"Vigil?" Remian whispered.

"Yip." Vigil nodded softly. His voice was rea.s.suring.

They spread out, Mindy and her two friends to the left, Remian and Vigil going straight, with Max creeping around to the right.

Up ahead warming itself on a riverside rock in the afternoon sun was a five foot frog. This was a Tier 3 Wild, and the strongest Wild Remian had ever deliberately hunted yet.

"Yip!" Vigil signaled with a fierce bark.

Hearing a wolfcat's bark, the frog didn't even stir, but Mindy and her two friends took action at once. They each raised a magic scroll, pressed a palm against the Sigil in it, and cried out, "Light!"

Three brilliant orbs flashed out simultaneously, white light flooding the vicinity. The frog, blinded by the light, spun towards the noise…

Max lunged, slamming a heavy spear into its back. It roared, convulsing, jets of cold frost spewing indiscriminately…

Remian leapt up and threw a net over it. Max grabbed the other end and the two of them held it down as it thrashed for a bare second or two before finally laying still and silent forever.

"Got it!" he waved to where Mindy and her friends crouched down behind wooden s.h.i.+elds.

They hauled their prey back to camp, where Markus looked it over and nodded. "Good job. That's two hundred Lir for the lot of you. I'll take the carca.s.s to the Burning Steel Forge."

"We did it!" Mindy exclaimed exuberantly. "One hundred Lir for an hour's work!!"

"Fifty for me." Max seemed pleased too.

Remian went over to the job board and decisively crossed out one particular wanted poster for a Finned Frost Frog, killed with minimal damage to its skin, posted by the Burning Steel Gang. Markus forwarded them the reward, but Remian wasn't afraid they would renege. He had fulfilled several of their job posts already, usually for materials that could make weapons or armor, and according to Markus, they always paid up on the spot.

Right next to the board-and-barbecue, ten legionnaire trainees were practicing with wooden weapons on wooden dummies. Pacing around them was their drill sergeant, a man named Brutus Junius. He, the trainees and a cartload of supplies and equipment had arrived just two days ago by airs.h.i.+p. As part of their training, they also gathered a lot of stones, preparing material for the new road to be buit.

"How's it going, Tim?" Remian greeted the boy tending the barbecue in his place. Remian didn't do the cooking these days; ever since Tim came over from the Raven Tavern, this ten year-old had been handling it.

"I dropped a few." Tim said, sneaking a glance at the hulking black figure behind him.

"I'm sure." Remian said drily. He would bet his left shoe that Tim dropped at least one of those chunks of meat on purpose, just so he would have an excuse to feed the big black wolfcat snoozing five feet away.

Speaking of Vigil's mom, she opened her eyes briefly when they got back, glanced at Vigil happily playing with Mindy, Jane and Kavitha, and went back to snoozing contentedly.

Remian glanced over the job board that was now filled with posts. The Blood Claw gang wanted some people captured, and somebody dead. The Cruel Rose gang actually advertised warm beds and entertainment. The Circling Ravens wanted an academic teacher (unharmed, alive, treated with respect), Tier 2 meat (fresh, or cured and smoked), and roof repairs (wooden, not thatched). The Burning Steel gang posted the most, wanting any meat or bones from Wilds Tier 2 and above, soft leather of Tier 3 and above, scaled skins of Tier 3 and above, with especially high offers for Iron Wolf skins (Tier 4), Burning Bull bones and horns (Tier 5), Ghost Hawk Claws and feathers (Tier 4), and until recently, Finned Frost Frog skin (Tier 3).

Having fulfilled that last post, sometime soon, Remian expected to see somebody walking around wearing Frost Frog Armor. It might look creepy, but looks mattered less than how well that skin would protect the wearer from ice and cold attacks.

It was working. The board was bringing in jobs and money. Remian fulfilled more of those jobs than anyone else, often with help, but now that people saw the system functioning properly, others were beginning to fulfill jobs and requests too.

To be fair, most of those others were members of the Circling Raven Gang. The majority of them were about half of Remian's age, namely Mindy, Jane, Kavitha, and Tim. Every morning, Remian went to the Raven Tavern to pick up whoever wanted to help him out for the day. Usually it would be these four and George who came to camp, learned magic, and went hunting with him and Max.

Speaking of George, he had planted a garden around Remian's tent, which was on the edge of the Iron Legion Camp. Remian wasn't sure what was in those plots, but George said he was going to make a beer that even children could drink so that they wouldn't feel left out at the Tavern during celebrations any more. According to Max, who saw him do it, most of it was ginger.

"But why are you planting it around my tent?" Remian asked, when he first discovered it.

"Because it's safest here." George said back then, and that was the end of it.

As for why it was safe, well… they seemed to think Remian was a powerful mage. Certainly the power of his Light Spell back then had left the people of the town with an impression. Only Kairos and Rhema knew that Remian was practically a beginner at magic, and learning from them, to boot.

But two days ago, Remian bought something off the airs.h.i.+p, something that had cost him almost all the revenue he'd earned from selling the scrolls he had Inscribed. Hundreds of Lir was spent on this single item that was easily hidden in the pockets of old Tan's patchwork armor.

It was a small booklet, not very thick, and very well worn. Five different owners names had been written on the front cover and crossed out as the book was pa.s.sed from one to the next over generations. It was one of many, many copies of a well-known book, Kairos said, but Remian believed it was worth the price.

The book was t.i.tled, 'Basic Fire Magic'. The first time Remian tried to practice what he learned in it, he burned the Iron Legions' dinner. That very evening, Max hired Tim to do the cooking. Until now, the barbecue pit was still charred and blackened from that incident.

It was just a matter of time and practice, Remian thought. The day might come when Tier 3 Wilds like the Finned Frost Frog could be taken down in a single spell from him.

On the other hand, keeping its skin undamaged would be much harder. On top of that, the meat from the prey of such a spell might end up way overcooked…

But nevertheless, the investment would definitely pay off once he started Inscribing fire scrolls. 5-cast Tier 1 Fire Bolt scrolls could be sold to the airs.h.i.+p for 50 Lir each. If they were anything like Light scrolls, Remian should be able to finish four of those in an hour. That was as much as his entire hunting team had risked their lives to earn hunting the Frog today.

Remian hadn't wanted to do it, honestly speaking. But Mindy had begged him for a job they could help him out with. She wanted to earn a lot of money quickly. As to why… apparently it would soon be Mandy's birthday.

"It's tomorrow." Mindy told Remian very pointedly. "At sunrise! You have to be there at the Raven Tavern! We're expecting you, okay? Okay?!"

"I'll take that as an invitation." Remian managed.

"It's not an invitation! It's a summoning! I'm summoning you! You have to come!" Mindy insisted. "Also, you have to take us shopping."

"What?" Remian blinked. "Why?"

"Because otherwise we'll get kidnapped and sold as slaves." Mindy said stoutly. "Mandy always says so."

"I bet she does." Remian said wryly.

Nevertheless, there was enough basis in what she said that Remian went along with them.

Frontier Town didn't have much of a market. The central area of town had a few stands, a clothing shop on one side, a tool shop on another, a church on the third, and an inn on the fourth. None of the four buildings were particularly large, and all four were shaded by trees twice their height in their immediate vicinities. In a town where the total population was below 300 and most of them were gangsters, having this much was already impressive.

"There's an accessory shop run by the Burning Steel." Mindy pointed. "Right next to the Tool Shop."

It was as close as they were going to get to jewelry. Mostly the bangles and bracelets and necklaces were bra.s.s, copper and steel, and some of them appear to have runic Inscriptions. Similar to scrolls, Inscriptions forged into metal had a limited casting capability. Unlike inked Inscriptions, runic Inscriptions that were depleted did not disappear, although they did need recharging. As for whether recharging runes required materials, Remian was unsure. He was somewhat sure of one thing; Inscribed accessories were very, very expensive. A pearl ring Inscribed with a faint Light glow spell already cost 900 Lir. Frankly speaking, any inscribed accessory at this stall was completely beyond all of their budgets combined.

"I've only ever seen Slayers having any of those." Mindy confided, sneaking envious glances at that particular area of the stall. It was under a heavy gla.s.s casing kept locked with a key, and happened to be right next to the guard outside the Tool Shop (also owned and run by Burning Steel).

Mindy picked out a hard leather bracer reinforced with steel and a little emblem of wings.

Remian meanwhile picked up a pair of earrings, jade set in bra.s.s.

How much did it cost? That's a secret.

"Remember! Sunrise! You have to be there!" Mindy bugged him again before they separated that evening.

"Yes, yes, I'll be there." Remian a.s.sured her.

But the next morning, when he arrived at the Raven Tavern, he found that they had other guests too, and these other guests were rather unexpected at the birthday party…

Cruel Rose had come.