The sound of dripping woke me from my slumber. I cracked open my eyes, barely able to turn my head. Everything felt fuzzy. When I looked down I saw the reason for the dripping noise. A large pool of blood was staining the floor and a quick look showed that my stump had continued to leak blood after I had passed out.Going by the size of the pool I must have been unconscious for at least a few hours. I injected another health potion but that was only a stopgap. I needed to deal with the issue.I glanced at the viewer, it showed that the valley was empty. Footprints blanketed the ground but the people must have left before the cloak ran out of power.I decided to set the fortress back down and engage the shield. That would give me five or six hours until I had to worry, assuming nobody came by and attacked.With that done I slowly stood on weak legs. I had to brace myself using my staff but I made my way to the kitchen. There I turned on the electric stove and let the element heat up. I

The needle didn’t move for days and I got a sinking feeling that something was wrong. I flew the fortress back to the first valley and secured it. Then I ran toward the village. I didn’t enter right away, electing instead to wait until it got dark. Then I flew over the walls, setting myself down inside the city. I donned the cloak and hood, looking like the shadiest fuck you could imagine. I decided against the hood, remembering a book I had read once about penetration testing. Act as you belong.I understood the social engineering aspect of it, but I had never been good at the physical portion. I strode down the street instead of acting like a criminal and skulking about. It seemed to work. Nobody gave me so much as a second glance. I think a lot of it had to do with me looking like a beggar.My appearance was haggard from the worry and recovery. As I neared the plaza by the cave entrance I had to slide into the shadows of an alley. Not that I was any good at hiding.Earthen barriers

I huffed out a tired breath, angrily kicking the dead monster in front of me. The armored carapace blunting my foot as much as it had my damn staff attacks. I had been forced to use the cannon to kill the creature, which pissed me off.The stupid monster was only level eight but my limited mobility had hampered my usual fighting style and prevented me from cracking it open through sheer might. Even my elemental powers had been useless. The creature’s tough stone armor radiated heat making lava attacks useless, my main go-to for dealing with heavily armored foes. But the pure magic of my cannon speared through the creature like a hot knife through butter as well as the stone behind the creature.The resulting damage had left a haze of smoke and rock in the air and left my ears ringing. I made a mental note to add some sort of power selector to the cannon, this was overkill for most things. For now, I only charged the gem up twenty percent. I looted the creature and got back to jogging

We climbed out of the ravine and quickly made our way to the tunnel toward West Exit.“We have eyes on us,” Fiona said as she appeared next to me.Seeing as they already knew about Fiona there was no reason to hide her existence here.“You think they will check the ravine to see what we were up to?”“Yes,” she answered unhesitantly.“Shit, we probably should have waited for the dungeon to fully collapse before we left. Too late to change that now.”Fiona nodded as the two of us ran to keep up with Ska. It was an impossible prospect as Ska put his points in agility. Ska had been able to go above the limit on agility due to a previous encounter. I hadn’t even realized his agility was at twenty prior to today. I wasn’t sure if I would win against him in our next duel. Not that a loss would be bad, it just meant my friend was getting stronger.We disappeared into the dark tunnel as Fiona kept us apprised of the tails we had picked up.***Iron Claw stomped across the dry rocky ground as h

We spent a few days resupplying in Houston before we set out.“So, what's the plan?” Martin asked as he followed me onboard.“First I need to pick up some new abilities.”He looked at me in confusion, “Uh, why didn’t you do that in the bazaar?”“Why pay, when I can get them for free?” I said with a wink.“Part of your new class?”I nodded.“Well, this oughta be interesting.”Ska and Fiona greeted us in the kitchen as I went over the plan.“First we take out these contracts for the Marshall. Try to keep as many alive as possible, I want to try my skill on all of them to see what comes up. I figure with our speed and ability to track these men we can probably finish in a few days. Then we head for the Jackal pit.”Ska gave a toothy grin and growled happily at this news.I set out two rings I had purchased with that destination in mind. “These are mind barrier rings. They should be able to protect us for six hours, enough time to clear that dungeon. If my theory is correct and I gain the