I looked around the camp quickly. I wasn’t going to take much time; I was mentally ready to move. I had done everything I needed to, and I could get out of the camp and on the road. But, I was also worried as it seemed like each time I said goodbye to my stuff, I would find some reason to stay.

So without a look back, I loaded my kayak and climbed in. “Blink! Time to go,” I yelled over my shoulder. She hadn’t had a full 24 hours since she last transformed, so the lizard girl scurried up onto the front of the boat as we started across the lake.

The current was strong but manageable. My goal was to find a place over there where I could get out. If there wasn’t one, I brought the wands with me to cut a path through the stone and make a place. It might not be the most fun, but after making the tunnel, I had confidence in myself to make another.

As it turned out, that was just what we needed to do. The lake was formed a few turns down the river where the gorge’s whole side collapsed. It was likely the earthquake from the Sisters that did this. The amount of damage to the world those two could cause while they only had me as a worshiper was kind of amazing. I was worried about the rest of the gods in this world and how they would change my life.

It was only about half a mile away, but with the way the river curved, I would put it where it could not be seen from either my landing or from the dam. I wanted it to only be seen from the water. Since I figured no one would be swimming it anytime soon, that would be a good enough defense to start with.

I got to start right away with my wands in building the tunnel. It mainly was above water, but I wanted a way to paddle in, so there was some below. The first blast was rock to dirt which caused a nice space to start to open up because the soil flowed into the river as the water passed by. After that, I changed over to my other wand and turned the dirt to water, and it all washed out. This added water rocked the kayak enough that Blink jumped off and onto the wall, where she started to climb.

“Daddy, you build I hunt!” She yelled over her shoulder as she went up.

Once I got the first hit, I moved the nose of my boat up into it and started again. This way of tunneling was fun. Each time I used a wand, I would get knocked around. It was worse, however, when I started to expand up because the dirt would fall into the water and splash dirt and mud all over me. I was a mess, but I had created a cave that I could work out of now.

The process was much longer than I wanted it to be. Where I had thought I was going to paddle down and quickly find a way to cross, I ended up finding that I had to work. It took me about thirty minutes to paddle upriver to my camp to recharge the wands in the safe room. So what I wanted to be a quick exit turned into another couple of days of my building, just so that I could get on the way.

I ended up building the inside with a place for me to get out of my boat and drag it up. I made it so that once you passed in the 4-foot hole, it opened up to a large cave. I made it ten by twenty and ten feet tall. I left enough room there so the water could rise some without messing anything up. The only water, if everything was staying the same, that would be in the room was the three-foot-wide channel I first cut. The rest of the space was to my left when I got out.

From that room, I cut steps up about 5 feet and then made a tunnel and a sleeping room and beside it a large supply room. This was primarily just based on a feeling that things should be done properly. I then kept the tunnel going up with switch back steps until I got close to the top. There I put in place another supply room.

I put in one false bedroom near the top with traps. I felt that it was proper to have an element of a test to get to the Shrine. Something to change up how tedious everything else in this place was. Once again, it was only based on a feeling. I spent some time, but I figured out how to build a false wall. It would respond to vocal prayers to Chaos. Someone would have to be in the room with the fake wall and then say between 3 and 7 prayers to Chaos, and the door would open. Of course, if you knew where the latch was, you could just trigger that with a blessing of Order.

To me, this was all wasted time that I wasn’t happy with. Yet, I felt compelled to do it all. It wasn’t that what I was doing was being directed step by step, only that I had these feelings that I needed to do something. It ticked me off that some of the steps I put in just led down to a blank wall and nothing else. On the steps, I also trapped them lightly, nothing like the dungeon but still something that should make someone think twice about what they are doing.

Once I was out the top of my new front door, I went ahead and started to modify the surrounding. I brought with me several tree growth stakes, and I brought up lots of vines and bushes. Next, I went out several feet from my hole and put in the new trees. These I made into fruit trees as I was planning on using this as the entrance to the Shrine. I then put in several layers of blackberries and raspberries. These I put in rows and used the growth stakes to make them grow only so far. Finally, I built a natural-looking hedge that also was a short maze. If the person knew the turns to go, then they could pass the thorns without problems. If, however they didn’t, then they would likely think that it was just a hedge of berries and move on.

This should be the most significant additional space I built. There was no reason that I could think of that I would need to carve so much out again. Moving forward, I wanted to be able to move lightly for a day and build a small room with a secure door and then move the next day again. I only needed to be hiking for around 5 to 10 days to get to Lannah.

It was odd when I was on Earth; I did everything I could to get away from people. Then when I got here, I was all alone and loved it. But, now that I met Lannah, I was missing people. Blink was great and all, but she was less than a year old and a lizard, so she had odd views on everything.

When it was all done, I felt like I needed to run. It was an odd feeling, one where I was just pent up and busting at the seams with energy. So I headed out. I sent out through the bond to Blink the image of us moving south, and I was traveling once again.

It was only a few minutes before the lizard girl approached me. “Daddy, I like this form, I think. It is better at hunting than the soft one, and I have hands!” She said as she drew her clawed fingers down the edge of the clawed thumbs.

As we hiked, I asked, “How are the skills in this form?”

“They are closer to my real self but have all of the other ones as well. It’s like I get most of both sets here!”

“And the stats?”

“Well they are closer to the human form which is sad! I can’t rip things apart as well.”

I laughed. It was good to be moving and talking with Blink. I had been trapped there for too long. No reason to move and then by the Sisters. With the equipment that I had now, I should be able to take the monsters that I had been facing. I pulled up my full stats to see what I had.

Current Experience: Held

Total Experience: Redacted

Level:0

——

Name: Arn

Race: Wild Human Shaman [5]

HP:30 (

SP:48

MP:40

Defense:1

(Equipment bonuses)

—

Titles

Dungeoneer (Team)

+1 Vitality every Primary Class level +1 Wisdom every 5th level of Secondary Class

—-

Primary Class: Enchanter*

Secondary Class: Linguist* (Ancient Languages)

—

Strength: 17*

Dexterity: 17*

Intelligence: 8

Willpower: 19

Vigor: 16

Vitality: 15

Wild Humans have a plus 3 to strength Wild Humans have a plus 2 to dexterity Wild Humans have a plus 2 to all survivalist and warrior class skills Wild Humans have a negative 3 to all Language skills and can not start as the linguist class Wild Humans have a negative 1 to all Magic class skills due to low intelligence and cannot start as a enchanter class because of linguist issues Wild Humans are all illiterate

—

Abilities

Poison Resistance 0

—

Racial skills

Spear** 7 Locked

Survivalist** 7 Locked

Tracking** 6 Locked

Goblin Death Dance 8

Gremlin Death Dance 16

Skeleton Death Dance (level 4)

Primitive Runes 16

Ritualistic spell casting 17

Ritualistic healing 9

Animal empathy 20

Plant empathy 14

Ritual Cleansing 5

Ritual Prayer 5

Ritual Fire 5

Ritual Remembrance 5

Primary Class

Enchanting 15

Script* 0

Ink making 14

Etching 16

Power imbuing 17

Socketing 15

Secondary Class

Ancient languages* 0

Non class skills

Hiking** 18

Climbing** 15

Primitive tool** 12

Natural Shelter** 10

Spear Fishing 18

Primitive cooking 15

Herbalism 12

Stone Knapping 12

Staff 19

Taekwondo 17

Running 14

Fitness Training 15

Tumbling 16

Rope making 17

Basket weaving 10

Primitive Tailoring 8

Trap 17

Conditioning 14

Escrama 15

Iaido 9

Nunchaku 5

Ki Focus 15

Swimming 6

Pole fishing 2

Net fishing 2

Mathematics 18

Throwing Knife 15

Paddling 9

Archery 15

Over Imbueing 15

Short sword 17

Combat Acrobatics 5

Redacted 75

Redacted 75

Dungeon Lore 0

Spear throwing 15

Long Spear 15

Short Spear 15

Dual Wielding Dagger 15

Dagger 15

*due to Wild Human starting restrictions of being illiterate this skill can not advance until Intelligence is higher then 12

** Racial Bonus for Wild Human, effect levels of all Survivalist class and warrior class skills plus 2

Racial skills of Wild Human that are not part of your racial class are now locked. Further racial class change may unlock these skills for progression in the future.

Spell/Level/Mana cost/ Cast time

Communication spells

Beseech a greater knowledge** 1/50/45 seconds

**Once per day powered by sunlight

Healing spells

Minor healing 1/8/5 seconds

Fire Spells

Fire Fist 1/2-20/.5 seconds

Shaman magic

Stone to dirt 1/20/5

Start fire 1/20/5

Call rain* 1/20/5

Growth 1/20/5

Lay to rest 1/40/5

Fire Fist 1/2-20/5

*works only if there are clouds in the sky. The closer the clouds the stronger the rain.

Necromancy Spell

Raise Skeleton 1/5 per 100 pounds/4 seconds

Turn Zombie 1/3 per 50 pounds/7 seconds

Steal Health 1/3 per health pt/3 second

Festering Wound 1/2-10/1 second

Drain Mana 1/2/3 second

Claim Undead 1/1 per level of target/4 seconds

Familial Contracts

Lannah Dreamweaver

HP 30/60

MP 265/294

Familial Contract: (Lannah Dreamweaver)

Lannah Darkweaver offers access to her full mana pool and all duties of a Familial Contract per custom for the following:

Your Family name once found or earned to be hers and those of her children

Protection granted as able from all who wish her harm per custom

1 blank core from The Necklace of Cores per month of contract

4% of all earned experience until you reach level 10

.5% of all experience earned after you reach level 10

I was less than happy, Lannah’s health was at half, and I had no way to help with this. I didn’t know what could be causing the problem. All I could do was push as hard as I could and hope to find her before something worse happened.