While it did take a bit to reach the store that had requested help, there were no is getting there. Niphru stood outside the door for a few moments, thinking. Depending ohe vermin were, it might be easier to just reveal he was a fox rather than trying to manage an illusion of a person.

  In the end, he decided that he would see what it was like before making a choie way or another. With this thought in mind, he headed inside, hearing a gentle chime of a bell as the door opened. There were several shelves of peared to be wooden toys, writing tablets, and a number of pencils and pens.

  As he approached the ter, a oked her head around a doorframe behind it and excimed, “Give me just a moment, please!”

  As he waited, he heard several small thudding noises from the other room, as well as a metallic squeak. While he was curious what was going on, he didn’t think it was reasoo intrude. A momehe woman walked into the room with a crate of wooden sculptures before setting it on the ter with a thud like those he had heard before.

  After she asked him if she could help him, he replied, “Actually, I’m hoping I help you. It appears you requested for someoo aid you with removing vermin?”

  She smiled and responded, “That is correbsp; I went to open a ste room in the basement that I hadn’t used in about a year and it turns out that a rge oved in. I’ve also heard something scurrying around back there, likely a rat or something. Do you need any tools to help out?”

  Niphru shook his head and stated, “I’m a mage, so all I need is my mana. Would you mind leadio the room?”

  The woman’s eyes opened wide and she excimed, “I wasn’t expeg a mage to e, I was thinking my request to the guards would be more likely, I just figured it couldn’t hurt to ask there too. Just let me ge the sign and then follow me, the stairs are back here.”

  She then walked to the side and opened a door set into the ter, quickly heading to the door before flipping the sign on it to say closed, locked it, and theuro the ter. She theured for him to follow and opehe door to get behind the ter for him. Once he was through, she closed it and headed back to the room she had emerged from. Scattered across the room were a number of crates, many lining the walls. Uhe room up front, which had a wooden floor, this room had a solid stone floor, and the woman led him to a set of stairs carved from the sto into the side of the room.

  As the shopkeeper reached for a ntern, Niphru summoned a small flicker of fire and held it above himself, causio put the ntern back for a moment before thinking twid grabbing it again and leading him dowairs. Below, there were a number of tables with unfinished wooden products on them, ranging from stools to a pile of needles with a small block being split into more small rods.

  The ter of the room was filled with small crates stacked upon one another, with two doors on the far end of the room. Each door seemed to have a small roll of fabric attached to the bottom, sealing it shut, which was something he hadn’t seen before.

  Niphru was led to the door furthest from the stairs, and the woman expined, “They are through this door in the far er. I have to ask that you not use fire, if possible, as the ceiling above is wooden instead of stone like here. I hope you don’t mind if I stay back here; they stung me quite a bit when I found them.”

  ging his pn slightly from what he had thought upon seeing the stone roof, he agreed, “I shouldn’t need any help, so it is fine if you stay babsp; I am best at fire, but it isn’t all I use, so you don’t o worry. Is that also the room you heard the scurrying inside?”

  Shaking her head, she replied, “No, it was actually upstairs on the ground floor that I heard that.”

  He nodded and stated, “I’ll deal with these first, then we check up there afterward.”

  After seeing her nod, he used force magic to open the door, with wind magic prepared to keep any s from esg. Fortunately, none seemed to be ied in the door, though he did see several passing through a barred window high up he ceiling. The shards of gss around the bottom of the wall made it clear that it used to be sealed shut but had been broken at some point.

  Niphru quickly closed the door behind himself, ensuring that none of the vermin would escape bato the rest of the basement, and then looked around. In the far er, he spotted the hive the woman had mentioned, several of the s crawling over the outside of it.

  While he could keep fire from burning the ceiling, he chose to listen to the woman and decided on using his force magibsp; With annce around the room, he quickly settled on a pn.

  Sihe s seemed to be returning through the window, he threw up a pne of force to block it before using a gust of air magic to shove all the s back toward the hive. As they arrived, he quickly threw up a small box around the , watg the now-angered s bounce against it. He took a moment tthen the base of it before making a stronger po the side pressed up against it.

  With the new barrier in pce, he let the side of the box dissipate, then pushed the pne inward, redug the size of the space the vermin were tained within. It didn’t take long before the hive began being pushed inward, even more s swarming outside only to run into the invisible barriers. Niphru didn’t slow down, pressing the trap until everything was crushed against the wall.

  Slightly expanding the box, he waited for a moment to see if there was any movement before letting go pletely. Still holding the force barrier on the window, he opehe dain, calling out, “I’ve fixed the , but there are more that will use the window to e in. Do you think you block it off quickly, or should I just leave the rest to you?”

  The oked her head in warily, looking around before entering the room. After a quice at the window and the handful of s already gathered and trying to get in, she shook her head and replied, “I have plenty of unused wood; it should be easy enough to split off some to block the window. Give me just a few moments, I’ll get to work immediately.”

  Sure enough, less than a mier, she returned with a handful of loose wood, a hammer, and a chisel. Several of the pieces almost fit the opening, so she got to work reshaping them before putting them in pbsp; Several times, she had to use smaller slivers of wood to close gaps, but it only took a few minutes for a crude barrier to fill the window.

  After thanking him, she brought him back upstairs. , she pointed out where she thought the noises had e from, and he began moving the crates a short distance from the wall. After several stacks of crates, he heard scurrying from behind them that rapidly grew quiet. Finishing dragging the crates out of the way, he saw a small hole in the wall that led outside. Behind him, he heard cursing as the otted the hole as well.

  Si was small enough, he felt fortable to seal it with earth magibsp; This offer was quickly accepted, and he had her lead him outside the store so he could pull some stone from the street. Fortunately, the street wasn’t perfectly ft, so it was easy enough to avoid making it worse, pulling smaller bits of stohat were stig up to even the road out a little more.

  Once he had a small ball of stone, he returo the hole and started pushing it into the opening, pushing some of it out into the room inside before f it into a plug and pulling it babsp; He thehe rest of the stoo form another plug on this side and pushed it in as well to seal the hole on both sides.

  It was only now that he realized he hadn’t paid any attention to the expected payment for the job, but he simply shrugged. He was doing this more for practice than anything else. The woman then led him baside, thanking him for managing to solve both problems so quickly, and dug around behind the ter for a moment. After shuffling some things around, the king of s was audible, and she pulled up a bag before pulling out several s.

  As she handed over the s, she remarked, “Thank you again for solving both problems so quickly. I threw in some extra as well since I won’t have to have the wall repaired.”

  Niphru smiled as he moved the s down into the pouch he already had on his harness and said, “You are wele. I am gd we could get it dealt with so quickly as well.”

  As he headed back outside, the woman followed him, flipping the sign back to saying open before returning inside.

  Though there was still quite a bit of day left, Niphru decided to simply wahe city until night arrived.