(Zack)

"Jumpy, much?" Nik asks, tossing me my knife back.

"I haven't had a decent night's rest since I got here," I glare at him, sheathing my knife. "Has it really been a week?"

"Yep," he answers. "How'd training go?"

"Nearly to Level 10 Knight," I answer. "It's so much slower, now. Of course, that's probably to be expected, considering my overall Level."

"You ready to go?" He asks.

"Am I ever," I say, then look around. "A'Minra! A'Kuta! I'm leaving! Next time I come here, I won't be so easy on you!"

Nik snorts, then pulls me against him, casting Binding Darkness before taking off into the sky.

"So," I say as we fly towards Maelnor. "How much of my training did you watch?"

"I stopped by at least once a day."

"I counted at least twice."

Nik snorts.

"Yes," he says. "I was here at least twice a day. You were pretty intently watching a lot of times, though the snowball fight looked fun. The kills after, not so much."

"They annoyed me," I say. "So I killed them."

"Please don't do that to actual people," he says. "Goblins are a big difference."

"Depends on how and why they're annoying me."

Nik groans, but doesn't comment on that, asking me a little bit more about the training. He mentions that they do believe there's a maximum capacity Lost Cities have for Monsters, but it's hard to confirm something like that.

And the Crystals aren't giving me a straight answer on it.

"How'd Gold handle the separation?" I ask.

"He stayed at the Dark Temple at first," Nik answers. "But the last couple of nights, he wouldn't leave your property, so I'm sure he's worried to death about you. Actually, I know he's worried to death about you, based on how much he was pacing around when I left him this morning."

"Drop me off at the Trading Post," I tell Nik. "I'm going to collect my Bounties and sell some shit before heading home. Gold probably won't want to leave me for a bit once I'm there, and I could use a bath."

Nik snorts, then agrees. A few minutes later, we fly over the walls of Maelnor, and are soon at the Trading Post. I head inside, and am surprised to find an actual line at the counter. There are six different groups waiting for Jesse to finish. Most of them have only two or three people, though the third one in line has five.

Holy damnation, that's a lot of people. More than I've ever seen before, and I only recognize one of the groups.

"Are you guys people who are normally camping out at Praevar?" I ask the knight in front of me, who looks down, his gaze giving my armor and weapons a curious look before meeting my own. "I've never seen most of you before, and this is… an unusual line."

"Troops coming out here for the war," the knight tells me. "We'll be farming Praevar and the mines until it's time, though a couple of groups are here to keep the valley's numbers in check. His Highness is assigning a few groups to stay at the other side of the forest to act as lookouts as well."

"And you?" I ask.

"Praevar," he answers. "I'm hoping to gain another dozen Levels before the war."

He's Level 98 right now, so he wants to hit Level 110. That would be three more every-five boosts. His equipment doesn't look that good, so he's probably not one of the 'experienced' warriors.

"When did you come out?" I ask.

"A few days ago," he answers. "Haven't seen you around before, but you seem equipped. Hunting without the System?"

"No," I respond. "I'm-"

"ZACKY!" Jesse finally notices me, and everyone jumps at his sudden shriek.

Myself included. I really, really hope he decides to stay in Talorn for a little bit and know the horrors I've faced over the last week.

"Yeah, him," I say. "Pervert, I will feed you to A'Minra! I really will!"

"How was your trip?" He exclaims.

"Go back to serving others!" I tell him. "Or did you not notice that you have a line? I know it's an unfamiliar concept to you, Pervert, so let me explain how they work, okay? You serve the people in the order they arrived in the line in. You have five groups between the one at the front and me. Okay? So serve the ones at the front, then the ones after then, and so on, until you get to me. And then, I will mercifully sell my shit to you, okay?"

"But you-"

"PEOPLE IN FRONT FIRST!"

A few of the adults laugh as Jesse returns to working with the people he'd been with.

"Yeah, I'm that guy," I tell the stunned soldier.

"Why did he shriek like that when he noticed you?"

"You haven't heard my reputation, have you?" I ask.

"No," he answers. "Haven't heard of a kid, unless… you're not a kid? But I've not heard of an aging-altered person with your description."

"Nah, I'm a kid," I tell him. "I'm just very popular with the locals. I was hunting down in Talorn for the last week."

"Hunting?" He asks.

"Yep," I answer. "I'm making a record of Goblins that's more complete than anything you'll have found before."

"What kind of record?" He asks, and I pull the book out.

I sense confusion when he sees the thick tome, so I open it and show him my data so far. He seems pretty impressed.

"And you're able to sneak around?" He asks. "Some of them I've seen are pretty smart."

"Yeah," I say. "While I was in Talorn, I had to deal with two who weren't interested in fighting, and were smart enough to get away with their harassment."

"Who all went with you?" He asks.

"No one," I answer. "I can handle myself, in most cases, and Nik'd scouted the area and left me somewhere that he felt I'd be safe in within the walls, with an emergency route of the Fallen City available if I needed it."

"The Dark Knight, Nik?" He asks.

"My mentor," I nod. "He's taught me a lot."

The warrior continues looking through my tome until it's time for him and the woman with him to do their business, so he hands it back to me. I put it back in my Inventory, drawing some curious looks from the party of five, which hadn't left after they finished their business. They're just hanging around.

They're all pretty strong, too, and their looks and what I do manage to sense from their minds tells me they don't have pleasant goals in mind. I mean, they're looking as if they're just curious about the kid with the weapons, but I'm doubting it.

Taking a deep breath, I force a vision while looking at them to see what their goals are. It lasts for a few seconds, and I sigh.

"Guys," I say. "If you really want to ogle my weapons, you can just ask."

I totally misread them. They're just interested in my equipment, and not in stealing it.

"I tried using Appraisal on your breastplate," the leader of the group, a Level 143 magician, approaches. "Though it didn't register."

"Probably because it requires Level 10 Appraisal," I answer. "It's made from a special alloy crafted of a variety of rare and valuable ores."

I pull off one of my vambraces and hand it to him, and he turns it over in his hands, examining it carefully. He frowns a little bit, then mutters a spell under his breath.

"Interesting," he says. "Does this use Spook Ore as one of the components to the alloy?"

"Indeed," I answer. "How'd you guess?"

"The type of metallic look it has," he answers. "It reminds me of it. How did you manage to afford this?"

"The ingots were mine," I answer. "And I've a bit of money from them and selling other stuff, so Jackson was willing to forge this for me."

"And all of your gear was forged with the alloy?" He asks.

"What I'm wearing, yes," I answer.

"And you were fighting Dungeon-Class Monsters the last week?" He asks. "Including Bounty Beasts?"

"Yeah."

"Interesting," he turns the vambrace over a few times, then hands it back to me. "May I examine your knife?"

"Sure," I slip the vambrace back on, then unsheathe my knife and hand it over. He examines the blade closely. "You like equipment?"

Now that I'm looking at his, it's pretty high-quality. The armor he's wearing especially.

Chestplate of Herasid's Judgment Forged of a special alloy of Holy Ore, Blessed Ore, and Light Ore for Isaac Herasid, this chestplate possesses a high resiliency for any form of dark magics. When worn with the rest of the set, the effects of Endurance and Willpower on defensive Skills are increased by 100% and any healing or light magics' potency is increased by 100%.

In other words, as long as he's wearing the full set, which I'm betting is what the full, silver-and-gold armor he's wearing is, then he's got a pretty solid defense. I suppose him being a Paladin means that's pretty useful.

"Yeah," he responds as I'm examining his armor. "Your knife doesn't have any nicks in it, nor any signs-Primordial Essence?"

"How'd you guess?" I ask as the duo talking with Jesse looks over, and even Jesse himself gives me a curious look.

"It has at least three ores I can think of in it," he says. "Yet doesn't seem affected by the supposed fighting you had over the last week. While you might have simply not used it, if you're selling loot, there's a good chance you used it instead of your sword to cut into the monsters. This is definitely the work of Jackson as well. It's a good family to get equipment from."

"Family?" I vaguely remember some mention of his family being a family of smiths.

"Yeah," the Paladin says. "His family's one of the oldest smithing families in the Boundary, and they're known for making legendary equipment. They're considered one of the Five True Master Blacksmiths, collectively. His grandfather forged this armor for my great-great grandfather."

"Huh," I say. "That's impressive, I wasn't aware of it."

That does explain a lot about his demand, and why he's out here forging equipment for the high-powered Adventurers. I just thought he was good at forging 'cause he was old and been doing it forever. It being a family legacy definitely explains it.

"It's an impressive legacy," he confirms, returning to me my knife. "I managed to get my hands on some more ores, and was planning on seeing if he'd forge a sword to go with the armor."

"The one you're wearing doesn't?" I look at it curiously.

"No," he answers. "Well, it does a little bit, but it's not quite as strong, and nor was it made by a True Master Blacksmith."

"Ah," I say, and he returns me my knife, which I sheathe immediately.

"How'd you get some Primordial Essence?"

I guess I really can't hide it anymore.

"Platinum Present from the Santa Boss," I answer.

"There's Christmas Ore in your gear?"

"No clue what its purpose is, but yeah."

He snorts, shaking his head.

"You're an interesting kid, Zack," he says. "That is your name, right? I heard Jesse call out-"

"Yeah, it's my name," I answer. "Anyway, I think it's almost my turn at the counter. Was there anything else?"

"No," he answers. "We'll see you around, Zack."

The Paladin and his crew leave, and I return to just waiting. As Jesse finishes up with the duo in front of me, another person shows up.

"What can I do for, you Zacky?"

Be eaten while attempting to kill A'Lutar.

"I need to claim two Bounties," I answer. "And sell some loot."

"Loot first!"

I open up my Inventory and start pulling shit out, dropping it onto the counter.

"Zacky?" Jesse picks up one of the items. "Is this a Goblin's tongue?"

I will do to you what I did to him.

"He was being cheeky, so I cut his tongue out."

"Was he dead first?"

"Possibly," I answer as Jesse picks up an amulet. "Found that on some random Goblin."

Jesse assesses everything, putting it on the estimator thingy, then gives me my loot from that before preparing the Bounty Beast papers for the two I name. After giving me the reward, he wishes me a good day, and I head out.

My next stop is the tailor, who's finished the coats and boots I ordered. They're extremely comfy, and I send them into my Inventory. I check the blankets after that, and confirm they're of an excellent softness before sending them into my Inventory.

"Thanks," I say, and she dips her head.

My final stop before heading home is to Jackson's forge. He takes me into the back and presents to me my new gear. It doesn't look all that much different than my old.

"It's a lot more powerful," he tells me when I comment that. "I did refrain from using certain ores in the final mix, though there are only partials of the remaining ingots. I also used up all of the other two ingredients as well."

The Primordial Essence and the Magic Crystals. Damn, this stuff was costly for him. I'm sure he has the loose stuff he'd made to test it laying around. I'll let him keep it.

"Keep what's left," I tell him. "Are you sure it's more powerful?"

"Yes," he answers. "The armor itself, as long as you're wearing it, will slow down Bleed effects to once every three seconds, and will continue to absorb hostile magics. It has the most potent cold resistance of anything I've forged before excluding some of the gear for Normar.

"Your weapons," he continues. "Will inflict Bleed with every cut, and it won't heal from bandaging. It will require a high-power, specialized healing in order to cure, and that's from just a nick, including ones that don't do any direct damage."

"Got it," I say. "Thanks, Jackson."

"You're welcome," he says as I send everything into my Inventory. "Not going to equip it?"

"No," I smile at him. "This set's going to remain a secret for now. People know I had another set forged, but they'll think it's just a backup. Once it's time to get serious – like with the war – I'll use it. The spear'll be used earlier, but people'll probably think it's just the same alloy as what I'm wearing. Also, some guy with a Heradis Judgment armor thingy figured out my armor was made with Primordial Essence, so people will probably mention it. Oh, and he said he was going to see if you could forge a sword to match his armor."

"Peter, probably," Jackson nodded. "His father died recently, and he inherited the suit. We've wondered when his lineage would eventually ask us to forge a weapon to match it. Unfortunately, we forged the armor with Primordial Essence, so unless they managed to acquire some-"

"Do you vouch for him?" I ask, and Jackson thinks for a few moments, then nods. "I'd be willing to sell one to you, specifically for his sword."

"Zack," Jackson says. "A single Primordial Essence is worth one thousand platinum."

"I take it you don't have that in change?"