Chapter Seven

  Off went the maid’s uniform, and o Harmony’s travel clothes. It was good to have pants on. The insistehat she trained in uniform was ridiculous. Whenever she felt she might warm up to Lord Tyler, he did something like that.

  She still felt naked, even covered enough to be mistaken for a young boy. That feeling had driveo ge quickly but stuck through putting oravel clothes. A low level of ay gripped her as she ran her hands along her outfit, trying to figure out why. Was it being aloh Tyler? No. The new skill throbbed inside her. She was dressed, but nothing she had on ted as armor. A part of her was un-aable. The wrongness of that gripped her soul after adding the new skill. She hadn’t packed anything that could be armor. She snatched the magically tempered crystal ball out of the bottom of the bag and shoved it into her pocket. It could probably take one blow if she needed and that thought calmed the feeling some, but it was still like spping a hand ushing wound.

  Hyath hopped out of the dark er of the room. She might have missed the toad if she didn’t know it so well. His rough bck skin looked thicker. She reached down and touched it. The toad purred at the touch, and Harmony could tell it was harder, not unlike a yer of bone, enough that she felt like she could modify it if she wished. “That’s new.”

  “Gurrp.”

  Harmony closed her eyes and focused on her new skill [Small Armor]. Hints of synergy with [Familiar Bond] hadn’t been there before flickered about. Now she felt her partner pull through it, a path of energy eg the two. Hyath took but gave as well, strengthening the new skill. “As I get stronger, so do you. Exactly as it should be.”

  Oher side of the shared lodge, the g rattle of Tyler disengaging his armor could be heard. The perfect time for her to slip out, toad in tow.

  The pair walked out of the lodge area and into the main thhfare of the dungeon district. Young adventurers crowded the wide street, armed, armored, and dressed in fantastical styles reted to their hometowns, vilges, or nations. The dungeon was the lifeblood of the Hazeldown ey. Perfect for people to send their youths to gain their first set of css levels. As bitter as some got needing to donate all their dead to the dungeon, it was what kept the silver flowing in.

  Harmony didn’t feel so out of pce, having her shadow toad follow her as exotipanions shared the street. Wyverns and hawks gilded above. A young boy sat riding his white dire wolf. Even a tiny bear lumbered like a person with a red hat, blue coat, and yellow boots. Her eyes went wide at a meical spider carefully moving through the crowd. Pets, Familiars, and structs peppered the public as status symbols, matters of utility, or core aspects of adventurer’s csses. It had been over a year and three levels ago sihe neancer had st beeo work on advang.

  Vendors lihe street buying and selling dungeon drops or anything iing a tourist brought in.

  Not in a hurry, Harmo one eye on the wares. Little fres of desire popped up at bits of armor as her skill sought something more fitting than the gss tool she’d shoved into her pocket to appease it. Being a Maid of a manor did not pay well enough to allow her to get the shi items.

  Her time with Tyler’s colle had given her an eye for the unusual, the special, and the ureet vendors received and pushed products as quickly as possible to grind a profit and increase their profession levels. The Popurity of Thibodeux’s teags extended well past bat moves. A vendor’s eyes locked on hers, and she could see a sparkling shine. She felt nudged in that dire. A skill from the mert taking hold of her briefly. Yes, she could ig, but she reized the feeling.

  [Destined deal] It ected a mert with a buyer. You want something, and they have it, bam, you’re drawn in, and hopefully, both parties leave happy. The fact that Harmony knew she was thinking about a bit of armor, affordable and ideally as remarkable as anything Tyler owns, ted her decision to cave to the skill’s call. After all, the mert never knew precisely what the er wanted, so the skill, through its magic, tugged the strings of fate and desire.

  “Wele, young man. I see that I have something that might i you as you work on gaining your early levels. At Jake’s Magical Stand, we have everything from basic tools to mysterious artifacts sure to please you.”

  Sometimes you want to be mistaken for a boy, like now. “Show me the mystery!” She announced eagerly, trying to make her voice as ral as a young boy’s.

  Mystery generally meant items that either required high levels of aification spell or something those skills barely worked on. Most of the time junk. Harmony’s [Analyze] was able to identify something about half of the items the mert slowly pced oable. Either the mert’s identification was low, or he assumed the buyer was. Shopping, a game of haggling, deception, and luck, the neancer hoped to use all three.

  “Does the mystery call to you?” The young man, who she guessed was Jake, lifted a carved bit of wood she’d already identified as an uncharged smell wand. When she looked unmoved, he raised a card with a painted image of a boy in a golden bubble, which also drew no i.

  Nothing oable called to her [Small Armor] skill. “Do you have anything hard or defensive? Maybe with a bit of metal?”

  Jake ducked back behind the stand and started pulling out more. Again [Analyze] mao pull up information from most of the items for Harmony. She nearly dismissed it all but returned her eyes to a lonely glove, fingerless but with a solid pte of gray metal on the back of the hand. [Analyze} showed it as Glove: Paired.

  Her skill was ral. Like it screamed, acceptable, in the face of the uable pceholder the crystal ball represented. None of the eager fshes she had seen simply from gng at other more established vendors’ bits of armor they had dispyed this evening. That was unusual enough in the short span she had the skill for it to be iing. More so was the term paired. Fragments of knowledge from old books. The word wasn’t only associated with needing two of something, like socks; when you [Analyze] a lone sock, it simply said sock. Items could be paired with skills, crafted for a purpose, or built to grow and adapt. Then again, [Small Armor] wasn’t ied, and paired might mean it he love for more details.

  With her hands out and not suspiciously shoved into a pocket for the transa, the naked feeling crawled up her skin without the crystal ball to partially hold it back. “How much for the glove?” at this point, acceptable would do.

  “One silver,” Jake answered quickly.

  “It’s one glove. Looks like someone damaged it by cutting off the fingers. It even says it’s missing the other one. One copper and the be of it no loaking up your iory space.”

  “It’s unique.” With a flourish, he pulled out a knife and scraped it down the middle of the metal bag. Sparks flew from the fri, but the metal wasn’t scored. “Look at that toughness.”

  “Unique doesn’t mean good. If it was u would appear that way when ied. Also, how it be unique if it’s missing the other part of the pair? There could be dozens of these abandoned in some dusty store room. Three copper.”

  She saw the twitch of him starting a skill, bargaining, etting a read on her. [Poise and Bearing] activated. The skills cshed. The social skill would make him draw a bnk. If it was to influence her, the rush of activation teo ter being influenced. She’d practiced enough time against a skilled beggar’s skills to not be overtaken.

  “Fihree copper.” He said with some defeat, enough to make Harmony wonder if he’d have settled for two, as it had the tone of an actor’s lies.

  [Small Armor] wouldn’t have her wait. dropping the s oand, Harmony slid on the glove. Whatever twitch of nakedness she had felt earlier bled away. That was worth three coppers to her as she returo the ore fidently.

  Harmony wondered if The Dig Boys would reize her after a year, but it wasn’t like she grew any taller. The gyms they operated out of loomed ahead. Gyms serviced the dungeon grihat couldn’t afford the adventurer guild. Little uhat peted with each ym Viridian housed The Dig Boys and a few roups. Bates had reehem when she’d asked around the household for a friendly escort to help her gain css levels that were in her budget, and she’d used them ever since.

  At the door, she fshed the token Mike had given her after her st dive with him and the one copper entrance fee.

  Hooting and h preceded her arrival at the gym training yard. Copper and silver fshed in raised fists as a circle of people surrounding a match. At gyms, this is often what training devolved into, eai, gambling, and fighting. People who felt they were real adventures often turheir them, but Harmony found it exg. She squeezed into the crowd.

  It wasn’t people at the ter of the ring. Two pets warily faced each other. Jack’s giant gray tipede screeched. It had grown at least another foot ih sihe neancer had st seen it. She didn’t reize the creature it faced, a colle of vines, leaves, and thorns in the shape of a man, swaying, taking steps, a pnt unrooted from the ground.

  “How dare you call my mother a lumberjack!” The pnt responded with a haughty voibsp;

  “It speaks!” She yelped, a little surprised. Pets that could speak were rare. Pets with abilities like that rarely fought in unsaned matches.

  “That means it’s not going to have the stats distributed in a way it o win this match, as well as useless skills like [nature’s voice] so it uand pers.”

  Harmony’s eyes were too glued to the match to respond to the stranger. Vines snapped like whips while the i nimbly dodged them, dang aside on its many legs. Pte-sized leaves whose edges glinted like razors came , and pers dove uhem in a move that was only possible by sinking into the ground most of the way.

  Earth exploded out in a wave at the many-legged pet’s emergence, sh the pnt man, slowing him enough for the bug to take a bite out of his side, leaving a sticky green wound. Vines shot out of the body, whipping about, leaving like scratches on the tipede’s hard shell, f it back to the other side of the makeshift arena.

  “I am no easy meat. I am not meat at all.”

  A thick cloud of pollen pushed out from the green man. pers couldn’t avoid it. Even the circle of gym members had to step back. The yellow coating covered the bug, and it shivered and shook in response, knog some off but not enough. The pollen transformed into tiny growths that crawled across the carapabsp;

  pers shrieked loud enough that Harmony was forced to cover her ears.

  “I have you now.” The green man announced, growing a long leaf bde in his hand and stepping forward. He raised the gleaming green sword, and as it reached the apex, pers struck.

  The i’s burst of speed u through the air and into the viney pet, coiling and ing around the man with its many legs stabbing into the green mass of the body, strangling and impaling it at the same time.

  “Victory, pers!” Announced a woman off to the side.

  Quickly the pets disentangled, and the owners rushed to them, a young girl with white hair to the Greenman and Jack from The Dig Boys to his tipede. Harmony was closer to the Greenman.

  “Sorry I failed you, darling.” The Greenman said softly.

  “It’s okay, Beardy.” The girl answered with a hug.

  s exged hands as bets were settled. The woman who refereed the match bellowed again. “That’s it for tonight’s matches. If the ission es calling, remember the number one rule of the pet fighting club.”

  “No talking about pet fighting club!” The crowd yelled babsp;

  Harmony made her way through the now dispersing crowd to the faces she reized. Many of The Dig Boys crowded around Jack, gratuting him. She couldn’t help but notice the one who was missing.

  She slowly walked up to them, gathering her ce. This hadn’t been an outing she had pnned until Tyler made leaving a y. Hyath kept pace with his hops, the toad sending reassuring vibes through their bond. “Jack, I don’t know if you remember..”

  The battle winner’s eyes went to the neancer. “Harm, how could I fet our little escort that helped save our hides after a ru south. Maybe you’ve grown half an inch, to your toad’s four. What are you doing here?”

  “I have another dive and was hoping to talk with Mike.”

  “He’s not here. Went to the capitol. Hoping to pick up a stamina-type skill stone and evolve his css. Hit level fifteen, and the dungeon won’t let him get past that hump. He’ll always have a spot with The Dig Boys, but I’m not sure he’ll be ing back.”

  Harmony could hear a mix of sadness and envy in his voice that brought up the same emotions in her. Bringing up the topic brought simir looks to the roup members. Life was about progressing forward, and rarely did one ever go backward, let aloo a town that ate you after you died.

  A younger group member who Harmony knew she hadn’t met before spoke up. “It’s okay, Harm. As an honorary Viridian. The Dig Boys are here to help!”

  Mumbles of agreement and ahusiastic “Yeah!” came from the group.

  Jaodded.

  Harmony noticed Jack wearing the badge she’d seen on Mike, denoting him the leader. Mike left without so much as a message, and Harmony cmped down on the emotions that were brought up. Seeing him would have been nice, but it wasn’t her goal. “I mao get in with a guild group. They’ll help level me to twelve.” She said.

  “Careful. Those groups use up and chew up non-guildies. Farrow lost a leg being a trap finder on the fourth floor fuild team .” Jack said.

  “They’re equipping me some, even providing me skill stones for my free skill slots.”

  The group collectively inhaled. “For that, you kind of have to go. We only find a skill stone once a month in Old Bones. We sent Mike the four we saved for trading for what he needs in the capital.”

  “I didn’t think they were that rare?” She hadn’t seen them find any the few times she went in, but then she’d only paid to stick to the first two levels until their st one when they braved level three.

  “Maybe not for adventurers who clear the dungeon a few times and move on. But we only stick to the first two or three levels froups helping level locals or esc tourists wanting easy gains, so we rarely see them. Always more people wanting to fill skill slots than skill stones around. You’d be hard-pressed to find ao turn down an offer of skill stones, even if it meant a little risk.”

  Harmony pted how living at the manor had shielded her from some harsh realities that others faced. Tyler’s chalices filled with skill stones showed how much more the haves have than the have-nots.

  She swore she wouldn’t be just a maid forever.

  “It’s okay that you have to use them over us. We’re not equipped to do serious dunge right now. That’s why I’m training pers for pet ission battles to earn real money.”

  The gentle bloodsport of pet battles was the other attra in Hazeldown. The ission helped ehe pets’ safety, and the popuce gets eai and maybe a ove up without risking life and limb in the dungeon. Ambrosia despised it, and Harmony suspected it had to do with her css creating a closer e with her pets. Even if they took Familiars, the neancer knew she wouldn’t risk Hyath. As for an undead pet, if it was already dead, did it matter?

  “Tell me about it?” Harmony asked. Learning more about their dreams and aspirations was better thaurning to the lodge and Tyler.

  Hyath projected a deep sense of boredom and hu his bonded partner as time dragged on. “Grrrup”

  “Fine, but s, only strays.” She replied.

  Now hunting. That was never b. The toad hopped off to the shadows. A new part of town, a new set of prey not wary for he who croaks in the dark.