Rob X Punzel ~ Nineteen!

The odd pair hashed out their agreement over a subdued bout of haggling. Xander seemed reluctant to press too hard, as he simultaneously didn't quite believe she would be able to follow through, while also needing her to put in her best effort if he was going to get what he needed to achieve Perfection. 

“I get you the material you need, and if it works for increasing your skill level, I get to buy any items from you for personal use at cost plus ten percent.” Goldie looked down at the paper they’d been writing on to keep track of everything, “For your part, you'll swear to keep the material and the source a secret, only being allowed to inform others that you got it through perfectly legal means. You'll also make one item for me completely free of charge. That about sum everything up?”

“The escape clauses.” Xander tapped on the countertop between them. “If I can't make the item, or it would be a real hardship, I can opt out of making it. For your end, if you can't produce the material, all you need to do is tell me, and this entire deal is gone. You also can't tell anyone you were the source of my material.”

“That's easy enough. Oh… if I'm able to secure a larger supply of the material than you need, you can't come after me for the rest of it.” Both of them nodded at the supplementary clauses, then looked at each other. Goldie was the first to offer a hand, “I'm not going to die over this, or expect you to, but I can pinky swear to these terms. That work for you?”

Xander looked terribly hesitant. “I don't know, Goldie. All you need to do is give me one material, and I'm on the hook for the rest of my life. What if you start asking me for a ton of stuff? I don't want to suddenly just become a supply shop for you.”

“Oh. I hadn't even thought about that.” Goldie blinked and crossed out one of the lines, amending it slightly with, “How does this sound? I can request one item per year at the discounted rate, unless the one I'm using is damaged beyond usability. Otherwise, I have to pay full price for them. It has to be reasonable, and both of us agree to make reasonable demands on the other if… if…”

“Applicable.” Xander supplied the word she was searching for, and Goldie nodded in thanks. “Yes, I suppose that would cover most of my concerns. Frankly… there's not a lot I wouldn't do to unlock my next skill. Even so, are you sure about this? A pinky swear is not just a vague promise. If we don't uphold our ends of the agreements, we lose a finger. Not a good look for either of us.”

“I believe in myself. Plus, you were more than generous with the terms. If I can't do it, I'll let you know, and the promise is off.” Holding out her right hand, Goldie offered her pinky. Xander hesitated for another moment but finally reached out with his own digit and hooked it around hers.

There was a moment of silence as they bobbed their fingers up and down. As they were about to let go, the faint golden glow of system magic pulsed around their fingers and sealed the mutual minor oath, wrapping around their hands and trailing in place like a hot, deadly ribbon… before fading away as if it had never existed. Xander yanked his hand back as if he’d been burned, flexing his fingers as though testing to make sure they weren't about to fall off. “It's done. Let's hope neither of us does anything foolish.” 

Letting loose a laugh edged with nervous energy, Goldie nodded her head in agreement. “Wouldn't think of it. Now, one last question, what weapon are you going to use to test the material I'm going to bring you?”

“Is that relevant right now?” Xander was still clearly on edge from watching his hand be bound by system energy, but when Goldie only shrugged, he rolled his eyes and walked into the back room of his shop once more. After what felt like an eternity of the man rummaging through various crates of tools and weapons, he finally popped back into the front shop area with a finely crafted knife in hand. “Here you go, and no, you can't leave with it.”

Goldie simply quirked her lips into a smile as she examined the beautifully made weapon. Intricate etchings were inscribed along the handle, and the flat of the blade gleamed almost as brightly as the razor-sharp edge. “That's nice, Xander. Well, here we go!”

She brought the blade up to a thick lock of her hair, turning it and pressing the edge against the now-taut strand with the full expectation that it would glance off. The slashing immunity her hair had accumulated over the years had reached the Master rank, so when she pushed with all her strength, Goldie fully expected the knife to be stopped. 

Instead, it bit in. 

The strands resisted for a bare moment, but as her eyes went wide, the blade slid through. Staring down at the severed lock in disbelief, Goldie’s gaze switched over to the knife that still gleamed with a perfect edge, even as her hair began to float up and point at her angrily. “It actually cut through?”

“Uh… yes?” Xander didn't share her surprise. In fact, he looked somewhat affronted at the common usage she had decided on, even if her floating hair was somewhat distracting him. “This is a peak Masterwork blade. That’s hair. I’m not sure why you're so surprised, but-”

“Peak Master rank.” Goldie repeated in a hushed tone as her eyes narrowed in understanding. “That makes sense. Then I'll need something that can resist even that… Perfect rank should do it, right? Only one way to make that happen. Xander, do you by chance have a large bathtub I can get fully submerged in?”

“By the system, what sort of fool have I been taken for?” The shopkeeper let out a heavy sigh, putting his face in his hands. “Just back out, if this is the extent of the efforts you're going to put in to get free things from me. I thought you were going to break into a shop closer to the Noble district and snatch some goods for me.”

“Come on, you've gone this far. Bathtub?”

Goldie’s playful words brought Xander's glare up to meet her eyes, and the forgemaster’s expression tightened as he subtly moved his head in refusal and pointed out the door. “If you want to go to a bathhouse, there's a public one a ten minute walk down the curve of main street.”

“I don't need a bath, per se, I just need to be fully submerged in water for… four minutes,” Goldie explained after double checking the final requirement of her skill. “Can you please spare four more minutes?” 

“I have a quenching barrel in the shop, but there's no tub on the premises.” Xander resolutely stated in a flat tone. “Frankly, I think we're done here. Unless you want me to drown you in that barrel-” 

“Close!” Goldie cheerfully called out, already moving to cross the counter and entering the workshop where he had indicated. “What I actually need is for you to make sure it's all the way full and that I can't get out of there until the time has passed.”

Xander inspected her as she waited patiently by the closed door deeper into the workshop, and he gently rolled a blade around in his palm that she hadn't seen him holding moments before. “Context is telling me this is a skill requirement… or I would not even think of indulging you. It sounds like you're trying to set me up, frame me for a murder in my own shop. Do you know how to swim? Have you ever been fully underwater before?”

“I'm not trying to do you harm, and no to your other questions.” Goldie showed him a resigned expression. “I have a very good reason for doing this, and it's going to lead to you getting your skill increased. Give me four measly little minutes?”

“She comes into my shop, wants weapons on the cheap, and as soon as she realizes it's going to be difficult to get them… she wants me to drown her.” Xander averted his gaze, his head moving in a small, quiet rejection before staring at her as though she’d lost her mind. “Why not? Either way, I'm going to have to toss you out afterward.”

He directed her over to a large quenching barrel, which stood waist-high on the young woman. At her insistence, Xander pulled on a lever on the wall, and water rushed into the barrel until it was nearly full to the brim. Then Goldie got up on the edge of it, shivering slightly at the cool temperature of the liquid, and sank in until she was up to her shoulders.

“How, um, how are you going to handle this?” Xander waved at her hair, which had ballooned out and was pointing in aggrieved accusation at the young woman. “Pretty sure you're not going to get all of that in the barrel with you.”

“Watch me. Now, no matter how I struggle in there, don't let me out until the time has passed. I'm just going to be panicking because I can't breathe.” She gave the man a thumbs up even as he hesitated further, then dunked her head below the water. Immediately, all of her hair shot into the barrel, bringing a large amount of air with it and wrapping around her head. 

Goldie felt herself get pressed slightly deeper as Xander put the cover over the barrel, pressing down until water flowed up and out to show it was fully sealed. She took slow, even breaths. “Okay… this isn't so bad. Everything is fine, I've got air, and the water’s decently warm now that I've gotten used to it. Just need to stay calm for the next few minutes.”

The first minute passed without issue, though the closeness of the barrel and the hair-lit interior of the cramped space started to wear on her quickly. As the seconds ticked by, ever closer to the three-minute mark, her breathing became more shallow as her heart rate increased. Water began seeping through her hair, lapping against her cheeks as the thick barrier began failing. Without knowing exactly how much time had passed, Goldie had to make her best guess at when the skill was going to fail. She took in a long, deep breath just as the bubble of hair collapsed, and water rushed in. 

Luckily, she managed to close her mouth just before water splashed against her lips, and Goldie tried to hold perfectly still so her muscles didn't burn through additional air. As her eyes were covered, she instinctively jerked to the side, hands slamming against the side of the barrel. She expected the cover to come off, but the shopkeeper was holding her to her instructions—he wasn't going to open the barrel, no matter what. 

The young woman glared up, annoyed for a moment that he was so abyssal good at following directions, then turned her attention inward and tried to remain as still as possible. The seconds creeped past, and her lungs began to burn with the desire to suck in a breath of fresh air. It had to have been more than a minute since she ran out of air, didn't it? Goldie's eyes popped open as she realized the weapon maker may have decided it was more prudent to simply get rid of her. She was a thief, and he could swear to that fact if guards even bothered to come and investigate him.

Her vision began to tunnel, darkness creeping in at the edges. Just as she thought she couldn't hold on any longer… the entire enclosed space lit up with a surge of brilliant, pearlescent light. It swept through the water, emanating from her left arm like an ethereal flame. A wave of warmth filled her mind, pushing back the terror, though not eradicating it.

At that moment, the lid of the barrel was tossed to the side, and two strong hands clamped around her shoulders and dragged her into the open. As Goldie coughed, Xander stared into her face, his expression a mask of alarm and absolute astonishment. “What the abyss just happened? Was that light what I thought it was? Here I am talking about maybe reaching Perfection with your help, and you are actually doing it with mine?”

Goldie gasped for air as she leaned against the barrel, water dripping from her hair for a few moments before simply vanishing, her skills coming into play and rapidly drying the golden curls perfectly. The rest of her stayed unpleasantly moist. She held up a hand, trying to wave him off long enough to swipe a finger on her arm to ensure she had succeeded.

Skill increase! Dreadful Locks [Level 9 (Master) → Level 10 (Perfect)]!

This skill has reached Perfection.

You have earned access to your Advanced Class Breakthrough Skill. Touch a Class Shrine to activate it!

“Okay… that should do it. I just need to use this knife for a little bit longer.” Goldie reached into her hair, pulling out the Masterwork knife Xander had taken back a few minutes earlier, leaving the blacksmith sputtering in indignation as she began hacking large chunks of her hair off. 

“When did you grab that for me? Wait a moment… did you steal anything else from my shop? If you steal from me, we're going to have some real problems. Nothing in our deal says I can't throw you to the guards or just cut their worth out of your hide!”

“Not stealing from you,” the thief murmured as she breathed deep breaths and thought happy thoughts while chopping through the immense mane of hair she had grown over the last few years, “Just needed to borrow this for a few minutes.”

Though her hair tried to avoid her grip, Goldie didn't allow it to do so. With each slash of her ‘borrowed’ dagger, she cut off a small chunk of hair, only to come back in the opposite direction and take off yet another piece. After only a few minutes, she was left with only twice her body length in hair, glumly thinking about how much less range she would have with the minor telekinesis. “Going to be a lean few months until this is all grown back…” 

The cutting continued, piece by piece removing her hair, until finally her arm tickled slightly with an update from the system. Knowing what it would likely say, she simply tried chopping through her hair once more, only for the blade to be completely stymied. “There we go.”

Then, once more shocking Xander, she began gathering up all of her removed hair and throwing it into the embers of his forge. Immediately, the fire roared up and consumed every strand it was fed. He watched on for a long moment, looking at her with great wariness as she turned and showed him a bright smile. “Might I borrow a magical blade from you? This knife isn't able to cut through what I want to cut anymore.”

He took the offered blade numbly, then motioned for her to hold out one of the twisting locks. Xander pressed the edge of his blade against a single long strand, and leaned into his knife, attempting to cut through it. Blinking in surprise, he pressed harder, then put every bit of his muscle behind the attempt. Still, the hair did not part.

“That's not a resistance… your hair is now immune to-?”

“I can neither confirm nor deny any questions about my hair,” Goldie immediately and loudly spoke over the man, her eyes going wide with fear. To his credit, Xander simply slowly nodded in understanding, then gripped the single strand he’d been trying to cut through. “May I?”

“Go for it,” she stated, already knowing what he was going to do. The man gave her hair a sharp tug, and it broke instantly.

“Fascinating. Don't answer, but I'd assume this is now Perfectly immune to slashing damage. Huh. No wonder you put in those strange stipulations in our deal. Then again, I suppose they were only strange to me.” Shrugging slightly, he began collecting strands of hair off her head. “I believe this will fulfill the requirements of my skill, but the only way to know for certain is to use it in my craft. If so… I can think of an endless amount of options to use this for. Goldie…”

The man smiled brightly, his eyes flashing with excitement as he thought of his future creations. “I think you and I are going to be very good friends.”