When Tinker arrived back at Tristan’s office the day was almost over. The door was open so he knocked and entered. Tristan was sitting at the desk with papers and seemed to be hard at work.

“Ah you have returned, do you have more questions?’’

“Not really, I am done with the task you gave me and want to know what is next”

Tristan moved the stack of papers away from him and looked at Tinker. “That was fast, too fast. I am a man of my word. Are you ready to become my student?”

Become Tristan’s student. Stage 1

To become a student of a Master is no easy task. You have taken the first step on this road and must still prove yourself.

Difficulty level: C

Quest requirements: Must have gained access to palace greenhouse and know about Tristan’s book.

Reward is becoming student to a Master in alchemy and herbalism

“I accept.” He noticed the quest was at stage 1 and that this was his first rank C quest.

“Alright, first more information and then you can get to work. As you know alchemy is not just about the mixing of plants. Other items can be added to make better or unique potions. For example if you mange to find a unicorn horn and grind it down to a fine powder you have another substance to experiment with. Since a lot of plants are limited it is not recommended that you just add items together and hope for a good potion. This is where the book comes in. It records the uses of plants so that you know how to best use them, but you have not yet earned a book of your own.

Also it is important that you harvest everything. Some plants have multiple parts that can be used. Most of the time you will use the roots and leafs, but sometimes seeds or the stem will be useable. The Magic book I use has all my knowledge about plants. Thus if you add the ginseng plant it will tell you that the roots are the most used for a variety of healing and fortification potions. As you can imagine I do not know everything and as time passes and your own knowledge increases you will unlock additional information through skill, experimentation and dare I say luck.”

It was a lot to take in. The book is like a library that a person can expand on. Speaking of expansion, “This is a lot of information. Have you asked the Grand Magus if other items as unicorn horns and the like can be added to the book?”

“Hmm, nope. I have written the letter and will send it after the day’s end. She should get it sometime tomorrow and I will have a reply in a week. That will give us more than enough time to get you started.”

“Ok, started on what?”

“Your own book of course. The book contains the knowledge, but yours will be empty. Thus you need samples to put in. Remember once you add a sample to the book it will be destroyed forever, but the information will be forever in the book. It will happen that you add plants that will only appear as a picture of the plant and all information on it will be unknown. It will reveal its information later on as you learn more about it. Now for the hard part. You are to go to the Greenhouse and get 2 samples of every plant there. 1 sample will be for the book to consume and the other is so that you have basic samples to make your first potion.”

Go the Greenhouse and collect 2 samples of every plant there.

Do not take the last of certain plants, only take plants that are available and in abundance.

Difficulty level: E

Quest requirements: Must start the quest to become Tristan’s Student.

Reward is unknown

Failure will result in your banishment from the palace grounds.

“Let’s do this”, He thought it was a bit harsh punishment for failure. He can only imagine what the punishment must be like for killers. With the quest accepted he was happy and sad, his quest log was now full. The quest from Lan was going to be a problem if he did not call on Tinker’s help soon. A person cannot really walk around for months with a quest you can’t complete. What if he was to get more quests from Tristan?

During all this Tristan stood up and went over to one of the chests in the corner. “Here is a harvesting tool, vials for saps and an herbalist pouch. When you come back to me with the samples, you will get your book. Until then you can pop around any time for questions.”

“Before I go, I could not help but notice your brothers names are Lancelot and Gawain. With yours being Tristan, just like the story.”

Tristan giggled and had a smile on his face. “It is true, we were named after the story. Our mother was a romantic at heart and loved books. Think it’s the reason why she married our father.”

Tinker was about to leave it at that when Tristan just started talking again.

We the Collins family have been here since the days Tiber Septim proclaimed himself king and emperor by right of conquest. Our family, like many others, helped him and thus we became Lords and received the right to a seal. We have been active and part of the capital ever since. There are many Lords here in the capital but only 9 families may vote and decide actions if the King is busy or delegates work to the senate. That Is why my brother and his family lives at the palace so that he is close for the work. Gawain lives at our city mansion with his family and goes to the market place to run the family business. Our sister Morganna and her husband lives at one of our estates outside the capital.”

Tinker was not really interested in Tristan’s family history but a person never knows what other information might get revealed this way. “Were do you live Tristan?”

“Upstairs, of course. I am not married and like to stay close to my work. I do visit my siblings when I have business close to them. Other than that my life is here.” He said that with pride in his voice. “Ah yes my farther. To make matters worse, his name was Arthur, just like the king of the story. My grandfather was then the Collins representative in the senate. My father did not want to work at the family business and had no magic affinity. He was young and yearned for adventure and thus joined the army. Since he was nobility he was promoted fast to a leadership role. He was given command of a fort near the Black marsh.

After a 2 year tour there he cleansed the swamp of a hydra and frog like monsters that worshipped it. He did not lose many men and was very popular when he returned. That was when my mother fell for the hero of the city and they got married. After that my father moved around from place to place, always as a military man earning glory and favour of many, till my grandfather retired and my father had to take his seat in the senate. I think my mother wanted us to be great adventurers like Arthur and his knights, but we just never got around to it. Lancelot played the game of politics well and ever since he was 18 he attended the meetings and started to learn all he could. I am sure he could have been the youngest member of the senate but our father was very popular and had the support of the people behind him. He always put the interest of the people first and usually acted and voted as a military man and not a politician. He also served as one of the king’s military advisors.” He walked over to the window and stared outside and then went on with the story.

“My other brother Gawain liked money and spent most of the time at the market place with our uncle. Our uncle handled the family business when my father was out in the world being a soldier. My uncle lost his wife and child during child birth and never remarried. He raised Gawain as his own and showed him the ins and outs of running a business. Gawain even moved out of the palace to stay at my uncle so that they can wake up before the sun rises and start a day’s work. My mother did not take it well, at age 9 Gawain left her. She adapted and moved on. It is not like she never saw him, I just think she did not think he would leave the house so soon.”

There was a short silence before he started again. “With Gawain leaving so soon my mother became very strict with me. In her mind she probably hoped I would be like my father and go do great things and become a hero. When it was discovered I had affinity for magic I was enrolled into the mages guild when I was old enough. I learned and became a mage. After that I could do what I wanted and I did go to a few places in the kingdom. Mainly I went to the different places to collect plants and hoped I would find Ninroot. More than a few of the plants you will collect at the Greenhouse are those that I brought back from my exploits back in the day. That leaves only Morganna.

She said back when she was girl she was going to marry a rich and handsome man. By doing that she would never have to work and can raise her 4 kids. In other words she wanted to be just like our mother. At 18 she did just that, married a rich and handsome man and had 5 kids. In time her husband lost their money through bad business choices and time makes even the most handsome man old and ugly. The 4 and 5th children were twins. She really did not work a day in her life and spent her time raising the kids. That is why she lives on our estate since her husband lost everything”

That was all Tinker remembered and took in of the very one sided conversation. Tristan said a few other things but at this point he had trouble to keep up with all of it. “It sounds like your family are pillars in the community. How did you find the Ninroot?”

“That’s a story for another time, the sun is about to set and I need to mail these letters. When at the Greenhouse do not forget to go to all the places there.”

He was not sure what that meant but he left. Stepping outside he decided to see what the party was up to. Zomger and Yuri logged out already while Cuzen was at the church with a do not disturb icon. He saw Lina was online and started to talk to her”

“Hey Lina, what you doing, and where are the others?” It took a while before she replied

“Hey, Sorry I took so long but I am in the library in the mages guild, reading about fire magic and all the other boring stuff. The others logged out and will be back some time tomorrow. They have real life stuff to do and Cuzen is busy with a day long prayer or meditation thing. Not so sure on the details, he just said he was not allowed to speak.”

“Sure, I’m going to go to the training hall for a bit and then sleep. I’ll be back in about 2 days. “

“Ok, enjoy. We all should be online at 9 tomorrow morning. That is like 2 days in game time.”

“Ok. We will talk then. So long and good luck’’

On his way to the training hall he took a closer look at the items Tristan just gave him. The harvest tool looked like a mini scythe with a sharp point and even sharper blade edge. The vials were small and that only left the pouch. He took the pouch from his bag and opened it. Inside was nothing, but the size of the pouch caught him by surprise. It was the same as his back pack. He used identify on the pouch to read more about it. This is where he read that the herbal pouch mimics half the size of your inventory. The only down side is that plants, vials and potions are the only items you can put in there. The pouch also had the nice feature of being equipped to your belt. When he did that the option to open it appeared right next to the option to open his inventory,

At the training hall he equipped his battle gear and started his combo attacks on the scarecrow. He was not sure how long he did it, but it was well into the night when he called it quits and logged out.

Back in the real world Scot took a shower, got some food and climbed into bed while watching a movie. It has been a while since he has done anything outside of Royal road.

He awoke just before 9 the next morning. He fell asleep during the movie and by his estimates he slept for nearly 10 hours. He felt well rested. After a quick tour in the kitchen he went to the capsule.

Tinker reappeared at the basic training hall. It was some time during the day but he could not tell from inside the hall. He checked the party and saw everybody was online. He heard Cuzen speaking in the party chat.

“Alright I see everybody is online, we will meet up just after dark at the same inn where we first stopped when we arrived. If you can not make it or will be late don’t forget to msg.”

Tinker put on his plain clothes and left the training hall. The herbal pouch was stylish in a way. A small green pouch hanging on his belt gave him a bit more character. He arrived at the palace gates and the guards did not stop him. After nodding at them he made his way over to the Greenhouse. Inside the building he went to the top and marvelled at the massive dome with all the plants. There was a young woman there, she introduced herself as Peggy. He told her that he was here for samples and was not sure how to go about it or where to start. She was eager to help, she agreed to help him only if he would tell her of his adventures and stories from outside the city. They went over to what seemed a corner in a round room.

“We will start here and work our way around the dome. If all goes well we can be done by nightfall”. The plan was that they will each remove 1 plant of a specimen and then move on to the next. Tinker was not sure how this would work so he watched Peggy remove the first plant. She took a small shovel and made a circle around the plant, with a pull the entire plant came out by the roots. She shook of the remaining dirt and placed it in the empty hole. Also she planted a seed of the plant she just removed.

She looked over at Tinker with an amusing smile. “We do it like this so we do not damage the roots and plant a new one so that in time the next person can just take them. Do not worry, you just shake of the dirt and ill handle the planting of a new seed. Some may need a piece of root or stem to grow a new plant.”

“Thank you Peggy, but what do I do with this?” he removed his harvesting tool. “There are trees and big plants here and we will use that tool to get specific parts of them like leaves or the odd seed and sap.”

“OK, this is going to take a while.” They went to work. In the start he was slow compared to Peggy but he got the work done. He borrowed a small shovel from the greenhouse since Tristan failed to give him one. He would put the whole plant into the pouch and then the next. During all of this he would tell Peggy about the Stormy peaks, and how he fought wolves, trolls and kobolds.

He did not have much to tell and soon found himself repeating that same story. Each time he would deal a finishing blow to the wolf different. In a way it was true. He and the others grinded a lot and repeated many of the same kills on the same type of enemies. The sun was setting low and the progress they were making was good. He started using the tool and per Peggy’s instruction pierced huge plants and filled a few vials. At some plants he took only leaves, others seeds. It was an interesting experience to say the least. They took brakes now and again. As night fall approached they harvested the last plant. It was a purple flower and that’s all he knew of the plant. The in game system told him the plant was a nightshade.

He thanked Peggy and awkwardly said his goodbye. He did not understand what she meant by see you tomorrow. So he asked. She explained that this was the main part of the Greenhouse. In the basement they have many mushrooms and mosses from many different caves. On the ground floor is the aquarium that held the water based plants. This came as news to him. He never thought what other uses this building had. With magic many things are possible it would seem. What about dessert and snow based plants, do they also have their own areas in the building?

These were just one of many new questions on his mind. He will come back tomorrow and resume the gathering of plants and specimens. He greeted Peggy again and promised to be back tomorrow, but for now he has to go. She was very interested in what he was doing and seemed she wanted to talk more. What he could deduce was that her working hours were done and she had been off work for a while now, but stayed to help him. Feeling guilty Tinker promised to make it up to her. Before he could think of a way she told him she is free tonight. He tried to explain how he was going to meet friends at an inn and he had no idea how the night was going to unfold. It did not seem to discourage her though. She asked for the inn name and added she would meet him there.

He told her the Grey and she was off, he assumed to go home and put on new cloths, woman sure enjoyed there dress ups. He arrived at the Inn and saw everyone was there accept for Lina. Cuzen wore his armour and the others wore casual clothes. He greeted them and sat down. The others already ordered so he just asked for the meal of the day. They explained Lina was running late and should come in the next hour. He listened to the others.

“After you guys left, Yuri and I logged off, I finished reading my book last night and Yuri went to go eat out with his family. So what did we miss?”

“Not much, I went over to the temple and got a quest. It is a class specific quest where I pray and fast for a day to cleanse the soul and boost the faith stat. For the first hour I did well. After that things became hard. I was locked inside a room with only water and a chair. I did a bit of everything to stay awake. I had no reading materials and all my items and bag was taken from me. My communications to you guys were blocked so that left me alone with my thoughts. When I spoke I lost faith. So I was forced to stay silent. After about two hours I decided to pray. After about 3 minutes I ran out of things to pray for” The others started laughing and even Tinker found himself trying to suppress his smile. “So I started praying for things like a lot of gold, legendary items, and stuff like that.”

“Did you pray for a girlfriend?”

“Yes, a very detailed request, Freya will have to look very hard if she decides to reward me. That kept me amused for about another hour. Then I took it on myself to count all the bricks in the room. 8 423 bricks.”

“Dude, how did you not go mad?”

“Hahaha I became mad and then had enough time to return to normal, but no. I tried to recite every song and famous movie line

I knew but not being able to sing or hear them out loud is not the same. Thought a lot about how we are going to spend our next few months in game. How we should all get together in the real world if we want to maximize our team talking and strategies. That made me realise that we have not seen Tinker here in combat and should really do so before we incorporate him in all my plans.”

“Alright what warrior would I be if a decline and opportunity to fight?”

“That’s the spirit, how about after supper we duel?”

“Ok, I thought you would want me to fight mobs in a nearby dungeon”

“Nah, I don’t want to walk all the way to a dungeon.”

“After supper it is then.”

“Great, being a tank I prefer to be in front and will be better able to judge your skill.”

“If you guys are done comparing dick sizes what did you do further to pass the time in the room?”

“Hahaha I made an in depth study of the settings you can access. I tampered a bit with the UI. I will hand to the folks at Unicorn industry the default setting a normal person starts with is pretty good. I miss things like mini maps and icons that show the way to our next quest but I guess they wanted that 99% realism. Compared to other games the UI is limited but there are a lot of other settings like language and even brightness. After about another few hours of tampering I just restored the default settings.”

“So you learned nothing helpful about it?”

“Yes captain obvious, it just tweaks your UI settings and you gain no other advantages. Maybe in the future they will bring out better mods. That is how my story ends. 24 hours in game locked in a small room. Guess it’s a lot like those players that get tossed in jail.”

“What did you receive for doing the quest.”

“Not much, just increased my standing with the church and nearly doubled my faith stat.”

“That’s pretty impressive”

“What is the faith stat and what does it do?” Tinker asked. He had read somewhere that priests and paladins use the stat but that is about how far his information went.

“You can only get this stat if you have a job or a quest related to any church e.g. church of Freya. Some quests, items or skill required a certain amount of faith before you can acquire, use or obtain it. In short my blessings are stronger.”

“No wonder you want to duel. With your faith nearly double your blessings make you stronger”

“Not really, I would have fought you regardless. You don’t seem convinced. One of my many philosophies are ‘I tank it and you spank it’.”

It sounded good. Most RPG games have Tanks, healers and DPS. All heroes can be assigned one of those titles which dictates your role.

The first of the food arrived and the conversation died down a bit. After a short time Tinkers food came and he ate fast. He wanted to duel and show these guys he’s not a noob.

”So how did the search for a group quest or guild go?” Cuzen asked. Neither Zomger nor Yuri was fast to reply.

Yuri spoke up after he swallowed a spoon full. “Nothing on worthy guilds, most are recruiting like mad but they are the weaker guilds and none that would fit us well. Concerning quests I asked around and maybe found one for us, It is an lvl 50 quest to clear the 2nd floor of the Searing Gorge dungeon that’s a few hours walk from the city”

“Yes the guilds that will take us no questions asked are not worth joining. Unfortunately I found no group quests for us to do.” Zomger added

Tinker spoke up, he was after all part of the party and was confident he could take Cuzen in the duel. He doubted they would ask him to leave after they see him in action. “A couple of days ago I was training at the training hall and was approached by a strong looking warrior. He knew what I was up to by increasing my base stats and told me they are looking for players like me. They also value quality over quantity, the name was the Brotherhood of Steel.”

“Good job Tinker, Glad to see you’re not a leech and also know what to look for.”

Tinker was not sure if it was an insult or compliment, but it was said with a smile. He figures he was starting to be accepted in the group. They ate and talked some more. After the meal Cuzen was the first to stand up and tell Tinker it’s on. They settled the bill and went outside. Tinker went to the restroom to equip his battle gear and agreed to meet them outside. Yuri was the first to make a wise remark that Tinker should not DC and log in a few days from now with excuses. He just smiled and walked away. On his way out he saw that Zomger left a message in the party chat to tell Lina they are now outside.

Outside the guys were standing on the other side of the street near one of the gate entrances to the palace. He walked over and saw Cuzen already with weapon drawn, he even had a plate helmet equipped. Tinker always whispered his Stats morph and while he changed into battle gear he decided to morph strength into agility. If this goes how he thought it would, sometime during the fight the skill effect would run out and then he will reuse it to the Stat he needed at that moment. He would have to decide in the heat of battle. He saw Yuri talking to a guard and pointing over to him. He was not sure what was going on so he just kept walking closer. Zomger came over to him.

“We just came over to the guards to tell them you guys are having a friendly duel. Seemed they are bored to hell and asked if you guys will duel close to them so that they can watch. Try not to block the gate for the other people and good luck.”

“Thank you, what is Yuri up to?”

“Telling the guards who the two combatants are and betting on the match of course.”

Tinker just smiled and stepped up to Cuzen.

“Alright, We will duel till a person’s health drops to under 10% or somebody surrenders. Do you agree to the match?”

“Yes”

“As do I”

Cuzen’s name appeared red above his head and a 10 second clock started to count down. Also a green health bar appeared to show the combatants health for the spectators and combatants duelling. Tinker drew his swords and made ready. The time expired and he leapt forward. He knew his agility would be way more than Cuzen’s. He had fought a shield man before and knew that the shield can be used as a weapon. What he was not sure about was what type of blessing or other spells a paladin might have in his arsenal.

He attacked with a thrust from his right sword, Cuzen blocked it easy and was already counter attacking with his mace. Tinker used his left hand sword and just deflected the swing of to the side. He would rate Cuzen’s attack speed as medium so he decided to press the attack and attack at full speed.

From Cuzen’s view point he was attacking fast but Tinker’s attack was much faster. Cuzen used his shield to block thrusts and jabs without problems, the problem came from the other weapon which Tinker wielded with uncanny speed. He tried to deflect and parry the other sword but could not keep up. He could not use his shield to block both swords because Tinker attacked from low and high at the same time.

Tinker landed the first clean blow, the plate armour absorbed most of the damage and Cuzen health bar dropped only a little. Tinker’s stamina had hardly dropped and he was prepared to stretch this fight out. The fight went on like this for a few more minutes. Tinker managed to land more shots and was slowly chipping away at Cuzen’s life. The Stats morph spelled expired and Tinker leapt back and gave Cuzen a welcome break from the endless attacks.

“You sure you are only lvl 41? I feel confident I can compete with somebody 10 levels higher than me and here I am getting trolled by somebody 6 levels lower then I.” He heard mumbles from the people surrounding them. Tinker did not realise that a small crowd had gathered to watch the duel. The fight was not flashy and guards broke up most fights in cities very fast. A lot of people who were watching were NPC’s. Seemed like they had nothing better to do and watched the fight. There were other players who also took the time out from questing and the like to watch the duel. It is not every day a there is a duel in the city that city guards don’t break up or tell them to go duel in the training halls or other sanctioned locations.

Later they would discover it was due to Cuzen being a paladin and having good standing with the church of Freya that the city guards did not chase them away.

During the duel Lina arrived and was not really surprised to see their party was the reason everybody was gathering. She saw Zomger and went over to him and was brought up to speed about the whole situation.

Peggy also arrived during the duel and wanted to see what all the commotion was about before she entered the Inn. The crowd was not that big yet and she could find a spot and watch. She was just in time to see Tinker land his first direct hit. She knew he was an outlander and liked to listen to his stories, and now she was treated to a live demonstration.

Tinker used Stat Morph for strength so that his attacks did more damage. He was confident that the speed he loses would not affect him too much. Before they resumed he could see Cuzen cast a blessing on himself. For a moment he thought that Cuzen might have fought so far with no blessings, but instead he realized he was casting another blessing or just rebuffing himself.

They clashed again. The added strength did help a bit. he scored another hit and noticed the health dropped more than previous attacks. Cuzen also noticed it and took a few steps back.

“Seems like you also have a few tricks up your sleeve.”

“Also?” Tinker remarked

He barely had time to react because Cuzen used a skill were he charged forward with great speed with shield leading the way. He crossed his swords in a defensive way and tried to leap, but it was too late. The swords absorbed some of the damage but the force drove him to the ground. Tinker rolled and stood up. He charged and assumed Cuzen needed space to use the spell. If he was close and pressing the attack he could not use the skill again. He did not know the cool down of the spell but he assumed it was at least a minute. With new determination the battle went on. The previous attack took about 1/8 of his health away. The force he came in with combined with the weight of the armour, it felt like being hit by a car. Or he assumed it would feel like being hit by a car.

Things were going well once again. Cuzen’s life was slowly dipping again and he could not land a clean shot on Tinker. When Cuzen was at about half hp Tinker swung from wide with his right hand sword and halfway through the attack, he started a thrust with the left hand sword for the throat. Cuzen would not risk taking a direct and possible Critical hit by counter attacking with his mace. The effectiveness of the attack will be determined by how well Cuzen can use his mace to parry or deflect the oncoming attack. Or so he thought.

In what seemed to be a act of lag a mace was heading straight down for Tinkers head, with both his weapons attacking he could not parry the attack and just tried to evade the mace. It hit his shoulder with a crack. Leather was thinner at the shoulder and this felt just like the time the Yeti hit him. It was better to get hit on the shoulder then the head. He did a duck role to get distance between himself and Cuzen. They stood about 10 paces away from each other. Tinker had to figure out just what had happened right now. He looked at his own health bar and saw it was below 25% and then he tried to replay the moments in his head. He was scared that Cuzen might charge again shield first into him so he stood ready to leap to the side.

“Calm down, it was not lag, I attacked with my sword from the right, and he blocked low, a few milliseconds after that the shield blocked the thrust for the throat. It must be a skill where a shield user can instantly block an attack. A lot of games had such skills but to see it in action was a whole other matter. Such powerful skills had to cost a lot of mana and have a long cool down.” With his Stats morph expiring he whispered morph agility and charged once again. He would use his superior agility and just attack nonstop until he lowers his health to fewer than 10%. It might take another 10 minutes and did not look like heroic fighting, but it worked. If Cuzen had more tricks up his sleeve he should use them or he was going to lose.

Tinker just did what he planned, chipping away at Cuzen’s health. Cuzen tried to use shield bash for the first time in the fight. Tinker was surprised it took him so long before he used this skill for the first time but Tinker did not care. The bash was a good skill to stagger and get your enemy of balance. Unfortunately the skill had to hit your enemy, but Tinker was just stepping from side to side and attacking openings that forced Cuzen to focus everything on defence.

With a yell Cuzen leaped forward with his shield. He used the same skill that damaged Tinker for the first time. Tinker just fell to the ground and rolled out of the way. The attacked missed badly and Cuzen stood now a few paces away with his back towards Tinker. He had no idea what was coming next so Tinker wanted to press the attack. Then the unexpected happened.

“I surrender”. He spoke aloud and out of breath.

The duel was over and the health bars disappeared. Cuzen was also at about 25% health remaining but he just surrendered. Tinker was dumb founded but Cuzen was already removing his helmet and put it in his bag.

It seemed the crowed was caught off guard by the news as well, but a few cheers arose followed by hand clapping. The people started to leave and Tinker still just stood there. Cuzen came over.

“You’re good, for a dancing monkey. Maybe if we fought in a closed area I would be able to beat you.”

“Maybe, why did you surrender?”

“To save face, I just used the last of my mana and now I am just about out of stamina. With no stamina you would have finished me off in a few attacks anyway.”

“That makes sense. You have a few interesting skills. It was a good fight. Think if you landed that attack on my head and not shoulder you would have won”

“Indeed, but your agility is of the charts. A few minutes into the fight it felt like you slowed down a bit and then attacked for more damage. About 5 minutes after that your speed went up again.”

“You not the only one with a nice skill”

“Yea man, we will talk about our skills and other stuff when we have time”

“Sure” they bumped fists and a new found respect formed between them

The others came up to them and all talked at once. What Tinker could hear was, Congrats, well done, So fast and something about easy money, which made no sense.

“Geez one at a time, let us go inside and get drinks, maybe Lina wants to get food as well.”

They started the walk back to the inn when Peggy came out of nowhere and grabbed Tinker by the arm.

“That was so amazing, you really do fight just like in the stories you told me. Glad to see you were telling me the truth.” Tinker did not know what to say and was caught off guard for the third time tonight. He was speechless and the others stopped to check out who the new person was.

“Please join us inside miss, a lovely lady is always welcome to our party” Zomger was quick to say before Tinker made an ass of himself.

Inside Tinker went to change and told them he would join them soon. Even Cuzen decided it was time to get out of the armour. It was still in the early days of Royal Roads and a lot of people preferred to change in private out of habit. They both returned at about the same time. Tinker only had the one piece of plain clothing and wore it, Cuzen was sporting a brown monk robe.

The others seemed to get along just fine. They sat down and just fell into the conversation. “Yes Peggy, We have had many other adventures and have done battle against countless foes. This over here is Cuzen, our party tank and self proclaimed leader of our group.” They greeted and she introduced herself.

“Hello my name is Peggy and I work at the Greenhouse”

“I did not even know that there are Greenhouses in the world.”

“Dude what is up with the monk robes?” Yuri asked changing the topic just like that.

“It’s the robe I did my day of praying and fasting in. I won’t lie at some point I vowed that I would burn them but after a day it grows on you”

“Sure man, don’t worry about drinks. I ordered when you guys changed. 2 of the sweetest and coldest juices they have. It is on me. Your duel made me a quick 10 gold coins.”

“Thank you and just how did you manage that?”

“Well I talked to the guards and manage to convince them to bet 2 gold. They had first pick. When I told them you were a paladin and your level, and that your opponent was a dual wielding warrior 6 levels lower then you. They bet on you. When they saw

Tinker wore no plate they upped the bet to 5 gold each. Thus I won 10 gold.”

“That’s all good, are you not supposed to be my friend, why would you bet against me? I have known you since we were like 12 years old.”

“And since you know me that long how could my actions come as a shock?” They all laughed at that.

“Does that mean Tinker passed your test Cuzen?” Lina asked

“Indeed, his damage output is a bit low compared to most warriors but with my blessings we can make up the difference. More importantly he is a good warrior and will be an asset to our team. “He winked at Tinker as he said that.

Tinker was a bit angry that they wanted to test him, but such is the way of the world. He thought he might try and get them back by making them feel guilty.

“That so, how do I know you guys are worthy to party with me, must I not test you guys?”

The others did not seem to get angry and just took it in full stride. “You will find that the others here in our party have surprises like me, in their own ways. Sure you beat me in a fight but just remember I am not here to fight and kill a single target. I am all about tanking multiple targets and keeping them busy while someone like you finishes them off.”

He had a point, from what he can tell these guys were on the ball. Sure they were not the strongest bunch but they were above average players.

The drinks came and they talked a bit more. It seemed Peggy just wanted to hear what the others had done. She listened very eagerly to their tales. The others focus fell on Lina and what she was doing that kept her busy and away from the group.

“Just in the mages tower doing reading and some quests. Some are stupid like just helping this wizard or that. Nothing special at this time.”

“Any group quests or guilds come across your path.”

“Sorry no”

They ordered another round of drinks which Yuri said was on him. They spent the better part of 2 hours sitting and talking. Tinker was not one to sit around and just do nothing but he found it interesting to hear what his new party members did before they came here