Gavin woke up later than usual after getting a good seven hours sleep. He felt decently rested, if a little sore.

  Exploring the house he found Sam awake and meditating in the dining room. Gavin retrieved a still hot pie and an ice cold juice from the kitchen, happily surprised that the same magic his inventory power had to keep food fresh seemed to work in his fortress too. Judy stumbled in rubbing sleep from her eyes as he was finishing his meal.

  “Alright, the gangs all here. There's food in the kitchen Jude.” Gavin said, pocketing his pie wrapper.

  Wordlessly she shambled through into the kitchen to find herself something to eat.

  “Okay team, we've got a few things to take care of.” Gavin said once everyone was ready and attentive “first off. I'm broke. So we need to go out clearing contracts asap and punch some money out of dragons or whatever”

  “I'm broke too” Judy grumbled “after last night I've got sixty solars left.”

  “My extradimensional bag is back at the estate, all I have is my armour and sword”

  “Okay, so first priority is getting money so we don't starve to death and getting Sam some spare undies.” Said Gavin making a note on a summoned sheet of paper with a pencil he'd crafted himself. “Judy, I need you to note down what your powers are and we can have a discussion about team dynamics and what role you want to fill, you need to let us know what you want to do so we can get started filling out your powers. Sam and I both have ours more or less filled out. We should have a while before we need a final decision, it's not a super big deal, you'll have plenty of time to catch up. Leveling six abilities doesn't take much longer than leveling one or so I'm told.”

  Judy, who was about to raise a point stopped and continued eating her pie. Her thoughts obviously less important than her morning meal.

  “Next is loot distribution. Now you don't have a family to bankroll you Sam, you're going to be taking your share of the loot.” Gavin continued.

  Sam nodded her ascent. She hadn't yet internalised what the blowout with her mother meant for her, but clearly Gavin had been formulating a plan of action.

  “We can divide the loot up lots of different ways. Since I'll be making everyone gear constantly I'll want a steady stream of crafting materials. I can make infinite resources if I have them to work with first, but it's super tedious and eats into crafting time that I could spend making and enchanting gear instead. So, I propose we either split all the loot from contracts and my looting power evenly and you guys buy me resources as you want gear, or, we split the contract rewards evenly, I keep all of my looting power rewards and just make you guys whatever I feel you need. Not going to lie, the second option is easier for me, but it'll probably mean that the gear gets distributed as I feel the team needs it or whatever I feel like making on the day, not evenly.”

  They voted and chose the second option without debate. Judy was happy to get any gear at all, and Sam reasoned gear Gavin made as a passion project would be better than something he felt obligated to make because he had to.

  “Okay, that's everything from me for now, oh, Judy, you know I'm technically team leader but Sam and I had an agreement that I'd do all the boring logistical stuff and she'd do the tactical stuff. When we're outside this fortress she's the leader. Sam, got anything to add?”

  “Yes.” Sam said, standing for effect “training. I want us to resume our training plan, a run every morning, sparring until noon, then free time. This is only to be interrupted by days where we go out and clear contracts all day, and a rest day on sixthday where you can do what you like. I think we should aim to have two contract clearing days per week at a minimum.”

  “No complaints from me.” Gavin said. Judy nodded her agreement, slightly wary of having to get up so early in the morning.

  “Judy, do you have anything you’d like to add?”

  She shook her head in the negative.

  “In the interest of Gavins point one, I think we should go out and clear a contract or two this afternoon, then spend all of the rewards on food and supplies.” Sam said.

  “We should be able to clear a lot, I've been around here a bit so we’ll be limited mainly by my portal power cooldown if we're good” Gavin added.

  Their first contract took them a little further up the river than where they'd fought the water Elementals. There had been a sighting of spiderwebs as thick as ropes locking off a decent area of the forest. It was an eerie feeling walking through the enormous trees that dwarfed the three adventurers.

  “So how big are these spiders going to be?” Gavin asked.

  “Depends” Sam replied helpfully.

  “On?” Gavin asked coaxing an answer out of her with a ‘please elaborate’ gesture.

  “What sort of spiders they are.” Sam said with an implied ‘duh’

  “You know, that book you got me to buy is missing an actual lot of monsters and demons, I have no idea what sort of spider varieties are out there.”

  “If they're dire red tail spiders they'll be about this big.” Sam said indicating a football sized object with her hands “and there'll be lots of them. If it's a giant white trap spider there will be one of them and it'll be as big as that dryad we fought in the extradimensional space and it’ll ambush us when we walk over its nest.”

  “So, two not ideal situations? Is there a middle ground where there's only one little one?” Gavin asked hopefully.

  “Yes, there are hundreds of varieties of giant spiders that could show up, it'll be hard to know until we've had a closer look, if it's one little one it's not going to be a fun time for us, of it’s a black funnel web the first time you'll see it is when it bites you and then you'll die a minute later, healing potions or no.”

  “Fuckin excellent. You know spiders are creepy as fuck right, was there nothing else?” Gavin asked.

  “Would you rather I try to find us another sewer elemental?”

  “Spiders are good.” Gavin said hastily.

  They came across the den without much hassle. It was easy enough to find. Webs strung out between trees blocked the sunlight from reaching the forest floor, becoming so dense at ground level they formed gloomy tunnels almost large enough for a person to walk through.

  The air was deathly still, closing in around them like a ratty old blanket. Gavin's usual incessant banter had ceased, the three of them had their eyes peeled for any sign of movement.

  Judy had an activatable vision power that drained her mana to vastly increase her perception and she used it now in short bursts, peering into dark hollows and dingy shadows. There was nothing to be seen.

  Samania took the lead, sword in hand as she crept silently towards the mass of spun death in their path ahead. Gavin behind her ready with a wand of magic missiles and a wand of wind to either snap off quick shots at lone spiders or blast away a massed ambush. Judy had her bow at the ready, arrow nocked and ready to shoot in an instant.

  “I am not going in there” Gavin said as they looked down the pitch black tunnel leading into the spider's lair.

  “They're not coming out to us.” Samania argued.

  “Not coming out to us yet. How flammable do you think these webs are?”

  “Try it. Just be ready for a fight when you do. Ready Judy?”

  “Ready.” Judy confirmed.

  Gavin exchanged his wand of magic missiles for his hastily crafted new and improved wand of fire. It was identical to his first one, though with a smaller chance to blow up in his hand, he hoped. Extending both hands forward he stepped around Sam, activating both simultaneously.

  A cone of fire burst forth, enhanced by the jet of air blasting into it creating a twisting inferno that rocketed down the tunnel. webs caught alight and burned freely, billowing acrid black smoke up through the canopy.

  Releasing the effect of both wands before they channelled mana to dangerous levels, he returned them to his inventory. Taking his spear in one hand and a wand of missiles in the other he set himself to the side and behind Sam ready to support her. Sam prepared to transform at the first indication they were under attack, she didn't want to waste her stamina waiting in her tree form. Judy's head was on a swivel, checking their surroundings for spiders, paying particular attention to the webs that crept between the trees above their heads.

  Then they heard it, not a screech of protest or righteous indignation but a rustling thrum of noise as thousands of hairy legs scurried into motion.

  The tunnel ahead of them was still alight, the fire barely sustaining itself as it spread its sputtering flames. The spiders didn't come straight at them, they came from the sides and above, dangling on thumb-thick silk webs. The group was soon surrounded on all sides by dog sized tarantulas, venomous fangs dripping with sticky ichor.

  “Getting bit by those is probably not going to be ideal. We should avoid it if at all possible.” Gavin said, watching the carpet of angry monsters advance on them.

  “If they overwhelm us, Gavin, you summon your portal and we'll retreat to fight again later.” Sam said, tightening her grip on her sword.

  They pulled in close to Sam who laid about with her extended greatsword clearing the way for Gavin and Judy to step into while she swept aross the next spot. Judy loosed arrow after arrow, skewering a spider through the eyes with every shot. Gavin's wands were quickly depleted, gouging great chunks from spiders around them. He levitated his throwing star above them and used his force of will power to sling it around the battlefield, slashing spiders and their webs to drop them from the trees above.

  He was becoming quite adept at pulling on the star to conserve its momentum and accelerate it to slice into his enemies. He used it for its deadly purpose here, scouring bleeding gashes across dozens of spiders to weaken them over time with the bleeding debuff enchanted on it.

  His role adapted to keeping spiders that got past Sam's blade off of them, stabbing out with his spear at anything that got within range. He used his animated shield for the first time, using it as a barrier to protect their most vulnerable spots.

  Judy ran out of arrows quickly, Gavin levitated a fresh bundle he’d fabricated on the fly into her quiver. They were crude but they didn't need to be well made, the targets were plentiful and hard to miss.

  They'd deftly won the initial part of the battle but the spiders were too numerous for them to kill as fast as they came. Sam sensed when the perfect moment would be, right when the spiders were too thick to hold off any longer, shouting “NOW” she activated her radiance of the dawn power, bathing them all in brilliant golden light. Gavin and Judy took cover, shielding their eyes from the light as a warm tingling sensation washed over them.

  Gavin opened his eyes once the feeling had passed to see the battlefield littered with blackened bodies, scoured by the cleansing light. Spiders that were further from their position were twitching or writhing on the ground, others merely scalded, their delicate fur scrubbed off to raw flesh as they climbed over their kin to get to their prey.

  With the herd thinned the pressure had lessened but was not gone. Sam called for a fighting retreat. As they slowly backed away, the spiders massed from one direction, making all of their attacks much more effective. Judy loosed a string of pinpoint arrows down the line, felling them at an impressive rate while Gavin sewed chaos by lobbing improvised explosives into the thickest parts of the throng.

  Soon they were in melee combat again and Gavin joined Sam on the front lines, using his ether warp ability to deal with spiders that tried to flank them while Judy picked up the ones he missed.

  Sam was their anchor, dealing with the majority as efficiently as she could, sawing clumps of spiders in half with each slash, her escalating enhancement ability empowering each attack with more strength as the battle continued.

  They entered the third phase of the battle, Sam's mana and stamina were dwindling as she fought with all her strength and skill. Gavin fed his own excess mana pool into her, keeping behind her and fighting more conservatively. When Judy ran out of arrows again Gavin fabricated another bundle, glad that Sam's aura of rejuvenation was preventing his reserves from running dry so long as he moderated himself.

  At last their task was done, leaving a trail of dead spiders on a wandering path from where they'd started most of the way back to where they had fought the water elementals over a week prior. Gavin moved between each corpse in turn, touching them to loot, the process taking as long as the combat had. Judy followed behind, collecting all of her spent arrows, most were broken or otherwise damaged but some were still useable. The broken ones Gavin deconstructed and remade, keeping a large stash in his inventory. Samania kept an eye out for any more spiders that might be lying in wait while the other two had their eyes focused downwards.

  There was nothing left alive, and when they returned to the site of devastation where once the nest had been they found nothing but ruin.

  [You have looted three hundred and forty eight giant venomgnasher spider]

  [You have looted:]

  [49 Spider venom]

  [40 Spider meat]

  [70 Level 1 platinum coin]

  [90 Level 1 gold coin]

  [110 Level 1 silver coins]

  [130 Level 1 Iron coins]

  [150 Level 1 bronze coins]

  [170 Level 1 copper coins]

  [8 Level 1 medium healing potion]

  [21 Level 1 medium potion of antivenom]

  [Staff of web]

  [Monster soul: Spider's Eyes]

  “So uhh, that was quite a haul, there's like eighty thousand solars worth of coins, a couple potions and crafting mats, and an soul crystal”

  “What one?” Judy asked.

  “Spider eyes. You want it? I think it lets you see in all directions.” Gavin said looking it up.

  “Not a chance” she said, shuddering at the thought of how that ability would manifest.

  “Hey Sam?” Gavin asked, his levity replaced for curiosity “why are there eggs here? Aren't these monsters like congealed magic that seeps into reality? How do they breed?”

  “Some monsters can reproduce, usually the lower ranked ones.”

  “Wonder how that works with the offspring, do they dissolve back into the ether when they use up their latent magic or can they live out a normal life?”

  “You'd have to ask a nature mage or a knowledge priest, it's not something I was ever taught.”

  “Ehh, I'll file it in the ‘don't care enough to do unless the answer falls right into my lap’ basket.” Gavin said.

  “I'm not going to argue, hey, what are you doing?” Sam said.

  “What?” Said Gavin who had started putting clumps of spider eggs into his inventory “we can probably sell them to an alchemist or whatever, we need money wherever we can get it.”

  “No. There have been too many cases of people doing that sort of thing only for the creatures to get into the hands of people who shouldn't have them, it hurts innocent people in the long run. We kill monsters. All of them. Dead.”

  “Fiiine” Gavin grumbled, dumping the eggs from his inventory and burning them with the remaining charge from his fire wand.

  They portalled back to town once they were absolutely positive nothing remained alive in the area. Gavin filled out the paperwork, then turned in the contract with the local guild representative who worked in a glorified kiosk. They then set about the small town with the idea to burn the cash they'd just acquired.

  They stocked up on food, consumables, and put a significant dent into various crafting materials available in the city and sold them a bunch of spider related products in exchange.

  Last, and most importantly, they visited a local carpenter about constructing beds for them to keep in Gavin’s fortress. He commissioned five in total since that was how many rooms his castle had, with a priority on the first three. Gregoriah said he'd have them ready in five days, including sourcing mattresses for them, Gavin insisted that money was no object with regards to their comfort, pressing a handful of coins into his hand as a deposit.

  That done, they cleared out two more contracts before turning in for the night, the first one to kill some more dryads to the south, and the second was a nest of trolls that they made very short work of.

  Gavin made them a hearty not-quite-irish stew for dinner, with a fresh loaf of bread and butter before retiring to his workshop to tinker for the evening.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  He'd had some time to think about what the party needed, and what he could churn out fast. Sam's mana and stamina were her main issues, he himself needed more staying power, once his wands were depleted he was just a mediocre fighter with a spear, and Judy's gear was all mediocre without many abilities to shore up her weaknesses.

  He wanted to make a whole new suite of wands for himself, but to put the required effort in would take a lot of time, so that was the lowest priority. Sam's mana and stamina issues were the easiest to solve, rings of stamina and mana recovery were easy to craft and he knew the enchantments. He could make the party one of each in a single batch. His main issue was Judy. He didn't know enough about bows or archery to make an effective weapon at this stage, leaving him with one quick viable alternative.

  The next morning after their run, before combat training, the three knights of the round table sat around Gavin's round wooden table and chairs he'd thrown together. He presented the group with his newest creations.

  “I've got a ring of mana and stamina recovery for all of us. The effect is pretty mild so don't expect anything game changing, Judy, you should be able to have your vision power up constantly between this and Sam's rejuvenation. Sam and I should be able to last a bit longer in protracted battles.”

  Gavin distributed the two rings out to each person, slipping his two on opposite index fingers. They fit themselves to his fingers, easily, adjusting the size of magical equipment by a small amount was pretty much standard practice for any craftsperson worth their salt. Gavin had been learning magical theory from several textbooks he’d picked up as well as a small amount of one on one tuition, his comprehension of the core abilities was growing rapidly and his versatility as an enchanter expanded at the same rate.

  “Next, Judy, you have the worst gear out of all of us. I want to make you a top tier bow, but don't have the skills right now. I'm going to need a bit of practice before you get anything I'd consider good. However, I've got something to use in the meantime.”

  Gavin pulled the three arrows from his inventory and handed them to Judy, who took them reverently.

  [Item: Judy's enchanted arrow of killing stuff good]

  [Type: Ammunition, arrow]

  [Rank: Tier 1, rare]

  [Description: Dangerous to anything it hits, not dangerous to anything it doesn't]

  [Effect: Deals additional force damage]

  [Enemies damaged with this arrow gain the [bleeding] condition]

  [Can be soulbound]

  “You can soulbond to them, so you can dismiss them and resummon them once they've hit their target. I'm mildly sure that if they break, when you resummon them they'll come back whole, but don't quote m-”

  Judy wrapped Gavin in a tight bear hug, burying her face in his shoulder. Gavin returned it, holding her tightly for a time.

  “Thanks Gav.” Judy said brushing a tear from her eye “this is fantastic, I love it.”

  “Damn Judy, you're gonna make me cry.” said Gavin, caught up with her joy “I made it with party funds, you are entitled to some sweet gear. If I'd just given you the money you could have bought whatever you wanted.”

  “No, not like this. You couldn't get someone to make level one soulbound gear, it just doesn't exist. Anyone who can make it can also make higher level gear and can sell it for much more. I might be able to get a good bow or enchanted arrows but they'd still be out of my budget.”

  “Yeah, okay, that's kinda my role in the party though, you don't see me gushing when Sam slaughters a few hundred spiders.”

  “You should” Sam said, trying the rings on different fingers until she found a combination she liked that didn't interfere with her sword hilt.

  “My point is, my strength is in preparation, on the battlefield I'm going to drop off in effectiveness for raw power as we get stronger so equipping the team with the best possible gear is how I make up for that gap. It's my job to do this for you Judy.”

  “Gavin. Can it with the modesty. It's not a good look on you” Sam said, now trying her sword out to see if the new rings would interfere with it.

  “Fine. You're welcome Judy, it was my pleasure. But seriously, it's gonna get super tedious if you're going to be all thankful whenever I give you guys stuff. I should be churning out a couple good items a week, more if we’re okay with average tier stuff like these rings.”

  “I'm still going to thank you Gav.” Judy asserted “it's sweet and thoughtful.”

  “So, what are we doing for training Sam? It's gonna be awkward if we take turns sparring” Gavin said, changing the subject.

  “That's why it's you two against me.”

  “You cocky bastard” Gavin laughed “you reckon you can take both of us?”

  “Ahh a-yeah” Sam said, imitating Gavins sarcastic tone perfectly.

  “Oh you're fuckin on. Judy, just FYI, if you shoot her repeatedly in the face with some training arrows it won't permanently wound her.”

  “Understood.” Judy said in a mock serious tone.

  They didn't have a good area to train in so they trekked a little way into the bush. Gavin took the opportunity to dismiss his instant fortress so they could relocate somewhere less conspicuous. With a little bit of effort they felled a clearing, leaving stumps that were useful as cover and hazards for movement as well as an additional area to resummon the fortress that was completely clear of debris. When they were done, Gavin had deconstructed wood into his inventory until it was full. Finally they squared off to fight, already warmed up from their manual labour

  “Rules of engagement?” Gavin asked Sam.

  “No sharps.” Sam said dismissing her sword.

  “Anything else?”

  “Try not to kill each other?” She shrugged.

  “Judy?”

  “No objections.”

  Gavin fabricated a half dozen wooden copies of Sam's real sword, his own spear, and bundles of arrows with bulbous ends for Judy.

  The instant he felt Sam's aura drop, noting him as hostile, Gavin sprang into action, whipping out his wand of wind and blasting Sam with it. She countered by dramatically increasing her weight as she transformed into her tree form, bracing herself against the buffeting gale.

  Judy loosed a steady stream of arrows at Sam's face who was forced to block and duck the attacks, the arrows might be blunt but they still carried enough force to crack bone.

  Sam blurred, aiming a viciously fast attack at Gavin who blinked to appear behind her. He blasted her with four charges of light as a feather and another from his wand of gust, sending her tumbling lazily through the air.

  Judy used the opportunity to launch a dozen arrows at Sam who was helpless to get out of the way, after the second arrow struck home a pair of ethereal wings burst from her back. With a powerful beat, she was zipping her massive bulk at break-neck speed straight at Judy. Gavin used his last charges of his wand of gust at Sam, blasting her to the side as Judy took a glancing blow from Sam's wooden sword.

  He fed her some of his health as he teleported to intercept Sam's ballistic path with his spear. As he was about to land a devastating blow she unleashed her radiance of the dawn ability, blinding them both and scouring his skin bloody. He dived to the side recklessly. His teleport was on cooldown so he summoned a bubble shield around himself as he rolled. Sam's sword clipped the edge of it, shattering the shield a moment after he had conjured it.

  He felt his back roll over a branch on the ground, crunching painfully. He yelped as he came up, clutching at his back.

  “I'm ok” he called, dashing back out of Sam's reach.

  “Unfortunately” Sam said, charging after Gavin. Her speed and acceleration in that form couldn't be beat, though he did well to dodge and avoid her with his step through time ability, as well as summon his conjured bubble shields to deflect the attacks he couldn't avoid.

  Sam quickly figured that fighting Gavin was going to be an exercise in frustration, instead she opted to target Judy and force Gavin to come to protect her.

  Sam dashed to Judy, swatting arrows out of the air. As she drew close, she stepped straight onto a stick that jammed painfully into her foot, the same with the next step and the next. She watched in horror as Gavin was redirecting Judy's deflected and spent arrows to stick straight up out of the ground precisely where her feet would land. When she adjusted her stride to avoid them he redirected the arrows to slam into her face and get into her elbows and armpits as she tried to swing her sword

  “Ugh, bloody hell Gavin, can you not be so annoying?” After he'd got two particularly well timed arrow shafts to smash into her nose then another in her ear

  “Not a chance” Gavin called back, reloading a bundle of arrows into Judy's quiver.

  Judy, taking a queue from Gavin, began targeting Sam to frustrate her, aware that her rudimentary powers weren't going to pose any real threat. She had her perception power on full blast, catching minute weaknesses in Sam's guard, her dexterity power letting her more easily time precisely when to loose her arrows when used in combination with her predators focus power.

  She hit Sam repeatedly in the wooden hand that held her sword with a stream of arrows, switching to shoot her in the neck, kneecap, elbows and feet in turn, never giving an idea of where the next arrow would land.

  Sam finally caught up to Judy, slamming through Gavins hastily conjured bubble shield with a powerful wallop. Judy grunted and stumbled backwards, dropping her bow and clutching her arm. Sam came in for a finishing blow as a portal opened up between them. Sam crashed into it, too small to fit through the archway fully, her sword arm stabbed entirely through the pearlescent void. On the other side of the portal Gavin fabricated a mass of wood around Sam's arm to lock it in place, then bashed Sam's hand repeatedly with his spear until she dropped her sword.

  With a bellow of rage Sam wrenched her arm free of the portal, splintering wood as she hauled it back through the opening.

  Judy had taken the moment to retrieve her bow and dash back through the opposite side of the portal to appear next to him safely away from Sam.

  Sam sprinted forward, launching herself into the air to crash down where Gavin had just been. Both he and Judy had stepped through the portal to appear back where she'd come from, arrows coming at her from behind. Sam, feeling for the first time inadequate in a fight, pummeled the portal arch with thundering blows with her powerful heart of the forest form. Stone exploded off in chunks, raining more debris down on the battlefield until the portal winked out.

  Turning to face Gavin with a triumphant smile on her face she caught a dozen magic missiles across her face and torso, feeling the white hot bolts burrow into her.

  The fight changed then. Gavin and Judy had been running rings around Sam, frustrating and harassing her. Sam had progressively been getting more resilient to their attacks, her healing ability while very slow, was working to blunt the majority of the damage coming her way. She was on a timer, but with her increased attributes and new enchanted rings restoring her mana and stamina the timer was progressively slowing. Gavin was running out of tricks and Judy was running out of energy, Gavins rings had kept Judy combat effective for a long time, but an unenhanced human arm was just not designed to keep up the pace Judy was asking of herself, shooting dozens and dozens of arrows in a short span of time.

  Sam stalked her prey, batting arrows out of the air as they came, she grew a bit more concerned when Gavin began feeding Judy his stamina, and pushing on her arrows with his force of will, each one becoming a deadly missile that burrowed chunks out of her awakened armour and bashed painful dents into her exposed breastplate.

  Sam threw herself into the air again, using her attack of the Valkyrie ability as it come off cooldown to redirect her flight and crash into Judy with her full weight, shattering Gavins bubble shield, and knocking the wind out of her.

  “Yield” Sam cried right as Gavin blasted her flank with a full blast from his wand of fire, then another from his wand of lightning.

  She lashed out a backhand at Gavin, ploughing through his shield and slamming him clean in the chest. She followed up with a leaping attack missing him as he teleported in mid-air. He sent some of his remaining energy to Judy who was staggering to her feet, barely recovered from Samania's attack.

  Both Judy and Gavin were on their last legs, low on mana and stamina as well as physically injured. Sam was not much better. The fire and lightning had really hurt, bypassing a lot of her resistances and eating up into her precious time before she'd have to drop her form.

  Sam was just about on him when an arrow shot by Judy and pulled on by his force of will slammed her in the back of the knee. Topping over backwards Sam rolled to the side to avoid the arrows that'd be coming her way only to find Gavin's instant fortress summoned right on top of her legs, crushing them into the dirt, and pinning her to the ground.

  He collapsed to the ground with the mana expenditure, completely out of the fight. All up to Judy, she retrieved one of Gavin's fallen spears from the battlefield, pointing it at Sam's throat

  “Yield” Judy said, smiling.

  Sam made one last ditch attempt at winning the fight, dismissing her tree form to get heeself free of the fortress, Judy slammed the tip of the practice spear right into Sam's clavicle too fast to avoid, eliciting a grunt of pain.

  “Ahh, I yield” Sam yelped, flopping back down, exhausted.

  The two women limped over to Gavin who was awake but incoherent. Sam's aura of rejuvenation quickly got him up again, and once everyone had slugged back a recovery potion, their aches and bruises had all disappeared.

  “That was well fought team” Sam said to begin their post fight debrief. “Good use of teamwork and fast thinking by you in particular Gavin.”

  “It's a talent.” Gavin boasted.

  “Yes, you are exceptionally skilled at being an annoying little ass.” quipped Sam as Judy snorted back laughter.

  “We need to work on your mobility, Sam” Gavin said “or get you a ranged attack. It's a big weakness needing your enemy to come to you, we don't want you caught out by something or someone that can just avoid your attacks.”

  “I agree. Gavin, you need to make yourself a weapon that can last over a long fight and another that can finish a fight quickly. Can you make something that'd just kill something as tough as me?”

  “Uhh, yeah, probably. In my world there are one use weapons designed to take out armoured targets, I could do something similar, and I'm on the same page regarding needing a more reliable main weapon. Actually, making a weapon that can kill someone of your level outright is probably not ambitious enough. If we get into trouble its not going to be against a monster that we could just fight the conventional way, it'll be something we can't fight fair. I'll work out something that's as strong as possible”

  “Judy, your job for the rest of the day is to think about what skills and abilities you need given our training today and how you anticipate you want to fight going forward. After dinner Gavin and I will help brainstorm ideas” Sam said.

  “You don't need to come to a final decision right away” Gavin added “but having a general idea of how you like to fight is going to be important moving forward.”

  “Last thing” Sam said “our next training will be exclusively with melee weapons. Even you judy, there will come a time when you're disarmed and you will need to know how to fight in close range with a backup weapon. Gavin, can you make her a sidearm?”

  “Yes, I'll add it to the list, suggestions?” He said turning to Judy.

  “Knives and short swords are good” Judy suggested “I have a power that increases my dexterity, I could get into weak points easily with a dagger or something light.”

  “Done.”

  “Okay, that was good. Now, let's have a rest and break for lunch.”

  That day Gavin’s force of will skill crossed the line into level two to join his crafting abilities. His body of iron, and ether warp abilities were nearly across the line as well with the others more or less half way. He resolved himself to spending time on those abilities more, though his instant fortress would be a real pain to rank up.