Martin and the boys rolled up to the outskirts of Arman an hour or so before sunrise. The town was quiet which was normal at this time of day. They slowed down as Clem held up a hand. They had come to trust the man's instincts, coming to a halt."What's up?""Not sure, something feels off.""Joshua, get ready, we may have trouble."Joshua got off the quad and starting changing his form. He could take on aspects of any creature he killed. He chose to go with a tusked boar, they were tough and mean. After his transformation, he resembled an eight-foot-tall pigman, with tusks, and wiry hair covering his body. He was still bipedal with normal hands. He produced a heavy axe and a large shield from his new storage ring. They weren't anything special, just much larger than normal, built for larger species.He had basic weapon skills but his abilities improved natural weapons more. Since this form didn't really have anything other than tusks he f

I rode Bella along the edge of the desert. The transition between zones left enough solid ground that we could traverse it with ease. It wasn't the most direct route but that was ok.The trip back to the now useless boat dock, that Martin and the others used on our first visit, took a few extra hours.I spotted a few dust plumes in the distance from sand devourers. They kept well clear of the transition zone, although, one shadowed me for a bit before it headed off into the desert.The boat ramp looked odd, jutting into the sand. Bella had no issue climbing up the surface, her claws clicking on the old concrete.When we got to the end of the ramp she stopped. She made some clicking noises as she searched about."What is it, girl?" I asked, producing my staff and looking around as well.Fiona appeared next to me, "something feels off.""Yeah, Bella feels it too."I hopped off of Bella to give her free reign to fi

After I got the required oaths from the rest of the people in the bar, the Constable showed me to an office area where I could work. Her attitude toward me was still chilly but I didn't care.I looked at the assorted weapons before me. It was a motley collection consisting of a few swords that were probably older than my father, a couple of hunting bows with an assortment of arrows, and one war hammer that looked like a cheap knock-off. I sighed.I wasn't even sure if most of the items could hold up to the magic. Ranged weapons would be ideal to deal with this creature but the arrowheads were the cutout hunting style ones, leaving little material for adding the inscription. The shafts of the arrows weren't much better. Most were a carbon, or carbon composite. Good for strength, but any modifications from carving into them would weaken the shafts.That left the aluminum ones. There were about a dozen of those. I would have to be very careful carving the run

It took the people of Arman a few days before a sense of normality returned. As normal as life could be after the world ended. Martin came by my shop on the second day. He came to tell me they figured out what happened.When they were doing a census they came across a woman named Gran's house. That wasn't her real name but everyone just called her Gran, short for grandma. Her husk had to be dispatched as it was roaming the house. That was when they discovered the magic circle. It was an open secret that the woman dabbled in the dark arts, long before the system came into being, and she had chosen a class called Spirit Binder. They weren't sure what she had been trying to bind but they figured she accidentally called up the Banshee instead.As for where the Banshee came from, local legends spoke of a woman that had been wronged by her husband. The woman murdered her entire family and burned herself alive in the plantation house as a result. They say her soul was cur

It took over a day of crisscrossing the muddy terrain to locate our first dungeon. I don't know what was worse, the swamp creatures that we had to fight off or the damn bugs. Nothing we came across was over level ten, making them easy to dispatch.The worst was the swamp creeper. Not because it was hard to fight but because it took over an hour to fight to its actual body, the mass of vine-like appendages keeping it safe. Fire would have been my preferred method to dispatch the plant-based creature but the area was so wet it wouldn't burn. That left hacking it to pieces.At one point Fiona tried to just go in and stab it but she learned her skill had limitations. She couldn't turn physical while anything bisected her form. Since the creature was a mass of writhing plant matter, it made it impossible for her to get anywhere near the body.My staff also wasn't ideal in this situation. Sure I had the sharp spikes on each end but they could only tear into the