I watched the storm from under the trees for about an hour. It seemed like just an ordinary storm, but it also seemed like it wasn’t going to end anytime soon.

“I need to get that map. Well that’s not true. I want that map so that I can find Lannah. I guess it’s time to wake the sleeping princess and go for a rainy run. At least it’s just rain.”

I went down and tried to wake Blink up. She wasn’t super happy about having to move the fire was warm, and it had only been an hour. However, with enough prodding and some lamb jerky, I was able to get her up and moving.

When we got to the top, it was another fight.

“Come on girl, the rain won’t hurt you! We got to get moving.”

Blink looked at me like I was dumb and shook her big lizard head.

“Is this because we are getting something to help find Lannah?”

Blink paused. Then she slowly shook her head and thought at me, “Tails bad.”

I sighed. She was right. The trail would be poor, and we weren’t in a life or death need to go get the map. I just had something that I could do, and so I wanted to go do it now. I figured the rain wouldn’t be too bad, but we could wait.

“Fine, we will see if we can wait the rain out.”

With that, she turned around and padded back to the fire. By the time I got down to her, she was curled up, sleeping again. Every so often, there was a little lizard snore, and then she would settle back down.

“This place is a dump compared to the the other side of the lake.” I muttered.

I started to move through the set of rooms. I was looking for something that I could do while waiting for the rain. Unfortunately, most of the building part was done, so I only had equipment that I could check again.

“Ain’t I just a nervous ball of energy.”

It took me the better part of an hour to pull out all of my gear and look it over. Sure I had just packed it, but it was better to do a check while I had it than to get downriver and have a problem. As I was looking over things, I sighed. I hadn’t taken the time to review what I had in a while.

Just about everything in my pack had a core in it that I fed and kept ready to level. I knew that I needed to use items to make them level. Weapons and armor I just needed to feed, and so that was why I was constantly feeding them the scraps of what I found. Finally, I started to open my equipment up to see how things had been going.

My short sword had leveled while I had been fighting the undead. Sadly, I hadn’t even thought to check. I still wasn’t used to things getting better, only falling apart. Even being here for around 6 months wasn’t enough to break me from a lifetime of equipment only breaking down.

The sword interface opened up, showing me in all orange words a maxed-out blade.

Level 1 (Level up)

Type Weapon core

Class Enchanted uncommon

Durability 500/500 (1500/1500)

Weight 4 lbs (3 lbs)

Length 20 inches

Weapon type: Cutting and impaling.

Damage: 1-3 cutting or impaling (+6) , 1 (+7) magical, (spiritual +3)

>Growth

Your weapon core is maxed out and growth can not happen.

>Traits *

These are the abilities or traits that your Weapon has.

Durable- Your weapon is durable, it will not wear out from normal wear. Durability will only decrease with targeted attacks. Spiritual Damage- Your weapon does damage to spiritual creatures. Rotting fear- Your sword has been enchanted with Rotting fear. This will do 2-10 (15-30) mixed rot and festering illness and magic damage to the target when activated. All strikes will cause a mild fear debuff of 2(4)* the number of successful strikes in the past 5 minutes. If the fear debuff hits 100 then an aura of fear will emit out 5 (40) feet from the sword until no successful strikes have occurred in five minutes. This sword has been Imbued with power and can hold up to 30(60) mana. It can recover 1 (8)mana every day on its own. * Held till level up activated. * Held till level up activated. * Held till level up activated. * Held till level up activated.

“You got to be kidding me. I could have been improving my weapon this whole time!” I moaned.

I thought it would just level up, and I would see something. I had been going in and triggering a feeding after most battles to ensure it was in good shape. What I hadn’t been doing, however, was looking at anything else. I just flew through the options. Now I triggered it to level up. Each level was its own step.

Bane of the undead- The undead have come to fear your blade. Crushing damage +4 Burning desire- Your blade has been tested fire is it’s friend. Burn damage +2 Wolf’s Bane- Your blade enjoys drinking the blood of beasts. 50% chance to bleed a beast Lightness- Your blade feels lighter in your hand. Decreased stamina usage 25%, Speed increased by 25%.

“Well that will teach me. If I had been paying better attention to what was going on my fight with the skeletons would have been much easier.”

I spent the rest of the storm going through and triggering the levels for my equipment. All my armor went to level 5, which was as high as it could move. My new stuff that I had gotten from the dungeon leveled nicely, which would change everything for me.

My set of Breastplate, Backplate, Tasset, and Cuisses were all geared toward Vitality. As they leveled, so did the amount each gave. It looked like they gained a flat 10 per level, and so now each gave a plus 50 Vitality along with the doubling for being in the set. Which meant each piece now gave me 100 Vitality.

My Bronze Greaves and Vambraces of Strength still each increased my strength by 50%. What was cool was that, as a set, they had a once-a-day ability of prodigious power. Which for 5 minutes would set my strength at the level of my highest effective stat.

My Sabatons had gone from a 25% noise reduction to a 50% and a 10% chance of being overlooked. While they weren’t giving me anything super cool, they, like all my armor, also increased the damage it could take.

My standard equipment I had been using, but I hadn’t been feeding. So that meant that I should take the time when I got back to force feed all my equipment. Before I went looking for Lannah, I needed to take the time to upgrade. I also needed to buy from Dave some heavy leather pants or chainmail to go on my legs under the other armor. I had the chance but stopped thinking about how I needed to kit myself out.

“My laser focus is going to end up being the death of me.” I said quietly.

I gathered my gear and checked outside. The storm had broken, and so it was time to go.

“Blink! Time to go the storm’s stopped!” I yelled.

A few moments later, a tired ropola stomped up the stairs and out onto the trail.

Blink sent to me, “Bait!”

I smiled and started to go as she faded away. It was going to be a good run, and I was hoping that the rain might have put a damper on anything that was hunting. We got a good two hours in before I was proven wrong. Which might have been a record for us.

It turned out that the orcs were out for a stroll in the rain. Not the post-rain, nope, they were drenched even two hours later. They also weren’t looking at us when I saw them. There was one column of 6, and they appeared to be trying to head down the game trail in the same direction as we were going.

The back one was yelling something in Orcish as they moved. It looked all the part an organized military patrol. They weren’t watching where they were going but just stomping at a slow jog down the path. I almost wanted to watch and see where they were going, but we had already wasted four hours waiting on the rain. Which meant that I was going to attack.

I sprinted forward. My standard was in my left hand, and I had my sword in my right. I was looking forward to this fight. With my increased equipment, I was hopeful of completely rolling over them. I wasn’t sure if that would happen and so I did the sensible thing. I opened fire at the back of the orcs with my stone sphere ring.

The first one was a fantastic shot right into the lower back of the orc, which made it fall forward but with its chest up. It also screamed, which caused the other orcs to turn around. The second one caught a stone sphere to the upper back between the shoulder blades before he could spin. The third one got his left arm broken because of the spin.

Blink, my ever-faithful assassin, no matter what form she was in, seemed to be ready for my attack and leaped onto the one that was the front and was now the rightmost. She didn’t get to attack, but she did manage to add Fire-Strike to her claws. When she hit, she took the orc down and then used its neck as a chew toy.

That left just three that were at least slightly combat-ready. Righty didn’t have a shield arm anymore because of the stone sphere hitting right at the shoulder joint. The other two who moved to Righty’s left looked pissed and ready for a fight. Which was good. I was ready for one as well.

Both of them were sword and board orcs. In fact, the whole group were swords and boards with leather. They saw me charging, and the one on the outside turned and ran. The one next to Righty charged, and Righty broke as well.

I met the charging orc with my standard, blocking the swing at his arm. He wasn’t any good at all. He didn’t try to redirect or change his attack. When my staff got in under his blow, he kept trying to muscle through it only to glance off my shied. I passed under his sword and twisted. As I did, I drew my blade across his right leg, taking it right above the knee.

I heard him scream and go down behind me as I sprinted for the two that ran. If they were running, it was likely to someone, and I didn’t need the alarm to be sounded. I saw Righty go down as Blink tore out the tendons on the back of his left thigh. I passed her and fired two more stone spheres. Shooting the thing while running was always tricky, and the first one caused him to dodge. Which let the second one clip the guy and send him to the ground.

As he was working on regaining his feet, I slid my sword into the hollow of his clavicle. Then I booted him in his face to help my blade come free. I took just a moment to make sure he would be dead by cramming my sword up under his xiphoid process. Then I turned to go back to the wounded.

Blink and I finished off the group quickly, putting the wounded down quickly and then looting. The equipment looked new, if a bit on the cheap side. Their shields were all round wooden shields. They reminded me a good bit of what I would think of a Viking having. All but the sword that the rear guy had were cheap iron arming swords. His was a good steal arming sword. So I took that one. They were wearing leather, but I wasn’t about to try to take any of it. No potions, trinkets, or personal effects at all.

I looked off into open space and said. “Blink, I think this was a training group. Which makes me worried a bit.”

She replied in my brain, “Runs?”

I nodded and replied. “Run.”

The sun was going down when we made it to the ledge room. We slipped in the upper door, and I checked out the river to see if I could see anyone out and about. Since I couldn’t, we settled in for the night. While I could have started us a fire, I was worried it might get spotted.

That night I dreamed.

* * *