Author's note: thanks for your kind reviews, Louisa DeVant. It is nice to see you so interested. Do you think that you would be interested in being a Betta for this story? Even if you don't want to set up an account, I will be glad to take your reviews into consideration.
"Let's see what our traps caught" Viper suggested. They had just met up and "We don't want others to steal the stuff that we caught"
"Alright" Skull agreed, "But what do we do when we get them. I don't have lethal traps in my skillset"
"I will test out the Tame Skill" Viper derided for both of them. "I will turn one against another, and we will collect the prizes. It shouldn't be to hard, and it will get me practice and skill points that will let us get a more… permanent solution"
"Ok. The first set is there" Skull said. He pointed out the path that they had walked coming down here before to lay out the traps. Something flashed on the screen.
"What is that?" Viper asked.
"I got a new skill!" Skull exclaimed. "It is called tracking and…"
"You can explain later, defending ourselves from this trap comes first" Viper called hurriedly. A frenzied boar had spawned, and it was charging right to Skull. He noticed, to late. It managed to gore him before Harry could dodge, and it was heading strait to Viper now. Mentally thanking God that this version of the game wasn't lethal to lose at, Viper planned out how to survive this attack. She dodged behind the boar when it charged, her sprint skill allowing her to reach the speeds that her brother lacked. She looked frantically for an advantage. After dodging a charge three more times, Viper managed to find an untriggered trap. Gently stepping in front of it, she tried to get the boar to charge this way. It almost worked, but when she tried to dodge it, she accidently activated the trap herself. Another boar joined the first in its attacks on her, but the first boar startled it temporarily. Remembering her new skill, Viper tried to activate it. "This is your target" She thought, pointing at the closest boar. She almost thought that it wouldn't work, but before she could lose the way that Skull had, the first boar gored the second. Viper managed to collect the drops, a snout and tusk, but she celebrated to soon. The remaining boar, without a pressing target, tusked her.
"Well, that didn't work as well as planned" Viper said to herself. She looked at her menu, and Skull had sent her a message.
"Gone to help organize Agil's" the message declared.
She sent a response, "You need to work on your grammar", and then sprinted to the store. He was already there when she arrived, and had organized the mess that had managed to collect.
"Did that boar get you to?" Skull asked. Viper glared at him, and Skull took it for a yes. "Did you at least do better than I fared?"
"Yes, I most certainly did" Viper said, somehow managing to sound snobby in regaling how she lost to a common mob. "I dodged it like a true matador, and then sent it off after another local monster"
"How did it beat you then, if you were so successful?" Skull pointed out, as an amused Agil watched.
Viper turned away pouting. After ignoring the question a few moments by sorting out a few swords, she gave up. "It turned on me the moment that there wasn't a bigger threat. I still managed to get the drop from the one it targeted, however"
"What did you get" Agil asked. It was probably a good idea to bargain with her when Skull was around. She wasn't nearly so imposing a figure when that simpleton she brought with her was around. The boy wasn't stupid by any means, and flourished at languages besides, but he didn't understand the decorum of polite interactions for the life of him. That made him an incredible weakness to be around in deals, but it was simply endearing when they were there together.
"A few tusks, nothing particularly noteworthy. Come on Skull" She said, "the mess has been cleaned, and we need to check our traps"
"Do we have to do it now?" Skull whined. He was having fun there before Viper cleaned up.
"Yes, need I remind you that someone else might take the stuff of our traps- fine, someone might steal stuff of your traps, but I am getting some practice at the Tame skill, and I don't want out opportunity to be wasted.
"If you'd like, I would be more than willing to go with you" Agil said. "It seems like a fairly slow day and a dungeon crawl would be nice"
"What do you mean, slow day?" Viper asked. "This makes at least two people who have come here today, and that is a comparatively large number for… I don't know the time but it's still early"
"Actually, it's midday" Agil corrected. "This is the slowest time of day: people are quick to get stuff in the morning before they go out to a dungeon or after they are back from their hunt, but rarely do they show up between those busy times"
"If it really is boring now, of course you can come with us, right Viper" Skull interjected.
"I suppose that more company wouldn't hurt" Viper admitted, giving up the argument. "You can help us… deal with things stuck in non-lethal traps that neither of us can take care of for now without an armed skill, but you will be paying us for any kills that you get from a trap"
"Five denarii per trapped kill, alright" Agil agreed, "You think that's fair, don't you Skull" he asked. He didn't even need his purchase negotiation skill to tell that Skull would be the weak link to exploit financially of the two.
"Sure" Skull agreed, proving Agil's point. He was the one who set the traps, so it was technically up to him how much he charged for it. Viper's groan but lack of other protest proved that she knew that as well as Agil.
"We're leaving right now" She abruptly stated. "Do you want to get more trapping supplies Skull, or can we leave immediately?"
"I'm good for now" Skull said, and before Agil could protest, Viper grabbed each of them and activated her sprint skill, dragging them at her high speeds of as far as she could in one step. She managed to get to the meadows a few minutes' walk away from the dungeons before her skill was exhausted and they had to resort to walking.
"Skull", Viper said, cutting of any protest, "Why don't you tell us about the skill you gained out there? I need a few minutes to recharge my Sprint skill, and we can make use of the time"
"Sure", Skull happily started. "I didn't get much of a chance to look at it, but the skill is Tracking. I think that it lets me figure out where something was. It shows a few footprints on the ground were we just stepped, and it left a whole huge whiteish blur where you sprinted with us"
"That sounds useful" Viper approved. "When we get there, you will be using it to see where the things that we can get are. For now, why don't you give us a show, oh immortal stuntman" she teased.
"Why can't you take me seriously?" he complained.
"Mu, people like to laugh at performers. Get used to it, Skull" Viper cajoled him.
"She is right you know" Agil told Skull. Even faced with the cuteness of his pout, he stayed honest. "You have built up quite a reputation, Skull. No one is going to take you seriously for quite some time with that behavior. Still" He mused aloud, "that's not necessarily a bad thing. No one will accuse you of a plot with that sort of history. You also made quite an impression with that speech"
"There have been rumors of a guild wanting to rent you for a night of performance" Viper agreed.
"Which Guild?" Skull was quick to ask.
"I'll tell you, but it will cost you" Viper said, annoyed at Skull. Onley charging five denarii per trap? Most drops would get at least ten denarii at any NPC run store! He wasn't getting himself a fair profit.
"What's the price?" Skull agreed. She was intimidating when she got that glare on her face. It seemed… well, threatening was the best word that he could come up with, but there was no way that his sister would actually hurt him.
"Ten denarii for the information, twice as much as the cost to use those silly traps of yours" she argued. She wasn't feeling generous, she was feeling fed up with that silly brother of hers!
Him handing over the money was entirely unexpected. "Are you being serious?" she asked, unable to believe that someone would take that kind of an offer seriously. When he just nodded, she briefly wondered if something was up, but this was Skull. He never cheated anyone! "Fine" she agreed, pocketing the money. "The guild 'Knights of Blood' is having a birthday party for one of their members and are interested in hiring you for entertainment in a week"
"Can you tell them that I'll be there" Skull said, glad that he could brighten someone's day.
"For half of the profits, I'll arrange the entertainment and meeting" Viper agreed.
"Deal" Skull said again. This was going great!
"Always so stingy?" Agil wondered.
"With his poor management of it, someone needs to stockpile funds" Viper defended.
"Perhaps" Agil agreed.