Startled at hearing her name, Julia gave Rick a better look.

“Rick?” she said, her eyes wide. A smile bloomed on her surprized dace, “Rick! Is… that you?”

“Hey Jules, nice to see you again,” Rick said again.

“Nice to see you? That’s what you say?” Julia said walking up to him. Her smile disappeared,

“I… I am glad you are safe,” Rick replied, lost for words.

“What are you even doing here back in town? Didn’t you leave for University already?” Julia said.

“Julia, you know I am sorry about what happened. He was my best friend -”

“Please don’t!” Julia stopped him. “I was really excited to see you there for a second, you know.”

A conversation came to a stop as everyone fell silent.

“So, you guys know each other already, let’s go in shall we,” Mr. Hannigan finally said to Julia, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

“Yes!” Mathew jumped in on cue, “Julia, your… friend here has quite some amazing things.”

Julia looked at the two, and said softly, “I know this is selfish, but I am not going to sell him anything.”

“Miss Evans you know the rules-” Hannigan started, the perpetual smile still on his face.

“You know I have done my bit for the place. I am asking this one thing,” she said, her voice choking on the words. Saying this she immediately walked back inside without waiting for the others to reply.

“Julia can we talk?” Rick asked. He wanted to make things good with her. She was one of his closest friends before and now she was refusing to even look at him. He felt sick as the memories flashed.

‘Fuck! Why did I have to meet her!’

Julia did not say anything more and simply left the three outside.

“Mr. Rick, why don’t you show us what you have to offer first,” Hannigan said trying to salvage the situation. He had just met someone who could maybe get them a spot at the settlement by the Library and the goodwill was already getting jeopardised.

“Sure,” Rick said snapping out of the daze. He reminded himself of the reason he was there- the dungeon.

‘I need to get stronger first,’ he reasoned.

He stood before the three and showed them the golem core in the palm of his hand, “I will sell you this if you have anything worthwhile to offer.”

He tossed the golem-core to one side.

“Beast core? We have -” Mathew shrugged and started, but immediately stopped as a six-foot-tall Beaver statue rose up from the ground.

“Don’t worry, it’s not dangerous,” Rick assured the duo. Patting the earthy golem on its back he introduced it, “This, is a Beaver Golem, made from the beast-core of a Needle Armed Beaver. It is completely loyal and follows any instruction given to it.”

Rick then ordered the golem to lift its hands up, sit down and then stand back up, before disapparating it. With his demonstration done, he looked up at the slack-jawed Mathew and the poker-faced Hannigan.

‘Do you show no other emotion?’ he thought, irritated.

“What did you call it? Golems, is it?” Mr. Hannigan was the first one to recover.

“Golems, ya,” he affirmed.

“How…How many more do you have?” Mathew asked, looking pensively at Hannigan.

“Well, if you have something good with you to exchange, I can spare… let me think,” Rick said. He put his hand on his chin and scratched his forehead for a second, pretending to calculate an estimate for a minute before answering. “I think I can agree to give you ten of them.”

Mathew and Hannigan shared a quick glance followed by a subtle nod.

Hannigan looked at Rick apologetically, fixing his forever loose glasses again said, “Would you come with me then, Mr. Rick. I have a few things that might interest you.”

“I am sure Julia would have the better things to barter here. Otherwise, Mathew would not bring me straight here after all,” Rick said with a polite smile.

“Aah! That might be so, but as you can see, she seems to be in no mood to sell anything to you,” Hannigan gave Rick a tight-lipped grin, “I am be your only choice now.”

Rick’s forehead furrowed, at the Hannigan’s insinuation.

“Well, then I will get going,” Rick gambled. He did not want to leave without trying out the dungeon but he could not just give-in to everything either.

“Wait-” Mathew called out hastily. “Give me some time. I will try talking to her.”

“How long do you want?” he asked. He could not have them take a week and expect him to wait around.

“Amm…”

“Well, no matter what, why don’t you join the rest of us for lunch,” Hannigan said. “Mathew can take the time to try and talk to Miss. Evans in the meanwhile?”

“Okay, and could you tell… you know what, let it be,” Rick decided against saying anything. She wasn’t going to get convinced by a message passed on by stranger anyway.

“Very well, this will be a chance for me to learn a little more of the wonders happening elsewhere as well,” Hannigan said, pushing the glasses up the bridge of his nose and added, “Mathew, you know where you can find us.”

“Are you from Middlesboro as well,” Hannigan asked as they walked.

“Yeah. Everyone here seems to know each other” he said looking around. From what he could tell, there were not more than thirty people in the 'camp' around Harow Bridge and they were all teenagers apart from a few older faces. Everyone seemed to have occupied one of the empty railway carts that lined up on both sides of the path and turned them into their new homes.

“Yeah, they are all mostly from the school down the road, and the few others joined later, but we all know each other now,” Hannigan said, waving back to a passerby. “It’s tough work… but what isn’t these days”

“But why here?” Rick pushed on, “You must know of the gathering near the Library, right? And this place is right at the edge of the forest, it would be so much safer for you guys there.”

“We did try… But that’s another story. We are already here, let’s grab some food shall we.”

Rick found himself in a clearing at the end of the path. Covered by trees at the perimeter, it looked like a picnic spot in the warm winter noon. At one end, below a tree, a queue of people to get their meal made in a large pot. An appetizing aroma wafted throughout the place.

“Community meals?” Rick asked. He had initially planned to polite eat off one of his canned bottles. But because everyone ate out of the same pot, he felt assured of his safety

“It gives us a reason to meet every day at least,” Hannigan said as the two queued up as well.

Rick picked by a blue children’s plate. The utensils were an assorted group of mismatched plates spoons and cups, most probably scavenged from the areas nearby.

“Alima what do we have today?” Hannigan asked the woman serving the food. The lady was one of the rare cases of an older person in the group. She had her straight hair tied to a knot and sleeves rolled up with a ladle in one arm and an apron in the other.

“It’s pork again,” she smiled apologetically.

“Aah! At least we have ample food now. Where is Aasim? I don’t see him here?” he asked moving along.

“Aasim’s at the dungeon. It’s his turn today,” she said serving Hannigan.

“Oh yes… yes…” he mumbled, as he walked along the line, adding, “Give him a good piece, maybe a belly pieces if you have them please… special guest.”

Rick saw his chance but kept his silence

“Oh… Of course. Welcome to the camp,” she smiled at Rick, before running the ladle through the gravy looking for the piece. Soon enough she found it, “I hope you enjoy it”

“Thank you,” Rick replied politely as he looked at the enormous piece on his plate. He could feel the taste of the meat through the smell itself. It would be tender to the bone, he knew it.

The two quickly got out of the line and sat down on the grassy clearing away from any prying ears. Hannigan smiled at Rick and said, “Don’t be shy, let’s dig in.”

“This looks really good,” Rick said and bit into the pork belly.

Ding

A notification rang.

‘Did he poison me!’ he immediately shot a glance at Hannigan.

“Nothing’s wrong, just check the notification,” Hannigan stated calmly, winking back.

[Vitality has increased for the duration of eight hours]

“It’s Alima’s cooking. It’s quite a remarkable skill isn’t it,” Hannigan explained, “It’s a shame you wont get it every time though.”

“Do you think she will be willing to teach?” Rick asked. Skills were hard to acquire as you had to perform a certain task to get it. For instance, he his progression of [Rune Craftsman] was directly related to the number of runes he could draw. But there were no skills for sleeping or running. But there could be one that gave increase in stamina, but he just did not know of it.

“Will you be taking that as the compensation for the golems then,” Hannigan asked, as he continued biting down on his piece.

“That- No, I can’t settle for just that. But about that…” Rick had found the perfect opening to ask, “I heard Alima say something about a dungeon. If you tell me about it and let me have a go at it, I can consider that as my payment in return for the golems.”

This finally caught Hannigan off-guard making him leave his food and look up to meet Rick’s gaze.