"What-- the actual fuck-- is this?"

Sarna's expression of horrified curiosity is only matched by River's embarrassed ignorance.

"Don't you dare shrug your shoulders this time. Explain. Where did you get it?"

His eyes dart to Agmus Mak, still pretending to sleep on the day bed. His snores seem to say, You're on your own, pal.

His resonating voice is slightly muffled by a bite of bread, "Goblin cave. Over three years ago."

"Three yea-- it's only level two! With eleven percent Xperia! Do you even use it?"

River gives her a little half smile, "Every day."

Sarna blinks rapidly and shakes her head, "Is that why you keep a slot empty in all of your first tiers? That makes more sense now. So, you can switch it twice a day since its level two. Have you used it in all of them?"

She gets another affirmative nod as he continues eating. The other plates of food are already packed and stored in a spatial magic container in the kitchen.

"Just what you get from Rogue is amazing. Let me see Brawler."

River takes a drink of water, sits closer to her, and takes back control of his parchment. From the deck half, he uses his left hand to pick up the ephemeral card from the screen, like holding up a tiny rectangle of light.

With his free hand, he shuffles through the other grids until he finds Brawler, and places the card back in an empty slot.

Blessing of Neophyte's Guardian II Xperia: 11% Tier One Boon All Classes

-Every day after midnight, you may change the class into which this essence is slotted up to (2) times; (1) remaining

-Increase Xperia gained for all other essences in the same class as this essence

-[Brawler] Increase Dodge by 30%

-[Brawler] Increase unarmed attack damage and accuracy by 40%

-[Curse of Binding] This essence may not be removed through normal means

"And then... you just switch it out whenever you like? But only twice a day... for now... Okay, but which class do you have it in the least?"

He flips through the grids and stops on Archer. Aside from Tracking and Terrain Knowledge, there are three empty spots in tier one. In fact, of all of River's classes, this class has the most empty spots by far.

"What's with this? Wait... don't tell me..."

She looks over to the old man, no longer snoring so he can hear them better. He can practically feel her eyes burning holes into him. Realizing he might be the one getting a lecture soon, he employs another technique: the half asleep rollover.

By rolling to the side while pulling the blanket over himself, the book falls off his face. Curled into a ball and covered by the blanket, he's better protected from any harm or reprimand.

Eyes squinting with frustration, she says, "As a Caster able to reach tier ten, Agmus Mak never really saw a need to use a bow, but there's a few cards that'll slot in Archer that I think you'll like. Plus, if stealth is necessary you can't be shouting incantos from your hiding place. Ever notice how loud they come out? Incantos need to be recited with conviction. Anyway... First things first, let's go to the fifth floor."

Shocked, River looks over to Mak. As far as he was told, the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors are off limits to him. He couldn't even access them from the stairway.

Sarna recognizes the worry and skepticism in the way he looks back at her. She rolls her eyes.

"Obviously, I can go up there."

What was so obvious was not obvious to him, so he just takes his last bite of food with a nod.

Five hours later, both bodies are covered in dirt, sweat, and patches of an odd, oily film. River has Sarna pressed up against a wall, unintentionally putting an uncomfortable amount of pressure on her.

Her long silver hair was pulled back into a lazy bun so it wouldn't get in the way, but more and more strands have come loose giving her a sexy, disheveled look.

Golden lips are pulled back in a grimace of pain accentuating her laborious breathing and occasional moan as both of their bodies try to shift into better positions.

"Back-- back up a little!"

Her breathless, strained words are heard and understood clearly, but he can't. His stamina has reached the point of no return.

"It's too big... too much..."

She strains her arms and legs, a disproportionate amount of strength bursting forth. River's first instinct is to push back, but knowing how much it might hurt Sarna he simply takes it all.

For her, the release is like a first breath after jumping into a pool of cold water. Tiny pops of light in her vision disorients her and she barely takes in the sight of River laying on the floor. Her arms and legs quivering like a smacked slime monster, she feels a slight sense of pride knowing she is still on her feet after all that.

They never should have tried to move that massive crate after trying to clean for several hours.

The gigantic wooden container sitting on River's torso covers him from his head down to his knees. Only a comically waving arm up to the arm pit can be seen of his upper body. Muffled words try to reach Sarna from the bottom of the wooden behemoth.

"Miss... please..."

"Fuck! I told you it was too big for the doorway! What's the use of all those muscles if you ain't got no brains!"

She stands next to him and they both push to tilt the crate on its side. River crawls out from underneath, catching his breath on the floor as she lets the crate drop quite unceremoniously. A tidal wave of dirt and dust washes over River and he splutters and coughs to a sitting position.

Blind from the wash of dirt, one hand rubs at his eyes and the other waves the air. He hits something firm, but pliable and he takes another exploratory feel.

Sarna shrieks as an instinctual fist comes crashing down on the young man's head.

"That's me, boy! And I thought you cleaned the whole tower?" She shouts, side stepping away from his reach.

Still coughing, he shakes his head while holding up the fingers for four, five, six, and nine.

"Yeah... you don't wanna go to Agmus' room if you can help it..." she shivers in disgust. "Anyway, this floor is supposed to be a no magic training room, but with all this stuff lying around we won't be able to swing a mace without breaking a dozen things. We barely even made a dent in this mess. How the hell did you do floors one, two, and three by yourself?"

He just smiles as she helps him to his feet.

"Shit. Well, here. Don't think I'm giving you this for free, though. You can pay me later."

A flick of her wrist sends an essence spinning through the air at him and he deftly catches it.

Novice Skill, Throw Small Blades I Xperia: 0% Tier 2 Action Archer, Rogue

-Requirement: Any Skill, Small Blades III

-Able to competently throw small blades for a distance

-Range and damage depend on the weapon you are throwing

-Increase accuracy when throwing small blades by 5%

"You're gonna want to find a support for it. Maybe if you get more cleaning done tomorrow, we can head into town. I gotta have a little chat with Agmus."

Horrified, he shushes her with one hand and holds one of her wrists with the other.

"Not tonight, youngin, it's late. Can you ready a bath for me? You know how I like it."

Blushing, he gives her a curt bow before taking off to fulfill her request.

Left alone, Sarna takes a few steps around the massive container practically blocking the doorway to the stairs. She places a hand on it, then rests her forehead against the scratchy wood.

"Damn fools..."

Her hand curls into a fist and she slams into the side. The wood cracks and splinters, leaving a fist sized crater. She reaches inside and fishes out a rolled up, black leather tool pouch. Across the top flap, between the two leather retaining straps and dimly glowing with some kind of magical, white ink, something is written in a simple script.

~S. Chandler~

"The Wickcutter"

"Right where I left you." She unrolls it across the top of another waist high box like opening a scroll of parchment.

Several pockets contain: black, needle-like, metal spikes; a few throwing knives; a lock pick set; and a folded piece of parchement.

A perfect, silvery eyebrow arches in curiosity and Sarna picks up what looks like a note.

"Hello. I don't remember packing you..."

---

Just from the kind of filth and clutter he finds, River can tell that the fifth floor's condition was caused by multiple people. Agmus Mak might not have even been one of them.

There's a look on Sarna's face as she goes through the towers of stuff; the way she often pauses to allow the ghosts of the past to dance in her eyes when she finds particular things.

A book, a sock, or even long abandoned tableware strikes up the band in her mind and the memories move to the music.

River smiles to himself whenever he notices it. It's just like when he was cleaning with Agmus Mak, Sarna would find a distraction and take a break to investigate. Sometimes, she would even share an anecdote while propping her feet up, just like the old man.

He really does enjoy when they reminisce. They often have fun memories to share, or at least a bitter smile at the end of the ones that weren't. One of the things both Agmus Mak and Sarna had in common with these stories is that they got to make those moments with other people.

Barring a very rare exception, River was always alone as a slave. There was no figure waiting to comfort him after a long, hard day of work. There was no young child of the master who sought a friend or playmate in the boy. There was no merciful servant to secretively heal him after his many beatings.

He may have had some recent moments with Fyrg, Wren, and Vine, but those few times couldn't compare to the countless hours those three spent together without him.

"One time," Sarna says, "Agmus gave us all these cheap, enchanted weapons."

Over his shoulder, he could see her sitting on a stack of books, picking through a wide open wooden chest. He moves closer, giving her more of his attention.

He watches her put an iron sword with feignt red aura back inside, even though the sword looks longer than the chest is tall. She does the same for a kite shield with a similar aura, though this one is light grey.

She holds up simple iron dagger with a weak, blue aura and a foot long wand with a raw chunk of dirty quartz lashed to the tip.

The dagger goes back in the chest, the wand goes in River's hands. She also gives him the roll up bag she found earlier.

"Then, we were placed in groups of four and tasked to retrieve a scroll from the mountains. We weren't allowed to use any of our cards except the boons, we couldn't help that, only using the abilities granted by the equipment.

"The trick to it all? We all had weapons for classes we didn't have. We were forced to think outside our comfort zones. Some people were able to shoehorn in their styles even though, say, they were used to being a swordsman but they received a dagger. Still, most of us had three classes and we picked out equipment at random, so they were just lucky."

River inspects the wand, but without a visual analyzing ability, to him it's just a stick with a feintly dark green aura. He'll have to use a ritual spell later to see what it and the stuff in the leather roll up can do.

"That brings us to tomorrow's lesson. Tomorrow--" she beams brightly, golden lips pulled into a wide, pearly grin, "-- you only have the Archer class!"