An Unbound Soul

After my near death experience, I made a more focused effort to not be an utter imbecile, and hence spent the spring acting relatively normally. I helped Remous with smithing work and Mum with tailoring, as well as cooking, babysitting, cleaning and other chores. I even helped out Dad in the fields once or twice. Of course, the 'relatively' came from the fact that I was still only eight—or somewhere between ten and eleven in Earth years, as far as I could tell—and really shouldn't have been doing most of those things. But at least they were sensible things, and I wasn't trying to clear dungeons on my own anymore.

ding

Skill [Basic Crafting] advanced to level 13

Of course, being normal had its downside. Not that I needed big piles of skills gains right now, but even if it was nice to take a season off after the mad rush of last year, I had no intention of resting forever.

Eventually, summer came around. I still wanted to take part in the next tournament, which was closer to the middle of the season. I needed new armour, so I'd need to go a week or so early to get it ordered and ready in time, but that still gave me a few more weeks here before I had to leave. Or at least, that was the plan.

One afternoon, someone knocked on our door. Dad was out of the house, and I was babysitting Darren while Mum worked. He'd grown a lot since his birth and had turned into a mischievous little cutie. He showed no signs of abnormal intelligence, but that didn't stop me playing with mana around him. It seemed to tickle him, which he enjoyed, and as Kari used to say, early indoctrination for the win.

"Come in," called Mum.

A stranger opened the door. "Hello. I'm told I can find Peter here?"

I looked over at the newcomer. He looked young and was dressed like a merchant. Was this institute related?

James, Human, Trader (13/23)

A low level merchant, and not anyone I'd heard of. "Yes?" I called.

"Great, I found the right place. Is he your older brother? Would you be so kind as to fetch him for me?"

Hmm... Obviously not someone who knew me then... "No, I'm Peter. How can I help you?"

"Sorry, but I think you're a bit young to be the person I'm looking for," James replied, frowning in confusion. "Are there any other Peters in this village?"

"Not that I know of," I answered, glancing at Mum.

"Nope, just you," she confirmed. "And he acts older than he looks, so don't discount him just yet. Do you have any other details to go on?"

"The only description I had was that he was the delvers' guild's youngest employee, but despite checking there daily all week, he never turned up. Eventually, they pointed me at this village."

"Ha, yes, that's me then," I said, laughing. "I haven't worked the dungeon since the start of spring. I wanted some family time," I added, holding up a giggling Darren as evidence.

"What? But you're a child."

"Yup, a child who is almost twice your level, and has soloed the whole dungeon. Although, to be fair, soloing the floor ten boss is not something I intend to try again any time soon. That was nasty."

The merchant boggled, then looked at Mum for confirmation, who just nodded.

James, Human, targeted you with [Appraisal]

He briefly flashed a look of confusion, presumably because he couldn't penetrate [Secrecy], but his professionalism shone through and he quickly recovered.

"Well, strange as this is, it's not my business. I'm just here to pass on a message. Jamie, the owner of the Dawnhold slave traders, wanted you to drop by. I'm afraid I don't know what it's about."

That made me boggle in confusion. For all the economical wreckage I'd caused, I was pretty sure none of it affected the slave trade. "You don't know anything about what it's about? I've never had any business with slave traders."

"No, sorry. Anyway, that's the message, so I need to head home. It's a long walk."

"Sheesh, they made you walk? Not even a horse?"

"Hah, don't worry. I got a point of endurance from it, so I think it's a fair trade. Who knows, I might even get another one on the way back."

Well, I admired his optimism. "Mum, can I leave Darren with you for a bit? I'll pop over to Dawnhold and be back later, or maybe tomorrow depending how long it takes. I can order new armour while I'm there, so I won't have to leave again until just before the tournament."

"Of course. You run along and do your thing."

I quickly packed up some stuff and set off out of the village. My staff now fit in my [Item Box], and after my naked dungeon experience I'd started keeping more than one change of clothes in there, along with food, potions and gear, so I had very little packing to do. Not that I needed most of that, given that I wasn't intending to set foot in the dungeon, but it was nice to have just in case. I was able to set off within ten minutes.

It only took me a few minutes to catch up to James, who was doing a jog so slow that he might as well have walked. I dropped out of [Weft Walk] next to him, making him jump.

"What? Where did you come from?"

"The village... You were just there. You asked me to come, remember?"

"But that was only a few minutes ago."

"I'm a spatial mage. I have [Weft Walk] and a pre-packed [Item Box]."

"You... Who are you?"

"Peter?"

"A smart alec, more like."

"Probably," I agreed, but I wasn't really sure what answer he was expecting. I started to activate [Weft Walk] again, but this time the spell twisted under me. It seemed to be reaching for James? Was that what the enchantment description meant by 'extension'? Could I bring other people with me? "If you want a faster trip, I have a magic item that looks like it'll let you share [Weft Walk]."

"I've never heard of an item like that, but sure, if you're offering."

I extended the skill around us both and stepped forwards. James took a step to follow me, and face-planted straight into the ground. Ah... I was so used to the skill by now that I'd forgotten about that.

"Are you okay?" I asked. "It's a bit tricky to get used to."

James climbed to his feet, looking discombobulated. "I... think I'll just walk normally, but thanks for the offer."

I nodded, and jogged onwards, earning another level of [Weft Walk] in the process and trimming another handful of minutes off my personal best village to Dawnhold travel time. If I was rank three and could teleport, the bracelet would have been far more useful, but at rank two it seemed like it would mostly only be good for causing people to make fools of themselves.

I remembered the vague location of the slave merchants from my first trip and soon found the store near the market plaza. A bell jingled as I entered; unlike the general goods shops, this one very much involved the personal touch.

"Can I help..." started an oldish-looking man in ordinary merchants cloths, before spotting me. "You?" He finished after a brief stutter.

Jamie, Human, targeted you with [Appraisal]

So that's the guy who wanted me? "Yes, I had a message you wanted to see me."

"I see, and could I ask who you might be?"

"You just appraised me. You already know..." I pointed out. Unless his [Appraisal] was so low level that he couldn't even get the equivalent of [Inspection] out of it, but if he didn't know who I was, then he should have been a bit more incredulous that a child was asking.

"Well yes, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't be polite."

True. I was probably being a bit abrasive, thanks to my preconceived ideas about the slave trade. I'd been a bit rude to James too... I'd never really looked into the whole slavery thing ever since the first time I'd visited Dawnhold, but politeness didn't cost anything, and with the Law they couldn't be doing anything too shady. "Fair enough. I'm Peter," I answered. "Nice to meet you."

"And I'm Jamie, the owner of this humble office."

Jamie, Human, Merchant (8/38)

The third rank equivalent of a [Trader]. Still lower level than me though, I thought with a smile.

"As for the message, it was actually your parents I wanted to speak to. Since you travel between here and your village on a regular basis, I was hoping you could ask one of them to visit the next time you go back, and the next chance they get. There's no rush, but it would be helpful to see them at some point in the next couple of weeks."

I stared with my mouth open for long enough that Jamie started looking awkward. "Is that okay?" he asked.

"It's just..." I started, "your messenger, James, came to my village to tell me that you wanted to see me, and did so in front of my mother. I feel we could all have saved a step here..."

"Oh, sorry," said Jamie. "Since sensitive information is involved, he wasn't privy to the details."

"Can you tell me what it's about, at least? I have a baby brother at home, so my parents won't be too keen on travelling right now, if it's not vital."

"That's not my choice to make, I'm afraid, but you can try your luck calling at Lord Reid's home."

What a tortuous chain of confusion. Since I did need to order new armour, it's not like I'd gone that far out of my way by coming here early, and it wouldn't hurt to call round at Lord Reid's place. Given the nature of the business, I could understand why they'd like a bit of privacy, but still, much time could have been saved if they'd just shared a little more information.

I waved goodbye and headed to the delvers' store, where Adele was working as usual. When did she ever get the time to actually make anything? I suppose it wasn't as if the store always had customers, but neither did I ever see her hurriedly putting anything down or arriving from a back door when I walked in. I'd have accused her of having some sort of weird shopkeeper skill, if not for her class being [Expert Tailor].

She seemed rather less happy than normal to see me today. "Do you have any idea how much you made us worry?" she lectured, the second I walked in through the door, without so much as a good afternoon first.

I thought that was unfair. They knew the potions they'd given me, knew what I was doing, and I'd hardly spent any time at all in the core room after waking up. And when I did get out, I went straight back to the delvers' guild to report. What exactly did they expect me to do differently? Aside from the obvious of not charging onto the tenth floor, of course. However, despite my internal thoughts, I went with a "Sorry," on the basis that apologising was never the wrong move to play, regardless of actual blame.

"Just so long as you mean it. Don't go doing that again!"

"I won't. I've cleared up the problem with Darren now, so I don't need to."

"Darren?" Adele asked, having no idea at all who that was. "What problem?"

Oops. I got too intimidated, and wasn't thinking about what I was saying. Strange how I could face down a literal army of goblins, but still get thrown by a single middle-aged woman who was brainwashed into being utterly unable to harm me... "The reason I was desperate to clear the dungeon quickly. I can't explain more than that, sorry."

Adele narrowed her eyes at me in suspicion, but refrained from inquiring further. "So, what can I help you with today?" she asked instead.

"I need new armour," I answered, simply.

"Hah. Even Grover's enchantment skills weren't enough to keep up with your growth, were they? You know, we've taken delivery of a bunch of those electro-thaumic projector thingamajigs of his. Only sold one so far, to some gal called Isla, but the last time she was here she was absolutely raving about it. Not just to us, either, and now it seems half the mages in the guild have started desperately training their mana control skills."

I decided to refrain from correcting her assumption about why exactly I needed new armour; telling her it was actually because my old set was melted while I was still wearing it risked starting a new series of lectures. "Yeah, they are pretty awesome. The only disadvantage I've run across so far is that against low-level monsters the corpses aren't harvestable afterwards. Well, at least with my prototype model. Maybe they made the power output more variable in the final design."

"I wouldn't know," she said, drawing out her tape measure and wriggling it all over me. "Our enchanter has ranked up, mostly thanks to the mythril accessories he's been churning out, but are you going to ask Grover to enchant your armour again?"

"If he will, but it's not vital. As I promised, I don't intend to do anything stupid for a while, so I can live without the rank four durability and sharpness. I do need lightning resistance, though. Ah, I suppose that would be another disadvantage; lose concentration, and they have a tendency to electrocute their user as much as the target."

"Okay, I've got all of your measurements. It'll be ready to pick up in a few days."

"I probably won't be here to pick it up for a few weeks, so don't hurry. As long as I get it in time for the tournament."

"It'll still be ready in a few days, even if you say that," Adele laughed. "If I was hurrying, it would be ready in a couple of hours."

A couple of hours... There's no way that should be possible, but the System was still as casually outrageous as ever. I paid her the bunch of silver the work would cost, waved my goodbyes and headed back outdoors. That left just the one errand to complete today. Wondering whatever was going on with slave traders that would require me to visit Lord Reid, I made my way over to his mansion.