Andrew awoke from his restful night on the wooden pallet, greeted by the rising sun and a light drizzle. He took an appreciative look around his little valley. Rain aside, this was a thousand times better than waking up underground with dirt everywhere.

Alright, priorities list Valley Edition:

Food source, I'll have to finally figure out this hunting thing. And pretty quick too.

Something else to grind for levels. Attribute farming is great but levels and skills are probably more important right now.

Deciphering the rune book. There might be something in there that will make transporting all my shit easier, otherwise I'll have to make the most out of all the resources I have here before heading out and trying to find more people. I'd also have to leave all my pretty fire rocks behind, which would be an absolute tragedy.

He climbed to his feet and grabbed his hammer and binding circle. He had to muscle the wooden wall blocking the crevice exit up and out of the way, leaving a gap he could slide through.

I guess I'll just have to leave this open? Maybe I should add some kind of door mechanism to the list. Like a slider this can go across or something, with braces optionally added when I get back. Or maybe that’s too much effort for a temporary shelter in the middle of nowhere, who knows.

He started out into the forest. He had seen larger animals out in this area, how hard could it be to find one? He spent about an hour wandering the forest around his new camp before he spotted one. A boar like he fought on one of his first days. He quietly set up his runic circle and empowered it before standing up and hammering the tree nearby.

The boar charged, got stuck in the circle, and was promptly stuck by Andrew. One hit and it was out.

That was… A little too easy.

[Boar Level 4 defeated]

He dragged the boar back to camp, up and through the gap in the crevice and onto a stone next to his campfire. He took his carving knife and got to work on the boar.

It was, not pretty.

An hour later, a very bloody Andrew was washing his hands in the river. He had setup several flat rocks over the top of his campfire. Lengths of meat were cooking on the steaming rocks. The carcass was buried in a hole near the entrance of the crevice. A square of boar hide was draped over another nearby stone near the fire.

No clue how to process that, and it's cut to all hell, but I've got it. Might just need to empower it and see if I can make leather, cause that sure a hell isn't something I can just cook up.

[Butcher Skill Created lvl 1]

[+ 1 Dexterity for creating a precision based skill]

He got a fair bit of edible meat out of the boar despite his inexperience and worked on cooking all of it, deciding to bust out the rune book while it cooked.

The last rune he had tested out was the fire mana gathering rune. The next in line seemed to represent durability in some way. The pictures accompanying it showed a brick wall, a textured oval and a mountaintop. The rune itself was a series squares and rectangles overlapping one another in a jumbled mass that pointed slightly inwards in a similarly triangular shape to the heat rune. The connection runes did not connect to the main rune, similar to the fire mana gathering rune circle. They were made up of two parallel sets of short straight lines, that intersected at very slight angles to form the curve of the circle.

He only felt the slightest tinge of a headache when looking at this rune, and decided to flip the page to take a look at the next rune as well. This one seemed to follow a similar pattern. The main rune had a triangular shape that was made up of lines curving from the outside of the triangle towards the tip, filling the space within but never touching. The connection runes were made up of three parallel lines, once again unconnected to the main runes. These parallel lines formed dashes that curved from rune to rune, the two on the outside matching while the one on the inside filled in the gaps. The pictures that accompanied this set of runes were a cloud, rising bubbles, and a stylized gust of wind.

His headache increased slightly, but wasn't quite unbearable yet so he moved on. The main runes on the next page were made up similarly to the durability runes. This time the rune was made up of a collection of circles and ovals that all connected tightly on the edges but never fully overlapped. The connecting runes were a pair of lines curving to crisscross as they curved from rune to rune. This rune was accompanied by a drop of water, a rising wave, and a whirlpool as seen from above.

His headache was getting worse, but he was curious to find out more and fairly confident he wouldn't be harmed at this point.

He flipped to the next page which, compared to the past few, held far more text. There was only one rune shown here and it looked to be connected to several of the previous connecting runes in slightly different ways.

The headache was increasing in intensity.

There were no pictures accompanying this rune, so he turned his focus on the rune itself. It seemed to be made out of a series of nested circles, but the lines began to blur and cross.

His stomach began to twist and his mouth began to water uncontrollably. He tried to push through and focus his eyes, but they began to tear up and no amount of blinking could stave off the growing dry burn that was filling them. A piercing pain begin to build at the center of his brow and crawl its way backwards, deeper into his skull. He shut the book with a force of will and gasped as the nausea instantly abated. His eyes no longer burned and the piercing pain in his brow was gone, though he still had a hell of a headache lingering in the background. He had to take a moment to blink the tears from his eyes.

Okay.. Not looking at anything past that any time soon. Pretty sure my rune inscription skill said something about resisting warded runes? Not going to mess around any further in this book until I can get that leveled up. Should be able to force out everything before that last one though. It was manageable up until there.

He took a break from the book to throw another couple boar steaks on the steaming rock before chewing on one. It was pretty good, considering all he had to eat before then was salted jerky, hard biscuits and dried fruit. Even unseasoned it was decent. He chewed on one steak and set the rest on another rock he had rinsed in river water. Not much but it was the best he could do out here.

How do you preserve meat? I know salt was like, the shit back in the day because you could use that. Otherwise, Smoking it? I suppose hunting wasn't exactly hard though. A boar a day keeps the starvation away. Also probably leads to scurvy or some shit. Oh well.

He washed down the last of his boar steak with a hit of river water and pulled the book back out. He flipped to the page with what he assumed was a durability rune and kept it open with a couple of small rocks. Compared to the last page he looked at the headache here was barely noticeable. He grabbed a small flat stone from nearby and began inscribing the circle onto it. The sharp corners and overlapping nature of the rune made it difficult to fit on the rock, but he did a passable job.

He set the rock on the ground and began to pour mana into it through his channeling stick. Didn't want any more burnt fingers. He watched as the mana poured into the rock.

Five, ten, twenty, thirty.

The rock continued to soak up the mana. It seemed to grow a little darker, and he could see some cracks and chips in the rock begin to smooth over slightly. He pulled the stick away and picked the rock up.

The temperature was unchanged, though he almost expected it to be warm. It felt significantly heavier than before. He turned it over in his hands and examined it but there were no discernable changes other than its weight. He dropped it and pulled out his remaining pick axe, then began to hammer at the stone. The impacts jarred his arms and he was only flaking small chips off of the rock. It was so heavy that he didn't even have to worry about it bouncing away.

Definitely increases durability. It also seemed to smooth the rock out and bridge gaps, so maybe some kind of repair too? Increased weight is also noteworthy. If I were to put something like this on all my clothes or weapons they might get a lot harder to use. I'll have to use it in moderation. Next test.

He grabbed another similar stone and carved the circle again, this time with the main runes inverted to point outwards. He charged this one as well, deciding to keep it in his hands this time. As he poured mana into it he could feel it getting slightly lighter in his hands. The change was significantly less than before but it was enough to be noticeable. The stone was also lightening in color slightly. He poured more mana into this one than the last and at forty it started to shrink and crumble. The edges sharpened and cracks grew until small pieces of the stone started to flake away. He stopped at fifty and the stone was now almost bleached. He strained his muscles and was rewarded with a sharp crack as he broke the now brittle stone in half.

Okay, this rune definitely affects the durability of stones in a big way. It also changes weight and intensity of color as well, for some reason. Interesting. Next up is to test what it does to wood.

Andrew pulled one of his remaining planks off the wagon and sawed off a roughly square section of wood. He began carving the basic durability circle on the board and finished it relatively quickly. He was using the chisel for everything and it was way easier than cutting lines into the board with a knife. When he poured mana into this board the change was far more obvious. The board quickly began to darken in color and increase in weight. After thirty points of mana the board was a dark grey, though the grain of the wood was still visible. When he rapped his knuckles on the wood it felt more like ceramic or stone than wood. He tried and failed to snap the board. He then took a knife to it and had to stop digging it in for fear of chipping the tip of the knife off.

So not just a blanket durability rune, it definitely has secondary effects. Probably similar to the heat rune which actually gathers fire mana. I would guess that this one instead gathers earth mana, considering the increased weight and change in appearance. I wonder if this one works the same way with the binding connectors? Would a firestarter setup made using these runes instead produce rocks? I'll leave combinations for later and work on testing out the other two new runes in the book.

The next rune out of the book was the one formed up of lines curving inwards to form a neat triangle. When he carved this one on the stone he had to try a couple times, as the lines were densely packed and a small slip would cause them to overlap.

When he was finally successful he powered up the circle with his stick and the stone began to lighten in color once again. This time it was more of a paleness, rather than a draining of color though. The light grey stone began to shift more and more towards pure white. He poured thirty points of mana into the stone before picking it up.

It was significantly lighter than before. He tossed it from hand to hand and it seemed to hang in the air slightly too long, even considering its decreased weight. He tried to snap it like he had the inversed durability rune but it didn't work. He set it on the ground and smashed a pick into it but it just bounced out from under the pick and flew away.

Okay… Seems to just make things lighter, not exactly what I was expecting but there ya go. If this is the same kind of rune as the last two, I'm going to assume it accumulates air mana rather than earth or fire. I'll have to see what it does to the wood as that seems to generally be a better way of testing these things. Or make a large scale version in the dirt and see what it feels like inside. Air certainly seems safer than earth or fire.

He cut another square off the board he already had out and carved another air gathering rune into it. When he channeled mana into this one he could feel it begin to lighten as he held it. He finished channeling and tossed it up, seeing it float ever so slightly before coming down. When he tried snapping the board he found he could do it easily, though it didn't seem much weaker than a normal board, he just wasn't quite accustomed to his new strength yet. It did release a slight gust from the center of the crack when it was broken though, blowing his hair back slightly.

Alright, almost certainly an air mana gathering circle.

He tossed the two halves of the board into the fire where the rest of his boar steaks were still cooking. The pale wood hit the fire and violently caught flame, instantly engulfing the entire board. He could feel the heat of the fire surge from here and took a step back, but the boards were already crumbling into char and the heat quickly subsided.

Note to self, air mana infused objects are extra flammable. Or just air mana in general makes fire go woosh. Something to keep in mind when I test out the effects of condensing this mana later.

He grabbed another stone and flipped to the last rune he planned to test today. He once again started off by carving it into a stone. The runes were complex, but connectors for this circle were where the real jump in difficulty was. The first circle he tried to power was unresponsive and when he examined it he saw that the one of the lines dipped too far out before crossing back in. Apperently that small mistake was enough to ruin the circle and he had to carve another.

[Mana Inscription lvl 3-4]

He powered the stone with the stick once again. After thirty points were invested he saw that the stone was darkened in color again. He picked it up and it weighed more as well, it was also cold to the touch and slightly moist. When he pulled his hand away it had a thin layer of grey filmy wetness on it.

Okay gross, rock pee. I guess this would be the water rune then. I'll test it out on the wood board as well but I'm pretty sure I'm just going to end up with damp wood.

He ended up with damp wood. It was heavier, just as easy to snap, and the resulting outpour of liquid made it look like he pissed himself.

Alright so now we've got a rune for Fire, Earth, Air, and Water mana. Assuming they all work the same way as the fire runes did, what can I do with these?

Earth mana seems pretty good for making things more durable. Might be able to make my hammers heavier, or my clothes more damage resistant. If I ever get around to making wood or iron armor I could throw one of these runes on a piece to increase it's strength. It will also increase in weight though, something to be aware of.

Air mana will make things lighter, might be able to be combined with an earth mana infusion to offset the increased weight. So long as mixing those doesn't create any other issues. Something more to test for I guess. Air mana also seems to increase flammability, so one step closer to fireball I guess. Might be able to set up a condensing circle on the ground, fill it with air mana and set it off with a torch or something. Something to test.

Water mana seems to mainly just soak things. Increases weight, might provide some resistance to fire in a pinch. If I need drinking water I could probably create something similar to the firestarter but with water, convert mana straight into water. If not for this river that would be by far the most useful of the four.

He had spent more time messing around with the runes than he originally planned. It was well past noon now. He finished cooking the last of his boar steaks and wrapped them in one of his extra shirts. A little gross yes, but hopefully it would keep the bugs off until he got back.

He gathered up his things and headed out into the forest again.

I can mess around with rune circles all night now that I have a grasp on what they do. Now I should look for something I can level up with. Building strength and all that.

He decided to walk along the cliffside this time, traveling along the right side of the crevice entrance. He was constantly scanning the forest around as he went, but saw little of interest.

[Boar level 3]

[Boar level 6]

[Wolf level 6]

[Wolf level 8]

The boars showed little interest in him when he wasn't threatening them, and the wolves seemed to intentionally stay clear. He didn’t follow any as it seemed like he wouldn't get much out of killing things that much lower in level.

The animals must have some kind of level sensing ability too. The wolves I fought at level 6 seemed more than happy to come at me.

Large boulders began to dot the area around the cliffside and he to stray farther from rock wall to keep good lines of sight around him. About twenty minutes past the first of the large boulders he heard a shrill warcry and turned to see a little green man with long ears wearing ragged animal skins come charging at him from behind one of those boulders.

Oh shit, Not prepared for this. I mean it was what I was looking for but still. Shit.

[Goblin level 15]

The goblin was already close and running with a wooden club held up above its head, screaming its little head off. He was a little surprised at his own speed as he took a quick step forward and thrust his spear straight into the chest of the charging goblin. It's scream cut off with a upturn of surprise. He stepped back and thrust twice more before it fell to the ground.

He felt a solid thud on the back of his right leg and it collapsed out from under him, sending him to one knee. He twisted around and saw another goblin rearing back to strike him on the head. Without shifting his legs he thrust his spear back with both hands, the butt slamming into the goblin's stomach and nocking it down. He stood and fully turned to see three more goblins following behind the one laying on the ground. He took several quick steps back and readied his spear.

He thrust out at the first to reach him, hitting center mass and sending it sprawling to the dirt. The next one got past him as he drew the spear back and slammed a club into his forearm. It hurt, but his grip on the spear was still firm. He shoved the goblin that hit him away with the spear outstretched and watched as an arrow impacted into his left shoulder. In the back the final goblin had taken up a tiny shortbow and was already knocking another arrow.

These little shits. Right through my magic shirt and everything. Guess this might not be as good as I thought it was.

He stabbed out with his spear at the goblin he had just pushed back and started to circle, trying to put that goblin, which he continued to stab, between him and the archer. The one on the ground had recovered and was now coming at him once again, joined by the one he stabbed earlier. They were shouting at each other with shrill voices, yelling things he couldn't understand.

He stepped forward and finished the goblin in front of him with two quick jabs to the neck and chest, just before the others arrived. He stepped back and to the right quickly as an arrow flew towards him. It was caught in the trailing end of his oversized shirt sleeve and now hung there as he stabbed out towards the pair of goblins in front of him. They were each dodging around him now and he was thrusting out wildly, trying to keep distance.

He scored a hit on the leg of the already wounded goblin, and that one went to the ground. He felt the burn of another arrow as it hit him in the left bicep this time. He could feel it digging deeper as he maneuvered his spear around for another thrust so he let the spear drop and pulled his hammer from his belt with his right hand. He stepped into the leading goblin's swing allowing the club to crack him on the side as he brought his hammer around to smash into the goblins skull. It cartwheeled to the left, hit the ground hard and did not move.

He advanced on the other goblin, who stood ready to meet him on a shaky leg. As its club came down he caught it with his left hand, and winced as he felt the arrows in that arm dig into his flesh. He brought his hammer around from left to right and smashed this goblin into the ground as well. Unfortunately that left him wide open to the final one holding a bow. He tried to jump to the side but wasn't quick enough at this distance as an arrow impacted the fleshy skin of his left side, just above the waist. He charged forward ignoring the pain as he brought his hammer down on the final goblin's head. It collapsed into the dirt and he felt just about ready to join it.

He was soaked in sweat and he couldn't hear anything through his heat pounding in his ears.

This was the fight I came to find I suppose. I was really expecting to have time to set up a binding circle or something though.

Shit.

First one was a distraction. Hiding behind that rock. The others must have been behind trees or something ahead of me. How far away did they see me to have set up this ambush? Shit.

He could feel the blood trickling out of him from the various arrow wounds, the little streams of warmth working their way down his body seemed to burn. The arrow wounds felt like little coals embedded into his skin, and when he looked down to examine them they appeared fairly shallow. The arrows themselves hung loosely in his clothes, having dug a few inches into his skin before being shaken free from the exertions of combat

Shockingly getting shot with an arrow wasn't that bad, all things considered. Doesn't seem like any of them went especially deep. None of the arrow heads fully pieced. Probably a benefit of the empowered clothing, but I'll bet increased vitality and scavenger's resilience have something to do with it. Hurts like hell though, and my shirt will be maroon by the time I get back to camp. Speaking of, Show Log

[Goblin level 15 defeated]

[Goblin level 17 defeated For defeating an opponent above your level you gain additional experience]

[Goblin level 16 defeated]

[Goblin level 14 defeated]

[Scavenger's Resiliance lvl 1-2]

[Goblin level 19 defeated. For defeating an opponent above your level you gain additional experience]

[Adaptive Weapon Mastery lvl 2-3]

[Scavenger leveled up]

HP: 300/370

Looks like I took about 30 points of damage per arrow, considering I got hit a couple times by those clubs as well. Honestly not bad. I could comfortably survive another one of those. Main question would be, could I get back to base afterwards?

Well, I know where to go for levels and combat practice now. It's getting dark, I'll head back and work on making some kind of armor while I rest tonight. I'll head back in this direction tomorrow morning and see how I do once I'm a little better prepared.

He checked over the goblin bodies. They were wearing what looked like a bunch of rabbit skins all sewn together to create little loincloth skirts. The clubs weren't much more than thick sticks but the bow he took, alongside the quiver which had five more arrows inside. He had never used a bow and this one seemed far too small for him, but he could use it as a base to try and make one that suited him better. A ranged option would be pretty nice to have, though working alone he probably wouldn't be able to use it without getting the drop on someone.

He headed back to camp with his new bow and arrows, some of which were still dangling from his shirt. He kept his head on a swivel until he made it back past where the large boulders started ,and even still he checked behind him periodically to make sure none of them had followed. When he made it back to camp he pushed the big blockade closed again. He had to use both hands and the effort reopened the scabbed over arrow wounds in his arm, but it was getting dark and he wasn't chancing leaving it open.

[Pain Resistance Skill Created]

[+1 Vitality for creating a resistance skill]

Oh shit look at that.

The throbbing in his arm weakened slightly, though it was definitely still distracting.

I didn't know that was a thing. I suppose Scavenger's Resilience is supposed to make getting resistances easier. If that stacks with the pioneer title I should be getting them left and right, though I suppose I haven't taken much damage. I wonder if I had some hidden xp building to that one from when that wolf bit through me. Not to mention pushing the boulder and all that physical work I've been doing. If I could get a soreness resistance by now I think I would've gotten one, though I guess pain resistance is probably as close as I'll ever get.

He sat down and collected up one of the clothes covering his sleeping pallet. He cut the oversized shirt into strips, one long strip for each of his wounds. He stripped off his shirt and washed them clean with river water, then wrapped the wounds. The pain spiked and the wounds began to bleed again but he was able to push through. They really weren't that deep anyways, it would've been a different story if the arrowheads had been able to dig in fully.

Now armor. That’s going to be a priority since a binding circle or two won't be worth much against numbers like that. I could probably hammer out a simple chest piece and backplate out of that iron. It might be tougher to figure out arm and leg covering though.

The chest armor is simple though. One for the front, one for the back, cut some holes across the top and use thin strips of wood empowered shut to bind them. Could punch holes in the sides of the armor as well and bind it together with wood strips there too. I'd have to cut myself out of it whenever I wanted to take it off though. Probably worth it. Some paper to draw plans on would be amazing right now.

Andrew sat by the fire and let his wounds heal a moment as he worked on plans for a set of armor. Being able to create closed loops with empower item made strapping all the various parts down possible without leather. The biggest issue he was encountering was the same one he had most times. He had no idea how to actually make armor, just vague ideas of what it was supposed to look like.

Okay, before I head out to conquer the goblins:

Chest and back plate.

Bracers for the forearms and biceps.

Leg armor for the calves.

Some kind of metal skirt for the thighs. It will be a lot easier to get on and off, and much simpler to design.

No one is around to see. A metal skirt is a perfectly valid strategic option. It'll even cover the knees.

A helmet would be ideal. The extreme curve seems difficult to produce though. Much more complicated than plates and curves. I'll leave that one for last and see if my blacksmithing skill levels by then. Maybe it'll kick in and help out a little. Or maybe I'll just figure it out on my own.

By the time he finished drawing up plans it was already starting to get dark. Andrew fired up the forge and got to work anyways. He started with the most important items on his list, the chest and back plates. He started by heating two ingots and hammering them together, then adding a third to the mass before flattening the entire piece out. He lengthened it out to about the distance from his waist to his shoulder, then began to give it a slight curve at the base to conform to his body. He pounded a slight crescent into the plate just under his shoulders to preserve mobility of his arms across his body.

He was continuously picking it up and trying to compare it against his body before realizing how stupid he was being. The metal was usually dimming from an orange glow when he did this and he may have lost more than a couple HP from proximity burns. When he was satisfied with the plate he set it to the side to cool and got started on the back plate.

The moon was high in the sky by the time he finished the back plate and he left both out to cool in the night air as he took out his saw and used it to carve long, thin strips of wood off the side of one of his boards. He took those and weighed them down in the river, hoping that soaking them overnight would increase their flexibility.

Then carefully used the tongs along side his chisel to punch holes across the top of both plates where they would hang off his shoulders and along the sides where they would be bound around his middle with the wood strips.

He then laid himself gingerly out on his sleeping pallet. There was more exposed wood now that he had removed one of the shirts to make bandages, but he supposed that was a necessary sacrifice. His wounds still throbbed slightly, but they felt better than when he washed them earlier. If it was anything like the wolf bite he should be fine in the morning. He stretched out under the stars and enjoyed the fading heat from the nearby forge as he drifted off to sleep.