“Bones, meet Morem. Morem, meet Bones. ” With the introductions done, Solin swiftly slipped out and went to register his match, leaving Morem and Bones alone.

“A pleasure, Mrs. Morem.” Bones greeted her and got an raised eyebrow and a look full of questions in return. “Mhm look here…Boney-”

Oh for the love of…

“-I want to know where Solin was for the past two months and why was he avoiding me?” She stomped her foot and vines twisted around Bones feet, holding him in place. Bones chuckled but provided no answers. “It’s best you have that talk with Solin when he comes back.”

*hmph* “Fine!” She fumed.

Bones found the whole thing to be amusing. Solin never mentioned anything about having a girlfriend. All he talked about was training and constantly having a hard time in the arena against Mrs. Morem…Ah, right. How could I have missed that? It was pretty obvious.

Roughly ten minutes later, Solin returned and looked at Morem who kept her distance from Bones, in puzzlement. He approached her and asked her what she was doing over there. “What happened?” She didn’t answer immediately. Her frown deepened as she couldn't come up with an answer and she meekly replied: “I don’t know. There’s something…off about your pal.” She looked at Bones, over Solin's shoulder and he waved at her. “I guess it was nothing, sorry.” Solin nodded but had an inkling of an idea of what might have happened. Her high nature affinity made her sensitive to certain types of affinity, which included a certain type of people and races, like an undead.

Bones approached the two and excused himself, saying he still had an errand to run. He said his goodbyes and left but not before giving Solin a wink. Solin sighed, then looked at Morem who kept staring at Bones as he was leaving. Crap, did she see Bones winking at me? That must’ve freaked her out.

After leaving the arena, Bones strolled the streets heading in no particular direction. Just watching the crowd of people and checking out stores. It wasn’t a complete lie when he said he had an errand to run. He thought about searching for engraving tools and checking prices for a basic alchemy set. Higher quality engraving tools are what he would eventually need and an alchemy set was just something he thought about recently. He didn’t wish to learn alchemy beyond the basics. He just wanted to learn how to make mana potions. Ah crap, we forgot to visit the auction house!

Seeing as how he was already in the city center, he thought about finding an auction site on his own. Many stores were closing their doors for the day and bars were filling up with people, apparently, going out. Back in my day you were happy to have a place to stay in! Going out? Nonsense!

Bones found a store selling enchanted items in an alley. In the shop window he could see the engraving tools along with a book about runes. Turning to the entrance of the shop, he saw the shop has been closed for hours now. Tomorrow then. Looking at the tools on a display one last time, he saw a small note beside the item with a price written on it. Maybe not tomorrow then. "What the hell is up with the prices?"

Unfortunately, if Bones wanted to buy the proper set for engraving, he was going to have to wait at least a month, if not months, before he could afford one. He turned to leave but stopped, looked around and saw that there were no people in the immediate vicinity. The closest bar with people was some hundreds of meters away. I might as well try it. I do wonder what system of security they have nowadays.

Cracking his neck from side to side, Bones rolled up his sleeves and summoned Bone Lance. After empowering it as much as he could, he took a step forward and with the motion of someone throwing something, smashed the lance against the glass window. A loud thump sounded out and the glass vibrated from the impact. But it didn't break. The lance on the other hand, shattered from the impact, and what appeared to be a formation inscribed on the window with the purpose to deflect attacks, lit up briefly.

Holy shit!

Bones removed himself from the scene and stealthy intermingled with the crowd inside the nearest bar. He soon left as he was given weird looks by the bartender when he ordered a mana potion at the bar.

It didn't take him long to find a very palace-like, lavishly decorated establishment, where people were constantly moving in and out from. Looking at how the people dressed, Bones concluded he had either found the auction house or he was about to crash a very rich and high-end party. He was fine with either.

The establishment had three floors and appeared to be smaller than the palace where arena matches played out. At least Bones thought so at first, until he entered and saw that the building stretched far and deep, he couldn't see the end! For a moment he was overwhelmed and didn't hear the man, a receptionist, approach him and ask him questions.

...ir?

"SIR?" The receptionist raised his voice, finally getting Bones to respond.

"Hm? Sorry, what? My ears aren't what they used to be, speak up boy!" Bones played it cool.

"My apologies-

"Huh?" Bones teased.

"MY APOLOGIES SIIIR! HOW CAN I BE OF ASSISTANCE?" The words echoed throughout the building and down the hall. A few people glanced their way but ultimately, the loud sound was quickly muted out by the loud chatter and shouting going on in the building.

"Ahem, right. No need lad, I'll just browse around a bit." Bones replied and went past the receptionist. As he was walking away, he could hear the receptionist cuss him behind his back. Aaand that just earned you a soul link and hopefully a little bit of dread with a dash of nightmares.

The building wasn't just an auction house, but a trading pub, and Bones saw that people were trading with anything they could think of. He even found a merchant selling bones. Unfortunately, they were grinded bones, used for alchemical purposes. He found another stall with another merchant selling the same grinded bones. The same kept happening until he finally asked where he could buy the whole skeleton.

The merchant he asked gave him a funny look, asking him what he would need the whole skeleton for. Apparently, not a lot of people were interested in buying whole and not grinded bones. Explaining he was in the bone shaping business, selling sculptures, was enough to deter the merchant from suspicion.

"Hm, adventurers might sell the whole thing. Try asking around or you could try your luck in an auction in the main hall."

Bones thanked the man and did exactly that. In the end, he had to try his luck at the auction. The main hall was the grandest hall in the building and contrary to what he thought, there wasn't a single auction going on but multiple auctions at once. Bones stood by the side of the entrance to the hall and watched. It was loud, crowded and tense. The items auctioned ranged from antiques, household items etc etc, to auctions with adventurers' items that were held separately and bringing most attention.

Bones neared closer and observed who was buying, bidding and which items were being sold. The auction ended late at night and not a single bone was on sale. Most items sold were weapons and armor of different quality and purpose.

Stepping outside the auction house in low spirits, Bones was approached by a shady character that spoke in a hushed voice. The man noticed and heard what Bones was looking around for and motioned him to follow, because… he gots the goods!

Bones had serious doubts about the goods, looking at the way the man looked, walked and talked. He would either be robbed or…there was no "or". He couldn't think of anything else.

Once they were a good distance away from the auction house, the man turned to Bones and spread his coat wide, showing him the goods. Inside the coat hung dozens of smaller bags filled with pills.

"Here man, take one and it'll give you what you were looking for! A boner for the whole night!"

…

"Hey man, you hear me?" The shady character repeated himself, seeing Bones not responding.

"Yes, I heard you. I just…I would have liked it more if you were to try and rob me. Aren't these the pills you can buy at pretty much any alchemy shop?" Bones asked after getting a closer look at the pills. The man looked confused at first, then nodded and confirmed they were indeed the same pills.

"Then why are you…" Bones was about to ask him something but then carefully inspected the man and sensed something familiar. A thought occurred to him. "You're not a drug dealer are you?" The man was visibly taken aback and hurriedly denied being one.

"Thought so, you're an alchemist aren't you?" The man nodded and was promptly kicked in the arse! Bones yelled at the poor man for almost getting himself killed. After belittling him, Bones noted the man behaved oddly and didn’t seem very approachable. Probably the reason why he wasn't selling any pills in the shop but stalked clientele outside the places with crowds. Bones didn't need the pills, he had enough bones, both long and hard ones. He DID need an alchemy set though. Bones pressured the man into giving him a basic alchemy set for the price of a bag of pills.

Now, if only I could find a shady character with engraving tools…

In another place, in a very different sort of palace, two figures were standing in the great hall in front of the figure on the throne. One of the figures was a spymaster who was giving a report to prince Tristan.

"M'lord, the tensions in the east are rising. Our agents behind enemy lines have reported an increased movement in Aphiton's army. They seem to be preparing for an opportunity to launch a full scale attack on the fortress.

"I can't believe we let it come to this. We should've nipped their ambition in the bud after the fiasco at the festival years ago…" the Prince said, anger recognized in his voice. "If only that geezer spent more time in his damn kingdom, we wouldn't be having these issues right now. Those bastards have been egging us on for years now."

"Things have never escalated to this point." The second figure, a general, pitched in and continued. "They're about to cross our borders! It's not “egging”, anymore sir! Should we send more troops to the border?"

"No, we can't do that." Prince rellied. "We need our troops here but I was thinking of something else…The adventurers from outside our kingdom are free to choose whether to join the battle or not. We could give a formal contract recruitment notice on the guild's board! After all, the Aphitonians have intercepted our transport carriages transporting mana stones and robbed us of what's ours!"

"Splendid m'lord!" The spymaster said.

"Set up a meeting with the Guild Leader first thing in the morning and get it done!"

"I'm afraid Master Frose isn't at the guild at the moment."

"Then, the Guild's Vice-Leader?"

"Yes m'lord, it will be done!" The spymaster bowed to the prince, turned and left the hall.

"General, a word please." The general was about to follow the spymaster and leave but halted his steps.

"Of course, what's on your mind my prince?"

"I am worried. Why are they pushing into our territory now? It seemed…forced!"

"I agree, it is suspicious. Any word when the king is coming back?"

"No, only rumores. The ones we have confirmation of are that he isn't in Desolate Lands, but went overseas."

"Hm…it's a long journey back, even for an ascendant." The general said.

The Prince nodded. If the king was coming back then he would understand their reasoning for either retreating or escalating war. "If they take over the fortress, I'm afraid we're going to have to respond quickly and with enough force to stop their advances at once."

The general nodded, understanding the implication of what the prince said. "Then, let us hope it doesn't come to that."

"Any news from the north? Are they still remaining neutral?" The prince asked, referring to their neighboring kingdom to the north. They had announced their neutrality in the conflict from the start and it seems they continued to do so.

"Thank you. That would be all general."

The general nodded his head in goodbye and left.

Having finally been left alone, the prince leaned back on the throne and closed his eyes.

Haaah, so busy. Damn geezer! How long until you come back this time?

"Hello? Anybody here?" The prince asked the empty hall. From the shadow appeared a figure, its body unrecognisable, blurred out. "Ah there you are, shadow…one?" The prince asked. The figure nodded and the prince continued. "Is Rayne still sulking?" The figure nodded again. Hah that boy. "Send him to the dungeon, top floor and tell him to stop slacking off! I'll notify him if any new information on the movements of the Hounds surface up.." The figure bowed and disappeared within the shadow. The prince closed his eyes again, the exhaustion washing over him.

Third tier is far, Rayne and the Hounds are too dangerous. Too many backstabbing, self-righteous-

"Honey? Are you still here?" A soft voice reached the prince's ears from the hallway to the side. The prince opened his eyes and looked to the side where his…princess was giving him The look. "Are you coming to bed?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I…I'll be right with you." The prince meekly said. She nodded, turned and left.

A long sigh escaped the prince's mouth. "The king slowly stood up, the weight of his responsibilities too heavy of a burden. Can he endure? Can he triumph? Can he-"

"OMG STOP NARRATING AND COME. TO.BED!!"

…

"Coming…"