“We have been at this for two fucking days. It is time to shit or get off the pot.” Cutter was clearly strained.

  The three men stood on the edge of the original farm, facing the horizon where the ranch lay just beyond it.

  Tiller was already wearied from the task of maintaining both holdings. He stood between the other two with tired eyes, clutching a cup of coffee. It had been an expense he had been willing to forego, understanding quickly that the caffeine would be a small price to pay to support him in the task.

  Cutter pointed at the farmer. “Look at you. For Christ’s sake, you are only going to be able to keep this up for so long. The sooner I get out of here and get those dragon bits the better. When we have that composter up and running the gold will start to flow, and we can start looking to hire on a rancher and maybe some more farming sigiled workers. The sooner I go, the sooner I get back. You are not looking much peachier if I am telling the truth, Reader.”

  Reader glanced up. He had been staring at the latest iteration of his log mobile where it lay on the ground beside them. Blearily he blinked. “Me? What? No, I am not wrecked like Tiller. I have just been burning the candle at both ends. Late nights and early mornings trying to get this thing running. Well, that and, you know, the other projects…”

  Cutter counted the other projects off on his fingers. “Building the ET-phone-home doohickey, trying to level up, preparing to construct the new composter…”

  Tiller sucked at the cup of coffee. “You could probably put something on the back burner for a little while.”

  Reader shook his head. “Which one? If Stone Robot is taking off with Cutter then we need a way for you to get over to the ranch and back quickly. This thing might not steer yet, but it is finally working reliably in a straight shot. And if we want to finish the composter upgrade then I will need some new weaves and have to reach at least iron. And there is no way I am stopping the other project. If there is a way I can reach out and contact my wife and kids… er… our wife and kids? Some versions of our wives and kids… whatever, I do not care, that is not stopping any time soon.”

  Cutter said, “Then what are we waiting for? Let us give our blessings and I will hit the road.”

  Tiller said, “I am just not happy with you going on your own.”

  Cutter snapped, “We cannot start this again. I am a freaking iron-band now, dude. And Stone Robot is stone-banded. We can take care of ourselves.”

  “Dragons sound like serious business.”

  “Look. Listen. Let us get this straight. You guys need some muscle here to protect yourselves. Norris is still getting back to full strength. Much as I would love some personal time with Huntress out on the road, huddling up for body heat and all that, you guys need her here more. Stone Robot is a one-passenger ride. I have got enough steak and sizzle to take care of this by myself.”

  Cutter leaned in with a devilish expression. “Besides, if me and Stone Robot go on our lonesomes we will scoop all that lovely xp for ourselves. Maybe we will come back bronze-banded before you guys get out of stone.”

  Tiller looked downward. “We are nearly ready to level up as well.”

  Cutter’s face cracked into a mad smile. “I am just fucking with you. Come on, we have got things to be getting on with. You have got an agricultural empire to run and a band to upgrade. And you have got enough projects and levelling to worry about yourself, Reader. Let us vote on this and get on with business.”

  Tiller sighed and said, “Fine, fine.”

  Reader nodded in assent.

  Cutter slapped and rubbed his hands together. “Excellent. Well then, before I depart on this long and arduous journey of death-defying exploits, there is one further matter to address.”

  Tiller raised a weary eyebrow.

  “My expense account.”

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  Reader was more sympathetic to Cutter’s needs for finance than Tiller. The farmer, while sensitive to the dangers Cutter might face on his expedition, felt that a resourceful iron-banded warrior with his trusty sidekick could fend well enough for themselves, especially with a bag of holding well stocked with supplies and provisions. They argued as they were inclined, Tiller eventually siding with Cutter but convincing the fighter to reduce his demands. In the end Cutter was furnished with a hundred gold coins for the trip.

  There was a final mulling over the sigils they had amassed. Much of the booty from the battle had been sold already to convert to liquid assets, but the sigils were the last they would part with. Sigils were power. Sigils were options. It was difficult to give up any but the weakest and most common.

  The three men returned to their shared home to consider their options.

  Cutter’s band was already embedded with four cinder sigils: fighter, sword, strength, and berserker. His sole ash sigil was his dodge.

  Reader looked over the collection of sigils. Most of the ogres who had died were on farming, ranching, or crafting paths. “There is not much here that will really be any good to you. There is a tracking sigil and a hunting sigil. They might help you chase down a dragon? Even if they do not, they might be useful for catching game.”

  Cutter poked through the collection of shining orbs. “Yeah… I guess…”

  Tiller said, “You do not have a sword, why do you keep the sword sigil slotted in? You could have something useful in there. And I do not think I have ever seen you use the berserker sigil, that must be taking up a slot as well.”

  “Hey… what if I am in a fight and I, like, get a sword off someone? I will not have time to be popping sigils in and out all willy nilly, and I would not want to waste the chance. And well… if I am being totally square, I am a little unnerved by the berserker one. I do not know what it is going to do to my, like, disposition. I have not wanted to use it when I was around you guys or Huntress in case it makes me go all Hulk on everyone’s ass. It might be a game changer when I fight a dragon.”

  Reader murmured, “I really hope you are planning on killing more than fighting it. I do not know if a head on confrontation is the best course of action.”

  Tiller said, “You should empty those slots and keep the sword and berserker sigils in your bag. Take the hunting and tracking sigils with you. They are only ash but you would always have options that way.”

  Cutter just grunted. Changing the subject he said, “What are you packing yourself anyway?”

  Tiller’s gaze grazed the heap of sigils. “I am set up with farming, shovel, grass, earth, and a ranching sigil we scored from the battle. The earth sigil is cinder and the grass sigil is blaze, the rest are ash. Shovel is getting close to leveling up, so is farming. From what I understand I am not getting the best out of the blaze sigil when I am only stone-banded. It is definitely more powerful than my cinder sigil, but I get the feeling I am not able to use it very efficiently. There is a beast-tending sigil here that I could pocket in case I need it, but I use all of my sigils every day so I cannot really go around with an empty slot.”

  “Well, you do not use that shovel sigil every day, do you? You could empty that slot and keep it handy in case you need it.”

  “But if I put something else into that slot then I cannot equip shovel, and that is my best way of defending myself. If we got someone in here to take over the management of the animals then I could live without the ranching sigil. The farming sigil gives a bonus to production on all my holdings, which seems to include the ranch now. The ranching sigil only seems to benefit production from the animals I handle directly.”

  “What is the difference between the ranching and the beast-handling sigils?”

  “It is a bigger difference than you might think. The ranching sigil helps with production from the animals. If I feed them or brush them or any of that kind of tending then they grow faster and make more milk. But I need to tend them directly. And it is all limited by the grass production, which is barely enough to keep them alive, let alone pumping out milk and steaks at a profitable rate.”

  “Then pocket the ranching sigil?”

  “We need every scrap of production we can get right now.”

  Cutter turned to Reader. “What about you, champ?”

  Reader shifted awkwardly then sheepishly raised his arm.

  Cutter was confounded. “You have got two empty slots? What?”

  Reader mumbled, “There are no relevant sigils for me to collect around here. The farming scene is not exactly loaded with magic-based sigils to scoop up.”

  “Hey, Tiller, could we give him, like, a ranching sigil or something?”

  “I do not have the time. I have enough projects to handle as it is.”

  Tiller added, “They synergize with the band. He would be half useless with it anyway. We are all better off with Reader progressing on his path and working on his projects. There is going to be a day when we will have a really powerful magic caster on our side, and that is going to be game changing.”

  Cutter sighed. Hesitantly he extracted the berserker and sword sigils from his band. He slid them and the hunting and tracking sigils into his bag. “I guess this is it then…”

  Tiller said, “When will you leave?”

  Cutter was excited but not without a touch of trepidation. “In the morning, first thing. Well, not first thing. I will hang around long enough to see you do the thing again.”

  Tiller smiled weakly. “Oh yeah? You really get a kick out of that?”

  Cutter grinned. “Hell yeah. It is metal. I cannot wait to see what it will look like when your band and sigil pop up a couple of notches. But yes, I am going to hang on for that. Then it is quest time.”

  Tom Wrath | Posting SCAPE and Gridlords 3X Weekly | Patreon