Andrew regained a hazy consciousness a few moments later as Shelby and Isaac splashed cold mana-accumulated water onto his wounds and began to wrap them with kalam husks.

"Oh hey… you guys made it. Good. We still have a watch rotation for tonight, right?" That felt important for some reason. He was still light headed.

"Yes there's a watch rotation you fucking idiot." Shelby spat as she poured water across his left leg, washing away the blood to expose ten or so shallow cuts clustered on his upper thigh.

That's a little harsh. I think that’s the first time I've heard Shelby curse.

"Dude. You're in charge here. You can't just go charging off into an ambush alone. Kalan is part flame-thrower and he still grabbed a couple scouts before going in there." Isaac said, working on his right shoulder.

He was suddenly aware of his missing pants and shirt, and a brief panic filled him, refocusing his eyes as dragged himself further out of unconsciousness. "Yeah. Yeah, that uh, would've been a better idea. I wasn't thinking, I just wanted to stop those arrows." Andrew sucked in a deep breath. "Casualties?"

"You're the worst of them, by far. A few arrow wounds here and there, but all those little shits were under level twenty. We scared 'em off pretty quick." Isaac said, pulling the kalam wrap tight with a little more force than necessary.

"Good, good, we can't afford to slow down."

"If anyone is slowing us down, its you, idiot." Shelby said, cleaning and wrapping his still bleeding wrist. "You'll leave the wagon pulling to the giants for a while. Hell you should probably ride in one tomorrow."

Andrew's eyes snapped to something moving in the brush, but he relaxed as he recognized it as Kent crouched over a goblin corpse, for some reason. Probably looting, though, goblins don't have much do they?

"That sounds like a great idea Shelby. I agree. Maybe you should stay on the wagon for the whole rest of the trip. It'll give the rest of us a chance to get organized before you go running out into the thick of it." Isaac said from his other side.

"Fine. Yes, I'll hang out in a wagon tomorrow if it gets you two off my fucking back okay?" Andrew said, indignation rising with his growing consciousness. "But I don't want to hear a single word about the fucking trump camp from either of you while I'm there. There's a project I want to work on."

"Fine."

"Sounds good."

"Okay, good."

The pair finished wrapping him up, gave him a moment to get dressed, and helped him climb up into the center wagon where he settled down on a pair of boxes covered in a rough cloth blanket, squeezed between other boxes and sacks filled with supplies. He was out the moment his eyes slid shut. He was jolted awake again when the wagon rolled over a particularly large root, and he shot upright, opening his eyes to the midday sun filtering down through the canopy above. His muscles contracted as he did so, sending lances of pain through his thighs and across the wound on the small of his back. His left knee was swollen and stiff.

"uahugh, fuck that stings."

"Heh. Sorry about that. Couldn't go around that one." Po's voice rumbled from behind him.

He turned to see Po at the head of the wagon, the two rope leads draped over his shoulder and gathered up in his intact right arm. The rest of the group marched on around him, most sporting a kalam wrap somewhere on their body. The giants claimed it had healing properties, and gathered heaps of it to store for the journey. It might've helped, but the system's natural regeneration seemed dependent on Vitality, and Andrew's increased too often for him to get a good baseline. Either way, it fucking hurt. Andrew slid forward to sit on the edge of the crate and pulled up the log from the fight last evening.

[Goblin Level 14 defeated]

[Goblin Level 13 defeated]

[Goblin Level 17 defeated]

[Goblin Level 16 defeated]

[Goblin Level 15 defeated]

[Goblin Level 13 defeated]

[Goblin Level 14 defeated]

[Goblin Level 16 defeated]

[Goblin Level 19 defeated]

[Scavenger's Resilience lvl 5 -> lvl 6]

[+1 vitality for enduring significant damage]

[+1 Strength for performing physical labor that pushes your limits]

[Pain Resistance lvl 4 -> 5]

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

[Rune Mage Level up]

[Runic Artisan Level up]

Name: Andrew Neilson

Race: Human

Catalyst: Rune Mage lvl 10

Class: Scavenger lvl 47

Profession: Runic Artisan lvl 12

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

Status:

HP: 1,008/1,210

SP: 1,100/1,210

MP: 1,490/1,510

Attribute points: 54

Rune Mage Skill Points: 1

Strength: 80

Dexterity: 136

Vitality: 124

Intelligence: 154

Wisdom: 181

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 6

-Lumberjack lvl 3

-Carpentry lvl 2

-Butcher lvl 1

-Pain Resistance lvl 5

-Fire Resistance lvl 2

-Siphon Affinity lvl 7

-Minor Translation lvl 3

-Mana Sense lvl 4

-Mend lvl 2

Available Skills:

[Mana Projection: Project and control pure mana a short distance from your hand and crystalize it into physical form for a short time. The distance, duration and precision of your mana crystallization will increase with your mana projection and mana control skills.

Mana Surge: Send a huge pulse of mana into a rune all at once. Some mana will be used to reinforce the rune allowing more mana to pass through it than usual, but it will typically lose integrity afterwards.

Rune Sense: Expand your senses to become aware of the minute connection between you and runic circles carved with your mana. While focusing you gain an innate sense of the direction and distance of each rune carved, to a limit of one thousand feet.]

Hmm. Mana Surge is still out, we don't have time right now for regular equipment repairs or re-inscriptions. Rune sense has a lot of potential applications for finding wounded allies or keeping track of stolen equipment. I don't think I need to worry too much about the latter with this group, though the former could be lifesaving. I'm typically the wounded one who needs finding though. Mana Projection is more immediately useful, I think. Creating items or runes with mana directly could save my life in a fight, considering how often I drop them. Plus it might allow me to create specialized, one time tools for project work. Projection now, rune sense in another ten levels. Maybe.

[Mana Projection lvl 1 acquired]

Andrew held his hand out palm up, closing his eyes and activating the skill. He could feel mana pulsing from his chest up his arm and into his palm, gathering there in a dense cloud that he could still clearly sense and control, a new sensation. He pictured a small, simple but sharp knife as he pushed to compress the mana together. He could sense it melting and melding together until it flowed like liquid, then congealed further to jelly, then clay. It's form all the while shifting closer and closer to the knife he imagined. As soon as the knife was fully formed another wave of mana shot out of his palm, washing over the pliable pure mana and crystalizing it into solid form. Andrew felt a weight thump into his palm and opened his eyes to see a knife of frosted crystal held there. He chopped it into the corner of the crate a couple times and it dug into the wood with ease, though he could already see little chips and divots in the blade. Not very durable. Yet. He set the knife down and watched, waiting. After a couple minutes tiny spiderweb cracks began to flow out from the chips in the blade. The cracks continued to grow as Andrew watched until the knife just crumbled into dust and dissipated. Only useful for a minute or two, and completely gone by five. He would have to practice this one. He put the knife from his mind for the moment and started digging through the sacks on the back of the wagon. It was time to get started on his main project for the day.