“Eight copper a night,” the old woman told Ashinaro. “Sixty if you pay for a tenday in advance.”

  That wasn’t enough of a discount to lock himself down, so he handed over eight copper.

  He was in a large building in the center of Arkalis, not far from the stairway to nowhere, just off the main thoroughfare leading to the docks.

  The sign outside promised lodgings, but the first level was dedicated to some kind of clothing shop, though the clothes offered little in the way of protection or covering. Ashinaro didn’t see what purpose they’d serve.

  “Haven’t seen you around,” the woman said as she deposited the coins in a box under the counter. “You been staying in the drakken city?”

  “I’ve been exploring,” he hedged.

  “Well, be careful. Make sure to get back inside the city before nightfall. I don’t know what it’s like outside the drakken city, but here, many a strange monster roam the land at night. One of our guard almost lost her life to one of them, and she’s no easy target.”

  “Appreciate the warning.”

  In his estimate, her fear was just superstition based on other races not being made for the night like drakken were.

  Their vision was poor to terrible in the dark. Even the trolls with their Nightsight didn’t compare to the drakken with their Darkvision, who could see just about as well at night as they could in the daytime; sometimes even better, as it was easier to spot movement at night. The only ones who could sometimes match the drakken were Beastkin, depending on the Beastforms they had.

  She harrumphed and handed him a key to his room. “The young always have to learn by burning themselves.”

  Kratis, the guard whose appearance he wore, was far from young in Ashinaro’s estimation, but he made no comment. He did wonder how she’d read his intentions so easily. He’d have to work on that.

  She motioned at a set of stairs behind a display of highly impractical pants. “Second floor. Fifth door on your right.” She pointed at the key, upon which was embossed a swooping fay symbol he couldn’t read. “The one with that symbol.”

  He thanked her and headed upstairs.

  The room was bigger than he expected for eight copper a night and came with its own washroom. The only way in which his room in Argalis had been superior was that it possessed a balcony, while this had only a window.

  The view was much nicer, however, looking out onto the Sea of Fear.

  The furniture, however, was inferior. A bed that would be too small for him, as well as a table that seemed needlessly large.

  He sat at it, having Zanas withdraw his belongings

  “Finally,” Zanas said in relief as he dumped everything onto the table.

  Then he proceeded to explore their new lodgings.

  Ashinaro considered all his worldly possessions.

  About two silver’s worth of copper, thirty-one cores plus a few hollow ones, his staff, the storm sash, a random assortment of Akaris’s brews, the arnaphen poison, a single arnaphen barb, and Unar’s indecipherable journal.

  Even if he sold all of it, he’d have nowhere near enough for a ticket to Fairwind. They took Beast cores, so really he only needed about fourteen more corens and a few gold. But killing enough Beasts to get fourteen cores would take a long time. Even white cores weren’t common.

  “Fourteen cores isn’t a lot,” Zanas said as he crawled under the bed. “Is it a lot? It doesn’t seem like a lot, but also, kind of like a lot? It’s confusing. I think you’re messing with my memories.”

  “Maybe it wasn’t much to your master, but it is to me. I’m getting one silver for the mapping job, and they have plenty more, but even if I start earning one gold per job and kill every monster I come across while doing them, I’ll be stuck here for quite a while. What are you doing?”

  Zanas popped his head out. “Looking for money, obviously.”

  Ashinaro snorted. “Let me know if you find any.”

  “Of course. I would never think of hording it myself to buy clothes with.” He disappeared back under the bed.

  It wasn’t a large area, and Ashinaro wondered how long it could possibly take him to search it.

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  “I like being thorough!” he called.

  Ashinaro only had two days before the next boat, and he could see no way to earn enough in that time.

  That would be fine if the priests didn’t know who he was. Because if they did, it meant they had a way to see through Zanas’s mask and would find him if they came looking.

  Which they might or might not do.

  If they thought he was the shade, they’d almost certainly come to Arkalis.

  If they’d seen through the mask, though, they might search Argalis and the surrounding area.

  Even then, they’d still likely send someone to Arkalis, just in case. They knew about the Divide Crosser as well as he did, knew while it wouldn’t put him out of their reach, would make it much harder for them to capture him.

  Though he wasn’t sure they’d bother following him to Fairwind. Vershik had survived, after all, and most drakken were not interested in leaving Fayteraus. None had left on the first ship, and he didn’t expect that to change any time soon.

  Ashinaro looked at his belongings. He was distracted by Thi-Oric’s mention of Orn-Kalot, but didn’t want to go back and ask where he could find her after the show Zanas had put on. He would keep an eye out, however. It wouldn’t give him any money, but it might give him something to sell.

  As for the possessions he already had, the barb and poison would be worthless to anyone save for himself, since not even Beastkin could use uncrafted monster parts, and arnaphen parts couldn’t be crafted. Though it made him wonder if any Beastkin had attempted taking an arnaphen as one of their Beastforms. If they could get their poison trait, it would make them, while not unstoppable, extremely dangerous.

  The rest of Akaris’s concoctions that Zanas had taken from his room were all common, and the trolls had been trading long enough in Argalis that he wouldn’t be able to do any arbitrage.

  Then again, it couldn’t hurt to try.

  But first, he was more than recovered enough to instill another core, so turned his attention to his relics.

  Upgrading Epitome Veil wouldn’t help him kill faster, which was what he needed right now, so it was either Flesh’s Frenzy or Whirling Rush.

  Instilling a red or blue core to Whirling Rush wasn’t likely to let him kill faster either, and he was having a hard time predicting what either would even change about it. A blue core might make him fly faster, but he couldn’t see what a red core would do.

  Not wanting to take the risk, he decided to go with Flesh’s Frenzy.

  As it already had a red core, he plucked a white core and a blue core from the case, closed his eyes, and instilled them.

  The blue settled into place in the aperture while the white filtered through the relic, which purified the essence and empowered the relic as well as his battleform.

  The instillment didn’t leave him as exhausted as he had been the first time, but he wouldn’t be able to instill another today.

  Ashinaro of Argalis

  Renown: Lesser Defender

  Traits

  ? Renewal 3

  ? Water Breathing 2

  ? Darkvision 2

  ? Resilience 2

  ? Strength 2

  ? Reflexes 3

  ? Senses 2

  ? Persistent Renewal 1

  Links

  ? Fossilized Staff (Cursed)

  ? Distilled Storm Sash (Cursed)

  Boons

  ? Staff Mastery (Unholy)

  ? Alacrity of the Storm (Unholy)

  Relics

  ? Flesh’s Frenzy (Flawless)

  ? Whirling Rush (Flawless)

  ? Epitome Veil (Flawless)

  Amalgams (1 of 1)

  ? Whirling Rush with Flesh’s Frenzy

  He was still a long way from Greater Defender, but every bit helped.

  He examined his upgraded relic.

  [Flesh’s Frenzy (Flawless)]

  For a breath, separate your flesh from your body and animate it with your will.

  Your battleform has enhanced this effect. While breath is held, flesh regenerates at the cost of your blood.

  [Red Core] has reduced rate of blood loss.

  [Blue Core] has increased rate of regeneration.

  This relic has 2 remaining apertures.

  That was about what he expected. There wasn’t much for cores to modify about it, not unless he used a rare core. The only one of those he had was the prismatic core, but it required a black core to use, which he didn’t possess. If he did, he could possibly alter the form his golem took, though that would be tricky. Easier would be Whirling Rush. He’d likely be able to make it so only his weapons flew forward.

  But he didn’t have a black core, and he was happy with the upgrade he’d gotten. With the increased regeneration, he should be able to fight for much longer. He got the feeling he’d be mainly limited by his breath now.

  He’d work on that tonight.

  For now, he wanted to test out his improved relic and get the job done as soon as possible.

  He wasn’t fully recovered, but enough to do a simple scouting job.