When Jax, Liora, and Thalia returned to the Seared Tusk, Aiden could only imagine what he looked like.
Mouth hanging open.
Eyes unfocused.
The same math repeating in his head over and over again, as if the answer might somehow change if he stared hard enough at nothing.
Traveling with gear, ten miles was about the farthest a person could go on a good day. Coalhill was two hundred thirty miles away.
That meant twenty-three days of walking.
Twenty-three days.
And that was not even counting meals, beds, weather, monster encounters, sore feet, bad roads, or the possibility that Jax would say something annoying enough for Aiden to abandon him in a ditch.
"Dude," Jax said, hopping up beside him at the bar. "You okay?"
"It's going to take twenty-three days of constant walking to get to Coalhill," Aiden said in a half-dead wheeze.
Jax blinked at him.
"Dude, that's why we take a carriage heading that way. We would get there in, like, four days tops."
"Actually," Eustus said, in the least helpful tone imaginable, "there are no carriages headed for Coalhill for another month or so. A private carriage would cost around one hundred fifty gold per person. With your new member included, you would be in a deficit from your current quest by quite a bit."
Aiden stared at the countertop.
Jax stared at the countertop.
Liora stared at the countertop.
Together, they joined in a shared slack-jawed hopelessness.
Before Kaelen and Selene could return and join them in despair, Larz scowled at Eustus.
"Stop teasing them already. Don't forget I'm holding you to the deal."
Eustus winced slightly, as if he had been looking for any possible escape route and found them all blocked by a large polar bear.
He turned back to Aiden with the expression of a man handing over his own funeral expenses.
"Gather your party and your stuff, then meet me outside the city's main gate."
From the way he said it, Aiden would have assumed they had just stolen his yearly salary.
Jax and Aiden exchanged confused looks before heading outside to find Kaelen and Selene, who had gone back to the inn to grab the rest of Selene's things.
When the two returned, Kaelen was struggling with a medium-sized bag, shifting it from one shoulder to the other as if it had personally betrayed him.
He saw everyone gathered outside the tavern and frowned.
"How did you all get kicked out? Jax was gone for most of the time. There is no way he got drunk that quickly."
"No," Thalia said, her voice calm and matter-of-fact. "The bartender said we are to meet him outside the main gates. He did not specify why."
They all started in that direction.
Kaelen, despite carrying only one bag, was already sweating like he had run a full lap around the city.
"Aiden," he asked, "you have known him the longest. Any ideas?"
Aiden tried to think of what Eustus could be planning.
Nothing came to mind.
Eustus had always existed in very specific settings: behind the bar, near the bar, walking toward the bar, or complaining about something that cost money. The idea of him asking them to meet outside the city was strange enough that Aiden could not even make a decent guess.
When they reached the main gates, Eustus had not arrived yet, so they sat by the city walls and waited.
Jax explained the twenty-three-day walking problem to the others.
"By the time we get there, the quest will have expired!" Kaelen said, immediately starting to pace.
Liora sat cross-legged near the wall while Thalia stood beside them, looking down the road.
"Do vehicles travel through here often?" Thalia asked.
"Here and there," Aiden said, leaning back against the city wall. "But not constantly."
"Then why not try fuel hitching?"
Aiden looked up.
"What's that?"
"You offer to pay the fuel cost of someone already headed near your destination. They get a cheaper trip fuel-wise, and you get to your destination faster."
"I guess that could work," Aiden said. "We would just need to find someone headed toward Coalhill."
Thalia looked through the gate and pointed down the road.
"We are at the gate in the general direction, and there is a vehicle headed this way."
Aiden sat up, surprised.
He walked to where Thalia stood and followed her gaze.
Sure enough, a vehicle was coming down the road.
It was not one of the massive land trains people talked about, nor one of the bulky armored vehicles owned by experienced adventuring teams. It was smaller, around ten feet long, with a trailer behind it that doubled its total length.
Even so, it had clearly been modified.
The tires were rugged, with deep seams designed for mud and rough roads. The body was wrapped in a layer of armor that was not overly thick but still far more durable than what smaller vehicles usually had. Boxes attached to the sides hummed faintly with magical energy, and a small ballista-like device sat mounted on top.
The front of the vehicle had been adjusted too, as if someone had added parts to the engine and needed to reshape the hood around them.
But what drew Aiden's attention most was the trailer.
It was empty.
It would be a tight fit, but all six of them could ride on it.
As the vehicle came closer, Aiden turned to Thalia.
"So do we knock on the window as it passes? Hold up a hand sign? How do we let them know we are asking for this?"
Thalia did not answer.
She took one step back, lifted her hand, and a system notification appeared.
Temp Party Member Thalia has used the skill Mana Strings (E) to create 15 ft. of threads.
Soft, silk-like blue strings lowered from her fingertips, pooling near her hand until there was enough length to work with. She flexed her fingers, and the strings began moving as if alive. They bent, curled, and wiggled like snakes before forming words above her head.
Fuel ride?
Aiden almost did a double take.
Not only because the skill was impressive and made him wonder what it felt like to control strings like that, but also because he finally saw who was driving.
Eustus.
The elf gestured for them to move about thirty feet down the road. He pulled the vehicle around, parked it, and stepped out.
Jax, whose head height kept him from seeing the driver until the door opened, looked completely stunned.
"Since when have you had this?" Aiden asked.
He stared at the vehicle, which was old by modern standards but still very much a nice vehicle.
Eustus scratched the back of his head, looking like he would rather answer literally any other question.
After a moment, he gave a defeated sigh.
"Stoic always said you would become an adventurer when you got older," Eustus said. "So he insisted you needed a way to get around that wasn't on foot. We ended up going all the way to Duskpeak to pick this up from an old sand shark friend of your grandfather's. The friend had gotten an upgrade and was willing to sell it cheap. Then we got a few upgrades and drove it back."
Aiden blinked.
A memory surfaced.
He had been twelve when his grandfather said he was going on a trip. His mom and dad had left two days later, and Aiden had stayed with Peridot in the shop for a month and a half before his grandfather returned.
"I remember that," Aiden said slowly. "That was when Mom and Dad left for their inventing trip."
"Yep," Eustus said. "Stoic wanted to surprise you with it. But then your mom and dad ran off with his life savings, aside from the ten thousand we had already taken to buy the vehicle and upgrades. So he gave it to me to keep safe under one condition."
Aiden's mouth felt dry.
"What condition?"
"When you were set to go adventuring, I was supposed to give it to you."
For a moment, the words did not register.
Then Aiden was suddenly being shaken by several very excited teammates.
Even Thalia, who had been neutral and stoic almost the entire time they had known her, ran around the vehicle looking it over like a kid in a candy shop.
Eustus pulled Aiden aside while the others began loading their bags onto the trailer.
"I can't believe you managed to hide this thing for ten years," Aiden said, still in shock.
Eustus put a hand on his shoulder.
"Just make sure you use it to live out those lofty dreams of yours," he said. "And don't forget to stop by your hometown every now and then."
He gave Aiden a warm smile.
In his other hand was a set of keys.
Aiden stared at them.
Then he reached up and took them.
Or tried to.
Eustus did not let go.
His fingers were white from the effort of holding on. Aiden looked up and saw the elf biting his lip so hard it was almost bleeding.
"Uh," Aiden said. "Are you okay?"
"J-j-just a part of me wanting to keep it," Eustus said, voice strained like he was holding back a scream. "Just grab it quick."
Aiden followed his advice.
He yanked the keys free before Eustus could change his mind, then hurried toward the vehicle.
The others were already securing their supplies to the trailer.
Aiden opened the driver's door and climbed inside.
The interior was rugged and simple. The seats were basic, but sturdy. The controls looked like someone had designed them with the assumption that whoever used them would know what they were doing.
Aiden did not.
He looked down and saw three pedals.
Testing one made the engine rev.
Testing the other made the vehicle lurch slightly and stop.
Aiden froze.
Then he turned toward the others on the trailer.
"Anyone know what any of these gauges are?"
Everyone stared at him.
The side door opened, and Eustus leaned in.
"Small pedal makes it go faster. Large pedal makes it stop. The pedal on the side is the clutch."
Aiden nodded slowly, as if that explained anything.
It did not.
He would have liked to say Eustus explained the controls and everything clicked into place.
Instead, they spent the next three hours driving circles outside the city walls so Aiden could get the hang of it.
Several times, Eustus reached for the keys.
Several times, Aiden slapped his hand away.
Eustus was nice, but Aiden was starting to suspect the elf had a deep spiritual bond with ownership, especially when ownership could be measured in wheels, armor plating, and engine parts.
By the time they were done, Eustus was still in the passenger seat, arms and legs splayed out as Larz tried to pull him free by the back of his shirt.
"You are one hundred percent," Eustus said, clinging to the seat, "absolutely, without a doubt, completely positive you want this and don't want to let me keep it?"
Larz did not wait for Aiden to answer yes for the seventh time.
He finally pried Eustus loose and began carrying him back toward town.
With the front seat now open and a good five hours left before dark, Aiden sat behind the wheel and looked back at the city.
The walls were familiar.
Too familiar.
They were the kind of sight he had always assumed would be there when he came back down the mountain every other week. Something steady. Something normal.
Now he was leaving them behind for a while.
Not forever.
At least, he hoped not.
Thalia volunteered to handle the map and climbed into the passenger seat.
Aiden took a breath, put the vehicle into first gear, and started their first day of the four-day trip to Coalhill.