A knock at the door woke Zig. He stumbled to it and opened to see a runner.

  "Bluergh?" Zig asked.

  "Message from farmer Haggold to a mister Zig."

  "Das meurgh." Zig confirmed, blinking. The runner nodded hesitantly.

  "Says he'd like to see you today, if possible. Just that sir." The runner boy gave a little salute and lingered awkwardly. Zig realized he was hoping for a tip, and gave him a copper. The boy beamed, gave another salute and ran off. Hepp rolled over on his bed on the other side of the room.

  "Hrrmph?"

  "Szm bou hggld."

  "Frmdr?"

  "Mm. Frmdr."

  Hepp nodded and went back to sleep instantly. Zig also crawled back into his bed, though his endurance skill was kicking in, and he felt his body waking up. He listened to the quietness of the inn. There was a faint creaking of floorboards coming from downstairs. He could hear carts creaking and the clop clop of donkey footsteps on the street outside. Lancre was a peaceful place. Not a big town. Today he'd be leaving.

  Zig came into this world on a mountain, but after that initial adventure, Lancre was the only place he knew. And that dungeon, Zig supposed. But Lancre had become a home of sorts. He'd miss it. Still... Zig wondered how his friends from Earth were doing. Had Dave already become a paladin here? Was Erica a powerful sorceress? Or were they just kids who had lost their families, trying to survive in a violent world where even the bunnies could kill you?

  Zig wanted to get to Northsong. Maybe they were all there, just waiting for him. He also wanted to get famous. If Red Daggers was a name that spread, maybe that would become a beacon for them. A safe haven to head toward. He was also nervous about meeting his friends. How would they react to the landslide Zig had accidentally triggered? How would they react to the forest fire he intentionally planned? Would they still be his friends? Zig looked at his hands. With great power, right? He wanted to do some good in this world. Once you kill a few people, it becomes easier. Bad, good, the difference fades away pretty quick. Zig tried not to picture the people in the fire. It was too much. In computer games he didn't even notice the bodies of enemies once he killed him. Did they remain on the screen or just fade away? Here, the bodies lay there. They stank. They looked at you with dead eyes, accusing eyes.

  Zig got up. Better to be moving than sink too far into those thoughts. He got dressed and packed his possessions into a backpack. Then he loaded a second backpack with his goop jars. He had quite the collection. There was the flammable torchwax, he'd used a lot but kept a tiny bit for himself. From the goblins there was also a sticky goop, like tar, and a purple goop that glowed. He still didn't know what the purple goop did, but his goblin-crafting senses told him to hold on to it. Finally he had some beeswax, and a resin that hardened over time when exposed to air. He bundled all the jars up, weaving a thin blanket through them to stop the jars hitting each other in the backpack. They were the most precious things Zig had. With them he felt like his imagination was the limit to what he could build. Well, second most precious now...

  Zig eyed the brass hilt of his rapier, poling out of his resin-cloth scabbard. He went downstairs and exited the back door of the inn, where there was a little dirt space to hitch animals. It was empty, and Zig drew his sword. It didn't ring when he drew it. Zig frowned. In the movies, it always rang. He hunted around for a couple of tiny stones in the dirt, and embedded them into the inside of his scabbard, digging them into the resin. He put the rapier back in, and drew it again. This time the metal scraped against the little stones, and there was a satisfying ringing sound as the rapier left the sheath. Perfect.

  Zig had no idea how to stand, how to hold the hilt, how to thrust or parry or whatever the other moves. But he had his sword, and it was beautiful. He swung it through the air and started to dance around the dirt yard, imagining all kinds of monsters being slain as he slashed and stabbed. Zig was grinning. This was fun. He practiced sheathing and drawing his sword, enjoying that ringing sound and trying to draw and stab in a fluid motion. He didn't get a skill, not this time, but he had a good feeling.

  Zig, Hepp, Gretta, Jints, and Lady Jane all met up and went to visit Haggold together. Zig felt apprehensive as they drew near. That absolute monster of a horse was there, tied to a very thick tree trunk with sturdy rope. Zig swore it grinned when it saw them, as if it had just seen breakfast. They gave the horse a wide berth and met Haggold at the entrance of his house.

  "Ho, adventurers! Thank you for coming." Haggold was smiles all around. He shook Jints hand and took his hat off and bowed to Lady Jane. He then led them around the back of his house to a barn. Inside, hay littered the floor in piles, and there was a surprising amount of...

  "Is that blood?" Hepp asked nervously, seeing quite a lot of dark red stains on the floor.

  "Yea, comes with the job. I just sprinkle another layer of hay when it gets too much."

  The Red Daggers all looked at how thick the hay on the floor was.

  "Comes with what job, mister Haggold?" Zig asked politely.

  In response, the farmer reached into a wooden barrel and pulled out a couple of dead rabbits and a turkey. Things were getting weird. Zig tried to casually step behind Gretta, but Hepp had beaten him to it. The Red Daggers all started touching thumbs, signaling to each other that they all felt the back of their neck prickling with a sense of danger. Haggold, holding the dead animals, went to a corner of the barn and unlatched a gate. It opened immediately, and out bounded a litter of six baby horses. With teeth. They all started jumping at the carcasses in Haggold's hands, whinnying and whining as the farmer held them just out of reach. He led them over to the middle of the barn and threw down the animals. The tiny horses all pounced, and rabbit fur and turkey feathers started flying into the air as they tore the poor creatures apart. All six people stared at the scene; one in adoration, five in horrified fascination.

  "Lovely little beasties. As long as you give 'em something to eat, they're fine."

  There was a sharp cracking sound as one little foal bit a bone in half.

  "They are, um, impressive, to say the least mister Haggold." Zig tried to say politely. "Was... this what you wanted to show us?"

  "Ah! No, I'm just so excited, I show anyone who comes around. Here, move these fences with me, will ya?" Zig and Hepp grabbed some portable fences and Haggold showed them where to go to make a little pen surrounding the horses.

  "My whole life's changed, lads. You wouldn't believe the skills and class shifts I've been having."

  "From a horse, mister Haggold?"

  "Ha! From a horse. My boy Zig. You have no idea what you caught did ye?"

  "We thought we were catching your runaway horse, sir."

  "And from such fools, legends are made eh? I never bothered with someone to identify her, but I'd wager my house she's at the Extreme level."

  That was news to Zig.

  "Wait, horses can have levels? Do they have skills like us?"

  "Of course they do. How else would they survive? Though I guess if no animals had levels and skills, then no animals would need levels and skills... circle of life, eh? In any case, she's a beaut. I'm Advanced now. Probably the highest level in all of Lancre. I know a few folk have Advanced skills but their actual class? I might be the only one."

  The five members of the Red Daggers, all of which were at least Advanced, all looked at each other.

  "Mhmm," Zig nodded convincingly, "and you got that in a few weeks of having a single horse?"

  "The foals helped. They sure did. I got my hands full now. In fact, that's why I invited you here. You kick-started my life as a monster farmer. And I hear a little rumor that three of you went into the woods the night of the fire. The fire that turned an army into smoke like some magician turning a rabbit into a hat."

  Zig wasn't sure that was how rabbits and hats worked for magicians.

  "And I've been thinking how to repay you. I'm a big believer of honoring the man who honors you, y'see? And now that I have these six little ones..."

  Haggold had been leading them back to the front of the house. Toward a certain tree, covered in bite marks, where a thick rope was tied around it. And attached to the rope...

  "Oh no. Um. No. Please."

  Haggold was leading them up to the horse. All five of them started walking slower, but somehow Zig ended up in front. Haggold looked at him and smiled at the eagerness he thought he saw.

  "That's a good lad! Now I've never used this skill before, but let's try it out. It's called Pet Owner, but it's not meant for me, y'see, I'm the farmer not the owner. It's meant to set a kind of bond between man and beast. Now how do I... maybe you have to touch? Let's see. Come 'ere, Teeth! Meet your new owner! Thatta girl."

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  They were now approaching the range of the rope tethering Teeth to her tree. The horse let out what might have been a whinny, but definitely sounded more like a giggle to Zig. She plodded her way over lazily, staring Zig in the eye the way a Lion might confidently stare at a cat. Her mouth twitched and she snorted. Zig couldn't stop looking at the sharp pointed teeth that poked out a little from her lips.

  "Ah, that's it, I think it worked!" Haggold said with delight. "All sorted then. Take good care of her, will you? She likes an occasional apple, as a dessert. Mostly takes care of her own food, if you let her off the leash. How about it, Teeth? Ready to go on an adventure with your new pal? Who's a good girl? Who's a good, good girl? Who's ready to go with mister Zig?"

  Teeth gave Haggold a flat look, then turned and snapped her jaws on the rope holding her to the tree. The rope broke cleanly in that single bite, and the slack fell to the ground with a small thud. A small length still hung from Teeth's neck. She turned her head to look down at Zig and stood there, menacingly. She snorted, and a wave of hot breath washed over him.

  "Hepp?"

  "Y-yes, Zig?"

  "Do you have a spare set of pants in your backpack? I might... I might need them."

  The journey from the farm back into Lancre proper was tense. Nobody wanted to make any sudden movements. Teeth strutted along, quite smugly if Zig was reading her correctly. Seems like she enjoyed the terror she inflicted. Nobody tried to hold the small length of rope, as if to guide her, but she seemed ok to just follow wherever the group was going. They got to the Frosted Stag, and Zig led Teeth to the stables. There was another horse there, and to Zig's absolute shock it was a normal horse. No fangs, no bloodlust in the eyes, just a normal horse.

  "You've got to be kidding me."

  The normal horse backed up nervously, seeing Teeth. Zig led his horse to a stall and pulled down a wooden bar that, theoretically, would stop a horse from breaking out. He stepped back and tried to negotiate.

  "Ok. So this is a stable. It's where horses go when we're in towns. You stay here, ok? I'll try not to be too long. We were actually planning to leave Lancre, so we'll be out of here and enjoying the countryside in no time. Can you stay here and be normal? Please?"

  Teeth looked at Zig with a completely blank poker face. As if to say, "who, me?" Zig didn't know how much it understood, but he pleaded with it a little more and backed slowly out of the stable. Teeth didn't follow, and when Zig closed the door he sighed and almost collapsed in relief. He wondered if he could just skip town right now and leave Teeth in the stable. He shook himself.

  "Get it together, Zig."

  He went into the inn and met with the others, and they made arrangements to depart on a long journey.

  Jints was amazing. Incredible. Zig had two backpacks, one with some spare clothes, a bedroll, and a blanket. The other with his jars of goop. He thought that's what he needed to make a multi-week journey. Just clothes and goop. After all, he'd started out on a mountain with no backpacks, no spare clothes and no goop. Upgrades, right?

  Zig walked out of the inn to see Jints' preparation. Two carts, each hitched to a donkey, waited in a line behind an enclosed wagon. One of the carts was empty, ready for all the Red Daggers' bags. The other was loaded full of food, cooking, and tenting equipment.

  "Jints... When did you pull this together?"

  "I do have some talents in this area mister Zig. I am happy to contribute my role to the party. I might not be first in line for a fight, but I will not see us threadbare and hungry on the road. I did send away the horse for the wagon since we now, ahem, have our own provisions in that regard."

  All five Red Daggers had come out, and Hepp was loading up the empty cart with everyone's bags. Lady Jane had escaped Grimsby without a single possession, but somehow she already had three bags to load into the cart. Hepp, Gretta, and Jints himself all made do with one each.

  With everything loaded, Zig went to the stables to fetch Teeth and hitch her to the wagon. He opened the door of the stables, and his heart curled up and died within him.

  There was so much blood.

  Zig looked morosely at the very content horse, and then at the few scraps left of the other horse that had been in the stable with Teeth. This stupid animal was already more trouble than it was worth.

  "Teeth. I have no words. No words, Teeth."

  The horse snorted in agreement.

  "All fine there mister Zig? We're ready to get g—"

  Jints stopped in his tracks. The two of them surveyed the scene. How was there blood on the ceiling? Whose horse was it? How much would it cost to pay for the damages?

  "Jints I won't often make this sort of call, but..."

  With surprising speed the two wiped most of the blood off Teeth's mouth, led her outside, shut the stable doors, and hitched the monster to the wagon.

  "No time like the present to get going!" Zig called out. He jumped into the driver's seat of the wagon. He'd never driven a wagon, but since he was the owner of this dreadful creature, he thought it best if he held the reigns. The others didn't understand the rush but Zig took the opportunity to practice again the signal for something amiss, and touched his thumbs together. They jumped into the wagon, and Zig tried to get Teeth to move. The wagon came with a sort of stiff whip, but Zig didn't dare touch it.

  "Ho, miss Teeth, um, go?"

  It worked. Teeth was in a fine mood after a fine meal, and had no qualms with setting out at a brisk walk through the streets. There was no traffic today. In fact, the streets cleared pretty quickly as soon as Teeth came into view. There was a small clattering of doors and windows closing while the horse strutted her way along the cobblestones. A couple blocks away from the inn they heard a distant scream.

  "Probably something unrelated," Zig said to himself. They kept going. The donkeys were half walking, half running to keep up with the horse's longer legs. They were making good speed. As they neared the entrance, Zig tried to look around nostalgically at the town of Lancre. He tried to miss it. But all he could think about was that poor horse, and how they needed to leave as soon as possible.

  They cleared the town walls and came into the countryside. Teeth was really enjoying this, after living on Haggold's farm tethered to a tree for so long. She picked up the pace and broke into a trot, then a canter. Then a gallop. Zig bounced along in his seat, laughing and enjoying the speed. The wind whistled through his hair. The ride was a bit bumpy, but it was incredible how fast they were going, compared to the slow walking pace Zig had become accustomed to in this world. They were riding with the wind, now.

  Zig didn't realize anything was wrong until he saw Hepp dive out of the wagon, hitting the ground at speed at rolling.

  "Woah there, Teeth! Stop the ride, um, please!"

  The horse slowed to a stop and Zig got out of his seat to see what was going on. The first problem was four very bruised passengers, all staring murder at the horse (when it wasn't looking, of course). The second problem was that, far in the distance, Zig could make out two specs that were the poor donkeys pulling carts, trying to keep up. If they had gone much longer, they would have lost them completely. Zig looked back at Teeth. The horse was simply too strong and too fast.

  "Let's stop by those trees for lunch." Zig pointed to a nearby grove. He got back into the wagon and directed Teeth to the picnic spot. The others decided to walk. Zig arrived first and unhitched Teeth.

  "I'll go get the donkeys, you stay here ok? And don't..." Zig looked around at the very empty spot they were in. Just grass and trees. "...don't do anything weird. Just stay. I'll be back soon." Zig ran off to get the donkeys, putting his endurance skill to good use. He rounded them up and lead them back to the grove of trees. Jints started picking things out of the food cart and preparing lunch for the adventurers. Zig made a mental note to always have a Jints in his life.

  Hepp had brought out his bow and was showing off his new Extreme level skills. He pulled an arrow out of his quiver, nocked it, and loosed. The arrow split into four mid-air, and each arrow thudded into a different tree. Hepp shot a second time, and again four arrows appeared. This time all four landed in a tight cluster in the trunk of a single tree.

  "Hepp, are you actually duplicating arrows? Could you sell those? Are you creating matter? This feels bigger than archery."

  "Not so exciting, Zig, they disappear pretty quick."

  Sure enough, after a minute or so, everybody watched as the extra arrows faded away, leaving two real arrows that remained.

  "Mister Hepp," Lady Jane called out, "I heard you mention something about a digging skill the other day. Care to demonstrate?"

  In the food cart, Jints had thought to also bring a small shovel. Just a small one. Hepp had to bend down low to reach the ground with it. Hepp himself was also curious. He ran his hands over the wooden shaft of the shovel, then gripped it tightly in his hands. He attacked the ground. Zig roared with laughter and delight as Hepp the Human Gopher kept a steady stream of dirt flying away from him. In no time at all, Hepp had dug a huge hole in the ground, complete with a dirt fireplace in the middle and dirt benches for them all to sit on. Zig thought it was amazing, and something a goblin would make—if a goblin ever had extreme digging. Lady Jane and Gretta thought it looked cool, but they didn't want to go down and sit on the benches since it would dirty up their clothes. Jints was busy, already cooking food on a fire up on the surface.

  "Hepp, there's one skill you haven't tried out yet." Zig said with a glint in his eye. Hepp had confided in them before that he had a tree climbing skill. It was a dud skill, it didn't really contribute to anything when it was basic. But now it was extreme.

  Hepp ran to a nearby tree, and then ran up the tree. There was no difference in speed. The onlookers clapped and cheered as he jumped from one tree and landed in another. Hepp came down to grab his bow, and ran back up a tree. He swung upside down on a branch, holding on with his legs, while he shot an arrow. It split into four and neatly impaled four more trees. He swung off the branch and flipped right-side up as he fell, landing smoothly on the ground.

  "I like Extreme," Hepp panted, "I like it a lot. What about you, Gretta? You're Advanced now."

  The dwarf grimaced.

  "My shield bash was already Advanced, so nothing new there. My Weapon Proficiency - Shield has gone up though, so I can swing it a lot harder."

  To demonstrate, Gretta walked up to a tree, and swung her spiked shield into it. The tree and the ground shook a bit with the impact, and Gretta stepped back to show the shield stuck in the tree, the spikes fully embedded.

  "I need to work on some more skills now. The others I have aren't for fighting. Prospecting and Smithing. I haven't done either for years, but..."

  Gretta looked down at the dirt pit Hepp had dug.

  "If you keep going in that direction, there's something of value, maybe iron ore. Nothing crazy, but worth digging up if this were a mine."

  "You're... a treasure finder Gretta?" Zig said in disbelief.

  "Just ores and things in the ground, Zig, and I gotta be nearby. It's definitely stronger than it was at Basic. As for smithing," Gretta looked around at the countryside, "you need an anvil, a forge, some good hammers, tongs, apron, a bunch of equipment. Maybe I can try it out at the next city."

  "You bet we can. That sounds—oh no. Teeth! Teeth! Put that down! Where did you find it? Teeth!"

  Zig ran off toward the woods, and everyone turned to see the muscular horse stroll back into the clearing. Teeth had had a lovely wander in the woods, and came back holding half a bear in her mouth. The horse had eaten her fill, and wondered if her owner was hungry. She plopped down half of the full-grown bear she'd hunted at Zig's feet, and nudged it toward him with her mouth.

  It was a huge beast. The two paws still attached to the body had claws as long as Zig's hand.

  Zig stared at the scene in front of him, perplexed. He took a reflexive step backwards as Teeth nudged the carcass closer toward Zig. Bear blood started spreading over the ground. Teeth herself was covered in it. She had some scratches on her flank, but nothing too deep.

  "Huh. Haggold said you can take care of your own food. I guess this answers the questions I had about that."

  Teeth blew air and a bit of blood out her nostrils. This morning she'd eaten an entire horse (except for the hooves, Teeth hated eating hooves). Just now she'd eaten half a bear. Today was a good day.

  She settled down for a nap.