We quickly returned to the guild. Kannan looked like a concerned man who completely bought the story about kidnapped girl.

  - Please wait here, - he told me when we entered the guild: - I will take care of papers personally. That way it will be quicker.

  - Can I use your leveling crystal? I was pnning to do that, when you interrupted me.

  - Of course. Nadi take adventurer Avone to our leveling room, and then take her to our meeting room. I will talk to her ter.

  One of the receptionists nodded and took me to the leveling crystal.

  Goddess kept her word. My level reached eighteen and I was able to increase my Weapons master skill. I waited a little for guild master, but he returned quickly.

  - Here is the quest completion form. High-priestess needs to sign it, after you bring back the girl. Show it to the guards at the gate, it will be enough for them.

  I looked through it. Everything seemed fine.

  - Good. Thank you.

  - Please hurry. I feel bad knowing that a little girl could be in danger.

  I nodded and went outside. Time was just past midday and I had plenty of daylight left.

  I saddled my horse and left the town. All I needed was to close my eyes and the road that girl used appeared in my mind. Reincarnated people had to be more careful with pledging their loyalty to gods. No running away from them, once they did.

  When I got closer to the cave, I got off the horse and tied it down to a bush. Just in case, I casted Conceal spell on myself and quietly approached the cave. I smelled the air. I smelled sweat and human smell. Hunting skill was amazing in that way. I took out my dagger and went inside. Girl was sleeping on the ground. Near her was a bag, that she hugged in her sleep.

  - Get up. Your little adventure is over.

  She jumped up and looked at me.

  - Who are you?

  - I was hired to find a kidnapped girl. I see you escaped your kidnappers? - I asked sarcastically.

  - Is that what they told you? I was not kidnapped. I run away! Do you know what that pce is? It's a whore house!

  That expined a lot. But not like they forced her to work there. Aphrodite did say that she was free to leave whenever she wanted, and high-priestesses cover story will keep her from trouble. At least on the surface.

  - I will not go back there! - Ni raised her arm and screamed: - Magic arrow.

  Mass of magic energy came out of her hand and approached my chest. It happened so fast and unexpected that I did not even reacted. Magic arrow hit me and disappeared. Thanks to my Magic resistance skill, spells of that level were useless against me. But this girl did not know that.

  - What? It did not worked.

  She almost killed me! All my good intensions disappeared and I spped her. Ni fell on the ground, and from the corner of her mouth came out blood. I pressed her against the ground and put my dagger to her throat.

  - I was hired to find you. And I will bring you back. Also I can bring you back dead or alive, I will get paid anyway. Do you understand me?

  She nodded and tears appeared in her eyes. But I was so angry that I did not care. I turned her around and used her belt to tie her arms behind her back. She still would be able to use magic, if she was skilled enough, so I casted Blindness spell on her.

  - What did you do? - she screamed. I kicked her under her ribs. Almost dying and so stupidly affected me more than I thought.

  - Keep quiet.

  She stopped talking, but was sniffling. I opened her bag. There was canteen with water, spare cloth, food, and also artifact set. Recovering the girl and artifacts was a success.

  I pced artifacts in my magic purse and picked up the girl.

  - What are you doing? - she sniffled, scared.

  - I am taking you back to Tyco. Your blindness will pass. So keep quiet.

  I left her bag behind and took her to my horse. I put Ni on my horse and sat behind her. Town was about half a day of walking distance, but on horseback I hoped to return before dusk.

  Ni probably regained her eyesight, but kept quiet. I could understand her story and might have considered letting her go, after getting back the artifacts, but her attempt on my life killed any good intensions that I could have.

  We were approaching the town and I casted Paralysis spell on her. She froze up and stopped moving. I removed her restraints and threw them out.

  Guards suspiciously gred at me, and I showed them guild papers.

  - I was hired to find this girl. Found her in this state.

  Guard looked through quest completion form and rexed.

  - I see. You my pass. Good job of finding her.

  I nodded and entered the town. Time was approaching night, but I wanted to get rid of the girl as soon as possible. By the time I got to the temple it was already dark. Temple was illuminated and people were still visiting it. Now that I know it side job, it did not surprise me. I tied my horse to rose bushes and pced Ni on my shoulder.

  - You found Ni, - happily said one of the girls: - We were so worried about her.

  Guess they did not know what really happened.

  - Yes. I got lucky. Can you take me to high priestess?

  - Of course. Please follow me.

  She took me to high-priestesses room and told me to wait inside. I put Ni on one of the sofas and casted Dispel. She jumped up and looked around.

  - Do not even try anything, or I will not be so gentle, - I warned her.

  She nodded and sat down.- I did not waited you back so soon, - said Sahana, when she entered the room. Her breath smelled like wine, and she did not look like a person who was sleeping moments ago: - Ni, I am gd that you are safe, but we will need to talk. In length.

  Ni tried to make herself smaller on the sofa and averted her eyes.

  - Got lucky, - I took out artifacts and pced them on the table: - I will need your signature, - I passed Sahana quest completion form. She nodded and went to one of the tables. After signing the form she gave it back to me.

  - By the way, what do those artifacts do?

  - You do not know. As a set they increase luck by twenty five.

  I gulped. Talk about powerful artifacts. If I would have known that before, I would have needed to fight the temptation to steel it myself. Selling these artifacts could earn Ni the fortune that would st for a lifetime.

  - No wonder you wanted it back. Can you tell me where I can find Hephaestus temple?

  - Hephaestus temple? It is located on the other side of the hill. Hephaestus does not have priests, and we are keeping an eye on his temple.

  - Thank you.

  Temple of Hephaestus turned out to be simple square building. In did not even had a door. Inside it was empty, and only thing in there was massive stone altar near its farthest wall. I went inside and looked around. Not a single priest, and judging from the dust on the floor, this pce was not the most popur.

  - Pce both of your swords and your throwing knives on the altar!

  Voice came out of nowhere and I jumped. I looked around, but no one was there.

  - The altar is in front of you, - voice sounded impatient, and I listened to it. I pced both of my swords on the stone and looked around. No one was there and nothing happened.

  - Hmm, you have Death spider poison and some adamantium blocks. Put them on the altar as well.

  I had three adamantium blocks, that bcksmith Ashurga made me after melting down Koshey's armor. But no one knew that I had Death spider poison. My magic purse also had protection magic on it, preventing anyone from knowing what was inside it. But maybe it did not work when gods were involved.

  I did as told and pced all my vials with poison and adamantium blocks on the altar. Fire came out of the stone and covered everything on it. When it died down, everything on the altar was gone.

  - Come back in six days.

  - What am I supposed to do without weapons until then? - I asked, but no one answered. I waited a while, but nothing happened. I carefully touched the altar, but it was cold. I knocked on it, but it sounded solid.I sighed. Nothing I could do about it now. I will need to return in six days, and hope that I will get my swords back.

  * * *

  Next day I woke up te. Milligan and his bodyguards were already gone, and I had all room to myself. I spend some time lying in bed until I get bored.

  I put my cloth on and went outside. Without my sword, I felt half naked. I visited Adventurer guild and handed over my quest completion form. Two gold coins were a lot of money, and it would have been suspicious for me not to cash in my reward. I was thinking what to do today when guild master called me.

  - Avone! You already came back?

  - Sure. Handed over the girl yesterday.

  - That is good to know.

  - By the way. You still owe me that favor.

  - Anything I can do for you?

  - I wanted to by some artifacts. But most of the things that I saw in the shops was not worth buying. Any ideas about that?

  - I can help you with that. As long as you can afford expensive things.

  I still had twenty orichalcum coins, and I already registered in all Mage guilds that were on our way.

  - I might. Depending on their prices.

  - Then please wait me here. I will write you recommendation letter.

  I was looking through quest jobs. Some of them promised small fortunes in exchange for magic gems. If I ever decide to get rich, I will definitely need to come back here.Kannan came back and gave me sealed letter.

  - Just tell them that I send you, and you will get royal treatment, - he described me the pce and a way how I could find it.

  - Thank you. If I get something worth using, I will consider your debt repaid.

  - Sure, - he ughed uncomfortably: - Hope you find what you are looking for.

  I took few wrong turns, but in the end found the pce that Kannan recommended me. It was one of the artifact workshops. It was surrounded by a bck stone wall and had a silver shield with bat head engraved on it. To me it looked like gremlin's head, but I already knew that gremlins found such comparison offensive.

  I knocked at the door. No one answered, and after a while I knocked again. Small window opened, near my belly and unpleasant voice came from downstairs.

  - We are busy. What business do you have here?

  - Adventurer guild master Kannan send me, - I demonstrated someone the letter.

  - Show it to me, - gremlin put his hand through the window, and I pced letter in his hand. He read it and closed the window. For a moment I froze, but then heard the sound of gate unlocking. Gremlin opened the gate and nodded to me.

  - Follow me.

  He took me inside the house and took me to one of the rooms. It looked like a workshop. Filled with weapon parts, magic gems and pieces of armor, room had a single magic ntern. Another gremlin was sitting at the table, crushing magic stone inside the bowl.

  - Master, that useless guild master Kannan, asked you to accept this female as a client.

  - Kannan? - gremlin looked at me.

  - Yes, master, he promised to put you ahead of the line if you help out this one.

  Gremlin grumbled, but nodded at the seat.

  - Sit down female.

  I took a seat and waited until he finished crushing the magic stone. He poured inside the bowl some red liquid that looked like blood and then put the bowl aside.

  - Where had the world gone to, if I have to accept bribes in order to get proper working conditions, - he shook his head: - Fine female. How may master Gremlock help you?

  - My name is Avone, - I took of my cloak and gremlin stared at my pointed ears.

  - Elf. Rear to see you in our part of the continent.

  - Yes. Not many gremlins outside your kingdom either.

  - That is true. Why did Kannan send you? It is not like him to do favors.

  - He owed me a favor, seemed not to like it.

  - He likes to be owed, not other way around.

  - He just told me to come here, after I told him that I want to by powerful artifacts. Did not tell me, who I am visiting.

  - I see. Like I said I am Gremlock. One of the artifact makers and also an alchemist, and the one who received Hephaestus blessing and Artifact creator skill. But after that I got too many obnoxious customers, so now I mostly do research work. Sadly I need a lot of magic stones, and they are hard to get these days. Things were different when I was young. Artifact creation was an art, not an economy. Too much cheap stuff, that sts barely a week. Those are not real artifacts, if you ask me. Just useless trinkets.

  - Yes. I noticed as much. Probably why Kannan send me to you.

  - Just because he send you, does not mean that I will sell you anything.

  - Just because he send me, does not mean that I will by anything, - I smiled: - Can you prove me that it will not be a waste of my time?

  - How dare you! Do you even know who I am? - he had almost smoke coming out of his ears.

  - An artifact creator who cannot create artifacts because he stopped working and got poor?

  I thought for a moment, I had three low level magic gems and one mid ranking from undead king. Chance of gathering another nine mid ranking magic stones were just as big as gathering ten.

  I took out the magic gem and turned it in my hands. Gremlock felt silent. His eyes were glued to it.

  - Maybe we could come to an agreement, - he coughed.

  - Maybe, - I nodded.- So what exactly are you looking for?

  - Something on the level of my existing artifact.

  - Which one? - he looked at my bracelets, ring, magic bags and headband.

  I took of Aphrodite's tiara and showed it to him.

  - This one of course. He took tiara in his hands and carefully examined it.

  - Exquisite work. Not even an artifact, but a real piece of art. Cannot say that I ever created anything like it, - he shook his head: - I do not want to admit it, but I can't even tell what it does.

  - Let us keep that a mystery, - he gave me back tiara, and I pced it on my head: - So what can you offer me master Gremlock?

  - Do not mock me girl. I am among the ten best artifact creators in this town. Just because you got lucky and found some powerful artifact in dungeon does not mean that my work cannot make your eyes as big as ptes. Fine, follow me.

  He took me to the basement and unlocked iron door, that was hidden behind the carpet.

  - My best work, made during my golden days. Only sell it to someone worthy of using it.

  Room was filled with swords, armor, rings, bracelets, neckces and other artifacts.

  - So what are you? Warrior or mage?

  - Archer by job, - I smirked: - But I have both warrior and mage skills, and also a skill that lets me use both of them at the same time.

  - So archer and a spell bde. Someone worked hard acquiring those skills. Rich parents cannot help you there.

  He patted his chin and looked around:

  - Let us see. This shield will increase your defense by four. This sword will increase your strength by three. Staff will increase your spell power by two and mana by twenty. My breastpte can increase your magic resistance and armor can increase your defense.

  We went through his artifacts for a while, but nothing captured my eye.

  - Impressive, but not exactly what I am looking for.

  - Five or six of these artifacts could double your strength.

  - I do not wish to be covered with artifacts, like some noble dy with jewelry.

  - Aaaa. Now I understand you better. Could you show me your bracelets, ring and vambraces?

  I was surprised by his question, but took of my artifacts. He carefully examined them and handed me over my Bracelet of sanctities.

  - Nothing I can do about this. But I can combine your armor with your artifacts, if you want. Difficult it is and expensive, but possible. Why don't you give me three days, and them come back and decide if there is anything else that you want?

  I thought about it and nodded.

  - Fine. I like that idea.

  - Good. Then I will expect you in four days time.

  I stepped outside the workshop and sighed. Great, now all I had left was my dagger chainmail and armored vest.

  I spend the rest of the day in the town's markets and bought some sugar, and even got myself a bargain, and local peasant promised me to deliver some sugarcane samplings. Day turned out well. Next three days I did the job that I was hired for and accompanied Milligan. He continued his artifact hunting, and tried to negotiate with some workshops, but was turned down by all of them. Most of workshops did not even let him inside. Boy without fame or bags filled with magic stones or monster materials was no interest to them.

  On the morning of our sixth day in Tyco, he still did not buy anything, but he still got time.

  I decided to spend next day alone, since I needed to pick up my artifacts, and told the others to go on without me. I was on my way to pick up my vambraces, when someone called me.

  - Excuse me?I heard voice behind me and turned around. Men who addressed me was wearing spacious robe and held both his hands in its sleeves. With his turban, he looked like a person from far east.

  - Just a person that I was looking for, - he nodded. I put my hand on my side and realized that my sword was not there. The man noticed my movement and slightly smiled. Next moment he pushed both of his arms forward.

  I bent my body and avoided dagger that flew to my neck, but second dagger wounded my arm. My arm immediately felt numb. It was a poison. And a strong one. My eyesight blurred. I stepped back and leaned towards the wall.

  - Oh, you must have a lot of life force if you did not die right away.

  - Why?

  - I was supposed to by some artifacts from a little priestess. Spend almost two years here, until I finally got so close to them. And then you ruined it all. That was so rude of you.

  - I thought you were a merchant.

  - I am. But I am also a member of Assassin guild.

  He seemed higher. I realized that I was sliding down the wall. Assassin came closer and took out his dagger. He cleaned it against my cloak and smiled.

  - You should not have interfered in Assassin guild business child.

  - You should know something, - I silently whispered, and he leaned closer to my lips. He started turning his head to put his ear closer to my lips, and I grabbed the back of his head. I leaned him closer to me, and when he lost his bance, I showed my dagger beneath his jaw. Assassin fell on the ground heavily bleeding.

  - I have even more life force than you think, - I finished my sentence. My vision was blurred and everything was spinning around me. I touched my magic purse and took out an elixir. My hands were trembling and half of the elixir spilled out, but I was able to swallow the rest. Pain subsided and my wound slowly healed. My vision cleared, and I looked around. No one was near us. I staggered, but stud up and left the street and dead body behind. I took out my st elixir and drunk it, to get rid of the st of the poison.

  I got lucky. My incredibly high life force stats, for a human or elf in my case, saved my life. When someones life force was higher that one hundred, even most powerful Death spider poison killed the victim slowly. Assassin underestimated my stats, and thanks to that I was able to survive. But I wanted to exchange some words with Aphrodite. Merchant my ass. That assassin was more dangerous than a group of goblins. Their guild was located in rider nds - kingdom in south-east, or south from Ashgrin, and they were continents dark guild. All assassins had high ranks and were masters of poisons. They never fought their victims, just killed them. Mostly from shadows, or apparently in empty streets.

  Second elixir restored my health, and I casted Conceal spell and increased my steps. I could expin that he attacked me, but did not want to be involved in the investigation. After all he might have friends, and I did not want to meet them. I cursed and went to the Adventurer guild. First I will buy all the elixirs that they had. And some anti-poison artifact would be nice too.

  All they had were some anti-poison potions and not a single elixir. It was a little disappointing, but nothing I could do about it.

  I washed my arm using my create water spell and covered the damaged shirt with my cloak, before going to the Gremlock's workshop.

  - The same gremlin as first time opened the window and looked at me.

  - Master is expecting you.

  He opened the door and took me to Gremlock.

  - Good. You are here, - he nodded: - Your vambraces are ready, - he put on the table my forearm protectors: - They are now called left guardian and right guardian, - he chuckled: - Was not easy, but I improved them. Both of them will increase your speed and defense by one.

  Left vambrace had now engraved ring on it and right had a circle. I put them on. They felt more comfortable, like a part of my arm.

  - Excellent work. They are much better than I expected.

  - Good to hear that from someone as picky as you. So anything else I can do for you?

  - Yes. I will also need a shield, something hard to damage, for a knight. And do you have something that would protect wearer from poison?

  - Shield is easy. But other stuff. Let us go and see.

  - Also do you have cloth for a shapeshifter?

  - You have a friend, who does not like to run around naked? - he chuckled.

  - She is a girl.

  - I see. I might have something.

  We again went to his artifact treasury, and he looked around. Gremlock pced four shields in front of me.

  - This one, - he pointed at a small round shield: - Will increase defense by three. These two by four and st one by five.

  Last shield was rge, long enough to cover most of the body, but looked too big. I chose round, metal, mid-sized shield, with another bat face in its middle.

  - This one.

  - It is called Bat shield. Good choice. Solid shield, would serve even low ranking B rank adventurer. Now let us see, where did I put it. Here it is.

  He took a dust covered bag and hit it few times to get rid of the dirt. He took out set of cloth. They all were bck and felt like silk, but were thicker. There were long boots, pants, and a shirt, and even set of women underwear.

  - It was an order from a beast-girl, but she was killed in a dungeon before I finished it. It will change like a shapeshifter's skin. Size also does not matter, it will adjust to it. Also, it's quit sturdy, made for dungeon hunting.

  - Looks great. I will take it.

  - Gd to hear it. It is called Bat skin. Now, for the st item. What have we hear, - he cleaned one of the tables and pced on it headband from bck material, two bracelets, ring, heavy belt, crown, red gloves and two daggers.

  I pointed at the headband, crown and heavy belt.

  - Definitely not these.

  Gremlock nodded and put them aside.

  - Let's see then. As I remember, this bracelet heals poisoning three times, this one protects from weak poison, ring cures poisoning once, gloves protect from weak poison, just as daggers, but they also increase stats.

  - Not exactly what I wanted.

  - Crown protects from poisoning, petrification and rot. It was meant as a gift for young noble dy, but turned out to be too expensive for the man.

  - Sounds good, but I have no intension to walk around wearing a crown.

  - What about glows then?

  - Had a pair before. Got too damaged in the dungeon. Also not very comfortable with my vambraces, and harder to use a sword in them.

  - I see, - he scratched his chin.

  - I was looking for something that could protect me even from a strongest poison.

  - Any reason?

  - Let's just say that I had some unfortunate meeting with a member of an Assassin guild, long ago.

  - Aaa, now I understand. No poison resistance skills, ha? And even if you have Abnormal condition resistance skill, it only protects you from dungeon monster poison, not from pnt based ones, or the ones from ordinary animals, like snakes. Let me think. Well, I did made something that would be perfect for you. But I sold it years ago to Aphrodite high-priestess. It is exactly what you are looking for, judging from your existing artifacts. It has high poison resistance properties. You could use one of my artifacts to exchange it, but... - he felt silent, thinking of something.

  - Well? Speak pinly.

  - The magic gem that you have could cover my work and the cost of these artifacts, but the one that would interest high-priestess is different.

  He took out a tiara. It was made from silver with many small diamonds in its front.

  - Crown of Longevity. It has status ailment protection properties. But most valuable are these diamonds. They are called Tears of Aphrodite. They costed me a small fortune. They can increase wearers life force and considerably slow down aging. But the crown coasts two hundred orichalcum coins.

  That was a lot. More than I could afford, and I never liked taking a loan.

  - Would you be ready to part with it?

  - For a fair price. I could sell it to you for one hundred and eighty orichalcum coins, with a discount, but that is as low as I can go.

  I chewed my lip and thought for a while.

  - Would you be ready to make a deal with me.

  - What have you in mind?

  - Can you give me the Crown of longevity. In exchange I promise to return in around five years time. I was pnning to go dungeon hunting here. What if my party promises to sell you first all magic stones and monster materials that we would otherwise sell to Adventurer guild? And work that way until I repay you two hundred orichalcum coins?

  - I would be interested. But I will need guarantees. A contract with Kannan as a guarantor, if you can convince him.

  - That will not be a problem. He still owes me a favor, and that would settle his debt.

  - Good then, - he held out the crown to me: - Tell Kannan to contact me, when papers are prepared.

  - Are you giving me the crown already?

  - Trust that you will not run away. And even if you do, then Kannan will owe me for the rest of his life, - Gremlock chuckled.

  - He would hate that more than anything, - I smiled.