As I was packing up to go, my mind started to plan out the trip. I knew where I would rest the first night as it was about a day away. It would be the ledge that the dogs found me on. The second night would be near the bush that I slept under the first day. After that, I wasn’t sure about landmarks. Well, there was the yellow jacket hive which I was hopefully strong enough to take care of now.

My plan was to use the wands I made for the tunnel to create caves to sleep in at night. I was still needing to work through a door that could be closed from the inside to provide protection, but it shouldn’t be too hard with the correct runes and a core.

It was as I was thinking about where I was going to stay that it dawned on me. I didn’t have a way around to the other side of the waterfall. I had all but sealed off the ridge game trail with vines. Sure I could go up and cross over the river, but it didn’t help me get downstream in that area. The other side of the river above the falls was a small, about 1 square mile area that quickly slopped up to steep cliffs and rock outcroppings. I had spent time exploring but never found a way down. I would have to go far upriver to find a place to cross that wasn’t boxed in.

This, of course, meant that the dogs that almost killed me on top of the waterfall were likely a different pack than the ones I had fought before. However, I was different now, and the dogs probably wouldn’t give me much issue. Add into that Blink was with me, and she would tear them asunder.

So I could either take the time to figure a way across the lake or take the time to go north and try to circle back around. Going upriver would put me in more rocky terrain, which wasn’t all bad; it was just going for an unknown amount of time before being able to swing back around. If I tried to make a way across the river, then it might be a longer front-end investment, but it would reduce variables.

As I was pondering what I should do, Blink came up and was sitting with me. “Blink, we are trying to head downriver but I’m not sure where to go. While you have been hunting, have you found a place upstream we can cross and loop back?”

Blink shimmered for a moment and was sitting next to me as a half little girl and half-lizard. This was the first time I had seen her change, and it was odd. Blink’s eye coloring didn’t change at all; they were still mostly black with a thin yellow border. Her skin was that of a human, but there were traces of scales that appeared to be under her skin. While she still had her human hair, a black bone crest wrapped her head running from just above her ears back around her head and up to a short peak. Blink’s fingers ended in long spike-like claws that extended out about 4 inches, and she grew a tail that was almost half as long as she was tall.

“Daddy, there’s no place up stream to cross. But that’s okay because the hunting here is good so we don’t need to go any where!” Blink said as she was stretching her claw hands.

I chuckled, “Yes, the hunting is good here and Dave can make anything we want to eat we need to find people. There are things that we can both learn in a city that will help. I can get taught how to read and there would be kids you could play with.”

Blink fell back from where she was sitting so that she was looking up at the sky. “I don’t think there are any kids that I would want to play with! I like hunting and new prey is good but play is boring!” She pouted.

I thought for a moment, “There would be new things to hunt as we went downriver. We haven’t been very far from here and I know that two days or so away are some very big yellow jackets. Those might be fun to hunt?”

“What are yellow jackets Daddy?” She asked.

“They are a flying bug, most of the time they aren’t bigger than my little finger but they are mean. These however, are almost the same size as you are.”

Blink’s eyes glowed for a moment, and then she smiled. “Sound’s fun! So how are we getting there?” Then she stood and started to scamper around the landing laughing and running, and then she vanished.

I shook my head; talking with her had helped a little. Unfortunately, she didn’t know any way to cross the river upstream, so that meant I needed to figure a way across the lake. However, I had a paddling skill, so I guess I just needed to try to make a boat to fix this issue. I didn’t want to use any of the trees on my landing, so I headed up.

I didn’t mind the work, but I was so frustrated that all my attempts to head downriver had been stopped in some way. If only I had gone around the yellow jackets to start with, then I could have made it down there months ago. Now that I knew there were people to the south and that there was someone I knew that could help me out, I was even angrier that there seemed to be one delay after another.

The first thing that I needed to do was make a way into the river. Right now, I had a hard drop, which wouldn’t do at all. So next, I needed a way to launch a boat into the river. So I headed back to my cheat room to make some tools. By the time I got out of this place, I would have a piece of magic that would work for everything. I was sure of it.

I had already made stone to dirt and dirt to water, so it was time to figure out how to make them go the other way. It took me a few days in the safe room to get all the carving right, but I was able to create a set of wands, each with a core and a power stone that would let them each do one step in what I needed. First, I had to create a boat slip or landing so that I could handle getting in and out with the boat I was going to build.

The only reason I was doing all of this was I had a suspicion that if I didn’t make a way back and forth, then it wouldn’t be part of the route that I had to make. So while I didn’t much care about the path, I did know that the sisters had a habit of keeping me from going where I wanted. So I was going to try to play by their rules enough that I could do what I wanted myself.

With the wands, I turned five-foot cubed sections of water into dirt. This dirt all fell down into the lake. After a few hours of back and forth recharging the wands, I had a dirt slope from the landing. Then I turned most of the slope into stone. This new stone ramp would give me enough space to get a boat in and out of the flowing lake. It wasn’t much different than any boat ramp I had been to in the past. The only difference was it was large stones and not concrete.

I then went back through my tunnel to my upper land and found a tree that was knocked over already from the massive storm we had a few months before. Trimmed down the branches and then burned and chopped a section that was about fifteen feet long and a good four feet in diameter. Dave wasn’t impressed with me when I drug the log into the safe room. It took me a week’s time in there using controlled burning and my axe before I was finished. It was rough and ugly, but it was mine, and it was done.

I then dragged it down the boat ramp to see if it would float. When it did, I pulled it back out and set to fastening leather on top of the dugout. I put a seat at the bottom and carved myself a kayak paddle. I put it on top of the dugout tie-downs like what you would expect from a kayak and started to call it a kayak in my mind. I began to think of the sea kayaks that I paddled when I was younger and how great they were. I then started to add runes to the kayak and paddle. I strengthened and lightened everything. I put end rot and stop water on both and then added six power stones to the back of the kayak and put one right in the middle of the paddle.

Then I added my core.

Item core created

World first!

Kayak (boat)

As your Kayak core is the first it is uncapped in level

Normal Kayak (boat) cores will be capped at level 5.

As your Kayak levels its helpfulness increases.

General

Showing up in all gold with a orange glow .

Arn’s Kayak (boat)

Level 0

Type item core

Class Ultra Rare magical

Durability 500/500

Weight 100 lbs

This is Arm’s Kayak. Like all Kayaks this is a will help move across water. While the creator called this a kayak and put in features that are like that of a kayak this is truly a covered dugout with how it is now. However, as the intent is to be a kayak this boat will grow in the direction of the name and some day become as nimble as it’s name sake or it might become something else.

This is Kayak (Boat) has a core. Like all items that have a core it can level. As this is an item core it can not reproduce itself.

To make new Kayak (boat) cores the correct building must be constructed.

>Growth

To level your item core you must use it for its purpose and provide for it material to level to the next level.

Mana 0% Wood 0% Leather 0% Cordage 0%

>Traits

Durable- This Kayak is durable, it will not wear out from normal use durability will only decrease with targeted attacks. Mana reservoir- 40 mana unlinked 100 mana linked to traits. Recharges at a rate of 20 mana per hour can be forced charged. Weight reduction- This kayak (boat) has it’s own weight reduced by 80% and everything in it by 50%. Water tight- The kayak (boat) will not water log.

Item core created

World first!

Kayak Paddle

As your Kayak Paddle core is the first it is uncapped in level

Normal Kayak Paddle cores will be capped at level 5.

As your Kayak paddle levels its helpfulness increases.

General

Showing up in all gold with a orange glow.

Arn’s Kayak Paddle

Level 0

Type item core

Class Ultra Rare magical

Durability 500/500

This is Arm’s Kayak Paddle. Like all Paddles this will help move a boat across water. The Creator calls this paddle a kayak paddle it was created to be used with a dugout that is covered and called a Kayak. However, this paddle does appear to be close to a greenland kayak paddle from another world and so could truly be a kayak paddle in a world without true kayaks.

This is Kayak Paddle has a core. Like all items that have a core it can level. As this is an item core it can not reproduce itself.

To make new Kayak Paddle cores the correct building must be constructed.

>Growth

To level your item core you must use it for its purpose and provide for it material to level to the next level.

Mana 0% Wood 0% Cordage 0%

>Traits

Durable- This Kayak Paddle is durable, it will not wear out from normal use durability will only decrease with targeted attacks. Mana reservoir- 40 mana unlinked 100 mana linked to traits. Recharges at a rate of 3 mana per hour can be forced charged. Stronger and lighter- This paddle is both stronger and lighter then one would think by looking at it. Oddly enough with a stone in the middle it will even float. Water tight- The kayak Paddle will not water log.

I took the time to level both my kayak and paddle. Both started to take on the looks and feel of the boats I was used in my past.

More than anything, I wished that I had a way to take the dungeon with me when I left. Of everything I had, it seemed that the safe room was the most amazing thing ever. For a normal person, it wasn’t something they would tend to use as they would have to fight to get into the saferoom. However, as I could just walk through the dungeon, it made my leveling so much better.

I packed up as now it was time I left. There was just only so much I could take with me when I was planning on hiking for several days. Most of the weight I planned on moving with me was traveling food.

I checked with Dave before leaving. The food that he could provide would only last in the dungeon, so I couldn’t get traveling food. It was odd being the Dungeon Master; I was able to guide its growth and tell it who to attack, but I wasn’t able to force it to produce something for me. If I wanted, I could have it create lots of boars so that I could fight them and hope to get more bacon; however, I couldn’t just have it give me the bacon.