All good things inevitably came to an end. Such was the truth for Blackthorne, as he once again awoke as Scott back on Earth.

He yawned loudly then crawled out of bed. "Man, you'd think I would be better rested."

Curious, he decided to check his status. Scott's eyes roved the status window curiously, noting that it was the same as it had been back in the dream world. "Guess they meant that it would be tied to whatever it is over there, but I can't increase my stats and skills here..."

Until he reached level two, he had remained uncertain about the meaning of the message that he received previously in regards to his status on Earth. Now he knew that whatever his base stats in the dream would be, he would have them on Earth as well.

Scott grunted a little, however, when he thought of how he was forced to spend his points originally. "Guess those jerks just wanted to make me sweat a little for having the audacity needed to not follow their plans."

This sort of knowledge acquisition, it was why he returned to Earth earlier than previously planned. Scott checked his phone then frowned. "Eight hours until I have to be at work... Not a lot of time."

Skill training was out of the question on Earth, but he needed to test a few things to see what methods he might employ as a shortcut to power. So far, he had avoided using most of his skills while awake due to the fact that he could not grind for skill levels. Now that he knew that his stats and skills would carry over with each level gained, he was certain that it would not be a waste to use them!

He checked the current cost to change Jerin into dollars then frowned. "Really?"

The cost had increased to over sixty Jerin per dollar. All of the money earned so far from his hunts would barely cover one hundred dollars, especially with the transfer exchange fee. "What do they even base the exchange rate on? I should be the only one who can even do it..."

Instead of squandering his meager fortune first, he opted instead to head off to take care of early morning business. Once he finished taking care of his various calls of nature, Scott returned to his bedroom and snatched up a few grass bracelets that he brought with him due to their cheap transfer costs then headed into the living room. He snatched up a few random items out of the refrigerator and sat down on the couch.

First, the most important step. Would synergy work properly on Earth? Scott held up two carrots that had no business being in his refrigerator then nodded.

He tried to combine them with synergy, but to his great annoyance an error message appeared. "Function not yet implemented?"

Scott grumbled loudly for a moment then sighed. He took up two grass bracelets then tried to combine them. As usual, he combined them without issue.

"Guess I just can't combine items here yet.... probably aren't listed in whatever weird RPG item index they use..." Scott eyed the ring in his hand. It was a bit of simple garbage as an item. Better than most of his previous efforts, but that was due more to his recent increase in stats and skill ranks than any actual experience in the art of synergy.

Synergy was a fickle mistress. For the most part his favorite skill did whatever it wanted. Now and then, however, he could feel a certain special kinship with the item being created. He felt the possibilities of what it could become and his thoughts literally shifted the concept. Sonja's chainmail came from such a happy accident. Most of the time that special feeling did not occur. Perhaps it was merely luck, but he could not help but think that greater levels of skill would help tremendously.

"I can combine dream world items, not Earth items..." He considered his simple grass ring for a moment then eyed his carrot. "But how about...."

Scott attempted to combine his carrot with his grass ring. Initially, he thought nothing would happen as nothing indeed seemed to happen. However, just before he gave up on the process a trickle of warmth flew from his hands.

Sweat began to roll down his face as the trickle of energy kicked into high-gear. A burning torrent of energy raced between his hands as his life force fell rapidly. It was working, but it required considerably more life force than it should!

The ring and the carrot dispersed into motes of light then those motes of light flew to a central point between his hands. Scott began to pant heavily as a creeping sense of weakness stole across his body. Just how much life force was he expending to combine these items?

Once the light show died down a little orange chunk of something indefinable hovered in the air for a brief moment then dropped unceremoniously to the ground. "The hell?" asked Scott before he reached down to pick up the new item.

The item blurb that popped up made him chuckle. "Rabbit bait?"

It was a piece of carrot that could be used to bait herbivores, and had a special relationship with rabbits. They would be especially drawn to it. "Of all the things it could have made, if anything, it makes a chunk of rabbit bait..."

He had yet to see a rabbit in the dream world, but they were somewhat common in his area on Earth. Curious, he checked his status then groaned aloud. "Are you kidding me? Forty-eight life force for rabbit bait?"

It seemed that he could indeed combine Earth items with dream world items, but it would come at a high cost for very little gain.

Scott immediately had a thought. He stretched out on the couch then set himself to fall asleep. He awoke in the dream world as Blackthorne and looked around.

"Guess she already left?" Blackthorne stood up then went over to the sack of apples that he stored nearby. Sonja had been given an option earlier. Since he needed to go to work, she could come back to Earth or she could spend a day or two in the dream world. She opted to go hunt in the graveyard alone, as it would allow them to continue to earn materials and money. He, of course, assumed she also relished the idea of being on her own with a sword in her hand. Without him holding her back, she could cut loose perhaps.

He checked the cost to transfer the apples then muttered. "It's those fees that get ya!" Each apple had its own transaction fee. Admittedly, it was no surprise as the grass bracelets were the same. Even so, there were a lot of apples to take back.

Blackthorne chose to take only a dozen back with him, as he still needed to change money over from Jerin to dollars. As a last minute thought, he also took a left over sword with him. The good ones had either been sold or left with Sonja. This one was just a bit of synergy fodder that he intended to use later.

Back on Earth, Scott awoke with his transferred goods nearby. "Alright! Time to see what we can do with some of this..."

He headed off outside then went around to the back of the house. He briefly searched through a small pile of debris then grinned. "Here we go, some scrap copper from my retirement fund..."

Bright copper pipe was worth nearly two dollars per pound currently. He had a tendency to collect it whenever he could. Scott glanced at a small hole in skirt around his house and noted that no one had stolen his aluminum cans, either. While he had not bothered to do so recently, he used to travel up and down the road in search of cans. Fifty-two cents per pound most days was nothing to sneeze at! Of course, it wasn't really worth the effort once he got an actual job.

Once he made it back into the house, he propped his bit of copper pipe on the couch then headed to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. "Right then... test time!"

He took up the copper pipe and the cracked sword that he brought back with him in hand then set about trying to combine them. The process proved to be exhausting, but not as exhausting as the efforts made to combine the ring and the carrot. The cracked sword became a copper-inlaid iron dagger.

"Interesting..." Scott smiled at his simple little knife. There was a certain beauty to the dagger that most of his other creations lacked. Perhaps it was the attempt to combine different metals that caused the change? Most of his efforts involved combinations of steel and iron, after all.

"Twenty-nine life force... still a lot, but better than before." Scott put his dagger on his coffee table then contemplated his other idea. During his time in the dream world, he occasionally tried to combine various different substances. His skill levels proved to be too low for most of those tests at the time, and then he fell into the routine of grinding the same materials constantly due to monetary concerns. On Earth, there was no point in grinding skills. It cost more life force, but he could certainly spend the time testing different material combinations.

"It almost worked once before, but I haven't tried it since nearly the beginning of the whole dream thing..." Scott raised his apple and his bottle of water. Were his stats and skill ranks high enough to make it happen this time?

Before anything else, however, he decided to eat one of his apples. Did the healing properties of dream world food work on Earth?

Scott devoured the apple in his hand then checked his status. A delighted grin slipped across his lips. "Oh, yes..."

His enhanced vigor and draconic regeneration made good use of the mild life force restorative power of the apple. "So, that works.... Now the wait begins!"

A great deal of his life force was expended in his two tests so far. While it regenerated, he chose to head to his computer. What did he research? Was it stuff about the dream world? No. He did the one thing he hoped he might be able to do. Scott went to a bulk metal production company and checked out their wares.

"Yeah, what's that in Jerin?" he asked himself. "Shit... that's over eleven hundred Jerin for a small rod of high-grade spring steel... Probably another hundred forty for transfer fees."

High-grade steel of various iterations was out, especially due to the consideration that the rod of metal he found for sale online was the cheapest he saw listed. Most premium quality steel offerings would cost a lot more money. That did not mean they he couldn't buy lower quality materials and then combine them with basic stuff from the dream world. He could even get scrap metal parts cheap from one of several local junk yards, or even the flea market. Through synergy he could turn bulk piles of scrap garbage into lucrative base materials.

"Gonna have to see about getting some metal back in the dream world so I can combine scrap with it... Shit's gonna be expensive if I buy it." Scott idly rubbed his chin for a moment. "Wonder if there is any metal in that old abandoned mine. It probably links up with the cave I was in too..."

Scott continued to check the value of various types of metal. Copper was cheap in the dream world, but it still would cost more than the transfer and resell value would earn. The value of quality steel in the dream world was no doubt higher, but given the cost of transference fees and the purchase of materials, he would need to move tons of it in each shipment to earn a decent reward for his efforts.

He thought of a few items that he had seen in the shops back in Ardent. Gold and silver seemed to be worth something, but those metals were always seen in valuable accessories.

"Wait... How would my other skills work if the materials on Earth can't be synergized alone?" Scott sat up straight in his chair and tilted his head. "Jewelry crafting should make an item with stats, right? Wouldn't the people running this shit show be in violation of their own bullshit rules if it doesn't?"

Curious, he hopped up from his chain then went outside to locate some grass. He did not have proper materials to make jewelry otherwise, but he could do his old standby grass ring crafting!

Once outside he began root around in the grass in search of lengthy bits and pieces. While he did so, he noticed Shara walk out of her house.

"Morning!" she called happily to him.

"Morning!" he called back lightly.

Shara trotted over to him while he continued to search for grass. "Lose your keys, Scott?"

"What? No. I just wanted to test some of my skills out, but don't have anything to make jewelry with other than grass." Scott offered her a tired smile.

"Oh? You want to make jewelry?" She offered him a bright smile. "I'm flattered that you wish to craft my wedding ring by hand."

"Yeah, that's a no on the nuptials. I have to go to work in a few hours and don't have time to run up town. So, I'm going to make a few grass rings" He did actually have the time to do such, but it was a lengthy round trip and he did not want to tire himself out before he even went to work.

"I have plenty of real crafting stuff, if you want to try some," she offered him in a cutesy tone. She was seemingly unfazed by his complete shutdown of the wedding ring discussion.

Scott blinked slowly and stopped digging around for grass. "Wait, yeah... You love doing cosplay stuff..."

Shara nodded to him happily, her ponytail swaying back and forth to emphasize her excitement. Her demeanor shifted slightly in that moment and she became strangely serious. Her eyes locked with his. "So. Would you like to come over to my house, Scott?"

He started to say yes, but then noticed the odd look in her eyes. "W-why are you staring at me like that?"

She slowly tilted her head to the side, her eyes still locked with his. Her voice strangely serious, she asked, "How should I stare at you, Scott?"

"And the uh.... drooling?" he asked in a mildly disturbed tone of voice. It was best not to call the beautiful weirdo out on her creepy head movements. Nothing good ever came of that sort of admission in horror movies.

She giggled inanely and shook her head once more, her eyes still never leaving his. "I was thinking about a tasty cake..."

"Right..." Scott took an involuntary step back from the girl. "Are you sure there isn't a television show about this? To Catch a Predator, Cosplay Ninja Edition?"

"You're not a predator, Scott...." she said with a saucy wink. She stopped mid-wink, however. Her eyes widened.

"Well, actually you might be? Dragon and stuff, and such." She nodded her head as though she had come to a notable decision. Dragons were frequently carnivores after all, and thusly they were typically predatory in nature.

Before he could respond to her by mentioning she had the wrong predator in mind, she grabbed him by the arm and dragged him off toward her house laughing all the while. Her grip and pulling strength were surprisingly strong, but he could have pulled free of her grasp. He was certain of it. Well, mostly certain.