Chapter 60

Despite his earlier predictions that he wouldn’t want to buy a nice harness when he could simply make his own with his [Leatherworking]skill, Luke had to admit that the stuff Donaley had for sale was way, way better than the thing he’d made. It was kind of the same design, except it was adjustable with a few straps and was modular. It could have sword sheaths attached across the back in two different directions or either hip, for example.

It could also do axes or knives, even a whole bandoleer mounted on his chest if throwing knives were something Luke wanted. Since he really only had the one knife, not counting the fold out one and his multitool, he passed on those options and just bought the base harness with the back mounting accessory.

It rode with the head on his shoulder and required him to reach around behind his hip to grab the handle, then lift up and pull out to release the mace. At first, it was a bit awkward, but Luke quickly found that having the head sitting up by his shoulder where the weight wouldn’t swing around was actually a lot more comfortable.

He did have some concerns that someone might pluck the damn thing right off his back when he wasn’t looking, which were perhaps a bit irrational considering how high his perception was, but Donaley put that fear to rest too. He showed Luke how to lock the collar that held the mace to his shoulder into place, a feat that he doubted he could do with one hand, even if it wasn’t currently attached to his back.

“Mind you,” Donaley said, “this isn’t something you’d want to do out in the field when a monster might jump you at any moment, but it’s not like you’re going to be brandishing this thing casually around town, right? If you do find yourself needing a weapon of convenience, there’s always the knife.”

Luke thought that was probably correct, although he could think of one or two scenarios where having his weapon unavailable to draw would be a problem. It was far more likely that someone would try to steal it than that someone would try to murder him and he’d be unable to defend himself without the mace. He wanted it more for monster killing than anything.

“Right, how much do I owe you for the harness?” he asked.

“Two and a quarter silver,” Donaley told him immediately.

Luke paid it without hesitation. He wasn’t rich by any means, and he hadn’t been planning on buying this, but it was so much better than the one he’d cobbled together and he was still flush from that lunch round yesterday. Sideon had told him not to expect profits like that regularly, if ever, but he figured he could afford to treat himself just a little bit.

On a whim, he bought an extra knife and stuck it in his backpack. Maybe he wouldn’t find a use for it, but maybe, just maybe, Zea would want to come with him. He knew the answer was going to be no when he did finally ask, but he was going to keep hoping anyway. Besides, she ought to have a way to defend herself if she needed to.

Luke had gotten used to getting the occasional, or not so occasional, stare when someone clocked him as the source of a large amount of XP. Nobody had said anything about it while he was going about his business, and he’d learned to ignore it. He didn’t expect that to change when he left Donaley’s, but he learned better almost immediately.

A general ripple of unease went through the crowd as he passed through it. It seemed that a guy with high XP was unusual, but not worth confronting, but a guy with high XP and a visible weapon was a different story. No less than three of the cops who patrolled the streets closed in on him within a block of the weapon shop.

“Here now, what’re you up to?” the boldest of the trio asked. He sounded nervous, but with two of his buddies flanking him, he held his ground.

“Nothing, sir,” Luke said, doing his best not to set any of them off. The last thing he needed was a bunch of jumpy cops deciding to use excessive force on him. He wasn’t even sure if it would be worse to let them beat on him or fight back.

“What’s with the weapon?” the cop asked.

“Just got it from Donaley’s,” Luke said, waving a hand vaguely in the direction of the building.

“I hope you’re not planning on causing any trouble. Just because you’ve got some XP doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want.”

“No, sir. Nothing like that. Is there a problem with having a weapon? I see a lot of people walking around with them.”

“It’s not the weapon, so much,” the cop said. He was calming down now that Luke was being cooperative. He probably felt like he was in control of the situation, that the risk of a violence was decreasing with each passing second. “It’s just… you have to understand what it looks like when someone that strong walks around with a weapon like that. That’s not something you get for a street brawl. That’s a weapon designed to kill.”

“It is,” Luke agreed. “I’m leaving town soon, on foot. I need to be able to defend myself against anything that might attack me on the road.”

“True enough, but look at it from my perspective, son. You’re not on the road right now.”

“Well I’m sorry, but it doesn’t really fit in my backpack, you know? Look, I’ve got the collar locked on it.” Luke turned at the waist to show the weapon’s harness to the cops. “I couldn’t use it right now even if I wanted to.”

That wasn’t really true, of course. The harness was just leather. If he absolutely had to defend himself, he could rip the weapon free. But he hoped it would set the cop at ease if he said that he couldn’t, and that seemed to be working. He noted a slight relaxing of posture and an overall lessening of twitchiness.

“That thing is a damn beaut,” one of the cops said.

“Bet it cost a bundle too,” the other back up added.

The one who’d been talking to Luke frowned at his two coworkers but didn’t say anything to them. “Alright, here’s what I want you to do. I’m going to put a seal on it so any other guards who see you will know you’ve spoken to someone. But you take that thing straight home and leave it there until you’re on your way out of town, alright?”

“A seal?” Luke asked, wondering if this random dude who was maybe level 12 actually knew magic of some kind.

Instead, the guy produced some sort of yellow paper ribbon that he looped around the collar and harness. One end was covered in some sort of sticky glue, and he pressed it to the ribbon to turn it into one solid strip. There’d be no way to pull the weapon without first breaking the paper. Then he pulled out some sort of stamp thing and a bit of ink, carefully poured a few drops of ink into it, and pushed it against the paper.

“There you go. All official. Like I said, straight home, understand?” the cop told him.

“Yes, sir.”

“Heh. Sir, I like that. Alright, get on out of here.”

The cops, er, guards, walked off, verbally patting each other on the back for doing such a good job diffusing a volatile situation. Luke rolled his eyes and started walking again. The stares didn’t lessen, but the next time a guard stopped him, he just showed the woman the paper ribbon with the ink stamp on it and she sent him on his way.

That pattern repeated itself every four or five blocks with various degrees of hostility until Luke got sick of it and started taking back alleys instead of main streets. It was a winding route, one that sometimes smelled foul, but the alleys didn’t have anyone patrolling them, at least not anyone affiliated with the law.

A few times he caught sight of some of the locals peering at him, once a few even gathered and started following him. Luke put an end to that by coming to a complete stop and turning to stare directly at where they thought they were hiding. The thugs scattered immediately, and he was on his way again.

The first thing he noticed upon walking through the door was the lump under the blankets and the dress still sitting unmoved on the floor. Luke grinned and paused to listen to the sound of snoring coming from the bed. In all fairness, he had woken her up in the middle of the night and interrupted her sleep.

Luke undid the straps on the harness and set it against the wall, then kicked off his boots and crawled under the blankets. Zea groaned and cracked one eye open to glare at him. “Don’t let all the warmth out.”

“Sorry.”

“And why are you wearing clothes? I thought we went over this already.”

“I thought maybe we could talk about some stuff.”

“Unnggghhh. Fine.” Zea scooted closer and wrapped herself around him. With her head resting on his chest, she said, “What are we talking about?”

“I think I’m going to leave tomorrow or the next day.”

“What? That soon? I thought you’d stay at least until the end of the week.”

“I want to, but… I can’t stay forever, you know. And if I can’t get a boat, then it’s time to start walking again.” That was kind of a crazy thought to him, to just walk over a thousand miles, but when he considered how fast a light jog was for him now, and how many hours he could do that non-stop, it didn’t seem too bad. More like boring, or at least he hoped so. Boring meant nothing was attacking him.

As much as he was dreading hearing the answer, Luke had to ask. “Do you want to come with me?”

“Go with you?” Zea repeated. “I… you know I can’t really handle the cold like you humans do. I’d need to get a whole new outfit for cold weather, definitely some thicker boots, a fur lined cloak. I wonder if I could get one of those emergency warming potions alchemists make. Probably too expensive.”

Luke blinked down at her. It sounded like she was considering it. He’d expected her to scoff at the idea and make a sarcastic quip. “We could get you all of those things,” he said slowly.

“It would be expensive. I don’t have that much money. Are you sure you want someone like me with you though? I don’t walk as fast as humans and I know your stats are way higher than mine. You’ll move much faster without me.”

“Of course I want to be with you,” he said. “You are without a doubt the coolest person on this planet.”

“I… hey, are you making a joke about me being cold?”

Luke laughed. “No, sorry. It’s an expression from my language that I don’t think translates right. It means you are my favorite person, the best person I’ve met since I got here, the best person there is.”

“It’s a bit late to be trying to flatter your way into my pants, don’t you think? As you can see, I’m not wearing any.”

“Don’t you try to distract me with your body! We’re having a serious discussion,” he said. That didn’t stop him from taking a peek under the blanket.

Zea slapped a hand against his chest in reprimand, but she was smiling. “I’ll think about it, okay? Ask me again tomorrow.”

“I will.”

“Now, what is that thing you’ve brought back with you? It’s huge.” She cut Luke off before he could even start to speak. “No, not that! I mean that weapon sitting over there on the floor.”