So now I am living with two monsters instead of one. Not that Wiremu is actually a monster. Pip has always made me nervous and now I wonder what I will come home to? I left Wiremu in the cellar fixing his armour in the dark with Pip twitching every now and again. I asked at work if anyone had heard of animals eating monster cores because Warren had thought he had seen one. I am getting used to calling him Warren all the time so I don’t slip. It is not as easy as I had thought as memories of my brother keep coming up.

The horror stories I heard about animals going mad and rampaging after eating a core were horrendous. I wonder what I will go home to.

I am working in the Sølv Emporium as a Merchant today and I have no jobs tonight. The last few weeks have been good for me. My Merchant Class has levelled twice and my Thief class once. I think when I told Wiremu that I was a Security Consultant for Sølv Emporium he thought I would be on the defensive team. I am on the Proactive team. Plus when I was sorting out Wiremu’s Mercenary Guild problems I took the opportunity to become a member myself. I have done a number of ‘acquisition’ jobs both for the Guild and for Sølv Emporium, although Sølv jobs tend to be more of the data gathering type. These trading houses are pretty ruthless and it will get worse as the auction gets closer and more competitors arrive. If Wiremu could get his head out of the monster's guts he could find plenty of opportunities to level his Spy Class.

I have had plenty of skill gains, especially around detecting and disarming traps. Stealth is now only one away from Master level. One thing I am really proud of is I learned Sentient Lore. This has really helped me understand the different races I am selling too, or stealing off. There is not much difference sometimes.

I also got a Coax skill which can help convince someone to buy. My supervisor was trying to teach me to get the Influence Skill instead. I really can’t see myself as an Influencer.

I think I know where I want to aim for. I need to keep on the move and the one thing I am missing is using the Riding Class. I think I want to become a travelling Merchant / Information Broker. My Spatial Awareness is mid Apprentice now and I can read documents without opening them. It takes a bit of time but it will get easier as I level it. Everything will be an open book to me. Literally. To get there I need to level Merchant to Journeyman level if possible and get a negotiation Skill and an acting Skill. I need to focus on the mental attributes. Mental Perception is good and with Sentient Lore I am getting the hang of reading people. Mental Agility is OK but my Mental Strength is really poor. If I want to power my mental abilities and resist the influence of others then I need Mental Strength. I don’t know what Classes there are in those areas but I want to find out.

My next training steps are the gambling houses. Particularly the card games. Sure, I will know every card, but that is not the point. The point is to learn to read people and teach myself to not be read. Turn my skill off and try to learn to bluff and manipulate. There will be others there using their skills to cheat and swindle and I need to practise against them. I need to test Spatial Awareness against their Status defences and learn the tricks to mislead.

My Shadow manipulation is also low Apprentice now and I can give shadows physical form. A light touch only, but I am hoping enough to nudge the dice in the gambling houses. The trick will be to do it so nobody notices and to not give away that I am manipulating things.

That is the plan and in a bold move I put all my free points into Mental Strength to bring it up to 20. It is still the lowest of my Mental Skills but at least it is close. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get any new skills from raising Mental Strength. I obviously need to take action to trigger the skills.

Tomorrow night is the Gambling House. Tonight I take a gamble at my own house and see if I have a rampant monster there. Spatial Awareness enters the front of the house first and all is quiet. As I open the door I can sense most of the house and Wiremu is in the kitchen preparing dinner and Pip is asleep by the fire. Everything looks normal, which puts me on high alert, because everything is not normal.

“Hi!” Wiremu calls out a greeting. Him and his bloody Hearing Aid.

I enter and say cautiously, “Hello.”

“It is OK, Tāoke is fine.” He assures me, indicating Pip.

“Tāoke?” I ask.

“It is his new name,” Wiremu replies. “After the change he has had a large increase in the Mental Attributes and a much greater sense of self. Apparently it means something like, Toxic, and that is something he identifies with to a much greater extent than my original childish name.”

Tāoke raises his head to greet me and I swear the look he gives me tells me I am a dumbass for not knowing he is fine.

“Good,” I replied. “So what happened?” I use Spatial Awareness on Tāoke to penetrate his status. All I get is that he is no longer a Desert Viper, but now something called a Venom Serpent. I don’t know what that is, but I am going to assume it is the name of a monster animal. I used to get more than that and I didn’t used to get disapproving looks from Tāoke when I did it.

“As you have just discovered, Tāoke has had a lot of Mental growth and can now sense and resist people Identifying him, to a certain extent. His natural reaction is to attack when people do that but we will work on it.” Wiremu said, glancing at Tāoke. “We also communicate a lot clearer through our bond, it is mostly not words, but images and feelings.”

I nod, still cautious. Intelligence is good, probably.

“His Skills have also doubled and now have levels,” Wiremu continued. “Some of the Skills are from me and some are from the Shaman Core.”

“What about all the horror stories I have heard,” I ask, not informing him I heard them today.

“From what I have been able to work out with Tāoke, it comes down to compatibility and synergy. I think our bond also had a stabilising influence. The Shaman was an animal monster and without that both Tāoke and I would be dead. The Shaman had so many similarities with me and my affinity and skills. We think the core was filtered through the bond. Tāoke has one Skill that is obviously, directly from the Shaman, but that is it. Why don’t you show her Tāoke?”

I looked at Tāoke and all of a sudden he doubled in size and width. “Wow, Ok.”I said.

“He will need to wait about half an hour before changing back as it takes a lot out of him at this level. With the skill growth it will get easier for him and the change will get larger.” Wiremu explained. “Tāoke is a lot more intelligent and will probably be more independent from me.” He looked at Tāoke and they obviously exchanged communication, however that worked. “Tāoke, however, doesn’t like his new size as he cannot ride and hide on my shoulder, which he prefers, apparently. That means I am still going to be his horse, I gather.”

Tāoke looked smug. I am not sure how he looked smug as a snake's face does not change in expressions. I wondered if he could communicate feelings in an aura or something?

“That’s great,” I said, definitely a lot more relieved. “So what are your plans?” I asked.

“I am going to continue to work on my armour while I heal,”He replied. “I might pay for another days training at the Leatherworker’s as I am struggling in places with it. What about you?”

“Tomorrow after work I am going to visit Fortune's Favour and try to teach myself how to gamble.” I said and then explained some of my longer term thinking and dreams. Not all, just some. He liked the idea of a travelling merchant.

Fortune's Favour was one of the upper class establishments for gambling. It looked all very posh. It was also very frustrating. It was like they’d had people come and try to rip them off with skills before. Various types of card games were the main type of gambling, either against each other or against the establishment. The cards all had some sort of Spiritually enhanced coating that meant I couldn't just sense them but I had to concentrate and push my skill. I think it would have thwarted most perception skills. The dice were the same and my weak Shadow Manipulation skills wouldn’t affect it. The place was well lit, minimising shadows and places to hide. There was security wandering through frequently and I am sure they all had Keen Sight and high levelled Sense Spiritual to spot skill use. I also think there might have been one or two spotters in the rafters above the lanterns.

I did play a few games and they had beginner tables to teach the games. I came out poorer than I went in, but I did learn a lot. What a fine upstanding establishment. Next time I will try one of the lower class establishments.

The next night I went to the most run down gambling house I could find. I dressed down for it and played the gullible newbie. Afterall I was a newbie, just not that gullible. I could tell the sharks and professional gamblers as their Statuses were locked up tight. I went wide eyed into a four player game of cards. Two of them were working together, and the other knew the score. I let them fleece me and I watched how they did it with my Spatial Awareness. The two who worked together had a clever communication going on. The lone guy was amazing at sleight of hand. I am not sure even Spatial Awareness caught everything. I lost a moderate amount of coins but I found it very profitable. My next task is to learn sleight of hand. I wonder if the lone gambler is looking for a trainee?