The three adventurers met for dinner later that evening. Judy had taken a turn to cook, which turns out was a good choice, she'd made a paella, or the local equivalent, with fresh water clams and crustaceans that inhabited the nearby river.

  “Oh, this is fantastic Judy” Sam said as she devoured her plate of food.

  “One hundred percent” Gavin said around his own mouthful.

  Judy beamed with pride. Glad her new friends were enjoying her meal.

  “You gonna cook tomorrow Sam?”

  Sam's face blanched “I can't cook.”

  “Why not?”

  “No, I don't know how.” Sam said, embarrassed.

  “Ohh yeah, you had a chef your whole life. Well, I'm not going to say you have to cook but I will say I think it's important for team bonding.” Gavin said, finding an argument he thought would work.

  “Fine. I'll try” Sam said.

  “Happy to give you a hand, but my cooking knowledge is all with different ingredients, I never did get around to finding a cooking skill book, maybe I should find a couple?” Gavin said, his mind wandering again.

  “I'll help her.” Judy said.

  “Done” Gavin said, slapping his hand on the table. “Next up, Judy, did you have a think about your build?”

  “Yes actually. I was thinking of being more of a mobile skirmisher. After seeing you run rings around Sam made me really want to do that rather than just stand and shoot.”

  “Good. Do you want stealth options?”

  “I'd rather mobility, I don't really want to go off tracking away from the group.”

  “Understandable. I should be able to simulate a bunch of powers eventually with magic items, so even if you feel you want a different effect later I should be able to work that out too, like, if you want a stealth power later I can make gear that will camouflage you.”

  “Thanks” Judy said brightly.

  “Okay, lets get started then” Gavin said happily.

  They brainstormed late into the night, coming up with a list of crystals they wanted to buy. Sam and Gavin spent a little time talking about what her final ability might be, but the overall focus was on getting Judy up to speed.

  The next day they trained hand to hand combat, focusing on technique without powers that time. Later, Gavin worked on making himself and Judy new items.

  Sam cleared two contracts by herself then made dinner which was fine, not great, but perfectly edible. It consisted of boiled and seasoned vegetables and fried lizard tail steaks.

  Gavin worked late into the evening to produce a few more of his enchanted throwing stars and his new staff, made from a local ironoak sapling, its root system twisted to hold a clear crystal at the top and some new bracers for Judy. He then tinkered with other ideas until he collapsed into bed.

  [Item: Gavins prototype staff of light]

  [Type: weapon: Staff]

  [Rank: Level 1, rare]

  [Description: a reliable weapon made to do one thing: look impressive while killing monsters]

  [Effect: Staff contains 30 charges. Charges can be expended to create a beam of light that can be channeled for an ongoing charge cost. Light beams deal radiant and fire damage. Expend multiple charges for an increased effect at the cost of the integrity of the staff. Charges restore over time, user can channel mana into the staff to restore spent charges.

  [Item: Judy's bracers of ogre power]

  [Rank: Level 1, rare]

  [Description: Faster, higher, stronger]

  [Effect: Increases users [Strength] attribute and stamina recovery]

  Gavin presented his new items over breakfast, giving Sam his two wands of magic missiles since his new staff filled that same role and it gave her a ranged option. Judy was ecstatic with her new bracers, pulling out her bow and testing the draw with her enhanced strength.

  “They're great Gavin, thanks” she said, the effort of pulling her bow to its full draw taking no more effort than if it were a child's toy.

  “No worries mate.”

  After breakfast Sam and Judy went to collect another round of contracts while Gavin put an order request in at the local guild branch, handing over their small fortune in exchange for a receipt for delivery of goods in two days.

  Rejoining the group, the trio of self named knights ventured out into the woods to murder more sentient knots of magic. They cleared three that day, killing a group of marhounds, a dire bear and lastly a yellow ooze inside a dimensional pocket, a sort of acid elemental that grew progressively bigger as it digested more biomatter. By the time the group had killed it, it was the size of a bus and had the remains of a splintered tree digesting inside its translucent body.

  On their way back to Blacktree, they were wandering through the forest waiting for Gavins portal power to come off cooldown when Judy spotted something through the trees. Approaching the anomaly they discovered it was another huge extradimensional pocket, its slowly undulating mirrored surface distorting their reflections.

  “We need to report this.” Sam said.

  “Yeah, no kidding” Gavin agreed.

  “Is it level three?” Judy asked, astonished as she inspected it with her vision power.

  “Yeah, looks like it” said Gavin, moving closer to watch his reflection more closely

  “I didn't think level three magic could exist around these parts” Judy thought aloud.

  “It's magic. Anything can happen I guess.”

  “What do you guys reckon the chances are we can clear it?”

  “You are not going in there Gavin.” Sam said

  “I’m just saying.”

  “No.”

  “What if it's full of treasure?”

  “What if it's full of monsters?”

  “Thats not an ideal situation. I’ve been in like four of these things I think I'm due for a treasure one.”

  “No.”

  “Oay, fine” Gavin said despondently stepping back through his portal, pausing a moment to look back at the bubble of forbidden magic.

  The group began to find their rhythm, constant training, eating, ribbing and encouraging each other had begun to form the basis of a solid team based on mutual trust. Gavin was surprised to discover he was truly happy for the first time since he could remember, and so it was with high spirits that he ventured into town to get a few things, collect the team's new beds and pick up the delivery from the guild branch.

  “Val!” Gavin exclaimed with a laugh finding her sitting outside of the guild kiosk “good to see you!”

  “And you Gavin.”

  “What brings you out this way? You finally taking contracts again?” Gavin asked slipping the guild representative his receipt.

  “Actually, you're not far off. I came to take you up on your offer.”

  “No!?” Gavin exclaimed excitedly. “Awesome. Hey bloke, could I get a team member amendment form please?”

  Gavin hastily scrawled his team details across the page and handed it to Valerie to complete.

  “Not going to consult your team?”

  “They know I asked you, they won't object.”

  “So, how'd you know I was here?”

  “Gavin. You are not a subtle person. It wasn't hard to figure out. We need to talk, you and your team, there's things you should know from what's been happening in Wildenesse the past few days.”

  “Okay, we better go then, the fortress is this way.”

  “Fortress?”

  “Ha, yeah, we've got a sweet club house now.”

  They walked out of town and into the woods. The team had beaten an easy to follow path if you knew where to look, to the untrained eye it looked like a normal game trail.

  “So, with you on the team all we need is a healer, or at least someone with some proper healing adjacent abilities and we're good to go.”

  “Healers are in high demand, you're probably going to have to put in a bit of effort to find one, the sorts of people that want to dedicate their lives to helping people usually don't like following wardens around through the forest.”

  “Ehh, I figured Florrin would send someone my way at some point.”

  “Gavin, you can’t rely on the gods to give you everything.”

  “Yeah, I know. Hey, check it out, it's the castle I got from Paragon!” Gavin said as they pushed their way through the undergrowth.

  The house sized castle loomed through the trees, angular spires piercing the branches. Outside Judy was shooting her bow at targets that swung on ropes from the trees, a near limitless pile of arrows beside her. Sam was engrossed in a book, and was lying in the dappled sun.

  “Hey team, our fourth member has arrived.”

  Sam and Judy looked over at the pair coming towards them.

  “Valerie Westhart? The guild instructor?” Sam said incredulous “I thought you were joking.”

  “Sam, you should know I never joke.”

  “If they looked up the word joke in a book of words they'd see a portrait of you.” Judy said.

  “Cold, you guys, just for that Val's getting one of the new beds and the other I'm gonna deconstruct for parts.”

  “Did you say Paragon gave you that castle?” Val asked gazing up at the incongruous house.

  “Yeah, it's actually a part of his soul, he gave it to me because I had a fight with Sams mum.”

  “Paragon gave you a piece of his soul?”

  “Yeah, part of his soul is technically attacheda to my soul, I'm pretty much a demigod now.”

  “Gods damn it Gavin, when you get smited down you will definitely deserve it.” Samania moaned.

  “Its actually refreshing to see the housing market in this planet is fucked, you pretty much need divine intervention on my world as too.” Gavin said earnestly.

  “If you all are done, I actually have something serious you need to know.”

  “Oh, yeah, right, you'd better come inside.”

  Gavin wandered off inside to sit at the round table in the dining room, conjuring a fourth chair for their newest member.

  “So, what's the news? Is it about my mother?” Sam asked.

  “Yes, actually, at least partially. The political situation in Wildinesse is rather-” Valerie paused to find the right word. “fragile at the moment. There are a few factors that are compounding on eachother, ready to boil over.”

  “Not just lady Starbourne then?”

  “No, she's only a minor part really. You recall your guild test? I failed Steven Stewardson at the guild hall, then Harold Stewardson at the conclusion of the test?”

  “Yeah, did they file a complaint?”

  “They did.”

  “And the guild told them to kick rocks?” Gavin guessed.

  “Ha” Val laughed derisively “no, they, that is to say, Lady Starbourne, caved immediately, passing Harold and allowing Steven to retake the test. I got a formal reprimand and a demotion from rank three down to rank two.”

  “They fuckin bloody well didn't?” Gavin exploded “why'd Sam's mum do that?”

  “Think about it Gavin, the Stewardsons have strong political capital, they might not have any direct power but they run large parts of the town and have many political allies. There's already a lot of animosity that the guild is too closely tied to the mayor, that the mayor either could or is using the guild to further his own political career, that he has his own private mercenary group at his beck and call.”

  “Okay, yeah, makes sense.” Gavin agreed “I'm not going to pretend to understand the cultural influence the guild has in this world, but in mine, something like that would be extremely volatile, politically speaking.”

  “Then you have several inciting incidents, the first was publicly failing two members of the same family, political rivals of the mayor using his private mercenary group. Then we have the guild leader shutting down the underground fighting ring-”

  “Mother shut it down?”

  “Indirectly. Your participation was actually seen as a good thing amongst the people that care, Samania, it showed even the Starbournes could get their hands dirty. Then your mother busting up the fight so publicly led to an official public inquiry from Griffon. Arrests and fines were made, the whole thing was tied back to House Veritas. Colin Veritas, was arrested then released almost immediiately after a lot of public pressure.”

  “Oh damn.” Gavin said, catching on “this whole thing is a series of incidents and fuckups that look like a coordinated attack on the Stewardsons. Don't tell me there's an election coming up soon?”

  “Early next year, though candidates will be starting up their campaigns in the next few weeks.”

  “Fuck me, so this all looks like the mayor is trying to rig the election?”

  “Yes.” Val said.

  “But father isn't. He wouldn't.”

  “It's not what's true, Sam, it's the story you can spin. The Stewardsons will be fanning the flames, building their propaganda machine to make themselves out to be the righteous martyrs, fighting for justice and equality while the Starbournes are using corruption and cronyism to muscle their way to political power.” Gavin said.

  “This is bad” Judy said worriedly “will our team be in danger since we're connected to this?”

  “The team? Probably. Gavin, definitely yes.”

  “Why me? Oh, shit, yeah” Gavin said, realisation dawning as Sam nodded along.

  “You understand?” Val asked.

  “I don't?” said Judy.

  “I was the instigator in it all, Harold reckons it was me that torpedoed his test, that I'd set him up to fail from the start. I led Ben whatshisface to having a go at me and killed him and his mates. They know I've been staying at Sam's house, they'd spin it that Lady starbourne set me up to make sure it all happened. Then just hours after the guild test it was me that put a stop to Sam's match, with Lady Annabelle right there beside me.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah. Those punters that were there had all probably bets on that fight that the bookmakers would never pay out on with deliberate interference, they'd likely argue the fight was rigged by the Starbournes from the start. I bet there are people in Wildenesse that would attack me on sight if I went back there, how many you reckon were there Sam? Three, four thousand?”

  “About that.” Sam agreed.

  “Closer to two thousand two hundred” Judy confirmed.

  “I bet I'm persona non grata in Wildinesse right now.”

  “Huh?” Judy asked.

  “Oh, ah, very unpopular.” Gavin translated.

  “That'd be an accurate assessment” Val said, tone sombre. “My decision to come here and join your team will exacerbate the situation too. I heard about the fight with your mother Sam. It turns out one of the house guards saw it happen, he left and told anyone who would listen. If even half of what he said was true- I felt sick when I heard, then they demoted me. I couldn't continue to work for your mother in good conscience. I couldn't transfer to another branch without it crossing your mother's desk, she's not well Sam, erratic, dangerous. I needed to get out of there.”

  “So now it really does look like it's all coordinated, you and I, on the same team, both conspired to fail the Stewardsons?”

  “This is really, really bad” Judy said, horror growing on her face.

  “Yes. I propose we get out of here, either now, tonight or tomorrow morning at the absolute latest. Val tracked us down here easily, it's not like we've been hiding, though it might take a while to find us out here” Sam said, already planning their escape from the area.

  “Tomorrow is too late. I could find where we are in an hour or two” Judy said “the signs are obvious if you have any sort of vision power, we've also been out here making a lot of noise, the locals likely know the rough direction we're camped in, just walking out here in circles they'd stumble on us too.”

  “Tonight then. We can teleport and move under the cover of night.” Gavin said.

  “I can't go through your portal.” Val reminded him.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  “Fuck, yeah, sorry I forgot. We'll have to get out on foot, definitely after dark then, cross country or by road? I don't super want to get attacked by monsters in the dark.”

  “By road, or near it. You're right Gavin, we absolutely don't want to go through the forest.”

  “Well, this has been an absolute downer of an afternoon” Gavin grumbled “on the plus side, having Val on the team is a positive, so I guess it all worked out.”

  “I'm sorry to dump this on you all.” Val said.

  “No way bro, if we hadn't known we could have been attacked unaware, now we have you to help us, and we know what way the winds blowing in this shit storm we've just walked into.”

  “Gavin's right, thanks Valerie, it was brave of you to do what you did, I appreciate it” Sam said while Judy nodded her agreement.

  There was a moment of silence in the room where the team was lost in thought before Gavin broke in.

  “So, not to put too fine a point on it, but I know today was supposed to be a fun day for you Judy, unlocking a bunch of powers, but I think we need to go ahead with that even if the memory of today is soured a bit, we might need you to have these powers if we're in a life or death situation and they could have saved us.” Gavin said placing the thick wrapped parcel on the table.

  “I'll do it. And the memory won't be tainted, I'll always remember this time as when we formed as a team, when the whole world was against us. We all have eachothers backs, no matter what.”

  “Ooh, that was a good monologue Judy. Top tier” said Gavin offering her a fist bump.

  “Is that what your package was? crystals? There was a bit of a stir about how many valuable resources were being diverted out this way.”

  “Enough for six more powers for Judy, a martial arts skill book too, a skill book on bow making for me, and a skill book on cooking for both Sam and I, plus some expensive crafting materials”

  “Wait, what?” Sam said, shocked. “Why'd you get me a cooking treatise? I was learning fine with judy.”

  “I mean, I ordered it before I tried your cooking, and to be honest, I thought you'd be an awful cook.”

  “Oh, thanks Gavin” Sam harrumphed.

  “She is, if it weren't for me doing all the work in there you’d be lucky to get ash.”

  “You, traitor!” Sam said, throwing her hands up in defeat.

  “Okay, jokes aside, I say we get Judy powered up, I'll absorb my skill book and try to whip up a basic enchanted bow this afternoon while Judy gets familiar with her powers, we set out at dusk through the woods near the road until we're well away from town, head back to Wildenesse, skirt the city till we get to the Great West Road and follow that until we're too buggered to walk, set up the fortress off the road and rest all day, then repeat until we hit Arrowton. We probably need to move on from there too, to where no ones going to bother coming for us, maybe clear some tier two contracts with Val to pay for a portal user to jump us somewhere far away?”

  “The first part of the plan at least” Val agreed, we can discuss the rest once we get to safety, we won’t need to clear contracts, I have money.”

  “If we're ambushed or separated later we should meet at the temple of Florrin either in Arrowton.” Sam suggested

  “Good idea, smart.” Gavin said, nodding to Sam. “Ready Judy?”

  “Ready.” Judy said, laying her soul crystals out in a line.

  The first two were archery powers to add to the one Judy had already had, that would set up an archery theme leaving them free to select synergistic powers around them. One split her arrows, halving any effect on them but effectively doubling their base damage, the second let her increase the power of her shots by expending mana.

  Next they started on the utility powers the first was Prestidigitation, a minor illusion power that created a false image or sound with varying degrees of believability depending on her willpower attribute. Shadow step was a power almost the same as gavins short range teleport that left behind a brief haze of darkness and had a reduced cooldown and mana cost depending on the ambient light levels. Lucky dodge gave her a passive ability to turn solid hits into near misses and near misses into actual misses.

  They were setting her up to be a mobile skirmisher that would be as hard to pin down as Gavin and much more effective at killing enemies.

  “The shadow step looks good” Judy said sounding pleased.

  “Yeah, cool, forget that, prestidigitation, it's one of the better abilities there is in my opinion. It was on my short list for a long time.”

  Valerie snorted, trying to stifle laughter.

  “Uhh, no, it is certainly not” Sam said “not to insult your ability Judy, it's fine, but there are thousands of abilities that rate higher.”

  “Bloody nonsense Judy, these Luddites haven't got any imagination. Think about the possibilities, make enemies itch in combat, make your sword look longer or shorter than it is, make a patch of ground look safe or dangerous, make it look like you're unarmed, or that you have an ability you don't, make Sam's food taste good, make Val's feet stink, make water taste like ale or ale taste like vinegar, make sewer monsters smell like a fresh sea breeze, make shadow Elementals glow bright green” Gavin said, losing himself in the possibilities.

  “If it can make Gavin's head look like it's a normal size I'll change my opinion to it being useful” Sam joked.

  “What's wrong with my head?” Gavin said, touching his face and scalp with his fingertips.

  “It does look a bit bigger than a normal head, doesn't it?” Said Val, cocking her head as if to inspect it from a different angle.

  “Fucks sakes, just have another crystal Judy”

  Her next power was extradimensional pocket, an inventory power like gavins that would expand in volume by absorbing latent dimensional forces from collapsing dimensional spaces.

  “I bet I can shoot arrows even faster if I don't have to reach for my quiver, or walk around with a bow strung and ready to go” Judy said, materialising an arrow into her hand.

  “Yeah, it also means I can give you a bunch of different arrows with different effects and you can pick what one you want to use exactly when you want it. There's a legend about an archer who uses different arrows to fight bad guys, he's super lame though, you're way cooler Judy.”

  “Uhh, thanks, I think.”

  “Ok last one” Judy said, taking her final stone in hand. Gavin agreed with Gloria that everyone needed at least one, preferably two defensive powers. Sam had some active defences with her evasive powers, but it still helped to have passive defensive powers too”

  The last one was Grit. When she took any damage it would convert some of that damage to eat at her mana instead of her health, essentially a passive mana shield.

  “The damage mitigation will be super useful but you'll have to manage your resources well to get the most out of them, especially later on.” Val said.

  “Okay Gavin, if you're going to go absorb that skill book and make Judy a bow, I think Val and I can have a bit of a training session with judy to get her familiar with her new abilities.”

  “We should stay inside until we're ready to leave.” Val said “is there a training room in here?”

  “There is now” Judy said, touching the table as it vanished into her inventory.

  The bow making skill book was fairly easy to absorb, both because he was growing used to absorbing them and because the book was actually pretty basic, with information on how to make level one recurve bows and how to get the most out of that basic design.

  He set to work testing his technique, going through two dozen iterations before he was happy, then began the enchanting process.

  Sam made dinner that night, using her new skill book knowledge.

  “This is good Sam.” Judy praised her.

  “Sure is” Gavin agreed “do you cook Val?”

  “I do, so long as you're okay with not eating meat.” She said with a pointed look.

  “Wait, do you have like, an ethical objection to killing and eating animals?” Gavin said with horror.

  “Yes. It's disgusting” Val said frowning at Gavin chewing on a hunk of meat.

  “Gavin, she has half a lizard steak on her plate right now.” Judy said.

  “Oh, right, so you just can't cook it?”

  “Just messing with you” Val said, rolling her eyes.

  “You need to up your banter game Val, even Judy has some good ones when she speaks up.”

  “Hard to speak up when you're the one constantly talking” Judy grumbled.

  “Okay, yeah, that's fair.” Gavin admitted. “Anyway, I made you a bow, it's not as good as Sam's sword or my spear, but it's a lot better than the one you have already, in a does more damage sense, I know your current one has a lot of sentimental value. Give me a good week and I think I can make you something as good as sam and I have.”

  [Item: Judy’s prototype bow of slaying]

  [Type: Weapon, bow]

  [Rank: Level 1, rare]

  [Description: A hastily made bow for a valued party member, made with all the care and skill that time and ability would allow]

  [Effect: Bow contains 10 charges. Activate to imbue loaded ammunition with additional energy, arrows gradually use up energy to accelerate when shot, excess energy is violently expelled on contact with an enemy dealing additional [force] damage. Charges are restored over time, user can channel their own mana into [Judy’s prototype bow] to speed up this process.]

  “Go ahead, try it out.” Gavin said, handing it to her as he fabricated a wooden target against the far wall. “I didn't have the time to make it a soulbound item, but I'll get there when we’ve got more than an afternoon.

  Judy gave the bow an experimental draw, then, taking one of her soulbound arrows, sent it rocketing across the room trailing silver motes of light. The arrow exploded on contact with the target, shattering both itself and the target into toothpick sized splinters. Judy dismissed the arrow and resummoned it, perfectly intact, a wide glowing smile lighting up her eyes

  Placing the bow and arrow down on the table, Judy wrapped Gavin in a warm embrace.

  “Thanks Gav, I'm glad you asked me to join your team.” she said into his shoulder.

  “It's our team now, we’re the knights of the round table, everyone is equal.”

  “Mind if I take a look?” Valerie asked Judy when she and Gavin had composed themselves.

  “Sure.”

  Picking up the bow, Valerie too gave it an experimental draw, looked it over closely, then handed it back to Judy “impressive, with four hours and only a basic crafting treatise that's a lot better than I would have thought it would be.”

  “Yeah, if we can ever get some solid time without needing to flee the city for our lives or whatever I should be able to get some really good items going. I think next up we need some armour for the team, we’ve all got weapons now, armour is the next priority, that'll take me longer than an afternoon though, it's going to be a lot more time consuming to make properly.”

  “I've been telling you from day one that you need to make armour.” Sam said.

  “Yeah, well, I haven't got a good self repair enchantment so there hasn't been much point. I can reforge it if I need to, but it's a pretty big waste of mana and time.”

  “Gavin, you are a blithering moron” Sam said as Judy dissolved into howls of laughter.

  “What?” Gavin stammered, caught off guard by Sam's outburst.

  “For a guy that constantly has his mouth open, you can really, what's the expression? Shit in the bed? Shit on the bed?” Sam ranted as Valerie joined Judy, clutching her sides with poorly suppressed giggles.

  “Shit the bed.” Gavin corrected.

  “Yes, that one. Gavin, my armour has a self repair enchantment, that's all it does. How many hits have you seen me take and not once have I ever had it repaired.”

  “Oh. Could I ahh, have a look at it then” Gavin said nervously.

  “Yes!” Sam said, exasperated “for the gods sakes, if that's the only thing that's been stopping you from making armour, even unenchanted armour, you really- Ugh, well, so long as you start right away then I'll be happy”

  “Sounds good mate, we have a couple hours before we need to leave, chuck us a look and I will get started right now, well, not like right now.”

  “Gavin.” Sam said with a warning tone.

  “Fine.”

  Sam doffed her armour and handed it in pieces to Gavin who examined it right there in the dining room.

  “Valerie, while we wait, I think it'd be a good idea to go over your abilities and talk over team dynamics. I haven't seen you fight before, I only know you were a successful fighter a few years ago.”

  “I’m a duelling specialist, one on one fights with single monsters or people. Mobile, high burst damage.”

  “Excellent, that should cover our bases well. Abilities?”

  “Armour master, that reduces the movement penalties for wearing armour. Eviscerate, makes my opponents bleed, a lot. Soporific enhancement, enchants my weapons to slow my enemies and reduce their stat's. Freedom of movement let's me avoid movement debuffs, deft hands, same as yours Judy, increases my physical dexterity. Devastating attacks, makes me attack harder and faster the more I fight. Ethereal blood, heal over time. Retaliate, if I resist any attacks the damage is reflected back to my enemies, damage absorbed by armour also counts. Leech life, take health from my enemies I attack. Blind fighting, I can sense hidden, invisible or illusory enemies better. Illusory attack, makes a double of me that attacks while I gain invisibility for a moment. Shield breaker lets me get around heavily armoured targets. Animate weapon, I can float a few weapons around me that attack like I was using them. Siphon soul, takes damage I deal and refunds the mana and stamina of my attacks back to me, and lightning fast charge, increases my speed by a lot for a second to cover a lot of ground quickly.”

  “So, you really want to charge in, stack up a lot of damage very quickly to kill one target, then move onto the next?”

  “Yes, but that doesn't mean I can't fight in a protracted engagement, I just have to modulate my abilities instead of just using all of them in combination at once”

  “I'll work on items that increase your mana and stamina maximum when that becomes a priority then?” Gavin piped in.

  “I am, well was, a third rank warden who was operating for years, I have good gear that works well with my abilities, you'll find I'm more than adequate until you can start making epic quality level two items, or uncommon level three ones.”

  “Well fine then, no gear for you, actually, can I get a look at your gear after I've finished with Sams? Knowing what it does will help me know what you're capable of and also if it's good gear it's probably got some effects I haven't seen yet.”

  “Sure” Val said, pulling some items out of a dimensional bag and laying them out on the table next to him, including a dozen swords.”

  “Why all the swords?” Judy asked

  “for different enemies. I use either these two, or these two depending on who or what I’m fighting” Val pointed to two pairs if nearly identical short swords “and animate a combination of any two of these ones” she said pointing at the other short swords that variously pulsed, glowed, or dripped different coloured liquids or effects.

  “Oh dude!” Gavin said, resisting the urge to dump Sam's armour and begin on the weapons.

  “You are not making weapons until you've made at least armour for yourself and Judy.” Sam said.

  “Fine,” Gavin grumbled. “I won't start any new weapons.”