefer you never address me as master again. It strokes wounds that have not yet healed." He shifted his weight, "To answer your question, this is Echo, the newest addition to my, err, family. He's here to fill a sudden opening in my squad as a slave."

The daughter's eyes hardened, "I see. Pleasure to meet you Echo." She held out her hand, but Echo shied back from it, fear on his face. Startled, he face softened, "Don't worry, the spell is only on Steel. You won't get hurt from touching me." Hesitating, Echo accepted the hand, and was pulled into a large hug by the beautiful lady, "You are so cute! You are required to sleep with me okay? Call me big sister." Echo struggled hopelessly and finally let himself be cuddled.

Steel cleared his throat, "How should I refer to you my lady?"

She glared at him, "My lady or ladyship will do. You may also call me mistress, goddess, or most beautiful of all women." Steel didn't see it, but her eyes were twinkling in amusement at him.

He sighed, "Yes your ladyship, whatever you say."

She nodded, "Good. Now, it’s my understanding you'll be training for the next 5 days, is that correct?"

He nodded, "Yes your ladyship, care to join me?"

She raised her nose haughtily, "I have no need for such things, and my magic is strong enough to take care of me."

"If you come and watch, I'll let you hold onto Echo the entire time."

Her dress changed to a more relaxed form of robed pants and shirt, "Hurry up fool, I have no patience for diddling around."

Sighing, Steel led her out of the tower, the Archmage waving a handkerchief at their departure.

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Steel led the two to the training hall, where other players were hard at work. He walked over to the receptionist and asked where Eric was. She pointed him down a hall opposite the training room. Thanking her, Steel walked down the corridor, Her ladyship and Echo following closely behind. Steel followed the sound of snoring to an open room where Eric was snoozing away, an empty bottle of beer in his lap. Steel slapped the desk.

"Hey old man, it's time for some training."

Eric opened one eye, "Oh, it’s you again. Give me 5 more minutes." The eye closed, then both shot open and focused on the lady. He stumbled out of his chair, "Ah, good morning Lady Mary."

She nodded, "I wish to observe his training, is that alright?"

He nodded, "Of course. Come boy, time we knock some real fighting sense into you." He opened a side door to reveal another training room, this one devoid of players. "Come along then boy."

Steel stepped in, "Sir, you aren't going to make the training especially hard because someone is watching, right?"

Eric laughed, "Of course not. It's already going to kill you most likely, no need to make it worst."

Steel felt so much better.