Finishing the parchment of Castore’s assessment, Logan handed the rolled information to an overlooking servant. As the sun hit the midpoint of the sky, Logan left the Eventa estate to sort out some housekeeping and long-term plans.

The first stop was the Gerro Guardhouse, Jirango manning the counter as usual with a few more mugs laden across it.

“Ho, Logan”, the older gentleman greeted without raising his head much.

“Still busy I see.”

“Always crime to be handled. You here to do the same?”

“You could say that. I was wondering if you could contact the vampire hosting a contract here.”

“Ah, Quayvan. Wriske came back quite paler after her attempt”, Jirango replied as he looked up properly.

“Right. I was told he needed to talk with the hunter before the hunt could be handed over.”

“Correct. Some details are best kept between as few mouths as possible. I can send word, but with the festival tonight I would believe them preparing too. I wager they will be free tomorrow morning. Want me to send word to the inn?”

“That sounds best. Thank you.”

Jirango whistled quickly, “Fifty gold, a mighty fine reward for just one person. Got plans for that?”

“Some. It’s not a sum I expected to hold at once before. So many trinkets and weapons to upgrade to keep pace with harder encounters”, Logan replied with a stressed smile.

“Wager you got that much in those new rings you got”, Jirango replied as he titled his head to Logan’s hands.

Logan eyed them for a second, “Not far off. But, again, these help me stay alive.” Logan then thought to himself, “There hasn’t been a good lineup of events to really have this money either. I got no clue when the next portal out of here will show itself.”

Jirango scribbled on a piece of paper before continuing, “Alright, I will pass that on. Anything else, Logan?”

“That’ll be it for now”, Logan shook his head slowly.

The next stop was Ahren’s alchemy shop. Warping from the sky through the store’s window, Logan pushed wind around the entrance. The jingling of glass was accompanied by a short inhale from a watching Irish PC.

“Warn me next time, will you lad?”

“When I get telepathy, sure”, Logan laughed as he approached the counter.

Ahren closed a book and stood up straight, “So, what can I do you for today? Potions, brewing, chinwag?”

Logan pulled out the tome he had been paid just earlier today and placed it in front of Ahren, “Brewing. I had a noble track this down—”

“Volume six! I knew the higher-ups would be holding onto this!” Ahren replied as he snatched the book and flipped through a few pages, “This’ll be much better than that poncy flask I gave you last time.”

Logan thought back to then, the time before his first portal.

Some time ago…

“My Father has been a bit absent-minded, forgetting things, falling asleep at dangerous times…” Logan explained to an earlier Ahren, draped in his fire-based robes.

“It’s prevalent in this world too, but there are potions and magic to halt it. Some can even make people wholly immune to it.”

Logan with bright eyes pushed further, “Can you make something like that? How much will it cost?”

“Sadly, it’s not common for those of lower status to have access to. You’re either looking at a fortune from the nobles or a lengthy procedure from a church.”

“So there’s nothing you can do at all?”

“I didn’t say that. I can’t make the best stuff, but I can make something. I’ll even do it for free since I know you’re strapped for coin.”

“Thanks, Ahren!”

“Just know, if it’s too late, it might have little effect. If he’s forgotten much since you’ve been gone it won’t restore what is lost.”

“Anything is better than going back with nothing.”

“So, it looking good?” Logan asked as he snapped out of his recollection.

Ahren was deeply reading a particular page as he responded, “That it does, my boy. Though it’s expensive as I wagered last time.”

“There’s a new hunt, well technically old, at the guardhouse I could take to fund its creation if that’s necessary. Or do I need to go tracking down some monsters for their components?”

Ahren hummed, “A lot of varied ingredients. I can procure close to all of it. However, hmm, hard to say. Close to forty gold worth, maybe more. I’ll have to check suppliers for any increase in price.”

Logan wiped a sweat drop from his forehead, “Almost all of what the hunt will reward. What will I need to get?”

“Harpy brains.”

“Harpy brains?”

“Yeah. You know the term ‘Bird Brain’ right? It’s like that, but people got the wrong idea. Birds’ brains are quite complex, so many jam-packed thinking cells all working together. Harpies are the closest a bird can get to being humanoid. The combination of human sophistication with the sardine-tin neurons, that’s what we’re after. It is a basis for the potion that fortifies a man’s brain against all forms of degradation.”

“And memories lost?”

“The pathways will be reconnected, with this. Your father may be a bit fuzzy on some memories, but he’ll get most back.”

“That’s good to hear. So I need to bring you harpy brains, how many?”

“One should suffice for a potion, I’d say another for experimentation just in case, and three more for if you cannot access your inventory or otherwise back on Earth.”

“So five total. I can have one in the inventory, one in my clothing, one in a hand, and another stored in a trinket or something”, Logan calculated, “Would that end up being two hundred gold?”

“No, nowhere near two platinum. Forty gold should suffice, based on markets. The harpy brains are the main ingredient and the extras work with that. I would have leftovers from making one potion to make another four with the rest. I wouldn’t be able to sell this without stirring the pot anyway.”

Logan gave a sigh of relief, “Good. Can you look into those items, and I’ll get back to you tomorrow or the day after if I’m able to supply the funds?”

“I sure can, Logan. I have some time today to ask around. Tonight I’ll be closed for the festival anyways.”

“Great, thanks. I guess I will see you in a bit?”

“You can read over the tome first, just so you know of the ingredients too, if you’re able to pick up some on your travels.”

“I got time.”

After spending two and a half hours reading over the tome, Logan left Ahren’s alchemy shop to check over the G-Hall.

Checking over the quest boards for anything relating to harpies, Logan was disheartened to find none. What he did find were many adventurers talking amongst themselves over the newest law changes from Congress. It seemed a lot were angry at the duel abolition.

It had barely been a day, but there was a board outside the G-Hall with all the law changes, so word would spread quickly amongst the adventurers.

A pat on his shoulder woke the Spellthief up, “Long time no see, Logan.”

Logan turned around to see Iimi, the blonde Fighter who had worked with him during the silversteine quest some time ago.

“That it has, you look well, Iimi.”

“I could swear you were avoiding that lunch you owe me”, she replied as she pulled Logan out of the hall.

Accepting the movement the pair left, “Not intentionally, a lot happened, kind of snowballed the work.”

“Well you’re free now and we got a lot to chat about.”

“I suppose so. Nothing I wanted on the board.”

Iimi led Logan to a local tavern where the pair sat down and ordered something akin to a Sunday roast back on Earth, tankards full of a fruity drink that wasn’t alcoholic for a change.

“So, when were you going to hire me for a new job, Mr leaderboard?”

“Ah, so you saw my name on the list.”

“That I did, last I knew you were, what, rank 8? Imagine my surprise to see an old quest buddy hitting the big leagues and reaching 16.”

“You mustn’t be far behind, right? It seemed like you were getting enough work.”

“Had a reassessment a week back, rank 13 now. But I’m not working with as many guilds as you, nor hitting the tier of wolf hunter”, Iimi admitted with a joking smile.

“I got 9 levels since our last meeting, she only got 4”, Logan thought to himself. “What of Tenn? I haven’t seen much of him since the goblin invasion.”

“Keeping himself busy, he reached rank 12. Seems a lot of people who engaged in the invasion and clean up afterwards got plenty of new ranks as a reward.”

“So that new hand is serving him well.”

“I heard you had suffered some long-term wounds too, but you got rid of those”, Iimi replied as she looked over Logan’s face.

“Yeah. It was getting hard to move, so got all those scars healed up.”

“Talking of movement, you got a new nickname for yourself. The Phasing Hunter. At least one of our team got the spotlight.”

“Teleportation called to me, as well as divination. So I was a prime candidate for being a hunter.”

“Ain’t that the truth”, Iimi admitted as she drank from her tankard, “so, any new quests lately?”

“Went back to Tinte to help the Devouts there, most of the rest is hunting work.”

“You hear about the under market raids?”

“Was quite a ruckus surrounding them for sure.”

“It helped clear out some of the darker corners of Gauntlet. Makes it easier to send money off to my folks”, Iimi informed.

“Do they not live in Gauntlet?”

“Used to. But with recent events, they moved out of the big city into a neighbouring settlement. I send them money via ooran nowadays, and it’s good to not have those shot down.”

“No troubles with security then.”

“Well, nothing to nothing, the delayed response to the goblins shook a lot of faith in Gauntlet’s protection. The way I heard it, though, was it all happened within hardly two minutes. But… smaller settlements are smaller targets”, Iimi mentioned wistfully as she played with her food.

“I can understand that, yeah. Since I was near the walls when it happened, I know the city didn’t get any forewarning. Not even the seers saw it coming.”

Iimi shook all over as if she got goosebumps, “Anyway. Hunter work, that must be exciting, huh? No more spirit beasts for you?”

“Not as of yet. Bolds, arachnids, giants, a bunch of aquatics.”

“Varied, but those don’t sound like hunts?”

“Right, I mixed in a few dungeons and quests. The hunting work is a lot of the same. Ambushing traitors or criminals, then getting guards to cart them to prison.”

“That’s a lot. You’ve been in Gauntlet, what, two months now?”

“Pretty much”, Logan replied as he finished his plate.

“Quite the rise”, Iimi mentioned as she finished her food.

“Got many plans?”

“Steady work. I will at least spend less time saving people from duels with the law changes”, Iimi spoke with a wink.

“A lovely turn of fate for a lot of the caster population, as well as weaker people.”

“Too true. However”, Iimi started as she stood up, “the day calls. Maybe we’ll bump into one another at the festival tonight?”

“That’d be nice”, Logan replied as he smiled at his friend.

The two parted and headed their separate ways, Logan returning to the Meek Moat Inn.

The inn was favourably loud this evening. Gaemo the Fighter was drinking from a tankard, having to wipe some foam from grey facial fuzz. Wriske the Devout was slouched on the sofa, nursing some water that glistened against her yellow eyes. Sincollo the saeben was tearing into some meat on a nearby table.

Evén the Rogue was conversing with Amalia the Guardian at the same table as Sincollo, parchment between them as they were planning things. The whole gang was here.

Marcus came jogging over to Logan with a tankard in both hands, one put into Logan’s. “Evening, Logan. How’s the day treated you?”

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