Wandering Warrior: Judge - Chapter 4 (Patreon)

Chapter 4

After a brief conversation, I made my way back to the bathing room to wash off all the new gunk that always managed to get on me when I fought.  At least I didn’t have to wash any clothes.  While scrubbing off the black blood from the vampire, I weighed the pros and cons of just fighting naked all the time.  I mean, what were the real downsides?  It was really just an extension of the washing machine debate I had with myself earlier, and I grumbled quietly as I put a set of still-damp clothing on.

“What are you?”  The voice that came from behind me was barely audible, but it still scared the crap out of me.

“Stop that!”  I tried to get my heart rate back to something close to acceptable and stuck my finger in Jess’s face.  “Do you enjoy scaring the bejesus out of everyone, or is it just me?”

“I don’t know what a ‘bejesus’ is, or what a ‘movie twilight’ could be, and a ‘blade franchise’ is no weapon I am familiar with, but whatever you are, I want to come with you.”  She had stumbled over the unfamiliar words, but I heard the conviction in her voice.  Which was a problem.

“Look, Jess, I’m sure you’re a great girl and all, but this just isn’t working out.  It’s not you, it’s me.”  I started stuffing things back in my pack, trying to hurry back to my room.  Or, if necessary, out of this town.

“What does that even mean?”  Jess gave me an exasperated look, which I completely ignored.  “You don’t understand what it’s like to grow up lycan-touched in a village this small.  No one wants to talk to me.  No one even wants me around them.  Parents threaten their children with bribing me to bite them when they act against their wishes!”  Her cat-like eyes were brimming with tears, and she choked down a sob before continuing.  “And the Counselor, he… he is a bad man, who hurts people.”

“Whelp, gonna go cut off some more bits from that guy in the morning.”  I tightened down the straps to my pack and grunted as I lifted it onto my back.  “Look, you aren’t the first person to try and follow me around.  You aren’t even the tenth person.  And you know what happens to every waif that tries to learn from the random traveling master that swings by and stirs up trouble?”  I opened the door and stepped out to head to my room.  “They always end up horribly scarred, maimed, or dead.  Not necessarily in that order.  You have good survival instincts, a roof over your head, and food to eat.  That’s more than you would have following me around.  Just do yourself a favor, and stay here.”

I left her fighting back tears, secure in the knowledge that keeping her from joining me was the better choice.  It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that everyone who joined me on my quest ended up physically worse off than they were before they met me.  Not all of them had died, but only a few had survived long enough to benefit from becoming someone like me.  Only five of the nineteen worlds I had been on before this one had a Judge left behind to successfully continue on the work, and none of them were fit for fighting in the field.

After making it through the thoroughly messed up common room, I matched the symbol on my key to the one on the door to my room.  I made sure to check it for bugs, and I was happily surprised not to see any.  There was a simple bed, a small table, and a chair.  Simple, but clean.

“Well, better get started.”  I dropped my pack on the ground and pulled out the silver crossbow bolts, along with the mold I had perfected back when I was trying to get my Runesmith Profession.  It was a large funnel attached to what looked like a miniature ice cube tray.  Only, instead of ice cubes, it made silver bullets.  It clicked together with easy familiarity, and I set it in the center of the small table on top of a ceramic plate so I didn’t damage the wood.  I held out my hand, palm facing downwards, and brought my ring finger down to my thumb, making sure to keep the other fingers perfectly straight, and said the activation word.  “Heat.”

After waiting for the metal funnel to turn cherry red, I dropped in three of the silver crossbow bolts.  They gradually softened, and melted into a puddle in the bottom of the funnel.  I used a piece of wire to scrape off a thin layer of impurities, then slid aside the lever that opened up the bottom of the funnel.  The liquid silver poured into the bullet mold, and I made sure all nine spaces were evenly topped off.

It only took a few minutes for the bullets to cool once I cut off the spell.  They popped out of the mold, and I inspected them for any imperfections.  After seeing the first batch was good to go, I repeated the process until I had melted down all of the crossbow bolts into an even fifty bullets.  With the amount of powder in the small keg, I would be set for a long time.

Reaching back into my pack I pulled out my wristband.  It was a contraption that had taken a lot of trial and error to get right, but it had been worth all the pain and powder burns.  To the unknowing observer, it looked like a thick leather bracelet with three black metal tubes that ran across the back of my hand.  Each tube was about three and a half inches long, with a diameter of about a fourth of an inch.  They rested between the knuckles of my hand, only sticking out about an eighth of an inch past my fingers when I made a fist.  A thin copper band stabilized the three tubes, and wrapped around the edges of my hand.

The contraption looked odd, and felt awkward at first, but it was more than worth it.  When I pulled on a pair of custom fingerless leather gloves, no one would even notice it beyond the very tips sticking out when I curled my fingers.

Loading it took some time, and was the worst problem I had with it.  There was no way to reload in the midst of a heated battle, and the accuracy was only good for about twenty feet.  It was also the best secret weapon a Judge could ask for.  A flicker of fire magic, and you could kill three enemies in as much time as it took to move your arm between targets.  It had saved my life dozens of times.

I had tried to make an actual firearm several times, but each attempt had failed miserably.  The only metal I had that could handle the forces involved was the same blessed star metal that I used to make my mace.  There was only enough of it to make the tubes, so after months of experiments, I had settled on what I could get.

After filling my new powder horn I measured out a load into each tube, dropped in a thin piece of parchment paper, and packed it all in place with the bullet.  I used a plug of wax to keep it dry, and then put everything away.

By now, the sky was already starting to lighten, and I needed at least a few hours of sleep before I left for the next town.  My goal was to reach a major city, and start learning what the serious injustices the people of this world were dealing with.  I had seen several examples of rural leaders abusing their power, but that was the same story the world over.  If things got too out of hand, the people would rise up and solve that problem on their own.  What I was looking for was the kind of thing that only someone with my capabilities could change.

Right off the bat, I had figured out one thing that needed fixing.  The stranglehold the various hunting guilds held over the people needed to change.  But before I went and started burning down buildings and such, I wanted to have at least a basic understanding of what the political landscape looked like.  And if the guilds were this bad, what else was going on?  I needed to find out, preferably without anyone important knowing I was a new player in their games of intrigue.  At least, until I wanted them to know.

I was self-aware enough to realize that I was a hammer, so to me every problem was a nail.  That wasn’t likely to change anytime soon.  What I had learned through several experiences in the past was that there was always more than one hammer out there, and I didn’t want to get crushed by hitting the wrong nail at the wrong time.  Knowing when to strike was just as important as knowing how to strike.

After settling down and propping the chair under the doorknob to stop potential intruders, I climbed into bed and closed my eyes.  Tomorrow was going to be another day out in the wilds, and I had no doubt I would need my rest.