Five days of training and this is the first sign that my skills were changing. A little arrow next to the block skill is all I have after going to sleep exhausted and bruised every night for 5 days. I focused on the arrow as I lay on the straw bed and it brought up a screen with some information.

Block has been upgraded from Novice to Adept.

Passive: Block absorbs 15% of the momentum of blocked attacks. This does not decrease damage for attacks that make it through the block, but makes it easier to avoid the attack altogether.

Active: For 10 stamina you may set your feet and brace for impact. All attacks coming from a 135 degree angle in front of you over the next five seconds have their momentum and damage decreased by 30%.

The active portion was new. previously block just reduced momentum by 5% and hardly made a difference. If it wasn't for Sylvia making the summons move so slowly and deliberately I would have been hard pressed to block a single charge, let alone several hours worth of them. Overall I was pleased with the upgrade and passed out thinking about what might happen when I eventually upgraded slash.

The next day we were going to take our one day patrol in the desert. Apparently the group had a repeating contract with Captain Treq and the city watch and we would be going out every six days. I woke early and went down to the tavern section of the inn and had a quick breakfast stew before heading to the guild hall to meet up with the crew. The hall was on the other side of the river so I took a few moments while crossing one of the bridges to look at the King's tower again, marveling at what it must have taken to build such a structure without the tools of Earth.

Once at the hall Gus was going over a briefing with the group.

"Glad ye could make it. Take yerself a seat and I'll get us started."

I grabbed an empty spot on the bench next to Kara as Gus picked up where he apparently left off. "Today we'll be headin out south long the river with captain Treq and makin a mile wide loop round the city headed west. There'll be sum other groups out there taking a two mile and three mile loop so I'm thinkin we shouldn't be meetin any dangerous predators but next time out we will be takin the 3 mile loop. Ander, that means in the next six days you need to make sure that you can survive on yer own. I would like to see you hit level 15 by that point. This means we might need te find some smaller game while we are outside the city wall and do some training on the fly. foundations is important, but'n you'll need to start unlocking your class features."

I was wondering when I would start fighting things that would reward some experience. I had a piddly 10 xp out of the 200 needed to hit level twelve. "If you don't mind my asking Gus, what kind of creatures will we likely find in the one mile band?"

"Good question, mostly small game like Jackalopes, foxes, and some lizards. Most of the real monsters keep away from the city but any who do come close are taken care of by the patrols in the three mile loops. If'n we're lucky we might could find a desert lion, or we might be unlucky and come across a basilisk. Lets hope the seconds not the case."

Great, Basilisks are real here. And apparently they live in the desert. I knew if I wanted to be an adventurer, I needed to take risks. "Let's all hope we don't find a basilisk. When are we heading out?"

Tom answered my question. "We leave in two hours. Thankfully the trip for the one mile band only takes half the day, so we have a couple hours for last minute preparations."

"Perfect, I know Gus and Kara bought the common supplies a few days ago but I was hoping to do some purchasing myself."

"Already looking to spend your salary for the job?" Kara spoke up. I haven't spoken to her much, despite becoming close friends with her sister. She seemed to spend most of her time training alone. "Or were you some rich bastard before you got the sense knocked out of ya in the desert? You could afford to buy all of us a round of drinks and dinner without even staying to enjoy it yourself." She sounded like she was just joking, but I noticed Sylvia giving her sister a pointed look so I started to think there might be more behind her words.

"I have a few golds, nothing too much, but If I am going to be risking my life in the desert I want to make sure that I am as prepared as possible. Even if that cleans me out. Besides, we are going to get two platinum from this job, that's twenty gold, right?"

"Ha! 20 gold might get you far with the basics like lodging and food, but when it comes to adventuring gear that used set of armor and the sword you are using run 20 platinum in the market. Why do you think we are so miserly with our money? Adventuring might pay good, but it has a lot of expenses. Oh, and that 20 platinum for your gear? We are taking it out of your cut over the next several months." Sylvia winked as she said that last part, I hoped it meant she was joking, but doubted it.

"So, your saying that what I've got is all I'm going to get until I have had a chance to make some serious money. Well thank you again for the loan in that case."

"Don't ye mention it. Ye'll pay us back in time. If'n not, we can always leave yu out there again" Tom guffawed as he said the last sentence, and I could clearly tell he was joking.

"Now, lets be gettin to the market. Just cause you cant buy any new weapons or gear doesn't mean there aint nothin useful fer ya there."

We walked out of the hall and headed towards the market square. The closer to the market we got the more diverse I noticed the population becoming. So far the vast majority of people I had encountered were humans, but now only about half of the people I could see were humans. There were elves, dwarfs, gnomes and people that I had no name for wandering around or working their stalls. Along with the variety of people there was a variety of wares available. Many businesses were permanent buildings or stalls that looked like they had been around for years however there was a good mix of wagons and carts set up selling wares out the back. It was one such wagon that caught my attention first. There was a gnome sitting on a barrel smoking to the side of the cart and the cart said Ivonzo's Armaments in a carnival style lettering. The paint seemed to shift and move as I watched and sure enough the longer i stared the letters swirled together to become pictures of fine weapons and pieces of armor.

I turned to the group and said "I am going to head over here, this shop looks interesting".

"That's Ivanzo's, he has some good merchandise, but it'll cost you more than its worth." Kara seemed to have some experience with Ivanzo "Feel free to take a peek for a minute but you should look into some potions and ointments before we head out. Those will be much more affordable."

I approached the gnome to ask him about his wares but before I could speak he puffed out a ring of smoke that shifted to spell out welcome. He was obviously some kind of illusionist or magical of some sort with all the effects he had going on.

"Welcome! to Ivanzo's. I am Ivanzo at your service and this wagon is the home of your next purchase. Right this way." He took a bow and motioned for me to step into the wagon. I was a little nervous but decided to step inside anyway.

"Than..." I couldn't even get a thanks out before being interrupted. "Ah-ha! I know just the thing for you sir. I see you're using a sword and shield, but you should give the spear a try. Specifically, this spear." I took a second to look at the small inside of the wagon. There wasn't a lot going on except for a large chest that Ivanzo was pulling a spear out of. The walls were wooden without paint and has a few scars from where they had been cut, probably from Customers swinging around the merchandise. There were no benches and no other compartments. Looking back at Ivanzo he was impatiently standing there, holding a shorter spear, perhaps five or six feet in length. "This is going to be much better served for you than that sword. I just know it! Go on, give it a few swings. Oh, and drop the shield. With a good spear technique you can have the extra power and control of using two hands with your weapon, and you can use the shaft as a quarterstaff to block and parry!"

Looking at the spear again I was wondering how he got it out of the chest, which was only about three feet wide. I grabbed it before the impatient man decided to stab me with it. It did feel comfortable, and a gave it a few practice jabs but I didn't have enough space to really swing it around and see what it felt like. Besides, I had spent 6 days working on my shield and blocking technique with a shield. I wasn't about to throw all that away because some salesman told me I needed a spear.

After spending thirty seconds feeling it out I thanked Ivanzo and gave the weapon back to him. Since he didn't seem inclined to interrupt me this time, I continued. "Thanks Ivanzo. I appreciate the spear, but I have been learning more on the shield lately. Do you have a shield that might last a little longer than this beat up piece of wood?" The shield I had gotten from the team was decent enough, but it was just a plain inch thick piece of wood about three feet in diameter. It wasn't a bad size, but the wood was definitively getting older.

"I see you don't appreciate my advice. well, when you see that your current weapon isn't up to par with what your doing come back to Ivanzo's and I'll be sure to hold onto this one for you. You'll need it eventually. As for a new shield I do carry them, but not for you. My shields would be wasted on you. get going! And don't come back until your ready to accept my offer!" Offer? What offer? All he said was I needed a shield, there was no offer along with his demand to try it out.

I was about to say as much when he started physically shooing me out of the wagon and I left without saying anything else.

"That was weird." I said. Sylvia and Kara had stuck around for me while it looked like Gus and Tom went their own way for a little while.

"At least he let you in his wagon, most people he just pulls a random sword out of nowhere and offers it to them for twenty platinum before shooing them away when they complain about the price. He must have seen something in you." Sylvia had a knowing look in her eyes, as if she saw whatever Ivanzo saw as well. Whatever the two of them saw however, was beyond me. I couldn't take on a summoned boar by myself.

The rest of the short shopping trip went by uneventfully. I bought a few potions that could close wounds and a couple ointments to protect from various poisons in the desert. as well as some ointment that worked like sunscreen. I had gotten a little rosy after I woke up in the desert and didn't want to turn full lobster on this trip. I did however catch a few people trying to bump into me unnaturally, and I figured out that was how people were stealing. It must have been a trigger to some skill. After noticing it the first time I got a notification that a thief's attempt to steal had been ruined, and I kept a close eye out the rest of the trip. I ended up catching three others, but someone still managed to make off with a whole gold. After my purchases I was still relatively flush with cash, having just under 39 platinum worth with everything combined.

After an hour in the market we reconvened and headed toward the southern gate, where we would meet Captain Treq for our patrol.