Four Days down, one to go! The day went flawlessly, they turned in the bugs they had found to the original programmers and even got a small bonus for all their hard work! Tomorrow wasn't even going to be a work day, the business was going to throw a small party in the latter half of the day. Much as he wanted to skip it to keep playing, it was paid and more money was always a good thing.

Putting on the headset Dan entered back into what was quickly becoming his favorite world and looked around. He could see green icons on the side for his group, though with inactive signs next to their name to indicate they were offline. Looking around he was then hit with a barrage of notifications.

You have scanned three foxes. Your God is pleased with your dedication to the restoration of his temple and has blessed you with a spell.

You have learned: Mage Armor - Mages are basically made of paper and glass—even the slightest bump is liable to shuffle them right off the mortal coil, but thankfully, Mage Armor exists! With this in place, the typical Mage will be slightly more durable than a Styrofoam coffee cup! I mean, it’s not much, but at least a strong wind won’t kill you anymore. Well… medium strength wind. Effect: For every point of Mana devoted to this spell, negate one point of damage from primary sources of magic and half a point from primary sources of physical damage. Increase conversion by 0.025n where ‘n’ equals skill level.

You have gained: Heavy Cloth Armor (Novice I): While weaker mages have armor that fails to turn a blade and those clad in metal lack the talent to make themselves into a living shield, you have accomplished a balance between the two allowing you to take hits while having your magic go unimpeded. -1% physical and magical damage per skill level.

Extreme Skill Synergy detected! Heavy Cloth Armor, Mage Armor, Defiled Regeneration.

You have been robbed. As this is the first time you are being informed as a courtesy. Please take care in the future.

Looking up Dan could only sigh as the sight of his open door. Apparently he was meant to latch it as well. Now he was down to his starter clothes with not even a shield to his name. The small amount of silver he had on him was gone as well.

Your familiar (Raile) has died. You have the option to resurrect it while out of combat.

Yet another sigh at a piece of bad news. Nothing that could be done though. He really needed those rabbit furs for the smith's quest though so he would have to request his new group's help to complete that on time so he could get some new armor.

You have successfully completed a swarm. You have earned a class item chest equal to uncommon rarity.

For as sad as he was that he got robbed at least he hadn't checked all his notifications yet since the chest appeared on his lap as soon as he opened the last one. He was pretty excited about it so quickly he opened the chest and pulled out… a very strange dull silver helmet. It was much wider and flatter then what would fit on him. Checking his properties he found out why.

Uncommon Item found: Hoppy Helmet Helper. This item is designed for Warrabbits to be able to take hits for its assigned group. Hits to head deal 50% less damage. Set item of the Hoppy Helper Set 1 / 5.

That was something quite powerful indeed! Hopefully he could get the full set soon since the damage reduction would reduce how much he needed to heal his rabbit. Now then… let’s check out these skills that have synergy before heading out and getting a new shield.

By paying one hundred gold, you can combine these two skills into one single skill. The level of the new skill will be the average of the original skills, and any remaining skill points (rounded up) will be returned as free skill points! If you do not have the necessary gold on hand, you may combine these skills at a later date or choose to have the money taken from your bank account. As this is the first time you have found two skills with extreme synergy, you have been informed as a courtesy. You will receive no further information on skill synergy from the system. New system menu available!

Congratulations! You have unlocked the ability to use ‘Soul Forging’! By meeting certain requirements, you can combine skills or even classes! Be careful, as combining skills with low synergy will lower the new skill’s efficacy.

While this all was cool, there was noooo way he could afford the fee right now. He didn’t have a thousand dollars to throw around for this. Speaking of gold though, it’s time to go out and buy himself a new weapon. He could worry about armor later. Grabbing the fre meal that came with his room Dan went to the bank first so he could he take out his remaining seven and a half gold to get a decent shield from the weaponshop.

And it was just a short walk down the street to his favorite weapon store… well the only weapon store he really knew about, Dan walked up to the bored man behind the counter and placed five gold from his account on the counter. “Give me the best two handed Great Shield you have for this price.” The man stared at Dan for a second before slowly walking into the back room and pulling out two smaller looking square shields covered in spikes. Giving the back of one of them a tap, the one handed shield slowly expanded until it was about 6 feet tall and 2 feet across as well as doing the same for the second, essentially making a wall that could be planted in the ground.

“No one really ever buys the type of shield you want so we’ll 'discount' this to five gold to clear out the room in the back shop. As you can see it can grow and shrink. Not only that, you can equip both the smaller versions on each arm to use as makeshift weapons. When at its full size you can plant the base spikes into the ground and use it as a wall to funnel enemies around it. Or you can set the two halves apart to make them into two separate smaller walls. Needless to say, this is pretty advanced magic and the only reason you’re getting it so cheap is because no one else will buy it.”

Dan was more than satisfied with that, and the man actually seemed somewhat excited while explaining the properties of the shield. Knowing he got more than a bargain for the shield, he left an extra fifty silver as a tip before grabbing a decent sized bag from a vendor and returning his last gold piece to the bank. Funds would need to be increased sooner rather than later. Returning to the Inn Dan figured he would find his group there now that they were all online according to the party notification bar on the side.

Walking through the doors Greg and Revon pulled him over to a table to meet with the supposed Alicia. She was a shorter girl with vivid leaf-green hair and a leaf covered robe that looked incredibly itchy just to wear. Some kind of nature mage or druid of some sort. She looked Dan over with a disapproving glare before turning to the other two. “This is the person who’s supposed to tank for us? Sure he has two spiky shields but he doesn’t even have any armor. What’s the point in tanking if he’s not even going to be able to take a hit without dying?”

Dan felt heat creep into his cheeks as he stepped forward, Alicia talking as if he weren’t there. “I do have armor. It’s being made right now. I just need to go pick it up tonight.” Dan lied to get the girl off his case. He planned to have armor that night, but it certainly wasn’t being made just for him. “And while not your common shield swinger I have both healing magic I can put at play as well as summonable healing and tanking pets. But if your group doesn’t want me…” Dan turned to leave but Revon put a hand on his shoulder to stop him and turned him around to see the now-approving look Alicia was giving him.

“Good I can’t use a tank without a spine. You stood up for yourself and I respect that. However we plan to become a powerful team so we’ll take you out to see what you can do as a tank. Truth be told it’s tough to get any real damage in while dodging hits non-stop. We can begin with Rabbits to how you hold up.”

Dan immediately shifted his feet looking kind of embarrassed. “Well that works out well since I need ten rabbit skins for a quest. But before that I will need to resummon my familiar which died outside of town last night, since I can’t bring it in, which means I will need to let my health regenerate before we actually fight.” Alicia, the obvious group leader, nodded letting him know it was fine. The rest of them all ate a quick meal before heading out of the town and into the forest surrounding the town, ready to hunt.