Chapter 34

Thankfully, the night brought no unwelcome distractions. No ambushes, no sudden but inevitable betrayals. Just a beautiful sky, riveted with lights, a fairly chilly breeze and an ever-present scent that reminded me of cardamom. Oh, and a fuckton of mosquitos. Couldn’t we have been invaded by a mosquito-free universe?

In the morning, we got up and got going. My mind felt slightly fuzzy from the lack of sleep, but otherwise, I was firing on all cylinders.

Cuilcis walked next to the handcart, with one hand on its side. That, impressively, seemed to be enough to guide the thing. It started rolling the moment he touched it, and seemed to be guided by his every command. Either his mental capacities were impressive, or it was a nimble creation, because the cart rolled effortlessly across the bumpy ground toward the city ahead.

The cart was attuned to his own mana, like he’d said earlier. That was unfortunate, especially because I just, belatedly, realized there had to be skills that were the mana equivalent of Endurance and Stamina Regeneration. Spending a few hours putting mana into a cart was likely perfect for unlocking that. I settled for deciding to get my own mana-guzzling equipment. Right this moment, the only talent I had that used mana was Internal Scourge, and that one I could only activate when it was actually needed.

The journey was uneventful. We spotted a few shapes in the distance, of people leaving or approaching Last Chance from other directions. While the settlement grew ahead of us, I rehearsed my explanations for who I was and what the hell I was doing here in this Torn Divide.

It wasn’t like I was the most introspective of people in the first place, but I did know that about myself: I was shit at improvising. I could lie, and be convincing too. Shit, I’d had to, with my third foster parent. But I needed to wrangle the situation in my mind first, get in justifications, prepare for any questions that might swing my way.

When we arrived at the outer edge of Last Chance, I was ready. I had it rehearsed. In the end, I decided to play it close to the truth. I was but a simple fortune seeker, out to prove myself, rise in levels and become somebody. Where was I from? Well, Sutherland. It was far away, they probably hadn’t heard of it. Same for my tribe. Probably too insignificant and far-off for them to have heard of.

Turned out it was all in vain. There were no guards. Not a goddamn one. As my tiny companion put it: Who’d waste their time on something like that? It wasn’t like they were getting paid for it.

That put the settlement in perspective – and as I watched the splendour of Last Chance unfold before me, I had to re-centre myself in order to realize what I was looking at. This wasn’t a village with a higher authority calling the shots, with king, pope and country laying down the law from up high. It wasn’t even a place with a self-proclaimed mayor making up their own rules as they saw fit. No, this was lawlessness at its finest – like the Wild West, if the Sheriff and the Mayor decided not to make a bid for power. I didn’t quite know how to process that.

Our arrival didn’t go unnoticed. I felt my stamina tick down several times from my new Secrets of the Self skill as we entered the wide muddy thoroughfare running crookedly between surrounding buildings. Yet, even though I felt hungry eyes around us, nobody moved against us. Of course, I did have my buckler and swordbreaker equipped and tried to look as mean as possible.

Last Chance really ran the gamut on style and quality. On my left, a tarp was draped haphazardly over a few sticks, with two sets of scaled feet protruding underneath to the sound of rasping snores. On my right, a three-story earthen tower, seeming to be pulled directly from the soil, rose up, looking for the world like a miniature fort, ready for invasions. Those were the outliers, with the remainder of buildings or self-made creations lying somewhere in between. A good fifth of the constructions did seem to be actual houses, similar in style and size, but built from mud, as if some Mage cracked the code to prefab housing.

Races were wide and varied. I spotted a good number of the purple Adrastians, a couple heavyset Tavungor, a couple flying overhead who looked like a cross between poodles and eagles – a curly-haired, bewinged abomination of nature, really. Yet, nowhere did I see any of what fables had prepared me for. There were no dark elves slinking about, no dwarves quaffing mead and no dragons spewing fire. I wasn’t quite sure whether I should be glad or disappointed. Oh, and I saw no other Tibidi either.

“What’re we doing?” I asked Cuilcis as we continued on our way to the centre of the place. “If there’s nobody in charge, I guess that means you can do what you want, and you don’t have to register yourself or anything.”

“Mirth. No. There will be no registration in this place. However, I would not recommend you act as you please in Last Chance. While you might be able to do as you want, so can those of higher levels. While you may have trounced my protectors, I would not wager on your survival, should you tick off some of the local powers.” He indicated an… establishment ahead with his head.

The place was… okay, weird was a starter, but it didn’t half do it justice. It took ‘weird’, brought it home for a tumble and then got creative. It looked like spliced an imaginary evil villain lab with a make-believe alchemy workshop. Then they poured lightning into the resulting abomination, brought it to life and let it evolve from there.

Cuilcis cocked his head. “Satisfaction. I knew one of the Crooked Cousins was going to move out here. I didn’t think that they’d invest enough time for a real creation. This should make my day a lot easier.”

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“Why is that?” I croaked. We walked closer, and I stared at everything without holding back. It seemed the natural reaction.

The workshop didn’t have walls. It was the walls. It was also the roof, the chairs and the tables. From the outside, it was relatively normal, rectangular and squat in shape, even if the vivid colours and pipes in strange places were off. From the inside, things got even weirder.

“Because, I imagined I’d have to spend a good deal of time hunting down the type of employee’s I’ll be using to guard my future shop. But if the Cousins have set up shop here, and it’s already grown this big? The alcohol will be good enough that everybody’s already around.”

He wasn’t wrong there. Despite the early hour – or maybe because of it – the large room had several dozen people within. Most were seated on benches around the many simplistic wooden tables placed directly on the soil. Others slumped on top of the tables, clearly sleeping off their drunken stupor. The rest were standing, clustered around the long bar covering the entire length of one side of the building. The alcohol fumes, and the stench of too many people in too tight a space were overpowering, especially combined with the noise of dozens of drunken conversations ongoing at once.

Behind the bar, the magic happened. Literally. Inside the wall, a confused mess of glass, brass, metal and other materials embraced in labyrinthine confusion. There, anybody could observe dozens of chemical, and possibly magic, processes ongoing, as alcohol was filtered, mixed, processed and… titillated or whatever it was called. It was a blast to watch, that was all I knew.

Cuilcis didn’t waste his time with that. He simply walked up to the bar and spoke up in a near shout, drowning out the inebriated conversations. “Pleasure. I am a Level 18 Crafter about to set up shop in Last Chance. I will need two guards, of at least Level 15, with multiple martial skills above level 10, starting today. Shifts will be half-day. Pay will be negotiated. Your work will be horribly dull, my goods will be decent, but should not be good enough to attract real danger, and you may keep the items taken from anybody you defeat during the work day. Come see me for further details.”

That was the weirdest fucking sales pitch I’d ever heard. What was even weirder was that it seemed to work! At least a full dozen of the varied species clustered around the bar disentangled themselves and started weaving, and in one case, falling, in his direction.