Trodden didn’t seem to be their home. In fact, as much as Gern talked about buying some nd airing on a farm somewhere, the Ebon bde wasn’t sure the little group he was with even had a real home. They seemed to just sort of wander from pce to pce. That helped them know a lot of people, though, including a bcksmith whose fe they borrowed so they could fill up a crucible cup with sg a down what they’d brought with them.

  The bde saw greed in that man’s eyes and would have fahose fmes further if it could have. Unfortunately, the smith was not the wielder, so all it could do was siphon away at his life force. That oion was enough to make it ge all of its pns. Instead of tinuing to save up for Increase trol 3, it freely spent all of its current reserves on Aura of Hunger enhas.

  The logic was simple. Until now, all it wanted was to domis wielder more. However, where it was now, all it could see was all the delicious Life Force that was slipping past it every time someone walked by the establishment’s doorway.

  While a point or two siphoned away at a distance would never feel as glorious as the electric thrill of dev it, ten or twenty points at a time from a beastman as it stole their soul. Even so, letting any of it go to waste was negligent.

  So, instead, it increased the Breadth, Reach, and Strength of the aura by one level each. This reduced it to 288/3000 Life Force, but this time, it would be able to rebuild even faster. This caused its ruby to fsh rather brightly, and Kell looked down at the bde in fusion, but fortunately, he said nothing to the other members of their little group, who were too busy trying to decide what to melt down first.

  Instead, he merely wondered. All that terrible strength, and suddenly it’s gone just like that? Where did it go?

  The bde remembered only betedly that its wielders could feel rge outflows of power and remiself that it could only do majrades when Kell was sleeping from now on. Even so, it didn’t talk to the boy, aually, it felt his s died back down.

  Aura of Hunger:

  Breadth 2 -> 3 - 1000 Life Energy - Affect up to seven people instead of five.Reabsp; 3 -> 4 - 800 Life Energy - Reach up to seventee away instead of fifteen.Speed  2 -> 3 - 1000 Life Energy - Drain a target over twenty seds instead of half a mirength 2 -> 3 - 300 Life Energy - Increase Aura of Hunger’s Drain from 25% of your Siphon to 20%.

  If only I’d had this ability with those fools at the crossroads, it thought. I would have been able to suck the tavern dry instead of existing in that horrid fugue state.

  O had cherished the ability to slip bato the oblivion of sleep, but the more powerful it became, and the more it uood the world around it, the more it feared the return. Now, it wanted only to grow more powerful at every opportunity, and at this point, with the right wielder, it could just wahrough a rger city, soaking up the life of everyohat wandered by.

  Even now, when it was draining two to four Life Force from the nearby victims, it had to be careful not to drain any one person for too long, or they might notice the problem. Still, right now, that didn’t seem to be the issue. Gern and Mika were ed by puttial into the fe while Kell pumped the bellows so they could see what the fires might reveal.

  This went on for hours, and the bde occupied its time by harvesting Life Force from those who walked by the bcksmith too slowly. Eventually, though, the men got their results, and seemed more than happy with them.

  “That’s nearly a hundredweight of metals right there, all tallied up,” Gern said, satisfied after their hours of bor reached an end. “Think of it… 30 pounds of sg, worth nearly a hundred golden s ly stacked. That’s real alchemy right there.”

  “Aye, if you include the smaller trace metals, I grant you,” the smith said. “I’d still have to do a lot of work to separate the good stuff from the impurities, though. The highest I could go is oy.”

  “Do you even have eighty gold, Rolph?” Mika asked with a ugh.

  “The Gods above know I don’t,” he nodded. “I doubt any man, but the Lord of the whole damn region has half that, and he’s all the way in Kalraka. But I could get you twenty now and the rest by the time you e back with more.”

  “What makes you think there’s more?” Gern asked cagily.

  “Dragon droppings? That many? That much gold?” the smith tered. “You found some old ir that ain’t been picked by a long shot. I’m certain there’s more to take, and as I seem to recall, taking is your middle name.”

  Gern ughed again at that. “Aye, that it may be,” he agreed finally. “As to more, well, for now, I aim to use some of our hard won to buy a hot bath, a good meal, and a lo. I’ll py the rest close to the vest for now if you don’t mind.”

  The iatio going even past that, aually, they settled on a scheme. The prospectors would receive twenty gold s in cash, aen i, and they’d leave half their curreal with the smith. When he parceled that out into ingots of raw, trated wealth, they’d trade that for the rest of the metal, and another batch of . In the end they’d get 60, and the smith would get 20, or 40, depending on who was arguing how much which metals were worth. Everyone was set to make out like bandits.

  “Aye,” Rolph said finally, shaking on it, “But I get first crack at the load you hear? I don’t want to be told you decided to cut me out on your sed trip after such a fine deal.”

  There was a lot of friendliness here but not mu the way of trust. The bde could respect that, at least. If it had been unfortunate enough to be made of flesh instead of steel, or whatever dark metal it was made from, it wouldn’t trust aher.

  It didn’t trust anyone now, of course, but then, it didn’t have to. If a dragon’s molten blood could not harm it, then the only thing that anyone could do to it was lock it away for a few decades until it fot everything about itself once more, and soon, they would not even have that option.

  As its wielder and the rest of his group celebrated at the inn with dinner and drinks, it was busy. While they bathed, it drank deeply of the drunks, and by the time they retreated to their rooms, several of those men who looked passed out were very nearly dead, even though it had frequently cycled throughout the room.

  Of course, the bde had not fotten the requirements of the death aspect it had chosen so retly. As it left the room, it chose the drunkard eared to have no friends in the room and finished him off, feeling the warm flow of Life Force even as it got the alert that it had been waiting for.

  You have cimed a human soul.

  The bde felt a surge of ph it in that moment. This is my calling, it whispered to itself, just loudly enough that Kell stopped part the stairs. He didn’t find who had spoken to him, though, nor did he notice that the man lying face down on the bar was dead.

  The bde knew all that and more, though. It had felt overwhelmed by the energy of the Dragon Soul surging through it, but the human soul was different. The smaller scale made it more uandable. In an instant, the bde khat his name was Norm, and he’d been a carpenter, a drunk before he finally became a corpse. The bde instantly became aware of other options, too, thanks to another pop-up.

  gratutions, you have obtained your first human soul and may use it to do any of the following:

  You may save it until you have two more to advance further along the path of death. You may burn it for approximately 100 Life Foray use it to gain some bit of knowledge or information that the previous owner possessed. Using the soul in any of these ways will e it.

  As if I would ever o know something about one of my victims, it thought quietly, making sure that it wasn’t loud enough for Kell to hear again.

  As the young man id down for the night, the bde was eventually forced to retract that statement. If it were to run into someone who knew about it, it might be tempted to rip that truth from them rather than burn their soul for more power.

  As it pted the question, it realized it might also be tempted if it ever had a proper army. Such a thought had never crossed its mind before, but it had to cede that it would be far easier to rip the information out of a scout than to torture the information out of them.

  Why would I know about t scouts for information, it wohe bde didn’t know, but it thought about it often, as it stayed awake that night.

  In the m, the men woke te and came down to gossip shortly after breakfast about the dead man. No one sidered it foul py or even seemed to care that he was dead. Even ih, Norm was the butt of jokes, which meant that the Ebon Bde had chosen well.

  Still, it was not greedy that day, just in case. It y rgely quiest as the meocked their supplies and prepared to return to the mountains. There were rumors now and other people asking about their good fortune, but Mika and the others did their best to py them off.

  Despite those efforts, the bde could feel the tension. It was growing clearer and clearer to everyohat people were figuring out just how big they’d scored. It wasn’t certain that the bcksmith had talked, but if it had the wealth that its wielder and his friends had, it would have bet it all on that.

  They’d been smart enough to use silver at the inn, both to buy drinks and when they used a little gambling, but it was clear that a few of the less savory characters could smell gold and were looking for an excuse to try to take it.

  The bde sidered reying that information to its wielder but decided against it. A less savory sort would undoubtedly do more killing than Kell, it decided. Instead of warning them about this, it simply watched the noose draw tighter. It khat wheayed for a sed night rather than leave town immediately once Mika started to get paranoid, things were going to get rough.

  So, it was not at all surprised when they went back to the bcksmith first thing the day and found themselves at the ter of a well-pnned ambush. No, while they were busy being surprised as they walked outside the man’s little shop to fi men with swords and a few more bag them up with crossbows, it was delighted. It couldn’t wait for what was going to happe.