Brin stood to pace, but then realized that the enchanted circle wasn’t big enough for that and sat back down again.

“I don’t even know where to start. How could you miss something like that?”

“Look, I could make excuses. Undead are hard to spot until they start getting hungry, and Neptune was already a loner. The long and the short of it is that he fooled my [Inspect],” said Hogg. “I don’t have the time to [Inspect] everyone every day, but I do make an effort to check out notable citizens pretty often. Neptune has been at the top of my list for a while, and [Inspect] didn’t show me anything until I had already figured it out.”

“How? You told me you have the best [Inspect] in the country,” said Brin.

“It suggests that the person that turned Neptune is higher level than I am,” said Hogg. “Much higher.”

“That’s insane. You’re insanely high-leveled. You’ve got to be at least level fifty. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were level sixty.”

Hogg blinked slowly.

“Fine, but answer me this, because it’s important. Are any of the known [Witches] in Hammon’s Bog higher level than you?”

“No,” said Hogg.

“Then who? A [Witch] from Arcaena? Arcaena herself?”

Hogg folded his arms, leaning back in his chair. “If Arcaena herself were here, I have no idea why she wouldn’t simply walk into town and ask all of us to pledge fealty. We would do it, without question. That’s power on another level. No, more likely it’s one of her students. Keep in mind that until your talk with your dead dad, I didn’t even think Arcaena had students.”

“How much trouble would we be in if a student of Arcaena were hiding in the forest?” asked Brin.

“Too much trouble,” said Hogg. “We’re talking about the direct disciple of a major world power. It would be like if Lumina was out there. Pre-Travin’s Bog Lumina at the least. Why would they bother? We’re working on the assumption that the reason we’re all still alive is because we aren’t worth it. I think it’s more likely that they found another way. I think they found a method of fooling my [Inspect] that I haven’t heard of.”

“Like what?”

“Well, that’s the problem, isn’t it? I don’t know. Did [Know What’s Real] give you anything off him?”

“No,” said Brin. “It hasn’t been very useful for this. Neptune is there, he just isn’t alive. Maybe if I saw him doing something deceitful to pretend he’s human?”

“Give it some thought.”

“Next question: what are we going to do about it?” asked Brin.

“The [Witches] in town are eager to find out who turned him. They’re preparing a ritual to bring him under their control. Should be ready this week. Until then, we pretend we don’t know. One of the [Witches] has been tasked with keeping an eye on him. No one likes the idea of an undead roaming around unsupervised. But us, the [Witches], and the Prefit are the only ones who know.”

Brin tapped his chin in thought, and then brought out Calisto’s list of ingredients and handed it to Hogg.

“What’s this?”

Brin said, “The ingredients for a potion of Turn Undead. It’ll free an undead from the control of its current master. What if we took Neptune for ourselves? I doubt you really like the idea of turning control of him over to the [Witches], especially since one of them is probably the one who killed and turned him in the first place.”

“They wouldn’t like that.”

“They don’t have to know! All we have to do is get to him first, turn him, and interrogate him ourselves without anyone being the wiser,” said Brin.

“They would know when they complete the ritual,” said Hogg. He held up a hand to forestall Brin’s protests. “But... if we frame it the right way, we could make this look like we’re doing them a favor. After all, if none of them are responsible for his death, they’ll be happy to see we can prove their innocence. In this matter at least.”

“So we’re doing it?”

Hogg nodded. “We’ll leave right after dusk. Don’t wear yourself out before then.”

Brin smiled. Not trusting himself to not say anything stupid, he carefully walked out of the cellar. It wasn’t until he closed the door behind him that he broke into an all-out sprint.

If they were leaving at dusk, that meant that he only had today to prepare, and he didn't have a weapon, not really. Sure, he could borrow something from Hogg, and Hogg would say he didn't need one, but he wanted one. And he wanted it to be made of glass.

He dashed down the street. Townsfolk looked alarmed at first, but relaxed when they saw the look on his face. He laughed and they smiled in response.

Down the street, to the left, across that street, and straight into Toros’ shop. He banged the door open. Simao was at the counter helping a couple of customers. Brin shoved straight past them over to Toros, who held his hammer above his head, paused from striking a horseshoe he was working on.

“G– guh!” said Brin, panting so hard he couldn’t make it out. Was he out of shape? He really needed to put running back into his workout routine.

“What’s this about, lad?” asked Toros. He lifted his steampunk-looking goggles away from his eyes. Brin always thought the town [Smith] looked like a stereotypical dwarf. Muscular and wide, barely taller than Brin. His mouth was covered behind a reddish-brown beard, but his eyes crinkled in concern.

“Glass! Can you make metal into glass?”

“Can I… can I make metal into glass? What’s this about?”

“ I–” How to explain this? “I just learned that some metals, maybe all of them, have a glass state, and that if you can get them into that state they’ll be much stronger than normal and also work really well with my Class.”

“Oh. But what’s the emergency?” asked a perplexed Toros.

“Ah. No emergency.” Brin chuckled in embarrassment. “I just thought about it and got really excited.”

Toros threw his head back and let out gales of ground-shaking laughter. The couple at the counter joined in along with Simao, while Brin awkwardly smiled and scratched the back of his head.

“Sorry.”

“Not to worry! I get excited, too. Metallic glass, eh? Might be worth looking over,” said Toros. “When I’m not in the middle of another job.”

“Why don’t I come back another time?” asked Brin.

“See that you do,” said Toros, shaking his head in good humor.

Even if Toros could make metallic glass, there was no way that was happening today. He should have figured.

He snapped off [Inspect] on the way out.

Name

Toros the Smith

Class

Smith

Level

Race

Human

Description

Toros is a very high-leveled and respected Smith. He is not a dwarf, simply a very strong, short human. Toros is not using [Hide Status]. Anything hidden from [Inspect] is due to your low level.

Skills

[Shape Metal] is the base Skill of his Class.

He has a Skill that lets him transform matter at a fundamental level into exotic magical elements.