Dawn came far too early, and Piper found herself standing outside the inn alone in the early morning fog, longing to go back to bed. Ophelia was still slumbering peacefully in her bed, and Piper had arranged for Andreas to train her once she finally woke up. Thankfully, the man had been eager for some extra work.

  Raising a hand to her head, she grimaced at the pounding in her temples. After bidding farewell to Selene the previous night, she’d used [Demonic Blood] to heal her injuries. But for some reason, it didn’t seem to work on headaches.

  Why did I agree to do a quest today?

  If she saw an opportunity, she was going to try to get out of adventuring today. Her first priority was to find Lukas. He knew far too much about her for the nuns to get their hands on him. Once she located Lukas, she could figure out a way to hide him.

  After waiting for a few minutes in the swirling fog, she spotted a dark shape moving in her direction. She squinted until the unmistakable shape of Basil emerged from the mist. Unlike her, he looked completely refreshed from the previous day.

  “Good morning,” he said. “I hear there was some excitement here yesterday.”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” she said carefully, unsure how much Basil knew about the previous day’s events.

  “I heard our saviour was arrested by the Dawnward Host.”

  “Who told you that?”

  Basil shrugged. “Word about this sort of thing travels quickly.”

  “He’s not an infernal caster,” she said fiercely. “And he saved all our lives.”

  “If that’s true, then the inquisitor will release him soon enough. But if he’s a heretic, he deserves his fate.”

  Piper fought down a retort. She didn’t understand why people hated infernal casters so much in the empire. Were they all terrible people here? Surely, there must be others like herself out there. Just because someone could use demonic powers didn’t mean they were a monster.

  “We should get moving,” Basil continued. “Otherwise, we may not get a quest today.”

  Piper nodded before holding up her hand. “Do you know somewhere cheap where I can buy a weapon?”

  Basil’s forehead crinkled. “What happened to your bow?”

  “It was damaged in the fight with the undead,” she lied. For now, she didn’t want to risk using Gorebark in battle. It would slow down her weapon’s leveling, but with the nuns on high alert, she didn’t want to give herself away.

  “I doubt you could afford a new bow,” Basil said. “Most of the ones for sale are horn bows, and those cost an aspirant’s yearly salary. What other weapon skills do you have?”

  “I have stick wielding?” she said slowly. “So maybe a staff? I also wouldn’t mind a sword and shield if they’re not too expensive.”

  “A sword costs even more than a bow.” Basil stroked his chin. “I know a place that sells secondhand weapons. Perhaps we could find something for you there.”

  Piper nodded and followed as Basil turned on his heel and strode away. They moved through the dense fog, the normal sounds of the city strangely muted. The few people they passed loomed like dark creatures before taking shape as humans.

  After a short walk, they arrived at the Aspirant’s Guild. A line had already formed in front of the door. At the rear of the line stood Selene and Althea. Both of the young women looked as tired as Piper felt.

  Selene smiled at her approach. “Good morning.”

  Piper returned the smile. “Please tell me I’m not the only one who regrets agreeing to do a quest today.”

  “Not at all,” Selene said with a laugh. “I could have used another few day’s sleep.”

  Before Piper could respond, Althea approached her and stared into her eyes. “I see you have a hangover. Would you like me to fix it?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Althea extended her hands and lightly touched the sides of Piper’s head. Then, with a surge of healing, she released her and stepped back.

  Piper’s headache instantly disappeared, and energy flooded into her body. She didn’t know why Althea’s healing worked on a hangover and hers didn’t. But it must be from a skill or a different type of healing spell. Regardless, she felt a million times better than before.

  “Where’s your bow?” Selene asked, eyeing her quizzically.

  “It was damaged in the fight,” she said, repeating her lie. “I’ll have to get it fixed.”

  “So, you don’t have a weapon?”

  “After we get a quest, Basil is going to take me to a shop he knows. Hopefully, I can find something I can afford there.”

  Selene nodded before crossing her arms.

  None of them spoke after that, waiting for the guild to open. A short time later, Seraphina, the guard, appeared and unlocked the front door. Then the line began to filter in.

  Piper stifled a yawn as she entered the guild. In the corner, she spotted the adventurer with the massive lizard pet. As usual, his eyes nearly bugged out of his head after spotting her. In the near future, she really needed to find out what he’d seen when he’d used [Identify] on her.

  The line shuffled forward slowly as Chloe handed out quests from behind the counter. Finally, their turn arrived, and she smiled at them.

  “Back so soon?” she asked, far too chipper for this early in the morning. “I thought you would take some time off after your last little adventure.”

  Basil leaned on the counter and smiled. “You know the saying: no rest for aspirants.”

  “Lucky for you, there are many available quests today. In fact, you can have your pick of them.” She handed a few pages of parchment to Basil, who looked them over.

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  “Why are there so many?” Piper asked. “Did something happen?”

  Chloe looked up at her with deep blue eyes. “Didn’t you hear? There was a battle between the Dawnward Host and an infernal caster yesterday. Most of the aspirants are hunkering down until this blows over.”

  Basil nearly dropped the parchment he was holding. “An infernal caster was sighted in the city?”

  Chloe nodded breathlessly. “If the stories are to be believed, an extremely powerful one at that. They summoned a monstrous demon. Thankfully, our brave protectors in the Dawnward Host vanquished the horrible, horrible creature.”

  “In that case, we’ll take the giant rat quest.” Basil laid the papers down on the counter. “If there’s going to be another battle, I’d prefer to stay off the surface.”

  “Wait… did you say, ‘Stay off the surface'?” Piper frowned. “Don’t tell me the quest is going to be in a dank basement or something.”

  “Even better?” Basil replied, looking like a cat who had swallowed a mouse. “It’s in the sewers.”

  “There’s no way I’m going down into the sewers.” Piper shook her head vigorously. “I just had a bath! I’m not traipsing around in raw sewage. Do you have any idea how bad I’m going to smell when I come out?”

  “It pays 12 coppers,” Basil said. “That’s more than enough to afford a bath afterward.”

  “No way.” Piper crossed her arms. “It’s not happening.”

  Althea raised her hand. “I say we go for the giant rats. They’re usually pretty easy to defeat, and Basil is right; we should keep a low profile in case there’s another battle in the city.”

  Piper chewed on her lower lip. She knew there wasn’t going to be another battle, because she was the infernal caster. But she couldn’t exactly tell them that. Looking over to Selene for support, she saw the young woman wavering. “Really? You, too?”

  “Basil's right,” Selene said with an apologetic look. “The quest should be easy, and with no one else competing, it pays a lot more than usual. Plus, we can always have a bath again.”

  Piper let out a long sigh. “Fine. If everyone wants to go, I guess I’ll go, too. But a sewer sounds disgusting.”

  “An aspirant’s life isn’t all glamour.” Basil chuckled. “Sometimes, we have to muck around in a sewer.”

  “I mucked around enough on my farm,” she muttered under her breath.

  Chloe beamed at them as Basil handed back the papers. “May the Undying Emperor protect you. And good luck on your quest, aspirants.”

  Piper glumly followed the others out of the guild, racking her brain for any way to get out of the quest. But without her, they’d probably end up in trouble. And she’d never forgive herself if one of them died and she wasn’t there. Which meant she was going down into the sewers.

  Before they made their way to the sewers, Basil set out toward the river. They walked in silence until they reached a ramshackle shop with a forge outside. A bald man stood near a furnace, wearing a leather apron, stoking a fire. At their approach, he looked up and grinned, displaying a smile with more gaps than a sieve.

  “Good morning,” the man boomed. “Finally time to upgrade your dagger, Basil?”

  “Not yet,” Basil called back. He motioned to Piper. “My friend here is looking for a weapon.”

  “Wonderful.” The man strode forward and clapped his hands together. “My name’s Finn. Now I know what you’re thinking; that doesn’t sound like a name from Kalmyros. But as hard as it is to believe, I come from over the mountains in the Bloodveil Empire. Now, what sort of weapon skills do you have?”

  Piper fought down the urge to gape at the man. Someone else in the city was from the Bloodveil Empire? How had he made it across? She didn’t get the sense that he was that powerful.

  “I have Stick Wielding,” she said, praying no one else in the group told the man she was from across the mountains. “And archery.”

  “Interesting,” Finn rubbed his chin. “Never met anyone with Stick Wielding. How’d you get that?”

  Piper could only shrug in reply.

  “No matter. Let me see what I can fix you up with.”

  The man turned and strode toward his shop. He stopped at the entrance and turned the handle. When nothing happened, he slammed his shoulder against the door. Only then did it swing open.

  “The door sticks sometimes,” Finn explained. “But it just needs a bit of elbow grease.”

  Piper followed the man inside, her eyes widening as they took in the gloomy interior of the shop. It looked like a hoarder lived here. Every available space was piled high with various weapons, many of them in a poor state of repair. More than a few had nearly been consumed by rust.

  What a bunch of junk, she thought to herself.

  “Do you have any bows?” she asked, scanning the weapons. “Preferably a longbow?”

  “Ha, a true archer.” Finn guffawed. “Those are the weapons of my homeland. However, I don’t have any for sale. No horn bows either. Far too expensive for my little shop.”

  Piper frowned and walked down the aisles, while Finn busied himself near the front of the store. She reached out to touch a black blade when a shout from Finn interrupted her.

  “Don’t touch that!” he yelled. “The blade produces a really nasty toxin. I doubt even your healer could save you if you cut yourself on it.”

  Piper swiftly withdrew her hand, deciding not to touch anything in here. Who knew if there was an anti-demon blade hiding among the mess. She doubted such a thing existed in this rundown place, but she didn’t want to test her luck. Not after the last few days.

  Finn came over with a staff clutched in his hand. “Why don’t you try this out, little lady?”

  Piper took the staff from him and stepped back. She attempted a few swings, but it didn’t feel right in her grip.

  “Not to your liking?”

  “Not really.”

  “You should try a few battles with it. There’s a chance your Stick Wielding skill will evolve into Staff Fighting.”

  “How am I supposed to kill anything with a stick?”

  “You tell me,” Finn said. “You’re the one with the skill.”

  Piper thought back to her battle on the farm against the slime with nothing more than a stick. However, she wanted a more impressive weapon if she was going to become an adventurer.

  Walking over to the wall, she pointed at two metal spheres attached to a long chain. “What about that thing?”

  “The meteor hammer?” Finn walked over and pulled it down from the wall. The long chain clanked as he gathered the weapon up in his hand. “This thing here isn’t easy to use, little lady. Still, I’ll let you take it out to try it if you’d like. It might give us all a good chuckle, at least. Just try not to kill yourself. Bad for business and all that.”

  Piper looked around at the others, who nodded their approval. Finn gestured for her to follow and threaded his way through the store. She followed him slowly, picking her way through the haphazard piles of weapons.

  Upon reaching the back door, she stepped out into a muddy area with straw dummies mounted on thick wooden poles. All the dummies had holes and tears in them. Clearly, she wasn’t the first aspirant to test out a weapon back here.

  “Now,” Finn said. “This weapon is going to be tough to use with your low stats. Still, you might grow into it someday. Course, slimes might fly, too.”

  “What do I do?”

  “Hold the chain in one hand and throw one of the weighted metal balls with the other. Then you can pull the weapon back. As you get used to it, you can also learn some nifty moves like swinging it around or even kicking it at opponents.”

  Piper nodded and took the weapon from the man. The weight felt right in her grip. She gathered up the chain in one hand and then swung it around over her head. The weight whistled as it gained momentum.

  “Now,” Finn continued, “don’t feel too bad if you miss the first few times. Even if you hit the dummy, I doubt you’ll damage it. That chain adds a lot of drag, and the ball is pretty heavy. If you can’t throw it, we’ll try a few other weapons better suited to a girl.”

  Piper eyed the man out of the corner of her eye and then reared back. Using all her strength, she sent the weight hurtling through the air. It struck the nearest dummy and tore through the thick wooden pole. With a tug, she yanked it back as the shattered dummy collapsed onto the ground.

  “The weight seems alright,” she said breezily, while Finn gawked at her. “How much is it?”

  The man finally managed to pick his jaw up off the ground. “Well… I can let it go for three silvers.”

  “Two, and you have a deal.”

  “Two silver and 24 copper. That’s the best I can do for you.”

  “I guess that works for me.”

  “Anything else I can get for you?” His mouth split open into a broad grin. “Like maybe a war hammer to swing around? You’re a lot stronger than you look.”

  Piper’s thoughts turned to the ratfolk rogue that had stabbed her in the back. “Do you have any armor? And maybe something better than a dagger?” After all, she was going into the tight confines of a sewer where her new weapon might not be the best choice.

  “Let me show you what I have.”

  The man led her back inside the shop, shaking his head the entire way. Smiling, she had to fight down a giggle as she remembered his expression when she’d splintered the dummy. She’d probably shown off too much of her true strength. But his reaction had absolutely been worth it.