We made camp and cleaned ourselves at a nearby stream before explaining our version of events. I let Miko and Burin do most of the talking and only nodded in confirmation here and there. After listening Jace stood up and paced back and forth.

“So, no Tower Knight showed up and instead you were running for your lives from Zelphar, an elven firemage.” After a few steps he murmured “There must be a collaborator within the tower knights.” Jace stopped pacing and turned to look at his daughter. “I need to report this to the guild. You and Burin need to come with me. Reigner, sorry but I think it’s safer for you to stay in the tower. You should also stay away from the central floor areas for now.”

“Dad, we can’t just abandon Reigner alone.”

“We must. The tower exit is being watched by high level climbers from both elven and dwarven clans. Also, there are multiple groups of elves that recently entered the tower. I thought they were wanting justice but now I fear their plans are more nefarious.”

Jace sat down next to his daughter, on one of the three logs positioned around the summoned campfire. He turned to me. “The guild is under heavy pressure from the elven and dwarven guilds outside the tower. They might initiate a guild war if we openly support you.”

Politics, Guild wars, and hunting parties. What more could I ask for? I let out a deep breath before responding. “Doesn’t change much. I planned on climbing the tower before this mess. I’ll just avoid other adventurers for now.”

“Here, take this.” Jace handed me a small pink disc. “It’s a paired stone. I’ll make sure someone from the guild meets with you every second day to provide you with anything you might need. Do you know why they called you carnate?”

I scratched the side of my face feeling how scraggly my beard had become. “It’s not something I want to spread around. Hiro knows some of it, you can ask him. It’s probably the reason he wanted me to join the guild and accompany his granddaughter to floor ten.” After this mess he will likely change his thoughts on having me anywhere near Yui.

Jace looked at the campfire for a moment before letting out a sigh. “Okay, lets rest for tonight and I’ll escort you two back to the city tomorrow.”

“I’ll not be leaving Reigner.” Burin said from my side.

“You must. Your accounting will hold more weight. You are one of Reigner’s so called victims after all.”

“He is right, Burin. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.” In fact, I was looking forward to finally get some time alone. As much as I have enjoyed their company, I need some alone time.

Burin punched me lightly on my shoulder. “Aye, maybe if ye can stop yourself from attacking every creature you see.”

“Oh, I forgot to mention.” Jace said “There was a dwarf found alive. They were badly burnt, unconscious, and breathing.”

Burin’s eyes filled with hope as he turned to Jace. “Ye forgot to mention? By the hammer. Who was it?”

Jace shook his head “Sorry friend, the tower knights did not give a name.”

“Was it the elf that took him?” If so, I fear that dwarf would be good as dead by now. I doubt they want any survivor that would contradict their story of events.

“No, I don’t think so. The whole event has turned in to a giant public spectacle. Nothing like this has happened on the early floors for decades. A lot of adventurers are angry at the Knights” Jace motioned to me with a stick he had picked up. “And with you. You not only need to avoid the groups of elves but any dwarves you might come across.”

Miko leaned over from next to her father and grabbed my arm. “Reigner, you need to be careful.” Her eyes were pleading. “We won’t be here to save you from making dumb mistakes.”

“Dumb mistakes? Everything I do is perfectly calculated.”

“Oh aye? You nearly got us killed yesterday.” Burin commented. Jace stiffened at his words.

“Please, I attack a couple of trolls and suddenly everyone thinks I can’t make smart decisions?”

“What? There are no trolls on this floor.” Jace said, his eyes were bouncing between the three of us.

I gave out a chuckle and pulled out the loot bag from the troll shaman. “Well, since this is our last night together, we should check out the spoils from the ‘not a troll’.”

Miko and Burin’s eyes were both gleaming while Jace just looked confused.

I opened the small bag and upended it. 4 books, a cream dress, 2 green gemstones, 5 gold pieces and a pile of silver fell to the floor.

Spells! Finally, some decent loot! Looking at the books with greed, I arranged everything into three fair and neat piles. The books made one pile stacked in front of me, while the other two piles contained everything else.

“This seems like a good split to me. I’ll jus-“

A large dwarven hand landed on top of the stack of books. “Now hold on just a second there, Reigner. We should Identify everything first and split the loot evenly.”

A second hand from Miko landed next to Burin’s. “I agree. We should carefully look over these items before making any final decisions.”

“I have never seen such loot from the second floor.” Jace said quietly.

“Oh this?” Miko responded. “This is from the troll shaman we killed. There was another troll, but we were unable to hurt it, so we ran away and led it into a bandit den.”

“Troll on this floor? That is only rumours. I have never…” Jace continued to mutter to himself as I used my appraisal skill on everything in front of me. Each book seemed to increase the skill by one, bringing it quickly to rank 9. Just one away from providing anything useful, unfortunately the other items did not provide an increase.

“You ran away, you mean. I was not worried in the slightest. I just did not want to leave you two alone in the wilds.” I held out the first book towards Burin so he could identify it. “Why are you so fixated on the books anyway?” I knew why I wanted them.

“Anyone can learn spells from dropped spell books, Reigner.” Miko said.

“Aye, and they are not cheap. Depending on what spell it provides, it could go for dozens or even hundreds of gold.” Added Burin.

With that in mind, I made sure to keep a firm grip on the book. “Okay, well what spell is this one?”

Burin made a humming noise as he took hold of the book. He gave me an annoyed look when he realised I was not going to let it go.

“It’s a spellbook of Sparkle.” Burin sounded almost disappointed.

“Sparkle? Not Spark?” Asked Miko.

“Aye, Sparkle.” Burin let go of the book, so I placed it next to me on the log before picking up the next book for him to check. We went through each book in turn. The other spell books contained the spells Rain, Plow Earth, and Fertilize field.

“What’s with the farming theme here? Why are all these spells apart from sparkle focused on agriculture?” I had no interest in farming anything. The only spells that looked appealing to me were rain and sparkle. Neither seemed all that useful but I couldn’t miss the opportunity to play with more spells.

“It’s strange to hear you say that. A lot of people from earth end up becoming farmers. In fact, I was a bit of a farmer myself, when I first arrived.” Jace said while dusting something off his shoulder.

“Please let me have the rain spell. I don’t want anything else.” Burin’s eyes were pleading, like a starving man asking for a meal.

“Rain is quite the rare spell. What would a dwarf have need for it?” Jace asked.

“I would never need to worry about being next to a source of water for one.” He responded.

“Honestly, I didn’t do much in the fight apart from getting… losing my armour. It’s fine with me if Burin takes it.” Miko said. “But I’ll be taking the dress. I doubt either of you would want to wear it.”

I looked at the dwarf and then at the book. I know it would benefit the dwarf much more than myself… But what if the spell changed like fireball? I could be giving up something interesting.

Burin stared at me with his puppy dog eyes. “Don’t do that” I said, but Burin did not relent, and his eyes were becoming wet. I resisted his poor attempts of manipulation for a few more seconds until caving in. Damned dwarf using cheap emotional tactics.

“Fine, take it, but don’t ever look at me like that again.” I tossed him the spellbook and his face broke into a massive grin. “I’m taking sparkle. I have no interest in farming. You can have the other spells Miko.” I drop the last two spells on Miko’s lap and pushed my mana into the spell book of sparkle.

“Wait.” Miko tried to stop me, but it was already too late. The book crumpled into dust on my lap.

Sleep or meditation required.

Miko facepalmed and muttered under her breath “Damnit Reigner. Why are you like this?”

Chuckling, I brushed the dust off me to the ground. “This reminds me of the first time we met Miko. When you-”

“When I met with you after you finished meditating for your new spell? Yeah” Miko forced a laugh, “me too. It’s always nice to spend time in that room.” Miko glared at me while also pointedly gesturing to her father with nudges of her head.

Burin brushed off his own book dust after activating the spell book and gave a satisfied smile. “Thank ye Reigner. Thank ye Miko.”

“No problem. Hope it doesn’t mutate into something weird like summon camp pot.” I’m not upset. I’m not still upset. The campfire spell is great now. It provides health, stamina, mana, and can be used to make terrible walls. It’s much better than a fireball spell that could only be used to set things on fire or kill creatures.

“Reigner! Why would you say that?” Miko exclaimed.

Jace let out a laugh. “I did hear that your spell did not go as you wanted. Don’t worry Burin. Rain has a guaranteed learning rate, all these spells do actually. If you don’t want to learn farming, Miko, you should sell the books to the guild. Agriculture spells go for quite a bit due to their high demand.”

Was he serious? I don’t understand how someone could come to a world filled with magic, monsters, and levels only to decide to become a farmer. “Yeah, righto then. Guess we can split the coin evenly then.” I let Miko and Burin take two gold coins while I only took one and the small pile of silver. I figured they could use it more than I me since I planned to stay away from people for now.

“That just leaves the tower keys, I already have one so you two can take them. In exchange” Miko looked at me “I want pizza.”

Jace let out a sigh. “I’m sorry kitten, I don’t have any ingredients to make pizza on me. I promise we can have it soon as we get back.” Jace reached towards his storage pouch. “I do however have some pretty decent travel rations.”

Miko ignored her father and continued to stare at me. A grin working its way on her face.

“Alright, I am feeling a bit hungry myself.” I summoned a few pizzas and handed them out. I couldn’t help but join her grin at the look of confusion on Jace’s face.

“Oh, and I heard you liked this.” I summoned a glass of Dr. Pepper and handed it over.

Miko was watching her father carefully as he brought up the drink and peered at the colour. His took a careful sip and his eyes widened in surprise.

“What. How?” Jace’s eyes were bouncing between me and his daughter.

Miko cracked up in laughter. “I told him, but I don’t know how you can enjoy that taste.”

Jace took another sip, a longer one this time and I could tell by his expression that he was having a moment.

“Incredible.” He looked to me. “I have been in this world for over a hundred years and have never forgotten this taste. Thank you Reigner.”

“No worries. I know what going a long time without comfort food can be like. I can’t summon your other favourites, but I can do a microwaved burger if you like.”

His face turned sour. “No thank you. I don’t remember what microwaved burger tastes like, only that it sucked. Besides, we have burgers here so it’s not a big deal.”

Jace took a bite of the pizza and commented “Is all your summoned food just reheated frozen stuff?”

“My spell lets me summon anything I know how to cook but unfortunately, I never really bothered to cook apart from the few essentials.” Even if it was earth cuisine it was not the best earth could offer. “Fortunately, the spell counted me heating up things as cooking.”

“Oh, you should learn to cook here then. There are a lot of chefs that specialize in food from earth. We even have a few fast food places.”

“I’ll think about it.” Much like farming, I did not want to spend my time here learning how to cook. Maybe later, once I get bored of exploring I might take the time to learn a few things to improve my spells.

Just then, Miko let out a yelp causing us all to turn to look towards her. Miko had let her pizza fall to the floor in her haste to cover herself as she was suddenly naked. 10 hours must have passed since I last summoned her some clothes. Jace acted first and wrapped his cloak around her.

Wait if her… before I could even finish the thought, I felt my shirt tingle around me before vanishing. Luckily, I still had pants on.

Burin fell over the back of the log, sending bits of pizza and drink everywhere as he laughed uproariously.

Grinning, I realised I had another use for the spell. I could use this to tell how much time has passed. Magic has so many applications. I am again delighted to have access to it. I summoned another shirt for myself and Miko, including some pants. She snatched the clothing from my hands and ran into her tent. He tail really drew attention.

I turned to Jace who was watching the retreating form of his daughter. “So… beastkin-“

“Not another word.” Jace walked over to the tent.

Burin was having some trouble getting to his feet as his legs were caught over the log. I reached down and gave him a hand up.

Burin let out a deep breath as he resat on the log. A small smile rested on his face.

“You seem to be fairing better.” I commented.

“Aye. I thought they were all dead. Learning that one of my friends also survived gives me some hope.”

I gave the stout dwarf’s shoulder a pat and then stood up. I walked over by Miko’s tent and pulled mine out of storage. I figured that Burin could sleep in my tent tonight while I roughed it outside. The area we set camp in was a small field of soft grass located a short walk from the dirt path. The ground was soft and would be fine for sleeping. It would be a hell of a lot more comfortable than the rocky ground that I was used to.

Burin came over and helped me pin the tent down. “Ye heard what he said. About the elves?”

“That they are out looking for me? Yeah, I heard.”

He leaned in closer towards me and kept his voice low. “What do ye plan on doing? Sounds like they are out in numbers.”

I looked the dwarf in the eye. “My main priority right now is to gain more levels. I’ll avoid them for now but if we do cross paths then I’ll make sure to ask them a few questions.”

Burin placed his hands on my shoulders and pulled me in to a hug. “I’m sorry I can’t be with ye. After I tell them what happened and check on the survivor I’ll come back.” He pulled back but kept hold of my shoulders. “You’re not alone, Reigner.”

“It won’t be easy Burin. I plan on moving through the tower fast.”

“I’m weak Reigner, I hate to admit it but its true. I need strength. I have gained more experience with you in a single day than since I first stepped into the tower a month ago. You might take risks, but by the forge, the rewards are bountiful.”

“You sure it’s not just the food?”

He chuckled “Aye, well it sure beats travel rations.” His chuckles turned to infectious laughter, and I couldn’t help but join in his mirth.

“What are you two doing?” I looked up to see Miko staring down at us. I realised Burin was still holding on to my shoulders.

I pulled away from the dwarf and stood up. “Burin will take my tent tonight and I’ll sleep outside. I feel like watching the night sky as I fall asleep.”

“Okay… thank you Reigner. Still, what were you talking about?”

“Oh, just this and that. So, do you plan on becoming a farmer with your new spells?”

Miko let out a laugh “Hah, no way. I spend most of my time, when outside the tower, in the forge. I don’t have any interest working with dirt.”

Burin let out a cheer. “My kind of woman!”

“Hands off my daughter, buddy.” Jace said from behind Miko.

Miko jumped and turned to her farther. “Dad! Do you always have to sneak up on me like that?”

“Sorry kitten, just a habit.”

“Well, excuse a young dwarf but I be feeling mighty tired and want to sleep. Thank ye for the tent Reigner.” Burin walked into the tent, not even needing to crouch down through the opening. I shook my head at the sight. Dwarves and their short privilege. He will never understand the burden of being tall.

Miko surprised me by giving me a hug before saying goodnight.

Jace just gave me a nod and entered his daughters tent.

I placed my sleeping roll in front of a log so I could rest my back against it while gazing at the night sky. I frowned at the days events but gave a smile as I remembered my recent level up. That meant I will have not one, but two spells to look forward to when I woke up tomorrow. While grinning, I placed all three attribute points from the level up into wisdom and pulled my blanket tight around me. The night was quiet, and I soon fell asleep.