With my new equipment made, it was time to make new cores. I knew that asking Sam questions was necessary so that I’d know what was going on. However, I also knew that if I wanted to ever find a way to level, I would have to find people. To do that, I would have to travel, and that worried me. While it had been peaceful since I had seen the goblins killing themselves. I knew that it wouldn’t always be. Also, the only reason that I was able to win with the dogs was I lucked into a good spot, and Sam threw me to the other side of the river.

With that in mind, it was far more important to finish off all my gear and see what all I could do with it. I wanted to try to force level everything I got feeding it fast so that I could get the most out of it. That being said, I wasn’t sure what all I’d get. I also wanted to see if quality mattered. Right now, much of what was going on was an increase in the quality of the item. My water skin got a second cover, my lean-to got shingles, and my backpack became comfortable. Not discounting the magical stuff happening at all. I just wanted to know what would happen if I stuck a core into a well-made item.

I took my time working on putting sockets in on everything that I could. If it was wood, I carved a place for the core; if it was leather, I stitched in a pocket, letting both sewing and the socketing skill guide me. After each socket, I cast the socketing skill/spell and watched it shape up a bit. I ended up getting about 6 items socketed before my hands were tired of carving. I then took the time to imbue power into my staff after carving the runes for fire fist at both tips. I wanted to see if the staff could hold enough energy to get a strike. If it could, then I’d be able to make some nice changes to how powerful I was.

After that, the sun was getting low, so I told Blink it was time for dinner; we ate as the sun was setting, and then by firelight, I imbued my necklace again. I put as much mana as I could into it. Which lead to me passing out and having a dreamless night.

The following day while in my workout, I tried my staff. I was able to cast the fire fist from the staff with the imbued power. It also didn’t lose its runes like it would if I was casting with just the runes and my power. Almost like, the imbuing created a more permanent magic.

The thing was, it felt like it only had one mana point in it. So that meant that it still took one from me. So it wasn’t much, but it was a way that I could store some. I knew that some items could hold more than others; I just had to figure out what that was. My necklace could fit as much as I put in it, but it was special. I wanted to see if I could put a core into a power stone and, if I could, how it would react.

I also kept working on my reverse of stone to dirt. It turned out that with the dancing, there were trigger moves that let power build. All of my dances had several of the same steps. It was in those steps that I was building power, and then there were steps that were different in directing the built magic. The problem happened when I made the power building moves and then didn’t do anything with the natural mana around me. Trying to hold that mana gets painful enough to make a grown man fall over crying before he burned off part of his hair, creating the appearance of male pattern balding.

The good thing was that I ended up seeing that the double healing speed in the lean-to worked well. The damage that I took from the magical backlash was showing at twenty hours of rest to recover when I got into bed that dropped down to ten. The big thing was I couldn’t focus enough through the headache to use my healing until four hours had passed. I got up to get everything I needed, and when I went to my cold room, all the pain came back. Once I got in the lean-to, it went away. I was betting that it was because of the speed of recovery going back. So I slept it off like anyone would do. The bad thing is loss of hair wasn’t something that required healing.

I skipped my morning workout the next day so that I could place my two new cores. The first core went into my staff which I had added the ruins for fire-fist too. While it didn’t have a tip like the spear did, it was the best weapon skill that I currently had since my spear skill had been locked out. I made sure to imbue it with power first because I wanted to see what would happen. My second core would go on my fur tunic. While I didn’t wear it much since I got a leather shirt, it counted as armor, so it was my best bet for protection.

Weapon core created

Weapon core!

Max level 5

As your Weapon levels, its helpfulness increases.

General

Showing up in all Orange.

Arn’s Magical Staff (Please name)

Level 0

Type Weapon core

Class Enchanted uncommon

Durability 100/100

Weight 3 lbs

Weapon type: Bludgeoning

Damage: 1-4 non-magical, 1 Magical

>Growth

To level your weapon, you must provide for its proper care and material.

Stone 0%

Mana 0%

>Traits

These are the abilities or traits that your enchanted staff has.

Fire strike- Your staff has been enchanted with fire strike. This will do 2-10 mixed fire and magic damage to the target

This staff has been Imbued with power and can hold up to 8 mana. It can recover 1 mana every day on its own.

Durable- Your weapon is durable; it will not wear out from normal wear. Durability will only decrease with targeted attacks.

It was good to see that by doing work on something before putting a core in it, then the item would improve and that it would help to guide the direction of the core. In this case, because I put fire-fist on it gave it some power, and things got much better for me. This staff would now help to function more as a wizard’s staff than just a staff for hitting things. Even though hitting things was mostly what I’d be doing with it. It was time to toss the new core into my armor and see what I got.

Armor core created

Armor core!

Max level 5

As your armor levels, its helpfulness increases.

General

Showing up in all light blue.

Arn’s fur armor

Level 0

Type armor core

Class uncommon

Durability 200/200

Weight 20 lbs

Coverage: Torso

>Growth

To level your armor, you must provide for its proper care and material.

Leather 0%

Mana 0%

>Traits

These are the abilities or traits that your fur armor has.

Protection- Your armor has a +1 armor rating

Durable- Your armor is durable; it will not wear out from normal wear. Durability will only decrease with targeted attacks.

I was right in thinking that there were already armor cores in the world. It was nice that the armor rating doubled and that it wouldn’t degrade just by being worn. It would have been nice if it had gotten cooler since twenty pounds of fur was a bit much in the summer. I’d like it more in the winter, I was sure of it.

With weapon and armor ready, it was time for me to do a longer trek downstream. I needed to find out more about the goblins and if they had moved on. They had gone kind of quiet after the ogres bashed through the forest. That being said, I was sure they were still just a few hours away but just not up here for some reason.

I figured that I could make a trip out and around once every few days. While not as productive number-wise as training my skills as I’d been, it would let me see what was about, which was in some ways just as important. If it turned out I was only a few hours from people, it would be worth making that trip. I’m sure that I could find someone that could explain things to me better than Sam or, if not better, at least it wouldn’t put me in hell for a few hours each question.

I suited up to go out. I grabbed my pack, which I dropped in a water skin and about three meals of food, a cup and bowl, four of my wooden spikes, and my coil of rope. I took off my leather shirt and put on my fur armor. I tucked my bone knife into my belt and grabbed my staff.

“Blink, it is time to go on a hike,” I said over my shoulder.

She stood up and stretched like a cat would and started to walk over. In the past month, she had grown and was now about two feet long and was weighing in at about 10 pounds. She was well fed in that she liked to fish and eat off my plate. She was also as lazy as any cat I’d ever met. It surprised me that this lizard that could all but disappear and should be an ambush predator stayed visible much of the time.

As I climbed down, she hopped onto my back. She almost knocked me off the wall when she did it, and I’m mostly sure that was her plan. I’d interrupted her post-breakfast morning nap, which in her world came just before she would move to near the stream and take her pre-lunch morning nap. She settled down on my pack as usual, and I started to hike toward the path where I found her.

About an hour later, I got to the top of the path. I usually would go right and head to the top of the waterfall. However, today I wanted to see what was downstream. It felt kind of odd going in a direction that I’d not been in a while. I also felt a bit worried. The last time I went in this direction, I saw the goblins.

Blink and I spent the next hour scouting out the area downstream. I want to say that we did a good two miles. I saw prints for Unnt, rabbits, squirrels, and about a dozen other small animals. I did see some small predator prints that looked like a fox or a small dog. As there was only one set, I figured that it wasn’t a dog since when last I saw they were a pack. Nothing stood out to me as I hiked downriver. From the ridge I was on, I could see that the river had cut deeper into the ground.

After about two hours, the river was a good two hundred feet lower than the ridge. There wasn’t even a steep slope going down, just a drop-off. The other side of the river was much the same. After another hour, I saw the spot where I had slid down a few months before. I took the time to see if there were any dogs, but I wasn’t expecting to see them after the last fight.

I stopped for lunch and to let Blink run. She was all over the place, looking at all the branches and hunting bugs. When I set out the bowl, I poured water out for her, and she came over to drink. I then set out some smoked meat, but she didn’t eat it.

She ran off and came back a few minutes later with a small bird that was half dead. I knew that cats played with their food, but I didn’t realize that lizards did too. I wasn’t sure if others did, but I knew that Blink did. She spent about 10 minutes batting around the bird before she ate it. While I felt like she should’ve just killed it, she is an animal, and so that is what she does.

We got up and headed home. I was figuring that it would be another 3 hours, and then I’d be back and could finish out the day. I was feeling happy to know that I’d been down this way and nothing looked amiss to me. Of course, I should’ve known better, but that is what I get.

Soon after lunch, I heard the sound of an unnt fighting, but I also heard the sounds of angry pigs shouting. I didn’t run like I wanted to over to the sound to see what was happening. Instead, I walked and crept over to get closer. I didn’t want to be seen, but I wanted to see what was happening.

What I saw was odd. I saw an unnt with about 5 short spears, each about twice the size as an arrow hanging out of it. I also saw in a circle around the unnt about twenty of what I had been calling goblins.

They were about a foot and a half tall and, I’d guessed, maybe 15 pounds green-skinned. They were wearing clothes of a sort, leather and cloth wrap to belts. Much like my tunic had been for me when starting.

They were squealing and grunting as angry pigs do, but they also looked like it was a type of talking. As I watched, I saw that they were circling the unnt. First, some would run forward, and it would turn to face them. Then, as it did, they would run back, and others would come in from the other side to spear it.

Blink started to do a low, angry hiss in my ear as they got closer. She didn’t want anything to do with them. I stood still and focused on the one that seemed to be in charge. I wanted to learn everything I could.

As I looked at the monster, I saw the bar appear above him. I also saw a question mark show up. I clicked at the question mark and got the following.

Gremlin Hunt Master

HP 7

Weight 20 lbs

Armor rating 1

Weapons

Spear 1-2 damage

Stone hammer 2-3 damage

The Hunt Master is second only to the war chief in Gremlin tribes.

Gremlins are a tribal race of pure carnivores. They are capable of making primitive tools and love stealing all other tools they can.

Gremlins will eat any type of meat and hunt anything they think they can.

Where you see one gremlin, there are always at least a dozen more.