Alkao watched as crate after crate of weapons moved out of the teleport pad. The Earth and Dark Mages had been at work raising what was going to be the new capital city of Devil’s Crater, Alkao had decided to call it Unity. It was meant to show how the Demons and Beast Kin had come together to make a place for them to live together. It was four kilometers wide with a hundred meter wide moat around it. If the city expanded, then more moats would be put out every few kilometers.

The amount of Earth that Fornau had moved was simply incredible. The Stone Raiders were only adding to his work. Unity had been on a slight rise; their efforts had turned it into a decent sized hill.

Homes had sprouted from the ground, creating barracks and defensible structures around the teleport pad that was off center of the city.

Administration buildings had been the first things to go up. Homes and shelters had also been formed. Roads cut through the ground, making a road system for buildings that weren’t there yet.

Each road was four wagons wide with a sidewalk. Beneath it, something called a sewer system had been installed, as well as a running water system like what Alkao had seen with the Dwarves.

The Stone Raiders’ magical abilities made Alkao shake his head.

“Something the matter?” Anna asked from beside him.

“It’s just, seeing all of this. I didn’t think it was possible. The work that the Stone Raiders have done to help us. It’s incredible,” Alkao said.

“You’re on credit for the damn weapons, but the rest of it, it’s more just seeing what they can do. It’s become something of a competition and it’s one way to level up skills they haven’t used before. I think most of them are grinding out their Builder skill. There’s nothing much else to do until we start tearing the Demon Horde apart,” Anna said, looking over the growing city.

“You’ve only been here a few days. Aren’t you tired from whatever Raid you were on? From what I’ve heard, it wasn’t easy,” Alkao didn’t try to pry at their secrets; it was clear that whatever they had done, they were keeping a secret for someone else.

“Yes, but the Stone Raiders love to challenge themselves. Raiding, being in a fight against impossible odds, that’s what we live for,” Anna smiled.

Alkao nodded.

“I can understand that. As a younger Demon, I was always challenging my other brothers to fight and searching out the hardest of dungeons. There were several times that my bull headedness got me into trouble,” Alkao chuckles, rubbing a scar on the side of his head.

Anna looked amused.

“To the Players, this is but a game. Only Dave and Suzy know the truth. The rest of them see this as just entertainment; they can die, but they come back again. Sure they lose a few levels and some gold, but where a POE would swear off fighting after a close encounter with death, they feel the thrill of almost dying, rally and go and do it all over again. If they know they’re going to die, you can bet that they’re going to charge the enemy instead of sitting back.”

“I would not like to fight them in battle,” Alkao agreed, looking them over. They were a happy-go-lucky bunch but the power they demonstrated so easily was amazing; their magic, strength and prowess in battle was nothing to be looked down on.

They might be mercenaries, but they’re well worth the gold.

Josh walked through the city, heading towards him and Anna.

“Alkao, what’s up mate?” Josh grinned. Looking at him, you wouldn’t think that he was the leader of the Stone Raiders.

He was a good looking man with dark brown hair and a lean build. While he was built more for speed than strength, the way he walked and the weapons sheathed in the small of his back spoke of his skill as a fighter.

His aura suppression was very good, another one of the skills that the Stone Raiders were grinding out.

Alkao couldn’t even sense his aura unless Josh wanted him to.

Alkao didn’t doubt that Josh’s aura was nearly as strong as his.

“Josh,” Alkao smiled; it was hard to not like the man once you got to know him.

“Well, I’m off to Cliff-Hill to talk to the Golden Sabres. It seems that they want to talk about merging their guild with ours and they have some questions. They want to meet there so that the other players don’t see us openly talking and start making their own conclusions. Ugh I didn’t think I would have to worry about press and public opinion,” Josh shook his head. “Well, anyways, I’ll be gone for a few days, but when I get back, I should have the rest of the Stone Raiders in tow as well as, hopefully, the Golden Sabres, rebranded,” Josh said with a cocky grin.

“Aren’t you scared that they’re going to have more spies in their ranks?” Anna asked.

“I am, that is why I’m only taking the established veterans and E-heads of the Sabres. Anyone else, well, there are plenty of guilds out there.”

“Bit tough joining standards.”

“Yes, but we’re not dealing with your run of the mill raids. We need to protect our allies as much as our guild. Having members we can rely on is more important than having thousands of them,” Josh said, his tone becoming serious.

“You do surprise me sometimes with your rare moments of genius,” Anna chuckled.

“Being the one in charge isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be,” Josh shook his head, looking to a grinning Alkao.

“I wish you luck friend; when you return, hopefully the Demon Horde will have entered Efri’s area,” Alkao said.

“Poor bastards,” Josh said, a massive smile on his face.

Alkao laughed at the look.

“See you later!” Josh waved, heading for the teleport pad.

“Well, I think it’s time that we started getting these weapons into the soldier’s hands and see what they can do with real weapons,” Alkao said.

“Sounds like a date,” Anna said.

Alkao looked to her, a confused look on his face. Her playful smile did nothing to help his confusion.

She led the way to the nearest open area where soldiers of the Devil’s Crater Army were receiving their new weapons.

***

Sparks flew around Dave. While there were several others working on higher quality blades and custom orders, Dave seemed unaffected by it all. His hand seemed to be covered in Mithril as he pulled out a red glowing piece of metal. When Dave moved over to an anvil, work seemed to slow as they watched Dave at work.

All of them were contract bound to not reveal any secrets they learned at the Smithy to anyone else but Dwarven Master Smiths.

Dave put the piece of Mithril on the Anvil, he pushed his soul energy into the piece of metal, breaking the bonds that held the ingot together.

His soul energy moved with his thoughts. The metal turned and formed.

A clay arm seemed to grow from the ground, grabbing another ebony ingot out of the furnace and placing it down on the rough chest piece of the still glowing Mithril. The ebony sheeting seemed to flow almost like a liquid, layering itself over the Mithril. Runes appeared over its surface in short terse lines. Pieces of sparkling soul gems pervaded the ebony metal. A small ingot of silver came out of the furnace, falling onto the surface of the armor and moving to fill its runes. A sheet of soul gem formed, like the breastplate that was forming, applying itself to the back of it, and attaching to the rear ebony metal.

A steel ingot was pulled from the furnace.

Dave was sweating heavily from the effort, his left hand glowing as he placed it on the back plate of the armor. All that was left of his armor. Runes along his arm lit up with power as he drew stored soul energy into himself, relieving the pressures on his chest as he pushed it into the metals he was using. The steel ingots were placed on either side of the armor, one side was pitch black with glowing soul gem shards looking like stars while the other side was a glowing sheet of a vault classed soul gem.

Dave destroyed the constructed arms.

The steel ingots flowed over the different sheets of metal and soul gems that had come to form a breastplate. They wrapped around the armor, covering it.

Dave opened his eyes, sweat pouring off of him as he looked at the cooling breastplate in front of him.

It looked like some simple steel construction. Unless someone had an extremely high evaluator skill, they wouldn’t know what lay under the armor.

The Smithy was silent, with the apprentices in awe of what they had seen.

One of them walked over, handing Dave a cup of water.

Dave nodded his thanks, downing it.

The smith looked over the breastplate.

“What is that?” They asked.

“It’s a replacement. Blew up my last breastplate and I’m going to need a new one for my next battle,” Dave said, looking at the Abscondita armor breastplate and backplate.

His notification bar blinked at him.

Quest: Dwarven Master Smith Level 3

You must craft 10 weapons of S quality with your Smithing Art (Currently 5/10)

Rewards: Unlock Level 4 quest

Increase to stats

His envelope messaging tab was also blinking, he opened it up.

Private Message: Jules

Jules> Just got into town, heading over to your place.

Dave> Be there soon, in the Smithy right now. I’ll bring Kol with me; do you need anything?

Jules> I’m here already and I’ll be good.

Dave> See you in a bit

“I’ll see you lot later,” Dave said, tucking his new armor into his bag of holding before dismissing his metal glove.

They said their goodbyes as Dave got out of his protable smithy and started jogging for one of the larger smithies where Kol was.

“What you in such a rush for?” Kol asked as he arrived.

“We’ve got you an appointment to keep,” Dave said.

“Appointment?”

“For yer damned face!” Dave said.

“You ever heard the part about being respectful to your elders,” Kol said, following Dave out of the Smithy.

“I can’t see you being much of the respectful kind when you were my age. I heard the stories of what you got up to as a kid,” Dave smiled.

“Gurren?” Kol asked.

“Who else?”

“Damned grandkids, always ruining a perfectly good and presentable image,” Kol harrumphed.

Dave patted him on the shoulder.

“How did the breastplate go?”

“Have a look,” Dave pulled it out of his bag of holding. It had cooled while inside the bag. Dave didn’t understand how, but it had.

Kol’s hands rubbed over its surface as they walked. He tapped it in places, listening to it.

“She’s a beautiful piece. Might be an idea to make a few more of them seeing as you keep destroying them,” Kol grumbled, handing it back.

“Good to know you care,” Dave grinned, putting the breastplate back as they got onto the road towards Omal and Dave’s house.

“My next project is working on some rings to augment my Endurance and Intelligence. With this armor, I’ve got my Vitality pretty much covered unless I run into another damn magic suppressing asshole. If that happens, then I’m going to stay back and hit him with arrows. Otherwise, with my mana shield and my health regen on my armor I’m good to go. That means I can work on my agility and Intelligence. With rings to increase those stats and Endurance to keep me awake for longer while needing less sustenance well, I’ve got my bases covered,” Dave smiled to Kol.

“So, you are going to be what? A conjuring warrior?”

“Something along them lines,” Dave shrugged.

“Well, that would be one hell of a thing to see.”

Ela-Gal and Deia were sparring in front of Dave’s house. Esa, Gurren and Lox were talking to one another and watching the two spar with interest. Jules was checking her bag of holding’s inventory on her interface.

“Ah, about time you two showed up. Let’s see what we can do!” Jules said, seeing Dave and Kol.

“I don’t expect much missy; done this too many times for me to get my hopes up,” Kol sighed.

“Ah, don’t be that way gramps,” Gurren said.

“Well, let’s get this over with,” Kol said.

Dave conjured a large tent with a bed in it. The house was too small and cluttered so he summoned the tent to prevent Jules from running into things as she worked on Kol.

“Better make sure you don’t destroy it halfway through and drop my ass on the floor,” Kol warned, walking in after Jules.

“I’ll try my best,” Dave said, following them.

***

“Table please, Dave,” Jules said.

Dave created a table next to the bed.

She started pulling out various herb remedies, needles and other medical equipment, laying them beside one another on the table.

“I’m going to put you out; then I can get started,” Jules said.

“Damn, you Players are upfront aren’t you? Haven’t even got my pants off,” Kol said, nervously.

“You can keep your pants on, you old nut,” she laughed, putting her hand on his forehead.

She poured her mana into his body; in seconds, he was out cold.

“Now, we move onto the real reason we’re here.” She cast Detect Wounds. The damage was extensive.

A smile passed over her face as she finally faced a project that she could really devote herself to.

“Hand me the blood bag and the purple looking concoction. It’s time we got started.” Jules said pulling off the bandages that covered Kol’s face.

It took a force of will for Dave to look at Kol’s naked face. It drove home how Emerilia might be fun, but there was the very real possibility for POE’s to get hurt or die.

Jules looked to Dave, her look seemed to ask if he was going to be okay.

“Blood bag and purple concoction,” Dave confirmed, grabbing the items from the bag of holding next to him. This was his world and his mentor, he wasn’t going to back out now.

Thankfully Jules had already given him permission through her interface for him to acces her bag of holding.

Jules went to work, asking for different tools. Dave stayed with her as she went to work. She opened up Kol’s face, removing the worst of the damage so she could rebuilt it from the inside out.

First, she removed the areas that were burnt the worst around the neckline, exposing the fresh skin underneath. Once that was complete, she used her magic to force health potions into Kol’s face to supply it with the materials she needed to work, using them to bolster her own healing spells

Next, she started creating the foundation and structure for his face. She rebuilt the bone, creating a scaffolding for his face.

She then rebuilt the muscles and other soft tissues. She placed the basic nutrients that the health potions would need to form the muscles, fat and skin tissues. She then recreated his nerve endings, tendons and blood vessels through her healing magic.

Throughout this process, her interface was open above Kol as she checked and rechecked her progress and the anatomical structure of the different parts of Kol’s face.

She moved to the hair, cutting away the scar tissues to allow the healing potions do their work.

“Now, for the hardest part,” she looked at Kol’s slowly rebuilding face which looked liked an anatomical model. The basics of the face were there with the underlayers steadily growing and connecting it all together.

With a deep breath she started using her scalpel on the inside of his ocular cavities, cutting away the scarred and ruined tissues that lay there. She used her different spells to check them and see the damage. It was severe.

She drew on the power from the vault classed soul gem stored in her bag of holding.

Dave let out a sound of shock as the ocular nerves and eyeballs started to from within the ocular cavities.

Jules double-checked the information on her interface’s windows that rested in mid-air.

Any time her spells deviated from forming something she needed, she would alter the spell to successfully create the complex structures that made up Kol’s eyes.

She was panting by the time she finished, two twin brown eyes looking upwards as skin started forming across all of Kol’s face.

The skin followed the now fully formed brow, turning into eyelids that shut over Kol’s eyes.

Jules looked over her work, both visually and with her spells that allowed her to see through Kol’s face.

She applied some more mana to his face. Hair started sprouting from his head, eyebrows, eyelashes and across his face.

He looked younger, as if he was just twenty years old with patches of white in his black beard and hair.

“He’s quite handsome all fixed up,” she said, once again checking him and her work over.

“I’ll remember to not tell him that,” Dave said, putting his hand on her shoulder.

She looked up to him, a thankful expression on his face.

“Thanks Jules. This...I know it will mean the world to him.”

“Ah, well, he helped us out a lot and I owed you a favor or five. Plus, it was a good challenge to see what I can do with mixing modern medical science with magic. Wish this was a reality on Earth,” Jules sighed.

“One day, you’ll see that what you can do back on Earth doesn’t matter all that much.”

“What the hell does that mean? Have you been smoking something funny?” Jules smiled.

“No, doc,” Dave rolled his eyes. “Just saying that one day, Earth won’t matter because all we’ve got is Emerilia.”

“I know...Josh said something similar when I announced that I was becoming an E-head,” Jules rubbed her leg unconsciously. Being able to stand on two legs and seen as someone that can do something, not just some invalid, it’s the real reason I wanted to help Kol. I could see the same signs of anger and depression in him as I saw in myself before Emerilia.

“Well, shall we get the others back in here and wake his ass up?”

“The potions and spells should be done shortly. He should be good within a few minutes,”Jules said, putting her hands on Kol and using another spell to check her work.

“Sounds good to me,” Dave said as he moved to the tents opening.

“Hey, gross stuff is done, get back in here!” Dave hollered.

***

Kol felt his consciousness return to him as if he had come out of sleep. His face was a bit tight but it was okay. He blinked up at the tent’s tapered roof, stretching on the bed and looking to the people around him.

He stopped midway.

I blinked?

He used his phantom muscles again, darkness falling. He jerked his eyelids open.

“Mirror!” Kol said, not believing it.

Dave handed him one. Kol looked into the polished steel, finding his face looking back at him.

“I have a beard, a nose,” he turned to a smiling Jules. “How is this possible?”

“Just needed to put scaffolding in. I guess most people that tried to heal you used straight spells. I used spells and and my knowledge of the body to remake the superstructure of your face. Once that was in place, everything else kind of came together,” she said.

Kol got off of the bed, hugging her. He felt a dampness in his eyes at it all.

He had his face back!

His legs buckled underneath him. Gurren and Dave supporting him.

“Damn, what magic did you use? Feels like I got hit by a hammer press!” Kol said.

Jules laughed. Looking at her, Kol could now see the strain on her features and the toll her magic and work had cost her.

“With magical healing potions, they use your own mana and whatever materials you have in your body to help rebuild you. Makes you extremely tired. Drink this!”

She gave him a green potion he took down in a few gulps. His tongue no longer a tattered mess as he felt his cheeks; his scarring and gauntness was gone.

He felt energy returning to his body.

“That potion will help you recover stamina, but you need to eat! Need some weight on those bones to keep you healthy,” Jules said sternly.

“Yes, ma’am,” Kol smiled; he could actually smile instead of his skin pulling at his face and turning it into a horrifying rictus that would scare most adults away.

Kol held up the mirror, looking at himself.

“‘Damn, I am a handsome bastard aren’t I?” Kol looked to Gurren.

“You start bringing ladies round, I’m moving next door,” Gurren said.

“You bring enough of them home!” Kol argued.

“But that’s different!”

“Hah! We’ll see about that my boy! We need to drink! To eat!” Kol looked to Jules once again.

“For you, I will craft you an item of power,” Kol smiled.

“Seeing you better is payment enough,” Jules smiled.

“Hah! Listen to her! You’re getting a damned item of power and you better deal with it, cause I’m not giving the first item of power I can see with these new eyes to anyone else!”

“I’d take his offer,” Dave said.

“Fine, you darned hard headed Dwarves!” She laughed, the rest of the tent filled with smiles and happiness.

Kol felt his eyes tear up again, laughing and crying at the same time. His eyes fell on Gurren and Dave supporting him.

He put his arms around them fully, pulling them to him.

“Oh boys, thank you for this! Thank you for all you’ve done for me and put up with me,” Kol said.

Dave and Gurren hugged him back.

Kol might not be their real father, but he felt as protective for them as a father might feel for his own sons.

Damn it is a good time to be alive!