I was already mostly geared when I heard the sound of one of my pitfalls breaking open. So I grabbed up my staff and headed to the edge of my landing. First, I needed to see what was going on.

I dropped to my belly and moved to the edge where I could see but hopefully, I wouldn’t be seen. I moved forward slowly and passed the trees that worked to hide my camp.

I knew the trees weren’t a perfect blind and that any competent scout would see it from the other side of the traps. However, from what I had seen of the gremlins, I didn’t think that capable could be used to describe them even in the loosest sense of the word.

When I could see down to the riverbank, I saw what I was both fearful of and hopeful for. I was glad that I was seeing only gremlins, which was what I was hoping would be the first line of attackers. On the other hand, I was also slightly afraid that we had been found so quickly.

I could easily outwait dogs, and it was possible that the gremlins were too dumb to figure out ladders. However, the goblins seemed just bright enough that I might have a big fight on my hands.

There were about a dozen gremlins all too far away for me to identify with the system. I knew what they were but not their levels. They were all milling around the pitfall. Oddly enough, I watched a few of them jump in.

It was like they were being ordered by someone in the pit, and they were too dumb to figure out what they were being told to do. As I watched, a few went off to find sticks which they dragged back and threw into the hole.

Some of them made their way towards my landing only to be tripped up by other traps. This caused the ones still by the hole to back up a bit. They seemed unsure as to what to do. They kept looking into the hole, then looking at the field of traps, and then back downriver.

If I went down there, they were likely to rush me. This would bring all the little guys through my traps. While that wasn’t overly bad, it also showed me a problem with my traps. Each trap was an investment in time. Each one of these little gremlins was potentially able to trigger anyone of the traps.

So, if I stood, I ran the risk of losing another ten or so traps. While this would mostly end the problem, if they all came in a straight line, then I might get a path of broken traps for the next wave.

While there was only one wave right now, I could only assume that there would be more once they learned where I was. If they got someone a little brighter and crueler than expected, then they would get a path bypassing most of my traps.

I reached out to see where Blink was. I hadn’t seen her since this morning during breakfast. I felt that she was down with the gremlins right now. But, she was sending across the bond a feeling of giddiness.

It was almost magic as Blink started to work her ambush. She started from the back and used what had to be her pounce skill. I wasn’t sure where she jumped from, but she only appeared once the impact was made. I saw the first gremlin just crumple. Then she stealthed again.

It took the gremlins three deaths before they started to get excited and look around. Then, it took them two more before she couldn’t vanish again.

I jumped down from the ledge and headed towards the fight. While I knew I would get there near the end, I wanted to help clear it all up.

I ran around my traps as quickly as I could, clearing the 100 yards in around 15 seconds. In that time, Blink had finished off another two of the gremlins and was pushing the other three back.

I arrived and tried to kick for a field goal, the nearest one from behind. It was great seeing the little twenty-pound bundle of hate lift off the ground and topple forward. The one next to my make-believe football turned towards me, screeched, and jabbed me with its tiny spear.

Blink jumped on the other one and tore out its throat before it could react. The one that jabbed me was splattered with blood, and it bolted between us.

If it had longer legs or hadn’t been as dumb as a box of crayons, then it might have made its escape. However, when it bolted, it tried to jump over the pit and failed.

I finished off the one I played kicker with and limped toward the pit. When I kicked the monster, I had messed my knee just a bit. It is one of those fun things about combat most of the time, you did the damage to the other person, but every now and then, you get some of it back. I think it was because I was trying to lift the guy up when I kicked that I tweaked my knee.

When I looked down into the pit, I saw three gremlins and one goblin. Two of the gremlins were dead; they landed on the stakes at the bottom. The goblin we hurt as I saw that one of the stakes was sticking through his foot.

It was a simple matter of a charged strike with my staff to kill off the goblin, and then I jumped into the pit myself. There was an area on one side that didn’t have spikes as I needed it free when I was building the pit.

The gremlin attacked when I got in, but I just picked the little savage up and slammed him onto the largest of the spikes. He squirmed a little and then was done. I tossed the trap cover back out of the pit and checked the bodies for equipment.

The gremlins all had small colored quartz or nuggets of shiny metal. The goblin had with him a cheap shield with a metal ring and a scourge.

I tossed it all out of the pit and then pulled myself up. When I got out, I took a glance around to make sure that there weren’t more goblins nearby. When I didn’t see any, I reset the pitfall.

“Blink, go scout downriver. If you see any goblins and can safely thin them out some do so but don’t get hurt.” I told the air around me.

Blink showed up to my left and bumped my arm before she headed off. When she had gone a few feet from me, I turned and started to grab the gremlins and throw them into the river.

I looted everything, which was to say I got a few bits of string and lots of pretty pebbles. My limited game-playing experience had taught me to loot everything, and so I was. Unfortunately, I had already missed on a few things the night before when we had to run, and I wasn’t too happy about that.

About an hour after Blink left, I felt her send the feelings of being elated. Of course, she was a killer, so I was sure that the feelings meant that she found goblins and they were her prey.

Lannah was still asleep, which was good. No sense in her getting worried we couldn’t go anywhere until she was healed enough to travel, and even then, I wasn’t sure heading south was the best bet. We might have to climb out of here and then head across the river.

The sun was directly overhead when I started to work on my equipment. First, I spun up another core which took all of my mana and then a little. Then I got to work adding runes to my coif that I captured. While it wasn’t in the best shape, it was the only piece of armor I had that was metal. It was also the best thing I had for my head.

I took the coif and began to do the finest detail runes that I had done to date. First, I added the ice rune with the idea of cooling the wearer, then I added lighten with the intent of making the whole thing lighter along with the strengthen runes. The idea that I had was I wanted this to be something that wasn’t going to weigh me down as much as my fur armor was currently. When I popped a core into the fur armor, it helped. However, I felt that I would see more help if I pre-worked the armor, some as I did with my staff and leather skirt.

Armor core created

Armor core!

Max level 5

As your armor levels, its helpfulness increases.

General

Showing up in all Orange.

Arn’s Iron Coif of Cooling

Level 0

Type armor core

Class uncommon

Durability 200/200

Weight 5 lbs

Coverage: Neck, head, and shoulders

Armor rating 2

>Growth

To level your armor, you must provide for its proper care and material.

Metal 0%

Mana 0%

>Traits

These are the abilities or traits that your Iron Coif of Cooling has.

Protection- Your armor has a +1 armor rating

Durable- Your armor is durable; it will not wear out from normal wear. Durability will only decrease with targeted attacks.

Lightened- The Iron Coif of Cooling is lighter than it would appear. This item has had its weight reduced by 20%

Cooling- The Iron Coif of Cooling is always slightly cooler than the surrounding area. -10 degrees Fahrenheit.

I was surprised that I didn’t get any detailed description of the coif and what it did. It seemed to just be a basic set of info on growth and traits. It almost felt like something was off, but I was also kind of happy to just get this info. It might have something to do with me not crafting it and only adding a few runes.

I had spent about 2 hours crafting the runes into the coif. Thankfully, Lannah had been asleep all day. But, while I knew she needed sleep, I also wanted her to be able to sleep tonight.

I sat down in my chair and thought about her problems. She was tired, malnourished, and had two limp debuffs. I let my mind start to chew on the issues. I had skills that I had worked on but hadn’t had much of a chance to use. So while I had the levels, it wasn’t like I had the application of those levels.

Almost felt like book smarts vs. experience.