The m, Simon started to get ready for his trip into the pit, but as he ched up his armor, he ged his mind and decided that there was no way he could let Freya see him like this. It was exactly the same feeling he’d had when he’d decided not to go to his 10-year css reunion a couple of years, well… a couple dozen lifetimes ago now.

  Then, it had been more about having nothing to show for himself, but now it was simply because he didn’t like the look of himself in the mirror. “This is exactly who how she’s always seen you, Simon,” he told himself as he stood there, bulging out of his armor in unsightly pces. “That’s not important. It’s not like yoing to hook up with her or anything.”

  The words were true. He was, in faot going to hook up with her or anything. Holy, he wasn’t even sure if he could, even if she’d been ied in him. Because she’s not my Freya.

  He sighed, flicted about what to do . Some part of him wao hike into the woods, go climb a mountain, and wrestle with a bear or something, while the rest of him just told him to get over it and start this run already. He knew from very ret experiehat living a meager life off the nd for half a year would be enough to transform him from more than a little ht to dangerously underweight, so if he just did that for two or three months, he’d probably reach peak, Simon.

  At this point, he really didn’t mind when he died and lost his gold or his ons. Even his beloved backpack was repceable, but being forced bato the physique? It was defihe worst part of the experiend, ironically, the biggest motivator to avoid needless deaths. After a few weeks or months of saving people and killing monsters, he started to feel like a hero, but until then, when he was like this, it just felt like he was faking it again.

  The mood persisted. So, Simo outside and hacked down enough tall grass to buogether into something resembling an archery target so he could practice because he was definitely slipping where arrows were ed. It wasn’t hard. It was like thatg a roof; they didn’t o hold back the rain. He just o weave thick ses together so that he could stop an arrow.

  He could have just shot them at a tree of course, but there would be no way to get those arrows back. Sihis would his first run in a long time without a ready source of cash, he imagined he’d be hunting more than usual, which meant saving and reusing arrows where he could.

  He loosed arrow after arrow at the target for the few hours, doing pretty good and only losing a couple to the tall grass while he pted everything. I ’t plete the pit unless I finish the early levels so that they don’t screw the ter levels up a them, but I ’t get mu the way of supplies unless I keep the early levels right where they are. I guess I finally unlocked hard mode.

  He ughed at that, but truthfully, he still didn’t uand why anyone hadn’t pleted the pit by now. It was awful and fusing but not that hard. He’d been a plete idiot for the loime and mao plete the first couple of floors by act. Now that he was methodically trying to uand and finish them, they were dropping like flies.

  “What if there’s something too plicated for me to figure out, though? It’s not like she gives me any instrus,” he asked himself as he let his st arrow fly and theo retrieve them.

  That was true. Some levels were hard physically, like the volo level. Being expected to beat a giant fire elemental on its own turf was a little challenging, as he already knew. Others, though, like the Sea Seraph, were harder in a different way. He simply didn’t know what he was supposed to do to stop the pgue? Did she just want him to sink the ship? Because that wasn’t going to happen.

  He wandered in circles the rest of the day as he wrestled with those thoughts, and it was only when he was starting to get hungry in the evening that he finally decided to go to Schwarzenbruck to get a bite. Paying that was another matter entirely, but he was sure he could find something with a little cold on it in the skeleton knight’s crypt.

  Simon took the time to toss down a dozen pieces of firewood before he desded into the basement. That made the giant rats a little harder to fight, and one of the little bastards mao bite him for the first time in who knew how long, but in the end, they were all still going to die, and he was going to burn their down to see if that did the tribsp;

  Ohat fire was going good, and he had a few potatoes tucked in his sa case he didn’t find a way to get somethier, he left the burning room behind and desded into the skeleton crypt.

  There, he beat the undead warriors effortlessly. Out of shape or not, nothing that moved this slowly could pete with him anymore, and he felt vaguely embarrassed that this knight had the highest kill t on him of any monster in the pce. “I guess that makes you my nemesis,” Simon grunted. “Not for long, though. Another level or two, and I’ll crush that ugly bck heart in your chest, and you and your friends will never e back to life again!”

  With his final word, he beheaded the knight, sending its skull cttering away to the far side of the room. When that was done, Simon sat down oone sarcophagus for a break, and once he’d caught his breath, he moved to the knight's corpse and took off the breastpte otiher strap at a time.

  There, glimmering darkly in its ribcage, was what he’d been looking for. It was the source of whatever magic powered the undead. He probably could have sat there for days and studied it, but he was hungry and at the moment he didn’t have a mirror. So, instead he put the chest pte back where he found it, and vowed to look agaiime when he was feeling more focused.

  Ohat mystery was solved, he started ransag the room for preetals. He found a few silver religious amulets that looked to be made of silver and one g. He used a word of earth to transform them into something resembling s, and then, hoping that would be enough, he filled his purse, grabbed the key, and opehe gate. Then, with a deep breath, he returo the inn and shut the door behind him.

  Ihere were once again no zombies. This time, he didn’t see Freya either, which he ted as a good thing. So, he went up to the innkeeper and bought himself a meal and room for the night. The man looked at his -shaped silver skeptically and even bit it before he took it as payment. When he gave Simon his ge, he could see that the man had short-ged him by several coppers, but sidering it was basically terfeit, he didn’t pin. He’d get some real cash soon enough, even if he had to go shake down bandits for their drinking money.

  Sitting in the on room long enough to loosen up, he eventually learned plenty. For starters, he learhat the situation was basically identical to st time, which was good news for him. The city was fihere were no neancers or zombies to speak of, but trade from across the bck bridge had ground to a halt, and no one could say why, so the meraries he’d seen Freya in the pany of st time were going to check it out.

  They were apparently went by the he Butcher’s Bill, which struck him as more than a little ostentatious, but he didn’t pin about it. Why would he, he was going to have to sign up with him. It took him a few hours and a few drinks to end up at a table with a couple of them, and though they seemed more than a little skeptical at his stories of goblin aaur sying, they ughed along with his jokes.

  “No offenssse Sssimon,” an older man named Garth slurred, “But ye ssseem a little soft to have done much killing.”

  “I’m hard enough to take any man here,” he said with a smile. “Maybe any two if I wasn’t pullin’ my punchesss enough to avoid hurting anyone.” Simon was slurring his words a touch too, though he’d been pying up his drunkenness for just this moment, and could easily dismiss it with a whispered word if her o.

  “Big words from a fat man,” Hodge ughed.

  “Well, itss only braggin’ if ya ’t back 'em up,” Simon ughed, spping Garth on the babsp;

  Everyone ughed, but he could see a couple of the me a little insulted at the boast. That was good. Simon just hoped they felt insulted enough. Sadly, it wasn’t. Garth, probably thinking he was looking out for Simon tried to ge the topic to their up ing journey north, but Simon was determined not to let it go.

  Instead, he fished out his sihin, almost gold and said, “I’d wager this against any man that thinks they take me.”

  That did it. Suddenly, there were bets and discussions, and Hodge decided that he was going to be the oo beat some humility into Simon. He wasn’t a bad choice since he was a head taller and a few inches broader, but Simon wasn’t ed. Garth again tried to intervene as they moved out into the stable yard and insisted they find wooden ons or stick to fists, but her man was ied in that.

  “It’s hard to tessst real ssstrength without sssteel..” Simon said, making the other men ughed. They thought he was a fool who was about to pay for the privilege of gettien down, and maybe once upon a time, he would have been, but between Hodge’s drunkenness and his overfidence, Simon wasn’t the least bit ed.

  The fight that followed was furious and brief. Simon attacked wildly a few times after he cured his drunkeo seem entirely off bance, and then when his oppo pressed that advantage, he suddenly found that Simon was no lohere. He hadn’t parried. He’d seen the well telegraphed blow ing and side stepped it.

  Suddenly he wasn’t in front of Hodge, he was beside him, and he was ing around hard with the ft of his bde at the back of the man’s skull. Given that Hodge was already delivering a strong blow, the momentum was on Simon’s side, and that was enough send the other man tumbling to the ground.

  After that, all that was left to do was whirl around and pce his boot on his fallen oppo's ass and deliver a mog salute with his sword to the other assembled men that had been watg the fight. It was clear by their shocked expressions that they’d expected any oute, but this and that was enough to make him smile.

  “If you need one more for your trip up north, you know who to call,” he said, stooping over and helping Hodge to his feet. The man looked annoyed, but not murderously so, and Simon didn’t think he’d have to watch his back while he slept that night. Still, just to be on the safe side, he wedged his dagger into the door jamb as he always did after he got to his room and undressed, w whether or not his pn had worked.