I had been right. We were attacked two more times on the way back to the portal. One group of Dark Sky Bats and another pack of Shadow Foxes. We didn’t get many more Essences, but it was helping with our kill totals for the biome.

  Exiting the portal we stepped out into the very crowded Tower Hub. We got the same looks as normal, other Adventurers curious about us, most of those going back to their business. I felt eyes on us from the viewing booths above and gave my customary wave.

  Sunie laughed, shaking his head.

  I felt another set of eyes on me and turned, seeing the same magenta skinned Tief as before. She really was a cutie and smiling at me. I started to wave but then saw the glare of a taller Tief next to her. He was giving me the stink eye. Big guy, muscled, huge two-handed sword strapped to his back. He grumbled something to her, she glared at him, snapping back. She gave me one last look before their group disappeared in the crowd, heading for a portal.

  I didn’t know if the big guy was one of the same that had been with her before or a new party member. I really hadn’t been paying attention to the others around her. She was pretty attention grabbing.

  “What do you know of those Tief?” I asked Sunie.

  “That same group with the cute one checking you out?”

  “Yep.”

  “Nothing,” he said. “There are three or four Tief races in the Multiverse with Nexus access. Maybe six Factions among them? Something like that. From what little I know, they aren’t on friendly terms with each other. I’m not sure what Faction that one belongs to. I can have Jeriyan look into them.”

  “Yeah, if you don’t mind.”

  “She probably just likes you.”

  “What’s not to like?” I asked, fanning my arms up and down my body.

  Sunie just rolled his eyes.

  “She hasn’t met you. THe second she does, her opinion will change.”

  I laughed and stopped walking toward the obelisk to turn in the Dungeon quests. I felt another set of eyes, multiple, and these weren’t friendly. I could feel the glares coming closer from behind me. Not stalking, no one would be stupid enough to do that in the Hub, but with purpose. Sighing, having a feeling it would be more Anura’s looking to annoy me, I turned around.

  Looking a little up as the Anura were taller than me, even with their hunched legs and back, I was surprised to not see anything. Then I looked down and saw a whole group of Puka.

  That hadn’t taken them long to find me.

  There were five of them, a Dungeon party, three men and two women. Two with swords, one with a bow, and two robed. One of the two with swords had a shield and wore heavy plate armor. The two robed held staffs, making it harder to figure out their Paths and roles in the party but I assumed Tank, Melee DPS, Ranged DPS, Ranged Controller and probably Healer. A pretty basic party set-up.

  No way to tell what Levels the group was either.

  “Hi,” I said to the group, but focusing on the melee DPS as he was the one slightly in front of the others. “Can I help you.”

  “You are Nicholas Howell, leader of the Solace Fellowship?,” the puka asked.

  He had a similar accent to Newton, but his voice was a little deeper. And harsher. It was said as more of a statement and one that I had to answer. I was tempted to mess with the guy, but figured it wouldn’t be worth it in the long run.

  “That’s me. What can I do for you?”

  “Nothing,” the puka said. “You have already done enough.”

  “I didn’t do anything.”

  “You took a Faction member from the Ring Fellowship.”

  I shook my head.

  “No, you guys did that,” I said, loving the look of confusion that passed his face. The other four just glared at me, trying and failing at an intimidation factor. “If you hadn’t treated him so badly, he wouldn’t have wanted to jump ship to a better place.”

  “He was a member of our Faction and you stole him,” the puka said, growling it out.

  I laughed. I held up a hand as it looked like the guy was going to say something.

  “Sorry. That’s just funny.” I gave one last chuckle and then turned serious, looking at the guy and then at the others. “Listen and listen good,” I started, pointing at the guy in the front. “Take this message back to your leaders. You guys did this. You screwed over Newton Graceberry, forced the guy to live in the woods. All just so you could use him for his Follower slots.” I noticed we were attracting a bit of a crowd, all the Adventurers stopping to watch us. “That’s no way to treat a member of your Faction. All I did was offer him a better place, one where he’d be treated fairly and as a valued member.”

  “That was not your choice to make,” the puka said.

  That was a lame defense.

  “I didn’t make it,” I pointed out. “He did.” I looked at the crowd around us. There were some angry glares, some indifferent and a couple curious. I quickly tried to find that Tief woman but couldn’t see her, or the big guy. I did see Zire and his people near the back. He gave me a nod. I looked back down at the puka. “And I’d give that same offer to anyone else in that position. If your Faction sucks so bad that people want to leave,” I jabbed a finger at the puka, careful not to touch him. Didn’t want him whining that it was assault, but I wanted him to get the point. “That is your fault and your fault alone.”

  I lowered my finger, watching the reactions of the five. They all glared, looked like they wanted to do more. Hands tightened around weapons, stances shifted. But the lead puka took a step back, eyes not leaving mine.

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  “This isn’t over,” he said.

  “It is as far as I’m concerned,” I said as he and the other five walked away. “You want to continue, that’s your problem.”

  The puka pushed their way through the crowd, getting a couple of chuckles and comments. The lead puka snapped at someone. I couldn't see who and didn’t hear what was said, but it was obvious the puka didn’t like it. Maybe I needed to find who had said it and buy them a beer?

  “You sure know how to make friends,” Sunie said, chuckling.

  “Not my fault people just naturally like me.”

  I couldn’t see his face, but knew he was rolling his eyes.

  ***

  I clasped hands with Sunie, standing in front of the portal out of the Infinite Tower Hub.

  “Same time tomorrow?”

  “Yes,” he said. “I need to check in with Mashio, report my progress.”

  “Oh? He’s keeping tabs on you?”

  “The elders always do. But he’s more interested in how things are going with you.”

  “See, everyone likes me,” I said, smiling.

  Sunie groaned.

  “Two or three more days and we might be able to finish up the Endless Plains Biome,” he said. “You still have more to do in the Whitemoss Forest?”

  “Yeah, and you haven’t started?”

  “Not yet, so I can get all the quests for that and we’ll finish that up pretty quickly and move on to something new. Think we should find a third before then?”

  “Probably,” I said, shrugging. “We don’t really need one for these floors, but it would be best to bring one on board and get coordinated before hitting the harder floors.”

  “I’ll have Masio and Jeriyan start looking around, seeing what’s available.” He headed for the portal. “Tell Tammy I said hi,” he added, before disappearing.

  Shaking my head, I entered the portal and appeared in the back half of the shop. I wanted to unload the Resources I’d gotten from that Endless Plains trip. Opening the door, I walked into the hallway and stopped in the office. The fridge had been restocked with beer. A couple different varieties. I grabbed a white ale.

  That had always been my favorite before the System Integration. I missed Allagash. It’d taken the brewers in Solace a while to get a good one. This was one of Sean’s from Northtown Brewery, but the ingredients were hard to come by, so he couldn’t make it very often. Popping the cork, I walked out into the shop.

  Tammy was at her usual place at the counter, notebooks spread out. There were no customers, but the shelves looked emptier than the last time I’d been in. She looked up at me, glancing at the beer.

  “Where’s mine?”

  I ducked back into the hallway, into the office, opened the fridge and grabbed one of her favorites. She was a Porter fan. Popping the cork, I walked back into the shop.

  “Right here.” I said, handing it to her.

  “Thank you,” she said and we knocked the tops of the bottles together.

  “How’s business?”

  “Doing good. We’ve got a couple contracts now. There’s still some curious walk-ins, but that’s slowed down.”

  “Too bad we can’t turn this place into the pub,” I said, taking some of the fox pelts out of my inventory.

  “That would be great, but….” Tammy said, starting to sort through the piles of stuff I was setting on the counter.

  It was starting to get full.

  “This is some soft stuff,” she said, feeling the hide. Her eyes went blank, tell tale sign of someone reading Notifications. “Shadow Fox huh? Wonder what properties that will give.”

  “I’m not sure. Sunie and I killed them before they got to use any special Abilities. Sunie says hi.”

  We sorted through the loot, making piles. I kept the Shadow Essences for Tracy. And the Sonic, as I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to use them or not.

  I really needed to make a decision. Not having all my Essence Slots filled hadn’t hurt me yet, but it probably would in later Tower Floors and it would take far longer to get to the right Level the longer I waited. And I’d want to train with it for a good long time before hitting the harder floors.

  I’d had a lot of time and experience using the Essences I had. But it had taken a lot of time and work and experience to get to that point. I’d need that time with the Sonic Essence, especially working out ways to use it with what I already had.

  Time was running out.

  The door to the back opened and Fields walked in, huge smile on his face. He held a notebook in one hand and two beer bottles in the other. He stopped short when he saw me.

  “Nick,” he said. “You’re here. Let me give them to Tracy and I’ll grab you a beer,” he said, waving the two bottles.

  She held up hers. It wasn’t even half finished. Lightweight.

  “I have one,” I said, holding mine, which was nearly empty. “But I’ll take hers.”

  Fields held the bottle out and I took it, clinking tops with his. Both were porters.

  “We celebrating something?” I asked.

  “Another contract,” he said, pushing aside some of the loot on the counter. “This is a lot of stuff. Most of its new?” He asked, looking at me.

  “Yeah, Sunie and I hit the Endless Plains Biome at night. Lots of nocturnal beasties to hunt.”

  He started sifting through it but when he saw the glare from Tammy. She’d already started organizing and cataloguing and didn’t need him messing it up.

  “What contract?”

  “Exchange of materials with the Soaring Clouds Above Clan. They have a lot of wind related Essences and Resources but lack the more forest and nature stuff. Their world is mostly mountains and such.”

  “That was the birdman right?” I asked, pointing with my beer bottle. “Cristik Grennels.”

  “Yes, that’s the one,” Fields said, then looked at me funny. “No offense, but I’m surprised you remembered.”

  “Mind like a steel trap,” I said, tapping the side of my head.

  Tammy almost spit out her beer at that one. Fields just laughed.

  “Think they have any Sonic Essence?” I asked.