I ducked into my guest room in the tower and looked around. There just wasn’t enough room in the place for me to happily work. There was a bed, dresser, and single chair but no table. What I wanted to do would take far more room. Which meant that I needed to be in a safe room, just not this one.

I stepped back out and went through into the dungeon master’s quarters. I grabbed the fancy lancer armor off the armor rack and then transported to the waterfall dungeon. Once I was in there, I made my way into the safe room. I had work I wanted to do.

As I walked in, I waved to the Dave here. “Dave, I am crafting, but first, I need this armor absorbed and recreated.”

He pulled in the armor and then kicked it back out to me. I smiled and sat down at my table. I always used the same one for the crafting that I did. I liked being in the corner. I knew that in the room, I was safe, and as far as places went, it was likely the safest place for me in the world. However, I still wanted to sit in that one spot.

The armor that I had was the fancy version of what Renfry had been wearing. It had two different metals used across it, or it was somehow dyed. The center of the chest had a horse’s head in a bronze-colored metal. It appeared to me to be seamless, but I wasn’t sure. The pauldrons, vambraces, and greaves all had edging in the same color.

The dumb thing had a cape, but that was kind of to be expected, with it being a lancer’s armor. At least I wasn’t looking at hussar wings. I didn’t have a shield with this armor which meant one less thing to work on. However, I needed to work to make Renfry what I needed him in battle.

I didn’t have the layers of armor that went under the more decorative armor, but I figured that adding to what he had would be worthwhile. Right now, this armor weighed less than mine but also gave a higher base armor rating. I was looking at twelve pounds for the chest pieces that ran down to mid-thigh for him. Combined, we were looking already at an armor rating of 10. Which was what I had on mine, fully upgraded.

Knowing that I didn’t have time to do much, though, I opened up the inside and started to work. I decreased the weight and gave it a dexterity boost. Then I linked all the pieces to each other, doing the same for each one. While he might be my knight, I knew enough to know that he wasn’t going to be the tank. I needed him on damage since I maxed out on what I could do kind of quickly.

Out of the tower, I had some other options, but in the tower, I couldn’t count on myself to be much of anything until I got leveled. When we went after the lich, we needed to hit hard and fast and try to overwhelm him, as we just weren’t going to be able to win a drawn-out fight.

I looked up from my work; Dave was at the table with a plate of food. “Arn, you’ve been at it ten hours already. Take a break and figure out what you want to do, but the ones you left in the tower and getting antsy about you not being there. I can pass a message on for you if you want. Let them know you’re here, maybe?”

I shook my head. “No, I’ll head back now can you absorb what I have here and I will get it from my room there.”

Dave smiled and nodded. The armor vanished, and I headed back out. I appeared just outside the safe room and walked in. Everyone else was at the table eating when I walked over. Kasidy noticed where I came in from and furled her eyebrows. I smiled and came over.

As I sat down, Dave came over with a tankard for me and a burger. “Thanks Dave, just what I was wanting. So Irwin in 10 hours how did you do?”

He gave me a pathetic drained look before replying. “It takes a lot to push that hard. I focused on my fastest spell first, Ice Touch. I got that 85 times before I had to down one of the mana potions that you gave me. Then I read until I was recharged and went at it again. My hands are cold and I moved it up to level 3.”

“What was the biggest thing holding you back?”

“Time and mana. If I had unlimited mana I could blow though this kind of fast. The spell is only a second to cast. The problem is my mana pool is too small for what we are trying to do. I need 750 or so uses for level 3 which means I have to have 9 large mana potions just to do this.”

I nodded. “So while this is quick compared to the other ways of getting you a better class this is going to take a while.”

Irwin sighed and nodded. “Wish I hadn’t wasted those early levels as a kid getting skills that I don’t want now.”

Kasidy laughed. “Have you heard the song about the kid who never leveled?”

Renfry shook his head and said. “No I haven’t.”

Kasidy grinned and stood up. She pulled her panpipes out and started to play for a moment.

“There’s a kid with a sword in his hand.

Trying hard to reach the promised land

But no matter how hard he tries

He can’t seem to level up and rise

He keeps on learning, keeps on growing

Pushing his limits, always knowing

That every skill he gains is a step forward

Towards the dreams he’s working towards

He’s tried every tactic he knows

But the world just won’t let him go

He’s feeling lost and alone

In a world he can’t seem to own”

We all clapped for a moment. I started to think about the song and shook my head. I wasn’t a kid, but it sure was on point for how I felt right now. I guess that was the way songs were meant to be, though.

Renfry smiled and said. “That song sounds like me when I got my advanced class. I never thought that I would get any of my skills to go up again.”

Irwin sighed. “It’s even harder when you raise your level as quickly as I did. I was level 15 before I was 10.”

I glanced over at Irwin, a little confused. “How did you get your Experience points?”

He sighed and shook his head. “Mostly hunting but my dad would set up the hunts. Once I had my secondary class he would take me out to where herds would be running by. I would have to attack and then he would heal me. Over and over again. He told me he was keeping me safe. As I got older I stopped believing him.”

Renfry nodded slowly and drained his mug. “My dad didn’t do that but he told me he was keeping me safe too. That’s why we fought every day for four hours. My skills wouldn’t go up because he kept me from getting the experience I needed. Told me that knowing how to do things mattered more than having the skill and that spending time in the skill level was important.”

We all ate for a while. Then we moved on to small talk for a while. About two hours later, Kasidy yawned and quickly covered her mouth.

Kasidy grinned a bit and drained her mug then she stood up. “Hey Arn, how much longer do you think Blink will be?”

I shook my head. “No idea but I should step out and check. See if she can communicate with me.”

Kasidy smiled and headed up toward her room. As I stepped out of the safe room. As I came out of the safe room, I looked up at the map on the wall. It was still on the local area, aimed right outside of the door.

I walked up to the podium and placed my hand on it. Then I had the map start to pull back and look to see if there was anyone around. We had been in the safe room for only a few hours, so I wasn’t sure what I would find when watching.

As I did, I reached out to Blink. I felt where the bond was but that she was just too far away for me to talk with. She was there but just not close enough for me to know what was going on. So I settled in for a while, just looking around. I knew that time inside the safe room was 24 times as fast, so I didn’t take too long.

I stepped back in and saw the main room was empty. So I had Dave pull out the armor that I was going to use for Renfry, and I dropped the cores in linking the whole thing. I smiled as I saw what I had formed.

Lancer’s Champion Armor of Westiral

Cluster Armor Core (Level 0)

Total Armor Rating 40

Total Dexterity bonus. 10% +10

Set bonus.

Speed of the Lancer

Active skills may be used twice before cool down

I looked at the armor a second time and then asked. “Dave, why am I getting a shortened version of the equipment and not the full?”

He set his glass down. “What do you mean?”

“Well when I would pull up equipment in the past if it had a core in it I would get a full break out of what was required to level everything like that. Now I am just getting an overview like if it didn’t have a core.”

Dave reached out and touched the armor, then shook his head. “I got one for the chest plate. Try it again.”

I looked at the armor and got the same pop-up. Then I saw Dave smile and start to laugh. “As this has nothing to do with the Dungeon, I can’t tell you. But I am laughing at you and surprised that it took this long to figure it out.”

He placed his hand on the armor, looked down at his hand, and then at me. “Yup, you know how it goes; as the Tower barkeep, I can only tell you things about the tower. I can’t tell you how to use your system or anything.”

I thought through everything that Dave had been doing for a moment. Then it clicked I had always been holding the things I had made. I hadn’t ever tried to just look at something to pull up the data. I laid my hand on the armor, shaking my head, and smiled as the normal feed came up to show me what all I had done.

* * *