After getting back to the Bitter Flagon, I opened my journal. Between the zombies this morning and the ambush, I had leveled again. Level four, as an even level, gave me another skill point to spend in each of my skill trees.

  My martial tree had one new skill, Fight Under Cover, as well as the options it had before.

  I looked through the skills I had skipped over before to review my options. Measure, Guard Mastery, and Footwork all looked fairly useful, but it was Multi-Weapon Fighting that caught my eye.

  Before, I had not given it too much thought, but my advanced proficiency with the shamshir put it into a new light. Over half the attack patterns implanted into my memory incorporated some sort of shield bash. If I could combine the additional force from Multi-Weapon Fighting with the speed and power boost from the True Time skill, my attacks could be devastating.

  Fighting Under Cover would be a better defensive option, but so far hitting hard and fast had served me well. After looking through my options one more time, I selected Multi-Weapon Attack and moved on to the magical skill tree.

  Choosing Push last time opened up three new choices for me.

  They each looked good in their own right, but I didn’t think I would get much use out of Strong Push. With my low intelligence it wouldn’t be very effective. Dispelling and Precision Push both looked quite interesting though. Dispelling would have come in handy to get rid of the gang enforcer, Brute’s, energy shield. Precision would make Push more tactical. Hitting a hand or foot at just the right time could be super effective.

  I moved on to the one skill left over from last time, Create.

  Having an idea, I looked down at my buckler. It was already chewed up, literally, by the zombies. The wood was splintered badly, and I wondered how many more fights it would last. But if I could create a nearly invincible buckler from force magic? It wouldn’t last long at less than six minutes, but most of my fights had been shorter than that anyway.

  I really wanted Dispelling Push, but I decided to go with Create anyway. If my buckler got destroyed, Multi-Weapon Fighting would stop working and my defence would be compromised. After confirming the choice, I set my journal down to try out my new spell.

  After focusing on the air for a moment, I willed a blob of translucent blue material into existence. Concentrating intently, I molded the blob with my hands. It felt like well-mixed clay as I shaped it, but seemed perfectly rigid as soon as I let go. I had little trouble forming the blob into a shield-like shape, using my buckler as a model, but ran into problems when I tried to create a handle. Whenever I tried to extrude material to make a handle or dig into it with my fingers, the material slid away and back into the lumpy shield.

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  Apparently I had reached the limitations of my pitiful intelligence. With a mental sigh, I stopped concentrating on the blob and the world seemed to snap back into focus. The force magic “shield” solidified and seemed more real. I poked it and realized it was entirely rigid now, with no give whatsoever. It almost felt like glass. Also, it was still standing on its rim. At first I thought the magic defied gravity somehow, then I realized that the bottom inch of the shield was actually sunk into the bar.

  I tried pulling the disk of magic, but it was stuck fast. I propped a leg against the bar for leverage and heaved, but couldn’t get the damn thing to move. I stopped when I heard the wooden plank of the bar groaning. I looked up at the barkeeper guiltily, not sure how he would react to having a magical construct embedded in his bar. Luckily, the man was having a lively discussion about politics with some other customers and didn’t seem to notice.

  Sitting back down, I focused on my creation. I tried to get back that concentration that let me shape and mold the object, but failed. Either I was doing something wrong, or I could only reshape the object when I first created it. How it anchored itself to the bar gave me an idea, but I would have to wait until I could cast the spell again to test it.

  Feeling a bit awkward about the faintly glowing discus sprouting out of the bar, I opened my journal back up and flipped to the last skill tree. I had one new skill, Persuasion by Ethos 2.

  That seemed decent, but fairly situational. I doubted that any of the enemies I had faced so far were terribly religious. I checked through the rest of the skills. Persuasion by Greed still seemed solid, but I had barely any money to speak of. That left the holy or first aid supplies. Being able to get healed at the church made the need for first aid supplies less pressing, and I was still unsure about how useful the holy supplies would be.

  In the end, I decided to just bank the point for now. There was nothing that said I had to assign the skill immediately. I would wait until I needed something, then make a choice. Putting my journal back into my backpack, I went back to studying my force shield.

  After poking at it for a few minutes, it shattered noiselessly into a fine powder. The powder desintagrated to nothing, leaving no sign the shield had ever existed. I was relieved to see that the bar was no worse for wear. The smooth wood showed no sign of having occupied the same space as my magic creation.

  I wanted to try again, but I knew it would be a while before I could use the spell again. Maybe I would put my next point into willpower? It would let me cast my spells more often. Hard to prioritize that over my physical stats though. Strength, dexterity, and constitution were the primary factors that had gotten me through every obstacle so far.

  After a while, Ajax burst into the bar red faced and stomping. “Unrelated! Unrelated my ass. That pompous wanker,” he said, walking briskly over to me.

  “Who are we talking about?” I asked, wondering what got him so riled.

  “The Assistant Commissioner. My boss, in his infinite wisdom, has declared the attack on us as ‘unrelated’ to the investigation and ‘circumstantial’ at best,” he said with exaggerated finger quotes.

  “But we were attacked right after asking questions,” I said, incredulous.

  “I know! I told him that,” Ajax continued. “But he said it must be because of the raid on the Grey warehouse. Apparently it’s a bigger gang than we thought. The man we took in was less the boss and more a boss.”

  “So no police raid on the racetrack?”

  “No raid on the track,” Ajax agreed dejectedly.

  “So what do we do now? Pick up that greaseball from the track and question him ourselves?” I asked.

  “The Assistant Commissioner was kind enough to inform me that abusing my position by arresting without cause is grounds for getting sacked.”

  “Shit” I said, leaning back against the bar. I doubted the Archbishop would be too happy either. Torturing potentially innocent people would probably be frowned on. Even if that would fit with my class. From my vague understanding of history, inquisitors weren’t known for their abundant concern over innocence. “So a stakeout then?” I asked. “Try to spot someone suspicious and follow them from the track?”

  “Without any description or anything else to go on? There would be way too many people. No way we could cover that much ground.”

  “Maybe we could hire some people? I don’t really have any money though.”

  “Oh, that reminds me,” Ajax said, sitting up. He fished into his belt pocket and pulled out a coin purse. “Before things… devolved, with the Assistant Commissioner, he gave me an advance on our finders fee. They are not done counting everything up, but he said he would front us some money. Have ourselves a ‘night on the town’ as he put it.”

  Ajax handed me five thick coins. Each bore the head of the queen and were marked as one pound. “I am not sure if this would be enough to hire private investigators or anything, but it’s a start,” he continued.

  Staring at the money I had an idea. Opening my journal, I checked my utility skill tree and selected Persuasion by Greed.

  “Come on,” I said to Ajax, closing my journal. “Let’s head down to the river.”