Andrew spent the remainder of the day working on armor for Shelby. It was the third set of armor he had made and he felt he was getting quite good at it. By the time the evening meal was ready he had finished forging the breastplate, backplate, and leg guards. He set aside the final piece to join the others around the campfire.

As he approached Kalan offered him a square wooden plate of boar steak, potatoes and carrots. Shelby was already seated, using a dagger and skewer to cut up pieces of her own steak, on a similar plate.

"Where did these come from?" Andrew said, accepting the plate and sitting on a stool near the fire. "Did you already get tired of making stew every night?"

Kalan laughed "biscuits in the morning and stew in the evening every day is far better food than what we got in the mines, but yes. I'd rather we changed things up a little, even if all the ingredients are the same. I carved out the plates just a few hours earlier. Thought it would be nice to have some more options with our food, and I don't think my cooking skill will level much more if all I cook is stew."

Andrew ate his steak appreciatively as he listened. It was quite good, much better than what he had prepared for himself earlier, and not only because of the addition of the wild roots Kalan had found.

"I'm pretty sure you're right about that, that cooking skill levels more with variation I mean. It seems like all my rune inscription skills level faster when I'm working on something new. Same with blacksmithing, I made half of Shelby's armor today and didn't get any increases, but I got like three when making my own. And hey, more variation is good for us too. I could probably survive on boar stew for months, but it's so much nicer to have someone here who actually knows how to cook." Andrew said, between bites.

"Hey I know how to cook! And I personally couldn't survive on boar stew for months. So thank you Kalan, for cooking tonight." Shelby said "Anyways what do you know how to do Andrew? Sorry that was rude, but, you get so focused whenever you're working on something, and we only ever talk about future plans at meals. I've already heard all about Kalan and his cooking and kids and stuff."

"Wait you have kids Kalan? When did that happen? Whatever, sorry, but yeah, you're right, I do tend to get, a little…. I ignore stuff a lot when I'm working on something. Always been an issue for me, just like, shout a bunch if you want to get my attention or talk or whatever." Andrew said, setting his empty plate aside. "I honestly don't have a lot of skills that would apply out here. I grew up in middle class suburbia, went to college for computer programming for a few years, um, then worked some odd jobs. Delivering pizza, unloading mail trucks, merchandising grocery stores, things like that. I've only gotten as far as this out here by being a bit of a nerd. I watched a some blacksmithing videos growing up, and most of the games I've played have leveling systems like this in them."

He was leaned over, studying his hands and tracing small patterns in the dirt below with his boot.

"I don't have any kids, thankfully, but a brother, sister, and dad, out there somewhere. I don't really know how this whole thing works. If we were the only ones taken, or if it was everyone on earth, or what, but I'd like to get back to them, make sure they're alright. I'm sorry, that got a little off topic. I just, I usually work to get my mind off of…. things, so it might be a little difficult to reach me sometimes."

"Oh no, yeah that’s alright! You've made us a lot of really helpful stuff! Without you we'd be god knows where, chained up by those hobgoblins. I just wanted to learn more about you, since we're all in this together and all." Shelby said, in a tone that held more consolation than Andrew felt was necessary for the moment. "I'll make sure to yell next time we're taking a break. I'm a middle child by the way, an older brother and older sister, and a pair of younger brothers. And I really hope its just us out here. I really miss them, but I don't think my brothers would survive a second out in these woods. They'd probably try to beat the snot out of one of those hobgoblins barehanded first time they see someone in chains."

They all laughed and continued to talk, sharing stories of home. Kalan shared the antics of line cooks and restaurant dramas, while Shelby shared stories of sibling rivalries and working for her family's print shop. Andrew livened up quickly, and joined them in swapping stories of odd jobs or college parties. They talked around the fire late into the night, and made no discussion of the work that would be done ahead, instead reveling in memories of the world they lost.

When Andrew awoke next morning he felt better rested than he had in weeks. He took first watch the night before, and had mostly busied himself inscribing the armor he made for Shelby that day. The stories told around the campfire last night were a reprieve he sorely needed.

I guess I can't just ignore all those thoughts forever. Work helps, but it was good to talk about family, about home. Paranoia from that last goblin attack is just starting to wear off now too, maybe they've labeled us just as dangerous as that bear, and decided to leave us alone for the moment.

Andrew stood and stretched. Shelby was up, she had the last watch and she was already up and inspecting the hides she was working on yesterday. She had a little ceramic pot, filled with murky liquid that she was rubbing on the hides with a square of cloth. Kalan was still asleep.

Andrew was halfway through warming up the forge and preparing his tools before he stopped, and decided to finish inscribing what he armor he had already forged.

There are other people here now, remember. Can't just start hammering away at the crack of dawn. Give Kalan a chance to sleep first.

He spent most of the morning at work, finishing up Shelby's armor. All of the metal pieces were forged before midday, and he would have to give them some more time to cool before he set about inscribing them.

[Blacksmithing lvl 8-9]

While he waited he got to work on turning more stones into little mana grenades. He was following the most effective pattern he had experimented with so far. Four circles, a delay circle, a fire circle, an air circle, and an earth circle. He managed to carve one of these on a previous nights watch. By the time they were all getting ready for the evening meal once again, he had a total of six finished. Each one was designed to hold a charge for five seconds before going off, and were light enough to be easily thrown.

[Rune Modification lvl 4-5]

[Rune Inscription lvl 7-8]

[Mana Inscription lvl 6-7]

[+1 Dexterity for performing Precise work]

Andrew set aside his latest stone to join the others for a meal. It was stew again, but this time Kalan added a couple handfuls of a green herb he had gathered earlier. Andrew accepted a wooden bowl, and deep spoon, and sat at a stone table which had been moved closer to the fire.

Kalan was busy today. Shelby really is right that I don't pay enough attention to what's going on around me when I work. How did I not notice him moving a whole table?

"So, uh, progress for the day. What have you two been up to while my head was stuck between two rocks and an inscription chisel?" Andrew asked, before stuffing his mouth with the ever improving stew.

"Sure thing boss, got my sword mastery up to level three, shield is still sitting at one though. Don't think that'll increase outside of combat. Decided to check around the forest, we were running low on roots so I went out and collected more of those. Found some herbs I recognized too, and created the herbology skill. It should tell me what's edible and what's poisonous out here, but its still only level two, so I'm not sure how far I trust it. Everything in the stew is stuff I already recognize." Kalan said. "Shelby helped me move the table, and I made the bowls and spoons too, just feels better to me than crowding around the pot and spearing bits out."

"I finished working on the hides. They'll still need to smoke overnight, but after that, we should have a little bit of leather to work with. Maybe make some backpacks, or clothing that actually fits right." Shelby said, picking at the baggy cloth with a frown. "I've also been working on my archery, its up to level five now. I've been practicing with that crystal too. My mana control skill is up to level two, but I haven't been able to use it for anything else. I think.. I'm going to pick out one of those classes pretty soon, it feels like I'm not working on anything, just shooting arrows."

"Yeah, that may be a good idea, we'll want to be really comfortable with the skills we have before we go try and break more people out of that camp. I think we should all have a class picked out at least a few days before then. I think I'm going to grab a catalyst pretty soon too. I don't think I'll be able to avoid it for much longer, but I'm close to level ten in blacksmithing, and I want to see what my profession options are first. I finished your armor by the way Shelby. Should be all ready to go by now. I've also developed those explosive runes a bit further. We should have a bunch of what are essentially grenades ready for when we storm the place. We'll need to be carful of friendly fire, but they should be quite effective." Andrew said, reaching around to place one of the carved stones on the table. "They won't help us much when we try to take the next caravan that passes because of the potential for friendly fire, so once we have a healthy supply I think I'll work on finding ways to apply these runes differently. Some way to make our weapons more effective, something like what I did with Kalan's sword." Andrew said.

They chatted for a little longer before heading to bed. Andrew took his customary first watch, and started to work on carving another grenade. His eyes were beginning to droop and he could feel himself fading near the warm well stocked campfire. The smell of burning wood filling his nostrils. He was just about to shake Kalan awake when he heard a squeak echo through the canyon.

He pulled himself to his feet and dropped the stone to the dirt. He tried to shake himself awake. He picked up his spear from where it sat leaning against the nearby rock, and crept as quietly as he could towards the wall that protected their crevice. As he approached he could hear muffled voiced, high in pitch, speaking unfamiliar language. There were a lot of them.

Shit. Really? Shit. Okay, gotta wake up the others, get armor on. As long as they don't know we know they're there, they might delay attacking us.

He crept his way back to their sleeping pallet and leaned over Kalan and Shelby, lightly shaking the both of them.

"Hey, we have a problem. I think there are a bunch of goblins just outside of our door. Get up, get your armor on. Be quiet, they don’t know we're awake." Andrew whispered.

Kalan went from groggy reluctance to anxious awareness far faster than Andrew managed, but Shelby beat them both. She jolted straight up the moment he mentioned 'a problem' and had to put her hands over her mouth to stifle a curse.

Andrew stood and moved to where the armor was laid out on a table, creeping from whole stone to dirt patch, to whole stone, trying to avoid the gravel that littered their valley and stay as quiet as possible. The sight of the three of them moving in exaggerated slow motion while crossing to the table would've been funny in any other situation. When he reached the table he began assembling his armor, occasionally handing a piece off to Shelby or Kalan.

Andrew was about halfway through getting his armor on when Shelby grabbed his arm and pointed towards the barricade. A bright orange light flared through the cracks of the boarded wall, and little wisps of orange fire crawled their way up between the gaps. After about a second the light dissipated again.

Oh no. That might not be goblins. That looked like magic. That’s really bad.

"Keep going, keep going. Faster" he whispered, and continued assembling his armor at an even faster pace.

The flames were increasing in both frequency and duration, as they began to focus less on stealth and more on speed. Andrew was just pulling on his helm when the last burst of fire ceased. The gaps between boards were distinctly wider now. A chorus of thuds echoed out as half a dozen axe blades bit into the charred wall.

"Shit guys they're not messing around out there. That wall's on its last legs, only reason it lasted this long is because it's pumped full of mana. I'm going to toss two grenades out past the wall. That might be enough to break it the rest of the way open, Kalan you start sending as much fire as you've got through the second that happens, same to you with arrows Shelby. I'll try and deal with anything that makes it through, after that we'll fall back the same stuff we did before." Andrew whispered this out before shifting his spear under one arm, and stacking several of the grenades under the other.

He stepped about midway between the campfire and the wall as the chorus of axeblades continued to widen the gaps. When little hands began to reach in and pull bits of board away Andrew pushed mana into both stones, and tossed them over.

One

Two

They fell past view, a short distance beyond the wall.

Andrew raised his shield and dropped behind it.

Thr-

A loud crack and a burst of light flashed through the splintered holes of the barricade, before the barricade itself split open and tumbled in to the crevice in several pieces. A cluster of little bodies were thrown into the crevice alongside the wood shards and he heard an authoritative voice cut through the shouting, all in that same unfamiliar language.

A ball of fire sped past his right side and illuminated the scene in front of him for a split second before impact. There was an absolute crowd of goblins visible through the crevice that led into their valley. There were corpses strewn along the entrance and ground outside, but more were rushing in from out of sight to fill the gaps. He could see a goblin standing on something that elevated them above the crowd, wearing a menagerie of bones across their shoulders. Its head was encased in a disturbingly humanlike skull and it raised a short femur like staff tipped with a tiny red jewel and pointed it in their direction.

FUCK. That's bad.

The ball of fire hit the center of the crowd and washed outwards, knocking several goblins to the ground. Andrew dropped his spear and crouched behind his shield as he scooped up another two grenades. He was knocked backwards and down as a wall of searing heat slammed into his shield. He curled up behind the shield and covered as much of his body as possible as he was pushed across the ground by the force of the column of flame.

He could feel his armor heating up around him, and sweat began to suffuse his clothing as the intense heat pushed against him. His shield arm was burning, he could feel the intense heat building more and more in the metal of his armguard, and the cloth in the gap near his elbow was almost entirely burnt away already.

The heat vanished for a moment and Andrew jumped to his feet and tried to see the situation beyond the spots in his eyes. Fireball after fireball streaked out from behind him, and the crowd of goblins seemed to struggle to climb over their fallen brethren before another knocked them off their feet to become a new obstacle for those behind them. A few were climbing up from the edge of the pile, only to be struck down by a well placed arrow.

Still have time.

The goblin who sat above the rest looked down on him, and glanced at the now fiercely glowing ruby attached to its staff.

Maybe.

Andrew charged another grenade and threw it, aiming directly for the raised goblin. It fell short, landing in the crowd below its feet. Andrew ducked behind his shield as the gem dimmed and the goblin pointed their staff at him once more. He was better prepared for it this time, and managed to stay on his feet as the beam hit. The crack of an explosion went off and the force of the beam subsided, Andrew peeked out to see the beam fire up into the sky before winking out. The crowd was on its ass once more, and this time there were far fewer goblins rushing in to fill the space. Andrew charged the next grenade.

It landed in the center of the crowd just as it was reforming, and exploded outwards, once again. Kalan continued to launch balls of fire into the mass of writhing bodies that filled the crevice leading into their valley, illuminating the carnage like a fucked up strobe light.

The metal armguard of Andrew's shield arm burned through the cloth of his empowered sleeve and he suddenly became aware of the searing metal pressing into his skin. He forced himself to release the white knuckled grip he held on the burning metal handle of the shield and ignored the way his skin stuck as he dropped it. The wood straps that bound his arm guard to his arm were burnt away and so he simply shook his arm to relive himself of the burning metal. An all too familiar burn was already settling in all along the length of his arm, and the skin of his face and right shoulder.

Pain resistance Pain resistance Pain Resistance Pain resistance Pain resistance Pain Resistance.

Andrew dropped his spear and grabbed one of the nearby torches, lighting it in the camp fire. He slowly approached the crevice, keeping a wide berth of Kalan's literal firing line. The smell of cooking meat overpowered the charred wood, and he had instant flashbacks to the bear cooking incident. He waved a hand for Kalan to stop and peeked stepped around the corner, torch held aloft.

The river flowed up and over it's banks, seeping pink liquid out and into the crowd of bodies beyond. There was no sign of the planks he had laid out across the river when he first moved in. A pile of goblin bodies filled the river now, and were plenty thick enough to facilitate crossing. They were wearing pelts and furs, far more than the ones who had attacked previously, and he could see flashes of metal reflected in the crowd that carpeted the area around the crevice entrance. Some goblins were pulling themselves to their feet at the edges of pile, looking around with bleary eyes at the torchlight. Andrew felt his stomach turning and bile rise in his throat.

He stepped back from the sight and was readying himself to add boar stew to the river when a bright light flashed and searing heat slammed into his chest. Puke streamed in an arc away from him as he was knocked backwards off his feet and onto his ass.

He spit as much of it out of his mouth as he could and rolled to his hands and knees, yelling "Fire! Kalan more fire!"

Another streak of flame was already on its way into the crowd as Andrew crawled out of sight of the crevice, puking again. The metal of his chest armor wasn't hit for nearly as long as his shield, but the heat pressing against his chest was far from comforting. He sprawled onto his back and dropped the torch, before snaking a hand inside and feeling for the water mana rune. He pulsed mana into it until the warmth faded.

HP: 310/530

Bullshit. Should be like, two out of five thousand. Fucking hell. I thought pain resistance was supposed to do something about this. I have fire resistance damnit. Shit.

Andrew rolled back onto his hands and knees, supporting himself with his one good arm before lurching back to his feet.

"I'm out of mana! Was out of mana just before that last one fucked out up in fact. Just sent the last of what I've got out! I'm coming to help!" Kalan shouted.

Andrew kicked the torch to the entrance and pulled the hammer from his belt, approaching on unsteady feet. Kalan jogged up next to him and put an arm across his chest.

"Stay here dude, you look worse up close. Clean up anything that gets through. I've got this, I'll make sure there's nothing left out there. I'm pretty sure I got the fire guy with my last shot. " Kalan said.

He watched as Kalan gingerly stepped his way through the scattered corpses until he made his way to where a goblin was raising a bone staff with both hands, trying and failing to bring the point up to face him. The human skull he wore as a helm now charred black and shattered.

Kalan sunk his flaming blade into the chest of the goblin and it collapsed to the ground with a trailing hiss. From where Andrew stood he could see no other goblins.

Kalan's got it. Okay. Cool. We're okay. No problem. Another goblin horde down. Go humans. Ow ow ow. Remember when you burnt up most of your front parts? You'll survive this. Just need to block up the hole and sleep.

Andrew's eyes fell to the splintered remains of the barricade that once protected the entrance to their little valley.

O-kay. That’s right. Wall gone. Crevice open. Cool cool. All-right. Definitely knew that. Shit shit.

He looked up again to see Shelby rushing towards him with most of their bandages bundled in her arms.

"They're all dead out there. Dead or run off. I don't think they'll be coming back tonight. Without those grenades I don't think we could've done anything about that crowd, armor or no. Some of them had iron weapons. Axes and blades. It looks like the same kind of stuff the hobgoblins were using." Kalan said as he made his way back into the valley.

Andrew waved Shelby off as she gestured for him to lift his arm. "I'll be alright for a few more moments. Burns like this don't heal as fast as other wounds, at least they didn't last time. I want to wash it out with clean water. If you could fill that pot and boil it though?"

"Oh! Oh, that’s not good. Okay I'll fill the pot, sure, clean these too at the same time." Shelby said as she turned on a dime and started rushing back to the campsite.

"Hey Kalan, if you could pull the wagon around to block the entrance- ah, you're already doing it. Great. I'm going to head back to the campsite and have a sitdown. I'm feeling a little dizzy." Andrew said, turning to walk with heavy feet back to the cluster of stools that circled their campfire.

"Yeah yeah you sit down man. I've got this, I'll get the crevice all buttoned up, keep an eye on things. It's my turn to watch anyways."

As Andrew took his seat a wave of fatigue washed over him. His limbs were filled with lead and it took most of his focus to maintain balance on the stone stool as he fought to keep his eyes from slipping shut. He saw Shelby dipping strips of cloth into the boiling caldron as if from a great distance.

Right. I was about to finish my watch. Go to bed. Then goblins. We'll have to do something about those goblins. Man my arm hurts. Can't believe that thing was shooting lasers at me. Why can't I shoot lasers? I should stay awake until I can clean my burns at least. I've got to get this armor off before that. Just a moment more to rest.