“What the hell, man!? Look before busting a door open! You could’ve broken my nose!” Oxana shouted, irritated.

  Teskin was twenty-three or so, right around Oxana’s age. I thought he might’ve watched over me a few times when I was still too young to be left entirely alone. I knew him by reputation as a steady and able field-hand, and personally, as an absolute klutz. No one even batted an eye when he tripped, startled by Oxana’s outburst, and flopped to the ground at the entrance.

  “What was that, Teskin?” Edra called as she walked around Oxana and offered the man a hand.

  “Sorry, Oxana. Just… There’s at least a platoon of soldiers coming from the Denarlan Road. Don’t know for sure what they’ll be doing, but I bet they’ll come here. Wanted to let the Mayor know. Is he around?”

  “That poor man. I should build him a waiting room, just for all the people wanting his time,” Edra commented.

  “Don’t,” I joked. “His head’s big enough as it is.”

  I was still a tad bitter about the way he’d accosted me after the falsified warning had arrived. He’d let it go and prepared without telling anyone Mom had forged it, but he still hadn’t needed to be so pushy.

  Still… perhaps he been right. Now that the attack had come, all this did was make Neogon look good, but Dobretin hadn’t known that at the time.

  It took a moment for me to notice Edra eying me oddly, and I flushed as I realized my mistake. Having a big head wasn’t really an expression in Tacuria.

  “It’ll swell his ego, I mean,” I corrected.

  “Huh. A big head. That’s kind of funny,” she said with a little chuckle. “Well, at the very least, you could move into his waiting room. I swear I’ve seen more of you than anyone else lately.”

  “After getting hurt in the attack that I wasn’t supposed to be at, and then getting hurt on the beach that wasn’t supposed to be dangerous… I’m basically grounded.” I said.

  “You two seem oddly calm about this,” Teskin said.

  Edra shrugged. “Soldiers from Denarla are either going to do one of two things. Try to take over the town defences, which we’d be grateful for, or continue on to liberate monster-infested territory… which we’d be grateful for. It’s good news either way, even if Tom or Dobretin have to butt heads with some arrogant captain. They’ll all make their way here for a drink eventually.”

  She took a glance around the filled room and grimaced before turning to Omoali. “Actually, could we trouble you for about ten or twelve more tables? If you’ve got the wood and the time?”

  Omoali grimaced as she finished pulling herself through the gambeson I’d crafted for her. “Tables… aren’t easy. Could make some cots without much trouble and free up some of your furniture, though. I can promise you two tables before the end of the week, and five cots by tomorrow?”

  “That would be wonderful, dear,” Edra said.

  “My word, this is comfortable, Mera,” she said. “Thank you!”

  “No, thank you!” I exclaimed. “Five free points!”

  I’d been cutting the number of free points I told people I’d earned in half, which sounded roughly what an elite talent would give. I hoped.

  “What are you spending them on?” Oxana asked. She was still preparing to leave, but turned back to me curiously.

  I hesitated, suddenly nervous for some reason. “I… actually, I was hoping to ask you.”

  “Me? What for?”

  “Well… you’re… one of the only girls in town who became a hunter. I’m pretty sure that no amount of training is going to get me proficient with a sword, but I wanted to learn how to fight. It… seems I might need it.”

  “Might want to join the military for that. I’m sure they’d take you, especially now. Might even draft you.”

  I winced in disgust. “That’s the last thing I want. I just want to be able to defend myself if I need to.”

  I needed to talk to Mom about what she thought. I was pretty sure she’d want me to take the mage route. There were some disadvantages there though. Having fire magic would be good, but I’d have to hide it forever. Mom seemed okay with that, and was learning magic at a ridiculously fast pace from my book.

  Also… Mom had almost six thousand mana. She had some sort of magic already, though she refused to divulge the details. Fire magic made a lot of sense for her.

  I had no such advantage. Just my piddly little eighteen intelligence and the three hundred and sixty mana that generated. If caught unaware, a weapon would be more useful to me than magic. I certainly wanted to change that, and she had promised that now that I was eighteen, it was safe to start learning some skills that would directly improve mana, but the rift break was getting in the way of that.

  She’d asked to talk to me later tonight. Perhaps that was what this was about?

  “Well,” Oxana said as she stepped around me in a circle. “You’re… uhm. How do I put this delicately?”

  “Weak as a kitten?” I asked.

  “I was going to say not suited to fighting, but hell, the free point gain of an elite talent might make up for it. If I were you, and I had to pick a close-quarters weapon, I’d choose a spear… but that feels like a waste of time. Your pepper spray seems much more dangerous, not to mention a crossbow with limitless bolts. Why don’t you just keep making awesome weapons and stick close to Reid? He’ll keep you safe.”

  I bristled. This wasn’t her being serious; it was just more older-sister style teasing. She might have a point, but I wanted to at least be able to defend myself a little before I devoted every last point toward social skills. Maybe figure out how to get that damn diplomacy skill.

  “So… spear?” I said.

  She grinned. “Still not touching the Reid topic?”

  “Spear?” I asked more insistently.

  She held up her hands placatingly. “Fine, fine. Yes. I’d pick up the Spearmanship skill. Double down on endurance, as that is always useful. Get the Combat skill if you don’t already have it, and the Footwork skill, as both will help you. Start dumping points into all four of those, and it’ll get you closer to where you need to be.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  She paused, but only for a moment.

  “Don’t waste free points on skills below level thirty. If your talent were any weaker, I’d say wait till fifty like most people, but you have a leg up on everyone. Don’t neglect actual training either. Just because you’ve dropped fifty free points in a skill doesn’t mean you can use it effectively without actually trying it. Get Reid to spar with you. Or me, if I ever get free time again.”

  I was about to thank her, thinking she was done, but the long-winded girl decided to throw her last two cents in.

  “But honestly? What you should do is double and triple down on that talent of yours. I mean, your talent literally makes it easier for you to help people by getting to know them! That’s you! That’s the system telling you what path suits you! Why would you want to just be another spearman when you could make… well, a fucking endless crossbow! Let me tell you, Mera. Even beyond your talent crafted stuff, that pepper paste saved lives the other day. A lot of them.”

  I was about to retort, but something she’d said struck a chord.

  Maybe she was right? On the one hand, there were only so many people in town, and I could only make them one item at a time. But if I could form close enough relationships with the people around me quickly, I’d never run out of free points, especially now that I knew that the needs could be refreshed, as the twins had.

  Hadra’s need had required a flower and a rock, after all. If I could make the need bubbles for everyone in town as easy as that…?

  I had been thinking that I was only going to be useful for my talent, but the way Oxana had put it wasn’t like that. I wasn’t being made redundant by my talent. I was getting to know people. Finding out about them. Helping them. And through that, gaining a different kind of strength, while also protecting them!

  That appealed to me... A lot.

  April had, of course, wanted to be the fire mage throwing around fireballs, or the spearman dancing around the battlefield. I’d been influenced by that, certainly. Was my desire to fight just a way to live out a childhood fantasy, or did I actually need to gain those skills? I didn’t feel like I’d wasted the free points in Endurance and Running. Those might always come in handy… but combat? That had been frivolous. Wasteful.

  I knew I needed to think about this for a while, and it made me hesitant to spend my points again. Maybe I’d ask Mom first. I know she’d wanted to set aside some time to teach me the mana skills now that I was old enough…

  “I… am gonna need to think about that,” I said.

  “Take your time, but do what’s best for you. I love being a hunter, but Mera? I remember when you gave a cricket a burial in your back yard.”

  “I was nine!”

  She grinned, as if she’d proven her point. “Think about it, okay?”

  No retort came, so I just nodded.

  She turned to Teskin, who’d been watching this conversation with fascination… or maybe he’d just been watching Oxana.

  “You could use a few extra skill points in the Footwork skill as well, dumbass. Mera, any chance you can make him something that might increase his Dexterity a little?”

  I took a look at Teskin’s need bubble and found that he needed something to protect his legs from jagged rock—oh my god, he needed knee guards. Hah!

  I bit my lip in an effort to keep from laughing.

  “What?” he asked.

  “N-nothing,” I said through clenched teeth. “Bring me a bunch of leather, wool, thread, ether dust, and rocks. It’s… unfortunately quite a bit of all of those.”

  He scowled, knowing there was a joke, but not getting it. Oxana’s eyes were bright with curiosity.

  “I’m not sure if you know this, but it seems like half the things you craft require leather. The hunters' lodges are almost cleared out.”

  “I had noticed that. There’s no shortage of dead trolls, though, right? My dad even…” I paused to gag a little. “Uhm. Processed them... A bit. Might see if the hunters can tan their skins?”

  He did not gag, proving that he hadn’t seen the sacks.

  Instead, he turned to Oxana.

  “Yeah, we actually already started on that. Tanning trolls is a pretty common practice down at the rift,” Oxana said. “Takes a long time, though. Something about the skin. Most of it will rot, long before we can get to it.”

  “Shit…”

  I shrugged. “Sorry. If the situation were different, it’d be tough to gather the ether dust, though!”

  “Yeah, yeah,” he murmured. "Still, if that story going around about Burnom is true, I'd better take the opportunity while I can. I'll get you your leather."

  “If you’re really lucky, maybe it’s a staff like Nemmikel’s!” Oxana joked.

  He snorted in amusement.

  I smiled, musing on the surprisingly common need for ether dust. It had been odd that Mom’s book and Dad’s scythe hadn’t required any of it. Hadra as well. Still, my only choice was to assume that I was close enough to them that the toughest requirements had been eliminated entirely.

  The requirements for the refugees, most of whom I’d never met before, were astronomical.

  One person needed fifty kilos of willow bark, barrels and barrels of salt water, pretty much an entire beehive's worth of honey combs, and lilac flowers. It would cure their infection, but interestingly, that infection already seemed to be on the mend. Almost every time Edra had visited that particular patient with soup, I’d watched the need flicker and change.

  So… needs could be manipulated by circumstances. I didn’t know how I could use that yet, but it was interesting.

  “Well, I really need to get going. Sounds like you need to find the Mayor just as much as I do, Tesk. Come with me?” Oxana asked.

  Teskin grinned.

  “I’ll work on getting you my materials, Mera! Can’t wait to see what you build me!” Oxana said as she walked out the door.

  “You’re getting charged! Ten gold!” I shouted back.

  She laughed as the door swung closed.

  Omoali stood up, looking pleasantly comfortable in her new armor. It almost looked like a fancy coat, ignoring the chain links lining her sides and inner arms.

  “I suppose I should get going as well. You think you have it bad cooped up here, you should see my girls,” she said. “I’m not letting them out of their house till they get talents, the both of them.”

  “They’ll tear the house down before then,” I joked. “Come to think of it, I might tear down this bar if I don’t get to go somewhere else soon. No offense, Edra.”

  The old woman shrugged.

  “You are an adult now. You can technically tell your mother you won’t be staying here anymore, and there really isn’t anything she can do about it.”

  I blinked.

  “That’s… weird.”

  She chuckled.

  I knew technically that Mom couldn’t actually ground me anymore. It made sense for me to stay at the bar too, at least until I was fully recovered. Normuran had used magic to heal my ankle before, but he’d been too busy and too tired to use any for my shoulder. It would have to recover by more mundane means.

  I wondered if I could browbeat the man into teaching me healing magic now. I’d never been able to before, but it might actually help me lower his need bubble requirements.

  I’d always wanted to know more about the prickly healer as well. Unfortunately, that would have to wait till later. The healer had been working for days on end with very little sleep. I wouldn’t be the one to interrupt that. We might not get along personally, but no one could say he was anything less than a dedicated healer.

  I wasn’t interested in finding out about the soldiers, and I certainly didn’t want to go home. The pepper pit sounded awful, but I was just so tired of being at the bar.

  I decided I was going to leave after all, and Mom would have to suck a lemon if she didn’t like it!

  “I’m going to visit Hadra!” I said confidently.

  “You’re entitled to do that,” Edra replied.

  “Uh huh! I’m going to leave this bar!” I said, staring at the doorway.

  “Go right ahead.” Omoali agreed, joining us near the door.

  I hesitated.

  “...Tell my mom you told me to go get something?”

  “Of course, dear. Best bring back some more bandages. I’m sure Hadra will have plenty of them by now.”

  “Right! Bandages!” I beamed and dashed out the door, leaving Edra and Omoali to their laughter.

  Gods knew we needed more of it lately.

  Check out the story up top! We were both fighting for top spots on RS a while back. I read that story and found it to be fantastic! Give it a read!

  As always twelve advanced chapters are available on patreon! Please drop a rating or a review if you're feeling frisky!

  MB