“I can’t say I hope you return someday, but I do appreciate all your help,” Nohral said, shaking Vin’s hand with a grunt. “Like I said, we’ll take care of the trogum, so no need to come back and check on him.”

  After everything they’d been through in Valdora, the leader of the dwarves was finally seeing them off at the edge of the Crater stairs. Naturally, with Myndra and a small contingent of heavily armed warriors behind him. Chuckling, Vin gave the dwarf an apologetic grin.

  “I know we weren’t exactly the best guests, but I hope you can forgive us for that. I might come back via that… interesting cave of yours in the near future to ask about potentially forming some sort of trade agreement with my people. Admittedly, I haven’t checked in with them in a while, but I can’t imagine Spur would turn down forming good relations with a bunch of blacksmiths.”

  “It’s not like I can stop you,” Nohral sighed, seeming resigned to the idea of Vin returning. “And while I wouldn’t be immediately opposed to a trade deal of some sort, just remember that we won’t be making your people any sort of weapons. Not unless they want to try their hands at the trial.”

  “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about anyone taking you up on that,” Vin grinned.

  Waving goodbye to Myndra and getting little more than a frown in return, Vin bade goodbye to the Crater, joining his friends as they began making their way up the stairs toward the rim of the volcano.

  “Sweet, sweet fresh air!” Scule exclaimed as they slowly put Valdora and the dwarves behind them, all but sucking in the rapidly cooling air. “I have to say, after the death fragment and the swamp, this is my third least favorite fragment so far.”

  “Probably my third least favorite as well, after the death fragment and the desert,” Shia admitted, closing her eyes and savoring the slight wind reaching down into the top of the Crater.

  “Maybe I should add a tier list to my journal?” Vin joked, reaching into his pack and pulling out his journal with his new left arm. Grinning at the simple fact that he could write while walking again, he quickly added a brief line about adamantine to his section on the Crater before tucking his journal away again.

  “How’s the new arm faring?” Alka asked, swinging her own brand new darthsteel warpick as she walked up the stairs beside him.

  “Honestly I think it’s more responsive than my right one,” Vin admitted, flexing the marble fingers of his new left arm.

  Like Deorer had promised, the operation had been painful.

  Extremely. Painful.

  Thankfully, before he ducked out to the next room, Scule had offered up one of his muscle relaxant poisons to help dull the sensation in Vin’s arm a bit. He wasn’t able to offer any of his more powerful concoctions as Vin needed to be in his right mind, but it was better than nothing.

  Even so, despite Scule’s poison, all the wine he’d drunk, and Vin’s own Resistance skill, getting his arm replaced had still been a less than pleasant experience.

  However, the benefits made it more than worth it.

  Vin pulled up his latest notifications, going through them once again.

  Resistance increased to lvl 19! 1,900 exp gained.

  Resistance increased to lvl 20! 2,000 exp gained.

  Level 20 Resistance is capable of skill evolution. Spend a skill point to evolve skill?

  Resistance lvl 20 has evolved into Total Resistance lvl 1! 200 exp gained.

  Total Resistance increased to lvl 2! 400 exp gained.

  Toward the end of the operation, Vin had finally suffered through enough pain to get his Resistance skill to the point of evolution. He’d come close to blacking out a few different times in the beginning, but once he’d gained Total Resistance, things had gotten a bit easier. It wasn’t as if he no longer felt pain, but the pain he’d been experiencing almost felt like it was a stage removed from his body. It still hurt like hell, but it wasn’t mind numbing anymore.

  Of course, evolving another one of his skills was just a side benefit of the entire ordeal.

  The real prize was attached to his elbow.

  As they neared the top of the Crater, he continued to flex his new fingers, marveling at the strength he could feel coursing between them. One unexpected surprise they’d discovered shortly after Deorer called the operation a success was that Vin’s new arm was dramatically stronger than it had been while attached to Alka’s body. When he’d tried to stand up after the operation and stumbled, catching himself on the metal couch, he’d been more surprised than anyone when his arm flashed blue and he accidentally crushed a part of the iron frame with just his grip.

  Deorer had said it was nothing to worry about, cracking a joke that it was a good thing Vin was right handed because he wasn’t planning on replacing any other body parts Vin ended up losing.

  On top of the incredible strength and responsiveness packed into his new arm, it also had the strange benefit of added mobility. While it functioned similar to a regular arm for the most part, the wrist was in fact one of those strange ball-like joints, meaning he could rotate his hand an entire three hundred and sixty degrees without issue. The fact that he could now touch the back of his forearm with that same hand’s fingers wigged him out a bit, but he had to admit it was kinda cool.

  All in all, not even factoring in all the awesome benefits, Vin was just happy to have his arm back again.

  Grinning stupidly to himself at being whole once more, Vin crested the top of the crater rim, taking in a deep lungful of the fresh, thin air and welcoming its slight chill. Funny enough, after leaving the inside of the volcano, the rest of the dwarves’ fragment was actually a little bit cold.

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  “I don’t see any of those bird monsters,” Alka said, peering up into the sky and rotating her head completely around. “What did they call them? Dropbeaks?”

  “Something like that,” Scule nodded, crouching down slightly in order to make himself a smaller target despite Alka’s all clear. “You know what, maybe this fragment actually is worse than the swamp. I changed my mind, second worst fragment!”

  “It’s not like they’d grab you and fly away Scule,” Shia said, grinning at the petian’s unease. “They’d just fly through your body so fast you’d pretty much explode.”

  “Wow, I feel so much better now. Thank you for that,” Scule said, rolling his eyes. “Anyway, as much as I do enjoy talking about all the different ways I could die instantly while outside of the citadel’s walls, I feel like we have something more important to talk about.

  “What’s the plan with the divine warrior?”

  The jovial mood turned in an instant, and Vin felt his smile fade as Scule brought up what they’d all silently been thinking about. He’d managed to put their upcoming revenge match against the lizardman out of his mind while they focused on saving Alka and then getting her a new weapon, but there was no more dodging the subject. Not only was Alka back with them and stronger than ever, even Vin had received a massive upgrade.

  Ready or not, it was time for round two.

  “We find him, and we kill him,” Alka said, her voice hard like steel, as if daring the universe to argue with her. “Do you still have that charm Madam Trebella gave you Vin?”

  “Yepp,” he said, pulling it out and checking the painted rock. “It’s still pointed at the trogums’ fragment. Not surprising I guess, seeing as the Rebel Queen said there were thousands of them running around. No doubt it’s going to take him a while to fully clear out all the tunnels.”

  “And he’s growing stronger with every one he kills,” Shia muttered, frowning at the thought. “I know we have to go after him, but I don’t like this one bit. We barely got away with our lives last time, and that was only because he wasn’t taking any of us seriously. I’d bet the next time he sees us he starts up his speech immediately and goes for the kill as fast as possible.”

  “So we set a trap,” Scule shrugged, looking between them all like he couldn’t quite understand what the problem was. “I know you guys said he was fast, but I doubt he’s faster than a poison filled dart.”

  “He’s faster,” the three of them said in unison.

  “Okay…” Scule said slowly, looking between the three of them with his eyebrows raised. “Well, I suppose I’m starting to see how he beat you all so handedly.”

  “There’s no chance we can match his speed,” Vin nodded, remembering his attempts at stabbing the lizardman. He moved so fast he might as well have been teleporting. “We either need to slow him down somehow, or like Scule said, build the mother of all traps for him.”

  “I don’t think slowing him down is going to work very well,” Shia admitted, tapping her chin as she thought. “Don’t forget, he managed to kill all those poor creatures in the swamp fragment without issue. He’s the same size we are, meaning he should have struggled to even move in that swamp, let alone go on a killing spree. He must have some sort of passive or ability that allows him to navigate difficult terrain more easily.”

  “That would be on par for the Duelist class Madam Trebella suspects he has,” Alka nodded. “They’re all about quick movements and staying light on their feet, regardless of the battlefield.”

  “Well if we can’t slow him down, a trap is our only solution,” Vin said, scratching his head with his new hand just because he could, enjoying the smooth, coolness of his strange new fingers. “Anyone have any ideas?”

  “I mean, there’s the obvious one,” Alka said, somehow looking at him pointedly despite her helm-clad face. “Should we just head back to your fragment and grab Alice for a little bit? If we need a trap, she’s our girl.”

  “I was thinking the same,” Vin sighed, already imagining all the attention he was going to get. He’d been the talk of the fragment even before getting his arm replaced with a golem prosthetic. He had no doubt it was only going to get worse. “Okay, here’s the plan. I really don’t want to deal with Spur and camp right now after everything that’s happened. At least not until we can wipe our hands of the divine warrior and put all this behind us. Scule, can you use your tunnels to sneak into camp and find Alice? Ask her to come meet us over in Sakis?”

  “Yeah, I can do that,” Scule shrugged. “Unless Spur’s had them filled by now, in which case I’ll be stealing something else of his next…”

  “Great,” Vin said, choosing to ignore that comment for the moment. “While he’s doing that, I’m going to head back to Sakis first and grab the Stone Shape spell from Eithan. If we’re going to be ambushing the divine warrior in those tunnels again, I can’t imagine that spell not being useful.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Shia nodded, stepping forward. “I’m close to putting the finishing touches on that new spell I’ve been working on, so I’ll go with you and see if I can’t finish it up while we wait for Scule to bring Alice to us.”

  “I suppose I’ll follow the runt and act as muscle if needed,” Alka shrugged, walking over to join Scule and Reginald. “I’ll leave the sneaking to the experts, but we don’t want Alice to run into any monsters on her way to the stone village.”

  “Psh, you just want to show off your cool new body,” Scule said, rolling his eyes.

  “I can do both,” Alka shot back, her eyes flaring with mirth.

  “Alright, sounds like we have a plan,” Vin said, a sense of hope kindling in his chest as he took in his friends. “We got this guys. Our next time encountering the divine warrior isn’t going to go like the first one did.”

  “Of course it won’t, you’ll have Reginald and me with you this time,” Scule snorted, shaking his head like it was obvious. Reginald nodded along with the petian, offering an encouraging squeak.

  “Glad to hear it,” Vin grinned, leaning down and putting his fancy new arm out in front of him. “We have a strange custom on my world where people all put their arms in and shout on the count of three before a big… battle, let’s say. Want to give it a shot?”

  Without a word, Alka stepped forward, dropping her dwarven warpick for an arm on top of his none too gently. Grinning, Shia stepped up beside her, laying Blossom in the pile. Squeaking with excitement, Reginald jumped onto Vin’s arm, carefully placing his tail in as well.

  The four of them stared at Scule, who stared right back, standing there with his arms crossed. Finally, he sighed, walking over and hopping directly into the middle of the circle, landing atop the flat part of Alka’s warpick.

  “There. Happy now?” He grumbled. “Tall people and their long, golem arms… and warpick arms… and magic staffs…”

  “So what, we just shout on three?” Alka asked, turning toward Vin.

  “Well normally they shout and throw their arms up, but seeing as-”

  “One, two, three!” Shia and Alka cried together, immediately jerking their staff and warpick up and launching Scule nearly thirty feet into the air before he realized what they were planning. Screaming, the petian tumbled through their sky, letting out an impressive stream of curses and even finding time to promise to steal their eyelashes while they slept before he came falling back down.

  Thankfully, despite her laughter, Shia managed to catch him easily enough in the soft canopy of her staff. Stumbling his way free from the small tree top, Scule dropped to the ground, shaking his fist up at them and giving them a wicked grin.

  “You two do realize you’re sending me to go collect a high level Trapper, right? You guys are so going to pay for that.”

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