Lannah cleared her throat as she swallowed the last of the fried geson. Then in the most accusing tone, I thought I had ever heard, “You moved me last night, didn’t you.”

There were times when I wished that things would magically work out for me. This morning was one of them. I had risked my life last night, saved the girl, got her home, and this morning fixed food. On top of all of that, I was a gentleman while doing it.

Yet, things working out seemed to be out of the realm of possibilities for me. No, she couldn’t overlook or forget that she had fallen asleep in my chair. But, she also wouldn’t let me off the hook for picking her up. I was sure of it.

There was no way that this would be what I wanted. My luck with women always would be that this turned into something bad. I had yet to encounter one that, when using that tone with me, anything good would happen.

I started in on my defense for what I did, “Don’t know what you are talking about.”

I stood up and started to clear up the food.

“We have to pack and then get out of here as fast as we can. I know that you aren’t sure where we are needing to go but we can head south to see if we can find your home.”

Lannah just looked at me from my chair. She had this glint in her eye that made me think that she knew the truth and was trying to figure out if it was better to call me out on it or let the lie stand.

Lannah gave me a tight smile and said, “Make sure, that you keep with that story when we get back to my home. It will be bad enough that I am with you alone anymore and my father will have you marry me.”

I started to load my pack. I had enough room that if I left most of my equipment, we could make it several days. If all I did was load it down with food and strap my sleeping fur on top, we could make it about two weeks at this point. It would be hard because of everything else I would be leaving, but if we were only a week away from people, it could be worth it.

I looked over at my new companion as I was packing. “Do you have any debuffs that we need to take care of before we leave?”

“I have the chronic tired for 12 hours of sleep, the malnourished, and limp for both of my legs. I think I could make it just a couple of hours of walking at a time right now.”

I slowed down on my packing. We weren’t going to run out of here right now and make it anywhere. Two hours south would still put us on this side of the river. I would want us to ford the river at some point and head back towards where I started.

The yellow jackets would be something we needed to get past along with that evil dog that took my possessions. She would need to be better rested before we headed out. If I had known I was going to be rescuing someone and heading south, we just would have gone that way last night.

“Where were you when you checked your debuffs?” I asked.

She scrunched her eyes a little, “Right here, why?”

“The lean-to gives double recovery, step out from under the awning and recheck. We need to know how bad you really are.”

She took one step out, and as she did, I saw her face get more drawn, and her shoulders sagged. “It says that I need 24 hours of sleep, and I am listed as starving.”

“Come back and lay down. Looks we can’t go anywhere until tomorrow at least. I will keep you fed and bring you anything you need. I just hope we have the time to wait.”

As she started to move over to the bed, I saw her stumble when she stepped on a rock. I needed to make her some moccasins before we headed out. Perhaps even see about pants if she would let me. That dress was going to be a mess for the trip.

Once the girl laid down, it was time for me to make some additional preparations. We had at least 12 hours before she would be able to travel. So that meant that I needed to work on getting things ready. Unfortunately, I was weak, and even with my additional armor, I had gotten my butt handed to me.

I picked up the cast iron frying pan to see what was special about it. Lannah had said that it was enchanted, but it seemed to have cooked food just like any cast iron I had ever used.

It took me a moment of focus before I got a pop-up screen from it.

Grandma’s Skillet

This is a master-crafted cast iron skillet of 12 inches in size. It appears to be well taken care of and seasoned properly

This skillet was enchanted by an aged enchantress who was tired of lip from the neighborhood kids.

Damage: None, magically removed.

Abilities: Swing force multiplied by 4x

Random Debuff

Debuff time multiplied by 4x

No heat handle

Cooking skill plus 4

That explained so much. The goblin must have captured this and was using it as a means of control. With stacking debuffs, each lasting four times as long as they normally would, it could drop a person quickly. The added force swing was likely why I had been knocked around so much.

This was a weapon that I might keep with me. However, it was oddly weighted, so it would be hard to use in battle. I didn’t have a skill at swinging it, and the oddness of it might make it less than ideal, but I could see how it could be useful against someone that far outclassed me.

Against the goblins, there wasn’t much use for it. They died quickly enough that I didn’t need to debuff them before fighting. However, if I got into a fight with one of the ogres or even an armored orc, it could be a good thing to have.

As I looked at the skillet closer, I saw around the outside edge something that looked much like the writing in the two books that I couldn’t read. I could tell it was script and could feel that it caused an enchantment, but I couldn’t read it or understand it.

Worse yet, the script was moving so that even if I wanted to experiment and try to just copy it onto something else, I couldn’t. So it was like not only could I not read, but I was also not able to teach myself.

I wanted to drop a core into this item to see what it would do. I had already noticed that there weren’t charges on it or stored mana like my staff. Instead, these abilities were always on, which I found both amazing and frustrating.

I could make some cool things with the wild-human runes and the cores, but I didn’t have control over what I made. I could kind of guide it some to go in the general direction I wanted, but I couldn’t tell it what to do.

I looked over my back and saw that Lannah was out cold. It was time that I made another core. I would need to work hard today to make cores and get my armor finished. While it was good, I got her rescued, I wasn’t ready for a big fight. I should have found out if she knew how to use any weapons before she went to sleep.

It was time that I got to work. The first thing I needed to do was work on armor for my thighs. My fur armor ended just below the waist and my greaves below the knees. I figured that I would take a page from the Romans and make a leather skirt.

I took leather strips and sewed small rocks to one end, and fashioned them into a layered skirt. I then took small bones from the Unnts that I had hunted and sewed them onto the leather strips, all running vertically.

I then attached the second layer of leather stripping on top of the bone and first strip and sewed it all together. For the belt of the skirt, I made it three layers thick, with the inside two being what held the strips in place and small pockets on the outside two were used more small bones to help add some protection.

On the back of the skirt, I ran a four strip thick strip about three inches wide up my spine to a connection to go over my shoulders like suspenders would be and then down to two points in the front, which connected via stitching to the innermost layers just like the skirt strips did.

On the inside of the back strip, I started working on burning in runes. I took my engraving rod and heated it up in the fire, and then started to draw on the runes that I wanted.

I added in the strengthen and bind with the idea of the leather and the joints. I then added in a lighten load concept and a stop rot so that it would be more resistant to aging. Finally, I added in stop ill, stop sick, and stop wound.

Knowing that I had a lot of runes on this was great, but I was looking for how this would be powered. The issue that I had with what I made was trying to find a way to push power into this.

I took some of the small sparkling stones that I looted and tried to see if I could push mana into them. It turned out nicely that two of them were gems which, while uncut and small, both held about 10 times the mana that a river stone would hold. They were also both the size of marbles though not the same shape. These I added into the belt up front where the buckle would be.

I felt that with what I had, I did a great job and that it looked well made. I knew that in the places that I messed up, once the core was put in, then it would tighten things up. I was hoping that with enough upgrades, it might move up to look like the Roman ones. Even if it didn’t, I would be happy if the healing runes worked as I wanted.

I added the core that I just made.

Armor core created

Armor core!

Max level 5

As your armor levels its helpfulness increases.

General

Showing up in all Orange.

Arn’s Weighted leather skirt of protection

Level 0

Type armor core

Class uncommon

Durability 200/200

Weight 10 lbs

Coverage: Thighs and waist

Armor rating 3

Arn’s Weighted leather skirt of protection is an imbued and enchanted leather skirt and suspenders made from layers of Unnt hide and bone weighed down with small rocks. It is a crude and primitive knock off of a Balteus from the creator’s home. While it was designed to protect against attacks to the waist and thighs it’s looks provide protection as well against those who might want to speak to the wearer in a serious manner.

The runes and power source provide many benefits that may outweigh the appearance of this piece of equipment. This skirt provides a triggerable healing for open wounds. It also provides a tier decrease in poisons, illness and nausea. Lastly because of the work done on the leather before adding the core this item is enchanted to lessen the weight of the total load which the user is carrying.

>Growth

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

Leather 0% Mana 0%

>Traits

These are the abilities or traits that your Weighted leather skirt 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. Your Weighted Leather Skirt of Protection has been Imbued with power and can hold up to 40 mana tied to enchantments 10 free. It can recover 6 mana every day on its own. Weight reduction: Due to the great craftsmanship and runes found on your Weighted Leather Skirt of Protection your total load is reduced by 1 pound. Lessened Poison: When wearing your Weighted Leather Skirt of Protection you'll receive a single tier reduction on all poisons, illness and nausea causing effects. If the Weighted Leather Skirt of Protection is removed before those effects end then they will return to the level they were. Healing: Once a day all open level 1 or below wounds can be closed, or all level 2 wounds can be reduced to level 1. One level 3 or higher wound can be reduced to level 1.

As I was adjusting my leather skirt I heard the sound of one of my traps go off.