George was happy to see him when Milo appeared in his camp after dying. He spent some time playing with the little lizard, and ate quite a bit of his stored cheese. He knew the depression and exhaustion would go away soon, but it felt intolerable to feel like crap and not be taking advantage of the downtime to snack on his favorite food.

He also caught up on his experience gains for the last week.

You have gained 500 EP in Mining and 500 EP in STR.

You have gained 100 EP in Identify and 100 EP in PER.

You have gained 100 EP in Poison Resistance and 100 EP in CON

You have gained 50 EP in Fleet of Foot and 50 EP in AGI

You have gained 100 EP in Climbing and 100 EP in AGI

You have gained 200 EP in Bonecasting and 200 EP in INT

You have gained 200 EP in Bone carving and 200 EP in INT

You have gained 200 EP in Rune lore and 200 EP in INT

You have gained 900 Boss EP.

You will gain an equal amount of EP in the skills you apply this EP to.

You have gained 9 Core Skill Points.

He made his decisions quickly. 6 points into the second level of Fiendish Traps, and 3 points into his foundation to raise his crafting. He was going to need the extra crafting slots that those points freed up. The 900 EP went into Dodge and AGI.

By putting the 3 points into his Crafting Foundation, he now had 5 slots for crafting skills. Before, he had only had Mechanic and left the second open. His plans for revenge on the snake would need more skills. He added Trap Making, Tool Making, and Smithing. On Cichol’s advice he added Rune Crafting.

How the different crafting skills, regular skills, and lores worked could be confusing at times, but with the help of the old Bonecaster he was figuring it all out. Rune lore was Lore Skill. It was all all book learning and memorization. You could become a scholar in Runes without ever having crafted one yourself.

Bone Carving would let him carve bone into tools, weapons, parts for an automaton, and give him the skill to carve a rune onto a bone. Without Rune Lore, Bone Carving was a practical crafting skill. Together, and backed up by Bonemancy, they would let him produce the magical runes that enhanced materials, held spells, and thousands of other things.

The Rune Crafting skill expanded his options to more than just bone. It tied together all the practical and theoretical knowledge. Of course, he still had to go acquire all that knowledge. Milo was excited by it all.

Getting back his pack and gear proved to be a bit difficult. He carefully climbed the cables up to the mining level, and started working his way through the corridors. His hopes that the huge copperhead had gone back to its lair were dashed as he saw it moving down a corridor far ahead. The problem was that while he knew where part of it's body was, and the direction it was headed, he didn't know where it's head was.

He quietly moved around for a couple of hours, avoiding the snake as it moved through the corridors. At one point, he saw it turn a corner far down the hall and move away from him. It looked different. Sharp growths on it's head formed a natural crown. He was able to identify it and cursed.

Queen Salasha the Rat-Slayer

Level 8 Epic Boss Health 2200/2200

(Huge size, elemental, constriction, tremor sense, keen sense of smell, hammerhead.)

At least she was heading away from his pack. Her majesty was headed down the corridor towards the blocked stairs. Soon after Milo heard the sounds of the giant snake smashing through the rubble. The noise and dust she was kicking up meant it was much easier for Milo to get to his grave, recover his stuff, and get back down to his camp. He had plans for how to take care of the Queen, but it was going to take a lot of work and a trip up to the guildhall. He told George to take a break. The little guard lizard nodded his head and disappeared back to where ever he came from. Milo headed back to Harry and spent a day with the troll and then made his way up the stairs. He had plans to visit first the Miner's Guild, and then go visit the Engineers Guild.

=*=

"Can someone explain to my why we have a human taking the test for Journeyman in the Dwarven Guild of Engineers?" Guild master Rolf Morgenthern was making a rare visit down to the basement of the Mechanics Guildhall. If there was one complaint anyone had about him it was that he used a pencil too much and a wrench not enough. His hands were suspiciously free of grease most of the time. Still, no one else wanted to handle the contracts and politics, so he was sure to be re-elected.

Several of the Guild Elders chuckled or shook their heads. The Mechanics Guild had opened up to non-dwarves over 500 years ago. Rolf's grandfather had opposed it. His father had opposed it. And Rolf was adamant that the glory days would only return with the 'softies' were purged from the rolls.

Elder Bancroft refilled his tankard and turned to the irate guild master. "All by the books Rolf. He came into the guild, paid for a year’s membership up front, and asked to take the apprentice test. He passed it easily. His schematics on how to solve a few of the problems were interesting and a bit un-orthodox, but they worked."

"So a couple of the brothers ran him through tool knowledge and basic hydraulics. He had some odd gaps in his knowledge on tools. Somehow didn't know what a #9 gangly wrench was. But someone schooled that boy on hydraulics and pressure systems. He's way the hell ahead of most journeyman. We put him to work for a solid week of double shifts and he didn't complain at all. Only left the job to grab some cheese from a vendor outside. He slept curled up in the corner for a couple of hours and then got back to work."

"By the time the week was up, he helped us take about the old ore crusher and completed re-condition and repair the old machine. Even suggested some improvements to the gear linkage. It's up and running now, and is 2% more efficient than the newer machine. As far as I'm concerned, he earned a chance at the journeyman's test"

Rolf scratched at his beard. "Something's fishy though. Where did he learn all of that?"

"Somethings always fishy with you." Bancroft rolled his eyes. "But I already checked. He's in good standing with the Miner's Guild. Hell, better than good. He's solo prospecting down in the deeps. Brings up ore bags full of Deep Copper and pieces of ancient machinery. Which explains where the Miner's Guild was getting all the high-grade ore they were sending to us for prospecting."

Rolf's dis-like of non-dwarves was easily swayed by innovative design work and increased cashflow. He was starting to warm up to the new engineer. "Has he said where he's getting it? I might be willing to send a crew down that way to explore"

"Heh, not exactly. But it might be tough to send a crew out. He's been down in copperhead territory. Killed several of them and brought back some fangs for the Miner's Guild. That's a spooky area of old mines and death by poison. Maybe after he's done hunting the big one."

"What big one? Hunting?"

Bancroft pulled out some plans that apprentice Milo had asked him to look over. "Look at those numbers for the tension on the cables. If that's a snake he's after, it's a damn big one."

Rolf whistled. "Ok. He's fine in my book then. Anyone who's crazy enough to try to trap a monster like that is crazy enough to be an engineer. But see if he'll pay his journeyman fees for a year ahead of time. We might not see him again."

Later that day, Milo found himself sitting at a table with Elder Bancroft, Guild master Rolf, and several of his fellow journeymen engineers who had been on the project to re-furbish the ore crusher. It started out as a celebratory luncheon and turned into a long skull session where everyone went over Milo's plans and many revisions were made. Milo was happy with the changes. His knowledge was lacking about the strengths of materials in the game.

Everyone thought he was crazy. But many journeyman engineers worked on odd projects from mana powered whisky distilleries to steam powered mining drills. A giant snake trap was a novel idea, but the level of crazy matched expected parameters.

Milo continued to work at the Engineers guild for another three weeks. He needed the experience of working in-game with pulley systems, and especially smithing. He spent his hours "sleeping" in Section E, making sure nothing was too badly broken. The new machines helped immensely.

Some of what he needed to learn was how to work with Deep Iron cables and machinery. It was much stronger than normal iron, and much more difficult to cut and splice back together. The engineer’s guild had very little Deep Iron machinery, but they did have books with all the information Milo needed.

A month after he had come upstairs, he left again for the depths. In his stash were tools he had purchased from the guild. The money he had earned from the bags of ore, pure copper, and copperhead fangs had been enough to cover is journeyman fees for a year, the tools, and other supplies. He was broke, but ready to go have another round with Salasha.

"What big one? Hunting?"

Bancroft pulled out some plans that apprentice Milo had asked him to look over. "Look at those numbers for the tension on the cables. If that's a snake he's after, it's a damn big one."

Rolf whistled. "Ok. He's fine in my book then. Anyone who's crazy enough to try to trap a monster like that is crazy enough to be an engineer. But see if he'll pay his journyman fees for a year ahead of time. We might not see him again."

Later that day, Milo found himself sitting at a table with Elder Bancroft, Guildmaster Rolf, and several of his fellow journeymen engineers who had been on the project to re-furbish the ore crusher. It started out as a celebratory luncheon and turned into a long skull session where everyone went over Milo's plans and many revisions were made. Milo was happy with the changes. His knowledge was lacking about the strengths of materials in the game.

Everyone thought he was crazy. But many journeyman engineers worked on odd projects from mana powered whisky distilleries to steam powered mining drills. A giant snake trap was a novel idea, but the level of crazy matched expected parameters.

Milo continued to work at the Engineers guild for another three weeks. He needed the experience of working in-game with pulley systems, and especially smithing. He spent his hours "sleeping" in Section E, making sure nothing was too badly broken. The new machines helped immensly. What left over time he had was spent learning more about Rune Crafting from the library. With machinery he felt confident, but with runes he was just beginning to understand how much he didn't know.

Some of what he needed to learn was how to work with Deep Iron cables and machinery. It was much stronger than normal iron, and much more difficult to cut and splice back together. The engineers guild had very little Deep Iron machinery, but they did have books with all the information Milo needed.

A month after he had come upstairs, he left again for the depths. In his stash were tools he had purchased from the guild. The money he had earned from the bags of ore, pure copper, and copperhead fangs had been enough to cover is journeyman fees for a year, the tools, and other supplies. He was broke, but ready to go have another round with Salasha.

The time spent had been with it in other ways. Being able to concentrate entirely on learning skills had raised up his stats as well. And being able to easily experiement with different types of cheese in his diet had showed him how to maximize his satisfaction and the effect it had on him. He ignored that the amount he was eating each day was increasing. It was cheese, and there was nothing wrong with cheese!

He placed a large order with Jethro for the cheese he want the next time he was up. Jethro seemed anxious to please, and inquired about what day and time that might be, offerening to get it all ready for him. Milo just shrugged and guessed. He had a lot of work to do, and it might take a couple of weeks or longer. He passed on Jethro's offer to stay and have dinner with his family, and headed back down to see Harry.

Summary

You have earned 500 EP in Smithing and 500 EP in STR.

You have earned 500 EP in Tool Making and 500 EP in DEX.

You have earned 500 EP in Mechanics and 500 EP in DEX.

You have earned 500 EP in Rune Crafting and 500 in INT.

Congratulations, you have gained enough EP to advance to Level 5.

This is the highest level you can achieve in Tier 1. You may still gain EP in skills and stats, and still work to earn more Core Skill Points.

Your cheese addiction has reached Level 3. Bonus: 200 health, +3 STR. Eating less than 3 lbs of cheese a day will give less in bonus. Not eating cheese for 24 hours will cause cravings and a penalty of -3 Dex, -3 STR, -3 WIS.

For those interested, Milo's complete character sheet. I believe it's up to date now. I keep notes on advances as I go along.

Name: Tallsqueak Milo Class: Scout Race: Were-rat Human Level: 5 EP:7150 Boss EP: 3650 Total: 10800/10000 Heritage: None Current cheese bonus: +50 Health, +2 STR Base Per Level From Stats From CSP Total Health 100 100 100 0 700 Stamina 600 100 110 1210 Mana 100 50 260 +200* 810 Stat: Rank Cap EP Bonus Total STR 4 5 1300 0 4 DEX 4 5 1305 2 5 AGI 5 5 2650 2 7 CON 3 5 800 0 3 INT 7 7 4365 2 9 WIS 3 5 800 0 3 CHR 0 5 0 0 0 PER 3 5 1200 2+1 6 CSP earned 69 Cronk-15, Malskitter -3, FreedSouls-5, Copperhead-5, petrified bone-10, Bone Crusher-22, misc.-9 CSP to Foundation 11 CSP to CS 58 CSP Saved 0 Skills Stat Level EP P/S/T Bonecasting INT

5

2200 Primary

Poison Resistance

CON

3

500 Primary Skulk WIS

2

300 Primary Climbing AGI 2 400 Primary Dodge AGI 4 1600 Primary Small Blades DEX 2 575 Primary Tail Fighting DEX 1 200 Primary Mining STR 3 800 Primary Acrobatics AGI 2 300 Secondary Throw Sharp Thing DEX 1 50 Secondary Fleet of Foot AGI 2 350 Secondary Weak Claws DEX 0 30 Secondary Sense Danger PER 2 300 Secondary Forage PER 2 500 Secondary Skinning DEX 0 Tertiary Manipulate Locks and Traps DEX 0 Tertiary Hide INT 0 Tertiary Identify PER 2 400 Tertiary Mycology INT 1 100 Tertiary Open 0 Tertiary Mechanic INT 3 815 Crafting Bone Carving DEX 1 200 Crafting Scrimshaw DEX 0 0 Crafting Rune Lore INT 3 700 Lore Cheesemaking WIS 0 0 Crafting Tool Making DEX 2 500 Crafting Rune Crafting INT 2 500 Crafting Metal Smithing STR 2 500 Crafting Trap Making INT 0 0 Crafting Core Skills Skill Costs Rank Max Rank Spent Smugglers Stash 3/5/10 3 3 18 27 sf Jumping Jack 2 1 1 2 Whip Tail 2 1 1 2 Unseen Tail 3 1 1 3 Invisible Tail 3 1 1 3 Bonemancy 5 1 1 5 Poison Resistance 1/3/5 1 1 5 primary con Disease Resistance 1/3/5 1 1 2 secondary, con Un-noticed 2 1 1 2 Silent Step 2 1 1 2 Abundance 1/2/3/4/5 1 5 1 Breathless 1/1 2 2 2 Skilled Provider 1/2/3 1 3 1 Extra Clever Traps 3/6/9 1 1 9 Cheese Making 1 1 1 1 Total 58 Foundation Max 120 points for Tier 1 (Class Bonus of +15 Evasion, +10 to Forage, Mine)

Combat

Defense

Melee

20+5

Mitigate

0

Ranged

15

Evasion

10+15

Magic

15+10

Resistance

10+15

Crafting

10+15

Harvest

Skill 1:

Skill 2:

Mechanic

Trap Making

Animal products

10

Skill 3:

Skill 4:

Tool Making

Smithing

Herbs, flowers, bark,fungus, fruit. timber

15+10

Skill 5:

Skill 6: Locked

Runecrafting

minerals, gems, stone

15+10