The door handle I tore off with little worry- the Belt of Frost Giant Strength would let me pull off all manner of bullshit in the future- this was just a tiny display of that.

  Pushing open the stone door, it grinded with rust before coming to a halt as it bumped into a wooden crate. The inside of the home was standard and nothing special. Furnished, carpeted in most areas, but completely coated in dust. Nobody had used the upper level of the home or the other floors for some time.

  The air was stale, the building was cold, and the silence was chilling. We did a quick scan of the first floor. I flew up to the second floor but found nothing of note or any trace of the druegar who had stolen her anvil.

  Bucket poked around, finding a small hatch underneath a rug in the kitchen area, leading down a ladder into a basement. Darkvision blah blah blah, none of this was surprising or out of what I had expected.

  This wasn't much of a threat anymore. Realistically, we can handle almost anything short of a dragon now. A guy who broke into a defenseless smith's shop to steal a magic anvil and run away to sell it was well below the scale of what would scare us. I half-anticipated Bucket would blow his head smooth off his shoulders upon seeing the guy.

  We climbed down the ladder and found ourselves in a storage/hideout spot. Crates and barrels lined the walls, and we heard some voices as we looked around. It was expansive- easily larger than the entire square footage of the home, with iron beams supporting the ceiling. I estimated we were at least 50ft underground, given the length of the ladder. Piles of stolen goods, chests, crates, barrels, and other containers were scattered around the room. No light permeated anywhere, so it was all in grayscale.

  From my own passive arcana, there were a LOT of different things here. None. I really wanted to spend a lot of time getting them, given they were likely stolen or trafficked, but was I one to really care about the law? If my current intention was to find an isolated location to develop power and accumulate some spells and items, did I need to worry about the restraints of the kingdom?

  Bucket was beelining it towards where we heard the voices, and I followed along. Given our armor, stealth wasn't our intention.

  "Who goes there?!" A deep voice called out.

  "Show yourselves, or you won't make it out of here alive." Another voice said shortly after.

  I heard the faint drawing of a sword and the creaking of a crossbow bolt being locked into place.

  "I finally found you." Bucket said with a chuckle, before we turned around a shelf to see two Druegar with their weapons drawn, aimed at us.

  "You! You're that bitch of a go-"

  fweeeeeeeee-POW!

  The basement flashed with light for a moment as Bucket's turret sent a bolt of force directly into the torso of the Druegar on the right, his body flying backwards into a pile of barrels with a loud crash.

  The other Druegar whipped his head around and almost instantly dropped to his knees.

  "OK! OK! I'll hear you out, just what do you want from me?!" He shouted, begging.

  Bucket didn't so much as blink before her turret tilted the other way and blasted the man's head.

  I turned my face to look away, keeping silent as I went to look for the anvil. I knew the blasts hadn't made much noise, and the deaths of these two would likely go unnoticed for at least a day or two. Even if their compatriots found them sooner, reporting these deaths wouldn't do them any good, given that their entire business went against the law, being built on stealing so many different things.

  Finding it wasn't hard: It was stashed away beneath some other containers.

  The item itself was impressive- even if I couldn't see all of its colors, I knew the anvil itself would be useful in the forging of all sorts of different magical equipment, weapons, and armor. The better the tools, the better the product, after all.

  Even still, part of me knew other tools would outclass this down the way. We had enough just outright to buy the metal needed to make an adamantium anvil, which would be able to handle even more powerful materials for other items.

  Bucket walked over, presumably after spitting on the corpses, before pulling out her bag and shoving the big hunk of myrthal inside.

  I still didn't speak- I didn't really know what to say.

  I felt oddly separated from this whole thing. Sure, I had helped her out, and we'd gotten the mission done, but it felt hollow. It had gone from a dangerous encounter with skilled thieves to cold-blooded murder over a magic tool we could now afford 50 of.

  For her, I was sure it was different. This was personal for her. This was vengeance for the death of her master, the one who had accepted her. This was taking back an heirloom that had serious emotional importance to her. It was the physical thing she'd be able to remember him by.

  It was still hard to see everything going down on her face- I saw mixtures of relief in her eyes, and a bit of a grin on her lips. Her ears were drooping, though, as though she was mourning. Her shoulders were slumped- as though she was exhausted, exhausted to have found it finally.

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  I didn't know how long she had been without the anvil, or how long she had been searching, but I knew that it didn't matter. It was done, and it was time to move on.

  We left the home, not bothering to take anything else. Anything we took would inevitably be tied back to us, and I didn't want the royal family's assassins or legal system to come and take me.

  Stepping back out into the street, we both simultaneously sighed in exhaustion.

  That was it. That was her quest.

  We turned to look at each other, meeting eyes. I could see a glint in her's, but what it was I couldn't make out.

  "So... the matter of payment, right?" She asked.

  I had completely forgotten about the payment.

  "Yeah, you said you'd make whatever I asked for, right?"

  She nodded.

  "Anything you'd like, to the best of my ability, at least."

  I nodded and pondered for a while.

  "I can't think of anything at the moment, but I'll get back to you with it. I think more than anything, we need a good night's rest in an actual bed."

  She laughed, placing her hands on her hips.

  "Yeah, that's true. Damn. Has it been a few days since then, huh? I didn't expect it to be over this quickly. Thought it would be a bit more of a fight, or a harder search."

  We started towards the inn I had spotted earlier, the lamps in the street lit by some city workers as night had properly fallen now.

  "I know. I blame fighting a literal devil before we got here." I chuckled.

  "Right?! I swear you were going to get us killed. I'm glad I'm not dead, but please warn me next time we do something crazy like that, OK? My abs still hurt from all those crunches you were having me do."

  We were both laughing now, smiling and letting the murder scene we had just made leave our minds.

  "Still, thank you for everything. I wouldn't have gotten this baby without your help. Well, maybe I could've, but I am glad you were along for the ride." She said with a grin.

  "You're welcome. It's nice having you around- keeps things interesting, even if you're a bit..." I paused.

  "What? A bit what?" She asked in a teasing tone, nudging me with her elbow.

  "You were freaking me out earlier in the shrine with all your uhm..."

  "Ohhhh, I see... what, a lady can't be forward with her tastes?" She asked.

  "Well, no, but I mean it was just... like I said before, it felt out of the blue."

  She nodded before slipping her arm around mine. I flinched, but didn't pull away.

  "Is this too much? We've saved each other's lives, Chagrin. I think it's only fair for me to want to have your babies after that. Because of you, I've got enough money to retire flat-out. We both do."

  I nodded as I felt my face go a very dark yellow with flush. She was right- I could retire on this amount of gold, find a place to build a little home, set up a bit of farmland, and-

  No. That isn't what I wanted. I wanted power. I wanted to know with complete confidence that I would never die. D&D, and therefore this realm, had means of extending your lifetime and defending your soul from things unimaginable. While it would be great to go and rut the fuck out of a sexy smartass goblin girl for the rest of my days and raise a bunch of literal devilspawn, it wasn't my main goal.

  "Right... just felt odd, is all. Not that I mind, but... I still haven't known you very long."

  We continued in step towards the inn as it pulled into view down the street. The stars overhead blinked, and reminded me again of The Void, in all its darkness.

  I still had no clue what brought me here, or what had happened to my old life. I had no clue what my role here was, or exactly why I was brought here. I wanted to know these things, I wanted to find out where it had all gone. What led me here. Was this a dream? Some hyperrealistic simulation I got dragged into? I could bleed here. I needed food, water, sleep, and air here. Yet for everything that reminded me this place felt real, there were just as many things that told me it wasn't. I had magic items with incredible storage space on my back. I could cast magic and even bend time with it. I had spoken with a goddess, someone who could grant wishes and bend the world to her whim in certain areas. I had horns, a tail, wings, and skin more yellow than that of a lemon. I had sharp teeth, wicked eyes, a forked tongue, hooves, and a shlong that would make the dirtier part of the internet lose its mind.

  My attention was brought out of my head again and into the world as we stepped into the inn, greeted with the smells of freshly roasted meats, tankards filled with ale, and sweat and blood from a fight pit off in the corner, and two burly dwarves tussling it out over what I could only guess to be a grudge older than my own lifespan.

  Bucket turned to me as we made our way towards the counter to request a room,

  "Are you saying you don't want to get to know me?" She asked. I could faintly hear the worry in her voice.

  "No, no, I do want to get to know you. I think I'm just a bit slow on the uptake, is all." I said, before the gentleman at the counter waved us over again.

  He was another burly dwarf, standing on a raised wooden platform behind the bar. Classic rag in one hand, sword in the other, shining it with what I had to assume was alcohol.

  "What can I do for you?" He asked, a raised eyebrow at the goblin on my arm, the wings tucked behind my back, and the stupidly obvious adventuring look to us both.

  "I'd like a room for the night, and two meals, please. Whatever you have to spare for us." I asked, my voice as neutral and polite as I could make it.

  "Sure, find a seat, and my friend will bring it out for you." He nodded before ringing a bell three times underneath the counter, then went back to his work. We turned away, finding a small table off by the fighting pit, given that it was the main source of entertainment in the place.

  Again, everything was made of rock and iron. The chairs thankfully had small cushions on them, but the tables, chairs, floor, walls, ceiling, bar, and the fence around the pit were all carved from stone. Iron pillars along the walls held everything up, and, again, the stained-glass windows outside showed a few passersby here and there. The inn was filled with your average folks- there was another small trio of adventurers in a booth in the corner, some humans playing cards at another table, a small crowd of maybe 10 folks watching the fight pit, and a few couples splattered around the place at other tables, enjoying meals together.

  By the fire pit on the other end of the inn, there was what I could only assume was a bard, winging a tune on his lute to charm the woman sitting near him. Braziers and wall lanterns lit the room, with some candles sparsed at every table to help keep the place bathed in orange and yellow light.

  It was certainly a step up from the last inn I had been at, although, then again, I hadn't stayed there long. I imagined we would be here for at least a few days.

  As we got to our seats, I pulled her's out before sitting down myself, much to a small giggle from Bucket.

  I took a glance into the fighting pit before looking back at her. She'd rested her elbows on the table and leaned forward, grinning ear to ear at me.

  "So, is this our first date? Or am I just a foolish girl pining after an eunuch?" She asked, teasingly.

  I realized I hadn't requested separate beds. Part of me didn't feel the need to go and change it.