I read the popup message.[Fiona would like to challenge you to a duel, this is a non-lethal duel and combat will end when one combatant reaches 10% health and all health is restored after the match ends]"In here? It's awfully cluttered and what about the bond, won't that interfere?""In combat, it's important to keep track of your surroundings and avoid obstacles. And no, because this is a non-lethal duel that both parties agree to, the system will not punish me," she said smiling, her sword seeming to magically appear in her hand."You seem to know an awful lot about how the system handles Life Bonds," I said nonchalantly."Ahem, yes, well, shall we get started?"I groaned but pulled my staff from my ring giving it a twirl to check clearance. Most of my boosts were active as I had gotten into the habit of recasting them as soon as they faded. I cast Flurry and Aura Strike on my staff before clicking accept and a 5-second count

Whipping my staff up vertically I released a Stunning Gust at our foe. The Assassin must have sensed something as he jumped to the side avoiding the attack, what he didn't count on was Fiona redirecting the attack back at him. The man slumped to the floor and Fiona finished him off with a slice to his carotid artery and a jab through his heart for good measure."Dying sucks," I said, falling back against the wall. I pulled out one of my health injectors and stuck it into my arm. Tossing that aside I pulled out a mana one, doing the same. This was no time to be stingy; we needed to leave in case there were more enemies.We looted the bodies finding a tidy sum of credits over 3000 in total. We took the armor, weapons, and another storage ring that the Assassin had.As we left the house Fiona took point looking out the back door. When she gave the clear signal I motioned her to follow me. I circled the block with Fiona in tow and we ended up across the street

I had no reason to deny the man and pulled the staff from my ring handing it over to him. The man deftly twirled the staff managing to stop it on a dime and switch direction. He then used it to vault into the air doing a corkscrew flip, slamming the end of the staff down on the hard mat. I could hear the staff vibrating from the impact but the man held on and used the added momentum to go into another series of moves. After a few minutes of this, he handed me back the staff. His staff still upright in the center of the room as if unfazed by all the gymnastics happening around it."It is an acceptable staff for this training but I suggest you purchase a war staff you will find it to be much more compatible with the style I am about to show you."I followed along as Trumbo showed me stances. How to set my feet, how to move with my strikes, constantly pushing my opponent, or retreating safely. Then he showed me how to strike out and angle my staff for the greatest eff

We located the Matron easily enough; well Fiona did. I was more curious about the market since I didn't look it over the previous day. The woman was in the same spot we found her yesterday."What do you two want? Did you get lost and need help finding your mommy?" the irritable old woman said.Of course, the old lady focused all her vitriol at me and I smartly kept my mouth shut, letting Fiona answer."Greetings Matron Gertrude, we were wondering if you could point us to either the town leader or someone who might know of any local dungeons.""I might be able to do that, what's in it for me, hmmm?""We can certainly pay for the information.""Bah, I have little use for credits. I did hear an interesting story; stop me if you've heard it. About five dead men in a house to the east and one of them happened to be a Black Dragon member," she said, whispering the last part, "See the thing is they are a weed that needs to be plucked if

We arrived quickly to the dungeon's supposed location, an area roughly ten miles outside town. We decided to avoid any monsters on the way, which thankfully there seemed to be few of, this close to town. Surprisingly, riding the ravor beast was rather easy and even with my piss poor skill at riding, we made a decent time. Eventually, I got the rhythm of riding my mount down, It was much easier than riding a horse. I just had to adjust to the more upright position the beast ran in. The best part, I didn't feel like I had been beaten up during the ride, like the one time I rode a horse as a teenager."Well, we're where the map said the dungeon is supposed to be, but I don't see anything," I said, slightly annoyed, "I guess we should split up and look around. You go right and I will go left. Meet back here at the stump in an hour.""Sounds, good."Fiona agreed with me and we rode off at a slow pace, to try and find this entrance. After half an hour of se