(Zack)

Today's the last day of the game with Samantha's five students, and damn, are they really trying. Even after 'dying', they're still working together, hoping they can manage to take me on despite our massive difference in Level and ability.

Even Kylie's joined them. She's the only one I haven't tagged yet, mostly because she hasn't come after me before, and the other four are attempting to distract me so that she can tag me.

Well, they're going to attempt to distract me. They're currently just stalking me beyond what they think is my range of perception.

Okay, well, they kind of are. But Gold's stalking them, and is letting me know. Apparently, Beastborn are natural stalkers. Who knew?

Wait. Hold on. Me. I did. I knew it. I can't wait until I meet an actual Wolf Beastborn, since they'll be bigger masters of stealth than Gold.

Speaking of Beastborn, I've managed to learn that there are only four types, and of each species of them, they're all the same type. So all Dog Beastborn have golden retriever traits, all Monkey Beastborn have… the same kind of monkey traits, all Cat Beastborn all have… I'm not sure, actually. As near as I could glean, they're either tiger or lion. I could probably just ask Nik or Jesse or Blaine, though.

The five of them have been following me all day. I shoot a quick impression to Gold, who I'm pretty sure starts giggling in response by how amused his thoughts get.

Then I use Conceal, something the five apprentices weren't aware I had.

I sneak my way down to Samantha's hideout, where the five students are staying. It's in the abandoned part of town, and technically, underneath a building. Getting into the hideout requires knowing how to get in there, which I found out by stalking my little prey. I mean my hunters.

I'm barely five steps into the common area of the assassin's hideout when something attacks me, flipping me over and onto the ground, putting me into a chokehold faster than I can react. Dammit, Samantha!

"Zack?" She tightens her grip when I cancel my Conceal. "How did you get in here?"

"I've known how to enter for, like, three weeks," I tell her. "Don't think Nik'd appreciate me getting broken bones 'cause of you."

Samantha loosens her grip on me.

"What are you doing here?" She asks.

"I gave your apprentices the slip," I grin, turning my head to face her. "Figured I'd wait for them in here, since we only have, like, an hour left of the game. You know I almost killed them yesterday, don't you?"

She sighs, releasing me. They tried to used Gold against me, putting to the test my claim of no longer seeing it as a game if they did, and the only reason I didn't beat the living crap out of them was because it was obvious they'd asked Gold to pretend like they'd kidnapped him.

His wagging tail, barely-contained smile, excitement in his eyes, and rapidfire thoughts told me all I needed to know. His excitement at the game was so powerful that I could sense it before I even got to them.

I still gave them a good thrashing. No permanent injuries, but I felt I had to remind them that I like Gold a lot and that they were lucky I knew it was by his choice that he was tied up. I'm not even sure how they talked him into that, though it probably had to do with the fact that he could escape the rope easily, since they didn't actually tie him.

He was holding the ends of the rope in his hands, with no knot formed.

"You know they're probably not going to realize you're here, right?" She asks.

"You know they were doomed to fail from the start, right?" I ask, and she laughs.

I walk over to one of the couches and plop myself onto it, lifting my up left leg and resting my foot on my right knee, leaning back with my hands behind me head, smirking. I can't help it, this is too awesome.

For the next hour and a half, I remain sitting here, Samantha and I chatting a bit about her days as an apprentice of Jesse's. He was definitely a slave driver for her as a student, but she talks about him with affection. He terrified her at first, but she wouldn't be who she is today without his teaching.

She wouldn't be a powerful assassin, and I can sense her very real desire to work against the Shadow of Life.

"Samantha!" Her apprentices rush into the room, none of them using Conceal. "He gave us the slip earlier and-"

"Hey, Zack," Kylie waves at me.

"Hey, kids," I smirk at them as the other four look at me.

"Only Kylie noticed me," I tell Samantha. "You going to punish them for lack of observation?"

"Yes," she says, then frowns. "Are you the one who turned all the statues around before we showed up here?"

One of the rooms in their hideout have this large stone statues of assassins, though I'm not sure who they're supposed to be over. There are six of them in total, and they face the center of the room.

"That took me, like, three days to do."

They took me about three hours each, and I had to take a decent break between each one to recover. Those fuckers were heavy. But once they were all turned around, there were no creepy statues staring at me in there.

"We're still trying to finish turning them back around!" One of the guys exclaims, and Samantha laughs.

"You guys were doomed to fail from the start," I tell them, then pull my gloves out of my Inventory and hand them to Samantha. "Here you go, Samantha."

"Thanks," she takes them, then looks to her apprentices. "Head to the training room and get started on set forty-three."

The five of them groan, but leave, and I stand and stretch a little.

"So," Samantha stands. "Mind if I ask something?"

"Asking is free," I tell her. "Well, for now."

She raises an eyebrow, and I grin at her.

"I've only ever heard you call Jesse 'Pervert'," she says. "But it's clear you actually respect him in addition to knowing the truth. Why do you call him that?"

"It goes with his act," I tell her. "When things are serious, I drop it, just like him. In fact, I called him by his name out loud just a few days ago."

She looks stunned by that.

"And to his face a time before that," I tell her. "The Pervert knows I'm just having about as much fun as he is, and if he wanted me to stop, he'd tell me. Just like you, he can move quickly enough to put me in a lock, and I'm sure he's strong enough to actually kill me on his own, too. I'm not sure how, I just know he is. He's freaky strong."

Rogues generally aren't that strong.

"Yes, he is," she laughs. "How easily could you have gotten out?"

"Depends on if I wanted to give you a serious injury or not," I answer. "I have a couple of powerful Dark Knight Skills that would've made it easy, but also would've probably done something pretty damaging as I attempted to escape. Without those… you felt a little bit stronger than me, and you're definitely faster. So it'd be a struggle, ultimately. You aren't quite on the level of those who can just take me down."

Like Nik, Jesse, Nathan, Blaine, and Travis. The Dark Knights who hunt Fallen. Some of the other badasses in the area. Those are people against whom all my current power would be worthless. They're not just stronger, faster, and more resilient than me, they're also far more experienced, many of them by decades, or even a century or more.

"Anyway," I tell Samantha. "I need to go finish my preparations, I'm going on a bit of a trip tomorrow, and will be gone for a few days."

"Good luck," she tells me, and I nod, then leave.

My first order of business isn't preparations, though. It's to track down the Snow Master and give it a taste of my new sword. If it really can reduce healings… it might be able to prevent it from healing when it enters the snow. Or at least, make it take longer.

I'm stronger now, too. And faster. Better. And I have new Skills that can and will help me, too.

So I leave the City of Maelnor and make my way through the snow tunnels of the valley until I sense it stalking me through the walls. The moment it lunges at me, I dodge.

"Shroud of Darkness" I growl as I move, and space goes black.

As usual, I have crystal-clarity in this, and the Snow Master looks a bit confused and stunned, its thoughts filled with the fear that comes with being caught within this. I move forward as it attempts to get its bearings.

It manages to move, but not fast enough to stop my sword, a Strike of Darkness augmented by my Aura of Darkness cutting through the beast with ease, severing its head. I release the shroud and watch as the beast before me explodes into snow. Looks like it falls into the classification of Rare Boss Monster, and its two rewards were Snow Master Pelts and Snow Master Blood (Vial)s.

That beastie dead, I make my way back to Maelnor and down to Blaine's shop, hoping he's actually free for a few minutes. He's been extremely busy lately.

"Hey, Blaine," I greet the old alchemist when he comes out of the back. "Do you have a bit?"

"I'm mixing up some potions," he tells me. "We need to stock up before the war. I can spare maybe five minutes."

"Mind if I come back with you?" I ask. "Oh, and I have something that might count as a rare ingredient for you. I'm not sure."

"Oh?" He asks.

"Vials of the Snow Master's blood," I explain.

"Indeed," he nods. "Those are pretty hard to get, depending on the area. Out here? Definitely. I assume this means you hunted it down for a bit of revenge?"

"Yep," I grin at him. "Do you want to buy them?"

"I assumed you got all fifty?"

"Nope," I answer. "I didn't get it into its true form, sadly. I'm not actually sure how to do that."

"Me, neither," he laughs. "Do you want to come into the back and talk about whatever it was you wanted to know?"

"Yeah," I say.

Blaine leads me into the back, where he has several alchemy stations set up, all of them in-use. Yeah, he's definitely preparing for the war. There are crates and barrels of supplies in here, jars and bottles and vials covering the walls.

"Damn," I say in awe. "I didn't realize just how much you had back here."

"I receive regular shipments from deeper in," he tells me. "And over the next month, they'll be sending out some guards to set up a warehouse specifically to stock full of reagents and potions, a few more Master Alchemists coming out. We want to make sure we're as prepared as possible."

More Master Blacksmiths are coming out, too – and they're getting a warehouse set up to hold ingots and stuff. Naturally, everyone still has to pay, even for the war. Things cost, after all. It does make me wonder about how the loss is handled when a bunch of high-tag people are buying things. When I asked Nik about it, he was pretty evasive, and asking Jesse isn't something I'm really into.

"I'll buy the vials for ten gold apiece," Blaine tells me. "I've already set out a request for them at the same worth. Normally, they're sold for five – that's what a Certified Assessor will give for them. However, the Potions I can make with them are portent."

"What kind of Potions do you make with them?"

"Ones better for magicians," he tells me as he returns to working on his potions. "I can use them to create potions that either temporarily increase someone's cold resistance or the power of their cold-based magics. It's the most expensive ingredient, but the total potion, just in materials alone, can cost up to a diamond just to make."

I whistle. That's an expensive potion. I know they have even more expensive ones, though.

"Speaking of magicians," I say, remembering why I actually came here. "Is the Teleport Spell locked to magicians? I've only heard of them having it, and it's been implied or suggested to me that it was. I figured, since you're a magician, you could probably tell me for sure?"

"Yes," he answers. "Only one Class can actually use it – you have to go through the Scholar line of magicians. It becomes available at Tier III of the Class."

"Got it," I say. "That kind of sucks, since I don't plan on becoming a magician until I've Ascended."

"That takes five Classes, minimum, yes?" He asks.

"Yes," I answer, then remember something. "You know, it'll take longer if I don't advance Warrior? I just wasted some pretty damn good Experience, I'm sure, because I forgot to do that."

"Probably," Blaine rolls his eyes. "Did you wish to sell them?"

"Yeah," I pull out the vials, and he hands me the diamond for them. "See you around, Blaine."

"Good luck," he tells me, and I leave his shop.

My next order of business is the tailor, who also does stuff with pelts. She just moved in a few days ago, and Nik vouched for her, or I wouldn't be going to her.

"Hello," she smiles at me warmly. "You must be Zack."

My reputation precedes me, if that guarded look in her eyes tells me anything.

"Hello!" I walk up to her. "Can you do anything with Snow Master Pelts?"

"Sure can!" She tells me. "Did you want to sell or have them transformed into something else?"

"Two jackets, two pairs of boots, and two blankets," I say. "I have ten. Has Nick given you the foot sizes for Gold and me?"

"He sure has," she tells me. "I can have them ready for you in a week, and it'll cost you twenty gold."

"Five."

"Twenty."

"Five."

"Twenty."

"Four."

She's tough, and it takes me almost twenty minutes to bring her down to nine gold, eighty-seven silver. After I negotiate that with her, I pay her for the work, making her promise she'll actually do it right, then I buy some clothes for her. She actually came with a bunch for youth, since not only am I here, but there are a few others as well.

The original cost for my purchases would be thirty-three silver, but I talk her down to fifteenish. With those purchases done, I head to the new shoemaker's store, where I pick up the three pairs of boots I had custom-made for me. Rather than being a silver and a half, they're two. I talk him down to only two and a half total.

My final stop is to the general goods store for some groceries, as I want to make sure both Gold and I are stocked-up well on them. After my haggles, I manage to spend only around fifteen silver for around forty silver's worth of groceries, half of which will go to Gold.

My purchases done, I make my way to Jackson's. He's with a customer, a soldier I don't really recognize. Here's hoping Jackson can do what I want, since his shop's supposed to be closing here in a few minutes.

I would've come sooner, only it was a last-minute thought of mine. It's not an emergency, anyway.