The companions quickly made their way back across the field, and before long they were standing in front of a delighted Shepherd Magen. ”Thirty-six of them bastards! That be far more than I was hopin’ fer! Ya have me thanks!” He rummaged through a satchel at his feet, and handed each man a small package as he continued, ”Ya won’t take me copper, so here be some dried mutton. It has me wife’s secret herb recipe on it. Can’t be telling ya what be in it, but ye’ll be likin’ it, I expect.”

A pop-up appeared in front of Niko’s eyes:

You have completed the quest: Baaad doggie!

You have gained 1300 experience (1000 base plus 30% bonus), and gained reputation with Shepherd Magen. You are now classified as ‘trusted’.

A familiar soft bell chimed, and Fabella’s musical voice murmured in his ear.

“Congratulations! You have gained a level! You are now level 6.”

Niko placed his hands palm-to-palm before him and bowed to the shepherd. “I’m glad we could help you, sir. If you need anything else, please feel free to send for us.” Straightening, he glanced over at Kristius, who was industriously stuffing a piece of mutton in his mouth. He caught the big man’s eye and jerked his head in the direction of Hampton, indicating his readiness to head back to town.

“Do ya be meanin’ that, boy?” the old shepherd asked, squinting at him, ”’Cuz I have another request if ya be willin’ fer it.”

Niko looked at the old man and then back at Kristius, who was munching noisily at the jerky and making avid “yumm” noises as he chewed. Predictably, the big man shrugged his shoulders equivocally.

“Alright then, tell us what you need,” Niko said to the old man.

The shepherd scratched idly at his bearded chin as he gazed out at the distant woods. ”Ya done good cullin’ them critters, ain’t no doubt, but I’m afeared they’re just gonna keep breedin’ and come back agin.” Turning back to the two companions, he continued, ”Do ya think ya can find the female what’s birthin’ some o’ them pups? I reckon she be the leader o’ them cussed critters too. Someone needs to put an end to her once and fer all. She be cagey, and ‘bout near impossible to find, but I’d be grateful fer ya tryin’. If ya bring me back her hide, I’ll give ya enough mutton to feed ya for a week.”

You have been offered the quest: Big bad mama!

Difficulty: Hard

Suggested players: 3

Rewards: 1 week supply of mutton, higher standing with shepherd Magen, experience (based on performance)

Penalty for failure: none

Accept? Yes/No

Before Niko had a chance to respond, Kristius blurted indistinctly through a mouthful of mutton, ”Hells to the yes! We’ll do it!” Bits of half-chewed meat sprayed from his lips in his excitement. Niko goggled at his friend in surprise, and Kristius looked at him sheepishly. ”This is some good shit!” he exclaimed, pointing at his mouth.

Magen chuckled, grinning at the men. “Excellent! I be wishin’ more of the young‘uns today was more like ye!” He sobered quickly, and he looked down at his feet as his countenance became subdued. He cleared his throat nervously and said, “Could I be askin’ one other thing of ya?” The shepherd crouched down to the dog still sleeping peacefully by his feet, and started stroking its grizzled fur with gentle hands. ”Oscar here be gettin’ on in years, can’t even herd the sheep nor fight them wild dogs no more. He jest comes out here to be by me side, like he done fer years.” When he looked up at them, there was sadness in his eyes. ”If ya do find that she-dog and she mayhap have a pup with her, could ya catch it fer me? I’m a-thinkin’ if it be trained up right, it might be a good herd dog. If ya could do that, I’d have me wife give ye her secret mutton herb recipe.” He continued to pet the old dog, who pushed his head against the old man's hand and thumped his tail against the ground.

You have been offered the rare quest: Puppy love!

Difficulty: Variable

Rewards: Higher standing with Shepherd Magen, secret mutton recipe.

Penalty for failure: None.

Accept? Yes/No

Kristius nodded enthusiastically at Niko as he crammed the last of his share of mutton into his mouth. Smiling, Niko accepted the quest and turned to address the shepherd.

“Apparently, my friend approves your wife’s secret recipe! We’ll go back out there after we rest up for a bit.”

“Ye will be loving it too, once ye be tasting of it!” Magen rose to his feet and shook hands with the two men, ”Thank ye agin, boys!”

A short while later, the two men were seated at a tiny table in a small, crowded, and noisy tavern called the Red-Headed Rooster. All around them, players of all shapes and sizes were laughing, drinking, and boisterously swapping tall tales. Niko and Kristius each had a rough-molded pottery mug of ale set before him on the table, along with the remnants of their recent meal. Niko sat with a blissful look on his face as he sipped from his mug, while Kristius’ head swiveled back and forth, ogling the barmaids as they dodged nimbly through the crowd. Niko idly envisioned his companion’s head spinning right off of his shoulders.

“Honey ale!” Niko exclaimed, smacking his lips and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He nearly had to shout to be heard over the din. ”I can taste the spices, and feel the burn as it goes down! Full immersion is beyond belief!”

“Yah,” was all the big man managed in reply, as a particularly well-rounded barmaid swept past him carrying an impressive armload of tankards, ”Beyond belief!” Niko chuckled.

After leaving the shepherd, the two had visited a merchant in town and sold off their stockpile of fangs and hides, netting them a generous 125 coppers — 1 gold, 2 silver, and 5 coppers. From there, they had come to the Red-Headed Rooster and ordered up a veritable feast of various meats and cheeses, accompanied by loaves of coarse, crusty, fresh-baked bread, all of which had served to make their collective purse a silver piece lighter. Now, they sat back, bellies full, immersed in the almost hypnotic dissonance of the crowd, and nursed their tankards appreciatively. Niko took the opportunity to call up his character sheet, and whistled softly at the notification banner across the top.

15 points to allocate.

“Time for me to straighten out my character, and balance some things out,” he muttered to himself. As he studied his characteristics to determine how best to assign the points, Kristius caught a glimpse of what he was doing and spoke up. His rumbling bass voice cut right through the noise of the crowd.

“Hold up a sec, dude. What do you plan on doing with your points?” he asked, even as he resumed gawking at the barmaids.

“I’m kinda skewed in some areas, so I thought I’d try to balance myself out some. Helga put a lot of my points in weird places,” Niko replied, as he scrutinized his statistics.

Kristius reluctantly pulled his gaze away from jiggly titillations and perused Niko’s sheet with a critical eye. “Naw dude, she actually did you a good job for a PvP character. You’re thinking too much like a PvE ‘toon.“ He cocked his head at Niko, arching a superior eyebrow, ”Allow me to bestow upon you the benefit of my extensive expertise in the field.” Niko rolled his eyes, and Kristius grinned disarmingly. “Let’s hit the stats one at a time.” He held up a meaty forefinger, “Strength is pretty self explanatory — high strength equals high damage, plus a better chance of doing heroic things like busting through doors.” A second thick finger joined the first, “Dexterity is a little more complicated, ‘cause it adjusts your armor, your ability to use precision weapons like bows, and your talent for fine motor skill things, like lock picking and craftsmanship. It also affects your chance to dodge attacks.”

“Right, I got that. So if I bump my strength and dexterity, I’ll hit harder and be harder to hit.” Niko looked at the arrows next to those two stats and bumped them up three points each. Kristius held out a hand, palm down, and waggled it side-to-side in an equivocal motion.

“Yes and no. From a purely PvE standpoint, that would work okay. But let’s look at the other stats a sec. What does constitution do for you?”

Niko ran a hand over his head and replied, ”Life points, endurance, and resistance to poisons and disease. At least, that’s what it says in the manual. I’d say that’s pretty important too, so I should put some points there?”

Kristius took a deep, slurping drink from his tankard and then gave off a thunderous belch. Several nearby patrons cheered and applauded. He put a hand to his chest and ducked his head in acknowledgement of the recognition, then waved at one of the tavern wenches and pointed at his mug.

”Again, if you’re playing PvE, that would be important, but keep in mind that we’re building you up for PvP. Remember how I said you don’t want a protracted fight? Think about how quick we took those three douchebags down today. Were you winded or tired? And did you get hurt?

Niko considered the questions, his face thoughtful as he worried his bottom lip between his teeth. “Well, no — actually the dogs wore me out worse, and tore me up a lot more too. A couple of those dogfights burnt out most or all of my energy, but the players barely cut into my reserves at all.”

Kristius nodded briskly, “Okay, so let’s put those stats on the back burner for a sec and look at the rest. Intelligence?”

Niko scratched his chin, ”That’s the ability to learn new stuff, and to notice things.”

“Right, the the higher the ability, the better chance you have of spotting things. And wisdom?”

“It’s kind of like your ability to apply what you know. Plus it sets your mana or energy pool level.”

“Correct. So if your intelligence lets you see an attack coming, then your wisdom is your instinctive ability to respond to it effectively, while your dexterity decides how quickly you put that response into action.” A stunning tavern girl with fiery hair in a long braid down her back appeared to refill his tankard, and Kristius sighed dreamily as she smiled seductively and blew him a kiss. ”Man, I know they’re just computer code, but dammn, they are hot computer code!”

With a visible effort, he brought his attention back to his impromptu tutorial session. “Anyway, so if your mind registers an attack coming because you see a shoulder drop, a foot shift back, or some other subtle tell, a higher wisdom will help you respond accordingly, and your dexterity will let you make that response before the other person can act… does that make sense?” Lecturing was dry work, and he took a healthy draught from his fresh-filled mug.

“Yeah, now that you put it in those terms it seems pretty simple. So why don’t the same strategies apply to PvE?” Niko took a long quaff from his own tankard, feeling the pleasant warmth spread out from his belly as the ale begin to relax him.

“The Player-versus-Environment game is mostly pre-scripted scenarios, like our quests with the shepherd. The goals may change some, and the NPCs might spout different rhetoric as the limited AI governing that scenario adapts to changing conditions, but the NPC opponents will always be very much the same for that particular quest. They’re pretty straightforward, unless the AI has authority to be really devious, so the basic tank-and-spank works fine. For that, you hit the basic strength/con/dex mix for fighter types, or con/wisdom/intelligence if you’re a caster, and that’ll set you up for anything you’re likely to encounter,” Kristius replied, tipping a wink at the sultry redhead who’d blown him a kiss.

“Ok, so what about charisma? A waste or not?”

The barmaid tipped a pitcher towards Kristius’ mug to top it off, and he scooted it across the table as she poured, forcing her to lean farther forward and expose more of her assets to his appreciative gaze. After she’d filled the mug, she tilted her head down and whispered something in the big man's ear before sauntering away, hips swaying alluringly. Kristius sat, speechless, mouth working like a fish out of water as he watched her go. He finally muttered, ”They can really do that… ?” with a bemused expression on his face.

“Kristius, focus!” Niko snapped his fingers in front of the other man’s face several times, ”Charisma?”

“Oh hell, yeah… she has it in spades!” he sighed longingly. Shaking himself, he took another drink, ”So this is more of a personal theory than a proven one. Everyone, even PK’ers, has to bow to game mechanics. You can alter or limit the effects of how things work, but you can’t completely ignore them. Charisma is more than just how pretty you are, it’s an aura of appeal that makes others unconsciously want to like you. In terms of game mechanics, that means that if someone has a high charisma, opponents might be more inclined to talk or to listen, or to otherwise hesitate before initiating an attack. That hesitation can make all the difference in a fight, so a higher charisma sure can’t hurt. On top of that, it gives you a better chance of getting rare or hidden quests.”

Niko sipped at his drink while he mulled over his friend’s advice and studied his character sheet. “Ok, then here’s what I'm going to do: one point to strength, four points to intelligence, three points to wisdom, four points to dexterity, one point to constitution, and two points to charisma. Cripes, I hope I don’t jack this up!” At Kristius’ approving nod, he allocated the points and accepted the changes. “What about you? What are you going to do?”

“Concentrating on strength, intelligence, dex, and constitution. That should get me hit a little less and able to take more damage, but still hammer them hard. Any quest you get with your higher charisma can be shared, so I can leave that alone. Besides, I’m already one fine-looking specimen of manhood as it is!” he replied, thumping his chest and smiling through his thick beard full of beer foam and food crumbs.

“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that,” Niko smiled, “Character sheet.”

Niko: Human, Monk 6th level

Life Points: 72

Armor: 7 points (1 point rough cloth +6 dexterity bonus)

Mana: 0

Energy: 84 points

Strength:5 (+2 to melee damage, +2% to any checks requiring strength)

Dexterity: 9 (+6% to hit with a bow and any checks requiring dexterity, +6 to armor)

Intelligence: 8 (+5% to spot and any checks requiring intelligence)

Wisdom: 8 (+5% to energy)

Constitution: 5 (+2 to Life Points per level, +1% to any checks requiring constitution)

Charisma: 7 (+4% to reaction checks)

Racial Abilities:

-Any class

-Can learn non-class abilities at double the rank cost

Monk Abilities:

-No armor

-Stone Fist, rank 1. This ability allows the player to strike powerful blows with his fists, doing 1-3 points of damage per strike. Cost: 2 energy per strike, no cooldown

-Immovable Object, rank 1. This ability allows the player to bind his body to whatever surface he is touching, making him impossible to move by any creature with a strength equal to or less than the player’s strength. The ability continues until the player deactivates it, his energy expires, or he is rendered unconscious. Cost: 2 energy per 10 seconds. 1 minute cool down

-Focus Energy, rank 1. This ability allows the player to increase his strength 2 pts

per rank for 10 seconds plus 1 second per rank. Cost: 5 energy per rank. 10 minute cool down.

Niko nodded his satisfaction and dismissed the display. He saw Kristius’ sheet wink out of sight at about the same time, and smiled at his companion. “Call it a day?”

Kristius returned the smile and nodded. “Meetcha back here in the morning, oh Mighty Fists of Dog-whipping.”

Pete stretched intensively, then hurried straight from the immersion chair to the bathroom. After using the toilet, he changed out of the specialized shorts and donned some comfortable sweatpants and an old T-shirt before heading downstairs to the unoccupied kitchen.

“Jerry, where’s Jina?” he asked the household AI.

“Mrs. Briggs has left for the evening, and has left the following message.” Jerry’s voice was supplanted by Jina’s bubbly contralto, ”Hey, my sexy warrior. I’m at Maddie’s bachelorette party, so I won’t be home till late. Don’t wait up. I figure you want to get in as much play time as ya can with your fancy high-tech new toy!” She giggled. Pete had always loved her little-girl giggle. “Food rec is all set up for you, just start it when you get hungry. Luvyabye!”

Sighing, Pete commanded the food rec to start and waited while it turned out his food, then sat down at the table to eat. As he contemplated the most recent events in the game, an idea came to mind. “Jerry, search the web for information on Otherverse, with respect to Player-Killers and the monk class. Send the results to the kitchen table, please.”

“Certainly, Mr. Briggs. Query in progress, estimated time 37 seconds.”

Less than a minute later, Pete was browsing through the results on holographic display above the table where he sat. There wasn’t much more information there than he’d already seen in the manual and on the forums. According to the blogs he was looking at now, monks were widely considered a weak class for PvE play, because most of their abilities, from healing to buffs, affected only the monk and not his allies. Ok, so the monk wasn’t much of a team player. Information on higher level capabilities were mostly limited to textbook information right out of the player’s guide, since few people had reported playing a monk up to higher levels. PK info for the monk class was pretty much nonexistent, since most PKs were either some category of warrior, or rogues who morphed into assassins — which was what Sheriam had done.

Although he didn’t find anything helpful about playing a PK monk, Pete was reminded of something he’d read before and had since forgotten. At tenth level, each of the character classes could choose to pursue one of several different specialty paths. For the monk class, the two most common of those specialties seemed to be known as ‘solidity’ and ‘movement’. He frowned in disapproval as he read over what meager descriptions he could find, considering those options rather less than ideal for his character. There was another path, called ‘augur’, but there was little to no information available on that one. Sighing, Pete waved the images away and went to bed, wondering just exactly what he was going to do.

As dawn broke over the wakening village, Niko and Kristius trooped out of the tavern and meandered through the town square to the establishment owned by Higgs the Halfling. Along the way, Niko set up a new party group named ‘Dog Hunters’ and sent Kristius an invitation.

“Dog hunters? Dude, c’mon, you have got to let your imagination run wild and come up with something bad-ass, like ‘Death Dealers’, or maybe ‘Mass Extinction’.” Kristius stopped suddenly, eyes wide. “Whoa, that would be an awesome name for a band! Do you play? We could set up in the village square and jam! Women dig band guys! Do you think that cute barmaid could be a groupie?“ Kristius continued babbling enthusiastically as they approached the merchant’s shop.

The building was typical of others found in Hampton, if somewhat larger than most, with the lower half built of weathered grey stone and the upper half and second story constructed of hewn wood. The wooden portion was brightly painted in cheery colors, and a wooden sign bearing the likeness of a smiling, round-cheeked, fur-footed halfling hung from a bracket above the door. Windows in the door and storefront provided a view of rows of shelving piled with a remarkable variety of goods, from plain homespun clothing to odd bits of unidentified hardware. A bell jingled merrily as they opened the door.

“Good morning gentlemen!” piped a lively voice from somewhere within the store. Higgs’ head popped suddenly into view as he stepped up behind the counter. ”What brings you in so early? Buying or selling? If you’re selling, I can still use more of those hides and fangs like you brought in before. And if you’re buying, no merchant in town has better prices.”

“Dude, you’re the only merchant in town,” Kristius replied sardonically, crossing his arms over his chest.

'"Well, then I'm not lying when I say you won't find better prices in town!" Higgs beamed.

Kristius rolled his eyes and shook his head, and wandered over to look at a stand displaying various bits and pieces of armor, leaving the provisioning up to Niko.

Niko pursed his lips and furrowed his brow in concentration. "Let’s see… we need a bundle of torches, a couple of water bottles, maybe some collection vials, ummm… oh, a couple of fire-starter kits. That should do it, I think.” He looked over his shoulder at Kristius, who was inspecting a chainmail shirt. “Anything else we need?"

"Yeah, I would love to have this!" he replied, absently fingering the links of the armor as he looked over at the halfling. "How much?"

"Ahh! Yes, you have a discerning eye, good sir!" Higgs exclaimed, as he hustled off his bench and around the counter to stand next to the towering warrior. The top of his head was even with Kristius’ hip. "That is one of my finest purchases of late. An explorer like yourselves recovered it from one of those detestable goblins! What a horrid creature like that was doing with it, no one could guess! As you can see, it has since been thoroughly cleaned, mended, and polished with the utmost of care. The quality of craftsmanship is obvious, don’t you think? Dwarven made, I’m tempted to suggest. I couldn't possibly let it go for a copper less than three gold, I'm afraid — and that barely covers the cleaning expenses, I might add."

Disappointment crossed the big man’s face, "Yeah, we won't be buying that any time soon.” He sighed and turned away.

"I'll give you two gold for that and the rest of this gear." Niko had walked up behind the two.

Higgs spun around and looked up at Niko with a horrified expression, clutching at his chest in distress, "Oh my! If I were to make such a deal, I'd be depriving my poor children of their very heritage! Why, my daughter’s dowry would even suffer for it! No, no, I absolutely couldn't accept anything less than two gold, eight silver."

"I didn't think you were married, Higgs,” Niko said, crossing his arms over his chest, "two gold, two silver."

"I'm not, but I hope to be one day, with a daughter who will need a dowry.” The halfling’s eyes gleamed as he showed his teeth in a lively grin, “Two gold, seven silver."

"OK, agreed, but only if you throw in that copper helmet."

"Done and done, my good sir!" Higgs replied genially. He turned to take the armor down from the stand, only to find Kristius already squeezing his bulk into it. In an odd moment of surrealism, the metal of the shirt visibly stretched out until it fit the fighter’s muscular form as if it had been tailored for him. Grabbing the copper helmet, Kristius plopped it on top of his head and pushed down until it slid on.

"How do I look?" He puffed out his barrel of a chest and set that massive battle axe up on his shoulder, striking a pose. Niko had to admit, in the chain shirt and the trojan-like helmet, and that huge black beard bristling underneath, Kristius did indeed look pretty intimidating. He gave his friend an admiring nod.

"Oh my, good sir! You are the very epitome of a great warrior!” Higgs cried, clasping his hands to his chest. ”Please tell all your fellow adventurers that such a fine outfit came from Higgs’ mercantile!" He bustled back around behind the counter, where he gathered up the rest of the goods Niko had ordered and piled them up on the countertop. "Is there anything else, fine sirs?"

"Um, how about some healing potions?" Niko asked.

"Of course! I have a few weak ones on hand, but any port when storms brew, am I right? One silver each, and I'm afraid the price is not negotiable. They are always in demand, and I can hardly keep them in stock."

Niko nodded, "We'll take four of them." Kristius tossed the few coins he had down on the counter, and Niko counted coins out of his pouch to make up the difference. Higgs added four small stoppered and wax-sealed vials of watery blue liquid to their pile, then scooped up the coins with a wide smile.

"It has been a delight, gentlemen! I do hope to have your business again soon. Higgs mercantile, home of the happy adventurer!"

The two men packed up their supplies and walked out the door into the early morning sun. Kristius laid a hand on Niko’s shoulder. "That was your customer service money, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, but I figure this mama dog is gonna be a whole lot harder than anything we’ve met so far, so keeping you up to tank her is kind of important to both of us. Besides, it's only money, we'll get more."

Kristius fixed him with a level gaze. "Unless someone keeps taking quests for free," he said nonchalantly. He didn’t seem to notice when Niko glared at him, "Hey! That cloud up there kinda looks like me!" They were just turning west toward the woods when they heard a voice hailing them.

"Hey! You two!"

Kristius grimaced and closed his eyes, "You have got to be kidding me!" He turned back toward the voice, "Look, as much as I like kicking the stuffing out of you all, I do have other things I’d like to do in game!" Niko turned around as well, and felt a twinge of guilt wash over him as he found himself facing the healer he had pummeled to death the day before. She held up her hands, palms out, to the two men, shaking her head.

"Whoa, whoa there! I come in peace, and I don't want to leave in pieces!" She was a tall elven woman, maybe a little taller than Niko, thin almost to the point of emaciation, with long blonde hair and startling violet eyes. "I just want to talk, okay?"

Kristius eyed the street suspiciously, looking for the others. "So talk, but first — where's your friends?"

The girl worried her bottom lip between her teeth and looked at her feet. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Glamir, the dwarf — he isn't my friend, he's my brother… younger brother. He figured he was gonna be a tough superstar in the game, but our mom is making him take a break now ‘cause he pitched such a fit about you killing him twice. He was still ranting when he logged out, and mom grounded him from the game for a week.” She looked back up at them and smiled shyly, proffering her hand. “My name is Arabella."

Niko stepped forward and took the girl’s hand. It felt like a fragile little bird in his hand, and he feared he might break it if he gripped too tightly. "Hi. I'm Niko, this is Kristius," he said, hitching a thumb toward the big man.

"Look, I wasn't really big on the PK fighting thing, y’know?" the girl said, releasing Niko’s hand and nervously toeing the ground, "but Glamir got pissed you took his ring, and he figured we could get it back, ‘cause we were probably higher level, and plus we would be better prepared. I really tried to talk him out of it, but he was really being a jerk about it. Anyhow, I hope there’s no hard feelings?" She looked up at the two apprehensively, her odd purple eyes seeming over-large in her face.

"Nah, just because your brother is a douche doesn't mean we'll hold a grudge. We’re good." Kristius tossed his axe back over his shoulder. "So, good luck to ya, happy hunting, mazel tov and all that stuff." Niko nodded at her, and the two men turned away to head out of town.

"Wait, wait!" Arabella ran around to stand in front of the men before they’d taken a step, "I was actually kinda hoping I could team up with you guys. I mean, Glamir is grounded, and Lucius — he was the mage — won't be back on for a couple days. And I don’t know anyone else in the game. I'm a good healer! I'm third level, and I have rank 2 in Quick Heal and rank 2 in Armored Body! Please?"

Kristius opened up a private chat, and his tinny voice sounded faintly in Niko’s ear. "What do you think? I wouldn't mind a band-aid or two when I've got dogs hanging off of my buttocks."

Niko snorted. "Buttocks?” He ran a hand across his head. “Yeah, why not? We can give it a shot. The quest summary suggested three players anyway.” He sent Arabella an invitation, which she accepted with a delighted smile.

“Hey!” Kristius stopped suddenly, spinning around to face Arabella, ”Do you play an instrument or sing? We’re gonna start up a band called Mass Extinction, and we need some members!”

Arabella drew up short to keep from bouncing off the big man’s chest. “Ummm… not really, no,” she stammered, eyes going wide.

Niko sighed, shaking his head, “Kristius, we are not setting up a band… ”

“It’s such an awesome idea though!” Kristius glanced at Arabella and cupped a palm to one side of his mouth. ”I’m telling ya dude, we could get lots of roupie-gays and ick-chays!”

Arabella looked askance at the fighter, cocking an elegant eyebrow. “Groupies and chicks?” she asked.

“Whoa! You speak Latin? Very cool!” Kristius exclaimed, with awe in his voice. Niko just rolled his eyes and kept walking.