“Hello gentlemen,” Hugo said merrily, “I have been out here killing tribbles. They are a plague that needs to be eradicated, don’t you agree?”

“Of course, of course. But we aren't particularly interested in the little biters. We are more interested in Big Green back there. This is our hunting grounds, and you are poaching,” the lead riese said.

He kept his aphid walking towards camp while he thought furiously. He said, “When you say “our” what group are you with? Because I was assigned to kill monsters by the king of Ettel, King Hossein himself.”

“You must have been out here for a while. Hossein’s dead. The real king, King Resa, sent us out here to deal with a hydra that had been spotted out here,” the riese said.

Shit. Hugo had given Darius and Shirin a warning about the assassination, and it had still happened. “You four must be a formidable team if you were sent to kill a hydra.”

“We are,” a riese from the back said, and the tree next to Hugo sprouted a dozen spears.

“Quit showing off, Mahdi,” the lead riese said, “And you, interloper, hand over the mana core.”

Hugo laughed and steered his aphid around the wooden spears. He said, “I wish it was a mana core, it’s only a grandcryst.” Establishing the value of what they were fighting for would hopefully convince them to back off sooner.

Mahdi swore and said, “It was supposed to have a core, what are we going to do now?”

“Shut up Mahdi,” the leader said.

“Gentlemen,” Hugo said and pointed back towards the hydra, “The skin of that monster is incredibly valuable. I was planning on having my crew come back and harvest it. Why don’t you take it for yourself? That way you have something for your time.”

“Your crew?” the leader said.

“My crew. Do you think I would be out here on my own? That’s insane. I’m just the only one without camouflage magic,” Hugo said. Then a little louder, he said, “Boys, shake the bushes so he knows where you are at.”

At this point, they had ridden close enough to his base camp that they could see the bushes shaking. This morning there had been eight of them, now there were only four. He hoped it would be enough to make them change their minds about attacking him.

Just then, Yasmin yelled from, “Hugo, you didn’t tell us we were having visitors. You know how chef hates it when you bring unannounced guests.”

“Don’t worry. They were just leaving. They have a lot of harvesting to do before scavengers get to the hydra hide out there,” Hugo said. He turned to the riese and said, “Isn’t that right?”

The four of them flicked their eyes around the clearing. They knew something was off with the bushes, but didn’t know what. The could see Yasmin and the trio of spears she was holding. Their chances of winning a fight were smaller now.

The riese leader didn’t reply, he just turned his aphid around and left. It seemed like Mahdi wanted to say something, but he bit his lip and followed the other three riese.

Hugo waited until they were out of sight to look up at Yasmin and say, “Thanks. Your timing was impeccable.”

“I was planning on ambushing them as soon as they made their move on you, but I decided playing along with you was the better idea,” Yasmin said as she rode her aphid down to the forest floor.

“They were all blessed, so yea, that was the better idea,” Hugo said.

Yasmin shivered and quickly packed up camp. The pair of them pushed their aphids hard to get out of the area. Hugo paid her extra so they would head back to Reval instead of Ettel. He didn’t want to chance the riese setting up a counter ambush.

The look on Yasmin’s face when he gave her three extra gold for the escort was priceless. He loved seeing that happy look on her face. He resolved to do something nice for her after he traveled back in time, when it would count.

Since he was already in town, Hugo headed over to the Blue Lion Academy to see if Mia had finished his order yet.

The guard wouldn’t let him in.

Apparently a heavily armed guy in armor that covered him from head to toe was suspicious. Hugo didn’t argue with the guy, instead he grabbed a room in a nearby hotel and freshened up. He bought a new tunic from the local tailors. This time when he returned, he looked like he belonged there. The guard just had him sign in and he was allowed on campus.

Hugo tracked down Mia and said, “Hey Mia. How are you today?”

“Hello Hugo, I am doing good. Are you here for the cubes?” Mia said.

Hugo mourned her formal tone. He missed being friends with Mia. He said, “Yeah, among other things. Is now a good time to talk?”

“Sure, let’s go to the runic workshop, I have most of my work there,” Mia said.

As they walked Hugo said, “Did you get a chance to talk to Lenna?”

“Sort of. She was really happy to have the help with her armor project, but she didn’t want to help with your project,” Mia said.

“Did she say why?”

“I got the impression she still doesn’t quite believe in the whole time travel thing,” Mia said, “That wasn’t her main objection though. She really didn’t want to act against her father, even with the promise that it wouldn’t matter in the end.”

“That’s too bad,” Hugo sighed. It would have been so much easier to have her tell the guards he was allowed in and then just waltz into her family warehouse. He would just have to go with plan B.

They arrived at the runic workshop and Mia said, “Just a moment. I finished them but they are locked away.”

“Take your time,” Hugo said. He realized that he hadn’t ever been here before. Despite his runic domain, he hadn’t gotten an education on runes from humans. He wandered around the room. There were several desks with half finished projects on them. Interestingly, Hugo didn’t see a bit of arms or armor here. There were a few lights, a collection of locks, a clock, and a few things he didn’t recognize.

“What are these?” Hugo said.

Mia brought a bag over and said, “This one is going to be a dryer.”

“A dryer? Like drying your clothes faster?”

“No, drying your hair after a shower. It has a heat rune and a gust rune. It can dry hair in less than five minutes. If Victoria can figure out how to properly tune it, that is,” Mia said.

Disinterested, Hugo moved on to the next one and said, “I imagine this one has something to do with plumbing, but I am not sure what.”

“That’s Nika’s final project. Rather uninspired if you ask me. It’s just a slightly improved shower.”

Now that she said that, Hugo could recognize the controls. “Where does the water pipe connect in?”

“It’s self contained. The water incorporator here fills this tank, and then heats it on demand. It means you can have a shower anywhere, but it has to be short,” Mia said, “Anyway, here are your cubes.”

“Did you finish everything?” Hugo said and looked inside. There were eight runed cubes in the bag.

“Yes, the first two types were easy, but I only have your word that the third kind will even work,” Mia said, “I haven’t had time to test it.”

“It will work, no problem,” Hugo said. He almost left, then he looked down at the shower. “What lingua is the water incorporator in?”

“It’s zintathu. I know what you are thinking, but I can’t allow you to steal the rune,” Mia said, “They make us swear oaths to keep runes a secret.”

Hugo frowned and said, “You have taught me runes before. Come on, what harm would it do? It’s just water.” When he saw her hesitating he fabricated a mithril rod and let it fall to the desk in front of him. “Come on, what is a rune between friends?” He let two more rods fall to the desk.

“Alright, fine,” Mia said and stomped over to a cabinet. She unlocked it and passed Hugo a small pamphlet. “You owe me a favor if you are successful in traveling back in time. And just in case you aren’t successful, give me a bunch more rods. I know you have a freakishly large mana pool.”

Hugo nodded, he had given her several rods earlier, so she knew he could do so again. Five more rods later, and Hugo was on his way. He didn’t plan on making his own shower anytime soon, but he was looking forward to creating a never ending canteen. It would be a perfect addition to his camping kit.

He was tempted to start planning and executing his plans for Reval as long as he was here. He hadn’t brought along more than one lead lined box. He needed patience. It was hard. Hugo was risking a lot to get himself back into his own body. He just wanted it over and done with. It was like he had a sword hanging above him. He knew it wasn’t going to fall yet, but there was still a sword there. He couldn’t really relax.

Back in Tembisa, Hugo dropped off his mana core at the bank. He didn’t tell them that was what it was, of course. He just bought a safe deposit box large enough to handle all four lead lined boxes.

The Gilded Lily welcomed him back like an old friend. The generous tips he had left last time were likely a factor in that reaction. Sadly, there wasn’t any response from Commissioner Binh yet. He got a good night’s rest in the hotel, and then set out again.

His first step in the heists was to verify that there was something to steal. It would be rather awkward if he broke into an empty warehouse. He took a train to Paarl. Lenna’s father had bought the mana cores sometime this year, hopefully something that had already happened by now. It had been a few years since he was here, but he remembered right where the Koppel estate stood. He was able to quickly verify that the warehouse had increased security. That was a good first sign.

With mana sight active, he could tell that there was something magical inside, but he didn’t know what. He wanted to get close and make sure, but he couldn’t even step foot onto their property without an invitation. One he wouldn’t get without Lenna’s cooperation.

He talked to his contacts in town, and then he left. He wasn’t going to start the heists just yet. Once the first robbery happened, the clock would be ticking. Since each mana core was incredibly valuable, powerful people would start hunting for him right away. He needed to do his Paarl heist and his Reval heist one after another. Ideally, he would take a trip up the mountain right afterwards.

His next stop was Reval. He almost walked down to the warehouse himself before stopping himself. The shimmer corps were using the mana core as bait for their trap. Anyone that walked by the warehouse would be suspect. He didn’t need to let the corps know what he looked like since he they would shortly be scouring the city for him.

Instead, he found kids and sent them on a mission. He promised three boys nine copper if they could tell him how many corpies were watching the warehouse. It took him longer to describe which warehouse he was talking about than it did for them to agree to it.

While he waited, he had some tea at a familiar tea house. It was the same one he used three years ago when he was trying to get the hedge mages to help him. That was a terrible idea. He smiled, thinking about how much he had grown in the last few years.

He had been a hopeless mage at first. It was so bad that he got expelled and none of his teachers fought for him. Now he had five domains and he could probably beat any sage one on one.

The kids returned with great news. There were at least six shimmer corpsmen guarding the warehouse. They were trying to pretend that they weren’t guarding it, while doing a terrible job at hiding. Hugo smiled and gave them each a silver. They were ecstatic and went to spend it right away.

Hugo made one more stop in town and then he was ready. He hopped on a train back to Tembisa. The next time he was in Reval, he would be robbing it.

Sadly, Commissioner Binh still hadn’t written him back yet. He knew he needed to be patient, it had only been a few weeks since he talked to the man. It was tough.

To distract himself, he pulled up his Acomarian screen and ranked up. Killing the serpent hydra had given him enough points to rank up to thirty-five. That was the highest he had ever been. He added a few points to resilience and the rest to dexterity. Speed and agility were needed to pull this all off.

He made the rest of his choices his many domains gave him. He selected the new element of spider silk, the linguas of ntandathu and zine, the frequency of dense shields, and the specialization of neurology. He even tried to select a few new pacts. It went the same way as the previous attempt. Failure. He just didn’t believe in the gods. Frankly, he was lucky that the Acomarians counted as gods in their system.

Florin Baden [Life Domain]

Strength 22

Dexterity (29)

Resilience (26)

Regeneration (48)

Intelligence 24

Wisdom 20

Charisma 12

Perception 13

Rank 35

1451/2300 Points

Health 94/(106)

Mana 240/(286)

Skills: Mana Sight 3, Inscribe 8, Fabricate 10, Solidify 6, Oblate 2, Mend 3

Lingua: Isibhozo, Zintathu, Ntandathu, Zine

Frequencies: 400-700, 1016-1032, 8-200, 800-900

Elements: Mithril, Titanium, Porcelain, Spider Silk

Pact: Disciple of Acomar

Specialties: Dermatology, Splanchnology, Desmology, Neurology

He spent the next week using his combined skills to get ready. By the time he was done, he had enough made to fill two trunks. Three if you counted the lead lined containers.

Thankfully, the letter from Binh arrived then. He excitedly tore open the package. It was exactly what he was hoping for. The full golem ritual, including the part about directing the soul. This was going to work.

He had four weeks left in his self imposed timeline. The plan was to be on top of the mountain in three days. That would give him plenty of time to work with his ritualist specialist and travel back in time to his preferred body. He didn’t let himself second guess his plans, he just made arrangements and headed for the train station. It was go time.