“Scream if you get injured,” Haliard told Mike before turning back in. “I’ll run interference for you.”

  “We’ll get a chance to free them soon. We just need a plan. An opportunity.” Mike looked up at the light spilling from the entrance back into the mountain. “We’ll get them all out and go explore. Find out what Slide has going on.”

  “A good goal,” Haliard said. He entered the mountain, and Mike was once again alone.

  “Not really alone, am I? Not with you here.” Mike reached down and scratched Bandit’s ears. The badger had torn the skinipede to pieces, but all of them had vanished when Mike ended the spell. “Are you ready to do that again?”

  Bandit didn’t answer out loud, but he did leap to his feet. Dropping his head, he bared his fangs.

  “Looks to me like that is a yes. Let’s go!”

  Mike’s next cast saw Conjure Lesser Monster level up, causing him to get worried that the skinipede would become too strong for either him or Bandit to take out, but the only change he saw was that it became one mana cheaper to cast. The badger made short work of that one, and Mike dismissed the spell.

  “Let me recharge,” Mike told the animal as he sat down to meditate. Bandit crawled into his lap and curled up, waiting for the several seconds it took Mike to get back to full mana.

  Once he was full, minus the reserved portion that Bandit took up, Mike stood again. The badger chattered at him, angry at being unceremoniously dumped on the ground. Reaching down, Mike scratched his belly, which seemed to mollify him.

  This time, Mike hit the skinipede with two Force Darts before letting Bandit have a go at it. He had to meditate as soon as it was dead, but he was glad he did. Smiling fiercely, Mike examined the new window that popped up.

  Wisdom Upgraded!

  Mana increased, spell potency increased.

  Checking his stats, Mike’s smile grew. That increase had given him enough mana to cast Fireball.

  Once, as long as Bandit isn’t summoned. He called another skinipede and blasted it with Force Dart as it manifested. Even without his Wisdom giving him a concrete value for whatever “spell potency” meant, Mike felt a change. The energy that gathered at his fingertips before releasing felt more solid. Where before it flowed though him like water, this he felt was more of a gelatin. It still moved, but there was a rigidity to it.

  The effect was noticeable on the skinipede as well. The gashes the dart left behind as it hit the thing were both wider and deeper, exposing more of the soft inner flesh. Bandit took those openings and ripped them wider, the claws meant to dig up dirt and stone making short work of the bloodless flesh.

  “I take back what I said about you using the word potency too much,” Mike said to the air. “Sorry about that.”

  The system in his head did not reply, but Bandit rubbed his face against Mike’s leg. Since he had a torn-up piece of skinipede in his mouth, Mike recoiled in disgust.

  “Gross, man. Gross.” Mike dismissed this monster and leaned down. Placing his hand on Bandit’s head, he cast Identify.

  Bandit

  Badger Summon of Michael Wilson

  Level 2

  “All right, you leveled up!” Mike flipped Bandit on his back and gave him some intense belly scratches. “Good job, we’re doing so well.”

  Glancing at the sky that was rapidly moving through dusk, Mike decided on one more fight. This skinipede he decided to attack with his spear alongside Bandit. He wanted to test how well they could work together in a fight.

  Very well, it turned out. Whatever kind of communication they had between them let Bandit stay out from under his feet while Mike managed to avoid hitting the rotund badger with his spear. In a handful of seconds, the skinipede was pinned to the ground and ripped apart.

  “A third of the way to my next quest upgrade.” Mike dismissed the conjured monster while stowing his spear and necklace in his inventory. “Come along Bandit, it is time for bed.”

  Bandit scratched Mike’s leg as he stepped away. With a laugh, Mike picked up the badger and cradled it. The contrast between the adorable little beast he was cradling, and the terrifying machine of claws and fury was stark. Mike snuggled him up and headed inside.

  He was still earlier than he normally was, so he caught the rest of the gladiators in a tactics session. They were watching a fight that was displayed on the wall where the dishes of food usually sat. It was projected from what looked to Mike like a perfectly normal HD projector with several thumb sized crystals mounted to it.

  The fight was between Karl and another man who was armed with a two-handed hammer as long as he was. It was interesting to watch the difference between the two, despite both wielding long polearms. Karl’s was constantly moving, chopping with the axe head, lancing forward with the spear, and trying to hook him with the blade on the back.

  The hammer man was different. He shrugged off glancing blows while twisting to avoid the more serious ones, but his hammer was too slow for the dance. Large, ponderous blows rained down from it, and if one of them had hit Karl, it would have ended the fight right there. Despite having no eyes, Karl always made sure he wasn’t where the hammer was swinging.

  Mike noticed a similarity in style between the way he fought with the spear and the way Karl fought with a halberd. Haliard’s training focused on movement, with attacks, blocks, and parries flowing into each other. Mike could see it pushed further than he had, though the difference in weapons meant there were noticeable differences. Mike moved up next to where Haliard stood at the rear of the room and leaned in.

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  “Now I get why you laughed when I said I mastered the spear.” Karl was far beyond Mike when it came to using his weapon. He could see flashes of what he would do but knowing it as instinctively as the Baerling did was beyond him yet.

  “You’ll get there. Faster than I expected too, I’ll bet.”

  Haliard wasn’t as quiet as Mike, causing the other men to turn around. They all shouted to Mike and invited him to join them. Julian pulled out one of the spare chairs at the long table for him while Aaron touched one of the crystals atop the projector. The video, if that is what it was, paused.

  “They let you go early tonight,” Bradiac said as Mike walked to the offered seat. “Usually you miss tactical reviews.”

  “What are we watching?”

  “This is a fight between me and…” Karl trailed off, looking toward Julian.

  “Jonas, of House Blathstave,” Julian answered.

  “Right, Jonas. This was a fight before we lost our status, I forget what it was about.”

  “Ownership rights over fertile farmland.” Julian seemed smug that he remembered that much.

  “But either way, I trounced him. Want to watch from the beginning?”

  “Sure,” Mike answered. The other men cried out as Karl touched some of the other crystals, but the video rolled back to the point that a wizard in a robe was giving the countdown.

  The fight started and Mike watched beside the men. They were silent as they stared at the display on the wall. Mike had expected some tactical discussion or something, but they just waited until it was over. There were gasps at good moves, and Mike caught Karl acting them out a little in his seat. In the projection, he had far better equipment than he did on the training floor, with quality matching what Aric had told Mike he could expect.

  Now that Mike was back in, Haliard came up with them and sat at the table. Mike almost expected popcorn and beer, but there was no food. The fight lasted less than six minutes, with Jonas noticeably flagging at the end as his stamina ran out.

  He needs to increase his Dexterity, Mike thought to himself as the larger man’s motions slowed. He checked his own Stats page and saw he had six free points to spend. I should hold onto them for now. It will get harder to level my Stats naturally before too long.

  With meditation helping him focus on Wisdom, Mike had a plan on how to train all Stats except his social ones, except his social ones. Fellowship gained levels from him lying and coercing others, so that one would go up as he hid his secrets from the wizards, but the other two baffled him.

  Karl rose to jeers and bowed as the projection faded. Mike smiled, awash in a comradery he hadn’t felt in his old life. Julian touched the projector, and it turned back on, this time showing a video of him fighting a bright green woman with four arms. He was armed with a tower shield and sword like he was in training but also was wearing a long chain mail tunic with plate protecting his vitals.

  It didn’t seem that he needed armor though. The way he was able to move the shield kept a single blow from landing on him. The woman had a cutlass in each hand, continually raining blows on the shield while Julian waited. He shifted, twisted, and moved, but he hadn’t made an attack yet.

  That changed when the woman, frustrated, overextended a slash to come around Julian’s shield. In an instant, his sword flashed forward, stabbing between the bones of her forearms. She screamed as Julian twisted the sword, locking it in place. With a burst of speed she wasn’t ready for, he slammed the shield into her torso while her arm was stuck. As she fell back, Julian withdrew his sword and went back to a defensive stance.

  Mike watched the fight, intrigued. Karl’s style was more flamboyant, flashy and entertaining, but Julian’s was precise. He waited, patient, for the perfect moment to strike and then made the woman pay for her mistakes. The fight lasted for almost ten minutes before the woman threw down her weapons. She was battered and bruised, with slashes and stabs along her arms, but the only mark on Julian was a slight crease where she had come over top his shield to crack his helmet.

  There were more jeers as the projection ended. Julian accepted them with a wave. Before another could start up, the magical lights flashed five times. As they did, the gladiators rose and pushed their chairs. As Mike watched, the projector started to float towards the stand where the food trays usually stood. He was excited to see that kind of magic in action but remembered that Sum was psychic and lowered his expectations.

  “Since you don’t need a chair, it’s your job to handle the projector?” Mike asked Sum as he rose himself.

  “It is a bit rude to point out my shortcomings like that, but yes.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t think—”

  “I am kidding, do not worry.” Sum’s tone warmed up. “My fights are not as… dynamic as others as well, so I am usually tucked out of the way.”

  “That’s not fair, you deserve to be celebrated too.”

  “We do celebrate him, he’s joking again,” Aaron said. “He’s the backbone the Blurington fortune is built upon, the rest of us are just extra.”

  “That is true.” The crystal floated towards the bunkhouse doorway. “Now, it is time to rest.”

  “Was that what the lights meant?” Mike asked as the rest of the men headed that way.

  “Yes. Time for us to turn in. We have a long day tomorrow.” Haliard held the door for Mike as he answered, then followed him down the hallway. The others all wished each other good night as they entered their rooms. Bandit trundled down the hallway, ducking into Mike’s room.

  “Is bedtime one of the commands programmed into them?” Mike asked as Haliard shut the door. Mike nudged the rotund badger sideways to make room for him to sit. He took his boots off and stretched.

  “Yes, so we are going to have to keep up appearances. Since you weren’t here when it happened before, I had special dispensation to go meet you.”

  “Got it.” Mike stripped down and dropped his clothes beside the bed. Bandit curled up on his pillow. “And the ‘tactical training?’ That is all it is?”

  “The men needed a break.” Haliard climbed into his own bunk and settled in. “You’ve only been here a week, you don’t know how it can get.”

  He sighed deeply.

  “We do not get days off, unless we win a fight. We do not get holidays, vacations, sick days. This is the best way I can to get them a break.”

  “And they get to celebrate their glory.”

  “That does help. But enough about that. Why did they let you out so early?”

  “Aric made me write out my spells in a grimoire, then he looked them over. He wasn’t too excited about my combat spell, but the one that lets me learn things was apparently something amazing. He called his father down and both became very excited.”

  “It shows you things in a window like we shared earlier, right?”

  “Yeah. One second, let me try this…” Mike put his pendant back on, then cast Identify on it. When the window popped up, he checked the Party display, focusing on Haliard’s name. Once he did, the window asked if it wanted to be shared. “I’m sending you an example now.”

  Haliard was silent as he examined the information explaining Mike’s pendant.

  “I can see why,” he said finally. “The level of detail this provides is unheard of.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Usually, an enchanter has an idea of what they are doing,” Haliard started. Mike heard the faint shift in his tone as he moved into training mode. It brought a smile to his face. “They can explain what the enchantment does and has a vague idea of, say, how much mana reduction has. There are always little things that mess them up. Material inefficiencies, mana connection drains, whatever. But the concrete, visible numbers this provides…”

  “Aric did say it would be a way for them to turn things around.” Mike rolled over, wrapping around Bandit. The badger’s stiff hair was slightly uncomfortable, but his warmth was more than welcome.

  “This is a political game changer. Once this gets out, the Blurington name will be on the rise.” Haliard sighed. “And with that, comes more fights. More battle. More chances for our friends to die.”