Looking at the god with a mix of shock and concern he ran back through the memories he had of his encounter with the void being. It had been an experience wholly unlike any other he’d had here, the void being testing him and pulling memories out of his mind he’d wished to keep buried forever. One thing the being had said did stick out to Ozzy though. He’d told Ozzy he wasn’t a being of blessings.

  “What do you mean you don’t associate with monsters?” Ozzy asked, his eyebrows knitting together as he felt a string of questions well up within him.

  “Is rule of the above. They treat monsters like destroyers and do not deal with them. Only below and outside talk to their kind.” Fauga explained.

  “Well couldn’t Remulas talk to him?” Ozzy asked.

  “Only if it wanted to be spoken to. Void monsters are shy.” Fauga explained, taking and pouring himself a spot of tea.

  Getting back to the topic of the goddess Ozzy asked. “So, what happens if she still tries to force me to follow her? I’m guessing she might try by making me absorb a core and tying herself to my progression somehow?” Ozzy surmised, doing his best as he made a very uneducated guess.

  “Not bad guess.” Fauga gave him a thumbs up. “To certain extent we can hinder or improve core power. She would threaten to weaken you if you tried to ignore her.” Fauga said through a mouthful of pastry.

  “Well then what happens if she tries that with me having three cores? She’d be able to tell then, right?” Ozzy asked, and an evil grin formed upon the Lord of Powder’s lips. The sheer malevolence of it was however greatly lessened by several chunks of apple and crust clinging to his beard.

  “Then she meets god level monster of void. Very bad matchup.” The god chuckled. “I do not bring you here to idly chat however. I have task, and you have compensation!”

  “What and who?” Ozzy asked, surprised at the mention of compensation.

  “Just little ol’ me.” A familiar rat rose up out of nothingness to sit at the third seat of the coffee table.

  “Remulas”, Ozzy nodded respuctfully to the god. “How goes the ratting?”

  “Fantastic as always,” He smiled, “save for one minor hiccup. One of my very dear and well-meaning subordinates may or may not have, as you know, walked the line of our contract’s agreements.” The rat said smoothly.

  Ozzy inwardly winced at the memory of what had happened. Basically all he’d done with the circle members since meeting them was argue, disagree, and mend fences with them. “Oh, that wasn’t a big deal. We got it figured out.” Ozzy said hopefully, waving away any concerns. He was very happy with the current contracts benefits and in no way wanted to jeopardize them.

  “The contract was not between you and Aria, Ozzy. It is between you and I. Your expression of understanding while appreciated is not helpful to your cause or tolerant of my natures.” Remulas said.

  “He is right.” Fauga said. “We cannot allow a broken deal to go unpunished.”

  Sighing, Ozzy rubbed at his eyes in tired annoyance. “What’s the verdict then?”

  “As our contract was fumbled by my subordinate, I bear the blame and must provide compensation. The contents and verbiage of the contract will remain the same, save I will offer you a minor tweak to one of your rat cores abilities as an expression of my sincerest apologies. A tweak that I believe will allow you to fully utilize one of your less conventional powers.” Remulas said, and Ozzy couldn’t help but think there was some double meaning to the god’s words.

  “Which one?” Ozzy asked, his heart skipping a beat at the knowledge that the main boon he got from Remulas’ blessing would stay the same.

  “Consider it a surprise young Ozzy.” Remulas said, and slowly, with his business done, he began to dissolve away. “I do apologize for Aria’s overstepping, though I do not believe the results were entirely outside of the realm of your desires.” With a wink he lost all form. A laugh echoing out through the workshop as Remulas fully dispersed into nothingness.

  “I am quite fond of the rat.” Fauga said matter of factly, staring at where Remulas had just sat. “He is slippery, but fair I think he likes you.”

  Ozzy nodded in agreement. “His friends are a bit of a hassle though.” While he was somewhat appreciative of the momentum Aria’s overstepping had given his relationship with Trinidad he wasn’t as grateful for the way they’d gone about it. Dating was definitely something he’d need to introduce to Myreluck.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Fauga shrugged. “You need powerful friends, and the strong are always strange.”

  Together they sat there for a time. Enjoying the refreshments Fauga had provided and just living in the moment. Ozzy thought it was strange to say he considered the god as a friend. Some might have called him a little crazy to even think they were capable of having a level of friendship with their disparity in natures, but he did. While a little strange Fauga was someone he could’ve seen himself hanging out in a workshop with back home on earth. Just vibing and drinking beers or hanging out and throwing weird stuff on a lathe.

  It was effortless being around Fauga. Maybe because in some ways they both had similar things they were trying to work on. They both wanted to change, to become something better, and they were doing it together.

  “Before you go.” Fauga said, regrettably breaking the silence as he looked over at a simple clock on the wall. “I would like to give you task.”

  “What do you need?” Ozzy asked him, setting down his teacup as he leaned back to listen.

  “It is simple task, but I cannot give you power without first asking for favor. Problem with being god.” Fauga grumbled. “The task is, overcome goddess of light’s persuasions and force her to negotiate through me.”

  “I mean that was kind of the plan anyway.” Ozzy said, accepting the task with a shrug.

  “It will be harder than you say.” Fauga said seriously. “Succeed, and I will offer you a path into my workshop.” He promised.

  “Like I’d be able to make stuff in here?” Ozzy nearly leapt out of his seat in excitement, completely ignoring the forced serious expression the god was wearing.

  Fauga sighed, letting a smile crack through as he nodded. “Yes, but our time comes to a close. Good luck my friend.”

  Space seemed to get ripped out from under Ozzy, and one moment he was in Fauga’s workshop and the next he was lying asleep on a very uncomfortable wooden bench. He grimaced, wherever he was it was outside. The sun currently doing its very best to turn him from his normal light brown complexion to a something more resembling a pomegranate.

  *BEEP BEEP*

  Opening his eyes he was greeted by the familiar sights and people of the swamp train. There was a great deal of movement, but most importantly there were faces he recognized. Emil, Liza, Myla, and even Lars were sitting nearby. All of them chatting quietly about something he couldn’t quite hear, but turning to face him as his watch went off. Though there was no sign of Trinidad or either member of the Circle nearby.

  “Good morning princess.” Emil’s voice carried its way over to Ozzy like a sarcastic cruise missile, completely destroying any goodwill he’d felt seeing him again.

  “I’m surprised you’re still around, don’t you need to go not help on some other hunts?” Ozzy jabbed, going straight for the throat.

  “Ouuuuch…” Emil said playfully, a susurrus of “ooooos” rising up from the group.

  “How is everyone?” Ozzy said, chuckling as he spun on the bench to a sitting position.

  “Great, just waiting for the saints swamp train to catch us at this point. Lucy’s had been putting it off, but with you and your new friends back she decided to just sit and wait. I’m pretty sure she said something about using you as bait.” Myla said.

  “Fantastic.” Ozzy muttered, and wanting something other than bad news decided to check his watch to see what kind of powers he’d gotten.

  Power Bestowed!

  Heavy Ordinance

  Heavy ordinance has long been used to turn hard cover and big monsters into piles of rocks and bloody puddles. Bring your own world ending heat to the party. Heavy ordinance can be summoned into hand at a staggering mana cost. When this ability is used in concert with enhancement emplacements or other similar defensive or offensive formations you may summon the heavy ordinance in a stationary turret style. Heavy ordinance does not limit the wielder to a single weapon type but does limit the wielder based on their mana and health pool. If a weapon summoned using Heavy Ordinance exceeds the normal mana cost the ability will consume life force until the cost of the summoning has been met.

  Ozzy read the description with rapidly widening eyes. Summoning a rocket launcher or heavy machine gun was forefront on his mind, he couldn’t even imagine what the possibilities of this ability would be once he tiered up. He was halfway ready to just hop into one of the emplacement fields to try it out. Without one he was a little slow to want to try summoning anything bigger than a single shot 40mm grenade launcher.

  “I get the broad strokes of what this does Ozzy, but what the hell is heavy ordinance? It sounds like something you have to order a courier to get for you.” Emil, who Ozzy hadn’t realized had moved to sit next to him spoke up.

  “It’s the big boy version of our little gunslingers’ firearms.” A familiar grating voice spoke up from the floor in front of them.

  Both men looked at each other in confusion before looking down to spot a mangled looking rat sitting at their feet. Despite Ozzy not having summoned the creature he was out and chilling with them.

  “Did you summon him?” Emil asked in confusion, not having seen Ozzy stretch a hand out to do it.

  “No, I just barely woke up.” Ozzy said, equally confused.

  *BEEP BEEP*

  Ability Transfigured!

  Furry Friend

  Furry Friend is no longer a summon ability, but a familiar one. The ether rat Old One Eye now enters the world as your familiar. Beware, should Old One Eye fall in battle he may not be re-summoned for the space of 24 hours. To re-summon Old One Eye a tax must be paid to The Spirit of The Great rat in the form of currency or treasure equal to seven mana stones worth.

  Ozzy’s and Emil’s eyes practically bugged out of their heads as they saw price for re-summoning the mangy rat.

  “If you ever die rat.” Emil spoke with a menacing finger held out in front of him like a weapon. “I’m never letting this moron re-summon you.”

  “Relax patsy. I doubt you’ll be around to see him re-summon me if we ever get into something I can’t get out of.”

  This was it, Ozzy thought. The beginnings of his financial ruin.