Gods, I wanted a home in an Essence Wellspring. The ease of cultivation in one was just phenomenal. I managed to completely clear my Lung Meridian before settling into bed. I could draw in Essence thirty percent faster now, which would make refilling my Ki pool that much faster. It also gave me a thirty percent resistance to airborne toxins and gave me an extra six points to my Endurance Attribute. My Endurance was now my highest stat, sitting at a nice twenty-five.

Each breath I drew in felt deeper, like I was drawing air all the way to my core. I was more alert, more energetic. I could run flat out for nearly two hours before my stamina pool would bottom out. That would be over thirty miles on foot.

As energized as my body felt, my mind was incredibly weary. All the focus from crafting, formations, and cultivating left me mentally wiped. I turned in shortly after I finished and slept until morning.

Once everyone was awake, I decided it was time to do what I had been meaning to do since we got together. I needed to enhance the Leather Armor we were all wearing, well except for Magnus. He picked up already enhanced armor from the System Market Place when we first met.

“Cody, Rowan, I’m going to need your armor for a little while. I need to enhance them with a Formation,” I said as I laid my armor out on my Formations table.

“Sure, just a sec,” Cody said. He was just about to put his armor on for the day when I spoke. He pulled each piece out of his storage ring and made a pile on my table.

As Rowan did the same, I remembered his work at crafting the previous night. “How’s the enchanting bit going?”

“It’s going fine. For a lot of the enchantments, I can just inscribe the Sigils and lay out the mana lines. But on others… well, I’m going to need to use some special ingredients. I can’t add an element I don’t control unless I have an item that does. Like those fire Essence, mana crystals. I can kinda make neutral enchantments, ones without any element like increasing the stats of an item, though,” Rowan replied.

“What Materials?” I asked.

“Well, if we come across a magic beast with a special ability that we want to copy, taking their heart or other component can help. There are magic materials that should start appearing that can be used too. I’ll just have to keep an eye out for magically enhanced materials.”

I nodded my head in thanks and turned to work out the best design I could for our armor. I pulled up the Stats for the Demon Boar armor I was wearing and the set the kids wore.

Demon boar leather armor set (b5)

Quality: Above Average

Rarity: Common

Durability: 73/77

Defense: 16

Weight: 10lbs

Traits: Material bonus: +2 strength, +2 Constitution

Basic leather armor

Quality: Average

Rarity: Common

Durability: 24/30

Defense: 12/15

Weight: 15lbs

Traits: Demon boar Leather B3 (+2 Con)

Cody and Rowan’s Armor weren’t as good as mine was, and they were more damaged. Hopefully, once Cody got the hang of his new leatherworking skill, he could do some repairs.

With the bonus from the forge, I could put up to three Bindings on my Armor, but only two on the others. The Protection Binding would increase the Durability and Defense of the Base Armor and wouldn’t require any Ki for ongoing use. It was a more Passive Binding. The Shield Binding instead created a force-field out of Ki that worked better for stopping energy-based attacks, but it burned through Ki to create the effect.

I could put in a Storage Socket and the Shield Binding, but without one more Binding slot, Magnus or I would have to refill it after each use. But if I just used the Protection Binding, it would waste a slot. Since I wasn’t the one wearing them, I decided I would ask Cody and Rowan.

“Hey, I have two options for improving your guys’ armor. Neither is Ideal since they are both average quality. I can put a single Protection binding that will improve the defense and durability of the armor itself, but that leaves one slot unused.” The two nodded, and I continued.

“Or I can use the Shield Binding, which projects a barrier that does more to protect you from energy-based attacks. It requires Ki to activate so I would have to put in a Ki storage Binding to make it worthwhile. The problem is, I won’t have enough slots to put in the Ki Condenser, so it won’t refill itself. You will have to rely on Magnus or I to refill it whenever it gets used, or spirit beast cores.”

They both looked thoughtful as they considered the options I presented to them. Cody was the first to answer. “With my increased Faith Rank, I can use my Armor three times a day now, for thirty minutes each, and I can use one of my Divine charges to activate it again. It does really well against energy attacks, so just do the basic protection one.”

I nodded to him in thanks and looked at Rowan.

“I think basic protection is fine. I picked up an unenchanted robe from the Marketplace and am planning on enchanting it for my protection. I’m pretty sure I can wear it over the armor, so don’t worry about the Shield part,” Rowan finally said.

“Ok, two basic Protection Bindings coming up,” I said and set to work.

Since each piece of Armor was separate from the others, it presented a different challenge than the other items I enhanced. Fortunately, the book I had covered this problem. I didn’t have to enhance each item separately, there was a minor binding that didn’t count against the total number of bindings. It was a simple knot that bound each piece to its corresponding knot on the centerpiece. As long as the Ki channels in each piece started and ended in that piece, and each the Chest piece equipped, the Ki would flow to the rest and strengthen them.

It took me close to half an hour to inscribe the Ki channels and the Protection Binding, and fifty Ki to activate it. But once I activated it, the result surprised me. The tears, cuts and holes in the Armor flowed together and sealed themselves up. It looked like it was brand new; it didn’t even smell any more. I pulled up the new stats on the armor.

Enhanced leather armor

Quality: Average

Rarity: Common

Durability: 42

Defense: 21

Weight: 15lbs

Traits: Demon boar Leather B3 (+2 Con)

Ki Binding: Protection +40% defense, +40% Durability

With no more durability loss, the end defense was almost double the effective defense from before. And the higher durability will make sure the defense bonus would go down slower as it eventually got damaged. If only there was a Mending Binding or a Cleansing Binding available back in town. Maybe in the future I can gain those.

I gave the armor back to its owners, and they seemed pleased with the results. It was time to do mine. I was going to give myself the same Protection Binding, but also include the Shield Binding and the Storage Socket. I can refill my armor whenever I took a break, or just transfer Ki from the battery to the armor as needed, I thought.

Demon boar leather armor set (b5)

Quality: Above Average

Rarity: Common

Durability: 108/108

Defense: 22

Weight: 10lbs

Traits: Material bonus: +2 strength, +2 Constitution

Ki Binding: Protection +40% defense, +40% durability. Storage Socket

Shield: Provides 20 Defense barrier, +50% vs Energy attacks. Cost 20 Ki /five minutes

Ki Pool: 0/75

It felt a lot better, having finally improved our armor. It was nice that it was clean and mended too, probably for the last time in quite a while. I took a few minutes to refill my Ki pool after putting my armor back on. I took a moment to look over my core stats.

John Baker c49

Sapient (Human)

Cultivation Rank: Body 6

Health points: 100/100

Health regeneration: 20/day

Stamina: 325/325

Stamina Regeneration: 25/minute

Ki: 200/200

Defense: 42 (16 Leather Armor, 20 Natural armor)

Debuffs:

Strength 23

Dexterity 19

Agility 19

Constitution 20

Endurance 25

Intelligence 23

Wisdom 22

I looked on in quiet awe. Not a single one of my stats was in the normal human range any more. My Agility and Dexterity were only one point higher than the pre-apocalypse human maximum. Even without using Ki to enhance my abilities, not even cycling my Ki through any Meridian, I could out perform any normal human that existed before the end of the world.

What does it mean to be human anymore? I’m not even out of the body cultivation stage yet. I had one more attribute: increasing Meridian left and one that improved my health and immune system. After each Meridian is open, I still have to go through the five stages of increasing my Lower Dantian’s size to access my Middle Dantian. Each of those stages will give me two attributes to spend where I wanted. I could be considered a B ranked super hero now. Not like superman or anything, but like Captain America, but with Ki… I guess. The comparison falls flat here, doesn’t it?

What does it mean to be human, when normal human limitations no longer apply? I sleep less, eat less. With these stats, I’ll probably age slower too. What will my new life expectancy be, if the apocalypse doesn’t kill me first, anyway?

I looked over my stats and did the math with my new movement speed and stamina reserves. If I left everyone and everything behind, and just ran straight home… it would only take me about a day and a half… I shook my head at that intrusive thought. How would I live with myself if I just abandoned everyone?

How would you live with yourself if you got home and found your wife dead? Your son?

My gut clenched hard at that thought. A black miasma of pain and misery tried to sweep through my mind. I took a deep breath and forced it all down and away. I had to get home as fast as I could, but I had to do it right. If I failed, if they weren’t among the living… well, I would meet them again… one way or another.

“Let’s make like Autobots… and roll out,” I declared. Firmly pushing all the intrusive thoughts away and focusing on the here and now. I knew it wasn’t the healthiest way to manage, but it would do for now.

We closed up the shop fully equipped without newly enhanced gear. “By the way, did you manage to enchant anything last night?” I asked Rowan.

Rowan pulled out three carved wooden wands and held them up for me to see. They seemed to be made of pine, but magically charged. Two were plain wood, while the other had a tip formed from a red crystal that seemed to be fused with the wood itself.

Name: Wand of Arcane Missile

Quality: Above Average

Rarity: Uncommon

Durability: 20/20

Damage: 57

Range: 100 ft

Charges: 10/10

Charge Refill Cost: 114 Mana

Weight: 8 oz

Magic effects: launches a missile of Arcane energy in a straight-line dealing damage on impact.

Trigger: speak command word while holding wand.

Command word – Arcane Missile

Name: Wand of Fire Bolt

Quality: Above Average

Rarity: Uncommon

Durability: 20/20

Damage: 85

Range: 100 ft

Charges: 10/10

Charge Refill Cost: 175 Mana

Weight: 12 oz

Magic effects: launches a Ball of compressed fire in a straight line dealing sixty damage on impact, may cause Burn effect.

Trigger: speak command word while holding wand.

Command word – Fire Bolt

Name: Arcane Focus

Quality: Above Average

Rarity: Uncommon

Durability: 20/20

Charges: 10/10

Charge Refill Cost: 50 Mana

Weight: 8 oz

Traits: Reduce Mana cost for Spells channeled through Arcane Focus by 21%, Increase Accuracy of Ranged Spells cast through Arcane Focus by 21%

Magic Effects: Spell Penetration- Ignore 20 points of Defense per Charge used.

“I managed to make these three wands. This one,” Rowan said, holding up his Arcane Focus, “Makes my spells cheaper to cast, and like the longer barrel of a gun, it can improve my accuracy. Most of that was using Mana attuned to the Arcane spell school to infuse the material. The actual enchantment helps against armored monsters. It can ignore twenty of their defense. I couldn’t get any more out of it, since the wood wasn’t special. I got the idea for this one from my Summoner’s Staff.”

Rowan held up the Wand of Arcane Missile. “This one was the first I made, mostly as a test run. It came out pretty good. The charges are expensive to refill, but anyone who knows the command word can actually use it. Though that means you have to say the command word for it to fire.” He finished with a blush.

I understood the embarrassment. Having to call out the name of your attack was some Dragon Ball Z level shit. I couldn’t say anything about it, though. For one, I was as guilty as any other guy that watched the anime. I tried the Kamehameha and other bits of nonsense for fun. For the other, I didn’t know the requirements to make the wand usable by anyone. All my active effects required me to activate with my Ki control or it activates automatically like the Shield Binding.

Rowan held up the final wand, the one with the crystal growing out of the tip. “This one I used one of the Fire Essence Mana crystals on. It provided the Fire attunement I needed for the fire bolt enchantment. It also increased the damage output and reduced the mana I needed to invest to create the enchantment. It’s even more expensive to recharge, but the effect is powerful.”

“You did an amazing job with these. You can keep bringing the pain even if you run out of Mana in a fight. Then just recharge them after. The crafting materials we got from the Dungeon were really something. The Embersteel made this axe powerful.” I said as I pulled Dragon’s Fang off of my belt loop.

“Dude, that is sic,” Magnus said.

I let him hold it for a bit. Magnus poured over the weapon and pulled up its stats.

“Dude, after we camp tonight, can I get some of that Embersteel? I want to see what it can do for armor, and maybe have you teach me how to put Bindings in?”

“Sure, no problem. The more we all know, the better off we will be,” I answered.

Once we were all done congratulating Rowan on his progress as an enchanter. I gave Rukia one of the rank four Spirit Beast Cores with the water element. She must have been close to advancing already, her body glowed an icy blue through her coat and she grew a few more inches taller in the shoulder. I pulled up her Base stats through my interface.

Rukia

Cultivation Rank: Body 6

Health points: 110/110

Health points Regen: 22/day

Stam: 250/250

Stam Regen: 25/minute

Ki: 200/200

Ki Refill rate: 5 (15)/min active, 9 (27)/hour passive

Str 22

Dex 19

Agi 27

Con 22

Stam 25

Int 7

Wis 10

Defense: 32

Ice resistance: 50%

Bite: 31

All of Rukia’s physical stats went up by one as usual, but at reaching Body Rank six, her intelligence rose by one. The mental stats only seemed to go up every other body rank, alternating between Intelligence and Wisdom. She was getting smarter and more aware as time moved on and she grew stronger.

“Who’s a good girl?” I said, as I gave her a good rub and scratching. It made my heart lighter seeing how she developed, growing in intelligence, but still staying the sweet girl she was when I first got her as a wee little pup.

By the time I was finished giving Rukia loves, Rowan already mounted Slate, and everyone seemed ready to move out.