Briggs and I shimmered into place at the end of the Mountain Sewers, offset back to the branch of the hallway that led to both the underground town and the undead section of the labyrinth here.

  He immediately paused, as did I. “There’s a spiritual pressure that wasn’t here before,” he informed me immediately.

  “They’ve noticed and changed something, and might be watching and waiting for us,” I agreed, then smiled slightly. “Shall we see how closely?”

  Briggs had been doing everything he could to strengthen his Source Aura, and he had to be maddeningly hard to follow by the System at the best of times. I kept my hand on his girdle as we headed down, my Astral Ward also making it hard to follow me unless they really put some attention to it. A VII+1 meant an X-Valence equivalent was needed to overcome it… and I had more than enough magical awareness to see any scrying sensor or feel a clairvoyant eye looking at me now.

  The combo of an Astral Ward + Source Field meant I’d totally vanished from any attempt to find me without breaking my Caster Level, and I’d REALLY feel that.

  The feeling of a watching presence grew as we came down into the area of the underground city, the few lesser undead here long since killed and their Spawn Points Sealed away. Nobody had found the NPC’s here yet, Alarm spells at IV in the area scattered to make sure of that, so it had always been just us.

  That was good. Instead of jumping up, we quietly took the stairs this time, coming into the room where the peddler was located.

  The attention was definitely centered in the next room. The smith and the peddler in this room didn’t seem changed at all.

  “Get the new pits dug,” Briggs smiled wolvishly, and I got to work.

  This time, I made ten pits, because we were going to fill them and Tapestry them FAST. The cloth squares were premade, dozens of weavers working tirelessly to make them from linen, or patched together from the fabric of the tens of thousands of shirts and pants we’d brought from the peddler here.

  All of our cashing-in of MMD stacks had been done at the archmage in the next room. Endure’s Sound Bubble was up, so if someone was listening through her ears, they weren’t going to hear anything from here, and I put a separate Sound Bubble up over the pits to hide the clinking of the metal that was going to be flowing rapidly.

  “Ready!” I said to him, as the sluice in the main room melted and rose into position.

  Briggs nodded, and stepped up to the peddler as his full Source Aura swelled and basically filled the room.

  “Good afternoon. Who am I speaking to?” he said in that magnificent commanding baritone of his, just radiating awesome strength and stature.

  The man’s eyes widened, and something instantly glitched in his eyes. “To, Tobin MacErskine, my lord! Peddler and merchant of fine wares!” he blurted out, almost a meep as he stared up at Briggs in shock.

  A huge hand reached out and clamped firmly and easily on the man’s head, thumb and little finger past his ears. Briggs could clench his fist and pop the man’s head like an apple, but that wasn’t why he did it, even as the man froze in shock.

  “Listen very closely to me, Tobin MacErskine,” Briggs rumbled sternly. “I am going to take you out of here, with the other two of you who have been chained here for so long. I am going to bring you back to life and the living, back to open air and green grass and wandering the world of your own free will.

  “This is going to happen. In return, I am wondering if you might not want to help me with some revenge.”

  I watched that spark jump in the guy’s eye, four different glitches going on in his expression. “LoRd BrIgGs?” he repeated in a voice that broke in two octaves between sounds.

  “Don’t let them know we are doing business. Suppress the relay to the System that lets them know you are drawing goods until after we are done.”

  “I-I do not know…” he began, and Briggs waved him to quiet with his other hand.

  “My hand is upon you. You can DO this. For all the stolen years and theft of your life, you WILL do this.

  “They owe you, and you are calling in the debt.”

  He was a dark-haired Black Aluvian, and most of those people were clanfolk, born rogues with tempers and long memories for being crossed. Dark blue eyes smoldered under the power of Source passion, remembering…

  “What of my fine goods can I sell you today, my lord?” Tobin asked, and if the words were repetitive and somewhat flat, those blue eyes were glitching in and out furiously.

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  Briggs nodded and pulled out a stack of MMD’s from his Masspack, handing it over to the trader. “I would like to cash that in. Please put the money right there.” He indicated the basin and sluice right next to him.

  Just because he couldn’t SELL MMD’s didn’t mean the peddler couldn’t CASH them… or two hundred and fifty of them! A minor fact we’d verified with the Mick some time ago, preparing for this eventuality.

  “Of course, my lord. One moment while I get your money…”

  His eyes were twitching back and forth as they stared into the pale green eyes of Briggs, who was full of absolute confidence, and he finally waved his hand.

  Pyreal poured out of nowhere into the basin, and promptly washed down the sluice to the first twenty-foot cube I’d erected outside, rapidly filling it almost a third full.

  Briggs paused only long enough for the clinking, clattering pale green metal to empty out of the basin before pulling out another stack of MMD’s and handing it over.

  A ghost of a smile was at the edge of the lips of the peddler as he accepted it. “Of course, my lord. One moment while I get your money,” he repeated, but there was a note of schadenfreude in his voice that wasn’t there before as he said it.

  Briggs smiled coolly back at him and nodded as another goddamn fortune of pyreal descended from the air.

  If this was a day ago, I wouldn’t have been able to do this. But with the Firestone Scarabs Kris had carved up for me, I could advance my Pool Theurgy to /5, and now I could pay for V Slots out of my Mana Pool at fifty mana per Slot. Since I had over six hundred mana, that was effectively +12 Slots, and I could Mana Boost to gain my mana back for at least four more, and even convert Health or Stamina from those Pools to my Mana Pool for even more.

  I had this!

  ------

  Briggs looked around perfunctorily. There was no sign of any pits or sluices or anything, and Ryin was already gone, even the trace of her Teleporting out swiftly eroded away by his Source Aura.

  Tobin MacErskine and Hadim Qashir followed him into the room with the archmage there, the bony and artificial hands of Arakne Arms from Briggs’ hips on their shoulders, gentle but irresistible as they followed him, glitches of reality trying to compensate for going off-script flickering up and down them.

  Her dark eyes fixed on him, something different in them than before. He didn’t care as he approached, and unlike all the other times, his full Source Aura swept over her. Her jaw dropped as she stared way up at him, given she barely came to his chest.

  “I am Commander Briggs,” he introduced himself solemnly. “What master of the magical arts do I have the pleasure of addressing today?” he rumbled with all the domineering authority ever.

  The adjusted script prepared for him went very off-script as she replied hastily, “This, this one is Toyama Shisi, C-Commander Briggs!” she blurted out in utter shock.

  Briggs nodded down at her and reached out his hand...

  ---

  The Seal Focus on the ground by the city of Freehold flared up, and Commander Briggs and three companions, two held by thick black Arakne Arms extending from the Tats about his hips, Archmage Toyama with a big yet gentle gauntleted hand on her shoulder, appeared on top of it.

  Something major glitched and cracked and broke, the soldiers around watching in fascination as reality seemed to rewrite somehow, or a restraint on it tremble, break, and wash away in the flow of a Source Aura.

  All three former NPC’s cried out as they stared at the sky, falling to their knees and beginning to weep at the sight of it.

  They’d been trapped in a nightmare and a dream for thirty years or more, and only now, now were they free of it…

  Briggs patted each of them as sympathetic souls rushed in to comfort them, spells of Heart’s Ease and Restoration on the lips of the Healers there. The Divinely-granted spells would ease the crushing weight of years of absolute tedium weighing down on them that they simply were not equipped to deal with.

  It would not be forgotten, but the weight of it would be a feather, easily dismissed, looked over and past unless they deliberately focused on it.

  But they knew, and would always know, what had been done to them, and that he had freed them.

  They were going to be his people forever, and he knew that and knew he’d be responsible for them, in turn.

  At the very least, they’d never lack for money, but more good minds doing the low, broad jobs was what he needed now, and a trained smith, merchant, and archmage were all things he could use in production of material goods.

  Screwing over the System that screwed over them? Just a big bonus for a job well done…

  ---

  Well, the short-term drain on my V’s was over, but I still had others, namely Raise Dead and Regenerate spells from inevitable battle losses.

  I had opened up the restoration of Pyreal spells with the new Earthfire Scarabs providing the necessary reinforcement and structure to get them off once more. Of course, all that did for now is bring up a colossal need for the Scarabs, as every Caster and their mother wanted at least a hundred of them right off the bat.

  I looked at the room packed full of black rocks gained from random Magma Golum spawns. There was now a hunt going on for Dungeons with guaranteed magma spawns there to be harvested.

  Technically, they didn’t need the golums, they just needed a source of Earthfire Obsidian. The golums just did a chunk of the work ahead of time for them.

  I lifted the adamantine carving tool in my hand, already Buffed up, for the focus for the Fabricate spell.

  The spell accomplished one day of labor, done in seconds, subject to my own skill check. A roomful of work to do.

  And me here with a Mana Pool that could now refill V Slots.

  We’d see how many Scarabs I could get out of these per rock, sure enough, and then I was going to have to go visiting all the volcanoes I could, looking for Earthfire Obsidian. The Firestone stuff wouldn’t be an issue, plenty of black stones stacked up for me to use for the immediate future, although I’d definitely mark any I’d find.

  More importantly, the Blackfire Stones were the next iteration of power for the E-obsidian progression, so Blackfire Obsidian was probably the Scarab for the Platinum Tier of spells we’d all need. The only place that had a good chance of holding that was Tenkarrdun on Aerlinthe Island, home to Lady Aerefalle, millennia-old head of the undead faction of the Wind of Secrets…

  Energize higher-end stuff, Teleport around, Raise Dead, and Harden materials just got a huge boost in the arm.

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