“I'm thirsty.” Mia stated, surprise tingeing her rather dishevelled face. This was a minute or so after she'd stumbled awake into a sitting position.

Tia sneezed in agreement. This caused a cascade effect that caused Mia to sneeze as well.

They must have gotten a cold from lying in the wet grass all night. Lock went over to Mia, squatted down in front of her, and laid a hand on her forehead. It was slightly too warm, signifying a small fever.

Lock considered for a moment. He hadn't seen, or heard any source of water nearby, and was quite thirsty himself. But just like the fact of how the twins had gotten sick from lying outside in the wet all night, while he hadn't, his Endurance had shielded him from the negative effects of his body not being treated correctly. Endurance, to endure. He had 50 points in the stat now. A small part of him had been hoping to receive some sort of reward for the milestone, but he knew well that the first reward would come upon reaching a 100.

“The mission is almost over. We've completed the main part, and now it’s time to deal with the aftermath.” Lock said, catching the attention of the twins, who had been busy staring into nothing with slightly open mouths for the last minute or so.

“I need you to go into the city and buy some clothes to cover the golem, and a roll of bandages long enough to completely bandage him up. When you're there, get something to eat and to drink for yourselves naturally, although I wouldn't say no to some water myself.” Lock said. “Oh, and also buy some lavender essence.”

Mia nodded tiredly, before shakily beginning to make it onto her feet. She stumbled into Lock, almost falling over, and pressed the dimensional knob into his hand, before starting a shuffling gait towards the city.

“About the payme-.” Tia started, but Lock interrupted her.

“Bring some parchment and a charcoal stick, I'll draw up the recipe before dismissing you.” He said brusquely,

Tia didn't argue, she simply groaned as she stood up and started shambling after her sister.

Lock watched them go, and upon them leaving his sight, turned inwards. He had reached level ten in Vanguard today, and had gained access to another branch of his personal Vanguard skill-tree. It was time to make a decision, and while he'd since long determined Bulwark to be the perfect fit for his particular build, he should still see if there were other, better alternatives.

He looked past Bulwark, and the other already known skills available to him, having made his decision regarding them a long time ago, and turned his attention towards the two skills that he did not recognize, and which must have snuck their way into his skill tree as a result of who he was.

Soul of Steel was an interesting skill that passively amplified the effect Endurance had in resisting mental and spiritual attacks by a factor of two. The skill was likely the result of the agonizing journey that his soul had made through the realms. Technically speaking, the skill covered more bases than Bulwark, however, one had to consider that physical attacks occurred much more often than mental ones. It was a pass from Lock.

The second skill however, made him think. Endurance was a stat that made one endure, the elements, physical damage, mental damage, the passage of time and so on. It did however not bend the laws of physics. While Endurance, he'd found, compacted his body somewhat, and made him heavier, it did not protect him from getting flung around by someone with high enough Strength. This was a problem, because no matter how much your body endured, if you were being smacked around by every attack, you couldn't transfer any of that Endurance into retaliation.

Bulwark lifted that problem of a monolithic Endurance build. It made one an immovable object whenever one wanted, preventing knock-back. It was a double edged sword however. While someone without Bulwark would be struck by a punch and stagger back, this also meant that the kinetic energy of the strike could be spread out in all directions, and that one could roll with the punch. Someone using Bulwark however, would not be moved, could not be moved, and thus the kinetic force of the punch would wreak havoc upon their body.

The other personalized skill that he'd gained access to addressed the problem of knock-back in another manner. It was a very simple skill really, just like Bulwark, but that did not mean it didn't have a myriad of uses and implications.

Earth's embrace; upon getting struck, half of the kinetic energy shall be redirected and absorbed by the earth beneath one's feet. This skill requires the user to be touching the ground with at least one leg.

It was an interesting skill, one that he was pretty sure should not have been present in the skill tree once he'd reached level ten by killing Kib. If a choice had yet not been made regarding skills, could certain events unlock more choices during the period in which one had to pick a skill?

Lock couldn't imagine the skill stemming from anything but his newfound connection to the golem. Wait, he furrowed his brows. Was it possible that he'd gained the connection the moment he'd engaged the Castouts? This would explain why he'd never heard of a new skill appearing while one was making a choice. The connection, and the skill, had probably sprung up the moment he'd jumped in to save the golem. He'd only killed Kib and reached level ten after that. Must have been it, Lock thought, before turning his attention to the two skills being offered to him.

Either complete immunity from knock-backs, but in return potentially getting his organs liquefied if he used the skill when being struck by someone whose strength he had underestimated. Or, half immunity from knock-backs and in addition to that, also a half-immunity from blunt damage.

Bulwark could be considered to have 100% immunity against knock-back, 150% damage taken. Earth's embrace on the other hand had 50% immunity against knock-back, but also 50% of the damage taken.

In addition to that, Earth's embrace was a passive skill, and Bulwark an active one. Earth's embrace would prevent damage, even if he was sneak attacked. That and the damage reduction, rather than the damage amplification, won him over. Also, if someone was strong enough to knock him away, even through Earth's embrace. Did he actually want to fight that person?

Lock made his choice, and then turned to the golem, which he was starting to become sick of referring to as golem. An issue for the future. Now he wanted to test out his new skill.

“Hit me, gently.” Lock commanded, and the golem stepped forward to lightly smack him over the helmeted head.

It was an interesting sensation. He could feel half of the energy applied to the 'strike' actually going into hurting him, while the other half was channelled down his body, into his feet and into the earth beneath him. The awareness that he had of the kinetic energy as it travelled down his body held firm up to the moment where it was transferred into the earth. Once there, the awareness degraded quickly.

Lock wondered if him barely feeling the effect the kinetic energy once it reached the earth, was due to the skill not being meant to provide awareness of the energy outside one's body. Or if the kinetic energy provided simply hadn't been enough.

“Hit me again, stomach this time, twice as hard.” Lock said, and braced himself for the incoming strike.

The golem's fist landed in his gut, having travelled there at a moderate pace.

Once again Lock was capable of discerning that half the energy went into actually damaging him, not that it was a lot of damage, and that half had travelled down his body into the ground. He'd actually managed to keep track of the energy once it had been absorbed into the ground this time. For about a millimetre.

“Again, twice the power.” Lock commanded.

The fist of the golem buried itself in his stomach causing Lock to stumble backwards slightly, and to start feeling queasy. Twice the power, the awareness of kinetic energy had spread to about 1.5 millimetres. The progression wasn't linear then. Most things in life weren't.

He patted his stomach as he took a second or two to regain his bearings. That previous punch, even with half the damage being mitigated, would have been enough to heavily wound someone with an Endurance somewhere in the 10-20 area.

“Again, twice the power.” Lock said, after a moment of hesitation.

The golem stood there, and did nothing.

Lock wondered for a moment if the golem didn't complete the command because it thought it could kill it's master, before another possibility came to mind.

He sighed, “Twice of what you did just now exceeds your limit doesn't it?” He asked, at which the golem nodded.

“Alright, hit me with your best then.” Lock said, bracing himself.

The fist, no, rather, the missile, blurred forward and slammed into his stomach with the force of a catapult. Lock's body was bent into a position closely resembling a C as he was knocked backwards several inches.

Lock stumbled to his feet after he'd spend a few seconds clutching his stomach in pain. Now that, had been a blow. It would leave a bruise, and likely would have inflicted significant wounds without his new skill. The kinetic energy rippling through his body and into the ground had been quite impressive to feel. But still, the awareness into the ground only extended approximately 1.55 millimetres, although now that he was slightly more experienced with the skill he noted that the diameter was expanding at a greater rate than the depth.

Some more time would need to be spent having the golem hit him to fully familiarize him with the skill, but not now. He was feeling quite tired and wrung out from the mission, and just because they were near Abrakshana didn't necessarily mean that he was safe from danger. It would be unwise to harm himself overly much in his enthusiasm to improve, only to then be easy prey for some bandit or whatnot. And while the thought of the twins stumbling upon him being beat up by his new golem was humorous, it was so, only in the realm of considerations, not reality.

Lock sat back down, and stared at the golem, who he'd, as previously mentioned, gotten tired of referring to as golem.

It was time to think of a name.