The night's rest wasn't quite as awkward as Andrew had imagined. The pallet was large enough for them all to fit comfortably, and the ferns that Shelby had found yesterday made for a minor improvement in comfort. Everyone woke up rash free as well, big win there.

Alright. First things first, check out new scavenger skills, see if I can read more of that rune book, make a new priority list based off of useful discoveries from either of those, throw out the list and work on whatever is interesting, stop wasting time, get out of bed.

Andrew stretched out on the ferns and eventually convinced himself to climb up and off of the pallet. Kalan and Shelby were up already, stretching and meandering around the camp. Kalan was digging in the cold box Andrew had put together before they went to bed last night. By the look of the slightly stiff slabs Kalan was pulling out it was still working out alright. Shelby was checking on the hide she had weighed down in the river. She gave the hairs a couple light tugs before submerging it once again.

Andrew sat on the edge of one of the rock tables and took stock of his skill options.

Scavenger Skills

Available Skills:

[Material Sense: Expand your senses gaining information on the general quantity and quality of materials around you. Can be narrowed to increase range and precision.

Mana Sense: Expand your senses gaining information on the density and flow of mana around you. Can be narrowed to increase range and precision.

Delve Item: Saturate an item with your mana, examining it in its entirety. You gain knowledge on the intended use of this item and may learn the methods of its construction or operation.

Sense Weakness: You gain insight into the construction of items and structures. You area able to sense the weak points of items within your sight and sufficient observation may highlight additional weaknesses.

Minor Translation: By studying and cycling your mana through a piece of written language, you can gain understanding of it's contents and the writers intent.

Identification: Your innate powers of identification grow in strength to better assess the value of items or quality of threats. You gain more information from creatures you identify and can identify some items and materials.

Siphon Affinity: Your connection with multiple affinities allows you to draw the natural affinities of one non living material or item into another. Some affinity will be lost and some objects may be damaged or destroyed from this process.

Scavenger Skill Points: 2]

Not an easy decision this time either. Shit. Okay, priorities. Mana and material sense, both still good, both still boring. Delve item, still haven't found anything unknown to use it on, maybe the book, but I'm more interested in its contents than its creation. Sense weakness, not useful yet, probably. Minor Translation, has potential to be amazing or useless, it depends heavily on the written contents of that book. Identification, more information is always helpful, item information would provide an amazing baseline for the value and quality of the items I produce. Siphon Affinity. Very interesting, seems to only be available to me because of my apparent multiple affinities. Not sure of the benefits of affinities on materials, but this skill would allow me to experiment, has a decent chance of improving the qualities of my grenades or mana accumulation based equipment. Which is all of it.

Shit.

Okay, Minor Translation, Identification, Siphon Affinity.

Following the 'rarer is better' logic, siphon affinity would be the 'strongest' option. Identification is a really good safe option. Minor Translation is very situationally helpful, but I am in the exact most useful situation for the skill.

Fuck it.

[Siphon Affinity Skill Gained]

[Minor Translation Skill Gained]

Andrew looked up. Shelby and Kalan were both sitting around a newly made fire. They were alternating between watching a fresh stew cook and looking over at him.

"What? I was just picking out some new skills, what are you guys looking at me for?"

"Well, given that we just arrived out here, and have spent the last few weeks in a work camp, and are staying in your camp, we were wondering what we should do." Kalan answered, looking away slightly.

"What do you mean? We talked about it just last night right? Practice for storming that hobgoblin camp. Shelby the bow is over there on the weapon pile, just pick it up and try doing some target practice or something. Kalan you'll be with me on the front lines, so practice with that firebolt and pick out one of those hobgoblin blades. Swing it around for a day or two and see if you can get any skills with it. I'll do some sparring or something with you later, but I need to read a book right now." Andrew said.

Shit, I mean we talked about this all last night. Why are they asking me about it?

Shelby immediately got up and started walking to the weapon pile. "Ah yeah! You're right, I was just. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything else."

"Sorry about that." Kalan gave Andrew a sheepish smile from where he was seated by the cauldron, "The camps were a little rougher than I might've let on. I guess we've just gotten used to constant direction. It feels a little strange to think I could just do anything I want, even after only a few weeks there." Kalan stood and began dicing up some of the carrots and potatoes for the stew. "We need to be staying busy out here, you're right. Time wasted out here is just more time the people in there are being worked or killed. We might need some help to stay on track, sorry. I won't get mad at you if you badger me a little."

"I- Yeah, I suppose I can help you guys out, just lemme know if you need a minute to rest. I didn't think about how hard that might've been. Can't help break anyone out if you work yourselves to death out here." Andrew said. "Uh, just lemme know when the stews done and we can meet back up and go over, like, a daily schedule or something."

"No problem man, stew'll be done in half an hour or so." Kalan said, not looking up from his dicing.

Andrew stood and headed over to the chest he had recovered forever ago. He popped it open and pulled out his rune book.

First things first, see how far into the book I can read, figure out if there are new runes I can use. Step two, see if I can translate any of this with my new skill.

He flipped through the pages detailing the runes he had already put into use, trying to gauge the building headache. The water rune at the end was significantly easier to tolerate than it had been when he first opened the book. He hoped that boded well for the following pages.

With a deep breath he flipped to the next page.

His head began to pound, but it wasn't close to the stomach twisting, blinding nausea inducing headache it induced in him before. This page held a rune and connector rune repeated with slight alterations each time. The rune was one of the simplest so far. A closed diamond shape with a line running from point to point and crossing in the center. The connector rune was a familiar pair of parallel lines, curving uniformly from one symbol to the next with several lines connecting them in between. There were four versions of the rune and connector pair on the page. Each one changed the number, density, angle, and shape of the lines connecting the connector runes. The lines crossing the main rune's interior also changed from straight to jagged, to curved. One image had two parallel lines flowing from one direction to the another with a single line intersecting them. Another had just the two parallel lines, and no intersecting line.

This time there were no pictures accompanying the runes, and no examples of completed circles.

I can read it at least, but this is clearly getting more complex, seems like a bunch of variations on one rune. Not sure what it does at all.

Andrew flipped to the next page and he started to hear his heartbeat in his ears. His nose and eyes were watering.

The page had a full circle this time, and significantly more text.

Each rune that made up the circle had the same general shape. A spiral formed from diamonds connected by three sharp zig-zaging, intercrossing lines. Each rune slightly altered the density of the connecting lines, the symbol or lack thereof within the diamond, and the number of diamonds that made up the spiral. The connecting runes of the circle looked like the connector runes from the last page, but bent into similar zigzags. These were altered in the same way the previous connector runes were as well.

Strangely the completed circle had a third connector rune attached to the spiral runes on opposite sides of the circle. These connector runes were the same as the connector runes from the last page. Straight lines with connectors inbetween.

Okay, shit. No pictures. Think. Damn reading hurts. Not important. This circle looks related to the connectors from last time. Also, super complicated. Also, looks like there are a bunch of versions? Or the circle is an asshole and made up of eight distinct runes and eight distinct connecting runes that all need to be laid in a very specific pattern. Which would be almost as dickish as making your book even more of a headache to read. Not important. Lots of text, Great practice for the translation skill of dubious quality. Next page, Lets go.

Andrew flipped to the next page. He began to sweat. The nausea was finally here, and the earth felt like it was rolling beneath him. He could smell copper, and his mouth was simultaneously too dry and constantly filling with saliva. He tried to power through and focus on the page. His vision was going double and he did his best to separate the complex symbols on the page from the text that seemed to fill every other surface of the page.

Damn. No pictures on this one either.

There was…… one rune on this page. Probably. And a connector. And a either a complete circle, or another, more complex rune. He did his best to ignore his body and focus on the content. His vision began to fuzz white around the edges and the pounding of his heartbeat faded as a sharp whine began to fill his ears.

Definitely a full circle, and this one looked like it was connected to the connecting runes from the first page as well. He felt warm tears sliding down his face and when one flowed into the corner of his mouth he tasted copper.

He slammed the book shut, closed his eyes, and fell onto his back in the dirt, welcoming the return of the pounding in his head. It felt safer than that high pitched whine.

Yep. Okaay. Loss of vision. Loss of hearing. Blood tears. Two pages is more than enough. Don't even know if I can use any of those. Don't even have any idea what any of those do. Don't even know if the damage from pushing that hard is permanent. Still though, really showed that book how badass I am. Bet it's super impressed with me right now. Just ready to divulge all it's secrets out of pure awe. Fuck that hurts.

"Hey are you alright man?" Kalan called from above.

Andrew opened his eyes and winced at the brightness of the sun above.

"You were out for like fifteen after reading that book, and you have blood all over your face. What even is that thing?"

"It's fine, just, a little light reading. It's where I learned how to make all those circles. Super strong magic stuff. Super worth it. Didn't expect the bloody eyes. Just, gimme a few more minutes to get my bearings." Andrew replied, closing his eyes again.

"Sure no problem, Stews done but it'll stay plenty warm over the fire. Shelby's still doing target practice so I'll just move on to swinging one of those swords around. Lemme know when you're up to eat." Kalan said walking off in the direction of the weapon pile.

He could faintly hear a thunk, thunk, thunk, followed by the crunch of gravel as Shelby collected her arrows from the side of the wagon.

Probably better for the arrows than shooting them at the wall. I should make a target or something.

Fuck my head hurts.

Why did I decide to do this before eating again? I don't know if I'll stop feeling sick all day.

It turns out he only felt sick for twenty minutes or so, and his headache abated soon after he finished up sharing the stew with Shelby and Kalan. They were once again seated on the various stone tables surrounding the campfire.

"So, how did your skill training for the morning go?" Andrew asked.

"I got Archery! It went straight to level 2, and I bet I could get it way higher if I worked on it for the rest of the day. We should be able to take on that camp any day now." Shelby said. She had piled her bow and quiver of arrows on the table beside her, and had stolen glances at them the entire time they ate.

"I haven't made any progress so far, but I want to try longer before moving on to something else. Now that we're somewhere safer I do want to try and get a really good class." Kalan said.

"Excellent, I might've learned something useful, but I'm not sure yet. So, schedules. We're nowhere strong enough to fight the hobgoblins head on right now. I say we practice as much as we can, and try to gather more allies as soon as the next caravan rolls through, we can test ourselves against the hobgoblins there to get a feel for what we'll be dealing with at the camp. Do either of you know how often those caravans leave?" Andrew said.

"I think they sent one every two weeks. We only saw three go out while we were there including the first one." Shelby said.

"Alright, so last one was yesterday. We practice as hard as we can for the next week. You two try to build as many combat skills as you can. I find it best to try what comes naturally, we don't have the leeway to experiment right now. After a week we'll start practicing near the road and keeping an eye out for caravans. Shelby you try to work your way up to hunting boars with that bow. I'll make Kalan a shield soon so you can try covering for her while she does. You might get a blocking skill or something out of it. I'm going to be working on my rune experiments and making armor for you two this week. I'll jump in on sparring once we head out to the road next week. Sound good?" Andrew said.

Kalan and Shelby both quickly agreed and went back to experimenting with their new weapons.

This is starting to feel like a group project or something, just with way higher stakes. I really hope they'll be someone at this camp with some real survival or leadership experience, I don't know if I'll be able to take the lead on things forever.

Andrew sat down with the book once again. This time he started to channel mana through the book. It was surprisingly receptive and mana flowed through it almost like other items he had empowered. This time he just wanted to get a feel for flowing mana through the book before he tried out his skill.

He flipped to the first page with the binding rune on it and tried activating it. Empower Item was the only other skill that felt as, active, as this one did. He instinctively knew to flow his mana through the pages, feel for minute changes in the density and flow and somehow his brain interpreted those changes.

Whoever wrote this book was very proud, very confident in their skill, and very intent on passing on the culmination of their research.

He could only get bits and pieces, the script still looked like gibberish to him, but he could get the weirdest sense that he knew what they were trying to say. Like he had known what they said in a dream and was trying to drag the memories back out from the dregs of sleep.

This binding circle was one of their finest creations. An original. It used the creators mana to pull in and solidify pure mana within the circle as soon as a creature entered it's space, including the mana within the creature. It therefore bypassed most resistances and was capable of binding even very powerful creatures for a short time. There was an implication that this circle was incomplete and would be capable of much more with further insights.

Whatever that meant.

Well that was very telling about whoever made this book. And further cements my decision to pick something related to this as my catalyst. I know most of what the elemental circles do, I'll skip those and see if I can figure anything out about these other runes.

Andrew skipped to the new runes and ignored the return of the headache. He pulsed mana through the book and activated his skill once again.

This runepair was a 'bridge'. The rune could replace almost any other rune in a circle. It could then connect one circle to another, by replacing one of the runes in that circle with another bridge and the bridge connectors. The connectors could be altered to change the percentage of mana that was passed from one circle to another, or add a hard cap to the amount passed on to the next circle, by altering the form of the connecting lines. The lines had to be additionally adjusted based on the type of circle that the connector was flowing from and to. The page was filled with complex information detailing the alterations of the connector runes to produce specific effects.

This would let me fill a grenade with a specific ratio of energy through only a single connection point. I'm sure it will also come in handy for larger scale projects in the future as well. Alright, next.

The second runepair was far more interesting. It was designed to act almost like a battery. Mana flowed into it and was held there for a specific amount of time before being released, and it could be altered in all kinds of ways. There were changes to the amount of mana transferred, how quickly, what type, after a delay, after a certain threshold, the combinations of rune and connector alterations were endless.

Wow. This page is easily the most valuable. I'm sure its useful for all kinds of things, but at the very least I should be able to charge my grenades with a fuse of sorts, and throw them comfortably. That’s a huge plus and makes that into an entirely viable fighting strategy.

My head is pounding though, so I'll stop there. I'll give my head a break from all these complicated runes and get started on some armor instead. I can work on grenade prototypes tomorrow after my head has had a chance to rest. I want to try to get a profession soon anyways.

Andrew set the book aside in the chest for the day and started to warm up the forge instead.

Priorities

Shield for Kalan.

Armor for Kalan.

Armor for Shelby.

Inscriptions for each.

New rune combination experiments.

It only took him an hour to get the shield finished, and by the time the sun was beginning to set Andrew had finished the chest and back plate, the upper and lower arm armor, and the leg guards.

[+ 1 Strength for performing physical labor that pushes your limits]

[+ 1 Strength for performing physical labor that pushes your limits]

[Blacksmithing lvl 6-7]

[+ 1 Dexterity for performing precise work]

Andrew had taken several breaks over the course of the day to check in with the others and get Kalan's measurements. Kalan had taken up practicing swinging the sword with one hand and shield in the other, occasionally dropping his sword and firing several bolts of flame at a time.

He had spent the day practicing almost non-stop and said he gained vitality, dexterity, intelligence and strength points from the practice, so apparently it was effective. He also gained a sword and shield mastery skill, though neither had advanced beyond the first level so far.

Shelby's archery skill advanced to level 4 late in the day, but didn't advance any further. She had gained dexterity and strength points, but took more frequent breaks than Kalan, and didn't seem to gain any vitality. When it was clear her archery skill had leveled out for the moment, she headed off into the forest to try and track down another boar. Kalan accompanied her and the two had been gone for a little while.

Andrew submerged a bundle of wooden strips in the river to be used as extra straps for Kalan's armor and stood, drying his hands on his shirt.

Alright. Armor for Kalan almost done. Won't be able to finish the skirt until the strips are done so a pause on that. Have a few options now. Inscribe Kalan's armor, experiment with new runes, experiment with explosive mana use.

Probably a no on explosions while Kalan and Shelby are out in the forest. Might be able to improve the armor I give to Kalan if I can figure out new uses for Runes, so rune experimentation it is.

Definitely not just doing this because it's more interesting. Scratching the same three circles a hundred times is super exciting. Just doing it because it's more efficient. For sure.

Andrew headed out of the crevice axe in one hand, chisel in the other. The tree he felled the other day was right where he left it, though it now sported several arrows in varying clumps, and was slightly singed on one side. He cut a couple of six inch thick circular slices off the bottom of the tree and lined them up in front of him.

He pulled the book out and looked at the new runes again. The more he looked at them, the more manageable the headache was. As long as he didn't stray to the next page he was confident he could copy down the contents of the two new pages.

He carved a fire circle on the first wood slice, replacing one of the runes in the circle with a bridge rune. He had to reference the page with his Minor Translation skill several times to make sure he was altering the bridge rune to fit to the fire mana circle properly. He then carved a water, and air circle, repeating the process. The air circle had two bridge runes connecting the fire and water circles. He then began the process of carving the bridge connector runes. These had to be inscribed very precisely in order to transfer a specific amount of mana, and adjusted to only transfer the 'pure' mana that powered the circle rather than the altered mana generated by the circle. He adjusted the circle so that 60% of the mana that entered the fire circle was transferred to the air circle, and 50% of the mana that entered the air circle was transferred to the water circle. Leading to a breakdown of 40% fire, 30% air, 30% water total mana distribution.

[+ 1 Dexterity for preforming precise work]

[Mana Inscription lvl 6-7]

[Rune Inscription lvl 5-6]

[Rune Modification lvl 1-2]

[+ 1 Dexterity for performing precise work]

Finally. Found a way to increase that rune modification skill. I bet getting that really high is my best bet at getting a really powerful catalyst based on these runes. Also, this takes forever but is apparently really good for my skill leveling. Might just be a one time thing, but given how difficult it is to get right I wouldn't be surprised if I can gain quite a few skill levels working on these new runes.

Kalan and Shelby had arrived in the clearing carrying another boar shortly after Andrew began work on the trio of circles. They had finished skinning and butchering the boar and had long since returned to the camp inside of the little valley when it became clear he would be hunched over the log slice working for a long time.

Andrew stood and returned to the camp to grab a length of rope, which he cut to about 30 feet. He sat with it for a moment and empowered it to carry mana before he called out to the other two.

"Hey guys! Wanna see something explode maybe?" Andrew shouted.

They were in the middle of practicing with their weapons, and both were quick to agree to a break and huddle behind the wall where Andrew crouched holding the rope.

He had used a nail to secure it to the log and touching only the fire circle. He peeked out through the crack at the log as he began to push mana through the rope. Kalan and Shelby stood stacked up behind him also peering out of the crack.

The circle took a hundred points of mana before exploding this time. The circles had been glowing when the slice of log suddenly cracked. The crack filled with flame not a moment later and the log exploded outward in a cloud of first flame, then sizzling steam, which expanded in a wave around where the slice had been sitting just before.

Andrew felt a wave of hot moisture hit his face through the crack, but at this distance it felt more like opening the door to a sauna than the heat of a boiling steam explosion.

"Whoa, that was awesome" Kalan said still staring out at the dissipating cloud.

"Yeah seriously, that was how you killed those hobgoblins then?" Shelby asked.

"Basically yeah, though I was experimenting with a different mix. More shrapnel on that one." Andrew said as he pointed out the pieces of stone still embedded in the wall they were hiding behind. "I think I'll build another wall if I start testing those again, and we definitely won't be looking through the crack at them." He chuckled.

The rope was mostly unharmed, and he got to work on his next experiment as Kalan and Shelby discussed the creation of dinner behind him. Apparently the cold box wasn't working well with Kalan's mana. Something about his increased fire affinity was preventing him from powering it as efficiently as Andrew had been able to do. Shelby had managed to gain the mana control skill and begin flowing her mana into the circle though, and create enough to continue to preserve their growing boar meat reserves.

He carved the same three rune circles on this log, but with some small modifications. The fire rune at the beginning had two bridge runes in it's circle, with the first connected to a new circle. This one was made up of the spiraling battery circle. He spent a long time trying to decipher the correct rune alterations to make to the battery circle, as there were a massive amount of combinations, some of which he couldn't understand at all. He eventually figured out how to tune the circle to contain pure mana until he pushed a certain amount of mana into the circle. The mana would then very slowly trickle through the battery connector runes into the bridge rune inserted into the circle. When the mana finally made a full connection to the bridge rune it would then all transfer at full speed into the bridge rune and out through the rest of the circles. It would effectively act as a circle he could pump mana into, which would then release into the rest of the circles it was connected to after a delay.

[Rune Modification lvl 2-3]

[Rune Inscription lvl 6-7]

[+ 1 Dexterity for performing precise work]

He pumped another hundred mana into the delay circle then sprinted back to the crevice and hid behind the wall. He sat and waited there, staring at the log. He had set it for almost the maximum possible delay, but he wasn't sure exactly how long that would be.

A minute passed.

Five.

Kalan and Shelby had almost finished preparing the stew.

Ten minutes passed and Andrew saw no signs of change from the slice of log.

Shit. I really have no idea how long that's going to take to go off. What if it takes days? We can't exactly go out there with a bomb on our front step. Shit. I really should've tested this with something simple first. Like a firestarter or something. But nooo. Had to be a bomb. Always a bomb.

The stew was finished and he regretfully separated himself from the crack leading to the outside and sat to eat with the others.

I really hope that thing goes off soon. I don't want to have to explain to them why none of us can go outside anymore. Andrew thought as he ate bits of meat and vegetables off a wooden skewer.

A *Fwhump* followed by a hiss echoed through the night.

[Goblin level 13 defeated]

[Goblin level 15 defeated]

[Goblin level 16 defeated]

[Goblin level 12 defeated]

Oh good, it went off, don't need to worry about that anymore.

Wait.

What?

"Shit guys, I think we're under attack!" Andrew shouted as he stood and discarded his skewer, heading to where his armor was laid out and beginning to strap it on.

"Wait was it that explosion that just went off? I assumed that was you." Kalan stood as well and grabbed his sword and shield from where they sat nearby.

Shelby was on her feet as well, quiver never taken off, bow instantly in hand.

"It was my explosion yeah, but it's not that. I was testing a delayed explosion type thing. It went off but apparently just took four goblins with it. I'm pretty sure there'll be more outside, and they definitely won't be just skulking around after that!" Andrew finished assembling his armor and grabbed his hammer, spear, and shield.

He turned to see three or four goblins clambering over the wall, and another squeezing through the crack Andrew had left open. They were all armed with daggers and bows, and he could hear the shouting of more pounding on the wall behind. A bolt of flame streaked from Kalan's outstretched hand and impacted one as it fell to the dirt on their side of the wall, just to be replaced by another.

Well shit. I guess karma from hunting those lil guys down a few days back has finally caught up to me.