“What?” Vin blinked, staring at the Trapper in shock. “What do you mean you’ve killed someone before?”

  Alice looked like she wanted to explain, but her eyes flicked over to the rest of his party, and she hesitated. “Look, like I said, a lot has happened while you’ve been gone. You really shouldn’t be hearing about it from me. You should come back and speak with Spur yourself.”

  “I’m planning to, but first we need to deal with the divine warrior,” Vin sighed, wondering what on Earth could have possibly happened in his absence. He knew he’d been gone for a while, but one thing just kept leading to another, and here they were. “At least tell me what resulted in you killing someone. Was there another Patty situation with the members of wave two?”

  “No, nothing so dire as that,” Alice said, shaking her head. “Myers implemented a far more thorough screening process after the whole Patty situation. In fact, she even managed to catch a few people from wave two that ended up selecting… questionable classes like Patty. Most of them have become specialized workers with a lot of oversight, but a few became the first members of the camp’s new prison.”

  “We have a prison now?” Vin said, barely believing what he was hearing. It was hard enough to think that one person would come to this new world with the plan of bringing others pain and suffering, but several people?

  He wasn’t the largest fan of prisons, but if anyone deserved to rot inside one, it would be people like Patty.

  “Yeah, it was one of the first buildings the new concrete was used for,” Alice explained. “Anyway, the person I killed… About a week after you left, we ended up making contact with a nearby fragment. Based on your map, they’re to the south-west of us, on the fragment adjacent to both the desert fragment and the Sacred Forest. Congrats on being the one to decide where our cardinal directions were by the way, you’ll probably go down in history just for that alone.”

  “What do you mean ‘made contact?’” Vin asked, ignoring her following comment. He’d literally chosen the directions at random, so he really hoped that wasn’t something he earned any praise for. “Was there bloodshed?”

  “Not at first. It was a lone man, calling himself Kym, who showed up out of the blue and asked if we’d be willing to trade resources. From what I heard, he looked particularly ragged, his clothes barely holding together, and he wore thick metal bracelets that looked like manacles without the chains.”

  “Sounds like some sort of escaped prisoner,” Alka pointed out, her glowing eyes narrowing.

  “That’s what Spur thought as well,” Alice nodded. “However, the man had what we desperately needed above all else. Knowledge.

  “He was practically a walking encyclopedia of information, and he was willing to tell us whatever we wanted to know in exchange for little more than food and shelter,” she continued. “Myers was quickly able to verify his words thanks to a couple of volunteers, so Spur decided to let the man stay.”

  “Let me guess… His captors eventually showed up, and they had a problem with Spur holding onto their prisoner?”

  “In a way…” Alice said, frowning as she scrunched up her face. “After a few days of working with the man, a small group of people did show up from the same direction he’d come from. It was barely a half dozen people, but according to Phil, each one of them had already hit their first prestige, and a couple were even nearing their second.”

  Vin thought back to the slightly crazy leader of their combat classes, remembering he had a strange class of his own. From what he’d heard, Phil had selected Challenger as his starting class, which came with a passive that allowed him to roughly judge another person’s strength relative to his own. If Phil said the strangers were strong, Vin had no doubt that was in fact that case.

  “So what happened?”

  “The leader of the group walked up to the camp and demanded we give them back Kym, stating they would launch a full-frontal assault on the camp if we refused.”

  “Spur didn’t think to lie and say they’d never heard of the man before?” Shia asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Of course, but apparently the group had a class with them that specializes in tracking prey, so they called his bluff almost immediately,” Alice explained. “Anyway, they gave Spur an hour before heading into the nearby forest to wait. The weirdest part however, is that from what I heard, only two of them were actually human. The other members of the group were races that we’d never seen before. On top of that, while these people wore far nicer clothes and looked like they actually took care of themselves, each and every one of them wore the same identical iron bracelets.”

  “So wait, they’re all escaped prisoners?” Scule asked, scratching his head. “Why did they turn on the smart one?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” Alice shrugged. “Anyway, long story short, all their demands ended up being a ruse to begin with. Spur decided pretty quickly he wasn’t going to turn Kym over to them. After moving the man to a safer location, he had me start building traps around it just in case. That’s how I ended up losing these,” Alice said, holding up her right hand and gesturing to her missing fingers. “They were never planning to give us any time at all. Despite saying we had an hour to think it over, we learned rather fast that they’d actually sent in some sort of high-level assassin to retrieve Kym.”

  “Ah, a scared-steal,” Scule nodded, blinking as he realized they were all staring at him. “It’s a common technique used when a thief, or an assassin in this case I suppose, doesn’t actually know where their target is. You give the person in possession of the object some sort of warning that the object is going to be stolen, and when they immediately rush over to protect or hide it, bingo. You now know exactly where it is.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Sounds about right,” Alice sighed, dropping her injured hand. “While I was busy setting traps, the assassin attacked. “Luckily… for me at least… he went for the warriors first. By the time I realized something was wrong, the four warriors Spur had guarding the building had all been killed.”

  “How did you manage to survive?” Vin asked, trying to imagine what he would do in that same scenario. Thankfully, assassins were one thing he hadn’t had to face yet, and he hoped he’d never have to.

  “An experimental trap I’d been working on,” Alice said, giving him a toothy grin. “Remember how Myers turned parts of those exploding foxes into crossbow bolts? Well, she gave me some of the same materials to work with. I think she was hoping I’d be able to turn them into some sort of magical claymore. Anyway, after he killed the guards, he threw a knife at me, which I managed to sort of block with my right hand. But at the same time, I threw half a bomb at him. Suffice to say, my attack was significantly more effective. Even if he did claim two of my fingers.”

  “You blew him up?” Vin gasped, staring at the grinning Trapper in disbelief.

  “Sure did! Hilariously enough, the System even counted it as a trap kill. It’s actually how I earned my first prestige.”

  Blowing someone up is considered ‘worthy?’ Vin thought, shaking his head.

  “What happened after that?”

  “Presumably, the strangers must have had some method of knowing their plan failed, because by the time our warriors swarmed the forest they were nowhere to be found.”

  “I mean, the giant explosion may have been a solid indicator,” Scule pointed out, earning a squeak of agreement from Reginald.

  “Maybe,” Alice shrugged. “Anyway, long story short, I blew a guy up. I’d say that counts as killing someone.”

  “Yeah, that definitely counts,” Vin said, slowly nodding. Surprisingly, Alice didn’t seem worked up about killing someone in the slightest. Though Vin supposed it probably helped that she’d witnessed him kill four people first, and that he’d chopped off a few of her fingers. “But that can’t be the end right? Have they shown back up yet?”

  “That was only about a week ago. So far, there hasn’t been any sign of them. Phil wanted to go out and hunt them down, but Spur refused to give him the go ahead.”

  “Yeah, I bet Phil did,” Vin muttered, remembering the hungry looks the man was always giving him. Frankly, he was shocked the man hadn’t gotten himself killed already. It was a real testament to his impressive combat prowess. “So Spur’s just letting Kym stay in the camp? Even with all the trouble following him?”

  “What, you think he should toss out the man that’s been nothing but helpful?” Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. “Kym helps anyone and everyone that comes to him with questions regarding their class and asks for nothing in return. He even gave me some suggestions regarding my skills and future passives I should think about. Hell, he’s the one who helped me choose which prestige class I should take.”

  “Obviously I’m not saying to toss him out, I’m just a bit surprised that it sounds like Spur isn’t doing anything about this ticking time bomb. Those guys will be back sooner or later.”

  “We’re growing stronger. Increasing the camp’s defenses every day,” Alice shrugged. “I’ve put up enough traps around the camp’s perimeter to deter a small army at this point. Not to mention we have wave three coming in a few days. That’s another thousand people to bolster our strength even further. Personally, I think Spur just doesn’t want to take any chances with the next wave coming so soon. We’ll have an entire month between waves three and four, which will be more than enough time to get things sorted out.”

  “Damn, wave three really is almost upon us, huh?” Vin asked, finally realizing just how long he’d been gone.

  “Five more days,” Shia nodded, earning a surprised look from him. Rolling her eyes, she sighed. “I knew you weren’t going to keep track, so I made sure at least one of us was.”

  “Thanks,” Vin grinned sheepishly. “Anyway, that works out at least. Once we finish up with the divine warrior, that gives us plenty of time to get back and help out with the wave of monsters. I’m sure Spur would appreciate that.”

  “I think at this point Spur would appreciate you showing up just to flick off the gate guards,” Alice chuckled. “He’s had some choice words to say about how long you’ve been gone.”

  “Yeah, well, we’ve kind of been busy,” Vin argued. “Anyway, based on where Shia and Scule were in the story, it sounds like you’ve been filled in on the divine warrior. Do you think you can help us take him out before he finishes off all the trogums and moves on to the next fragment? Frankly, I don’t really care what happens to the Rebel Queen after she betrayed us like that, but her people shouldn’t all be sacrificed for what she did.”

  “The fact that the divine warrior is already running around in a series of tunnels makes this a hell of a lot easier on my end,” Alice said, a dangerous glint suddenly appearing in her eye as she got serious. “I’ve heard all about him at this point, and I already have an idea as to the traps I’m going to want to set up to take him down. What I need now is for you guys to tell me what materials and abilities you have at your disposal. I don’t doubt you’re planning on keeping things a secret from Spur and the others, but if you want my traps to work, I need to know everything you guys are capable of.”

  “When you say everything…” Scule started, clutching his cape and glancing at the rest of them like he didn’t want them getting an itemized list of the full contents of his magic bag.

  “Everything,” Alice repeated, not looking the slightest bit fazed by what the petian might be hiding. “You want to kill this guy? I need to build the best trap I possibly can. Just think of me like a therapist. Anything you tell me will be held in strict confidentiality.”

  “I’ve heard that one before,” Scule muttered, before sighing and nodding his agreement.

  “Great,” Alice grinned, clapping and rubbing her hands together. “In that case, it’s time to plan a murder!”

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