The level 5 draugr warriors advanced on us. These were distinguished by the fact that they were all wearing one piece or pair of black armor. Some wore helmets, some wore chest plates, some wore greaves, but none of them wore pants. How gauche.

  We were both only level 4, but we were prepared and armed. I threw a bunch of mini Molotov cocktails, since I was pretty sure I'd need to save the silver bolts for bigger, more dangerous targets later. Valda took out the draugr while they were distracted by being on fire, and I distracted them by setting them on fire.

  Valda's mace was incredibly effective. It had a knock back effect simply due to how hard she swung it and it shredded their flesh, keeping the crowd at bay. I pulled out a crossbow and started firing into the crowd to thin the herd. Each silver bolt obliterated whatever it touched. A chest, a shoulder, or a head.

  We were halfway through the herd when we both leveled up. I saw Valda's level change to 5 and a new ability got added to her list. It was called "Evasive Maneuvers."

  Her weapon and armor proficiencies went up, too. Her proficiency in all weapons and armor types went up to journeyman (4). I saw the proficiencies appear on her stats screen, change, and then disappear again.

  Throughout the fight, Valda was getting hit every so often. Not hard. Just a stab here and a cut there, but it was adding up. Her health bar was down to half.

  "Health potion!" I said.

  I threw one to her, and she drank it down. A draugr lunged at her and stabbed right where her torso was, but then a split second later, she had dodged. That must have been Evasive Maneuvers at work.

  Then an icon appeared above her head. It was a picture of boots, and it had a countdown imposed over it. That must have been the cooldown for her ability.

  She slammed her mace down on the draugr's head, knocking it to the ground and Impact Striking when the weapon hit the ground. This obliterated the draugr's head and tripped and knocked back several others.

  Another icon appeared over her head with a timer, but this one looked like a sword hitting the ground. That must have been the Impact Strike image. Her stamina went down every time she used these abilities, but it seemed to be less and less every time she leveled up.

  I saw that her strength, dexterity, and constitution had gone up a point each. Her strength was 7, her dexterity was 7, and her constitution was 6. Her intelligence was still a 2, and her charisma was still a 3.

  Her stats had gone up 4 points since she was level 3. That must've meant she got 1 stat point from going up to level 4 and 3 stat points from reaching level 5. She must have been choosing these options somehow, because they always improved things she needed to improve, but I didn't know how.

  She didn't say anything about choosing leveling options, though, so it must have been unconscious. Speaking of leveling up to 5, I had done that too. I was so busy looking at Valda's changes that I ignored mine.

  This time I had 3 stat points to allocate, all my crafting skill proficiencies went up by one level, and I got a new ability. I looked at the ability.

  It was called "Manufacture." It gave me the ability to instantly make any product I wanted as long as I had the prerequisite proficiency levels, the raw materials, and a functioning design, plan, or schematic.

  I raised my crossbow and rapid fired five bolts into the crowd, taking down one draugr with each. Multiple heads were vaporized. Then I reloaded and did it again and again and again until they were all gone.

  Now that we were out of that dangerous active combat scenario, I mentally checked my proficiencies again, and my ranged weapons proficiency had leveled up to apprentice (3). That was a welcome surprise. I took out all the empty magazines I was carrying and all my remaining loose bolts.

  With Manufacture, I could fix all the messed up magazines I had made. Putting hand over them, I thought Manufacture. All the magazines properly shaped themselves. Now I wouldn't have anymore jams.

  Then I raised my hand over the bolts and thought, Manufacture. Five bolts of only one type went into each magazine. So regular steel with steel, and silver with silver. I could even use Manufacture to just reload my magazines.

  It probably would've been cheaper on mana to Assemble them, but each magazine cost 2 mana to reload with Manufacture. I wasn't going to cry about the extra mana lost.

  I drank two more mana potions and began upgrading all my infinity bags to the best functioning I could. The load on my body went down by half. So the infinity bags were down to reducing weight to a quarter (25%) of the total weight inside the bags.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  It felt like true infinity bags were right around the corner. I was going to be able to carry vastly more loot now. I still couldn't start picking up weapons and armor, though. That weight would still add up quickly.

  Valda and I went down some stairs and turned a corner, and then we went down some more stairs and turned a corner, and so on and so forth. We had found a stairwell.

  "So what are you going to do when we reach the loot at the end of the dungeon?" I asked.

  "What do you mean?" she asked.

  "Well, it'll probably be more than enough money to get your own place," I said.

  "Are you kicking me out?" she asked.

  "No! Of course not!" I said.

  "Then why are you asking about me moving out?" she asked.

  "I don't know," I said. "I thought you'd want your own place and your own space."

  "No way!" she said. "Been there, done that. When I was a kid, my parents' house was basically my own place. They were never home. Always in another town or city on a work project."

  "When I turned 18, it didn't get much better. This time they took me on work projects, but we lived out of hotels, and I always had my own room. We ate meals together occasionally, but I mostly saw them at work."

  "Sounds lonely," I said.

  "It was," she said. "That's why I don't want to move out. I'd rather stay with you and Brent and Delia. I like the company."

  "Ok," I said. "You don't have to move out. It's not like anyone's going to come back for that room you're in."

  "Not funny," she said.

  "Sorry," I said. "Just a little gallows humor."

  "Well, stop it," she said. "It's not healthy."

  "You're right," I said. "Well, what are you going to do with the money?"

  "Maybe buy a boyfriend," she said. "Hire a few servants. Maybe another employee for the shop, so I don't have to work anymore."

  "Wait, what?" I said. "I lost you at 'buy a boyfriend'."

  "Yeah, you know," she said. "Go down to the boyfriend store and buy one. And then I'll hire workers to run the shop, and you, me, Brent, and Delia can go on a vacation. What do you think about Sunnyvale? I was thinking Brackenwood, because they have some really cool museums, but it's too marshy to be considered a real vacation."

  "What about the boyfriend?" I asked. I was kind of enjoying this humor erupting from Valda. She must have finally been able to relax with me. "He's not going on the vacation?"

  "No," she said. "He's staying behind to make sure no one robs the house while we're gone. That's what a good boyfriend would do."

  "Right, right," I said. "And when were we going to do this?"

  "Right after we complete the dungeon," she said.

  "Right, right, right," I said. "Sounds good to me!"

  "What's wrong?" she asked. "It sounds like you're worried about something."

  "It just occurred to me," I said, "that completing the dungeon could have a huge negative impact on the town. I mean, it's basically a tourist attraction for adventurers."

  "With it gone, how will money come into the town? Even my business would be affected. I profit off new adventurers setting out to tackle the dungeon. If the dungeon disappears, so do my customers."

  "There are other dungeons," she said. "And there's the orc and goblin tribes that attack the town from time to time. And then there are monster dens and spawning grounds, rogue wizards, zombie towns, roaming dragons and demons. The list goes on.

  "There's even just dangerous monsters that roam around. Traveling merchants hire adventurer escorts all the time. The adventuring industry isn't going to die if we remove one dungeon. There are hundreds of dungeons all over the place. And it gets weirder. New dungeons pop up all the time."

  "There are other dungeons nearby?" I asked. "How did I not know this? Also, what do you mean, new dungeons?"

  "New dungeons," she said. "Ancient ruins and tombs get uncovered by earthquakes. Fog clears and suddenly there's a labyrinth there. And there are always monsters and loot in them. Always. There's even rumor of mage made dungeons."

  "What the hell?" I said. "Seriously, how did I not know this?"

  Valda shrugged. "You've never left this town, and you just became an adventurer. Why would you know about this stuff? The church doesn't advertise that the world is chaos. It's bad for their reputation. Whereas I've been all over the place building houses. I've seen things. Adventuring isn't going anywhere."

  "Oh," I said. "When you put it that way, it makes total sense. Ok, I guess I don't feel so bad about destroying the dungeon now."

  "Good," she said.

  We went back to walking down the stairs in silence. At the bottom of the stairwell was a heavy iron door. "Glogmore's Arena," a sign above the door read.

  "That doesn't sound good," I said.

  "It sounds exciting!" she said.

  Valda ripped open the door and walked through. After being in the dark for so long, the light that came through the door was blinding. Valda just disappeared from my view. Well, I had to follow her. I took a deep breath and walked through the doorway.

  And then I remembered I never used those stat points.

  Name: Gwen

  Class: Maker

  Level: 5

  Stats:

  Strength: 5

  Dexterity: 4

  Constitution: 3

  Wisdom: 4

  Intelligence: 9

  Charisma: 2

  Resources:

  HP: 75 hit points

  MP: 160 mana points

  Stamina: 75 stamina points

  Proficiencies:

  Bartering: Apprentice (3)

  Appraisal: Apprentice (3)

  Repair: Apprentice (3)

  Alchemy: Master (6)

  Blacksmithing: Expert (5)

  Enchanting: Journeyman (4)

  Tinkering: Journeyman (4)

  Artifice: Journeyman (4)

  (And More)(Far too many to fully list)(Will come up in the story as they become relevant)

  Abilities/Spells:

  Analyze: Ability to analyse people, objects, and creatures, and learn information about them, such as identification, classification, level, abilities, health, etc.

  Design: Create 3 and 2 dimensional designs, plans, and schematics in your mind and holographically in front of your eyes. Can only be seen by the user.

  Test: Ability to test designs, schematics, and plans to see if they function.

  Assemble: Ability to automatically put together crafting products if all the individual parts are already made.

  Manufacture: Ability to complete crafts from raw materials.