Nathan and the other players worked for a couple hours, still waiting on Maya’s team of four to return to camp.

During that time, the players did a variety of tasks. They worked on their defenses, performed known tasks like fire pit building or weapon assembly to gain every free NP or skill they knew about, and fighting off the monster attacks every thirty minutes. Nathan sometimes found himself in the thick of these battles, while other times he hung back for others to have their turn.

He’d added Gabriel, Ava, and Zhang to his Group Leader tab to maximize the NP rewards for them since he had the open slots. The quiet Chinese player was doing his best to catch up with the others after Emma’s healing returned him to combat duty. Since the man was also a Wood Prime like Nathan, he’d even loaned Zhang his unfused spear and beaver horn so he could gain Equipment Fusion, adding a second crafter to their ranks.

By this point, every player had unlocked every weapon skill they had access to, except for the unknown Fire affinity weapon skill. They had also plucked all of the low hanging fruit they’d found in regards to unlockable skills and NP rewards. Random ideas and attempts at unlocking undiscovered skills hadn’t surfaced anything new since Maya’s discovery of the Fire Mastery skill through meditation. They tried everything from practical ideas like basket weaving with reedy plants, to the more silly like skipping as they walked.

Nathan sat against a tree, attempting to give meditation a shot. He wiped the sweat from his head, considering how he needed to take another bath too. But he’d do that afterward, learning Wood Mastery took precedence.

He focused on the energy inside him. He honestly wasn’t sure how to go about finding his energy or how Maya interacted with it. He tried to clear his mind, but found it stupidly hard to concentrate given everything he’d been obsessing about concerning the arena.

Emma had been the only player other than Maya to succeed at the meditation, gaining Water Mastery for her troubles. It had reduced the EP cost of her Advanced Healing skill from 40 to 38, an improvement not to be underestimated. Like Maya, the French woman had practiced yoga regularly which appeared to be a huge advantage for learning the skill.

He decided to talk with the healer to see if she could give him some tips. He found her outside the medical tent, already coaching Ava and Johanna through a guided meditation.

“Take a deep breath, feel the tension in your shoulders relax. Now release it. Your arms, they are becoming lighter as your muscles loosen their hold.”

The pale woman smiled at Nathan and gestured for him to sit next to her other pupils who had their eyes closed. Ava, the quiet Scottish girl, was sitting cross-legged, but uncomfortably hunched over and her breathing ragged. Johanna sat similarly, but held her back straight and relaxed as she took in deep breaths, her athletic form appearing natural in the position. All three women had obviously bathed since he last saw them, reminding him of his own poor hygiene. Nathan sat a short distance away leaning his back against a tree, hoping to keep his smell from distracting the other mediating players. He closed his eyes.

“Continue to breathe in and out through your nose. Deep breaths.”

Nathan did as she suggested. He could feel his heartbeat thumping in his chest, the rhythm elevated considerably higher than it should be for a resting pulse rate. His body had been reacting poorly to his stress.

“Now put all other thoughts out of your mind, focus only on your breathing. As the breath goes in, feel how it expands your chest and your stomach. Try to guide the breath to only your chest. That is where your energy lies.”

He tried to follow his breath as it went in, but instead could only focus on his racing heartbeat. He tried to persuade it to slow down. After a few breathing cycles, it begrudgingly began to listen and slow. Once it was somewhat under control, he realized he’d missed the last few things Emma had said, so tried to pay attention again. Instead, he could only notice his hands clenching. He released them. His jaw was locked. He loosened it. His stomach gurgled. He ignored it.

...Alexander’s head separating from his body... Kean pitching forward in the cave… pixelating light...

He opened his eyes and gasped. His heart rate sped out of control. He panted, shocked by the intensity of the intrusive memories.

“Nathan?” Emma asked.

He glanced over, seeing all three women staring at him in concern. “I…” he began, his voice catching in his throat.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Bad memories,” he finally got out.

Emma nodded as if that was totally normal. “Do you want to talk about it? What kind of memories?”

“Alexander… Kean...”

Ava gasped when she heard Alexander’s name, while Johanna winced at Kean’s.

Ava said, “I was thinking about Alexander too, but also all the players in my old group. I see their faces constantly. I hate this. It’s easier to weave baskets than doing this meditation.”

“Yes, I was thinking about Kean too,” Johanna admitted. “Ugh, this is impossible. I think I found my energy, but it's as hard as rock.”

Emma looked thoughtful. “Hard, you say? My own Water energy is as slippery as an eel.”

“Might be that it's an Earth element trait,” Nathan offered, having mostly recovered. “I didn’t even get that far to feel mine.”

Johanna grunted as she stood and stretched her legs. “Kean… that poor boy. My memory of that whole event is spotty. Basically everything before waking up from Emma’s healing feels like a dream.”

“Probably better that way,” Nathan said. He stood up too. He noted it was the first time Johanna had ever mentioned Kean, at least to him anyway. For some reason his eyes became slightly watery, and he wiped them with his gloved hand.

Johanna turned to Emma, “I give up on this for now. Maybe later?”

“Sure,” Emma said.

“Same for me,” Nathan said. He needed some time before he was willing to try again.

“Nathan,” Emma said, focusing on him. “Maybe you should take a nap in the tent, trade out with Matias for an hour?”

“I wish I had time for that, but there is just too much to do.”

“You won’t be any good if you push yourself so hard you break. You wouldn’t be the first to do so here.”

He shook his head. “Sitting still is what caused my problem in the first place. I need to keep myself busy.”

“Well, at least come talk with me if you need to.”

“Will do,” he lied. Focusing on game mechanics, crafting, fortifications… so much easier.

He left the group and headed down to the creek for a much needed bath. If only he could wash certain memories away too.

***

Nathan became excited when it was time for his second Equipment Fusion attempt. At first he planned to just fuse the already assembled beaver horn spear, but before he sat down to do so, he remembered to remove the wolf paw from his back pocket, prompting him to consider its potential.

An idea took him. It immediately caused his stomach to flip in revulsion. He took a deep breath, steeling himself. It was important he challenge himself, desensitize himself to gore if he could, if he hoped to get better at combat and not freeze up again. Maybe it would help with the bad memories too.

Using Alexander’s knife, he worked on removing the poisoned claws from flesh. He tried his best to keep the poison glands attached to the claws intact, but wasn’t sure how well he did, his heart rate pounding so hard he could feel it throbbing in his throat. He had hoped either his Wilderness Survival or Equipment Fusion skills would help him out while he worked, but both refrained from giving any advice. He figured that kind of knowledge was more under the purview of Monster Harvesting, and their only surviving Metal Prime was still recovering from her trauma in the medical tent. He wasn’t going to bother Iliana with this yet.

Since his team returned from their encounter with the frogmen, he had briefly visited Iliana twice already. As the blue medical lasers scanned back and forth over her, she shivered under the cot’s blanket despite it being uncomfortably warm and humid in the forest. Emma thought there was more to her shock than just her dismay at being scarred. Being injured twice in the same day couldn’t be healthy for anyone’s psyche, though some players handled it a lot better than others. Nathan knew some hints about the woman’s past which explained why her foundation for handling stress was brittle. He kept those details to himself though, knowing it wasn’t his place to share. Emma was already doing everything she could for her anyway.

Once he had two claws and their glands extracted from the paw, he immediately went to the creek to wash them free of blood, gagging once at the sight of the red water flowing away. But once cleaned, Nathan finally breathed easy. He studied the claws while he considered how he could add them to his current spear project.

First he whittled two slots in the side of the spear near the tip. He wedged the two claws into the slots, aiming the curved claws upward in the same direction as the spear point. He then carefully fitted the beaver horn over the spear tip, making sure the venom sacs from the claws were funneled upward into the hollow portion of the horn. Using the vine, he bound the claws and horn together with the wooden pole, his Wilderness Survival skill finally deciding to help out with a complicated series of wrapping and knots.

Once finished, he inspected the final product. Between the longer beaver horn in the middle, and the two shorter four inch claws on the sides, the spear had become a form of trident with three points. A new glow on his wristband indicated he’d done something right. He went to his fusion tab and was excited to see a new recipe entry. Poisoned Beaver Horn Ranseur.

He had to scratch his head at the term ranseur before remembering one of his characters in an RPG campaign he played not too long ago unearthing one in an old tomb. The weapon had all the ranged benefits that came with being a spear style weapon, with the additional usefulness in being able to disarm or catch opponents’ weapons. The longer prong in the center would serve to guide enemy strikes down its length, to be trapped by one of the side prongs. Once in the trap, a twist of the ranseur head would apply leverage on the enemy’s weapon from range. He supposed the added function would have limited usefulness against beast type monsters, but against frogman players, it would shine.

The fact the side prongs were poisoned was an added bonus surprise for his enemies. The banewolf poison was no joke, inflicting 50% slower reactions for an hour with its Water affinity debuff if the enemy had no resistances, plus causing internal organ damage if left untreated.

Having saved enough EPs, he activated his skill to begin the fusion. He watched in fascination as the spear shimmered with green energy, the wood polishing itself and hardening, the vine binding melding with the horn, claws, and wood to create one seamless weapon. Once finished, he checked his messages to see the result.

[You have fused a poisoned beaver horn ranseur: +42.5% modification (Water affinity gained).]

*[Component quality: -39%.]

*[Mental stat: +30.5%.]

*[Water affinity: +6%.]

*[Wilderness Survival II: +20%.]

*[Pole Weapons I: +5%.]

*[Enemy Compendium (Horned Beaver): +10%.]

*[Enemy Compendium (Banewolf): +10%.]

His last attempt had been a +32.5% modification, so he’d improved this one by an additional 10%. The fact the ranseur had also gained the Water affinity was beyond his best expectations. He wondered if this would mean he’d gain 30% bonus damage against Fire Primes? Thinking back on his understanding of how the affinity mechanics worked, he found nothing to refute the theory.

The only facet of the process that worsened was the component quality. That was likely due to the lower quality of the vine binding compared to the leather strap. His amateurish efforts at extracting the venom glands probably played a role in lowering the score too.

But overall, he was pleased. Better weapons like these were going to have a huge impact on their group’s strength. Alexander died mainly because his goblin spear hadn’t been sharp enough to kill his assigned frogman in one blow.

Nathan took his two fused weapons with him down to the creek to get a drink of water. He thought about how he’d promised to give Maya the next fused spear. His newest creation was technically a ranseur and not even a spear after all, so he’d give her the only fused spear he had which was his first. He chuckled at how that conversation would likely play out.

“You’re grinning again,” Lilly said from beside him, laughing and shaking her head as she went by.

“I see you are too,” Nathan replied with a laugh before she got too far away. The angry Kenyan woman hadn’t made a joke since their ill-fated ambush on the frogmen so he was glad to see her spirits improved.

As he approached the creek, an intense conversation from the side of the trail made him glance over. He spotted Harrison and Iliana talking further upstream by the water’s edge, the scar faced girl crying while she spoke frantically to the man. When had she left the medical tent?

Harrison looked uncomfortable and wouldn’t look directly at her. He said something Nathan couldn’t hear, and a moment later, Iliana turned and splashed through the water, running further upstream by herself. She was obviously upset.

Harrison saw Nathan coming down the path and nodded to him. Nathan just frowned back and walked by saying nothing, entering the creek the way Iliana had gone. They hadn’t actually spoken directly since their fight earlier that afternoon, instead only interacting through group discussions.

Harrison called out to him, “It’s not my fault, mate.”

Nathan stopped and gave him a penetrating look. “I didn’t say it was. What did you say to her?”

Harrison didn’t meet his gaze. Did he look… guilty? It wasn’t an expression Nathan had seen on the man before.

“What did you say?” Nathan asked again. He could hear his tone rising. He caught himself and took a deep breath. No, he couldn’t go down this route again. He added more calmly, “She’s my teammate. Please, tell me what’s bothering her.”

“I just told her I wasn’t interested in her anymore,” he shrugged. “What can I do if it's the truth?”

“Seriously?” Nathan replied, fighting hard to keep his anger at bay. He mostly succeeded. “She just had another traumatic event. She needs support right now, not indifference.”

Harrison shrugged again. “I won’t be doing her any favors by leading her on.”

Nathan clenched his jaw but worked to keep his tone even. “How do you think she’ll calm down when you treat her like a prize to be thrown away as soon as she’s scuffed?”

Harrison tensed, his hands clenched. Then he sighed. “Look, you need to chill out and get your facts straight before you fly off the handle again. It wasn’t my idea to kiss her last night. She came onto me.”

Nathan barked a sardonic laugh. “You didn’t seem to mind much.”

Harrison’s lips drew back into a tight line. “No, I didn’t. Because if you haven’t noticed, this place is Hell and it made both of us feel better. We are both adults so, what was the harm, ya know? But I’ve spent a lot of time with Emma today and I like her. I’m not going to two-time her now that I know. Ya think it makes me happy, making Iliana run off crying? But I can’t help it. I was going to tell her even before I saw her new scars.” The man shrugged in frustration.

Nathan nodded reluctantly. Was Harrison being sincere? He wasn’t sure. But the explanation did release some of the angry wind from Nathan’s sails. But he wasn’t completely convinced.

“What about all that garbage you were saying about her and the other girls? ‘Having the ladies only go for Mental stats’? That’s stupidly offensive.”

Harrison’s nostrils flared. “I told you already, we were just talking. I was joking. Don’t ya have a sense of humor? Just get off your high horse long enough to stop looking down on the rest of us. Anyway, I have work to do,” Harrison said and turned, moving back up the hill.

Nathan blew out a deep breath. As much as he disliked the man, he had to admit the taller man might have a point. A concept that seemed easier for Nathan to grasp as he continued to gain Mental enhancements. It was as if he could now read more nuance in these kinds of conflicts and understand the motivations of those involved more than he ever would have in the past.

As to the conversation as a whole, Nathan’s temper had almost gotten out of hand again, but he was glad he managed to rein it in enough to get an explanation. He wondered if he’d have talked with Harrison civilly the first time, would it have been a reasonable discussion instead of a fist fight? It was hard to ignore the truly awful things Harrison had said though. But the fact there might be more going on with the man than at face value was certainly something to keep in mind.

As for Iliana, he was still worried. Being distraught, she might lose track of time and not return before the next monster attack. He stepped into the creek and headed upstream, following the path she’d taken.

He found her sitting on a rock on the bank with her knees drawn up to her chest, head buried under her arms. He sat down beside her, lying his two fused weapons across his lap.

“Hey,” he said.

She made a snot sucking noise and looked towards his direction. Her eyes were bloodshot. “Hey…” she replied pitifully.

“You know you're not supposed to be wandering off alone? Monster attacks and all that.”

“I know… Yesterday, he was so nice to me… Explained my stats and skills to me, told me he would keep me safe.”

“Sorry, Iliana. I talked with Harrison, I don’t think it has anything to do with you. Regardless, it’s his loss, not yours.”

She barked a weak laugh, sucking up more snot in the process. “I’m hideous, it's no surprise no one will want me anymore.”

He frowned before catching himself and schooling his expression. How could he put a positive spin on her statement? He examined her face as she glanced up at him, seeing her for the first time since her face had been cleaned of blood. The scars were certainly noticeable, but they didn’t hide that she was still an attractive woman.

“In the arena world, things are more brutal than back on Earth. I hear that a woman with battle scars is kind of the new black.” He chuckled, hoping she would laugh along with him.

“Really?” She looked guarded, but still seemed to perk up at his words. “What do you think of my scars?” She visibly tensed as she waited for his response.

He smiled reassuringly. “I barely even notice them.” The statement wasn’t exactly true at first glance, but once he knew they were there, they were easy to ignore.

She forced a smile. “Thank you… for using First Aid on me.” Her smile softened, this time becoming more genuine. “You’ve done it for me twice now.”

He was glad to see her dark mood shaking loose. She didn’t deserve the terrible things that kept happening to her. “See, there’s no way to even see the scars when you flash that smile.”

She finally made eye contact with him. Her stare lingered. She bit her lower lip. Nathan suddenly got the sinking feeling his efforts to comfort her might’ve gone over a lot better than he intended.

She leaned towards him, her face tilting upwards to his.

He suddenly couldn’t breathe. This was not the direction he’d been meaning to take things at all. Given her history of physical abuse and her recent experiences, he knew he’d be taking advantage of her vulnerability to do anything like this right now while she was upset. On the other hand, treating her with safety gloves was the same as robbing her of her own agency. How could she ever move forward if everyone could only see her as a victim of her past circumstances?

So putting that whole can of worms aside, how did he actually feel about her? Honestly, their personalities were too different, her rapidly shifting moods exhausting to keep up with.

He finally sighed. As tempting as it was, as much as he probably needed someone too, returning the woman’s immediate interest would be insincere. Not like this, not while she was shivering from a psychological breakdown. It would be different if she was in a healthy place or if he had genuine long term interest in her that way.

He slightly turned his head away and Iliana immediately noticed. She stopped her movement towards him. He looked back at her to see her expression had fallen. Nathan’s heart fell too at the hurt reaction he’d inflicted, how alone she must be feeling. Sweat began rolling down his back. Oh God, this was awkward. Maybe they could just pretend it never happened? “Iliana, it's too fast,” he said. “How about we head back to camp? I’ll make you some tea from that new plant I found.”

Before he had a chance to move away, she put her hand behind his head, running her fingers through his hair and massaging the back of his scalp. He paused, stunned by how incredible it felt. He became reluctant to make her stop. It had been a long time since he’d been touched this way and the sensation paralyzed him.

Leaving no time for him to react, she pulled his head towards hers.

At the last moment before they met, his mind wrestled back control. He angled his face away again. Her lips awkwardly met the side of his mouth and part of his stubbly cheek.

“Oh no, I’m so stupid…” she mumbled as she pulled back. She looked stricken, her eyes becoming redder by the second.

“No, you’re not stupid. Iliana, I’m sorry,” he stammered, pulling even further away from her. Her wounded expression cut him to the core.

Before he could formulate his next words, she jumped off the rock, landing in the creek water with a splash.

“Just forget this ever happened,” she cried. She took off at a dead run back towards camp.

Great job, Nathan. He continued to sit there for a few minutes, wrestling with his own emotions, analyzing what he said and what he should’ve said. After this disaster, Harrison’s assertion that Iliana had made the moves on him sounded a lot more plausible than it had before.

He swore out loud. This kind of drama on his team could impact their very survival. If some fallout surfaced in the middle of combat, people could get killed. He sadly reflected on how death arenas were the worst place to deal with romance. Yet at the same time, the constant struggle for life and death made the concept of comforting one another much more compelling. Maybe even necessary.

He glanced down at his two fused weapons, gripping tightly the one he’d planned to give to Maya. Could this gift be received with mistaken intentions too? Was it a complication best avoided? Did he even want it to be? He didn’t know. But the saying ‘life is short’ had a visceral truth to it in the arena. How could he judge Iliana critically for wanting to make the most of their time here?

He finally stood up and headed back to their base, all the while unable to shake how her fingers felt massaging through the back of his hair.

***

Maya’s team returned half an hour later, bringing with them an impressive load of yams. As the players began cooking the tubers in the cast iron pot, Nathan recounted the events with the alien frogmen and Alexander’s death to them.

When he finished his story, Asahi was the first to speak. “These green ones with the ability to stealth. Their very existence is a threat to our survival. You said you could track the one that escaped? We should find their camp and pre-emptive strike. Take them out before they do the same to us.”

Nathan blinked at the suggestion. The other players had only been worried about defending their camp from a counter-attack since humans had been the aggressors. That was why Nathan had assigned a guard to watch the North path at all times. Even Harrison thought it was a good idea. But none of them had even thought about committing a massacre on the rest of the frogs. Well, Nathan had thought about it, but dismissed it just as quickly as a completely reckless move. They would suffer a lot of casualties in the process.

Maya said, “Asahi, these are other players we are discussing here, not monsters. While they did kill Alexander, it was only in self-defense. They’ve done nothing to provoke us otherwise.”

“It does not matter,” Asahi said assertively. “They are the enemy. The rules say that only one species will win the arena and the rest will be terminated. What moral difference is it if we kill them now or let them die later when they lose the arena to us? There can be only one winner. We must do everything in our power to make sure it is us. The NP rewards, weapons, and armor we would earn from removing them would place us in a position at the top.”

Nathan considered the man’s words. They were… pragmatic. Logical even, if all considerations of the mental health of the players was removed from the equation. After realizing he’d murdered sentient players, he’d been messed up and still wasn’t completely over it. A teammate’s death was even worse, his mind doing its best not to even think about it at all. Player versus player battle would most likely end with casualties on their side too, which was a hard pill to swallow.

Nathan glanced around at the grim faces around him, figuring everyone already had a good idea of the costs involved. He decided to bring up another point instead, “Unless the alien camp is really close, I doubt the frogman who fled survived long enough to deliver news to its allies. It was wounded and weaponless, and it only had fifteen minutes before the next scheduled monster attack before it would need to fight again. The alien was tough, and had a strong Metal crowd control skill, but I just can’t see it taking on five guth spearmen solo.”

Asahi nodded, “Perhaps the frogmen have a Maps skill too, and came to its assistance as soon as they saw their comrade’s dots disappear? If the wounded one did manage to reach safety, the aliens will have sufficient cause to seek revenge. With their camouflage, they have the means to be ruthlessly successful too.”

“The green ones absolutely terrify me,” Nathan admitted. “But if the frogman didn’t make it to its friends, which I personally think is the most likely outcome, the rest of the aliens will remain ignorant of us. If we outright attack them again based on our fear, we might start a war we could’ve otherwise avoided. I would rather the other alien species kill each other off, leaving us strong and relatively intact to clear the dungeon, which is our actual goal for phase one.”

“A blade can only become sharp through tempering,” Asahi said. “The rewards for victory will make any species stronger than the ones who hold back and wait to see how the game pieces fall.”

“I think Asahi has the right of it,” Harrison said. “Doing our own sneak attack sounds a lot better than being the ones buggered with our trousers down.”

Nathan nodded reluctantly. “While I’m not sure I completely agree, I do think you all make good points. Turtling up here at our camp won’t win us the arena. But antagonizing our neighbors is still a risky move, especially this close to a boss fight. Depending on how that battle goes, perhaps afterwards we could scout, say overnight or in the morning? There’s also the random exploration rewards we need to go out and find too. There are more Obelisks out there and I’d wager there are a lot more points of interest to discover too. It’s a big zone and we’ve explored very little of it.”

Maya nodded. “It's certainly worth pursuing, but cautiously. We definitely don’t need to borrow trouble before the boss this evening. I agree, we can accomplish both exploration and martial expansion at the same time afterward. We could start tomorrow morning with expeditions to gather the other human groups. After bolstering our strength with numbers, we’ll be in a position to potentially push North in strength. Our five day deadline is still to clear the dungeon in the center of the zone and we’ll have to cross frogman territory to reach it. That is unless we want to go the long way around, which might run us into a different alien group East of us. I’d rather stick with the enemy we already know a little about.”

Asahi nodded, “Hai, gathering our full force is prudent. But I will sleep very little tonight as long as the frogmen live on our border.”

The players all muttered agreement to that sentiment. After a few more minutes of discussion, Maya’s plan for action was more or less settled on.

Once the meeting was over, Maya’s lips turned up into her mischievous grin as she broke the tense mood. “So Nathan, why did you give them the term ‘frogmen?’ Are you sure they weren’t frogwomen?”

“Hah, good point,” he said. “So what other names you got?”

“Well, you said they have crocodile snouts? How about croc-frogs?”

“Croc-frogs?” he said, testing the name aloud. He grinned, “Well, going down that slippery slope, isn’t that kind of derogatory since you’re assigning two animal names to a sentient race of beings. They might find it insulting.”

She laughed, “Or endearing. How about this, after we build the weapons vendor, I’ll upgrade my Language skill, see if I can learn their language and find out what they are actually called? In the meantime, they are croc-frogs.”

“Croc-frog-men, got it,” he smirked.

She laughed and lightly punched him on the arm.

He exaggeratedly rubbed at the spot she’d hit. “Hey now, keep it up and I might just have to take back your gift.” He then held out the fused spear.

Her eyes widened. Then she grinned, accepting the spear and looking it over. “It's beautiful. And it looks exactly like your first one too.”

He nodded. “I figured you’d notice. It actually is my first one. My second fusion created a ranseur, not a spear. And I promised you a spear.”

“A ran-what?” she asked, scrunching up her forehead.

He collected his newer weapon from the side of the trail where he’d lain it, offering it to her. “It’s poisoned, so be careful.”

While she excitedly examined it, he showed her how he’d made it and its Water affinity properties. He found he genuinely enjoyed sharing the details with the enthusiastic woman. It was one of the few joys he had in the arena.

“The combination process is incredible,” she exclaimed once he finished his explanation. “The fusion mechanics seem highly flexible since it gives you a recipe based on how you happened to combine the parts. Have you tried to use the claws in other ways to gain more recipes? What about fusing them with your gloves?”

Nathan’s mouth dropped open at the suggestion. He’d only been thinking about how to combine them with weapons, but realized that was a limited way of looking at it. He’d never even considered applying poisoned claws to armor. “That’s genius, though I’m not sure going full Wolverine is really my style of fighting. But it might give me a close range option to complement my spear.”

“For that matter, the claws could work with your bracers too,” she smirked.

“You…” He laughed. “I’ll need to double my efforts to outdo your theorycrafting. Anyway, my EPs are about maxed out again to do another fusion, but to be honest I should probably use them to make more upgraded spears or ranseurs. Improving another player’s primary weapon takes precedence over giving myself theoretical weaponized armor. The more players with strong weapons will make a huge difference. Maybe tomorrow I will allocate some EPs for more fun experiments.”

“You know,” Maya said, her tone thoughtful. “I’m glad to see how dedicated you are to the group’s welfare. For many, I could picture them only thinking of themselves if given your crafting skill. Though that attitude would end up harming them in the long run when they find themselves without any surviving allies.”

“Yeah, we will all need each other to win this thing.”

She smiled and gave his weapon back to him. He stepped towards her accepting the ranseur, her hand incidentally brushing against his as she released it.

“Thanks,” he said, his heartbeat racing.

“No, thank you for the spear,” she said. “Seriously. This might save my life, which I can safely say is something I strongly appreciate.”

“Maya,” Emma’s voice called from the entrance of the medical tent, “Do you want to see me use Advanced Healing on Matias?”

“Absolutely,” she replied, her voice slightly wavering. Maya turned and flashed an unusually shy grin at Nathan. “Thanks again,” she said, before moving towards the French player.

“No problem,” he replied.

He watched as she entered the medical tent, wondering if he should join them too. But he knew Iliana was also back in the tent, so quickly decided it was better for him to stay out here.

He took a moment to gather his thoughts, deciding what to do next. He reflected on how Maya’s hand brushed against his. Their hands never needed to have touched if either of them hadn’t wanted them to.

“You’re grinning again,” Lilly said from his side with a laugh.

Nathan jumped at her voice. “Geez, you’re like a ninja sneaking up on me like that.”

She laughed. “Well, I need your opinion again on our project. Come take a look.”

“Lead the way,” he said. He followed her up the hill, passing the medical tent on the way.

***

During the remainder of the afternoon, Nathan went with a group of eight players to gather the ten spears he’d hid on the North trail. Given it was the most dangerous direction to travel now, they needed a strong force in case they encountered more of the enemy croc-frogs. Both Ava and Gabriel, Alexander’s former group members, joined the trip to pay respects to their fallen ally.

When they exited the forest and entered the sea of grass, Nathan’s heart began to beat irregularly. When they hiked onto the battle site and he spotted Alexander’s blood still dripping from the grass blades, his breath came out ragged as his heart painfully squeezed.

“What’s going on?” Lilly asked.

“Nothing,” he said.

“Nathan.” The taller woman gave him a flat stare.

“I’m fine,” Nathan choked out.

“You don’t look fine.”

He took a few rapid breaths. “Just give me a minute.”

What was happening to him? He hadn’t had this much trouble even when Kean died, and Nathan was fairly sure the fifteen year old’s death had shocked him considerably more than Alexander’s passing for a variety of reasons.

Were his Mental stat improvements not enough for him to handle these events? Or was he just hitting a breaking point for stress? Death, murder, violence, tragedy… the arena was a great way to destroy someone’s nerves. The stress with Iliana had only added to his emotional load. There was just too much to deal with.

He took a deep breath, gathered himself, plastered on a neutral expression, then joined the others.

They held a short ceremony for Alexander, each player silently dropping dirt on the place he fell.

Gabriel, the broad shouldered Fire Prime from Mexico City, was the first to speak. “Alexander was a good man. When I first met him in the preliminaries, he was wearing no shirt and pink slippers too small for him. After seeing my teammate, I was convinced we were going to die for sure, you know?” He barked out a laugh. “He explained they were his wife’s and he’d only put them on to walk between his garage and house, which was when he was kidnapped. As it turns out later, he was the one who saved us and led us through the first challenge safely. He kept us organized, kept us from panicking. He realized the pit traps only dropped open early whenever a player strayed too far ahead of the others. All four of us made it through thanks to him.

“I was so excited when I found him again in the arena, though we were the only two from our original four who beat the puzzle challenge. In the main arena, he led us once again, recruiting each of the stray player groups we came across, giving us a sense of purpose. I… I wish I had been there,” his voice cracked. “I should’ve gone with him on the foraging trip.” He hung his head. “But we made a pact. If either of us died, we would tell the other’s wife the news of their death once we won the arena and got back home. I will tell Yana and his unborn child how brave of a man he was.”

Once he finished, Ava spoke next, her voice nervous, “Alexander found me. I was alone, terrified, and my hands covered in beaver blood. He gave me his own bread he took from the prelims. Later, he gave me a spear.”

Once the silence lasted for a few awkward seconds and it became apparent she’d finished, Nathan spoke, his own voice still shaky. “I didn’t know him long, but he came across as a solid guy in every way, one of our best. He helped me harvest the first beaver, a feat which I couldn’t have done myself in a million years,” he chuckled. “He was smart, reliable, and a proud family man. He will be missed.”

The rest of the players each briefly spoke, though some knew him better than others. Once finished, they gathered the spears along with as many melons they could haul. They met no croc-frogs this time, only having to fight off the regular monster attack when it was time.

Once they delivered the spears and melons back to their settlement, Nathan led a smaller team back to the Fire Obelisk, collecting the broken spears discarded there. He had a plan to make use of them.

During this time, he fused two more ranseurs with the available monster parts as his EPs refilled. Iliana had left the medical tent and joined in the battles at camp. She used her Monster Harvesting skill twice, allowing the players to collect some meat, two horns, and several claws, the latter two used in Nathan’s fusions.

Both of his fusion results were not as good as before, coming out at +41.5% and +42% modifications due to variations in lower component quality. Regardless, the weapons were vastly better than anything else available to the group.

Nathan didn’t know what the fairest way to distribute the improved weapons would be, so he simply chose to give them to the strongest players who had access to Pole Weapons. He gifted the first to Asahi, who he shared some comradery with from the prelims. Given the man’s combat prowess, the choice was logical. But in general, being friendly with the group’s main crafter had benefits. The other he gave to Gabriel, the hyperspeed Fire Prime, a right terror to behold on the battlefield. The man had left an impression on Nathan as he watched him weave in and out of multiple goblin spear thrusts, slaying three of the creatures with one of the short gladius swords, a weapon he didn’t even have a knowledge skill to use properly.

About an hour before the expected boss fight that evening, the weapons vendor was built by Johanna since she was the only Earth Prime who didn’t own a building. She placed it on top of the hill about twenty yards away from the medical tent towards the outhouse. Nathan contributed 18 of his hard earned NPs towards the 200 NP building, again slightly overpaying his share given his wealth of NPs compared to others. They made sure that all fourteen of their players participated in its purchase in case there were any major rewards as they hoped.

Over the nine battles since first delivering news of the alien players, Nathan had gained another 15.5 NPs, though he didn’t participate in every single fight. After his contribution to the new vendor, it left him with 54 NPs for spending at his discretion.

The large number of points were definitely burning a hole in his pocket. When feeling stressed, retail therapy helped him out. Maybe ‘helped’ wasn’t the right term, but it certainly gave him an outlet for his emotions. He’d spent thousands of dollars on arctic mountain climbing gear one summer after one of his gaming group members had died from a rare disease. He’d only used the gear once in Colorado, making that one week trip an extremely expensive endeavor. But his friend had always talked about wanting to climb a fourteener in winter, so Nathan and his other friend Logan went and did it, taking their friend’s cache of old character sheets to the mountain peak.

When the flying drone finished constructing the new vendor, Nathan wasn’t surprised by the building’s appearance, but neither was it what he expected. The building was a fairly basic wooden market stall, something looking right at home on a busy city street in the renaissance era of history. A blue holographic figure stood behind the table, shaded by a red and white striped tarpaulin covering the entire stall.

The holographic person was an ancient looking human man with Asian features and a long beard. He was wearing long flowing robes and wore a headband with a five circle symbol in the center. Each circle was a different color corresponding to the Five Elements and were the only splashes of color that weren’t a shade of blue.

Nathan’s heart sank when he saw exactly zero weapons on display. Surely they weren’t expected to stock the vendor themselves?

Nathan glanced at the other players who had mixed looks of anticipation and excitement. Johanna was buried in her interface tab, reading the information and options provided.

“Who wants to go first?” Nathan asked around.

Maya looked amused. “Go ahead. It's painful seeing you act like a starving kid at a donut shop. Show him your fused weapon too."

Nathan grinned and stepped towards the market stall, waving his hand in greeting to the vendor. “Hello, my name is Nathan.”

“Hello Nathan, would you like to purchase a weapon?” The man’s accented voice sounded old but kindly.

“I would. What have you got?”

“A decent variety of tier 1 weapons. I see that you are a Wood Prime so I would recommend a pole weapon. Do you have a preference between staves, spears, poleaxes, halberds, or something more exotic?”

The other players were watching his conversation with rapt attention. “Got anything better made than this?” He hefted his fused ranseur up for the holograph man to see.

“Hmm, that is a more powerful weapon than I would’ve expected for someone at your stat levels to possess. With it’s Water affinity and poisoned side prongs, it is on the cusp of breaking into a tier 2 ranking. While I have a few weapons of similar quality, nothing I have is actually superior.”

“I see,” Nathan replied disappointedly. “May I see one of your spears so I can compare?”

“Certainly, do you prefer short or long spears?”

“Um, I’m not sure… maybe… medium?” He glanced around at the other players. A few of them looked amused at his lackluster answer so Nathan gave them a silly grin and a thumbs up. His Pole Weapons skill gave him a lot of practical knowledge of how to hold and use weapons, but it offered no help in the academic sense of historical weapon types. Once he was holding the spear he would know how to use it, but not much before then, at least at the skill’s level one.

The weapon vendor chuckled and a holographic image of a spear appeared before the man. It had a simple triangular metal point on the end with a rope binding it to the wooden shaft. The shaft was straighter than any of the goblin spears, and by extension his fused weapons. It was 2.5 meters long, or a little over 8 feet. That made it a solid foot longer than the goblin spears and about seven inches longer than a fused beaver horn spear.

“This is my simplest medium length spear. It is on the longer end of what is technically classified as a short spear. I can offer it without enhancements for 20 nanite points. With an enhancement, you would need to choose between adding an elemental affinity or adding a socket for orbs. I cannot do both since that would require a tier 2 vendor. The spear with one enhancement would cost 35.”

He winced at the expensive prices. “Can these weapons still be fused later with my Equipment Fusion skill?”

“Only the unenhanced weapons. The enhanced weapons are already considered fused. You would need a higher level of Equipment Fusion to further upgrade the weapons to a higher tier.”

Nathan nodded, shocked by the freely given information. Unlike the Tutorial Guide, the vendor was actually pretty helpful. He could already see potential in using the unenhanced version of the seller’s spear as the pole ingredient in his fusion recipes, increasing the component quality modifier.

Nathan held his ranseur up again. “If you were to buy my weapon, how many NPs would it be worth?” He didn’t actually want to sell his weapon, but he wanted to be thorough in his market research.

“Let’s see, I would need to sell it at a markup to make a profit for my trouble, so wouldn't be able to offer its full value. For this particular weapon, I could give you 5 nanite points.”

“Only 5?” Nathan said, frowning at the vendor. While helpful, the holograph was definitely still a ruthless merchant at heart. “What if I were to trade it for something else, would that increase your offer?”

“Yes, if you trade it for another weapon, I could give you a credit of 7 points. After I receive one of any particular named weapon though, I will no longer purchase anymore of its name until I sell it. Once other weapon vendors are built in the arena, the sold weapons may be purchased by anyone at any of our locations. If it sells quickly, I will increase my buying price on the next one since I know there will be demand.”

Nathan frowned. He wouldn’t be able to mass sell his fused weapons, not unless other players were buying them, including aliens. That was not the ideal scenario he’d envisioned but he could still gain some advantage with it if he did it right.

“What do you mean by named weapon? How do we find out the name of weapons?”

“Based on your particular skills, I see you have two ways. Recipe names in your Equipment Fusion tab, and possible loot drops in your Enemy Compendium.”

“Any other ways?” Nathan asked, phishing for more information.

The old man smiled regretfully. “I’ve only been allowed these few free minutes to freely answer weapons questions and your time is up. After now, you each will need to pay in nanites points if you have more general questions unrelated to my offered goods, though the questions must still be related to weapons.”

“Seriously?” Nathan guffawed. These freaking NPCs!

He just knew the helpfulness was too good to be true. This was like the Tutorial Guide all over again, though the merchant having a similar timer mechanism for questions seemed out of place as a game mechanic. But at least they now knew it must be a trend for all the AI driven entities, not just a quirk of the Guide. He and Maya had already devised a list of questions to ask in order of importance if they ever saw the Guide again, but the vendors would require more specialized questions. For the next vendor, they would need to be ready to rapidfire ask them during the opening window. “Well, how much for the answer to my question?”

“Ten nanite points.”

Nathan’s eyes widened. “Yeah, no. I’ll pass, I was only curious. For now I’ll spend my points on skill upgrades.”

The vendor chuckled as Nathan stepped back. “I will be here when you are ready to make a purchase or a trade.”

Maya immediately moved forward to take Nathan’s spot, launching into her first question.

“What about these guth spears, how much will you take for them?” Maya asked. She held one of the crude weapons out for the holographic vendor to see.

“I’m sorry, I can’t buy that. I would never stock a weapon so poorly made.”

She then began interrogating him with off-topic questions about the arena world. The man would mostly reply with, “I am not authorized to disclose that. I can only sell information regarding weapons.”

“What about weapon skills?” she finally asked. “What is Fire affinity’s weapon skill?”

“That information will cost you 10 nanite points,” the vendor replied.

Maya frowned. She glanced at both Nathan and Asahi, cocking her eyebrow for advice.

Asahi nodded, “A solid bargain for highly critical information.”

Nathan shrugged. “I hate the idea of paying for an answer, something not even tangible. But 10 NPs to figure out how to give all our Wood, Fire, and Earth Primes access to a +2 Physical skill is well worth it in my opinion. Want me to pay for it?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m the Fire Prime and the one who desperately needs to know. But next time you will pick up the bill,” she laughed. She turned to the vendor. “Deal.”

The vendor nodded, holding his hand towards her wristband. An orb of white energy left the wristband and flowed into the old man’s outstretched hand. Once payment was finished, he answered her question. “One of the Fire affinity’s martial knowledge skills, which you refer to as weapon skills, is Unarmed Combat.”

Nathan blinked. Unarmed Combat? The fact such a skill existed wasn’t shocking, it was a typical skill in the RPG systems he’d played. What was surprising was that Asahi, a Fire Prime, had been kicking tier 1 monsters all over the place with nothing to show for it. “That’s so strange, how has Asahi not gained it yet?”

Asahi said, “It must be my spear that is interfering with the skill gain. I shall not begin battle with it next time, using only my martial arts to defeat a tier 1 opponent. Unfortunately, this will reduce my capability since most of my unarmed training involves fighting other humans, not monsters.”

Nathan nodded. “I guess you just need to unlock the skill, then you can go back to using your weapon of choice.”

Maya said, “I may have more trouble unlocking it than Asahi. I have no natural fighting skills. I can’t beat a tier 1 monster with my bare hands.”

“We could try to help,” Nathan offered. “We wound the monster and then you go in for a quick kick at the end?”

“Sure, that might work,” she said absently, now looking distracted. She turned back to the weapon vendor. “You said ‘one of.’ Does that mean there is more than one Fire weapon skill?”

The vendor smirked. “That information will cost you 20 nanite points.”

“20?” Nathan replied. “That’s outrageous!”

“Yes,” the old merchant man nodded. “Each time I sell weapon related information from this location, my price will permanently double the next time.”

“Seriously?” Nathan groaned again. He really shouldn’t have been surprised. They could drain the vendor dry of info otherwise, and Tygerion’s game design tendencies erred on the side of making the player’s figure things out for themselves.

Maya’s frown deepened. “We’ll need to be very careful about which answers we buy since the exponential increases will make it price prohibitive after only a few questions.” She laughed humorlessly. “By that point, it would be cheaper to build a second weapons vendor to reset the question counter.”

Over the next half hour, players interacted with the vendor, some haggling and making purchases, while others just window shopped. Given they met their settlement goal of building the three buildings they were saving up for, the players were now free to spend their NPs as they saw fit.

In the meantime, Nathan checked his wristband, disappointed there were no new pending messages. Where was their first achievement reward for building a settlement?

After consulting with Lilly, he discovered they hadn’t officially created the settlement yet. Each building owner had to toggle an option in their Buildings interface tab to set their buildings allowable to join a settlement, which Johanna hadn’t done yet for the new weapons vendor. She was already in the midst of studying her interface tab so when this was pointed out to her and she toggled it, the Swedish immigrant received a new prompt.

“What should we name the settlement?” Johanna asked the group.

Several suggestions were thrown out by the players such as New Earth and Village by the Creek. Valhalla was Nathan’s personal favorite. Since there was no consensus, they ended up putting it to the vote. That was how their settlement officially became designated as Harrisonville.

When he realized he was grinding his teeth, Nathan stopped himself and took a deep breath. Emma, Jackson, and Gabriel, who were now all team members with Harrison, had voted for the dumb name whereas the votes for the other candidates became spread out too thinly to compete. At least it was a show of team solidarity on their part, but otherwise it was just annoying.

Regardless of the outcome, he knew the name was utterly meaningless in the grand scheme of things. What was actually important was the aura the settlement created, meaning every human player within a certain distance of the settlement would gain a buff. They had three options to set as the aura’s benefit, at least at their settlement’s current development size of tier 1. They would need at least ten buildings to upgrade Harrisonville to a tier 2 settlement and gain better options. The three settlement aura options were as follows:

*[Boost natural health recovery rates by 1.5x.]

*[Boost EP regeneration rate by 10%.]

*[Boost resistance against all five elements by 5%.]

By fairly unanimous agreement, they selected the EP regen boost option. Nathan checked his Current Status Effects list in his character sheet as soon as the selection was made.

*[Harrisonville Settlement Aura - all players of species group D within 100 meters of the settlement center receive a boost to their EP regeneration rate by 10%.]

He smiled, the aura buff was going to make everything easier, from fusing weapons, reusing healing skills, or activating their combat skills more often.

A new pending message had him toggle over to his System Message Log tab. He held his breath, hoping it would be the theoretical reward for having the first settlement.

He was not disappointed.

[Congratulations! For the achievement of establishing the first settlement in zone 14, all players in your species group in your zone have received a reward.]

[+1 Earth affinity for every player in Species Group-D in starter zone 14.]

His heart began pumping erratically as the new affinity took hold of his body. Once it finished, he couldn’t help but cheer out along with the other celebrating players. Maya’s predictions about the first rewards were spot on. While the previous first building achievement had been better for him personally since it improved his Prime affinity of Wood, that reward had only impacted their small group. Similar to the Fire Obelisk reward, the first settlement achievement impacted all humans in their zone, increasing the power of their entire species which was way more significant.

The gain to his Earth affinity only moved him from 0 to 1, so not a particularly great change for him personally, since it seemed the most basic skills required at least a 2 in a given affinity to learn even the first level. But the affinity gain did give him one extra EP, improving his maximum, along with his gloves EP bonus, to 45.

The players successfully fought off the next scheduled monster attack, downing two tier 2 bears at the same time. The battle proved fairly easy, the player’s skills, stats, weaponry, confidence, and general experience with combat greatly reducing the threat level of the routine enemies.

Based on the fading light and the timing of the last battle the previous day, Nathan figured they had exactly half an hour before the final showdown. Nathan reviewed his skills one last time, determined to upgrade one or two before the hyped up boss battle. He had 54 NPs to spend.

He found there were four skills he met the required stats, affinities, and NP cost to upgrade: Language I for 40 NPs, Pole Weapons I for 40, Snare I for 20, and Quick Step I for 30.

With his current points, he could upgrade both Snare and Quick Step, solid Physical skills that would improve his combat capability considerably. Snare in particular was arguably his best combat skill, with crowd control skills in general being somewhat rare. The gravity debuff crowd control skill the enemy croc-frog had employed had completely turned the tables on their fight, showcasing how effective such skills could be.

His other combat option was to upgrade his main weapon skill. Pole Weapons was the foundation of his fighting ability, and to neglect upgrading it could lead to being outclassed by an enemy player, all else being equal.

He also gave serious consideration to the Language skill, being the only Mental skill he could upgrade at his current 123 Mental. If the second level of the language skill unlocked the ability to talk with the croc-frogs, it might open some interesting doors, such as cooperation with their neighbors instead of war. The Mental stat gain would also put him closer to the critical 125 Mental threshold which would increase his max EP pool by 1 and allow him to meet the upgrade requirements for two of his other skills; First Aid and Analyze Enemy.

Not counting the game mechanics, improving his Mental could help him out in other ways. He’d frozen up a couple times from shock during the fight with the enemy players, and he suspected improving his Mental could help. His issues while trying to meditate for the Wood Mastery skill was another example of how working on his Mental stat would be beneficial.

But despite its validity, he decided against upgrading Language with some regret. Maya had already resolved to upgrade the skill herself, so it would be wise of him to wait for her to spend the resources to see what she gained before he committed 40 NPs too.

Instead, he decided to upgrade both Snare and Quick Step, their cheaper prices providing the best value for his NPs. With his combat foundation strengthened, it would help to ensure their group reached tomorrow, where he would then have time and the freedom to pursue more Mental improvements at his leisure.

After upgrading both skills, he read his two new skill descriptions. Snare II improved the strength of his roots from basic to intermediate, and increased their duration from 10 seconds to 15. The EP cost was also reduced from 16 to 13, mirroring the same reduction he’d received earlier with Attack Up II.

Quick Step II improved his passive speed boost from 8% to 13%. Both skill upgrades gave him a +1 Physical stat each, bumping his Physical to 141. He suddenly found the waistband of his khaki pants suffocating, even restrictive to his breathing, so he unbuttoned the fly. His body was bulking up with muscle to the point his too tight clothes no longer fit, a common problem among the Physical stat oriented players. Given the sorry and disgusting state his clothes were already in, finding suitable replacements rose even higher on his wishlist.

Overall, he was tickled silly by the massive improvements. Snare, his favorite skill, had increased in effectiveness and duration, and the reduced EP cost meant he could cast it three times in a row with a maxed EP pool instead of only twice.

A quick glance at his EPs showed he had 43. As he’d planned, his EP pool should be maxed out to 45 by the time the boss attacked in less than fifteen minutes. He’d even already activated his Attack Up buff on himself so was as ready as could be.

His stomach grumbled, the new Physical changes demanding their payment. He took a bite out of cooked yam he’d kept ready beside him for this very reason.

“Finished getting ready?” Maya asked as she saw him stand up while finishing off his culinary treat. The light of the day was fading fast around them.

“As ready as I can be,” he said. “You?”

She sucked in some air. “Yes, I think so. We’ve made solid plans for either direction they might attack. I just wish they would hurry up and get here, I can’t stand this waiting.” She barked out a laugh, but Nathan noticed the slight tremor in the fused spear she held.

“It will go well. These are only dumb monsters, not players.”

“I doubt a boss monster will be that stupid. That mini-boss you described sounded fairly competent.”

Nathan nodded. “Yeah… it was.”

“Twelve minutes,” she said, staring at her EP counter. She looked back up to Nathan and gave him a smile.

Her brown eyes were wet, but her voice remained calm. Professional, or at least attempting to appear as such.

He returned her smile as he gestured at the goblin spears sticking out of the ground beside him. He was already standing in his designated combat position if the attack came from the South. “Most likely, we’ll take them down before they even reach us.”

“You better,” she laughed. “Good luck.” She stepped towards him and punched him lightly on the arm. She didn’t step back.

He glanced back up to her face, noting her coyish grin. “You too,” he said softly, his voice suddenly deciding to crack like a teenager. She didn’t seem to notice.

This might be the last time they were both alive to talk with each other.

As he considered, a loud croak echoed across the forested camp. Immediately, all thoughts except one fled his brain.

Croc-frogs, here? Then he heard a scream, a human one, originating from the North trail.

He grabbed his ranseur and began sprinting along the trail leaving Maya to catch up, putting his upgraded Quick Step skill to the test. He zoomed past the medical tent and a few bewildered players who were slower to react to the commotion. “Move, we’re under attack!” he shouted.

No one else was in position yet. They should’ve had more than ten minutes still.

It appeared the freaking frog players had timed their raid with the boss fight in mind. The aliens were either incredibly devious, or insane.