Return of the Runebound Professor

Father watched the demon’s back as it headed out the door. Only once the door had closed again did he look at the empty glass of alcohol on the table. He pulled the antidote out of his sleeve and poured it into his mouth, then stood and examined the glass.

No signs that he somehow poured it out. I watched closer this time. He definitely drank it.

There was a knock on the door. Father flicked his fingers, opening it without looking up. He already knew who was waiting.

“Father,” Janice said, stepping inside and bowing her head low. A tremble ran beneath her words, well hidden but completely apparent to him. The door shut behind Janice and she flinched.

“You are certain you followed him home yesterday?” Father asked.

“Yes,” Janice said.

“And he did not throw up or otherwise do anything to show he was in discomfort?”

“Nothing,” Janice promised. “I was invisible. He did not know I was there, I am certain. The Imbuements in their house were destroyed, though.”

Father grunted. “I had gathered as much would happen. It would have been odd if they hadn’t been. Did he drink anything out of the ordinary?”

“No,” Janice replied, pausing to gather her courage. “The only belongings he has are his grimoire, a travel bag, and a gourd. He didn’t drink from the gourd.”

Father walked back to his chair and sat down, still studying the empty glass. “Very well. Leave.”

The door ground open and Janice practically sprinted out backwards, bowing to Father until he was out of sight. Father just shook his head and closed the door.

Is he just posturing? Even for a demon, drinking this much Soulrend Poison would do a lot of damage. It might be less effective when used against something within its own body, but poison is poison. His soul should be hemorrhaged without the antidote unless it was genuinely the size of an Archdemon’s, or at least close to one.

Father pursed his lips. There was one thing he knew for certain. The demon that Vermil had been originally meant to summon was a powerful creature, but nothing he’d read about it had implied the monster was remotely smart – and certainly not clever enough to be playing the games that Spider was.

The question remains of who exactly Spider is. A demon, perhaps. An extra one that slipped out through the portal, taking advantage of Vermil’s focus on a different target to kill him and take his body. Or was the information I had about the demon completely wrong? There is too little information about them.

His finger twitched slightly.

I do not like this. There are too many shifting variables. For now, I will observe. Dayton is an irrelevant target. If he is playing at his own angle, then it will come clean shortly – assuming he survives this encounter. Dayton is not nearly as incompetent as I made him out to be.

***

Noah headed back to the house, but he didn’t stay for long. He only spent a few seconds to grab his bag and gourd before turning and heading straight back out. Before he did anything else, there was still something that he’d been waiting to do for quite some time.

I want to sell all the monster parts I’ve been collecting.

Setting off at a brisk pace, Noah scoured the streets of the Linwick Estate for the market. It didn’t take him long to find it. After just a few minutes of searching, Noah heard the sounds of heated haggling and the calls of merchants mixed in with the tantalizing smell of baked bread and greasy meat.

I don’t know why every single market square always smells so… unique, but it’s good. Almost makes me want to stop and spend money on food. Almost.

Noah located the street with his eyes shortly after his other senses picked it up. It strongly resembled the market in Arbitage, but there were far more street vendors. There were all sorts of things for sale, but Noah was on a mission.

He walked along the street, ignoring the vendors as they called out for his attention. His eyes scoured over their stalls, and before long, he found what he was looking for. A barrel chested man sat on a large crate before a wooden stall stuffed full of baskets bearing assorted monster parts.

Large jars of eyes hung from the roof of the cart, suspended with fraying rope. Every sort of claw and tooth jutted out of straw boxes and there were dozens of different kinds of hides on display.

The merchant smiled as Noah approached, rising from his seat and raising his hands in greeting.

“If you look for monster bath ingredients, then you have come to the right place,” the merchant said in a booming voice. Several other merchants in the area glared at him, and he sheepishly lowered his voice. “My name is Jaden. How can I help you, my good man?”

“I’m actually looking to sell,” Noah said, taking his bag out. “I’ve collected some stuff from monsters. Interested in taking a look?”

Jaden pulled out a small basket and held it out to Noah. “Let’s see what you’ve got. Then I’ll tell you if I care about any of it. Don’t get your hopes up, though. Unless you’ve got any interesting monsters, the prices aren’t going to be too great.”

Noah dug through his travel bag, pulling out all the pieces of monsters he’d been storing up over the past weeks. Claws, teeth from just about everything he’d killed, several makeshift daggers from Slashers, everything went into the basket. Jaden’s eye twitched as he stared at the growing pile.

By the time Noah was done, his travel bag had lightened considerably. He shuffled through it one last time, then nodded and let it drop.

“Okay. That’s all of it. What do you think?”

“What is this?” Jaden asked, picking up one of the Slasher claws and studying it curiously. “Doesn’t look like anything we’ve got in the area.”

“Slasher. From the Scorched Acres.”

Jaden failed to stop the flicker of surprise from crossing his features in time. Noah’s grin grew.

“You don’t get much of those around here, do you?”

“No,” Jaden admitted reluctantly. “We don’t. Is all of this from the Scorched Acres?”

“Some of it. Also a few things from the Windscorned Plateau.”

Jaden chewed his inner cheek in thought. He pulled his eyes away from the monster parts. “How much do you want for them?”

“How much are you offering?” Noah countered.

I’ve got no idea how much they actually go for, but I figure whatever he initially offers will probably be about half of what they’re actually worth.

“Sixty gold,” Jaden said after a moment.

Noah fought to keep his eyes from widening. That was six weeks of pay for a Rank 1 professor. That said, he was pretty sure Moxie got paid a lot better than he did at Rank 3, but still.

“One hundred fifty,” Noah countered.

Jaden’s eyes bulged. “No way. I’m already giving you a premium since it’s hard to get materials from that far away, so there might be more market than normal. The monsters aren’t really that strong. I can’t give you more than eighty.”

“Hundred twenty.”

The shocked expression on Jaden’s face flattened as he immediately shifted to a flat face. “Ninety five.”

“There are other vendors here, you know,” Noah said, moving to gather the parts back into his bag. “I’m pretty sure I could get one of them to give me a hundred and twenty.”

“Don’t give your money to those idiots. You’ll find absolutely no luck with them at all,” Jaden snapped, batting Noah’s hand back. “Hundred ten. Final offer.”

“Hundred fifteen.”

Jaden pursed his lips, then let out a heavy sigh. “Fine. Rob me and my children, will you?”

The merchant dug through his pockets and pulled out a bag. He painstakingly counted out a hundred and fifteen gold, placing each one on the table and sending Noah a glare in between motions, then slid the pile over to him.

Noah swept it into the bag, which he deposited in his travel bag. Jaden gathered up his loot, a sudden grin on his face.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Jaden said. “Keep me in mind for future sales – unless you want to buy something now?”

Noah scrunched his nose. “How much of a fool did you play me for?”

“You didn’t do too bad,” Jaden said. “Be more dramatic next time. If you’d walked away from the table after I’d tried to stop you, I’d probably have pushed it up another ten or twenty gold. First time haggling?”

“How’d you know?”

“You asked how much of a fool I played you for,” Jaden replied with a wry smile. “If you’d done this before, you’d have already known the answer. Keep it up. You aren’t half bad.”

“Thanks,” Noah said, giving Jaden a small nod and heading back toward his lodgings. He wasn’t too bothered about getting stiffed on the gold – it was still a lot more than he’d ever had before, and the lesson was worth a fair amount of money.

Not only that, but Jaden had answered more than one thing.

The Linwicks aren’t struggling at all. If their merchants are tossing around a hundred gold just for monster parts that aren’t even that rare, then the average wealth here is really high. Well, that or I got scammed on just how valuable those parts were. I’m pretty sure I didn’t, though. If they were that expensive, everyone would have been hunting in the Scorched Acres.

I wonder what I should spend my money on. A hundred gold… that’s enough for an Imbued item. My flying sword works great, though. I should really try to get my hands on some Shields. A hundred gold won’t be enough for that, so it might just be best to save it for now. Wait for me, shopping spree. I’m coming for you.

Noah arrived at the house, stepping through the door to find Isabel and Todd sitting across from Lee and eating breakfast – or was it lunch? It was one of the two. The table was piled high with various breads and a large bowl of delicious smelling stew sat at its center. Noah’s stomach rumbled.

I keep forgetting to eat.

“Joining us?” Lee asked with a wry grin. “They delivered food!”

And you actually ate it? Are you trying to get poisoned?

“It’s not poisoned,” Lee said. “I would have smelled it.”

“One day, we’re going to have a talk about that nose of yours,” Noah said. He pulled a chair out and grabbed himself a bowl, spooning some of the stew into it.

Isabel and Todd were uncharacteristically quiet. Noah raised an eyebrow at Lee, who just shrugged.

“Did someone dropkick you both when you got out of bed today?” Noah asked.

Todd blinked. “No. We… you know. Your clone told you, right?”

“Of course they did,” Noah said with a chuckle. “I’m not keeping secrets from myself.”

“So…” Isabel trailed off and shrugged. “You know.”

“Yeah. So what?” Noah asked. “Don’t get me wrong. That was a damn stupid move to do, and you’re lucky it didn’t go worse. But sitting around sulking isn’t going to accomplish anything. I mean, is that what you did when you showed up to Arbitage and got a shit teacher? Just sat around and did nothing?”

“Kind of,” Todd muttered.

“A little bit,” Isabel agreed, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

“It’s easy to lounge around in sorrow – or worse, boredom,” Noah said. “Don’t. Take every opportunity you have to act. Not in a stupid way. Leave that to me. But why sit around bummed out when you can be getting stronger and working on achieving your goal? You’re just letting that goalpost get farther and farther away from you.”

“What’s a goalpost?” Todd asked.

“Target. Whatever,” Noah said, waving his hand. “Do you think Dayton is sitting around and doing nothing? He’s probably got his fat ass in a magical bubble bath of monster juice and is getting more powerful just by existing. Why are you sitting around like whipped dogs? Get stronger.”

“You’re not mad at us?” Isabel asked.

“If you knew half the stupid shit I’ve done, you’d probably be mad at me. Getting mad doesn’t do anything unless you let the anger motivate you. Anger isn’t a useful emotion if it’s doing anything other than driving your progress. Why would I waste effort being angry at you when I can help you get stronger instead?”

“So… you don’t care that we’re trying to kill nobles?” Isabel lowered her voice.

“Why would I give a shit? Just don’t kill anyone that doesn’t deserve it.” Noah shrugged. “Death comes for us all. It’ll come for you too, especially if you’re a damned idiot about how you go about this. As your teacher, it’s my job to help you reach your aspirations. I’d honestly hope your goals are a lot bigger than just killing a bunch of assholes, but it’s not my position to tell you what you should strive for – I’m just here to help you reach it.”

Todd and Isabel exchanged a glance, their disappointment turning more inquisitive.

“I… haven’t really thought about what we’d do after all this,” Todd said with a frown. “Didn’t think we’d even get this far, honestly. Figured we’d be dead by now.”

“Todd!” Isabel exclaimed. “Seriously?”

He shrugged. “Having fun is one thing, but I’m not a complete idiot. Two blacklisted kids versus some of the strongest mages in the kingdom. Odds aren’t exactly in our favor.”

Isabel glanced to the side, her shoulders slumping. “Yeah.”

“Not with that attitude they aren’t,” Noah said. He lifted his bowl of soup to his lips, draining the entire thing in one go and nearly choking on a chunk of meat. He swallowed, clearing his throat and hoping nobody had noticed. “Finish up eating. It’s time for some training.”

“Here?” Todd asked. “Now?”

“What, did you think this was a vacation?” Noah gave them a cold smile. “Moxie isn’t here to help cover the survival stuff, so we’ll have to use my strategy – get strong enough to beat the shit out of everything around you. Not the most efficient manner of doing things, but it’s quite effective. Let’s get to it, shall we?”

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