“You don’t want to try selling any of it?” I asked, looking out at the warehouse filled with contraband.

Ajax shook his head. “Who would we sell to? I don’t know of any fences. Even if I did, there is way too much stuff here. We would be busted for sure. Either by a gang or the cops. But if we call the cops, say this was a joint operation between the church and crown? Then we get a finder’s fee.”

I looked at him, surprised. “Did they tell you that in your tutorial?”

“Nope, I got a skill. I leveled after examining the serial killer scene. I got a sample of the poison and figured out how the killer broke into the building, by the way. Back door was lockpicked. Anyway, Inspector’s Mental Codex is a skill that gives me a complete understanding of the local law. We’ll get something like half a percent, but that should still be a ton of money.”

“How does that work?” I asked, confused.

Ajax looked at me sceptically. “They just tally everything and give us a percentage. It will probably take a while for them to figure out how much this is all worth.”

“No, I mean the skill. How do you just know the law? Did it add it to your journal or something?”

“Nah, I just know. As if I learned it in school,” Ajax said with a helpless shrug. “I just took the skill, passed out for a bit, and woke up knowing that the fine for cockfighting is five pounds.”

“Huh,” I said, intelligently.

“Anyway,” said Ajax, “Grab anything you want to keep. I’ll watch him and then go send a message when you are done.”

Not one to argue, I got to looting. I took the shamshir’s sheath and coin purse off of the boss. Then I went around to where I had killed each gang member and checked for valuables. Coin purses and jewelry in hand, I did a cursory search of the warehouse to see if any of the goods would be worth taking.

The shelves held bundles of drugs, bolts of silk, barrels of gunpowder and wine, and spices I didn’t recognize. Nothing that would be portable and easy to sell though. Just when I was about to call it good and head back to Ajax, I found the fancy rosewood box. When I saw what was inside, I grinned and hurried back to the office.

I piled my loot on the office desk. Plenty of loose change, Brute’s hammer and shield—I figured one of the players might want them—a silver chain necklace, a bent golden ring, and the rosewood box. When I slid the box over to Ajax he lowered the ledger he was studying and looked up at me.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“Just open it,” I replied grinning.

He did. “Oh hell yes,” he said quietly, his eyes gleaming.

Inside the case were a pair of long barreled dueling pistols. One white with golden filigree and the other black with silver. The Inspector stared down as if looking at his newborn child for the first time.

At the thought, my smile dimmed. He has a kid, this isn’t just a game to him. Not that it is to me, I don’t relish the idea of being stuck here for the rest of my life, but he has someone waiting for him. Ajax didn’t seem to notice my mood shift, he was loading the black pistol excitedly.

Well, nothing to do but keep moving forward. Time to divvy up the loot and call the cops. Ajax refused to take half the coin, saying I had done all the work. I acquiesced, but forced him to take Brute’s coin purse. He had gotten the kill, after all. Ajax also took the pistols, of course. I don’t think the commissioner himself could have taken them away.

That left me with my new sword, a bunch of coins, and the jewelry. Brute’s hammer and shield we would take back to the Bitter Flagon to see if anyone wanted them. Ajax left to find a messenger while I stayed and watched the boss.

Eventually the police showed up, storming the building with around fifteen heavily armed men. Ajax went to go talk to them, while a medic came over to see me.

I had managed to put my injuries to the back of my mind for the most part. When the burly man started smearing smelly oils on my cuts, however, the pain was hard to ignore. He wrapped my hands in bandages and my vision blurred when he reset my shoulder. Apparently it had been dislocated, but none of the bones were shattered like I had thought.

As some more police took the boss away, Ajax came over to talk to me. “Seems like we're good to go. The boys can take it from here.”

I winced as I gingerly rolled my wounded shoulder. “Then off to Slinger’s base across the river? It’s our only tangible lead at this point.”

The burly medic snorted. “You won’t be getting across the river tonight. Bridge will be on lockdown till morning. Only a fool would go over there at night in any case.”

I yawned. “Fair enough. I could use some sleep anyway.” It couldn’t be much later than 9pm, but I was drained.

“Come on Inquisitor, let’s get you back to your cloister,” Ajax said with a grin.

Later, lying in the bed of my small stone room, I checked my journal. I had leveled again. Since it was an odd level, level three, I got one primary attribute point and one proficiency to assign. Between how tired I felt, how winded I was after just a few minutes of fighting, and how much my body ached now, there was only one choice.

I assigned my attribute point to Constitution. Seeing my new sword propped up next to my bed, I made my second choice impulsively. I already had one-handed sword proficiency. So I took the advanced version, Advanced Proficiency: Shamshir, and promptly went to sleep.