Fungus and vines are glowing lightly, not too harsh on the eyes but just enough light to see; perfect for waking up compared to sunlight. The cold, cracked ground of the temple on the other hand made my body all stiff, but it is still far better than sleeping on a cage, I even used Skelones old cloak as a pillow.

There is an itch on my chin, I scratch it with my left arm but... I don’t have one. How long will I keep doing it? At least Skelones said there are mechanical arms I can use in the world.

Speaking of it, last night we spent quite some time talking about how to prepare ourselves, take off Mazurka's cuffs and the best route to get into Kavros.

Turns out that cave full of mantises has a passage leading close to the city. The Mantises and other bugs there will surely give us a hard time but they will be far better than finding a platoon of full armored bucketheads or more mercenaries.

As for Mazurka's cuffs, Skelones said there is someone in the city capable of doing that.

For our preparation, Skelones insisted I use his old metal parts to make something for me, as he is not going to be able to use them for a long time. It feels weird using his old body to make armor but he said they were more like clothes to him and you give clothes to someone else when it doesn’t fit you anymore.

Luckily for me, Skelones glove of alteration survived the fight along with his cloak, both of them must be made of some good material. Yet, even with it, shaping the alloy of his parts is hard as its not pure copper. First of all, I will be needing mana. Using a small part of the alloys available I got some Myhrite rings done. I make 10 this time, 2 for me and 4 for Mazu and Morgus. Of course, I have to put them all on the same hand, so I decided to make 2 rings using one myhrite gem in the middle surrounded by the small pieces of a shattered gem of the same size. The result is 2 rings of 50 charges each.

“Those are pretty handy huh?” Says Mazurka.

“They are… Well, could you guys charge them for me? I will be needing mana to work.” I say.

“Yup, count me on!” Mazurka says.

After getting the charged rings, I worked on the metal, making crude-looking pieces of armor that offered some protection. At least the quality of the alloy used is as good as steel…

One arm guard; shoulder pads; cuisses, protecting the thigs; greaves, protecting the legs; sandals for the feet; cuirass covering the torso, and a skirt below it covering the hips. All in all, the armor set is some kind of a mix between medieval and greek style. I got most of my body covered this time, but there is a lot of room for improvement, if I were to study some well-made armors the result would be far better.

And all that is left to do now is… the mask. The Amber alloy shines a color that remembers me of a sunset… and finding help in a harsh world. Skelones mask was part of his identity and he chooses to pass it to me, I can’t help but feel like Robson when he took the mantle of Bat-person on that old comic I used to read.

To make it wearable, I use the remaining metal from his head to make a helm with the mask at the front. I take some extra time into making it as I don’t want this to look as crude as the rest of the armor.

It took me lots of hours to do it with only one hand, but it was worth the time. I take a break to eat my part of the vegetables before I get to more item making.

"That armor looks pretty intimidating, especially with the mask. I like it." Mazurka says.

"Thanks. I can do something for you guys too, there was some bronze in the loot, enough for some daggers, short swords… oh, there is something I invented before, I may be able to replicate it, hold on..." I say.

I get the wands we made on the woods, bronze, and gems to replicate my previous arcane pistol. This time I take the chance to do some improvements such as the ability to remove both the gem and the wand to allow different enchantments do be used and quick reloading, switching the used gem for a full one.

Artifact: Wand Pistol 1.0 Description: The evolution of the Arcane Pistol Prototype. This version is now capable of changing the wand for versatility and switching the gem for extra charges. Charge: 0/25

That turned out well. I made two as Morgus won’t be needing one.

"Wow… This is actually a solid idea. Kinda reminds me of a crossbow, but without the bow… Crosswand?” Mazurka says after seeing me testing one.

"I call it Wand Pistol. Here, let me show you how to use it" I say

Giving one to Mazurka, I guide her hands with my own to show her the best way to hold it. “You will have a better aim if you use your left hand to support it, like this…” I say, giving my best to show her despite my lack of a left hand. Taking into account the smile on her face, I would say she liked my invention.

There is still much work to be done before we can leave. First, we need to organize the loot we got from the dead soldiers and decide who will get what. To help with that, I create an entry in the Items menu for my companions, its far faster if I can note it with a simple thought than it would be to write it down on a paper, even if we had one.

Mazurka:

◇Boots of Reduced Noise

◇Staff of Ice

Morgus:

◇Bracelet of Showing Time

◇Amulet of Increased Aiming

Kali:

◇Hood of Attraction

◇Short Sword of Electricity (bronze)

No one: ◇Short Sword of sharpness (steel)

All in all, we are good I think. The Staff of Ice goes to Mazurka as her cuffs were made to block her magic and mana, while Morgus got the Amulet of Increased Aiming to improve his spells. The two will cover long-range and as I have the armor, I will take the frontline if needed with the short sword of electricity. The Hood of Attraction is just a black hood that attaches to the user's head, not falling out with the wind and stuff like that. I took it just to look cool and get some sort of reaper vibe with the hooded skull mask.

The short sword is actually useful, but of course I am going to try and improve it further. Using a piece of leftover metal from Skelones old body, I inscribe the sword with the Arcane rune, which started combining on its own with the Electricity rune already on the weapon.

Artifact: Short Sword of Arcane Lightning (bronze) Description: The electricity and arcane runes work together to make an aura of arcane lightning around the weapon. The bronze is an optimal conductor for electricity. Charge: 0/25

The blade works just like the scan says, an electric aura forms on it when activated and upon contact, the target gets fried up from both Arcane and Electricity, as did the poor plant I used to test it. In contrast with the staff, the charge consumption of this weapon is based on how much time I keep it on. If I activate it, I can’t turn it off immediately so I will have to be careful with my resources when using this.

Our preparations are all set, we are almost ready to go. Mazurka helped me equipping my armor, and Morgus got to charge some Artifacts as he can use his mana to do it faster.

"I am sorry but those rags… they really don’t work well on you. Let’s buy something nice for ourselves when we get to the city" Mazu says.

"Tell me about it… " I say

"Food would be nice." Morgus says

"We should go now, I will guide you on the way but please be careful, the red mantises are a pain in the ass." Skelones says

"There are red ones? I only met green and blue." I say

"Oh yes, but they are rarer because they eat each other." Skelones says

"Fantastic." Mazurka says

And off we go, into the ruined corridor that leads to the Mantises home. The bioluminescence of the vegetation reveals big and small insects crackling around, making me unsettling; some things are best left unknown, in the dark.

Mantises look at us from the holes in the cave walls, not trying to approach, defying my expectations. "Odd, they used to attack me at the first opportunity." I say

"They usually only attack when hunting, they also prefer lone prey, so unless they have big numbers we should be safe." Says Skelones, his core rests on my hand as we explore the mantises caves, this way he can guide our way and the faint light that comes from it is useful as well. I wouldn't be comfortable having him anywhere else, really, even with him saying his core is almost indestructible.

"There should be an entrance right here... look for some old red stones similar to the ones from the abandoned temple." Skelones says.

"Here." Morgus says, pointing to barely visible bricks on the floor that reminds me of an old road.

"Yes, this is the way." Skelones confirms.

We follow the path cautiously until it leads us to a tunnel made of bricks and full of moss. I extend my hand to it, touching the humid, cold lichen which indicates there may be some water stream around here, even if a small amount. The inside of the tunnel is full of marks on the bricks, who knows what kind of secrets are written on these walls?

The tunnel is darker as there are less luminous plants inside, so we rely more on the light from Skelones core and Morgus night vision.

"Wait, did you hear that?" Mazurka says. I didn't hear a thing, I hope she is just joking around...

But my hope is extinguished like a candle on a windy night as I start to hear crackling sounds from both directions of the tunnel...

"Blue mantises, on both sides." Morgus says.

Being hunters, they probably waited for us to get inside somewhere they could ambush. It's alright, I fought one before, and even if they are in a group, so are we.

I give Skelones core to Mazurka, take off my short sword, and position myself on the back to hold the creatures while Morgus took the front with Mazurka in the middle.

A low humming sound fills the tunnel, a quick look back showed me that Morgus was casting some spell, little spikes forming on the ceiling and walls. As much as my curiosity instills me to keep looking at it, I have to focus on the approaching mantises right in front of me, I can't joke around with these bugs, especially since I don't have my left arm like last time. The big blue insect with sharp claws came at me, Mazurka was quicker and shoot it using her Wand Pistol, firing blue bolts of Arcane energy that burned the Mantis carapace, causing it to squirm in pain. A second Mantis pushed the wounded one aside and rushed at me, from my experience, it is going to slash with its right claw first, which presents a problem: If I dodge, Mazurka will take the blow, so I have to try cutting the claw at the right time before it reaches terminal velocity or it will be too risky. I dash to the monster as it starts preparing the attack and I activate the sword aura, cutting off the claw of the monster and stunning it with the electrical discharge. Mazurka takes the chance to shoot at the creature's neck twice, killing it quickly and giving me space to evade the claw from the other mantis. The Lack of range the short sword has is a real issue, but the damage it gets from the aura makes it a worthy weapon after all. Mazurka shoots at the bug to keep it at bay while I get close enough to stab the sword on its abdomen. The aura allows the blade to perforate the carapace, shocking it with the electricity as well and finishing it.

Having finished with my side, I look over at Morgus to see how he is doing, only to meet four corpses of blue mantises full of dark spikes stabbing them. Gosh, it took me and Mazurka to fight two of them while the guy easily disposed of four... Good to have him with us, I guess. But something is off... If he is so strong, how was he captured? Mazurka got her magic sealed for resisting the Aesirite but they didn't do that to Morgus, so they either took him off-guard or there is something he is not telling... But that is probably my paranoid mind playing me.

"We should keep going, there are holes on the walls that the mantises use as a shortcut, more of them will arrive if we stay here." Mr. Skelones says.

"Right... Yeah, sure, let's go" I say. I had my head in the clouds for a moment, thinking too much is occasionally an issue. I remember a psychologist saying that my accelerated thinking goes hand to hand with my anxiety.

"I saw what you did there, saving me. I just wanted to thank you." Mazurka says, smiling at me with a peaceful look. How can she be calm like that? I am sweating cold after fighting those two...

"That is good teamwork, I wouldn't be able to pull ta off alone." I say to her, cleaning the sweat from my forehead, only to stain it with the pale yellow blood of the mantis. "Shit." I say

"Here, let me clean it, we have some torn cloth from the loot." She says, approaching me and cleaning the insect blood from it.

Even after all that we went through, it still feels weird for someone else to touch me. I almost grab the piece of cloth from her hand to clean it myself but I resist that, as it would be rude, she is just trying to help and I can't always let my anxiety run my life for me, I need to take control of my life.

After we finish cleaning off the insect blood, we stride again through the tunnel, Skelones says it won't be a short walk, it may take us three days to get there so we best hurry until we get to a safe place to rest.