Eight dead, two into the kalam, three in the chaos of battle, two more lost in the wall of smoke and picked off by hobgoblins, one died while scouting. Andrew hadn't asked them about that yet. They spent the remainder of the day burying their dead and picking through what remained of the camp for supplies. Their travel supplies were loaded onto carts and stashed in the western forest days ago, they brought those back and filled the remaining space with every bit of iron, leather, and fabric they could get their hands on. The field was a mess of hobgoblin and goblin corpses, a few dire wolves were scattered in as well, though none made it close enough to be a problem during the fighting. There were a few goblins still stuck in the far binding circles and a team was sent out to finish them off. They found several sets of hobgoblin tracks heading in the opposite direction while they were out. News of this fight would definitely spread, it was time to go. They spent the evening huddled around a couple campfires in the western forest, listening to the Shelby finally share what the scouts found now that they had a moment to sit down.

"First little chunk of the trip is going to be rough. The next three days or so of travel is going to be all forest, and it gets denser as it goes. We found a decent trail on our walk back though, so we should be able to get the carts through. Then it opens up into plains like these. We followed the river as it curved south for about a day, until we could smell the ocean. Then we continued for another day and found a short cliff at the edge of a decent beach where the river outlet was. It looked like the cliff smooths out a few miles to the west of the river. We split into two groups of three, one led by me, one by Isaac. We each went out a day from the river to the east and west along that cliff. Isaac's group to the east found more forest along the southern side of those mountains." Shelby paused, pointing to the line of mountains running from east to west on their southern side, getting shorter as they did.

"They also found another human, out hunting alone for their own camp. He had a bolt action rifle and he flashed a handful of bullets to Isaac. He claimed their camp had fifty people, and almost half of them had workable firearms. He said most of them didn't know each other before the fighting but they 'run a tight ship now'." Shelby paused as Isaac raised a hand to interrupt.

"He was also wearing a camo vest with 'Trump 2024' stitched in, and asked me if I was one of those deep-state Jews." Isaac said, angrily running a hand through his curly, ash stained hair. "I actually am Jewish, by the way, not practicing or anything but I don't want us camping anywhere near these guys if they really have that many guns."

"No fucking way! Suck it up dude, they have guns, we'll be safe there!" Tyler interjected.

"Yeah them having the guns is the whole problem dude." Isaac replied, before Andrew jumped in.

"Okay, okay, you ran into a Trump supporter hunting with a gun on the eastern side," Andrew said.

"A bigoted Trump supporter" Isaac corrected.

"Hey you don't know that! Some people just talk like that, they don't mean anything by it!" Shelby shot in.

"Hey!" Andrew shouted out over the chaos. "Everyone cool it with the political bullshit! We have to be practical first and foremost. If this group has a lot of guns, and feels safe enough to hunt alone, we have to consider working with them. Shelby, what did you find to the west?"

"Yeah okay, you know what I found while Isaac was out coming up with reasons to cancel our new friends? A pack of fucking dire wolves. They killed Nick. We would've won easily if one of us had an AR. Instead we barely got away. Oh more forest and mountains and crap that way too. I vote we join the people with guns."

That sparked another bout of argument that followed them deep into the evening. Eventually they decided to put the decision off until they reached the beach, and head to bed for the night. They would have several long days of traveling ahead of them. Andrew took advantage of the moment to look through his log and status.

[Goblin Level 17 defeated]

[Goblin Level 12 defeated]

[Goblin Level 19 defeated]

[Goblin Level 16 defeated]

[Hobgoblin Level 28 defeated]

[Hobgoblin Level 22 defeated]

[Hobgoblin Level 25 defeated]

…….

[Hobgoblin Enforcer (Threaded) Level 39 defeated]

[Hobgoblin Mage (Threaded) Level 45 defeated]

[Hobgoblin Level 33 defeated]

[Hobgoblin Level 28 defeated]

[Adaptive Weapon Mastery lvl 6 -> 7]

[Fire Resistance lvl 1 -> 2]

[Scavenger's Resilience lvl 4 -> 5]

[Scavenger Level up]

[Scavenger Level up]

[Additional profession and catalyst experience granted for created equipment used by others]

[Rune Mage Level up]

[Rune Mage Level up]

[Rune Mage Level up]

[Rune Mage Level up]

[Rune Mage Level up]

[Rune Mage Level up]

[Runic Artisan Level up]

[Runic Artisan Level up]

[Runic Artisan Level up]

Name: Andrew Neilson

Race: Human

Catalyst: Rune Mage lvl 9

Class: Scavenger lvl 47

Profession: Runic Artisan lvl 11

Titles: Pioneer, Goblin Slayer I, Martyr I, Raid Leader I, Savior I

Status:

HP: 1,170/1,200

SP: 1,100/1,200

MP: 1,490/1,490

Attribute points: 50

Runic Artisan Skill Points: 1

Strength: 79

Dexterity: 135

Vitality: 123

Intelligence: 152

Wisdom: 177

Skills:

-Perception lvl 7

-Camouflage lvl 1

-Mana Control lvl 11

-Woodcarving lvl 4

-Rune Inscription lvl 11

-Adaptive Weapon Mastery lvl 7

-Empower Item lvl 10

-Rune Modification lvl 7

-Blood Infusion lvl 1

-Stone Carving lvl 4

-Auto Mana Inscription lvl 7

-Mana Smelting lvl 6

-Blacksmithing lvl 10

-Scavenger's Resilience lvl 5

-Lumberjack lvl 3

-Carpentry lvl 2

-Butcher lvl 1

-Pain Resistance lvl 4

-Fire Resistance lvl 2

-Siphon Affinity lvl 7

-Minor Translation lvl 3

-Mana Sense lvl 4

-Mend lvl 2

Available Skills:

[Sense Affinity: Expand your sense to gain detailed information on the affinities of a material, item, or creature.

Body Infusion, Eyes: Infuse your eyes with mana allowing you to magnify your vision to observe fine details or distant targets. This skill replaces Perception.

Arcane Brand: Create a personalized brand which can be added only to items you create. Individuals who know of you will instinctively recognize the brand as yours. If the brand is removed it will release a tiny amount of ***** mana, destroying the item entirely.]

Is that censored? That can happen with these blue boxes? Are my skills too low to recognize the mana type? Is it because I've never encountered that mana type before? Or is it a mana type I know, making use of a property that the system is hiding for some reason? Does this system even have enough of a consciousness to make decisions like that? It could be a rule that predates the system, grafted on by whatever 'gods' created it. Po certainly believes in his god, with good reason. Sounds like each of the giants got a personal request, us humans weren't granted that privilege as far as I know. Will the gods return later? Make more requests of the giants? They were an extremely valuable asset in the defense effort, and they know much about the native plants in this area. Did this other group of humans meet 'our god'? Would I believe them if they said they did? Probably not. Shit. Nothing is easy here.

Andrew drifted off, trying and failing to consider his new skills. The information brought back by the scouts just brought up too many new possibilities, not all good, not even close. His sleep that night was fitful, when he eventually found it. The screams of the pair who fell to the kalam pits echoing in his head as he tried to silence his thoughts and sleep.