The first glimmers of dawn appeared on the horizon as I arrived at the location. We had agreed to meet there at sunrise, and even though I was early, they were there, waiting for me. Sana had a smirk plastered on her face, while Kaylie smiled while waving her arms over her head, and Bass was looking at the women rather than me.

  Kaylie came running toward my boat, as the others walked normally. Saresh followed them at a steady pace, giving a polite smile, but he kept glancing away from me. Maybe he had second thoughts about coming with us? This would be his first mission against the Union, after all.

  The group headed to the river’s edge, and I rowed there, then tossed them a rope. Bass held it, keeping the boat from drifting away.

  “Fancy seeing you here,” Kaylie said. Her warm voice and bright smile made me want to hug her, especially after the night I had.

  Saresh breathed hot air into his cold hands. “I’ve been thinking, isn’t this too risky? We are risking our lives to save just one person. I don’t even know Jack.”

  “What was that?” Sana jabbed her elbow into his side.

  He yelped, “Nothing. Umm, nothing.”

  I understood Saresh’s outcry. Jack meant a lot to the rest of us, but was nobody to him. I felt bad forcing him to come with us, but he had knowledge about the Union that could prove necessary to infiltrate the base.

  Sana pulled Saresh onto the boat, then handed me a bag containing my armor.

  “Why were you carrying it?” I asked curiously.

  “Because our Dwarf here is the only one who can see in the darkness,” Sana replied.

  As I looked around, I realized dawn hadn’t fully come, making everyone else’s vision murky at best. I was lucky that I absorbed the Night Vision Ability from the Goblin leader that I killed. I could see clearly enough, aside from some details, such as the textures of people’s faces. A Dwarf’s night vision must have been better than mine, since they were so comfortable in the mines. I was glad I left Bass with them, but he was a little too close to the women for my comfort.

  “So, I am guessing none of you can steer the boat?” I asked and felt exhausted. Since last night, I had been going nonstop. I needed a break.

  “It’s pitch black out here,” Sana replied.

  What I saw was completely different. It seemed like the sun was about to peek over the horizon, but they might not have been able to detect that low level of light. And without any moons above us, they couldn’t rely on moonlight either.

  I wondered about their rotation and how fast they actually moved compared to the sun. There wasn’t just one moon moving across the night and leaving when the sun came. Instead, they seemed to balance with the satellites and the sun, allowing them to rotate at varying speeds.

  “Get in.” I held Kaylie’s hand and put her on a seat behind mine. I then turned to Bass and pulled him aboard. “You sit here and tell me if you see I’m going to hit anything. We’ll take turns steering the boat until dawn.”

  “Well, hello to you, my new chief,” Bass said in a snarky tone. I ignored him, focusing instead on getting everyone onto the boat and preparing to head northeast down the river.

  Sana’s control over Air Magic significantly sped up our journey, but it made handling the boat a nightmare. Steering felt like riding a horse through a crowded market, trying not to hit anyone—which was impossible. I struck rocks and fallen branches, and we even got grounded several times in shallow water. Each time, only after a powerful gust from Sana’s magic were we freed and pushed back into the river’s current.

  By the time we neared our destination, the boat was a battered wreck, damaged from the journey and slowly taking on water. Rabbit’s visions and the map had been helpful, but they hadn’t prepared us for the unpredictable twists and hazards of the river. Navigating it wasn’t something you could figure out from a map alone. It required real experience, something we clearly lacked.

  Eventually, we pulled the boat up near our destination and dragged it into some nearby bushes. It wasn’t perfectly hidden, but it was concealed enough to avoid notice from anyone not paying close attention.

  Sophia was going to kill me.

  The river bent around a small hill and then back around the other side of it.

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  According to Rabbit, the camp was entrenched on the other side of this hill. The river and hill provided natural defenses, guarding the base, similar to where we stayed with the Dwarves and where we camped before entering the temple.

  The mountain at the back of the base acted as an impregnable barrier, allowing the defenders to concentrate their efforts on the front. Meanwhile, the river circling the base’s entrance made any frontal assault a daunting task. Invaders would have to cross the river, making them easy targets for the arrows and ranged magic of the defenders.

  The defense relied on the mountain to be the back while the river was in the front. Additionally, since they were not facing south but more of an easterly north, their camp couldn’t be seen from any place in the Hidden Falls Village. In effect, no one knew of their location, so they could not question why they were this far south.

  Our plan at the moment was to climb the hill and scout their numbers and defenses, hoping to get a glimpse of Jack while up there. Since we didn’t have any clue what would be at the top, I opened my bag to put on my armor. When I brought it out, instead of the crap that I was wearing before, it was a set of brand-new armor.

  “Wow!” I was almost speechless. The armor was darkened with some paint, but it all looked clean nonetheless. “Is this new armor? Where did you get it?”

  “The other Dwarves and I made it,” Bass answered with a grin. “We were surprised by how many days we had until we had to leave. This is a temporary armor for the moment. They are currently working on some real armor for you. Do you know that the spiders you killed were made from sturdy metal? It will take the magical forge working to shape those, but we were able to use what we could find lying around into this armor.” Bass took out the chest piece and ran his hand along it. “We made it as lightweight as we could, but that means you have less protection. Considering what you told me about the Biodium mixing with your body, this was the best option for now. For anyone else, I would not have made this type of armor, as it would get destroyed faster and would fail to protect the wearer. But with your double layer of protection, this would be stronger than most normal armors.”

  “How about a pound for pound? That’s what matters in the end,” I added.

  Bass knew precisely what I meant. “Your weight to protection is significantly greater than that of other people. If you took this on your running journey this morning, you would have only been a little bit slower.”

  “Are there any enchantments I should know about?” I asked hopefully.

  “No. We don’t have the items at the moment to make any enchanted equipment because of the Union’s raid. Additionally, this metal does not hold enchantments very well. That is why most don’t use it for armor even though it is strong and lightweight.”

  “I have a theory on that,” Rabbit piped up, wanting to insert his theories like usual. “Purifying metal and removing impurities make it stronger, but if the metal itself doesn’t have a strong enchantment coefficient, then it probably won’t manifest. I guess the impurities would help the enchantment because it’s usually made of minerals and such. It seems you need to find some balance in the materials that react strongly to enchantment, then refine that material as much as you can.”

  Every time he shared one of his ideas with me, I enjoyed it. The more theories he had in this world, the more things he needed to test. This meant that he could have more to experiment on, which wasn’t me.

  “Thank you. This is awesome!” I exclaimed.

  “As I said, you will have to wait for your good armor that you can really thank us for,” Bass spoke. “Also, when we get back, we will have to start training you in Smithing right away. No way to get the good armor until we get you the profession.”

  “I’m excited. What did you three do with the days you had?” I asked the others.

  “Slept, trained, and prepared. Oh, and Saresh found some books to look through,” Sana replied.

  “Have you seen how different you look yet?” Kaylie asked.

  I assumed she meant my skin color. When I merged with the Biodium, my strength increased, and my skin lightened up significantly. “Not my face, only my arms and body,” I said. In the daylight, the changes looked even more significant than usual. My body had a natural glow, which would be detrimental to sneaking around.

  “Well, looking at you right now, you could look like a mixed breed of a Grey Elf and a High Elf. You are very light, and I doubt that someone who didn’t know you were a Grey Elf would know for sure. They would think you are a dark High Elf,” Kaylie replied.

  “Except for his skin,” Sana added.

  I glanced down and saw it right away. She wasn’t talking about the color but about the texture. My skin had a strange, smooth look, almost like plastic or heavy makeup. There were no pores, no texture, nothing real about it. Some people might think it looked perfect. To me, it just looked fake.

  “Is this good or bad?” I did not see her point.

  “It’s a great thing. Since you are the only Grey Elf anyone has seen around here, it might not be an issue. However, since you keep messing things up, you are probably developing a reputation. It’s a lot harder to find someone based on a name and a description. However, if you are the only Grey Elf, that is all they have to say. It probably makes it a lot easier to track you down.”

  That was a concern of mine. I had been creating chaos not only here but on the islands as well. I had highlighted that I was a Grey Elf to them to inspire fear. It did not even occur to me at that time that people were so anonymous in this world. Where I was from, everyone could be traced by either documents, fingerprints, or DNA.

  Here, it was different.

  You could essentially rob a whole town, change your appearance, and relocate to a different region, and no one would ever know. That wasn’t to say that someone you previously came into contact with wouldn’t be able to find you, but there were so few self-identifiers that it made it difficult.

  The fact that I was the only Grey Elf anyone had heard about in this region made me easy to find and track. If the Black Rock Islanders wanted revenge, they would have to follow the stories. If any one of them met me in the future, I was hoping that my light skin would at least give them a second to pause before assuming I was a threat.