“Really? Not often I was told that a goblinette is cuter than me in this form!” Lar’Ako… No, Aelathane rhythmically laughed with her enchanting voice. Her transformation was an impressive show for Vladimir. His hands itched to experiment.

“Ehm… Are you two done flirting? We have pressing matter at hands,” Sular shot a dirty look at the chuckling elf. In Vlad’s mind flashed an old memory of those old fictions… Harem! He shuddered at that thought… Who, in the right mind, would want so many women?

“That was magic?” Vlad questioned, sparkles in his eyes. He saw very little magic as of now. He could not wait to get into a school of magic.

“What?! No, it’s an innate ability” she replied but did not explain further. Vladimir wanted to inquire more, but was stopped by Sular’s squint as he was opening his mouth, sending him a clear message; now was not the time.

How did innate abilities work? They ranged from the body, through the mind, to probably even the soul… Did a mix of magic, ki and divinity force evolution? Or was it something else? It reminded him of those pre-WWIII antique superheroes movies. These contemplations were recorded and put away for later.

“Then, do you know what happened to the chapel? I sealed it with, but there was something… Bad there. Even worse than devils,” Sular broke the silence.

“No… There are few rumours but nobles decided to pass it off as it was a problem regarding the church...,” Aelathane slowly shook her head, still it made her alluring, red hairs to wave.

“And what about you? Are you leaving?” Sular sullenly asked. She did not want to lose one of the few friends she had here. Even though they were secret friends.

“Yes, it’s high time. Kulgar is under the succubus’ influence. I need to inform the Academy. The devils are escalating… If some deity supports them…” Aelathane sullenly replied.

Sular slightly paled at that thought. For more than 18 000 years, the church stood strong… However, that could end quickly if Staumaz was blocked or steam-forbid killed. She knew, deep inside her, that for gods and devils mortals were just… resources to be reaped.

“When are we leaving? I need to buy some resources and brew some potions,” Vlad asked, frowning. For him, all of this did not matter much. He just wanted to make Bread safe and through her, even Goulash, whom he knew would stand between her and him. Also to save his mother and return to Earth. Gaining power in the process and tearing the White Bastard apart would be a nice bonus.

“At the high tide. Take Arka and her companion as bodyguards. Cannot have you captured or kidnapped,” the greedy orcette priestess grinned. 

“Again, Sular?” The elven woman rolled her green eyes.

“I will tell you later,” she dismissed her. They started to make plans for the leaving and Vlad decided to leave it in their capable hands. Frankly, he was glad he did not need to find a ride by himself. He silently thanked whatever deity that held a hand over him.

  [Thanks] 

Vlad nodded at the screen, pulled his robe overhead and left for his inn. Not once it occurred to him...

Bread and Goulash were still sleeping in his bed, both naked. A sting of jealousy went through his heart, but he quickly subdued it. Bread was as beautiful as ever; in his eyes, she was truly much cuter and adorable than the elven spy.

He went to another room for the two former royal guards, who were mourning their fallen companion.

Arka, the orcette leader he negotiated with days ago, reluctantly agreed to go with him. The second orc completely ignored him, but Vlad could see a sliver of guilt and a lot of anger in his eyes. In the end, he had to be firmly ordered to follow them.

The shopping went easy. First, he bought a new robe from animal leather; nothing much, but the top covered his face. He thought of buying a mask, but unless he was in armour, the masks were… frowned upon at best.

He finally learned how the money was working in this city. First and foremost were golden coins, called tolars. They were a basic currency; only for the so-called mortals, who were those who could not use any type of energy. An adult orc needed around 500 tolars to live fairly comfortably for a year. The grand-tolars were the golden plates, each of them around 1000 tolars.

Then there were gems. Cut diamonds were worth around five grand-tolars. There were more gems of which he did not even know names as he lacked the basic education. He needed that library, however, orcs were not much fond of written language. Most of their knowledge was passed through rigorous training and speaking.

Last were unenchanted magical crystals. These crystals were important for all of the magic classes and were used as basic currency there. The wizards and others of such high classes did not require such a measly currency as gold. They could easily make millions with a single spell…

The crystals were relatively rare in most of the world. He wondered why it was laying freely in the city, but according to Arka, once they were enchanted, they only served as batteries for the spell and could not be used for anything else. From this Vlad could deduce that magic was a unilateral force in this dimension. Another question sprouted up in his mind; how could the living control such a force? How was it differentiated? Upon birth? Before it? Souls were real too. His inner scientist was going mad over it. He had to stop and take a few deep breaths to calm himself.

Now he knew that Sular took advantage of him. By a lot. The goblin breathing technique was… priceless. He finally understood that he changed the world. Once this technique got properly distributed… However, thanks to this he was freed. He inwardly kissed his system, Onyx. Devils would not like it at all and that made him smile. A lot of the culture was based on enslaved goblins that kept orcs content. Now, that they had a chance to fight... 

Vlad even saw a few of his own bounty posters distributed by local guards, but as it was in the middle of the day, almost everyone was inside. Shops were opened 24 hours a day, fortunately, as no good merchant would lose gold only because of daytime.

He bought everything he needed, including a new backpack, which cost an insane 1 500 gold. However, it was big enough to fit two apparatuses that would be protected by much stronger enchantments. It was made by an unaffiliated craftsman too, so it lacked any kind of mark.

When they returned, Bread was awake and practised with her new-grown arm. Her body was covered in black sludge she perspired during breathing technique and eyes were filled with determination. Vlad did not bother her with a soft smile and closed the door leading into his room.

 Goulash and Sou’Rek went to drink again, ‘borrowing’ 100 tolars from him. Vlad did not even bother to be angry; he owed Sou’Rek too much and Goulash was… He pitied him a little bit. The goblin lost almost everything, the same as himself. Plus, Goulash owed him a lot and Vlad intended to collect it.

He arranged a makeshift station after he rented another room and proceeded to make as many potions as he could.

Bread opened the door a while later, freshly bathed and hugged him. “Thank you,” she whispered into his ear and she even kissed him on the cheek again. She was slowly losing her shyness around him and acting around him like with Goulash, which frankly warmed his heart and filled him with determination. He kissed her back, only a light peck on the cheek, making her blush. They stayed in a hug for some time, enjoying their closeness, but Vlad had to return to his work. She stayed with him in the room, making him company, even asking about what he was doing. 

Around twelve hours went by a flash and it was in the middle of the night.

“Vlad… Vlad!” A meek, yet firm voice abruptly sounded behind him.

“Bread! How are you?” He turned around, spooked. His reaction made her smile and he loved it.

“Good… It’s time. We need to leave…” 

“So you are coming with me? What about Goulash and Sular?”

“Goulash comes with us too… And Sular has to stay,” she replied with a gloomy tone.

“Makes sense, she is too high in command,” Vlad mumbled more to himself as he scratched his growing beard. “Wait a minute, I will…” 

He was interrupted by an impact into his doors. He opened it and saw a large, dark brown, bulky, and infuriated Minos with a braided beard and large, spiral-like tattoos over his naked chest with pecks that were big as a human child. Big child.

He held two goblins in his hand and threw them into the room.

Fortunately, Vlad was fast enough to grab the cloak. Bread squatted to the two drunk goblins, closely checking them if they were not hurt. From her eyes, Vlad could tell she wanted to do it herself.

“These two are yours?” The Minos boomed. His head was higher than the door’s ceiling so only his neck was visible. Vlad felt that if the Minos desired so he would be able to blow him away with a snort. 

“What happened?” Vlad did not bother to lie. The Minos was here clearly on good info that could only come from the two idiots.

“Two grand,” the Minos just stretched his immense, furry hand with sharp nails extending from his burly fingers.

Vlad groaned. That was all of his remaining money. He looked at the two drunk goblins lying half-unconscious on the ground. He grabbed the golden plates and put them in the furry hand.

The Minos grumbled in satisfaction and left. Now, Vlad was out of cash. Again… At least, he had some basic supplies.

“Now… Bread, please wake up those two idiots,” he exasperatedly asked her and slowly packed the rest.

They gathered in an alley near their ship. However, the whole docks were closely watched by royal guards and who knew what else. Vlad noticed a few enchantments on the entrances and when he alerted his companions they all gaped at him.

“You can see enchantments… Without magic…” 

“Onyx?” Vlad inwardly asked.

  [Please enter the question]

“Why can I see enchantments?” He specified the order. Vlad wanted that AI so much… 

  [Cause: Heritage]

“Fine…” Vlad wanted to ask more, but his broken system was barely able to interact with him, only responding to basic commands. The skill descriptions were probably iterated from his own mind riddled with DID, ability to compute and lack of knowledge about this world.

According to Aelathane, their little steamboat was on the other side of a heavily guarded gate. The guards were perceptive and radiated power so overpowering them was out of the question. They needed to sneak… And the only way to do that was to make a mess.

“What about the explosion?” Vlad asked with a small, devilish smile. He got a nice idea.

“We don’t have anything… explosive,” Sular replied, glancing at her elven friend who shook her head in negative. She did not have any explosive spells as they belong to the School of Evocation and Elements. She was a transformation wizard apprentice and specialized one to boot it. Most of her skills were silent. She had an Unnatural Sleep spell, but that would not work in this situation as it was a gas type. For using magic, they would need plenty of enchanted crystals and the only place there could be any would be cellars under the chapel or a specialized wizard. They did not have the time nor resources to search there.

“Give me money and some ingredients, and I can make something… very big,” Vlad proposed mysteriously.

“Thane, can we delay any longer?” Sular whispered.

“Theoretically… Although, it will be dangerous,” Aelathane, turned back to Lar’Ako again, replied with a low voice. 

“No more than this… Devils are closing. I think they thought we ran into the forest and Blood Steppes, but soon they will realize their mistake,” Sular peeped at the human between her and Aelathane. Now, she hoped that the human really was a blind spot. Divination magic was nasty when it came to locating runaways.

“What do you need?” Aelathane asked, checking her bank.

Instead of naming the list, he asked for cash. They were extremely tight on gold, thanks to certain two idiots, who even did not have enough decency to look embarrassed.

The next day, Vlad immersed himself in the basics of chemistry. He decided on gunpowder as he lacks nitric acid and time to make TNT or nitroglycerin. Saltpetre was easy to find as it was used as fertilizers. He thanked this world’s alchemists weren’t only idiots who made healing and mana potions as often depicted in those old novels, but actually scientists. Charcoal was also easy to buy as it was used in gastronomy; crystals of heat were pretty expensive after all. Sulfur was slightly harder as the brimstone was sought out by alchemists in illegal research. Even though explosives were banned in this kingdom, alchemists never stopped experimenting with them.

Fortunately, Aelathane, as a spy, had contacts that owed her a lot of favours she raked up in the past years, so she was able to procure a lot of it. She was reluctant to do it first, but when Vladimir reminded her she won’t probably return, thanks to the succubus Miaras, she reluctantly agreed.

Goulash and Bread were trained by the orcen knights and Sou’Rek, who was sober to his own dismay. Vlad tried to forbid him drinking, but when he was madly laughed at, Sular came by and whispered something into the fallen inquisitor’s ear. It was for the first time he saw Sou’Rek pale in fright.

Then, the priestess left with a triumphant, satisfied expression.

26 hours later he was rewarded with a flashing screen and barrels full of the explosive.

  [Gunpowder recipe discovered. Classification: beginner-grade. Upon connection with the local system, you will be rewarded]