I kept up the suspense as we headed out. Aurier was looking at me expectantly, and it was kind of fun just letting him stew and think about it for a second.

“I just changed up a few lines here and there,” I said.

“Are you sure you’re allowed to do that?” Aurier asked. He looked like he couldn’t tell if he was supposed to be amazed or horrified. “And what lines did you change?”

“Don’t worry, Aurier. I think I saved the Elder some good money overall, so he won’t mind. All I really changed was when and where our friendly neighbourhood proprietor would be getting his money from.”

“Meaning…?”

I explained the problem I had fixed. “Originally, Escinca was apportioning a chunk of the funds he got from the Council to this order. As in, he got the money from the Council and then paid the proprietor. I just changed it so that now, instead of the money passing through Escinca first, the proprietor would be getting it straight from the Council and the fund they allocated.”

“Directly?” Aurier’s eyes went wide. “Can you do that? Is that allowed?”

“Why wouldn’t it be? It’s the same money. The difference is that, instead of paying Escinca to pay someone else, said someone else can get paid directly from the Council fund. Escinca will just receive less money than he normally would.”

“Oh! So the difference is that the Rakshasa won’t be charging as much, not when he’s trying to get the money from the Council instead of the Elder.” Aurier smiled widely. “That’s honestly brilliant.”

“Well, we’ll see how much he actually reduces his outrageous price. I didn’t want to call him out in the middle of his own store. Sorry, Ration House. But hopefully, it helps.” I paused, wondering. “It’s a bit surprising that Escinca hadn’t already thought of it.”

That made me suspect that changing that funding line was creating a different sort of consequence I couldn’t foresee just then. Hopefully, I hadn’t screwed things up. The proprietor’s grudging acceptance of my changes was reassuring.

Next up, we headed straight for the blacksmith. I was looking forward to meeting this mysterious mentor Aurier had mentioned so far.

We ended up going to a quieter part of the town. It was slightly more industrial here. Less apartment buildings and more long warehouses and the occasional trading business. More guards too. I wondered if the guardhouse was nearby. And lots of Ogres—as Aurier had confirmed they were called—as well, helping to move things around and performing manual labour.

I was curious about that last point. The Ogres were naturally very strong, with their muscular build and all that. But couldn’t anybody perform those tasks so long as they had a high enough Power Attribute?

The smithy was a bit on its lonesome, out of the way from everything else. Aurier knocked politely on the door. I noted the symbol of a hammer with a snake wrapped around its handle before we were asked to enter by a gruff voice.

Inside, it was hard to make out much because of the gloom. I saw racks of weapons and armour against one wall. Most looked rather basic and functional. There was one wall that held fancier armaments, and it was far away from everything else. The glowing forge near the back was the only source of light. And heat too. The shift in temperature was very noticeable.

“This the new fellow, eh?” Aurier’s master asked. “You brought another human to me…”

His back was to us as he remained busy at his forge. The loud clang of his hammer striking a reddened blade of metal reverberated in the air.

The man was one of the same snake-people as that girl, Sreketh, was—one of the Scalekin, as Aurier had informed me. I could see why the name of their race wasn’t restricted to something that had to do with snakes specifically. Because this guy wasn’t very snakelike. His head was more reptilian, almost draconic, and his limbs were thick and muscular.

Actually, his limbs were almost humanlike. Hmm, was he a half-Scalekin, like Hamsik was a half-vampire?

I remembered the strange greeting the cultists had performed. Hands splayed over my heart, bowing just a little. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Smith. I’m Ross.”

He grunted, still with his broad back to me. “You can call me Gutran. What can I do for you? The way Aurier was talking, you’re not here for smithing, are you?”

“No, not exactly. Aurier mentioned you might be able to help me train in a more… martial manner.” The walk through Ring Three had been nice, but just as I started remembering the fight against the Scarthralls, my hands started shaking again. “I need to get stronger.”

“Is that right?”

“Ross is different, master,” Aurier said. He bit his lip for a second. “Different from me too. I thought, with all your experience in the Krayle Dungeon wars, you could give him some pointers in combat and everything…”

The smith’s hammering had slowed as Aurier had talked. Combined with his earlier dismissiveness when he had said human, the silence that fell didn’t feel hopeful.

“He’s got an Aspect that can control Gravity!” Aurier said, perfect wingman that he was. “And it’s already pretty high-ranked, right?”

I nodded, though that was pointless since the smith wasn’t looking at me. “I’ve got it at Iron IV at the moment.”

That finally made the blacksmith turn around. His smoky dark scales glinted in the light of the forge, in much the same was that his slit-pupiled eyes did. “A Gravity Aspect, eh? Those mages were always… intriguing. And you’ve only been here for what, two days? Three? You must have been applying yourself to get it to Iron IV already.”

Huh. He sounded like he knew about my summoning. I was tempted to frown at Aurier. So much for keeping it quiet. “I wasn’t sitting on my ass, no.”

“Hmm, you do know it’s not going to be as easy to keep getting higher ranks, yes?”

“Yeah, I figured that would be the case.”

Gutran grunted. “Fine. I think you might be an interesting case to help.” He flicked his eyes from me to Aurier then back again. “But I don’t stand for slackers, you understand? I can’t have your attention divided in multiple directions so that you start making excuses about not performing as well as I expect.”

Aurier flushed at his master’s look. His face grew redder with every word from Gutran until he was positively a tomato by the end.

“I’m a member of the Sun Cult,” I said, unfazed. “My attention is naturally going to be divided between my duties there and… whatever I do here.” I thought for a moment. “And other things, besides. While I’m willing to work to keep improving, that’s not all I want to do.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Gutran considered that, before licking his forked tongue over his serpentine fangs. “I might consider that reasonable, but that depends on how well you handle the balance. The only question that remains…” He raised his head just a bit so that he was looking down on me some more. His eyes had sharpened too. “Is what’s in it for me?”

Aurier swallowed before stepping up. “It’s the same thing, master. The Sun Cult would be happy to provide Blessings and—”

Gutran held up a hand with a short, sibilant laugh. “You know I prefer to get all my Blessings from Ulk, Aurier.”

Aurier subsided. “I thought our prior arrangement was going to be enough.”

“For two of you?” Gutran tutted. “I’m not so sure.”

“Not two of us! Um, I know I haven’t been the best apprentice, but Ross here is good. Take him in my place.”

“Woah, there,” I said.

I hadn’t been expecting that. Aurier had led me here under the pretence that I could learn something from his master. There hadn’t been any talk of me becoming an official apprentice to Gutran. Even if that might have been implied, I wasn’t sure I was ready for that sort of responsibility.

Especially not if I was taking Aurier’s direct place. That I wouldn’t stand for.

“I could perhaps focus on a new apprentice…” Gutran said.

I cut him off. “I don’t think so. No offence, but I wasn’t looking to become a real apprentice. I’m not even interested in smithing. But, I understand you can’t just help anybody who wants your assistance out of the kindness of your heart.”

“Hearts.”

“What?”

He frowned. “We Scalekin have more than one heart, didn’t you know?”

Aurier looked terribly sorry on my behalf but I just blinked.

“What I meant,” I continued. “Was that I can help you in return.” I looked around slowly. “I can help you with your smithing business. Get you more clients and all that. The only stipulation I want is that Aurier be allowed to train with me as well.”

Aurier looked at me in surprise at including him too.

Gutran frowned. He had picked up on me noting certain tells that his clientele might not have been the most encouraging part of his business. Things were a little too shabby in his smithy. Plus, he was a bit too out of the way for regular business. I was sure of it. “And how would you make that happen?”

I smiled. “I’m a cultist, Gutran. I like to think we’ve got ways of influencing people. In a positive manner, of course.”

Gutran took his sweet time considering the offer. So much so that the heat of the forge was starting to get to me. The conversation had distracted me so far, but it had begun to feel sweltering.

“Alright,” Gutran eventually said. “I’ll help you. For now. Let’s just say we’ll do a trial run. I can train you today and you can get me more clientele. If we’re both satisfied by our ends of the deal, we can continue this arrangement. Sound good?”

I splayed my hands on my chest and bowed just a bit again. This time, he did see it. “Sounds great.”

Gutran turned out to be a more intelligent trainer than I had actually thought. My assumptions had been that I’d get some basic combat pointers from a smith with war experience. Nope. He actually dug into my personal Attributes and offered me advice and directions that were more tailored to help me shape up into a better fighter.

Especially after hearing about our scuffle against the Scarthralls.

“They overpowered and outmanoeuvred you,” Gutran said, strict and implacable like a harsh taskmaster. “And that’s because their Attributes were stronger. We’re going to fix that.”

Since my Agility was the lowest Attribute I possessed, our training revolved entirely around that. Gutran basically made Aurier pick up weapons and chuck them at me. To make it both harder and safer, he stuck me in full body armour too—it was nice to find a random set that fit me well enough—and then made me use Gravity to weigh it all down.

I felt like a lumbering ox as I tried to evade the swords and spears and daggers and the occasional shield too. It was hard. Not only because my motion was so restricted, but because it wasn’t my regular motion that was being tested. This wasn’t like back when I had jogged around the temple to raise my Attributes.

Dodging. Reflexes. That’s what I had to focus on improving. I tried my best to time my dodges rather than just maintain constant motion to make simple targeting difficult. I needed to train my reaction time.

Honestly, it wasn’t a terrible exercise. I failed mostly at the beginning. Evading with that much weight on was incredibly difficult. The armour helped protect me, though. I received a few knocks and bruises, even a few cuts and gashes when the pointier weapons like the spears punctured through the armour or hit an area that wasn’t covered by metal plates.

“Your task,” Gutran said to Aurier when we were taking a break. “Will be to fix all the stuff you’ve broken through this session.”

Aurier looked a smidge glum at that but nodded resolutely all the same. He wasn’t here for martial training. Gutran had set him smithing tasks. I supposed fixing the broken weapons and armour made sense and was good practice, though I had no idea what Aurier’s skill level was. Hmm, how much was the actual skill of smithing tied to the Aspect?

We resumed, though we didn’t continue for long. Both Aurier and I were growing tired. The food I had Sacrificed would only let me keep going for so long.

When I finally broke through my first Agility rank, I decided that was enough for one day.

[ Rank Up!

Your Agility Attribute has risen by one Rank.

Agility: Iron II ]

I was a bit sad none of the other Attributes had risen, but that was just proof that the higher the Rank, the harder it was to improve.

Gutran was pretty appreciative, though. His eyes softened when I told him. “Impressive. Iron II in one day. Though I suppose the smaller gains through all your other efforts cumulated today. Nevertheless, well done.”

I performed the same slight bow. “Thanks for the guidance.”

Gutran just grunted.

Before I left, I tested out some weapons. The one I kept returning to was a big mace. We hadn’t used that during our exercises, since maces could crush armour a lot more easily than anything else.

Gutran smiled at me. “You’ll need a lot more training before you can use something like that.”

I remembered the way I had smashed the Scarthrall’s head with Aurier’s hammer. It wasn’t a pleasant memory, but losing myself in Gutran’s training had centred me a lot better about the whole experience with the vampire minions. “Then I know what I’m training on next time I’m here.”

Gutran nodded, before returning to his smithing. I wasn’t quite done with him just yet, though.

“You mentioned you met gravity mages before,” I said, hesitating briefly. It sounded like Gutran had met them during the war, and he had tensed the last time it had been brought up. Clearly, not a pleasant experience for him. “Do you know what sort of Affixes they specialized in? With their Gravity Aspect specifically.”

“Hmm. You said you already have two Affixes, right?”

I nodded.

“Well, it’s a moot point till you get to Silver, then. But when you do, think about taking Manifestation or Field Manipulation or maybe even Complex Interaction. Although, you might be able to transfer some of them into Augmentations… You should poke around at the Mage Guild for more information.”

He sounded a little tired of my questioning, and I had probably taken up a good chunk of his time already. So I thanked him and bid my farewell for now, while also inviting him to Escinca’s little fete.

I’d find out what Augmentations were later. Probably at the Mage Guild. I could probably also ask why in the world did the Weave have such a fixation on naming half the stuff it made available with “A”.

“I’m going to remain here and get some of my tasks done,” Aurier said when I bid my goodbyes to him too. “Are you heading off to the Mage Guild?”

“Uh, maybe tomorrow. Today’s been a long day…”

“That’s totally fair. You sure you’ll be okay going back on your own?”

I smiled at his friendly concern. “I’ll be fine. See you around, Aurier.”

“Alright. But before you go, take this.”

“What? Why are you—?”

He handed me the packet of powder. “I don’t really need it. I have an Aspect, and my Attributes are fine enough. I’m not really sure you need it either, if I’m being honest. But it’s all I have for repaying you after you, uh, made sure master kept me on too.”

“Oh that?” I waved my hand. “Don’t worry about it. You’ve been a big help, Aurier. That’s the least I could do.”

Aurier flushed. Typical. “No, no, it was nothing at all. And don’t worry, I’ll take care of reporting to the guardhouse about the incident.”

He wouldn’t let me return the packet to him, insisting that I keep it. It wasn’t a big deal anyway, so I didn’t bother. Plus, they might actually be useful for me.

I might not get the same benefits that little girl was getting, especially if this was a scam, but I was looking forward to seeing how Sacrifice was going to treat something like this. If I was thinking about this the right way, then useless scam or not, those two little packets might just help push the mana implosion countdown back.