With the second boss eliminated, the guy who stole my skin nowhere in sight, and my blood pressure through the roof, I decided to take a break from the game.

I went to the kitchen to heat up a a microwave burrito and grab another bottle of beer from the fridge. This was, of course, the breakfast of champions.

While I waited beside the whirring lightbox, I looked outside into the dark and raspy branches of the winter woods. Ever since I was little I had always lived with the primeval fear that some intruder from that palisade of shadows would try to invade my cabin sanctuary.

I gazed up past the tips of the branches and into the deep navy blue sky. It was already a cold, dark winter, and we hadn't even started to get the big storms yet. The nice thing about being out here in the country was how you could see the entire Milky Way and even the most subtle stars of every constellation thanks to the lack of light pollution.

I wondered how many other lonely people were out there, whittling their days away in uncertainty.

Wrenching the hot pastry out of the beeping microwave, I retreated back to the living room. I plopped down on the couch and popped off the bottle's cap, casting it deep down into the abyss beneath the couch cushions.

I loaded the game up at the save waqa and fooled around a bit with my character loadout.

Weapons:

Right-hand - Venator's Wooden War-Club

LVL - 1 MACE WEIGHT - 4.0 DURABILITY - 45 PHS-ATK - 91 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0 STR-BON - B DEX-BON - NA INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA PHS-DEF - 45 MAG-DEF - 10 FIR-DEF - 30 LIG-DEF - 30

Left-hand - Fox-Shield

LVL 1 SHIELD WEIGHT - 2.5 DURABILITY - 40 PHS ATK - 40 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0 STR-BON - D DEX-BON - NA INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA PHS-DEF - 80 MAG-DEF - 35 FIR-DEF - 60 LIG-DEF - 60

The war-club wasn't amazing, but it was definitely more reliable than what I'd been using before. There barely seemed to be a difference between all the different shields, so I just chose the one with the grinning cartoon fox that looked the most iconic.

Equipment:

Skin - Skin of a Hunter

Head - Fox Helm

LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 14 STRK-PROT: 13 SLSH-PROT: 16 THRS-PROT: 14 MAG-PROT: 8 FIR-PROT: 9 LIG-PROT: 5 POIS-RES: 8 TOX-RES: 9 BLD-RES: 6 CUR-RES: 0

Body - Fox Cuirass

LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 37 STRK-PROT: 35 SLSH-PROT: 43 THRS-PROT: 36 MAG-PROT: 22 FIR-PROT: 25 LIG-PROT: 13 POIS-RES: 20 TOX-RES: 23 BLD-RES: 16 CUR-RES: 0

Arms - Fox Gauntlet

LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 26.5 STRK-PROT: 25.2 SLSH-PROT: 33.8 THRS-PROT: 12 MAG-PROT: 7 FIR-PROT: 8 LIG-PROT: 4 POIS-RES: 6 TOX-RES: 8 BLD-RES: 5 CUR-RES: 0

Legs - Fox Kilt

LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 11 STRK-PROT: 11 SLSH-PROT: 13 THRS-PROT: 11 MAG-PROT: 7 FIR-PROT: 7 LIG-PROT: 4 POIS-RES: 6 TOX-RES: 7 BLD-RES: 7 CUR-RES: 0

Feet - Fox Boots

LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 11 STRK-PROT: 10 SLSH-PROT: 13 THRS-PROT: 11 MAG-PROT: 6 FIR-PROT: 7 LIG-PROT: 4 POIS-RES: 6 TOX-RES: 7 BLD-RES: 7 CUR-RES: 0

I decided to equip the fox armor, since it was the swankiest and had the best defensive stats.

Trinket - Crab Chonta Staff

(+1 STR; Increases the effects of fire damage.)

I swapped out the owl wand for the crab wand. I didn't have any fire weapons, but it was hard to resist the easy +1 to my STR damage output.

Stats:

After the multiple recoveries I had made going through the last area, I had 1738 blood-drops, enough to level up twice.

I decided to level up by putting +1 into END and +1 into VIT.

Again, the flayed man poured forth the goblet at the tree's roots and drunk deeply.

Now my stats looked like...

LVL - 9

Blood-drops to LVL UP - 112/811

HP - 633 STAMINA - 95 STR - 16 DEX - 13 VIT - 13 END - 13 INT - 9 MAG - 9 ATT - 8 RES - 11 PHYS DEF - 169.3 VS STRK - 183.8 VS SLSH - 169.3 VS THRS - 154.7 MAG DEF - 145.8 FIR DEF -106.4 LIG DEF - 126 LOAD - 11.4/52.0 POISE - 0 BLD RES - 120.8 TOX RES - 108.8 CRS RES - 30

I looked over my phone. Jess had sent me some DMs.

Jess: So do you have your skin back yet?

Matt: Nah, i Just reached the convent.

Jess: lol dude

Jess: git gud

Matt: *sigh*

Matt: is there something else I should be doing? I just feel like my weapons aren’t hitting hard enough.

Jess: Hrrrm...

Jess: Oh well there’s a weapon that drops up ahead that could help you out!

Jess: I could jump in and show you where it is! ^^

Matt: is there a way you can actually play with me?

Jess: yeah! light up a squash-lamp! I’ll hop on!