Tamako called out to Melvin as he walked away, “Wait! I need your help!”

Melvin didn’t even look back as he kept walking. He’d seen how she could heal herself, just like Master Sam. Melvin wasn’t so arrogant as to think that he was the best merchant on the Second Deck, or even the best merchant in Domino Hill. However, he did know that he was a very good merchant. He’d refrained from applying his trade in his interactions with Sam and his wives, but he thought to himself, this one is out of control without Sam or Jen around.

Without looking behind himself, as Tamako jogged to catch up with him, Melvin trickled his mana into his negotiation skill, and said, “No Mistress Tamako, I will not help you. You have betrayed my trust. Sam and Jen have treated me with the respect of a friend and colleague, but your actions clearly indicate that you do not feel the same way.” Melvin made plenty of money on the commissions he made from selling Sam’s enchanted items, and wasn’t going to use his merchant skills and talents to make money off of Tamako, but he was going to use them to take some control of the situation.

Upon hearing Melvin’s words, Tamako’s AI popped a message into her vision, External mana influence detected…possible merchant skill being exercised. With this notice, she knew that Melvin wasn’t simply upset, but she’d really lost his friendship and trust. She was aware that merchant skills varied from lie detection to negotiation influence, and possibly many other abilities she was not familiar with. She thought to herself, I don’t plan on lying to him, so it doesn’t matter if he is using a merchant ability… or wait, is that the merchant ability influencing my thoughts, so that I'm honest? Damnit, I hate dealing with merchants this way.

Tamako followed Melvin as he continued walking towards the road and ignoring her. She finally said, “I can’t let any harm come to you. We have two options. Option one, we talk this out and you follow my guidance as we travel safely to Crossroads. Option two, I tie you up, throw you over my shoulder and take you back to Crossroads safely.”

Melvin turned and faced Tamako, “Can’t let any harm come to me? Are you crazy! You almost got me killed back there with your stupid games!”

Tamako looked Melvin in the eye as she took full responsibility for her actions, and replied, “You are correct to not trust me. I have acted incredibly foolish. When we started our trip, I took a potion that promised to give me a skill called Killing Intent. I didn’t know it at the time, but afterward it activated an irresistible blood lust inside of me.”

Melvin commented angrily, “You took a potion without knowing exactly what it would do to you! How do you know its side effects are even over? You could go crazy and kill me any minute!”

Tamako explained to Melvin the details of the Killing Intent skill she earned, and said, “You see, the bloodlust has already caused me to earn the skill. Of course the problem I have now is that I need to level the skill up in order to be able to turn it on and off at will.”

Melvin shook his head as he blurted out in disbelief, “And you expect me to help you with that?!”

Tamako replied, “Based on my actions, that’s a fair question, but no, I’m not asking you to help me like that. First, I need to get you home safely. To prevent my Killing Intent skill from affecting you, I need you to accept my party request. I will then take the lead as we take the road heading to the city, and you will follow behind at a distance in case I’m attacked, or my skill activates and draws the attack of high-level creatures or bandits. It is important that you stay far enough away not to be seen, in case I’m killed.”

Melvin rolled his eyes, before saying, “Your plan is to act as bait, and kill any and everything that might try to harm someone on the road. Then, if you get killed, I’m supposed to try to safely sneak the rest of the way to the city. That sounds quite dangerous. Why don’t we just head back to the cave and get Sam and Jen’s help?”

Tamako shrugged, and replied, “We can do that too, but you won’t make it back by tomorrow night in time for that big trade deal you didn’t want to miss.”

“And… is that the only reason you don’t want to get Sam and Jen’s help?” Melvin inquired while activating his merchant skill.

“And… I would rather Jen didn’t know I took the potion without understanding exactly what it would do.”

Melvin thought to himself, Shit! The gnomes will never forgive me if I’m not there. He turned towards the road, and said, “Lead the way.”

As Tamako ran past Melvin, she called out to him, “Check your system notices to join my party, and you can have any of the loot that gets dropped.”

Melvin thought to himself, she should have led with the offer of the loot, as he joined her party and started running after her.

=====

Melvin smiled as he sped down the road with Sam’s speed-enchanted shoe covers, and thought, This is exhilarating. At this pace, we might even make it back for lunch tomorrow!

He was certain his optimistic thoughts offended The Seven Decks, when a few minutes later, he heard Tamako roar a challenge towards the side of the road.

Tamako’s Killing Intent flared and she could sense something hiding in the thick brush off to her right. Before she could stop herself, her fury and bloodlust spiked at the thought of something challenging her dominance, and she roared.

Melvin was a safe distance behind Tamako, but he could easily see the elephan-hammer-nose rise up, smash through the brush, and charge Tamako with its hammer-nose raised high. Melvin had only seen a hammer-nose once before, when a beast tamer brought one into Bot City. The tamer used the hammer-nose to smash through all of its opponents in the arena. Its hide had been too tough for weapons to pierce deeply enough to cause any major damage. Melvin swore to himself as he ran for a hiding spot, And this hammer-nose is almost twice as big as the one in the arena. That stupid potion has gotten her killed!

Tamako was amazed at the size of the creature that had leaped up and charged at her. She immediately dodged to the right, hoping the beast's size and momentum would keep it from turning quickly. She was correct, except for its long weird arm-nose, shaped like a hammer on the very end. It swung around to follow her movement and smashed her with a glancing blow, even while the creature had kept moving forward. Tamako was knocked to the ground, but didn’t suffer any serious injury. However, by the time she bounced back to her feet, the creature had pivoted its body to face her. Tamako launched a spear directly into the beast's giant forehead, but even with its sharp-enchanted spear head, it only penetrated a few inches into the beast's skin.

Melvin watched in fear and fascination from his new hiding spot in the brush. The beast raised up on its hind legs, making it possible for it to lift its nose hammer even higher into the air, and brought its hammer nose down with the mightiest of swings right on top of Tamako. Melvin cringed as he thought Noooo!

Tamako took the beasts hammer smash onto her shield, bringing its hammer to a full stop as she absorbed all of its kinetic energy. The beast paused in shock and confusion, and Tamako rolled forward under its nose and tusk. She braced herself as she released the beast’s kinetic energy directly into its massive jaw. The beast’s head lurched up from the impact, and it fell over onto its side, knocked out cold. Tamako’s fury and blood-lust didn’t end there though.

Melvin didn’t understand how Tamako could survive such a powerful hit, and he certainly didn’t know how she could be strong enough to knock out a hammer-nose. He started to get out of hiding and head towards her when he noticed her still enraged. She was heckling and swearing at the beast, as she picked up the beast’s own hammer nose, and used it to repeatedly bash into the skull of the beast, until something finally broke, and its whole head crushed inward. Melvin didn’t understand what Tamako was doing next, but Sam would have called it Tea-bagging the dead.

Melvin wasn’t sure what to do next, but then he finally felt Tamako’s Killing Intent lift off of the area. He wasn’t affected by it since he was a member of her party, but he could feel its presence while it was activated.

System Message:

As a member of Tamako’s party, you have gained 28,400 experience points.

You are now level 19

You are now level 20

You are now level 21

It is unusual for a merchant to gain experience points fighting beasts… oh, wait, you were just hiding in the bushes. Plus 1 point in your merchant skill for knowing to stay out of the way when the real men and women need to fight.

Tamako was looking at Melvin when he received his system message, and she knew from his reaction that it must have been a good one. She thought to herself, he won’t be complaining anymore, so long as the experience points keep rolling in, and assuming I don’t get killed. As Melvin walked up to her, she said, “Take the loot, and then let’s get going. No time to waste.”

Melvin grinned, as he touched the hammer-nose and looted its incredibly valuable tusk, nose, and teeth. He looked up from his loot notice, and saw that Tamako had already started running ahead. He then looked around and realized how alone he was, and immediately took off running to make stay he stayed within rescue range of her.

===

Melvin was exhausted from the running, but he was smiling to himself as they were only a few hours from Crossroads, he’d gained another two levels, and his storage ring was stuffed with valuable loot. As he watched her running up ahead, he thought, I think she’s raised her Killing Intent skill, she didn’t roar during the last attack, or mock the dead beasts after she’d killed them. I need to get her a cleaning scroll though. All the dried blood and gore on her makes me want to vomit. I wonder if…

His thoughts were cut off as he watched a gang of bandits come out of the woods blocking her path, and slowly start surrounding her. Melvin quickly moved to a hiding spot, but his heart sank when he recognized the bandit leader, and he thought, That’s Hard Body Diamond Pants and his gang! We were so close!

Tamako’s Killing Intent skill was improving, but she still had a long way to go. She sensed the bandits before they came out of hiding. She wanted to wait till they all came out of hiding before activating her skill, but she couldn’t hold it long, and said to the creepy looking dude with diamond’s sewn all over his pants, “You’re lucky I’m in a hurry. If you leave now, I won’t kill all of you and take your diamonds.”

Diamond Pants reddened with rage and said, “You’re going to…”

Tamako sensed someone far behind her near Melvin, and she roared in Diamond Pant’s face as he was speaking. Most of the bandits froze, but her taunt caused Diamond Pants and another small man with a mage’s rod to immediately charge her. More importantly she could sense the bandit near Melvin also turned his attention towards her and started charging.

Tamako didn’t want to take any chances that might cause her delay in killing the bandit near Melvin.

Melvin was worried for the first-time since the hammer-nose. Diamond-Pants’ gang consisted of several high-level fighters. He wasn’t expecting her to roar again, and it caused him to jump slightly, but he almost pissed himself when the rogue just a few feet away dropped his camouflage and started charging towards Tamako.

“What in The Seven Decks!” Melvin screamed in surprise, and before he could even think about running for another hiding spot, a massive ballista bolt exploded the body of the rogue that was charging past him.

Tamako had released a ballista bolt into the body of Diamond Pants, the mage, and a split-second later, she'd fired one into the rogue near Melvin. The rest of the bandits were still frozen in fear though. She then pulled her sword from her storage ring and started executing them one by one.

“Stop! Stop!” Tamako heard Melvin scream, when there were only two bandits left. She controlled her blood-lust, and looked at Melvin for an explanation.

Melvin stayed a safe distance away from her and her crazy glare, but answered her, “Keep at least one of them alive. There may be more loot, or captured slaves that need our help at their hide-out.”

Tamako lowered her sword, and said to the two bandits, “When you can move again, you’ll get a chance to live.” She then proceeded to disarm them while they were still frozen.

The only thing Tamako took from the bodies, were the ballista bolts, and again, she left everything else for Melvin. Understandably she wouldn't explain to Melvin what type of spell she used to kill the bandits with the ballista bolts, but Melvin suspected it was some type of expensive spell scroll, with how disappointed she looked after using them. However, he was giddy as he received the loot, and was also awarded bounty tickets for Diamond Pants, the robed mage-looking guy, and the rogue. Melvin took another look at this System Messages while Tamako tried to calm down enough for her Killing Intent to fade away.

System Message:

As a member of Tamako’s party, you have gained 67,000 experience points.

You are now level 24

It is unusual for a merchant to gain experience points fighting bandits… oh, wait, you were just hiding in the bushes again.

Melvin was thinking to himself, With all these ability points from leveling placed in my merchant attribute, my place in the merchant’s guild won’t ever be questioned again!

===

After killing a few more bandits they found keeping watch at the hideout, and freeing 7 people that had been kept or enslaved by the bandits for various reasons, as promised, Tamako let the two bandits go free. Unfortunately for the bandits, the freed slaves weren’t as forgiving.

Melvin was glad that the rest of the trip back to Crossroads with the freed slaves was uneventful, even if it was quite slow. When they entered into the farming lands surrounding Crossroads. Melvin gave the freed slaves most of the loot and gold he took from the bandits, but he and Tamako had to leave them to make it back to the city in time for Melvin to get to his meeting.

As they approached the teleporter that would take Melvin back to Bot Battle City, where his meeting was being held, Melvin said to Tamako. “For Sam and Jen’s sake, I will help you. Come to Bot Battle City with me, and stay at my place while I schedule everything for you.”