It was with giddy anticipation that Gavin walked through his portal into the training hall the next day to spar against a ready Samania. Behind him, his portal sank back into the floor and disappeared as if it had never been there.

  They squared off, Gavin waiting for samania to strike. He didn't have to wait long before she was on him, bashing him with her two handed sword repeatedly while Gavin fought to stay standing, let alone mount an adequate defence. Right as Sam was about to overwhelm him, Gavin dodged into her blade, catching her by surprise. Gavin grasped the blade as it struck him, focusing his will into it. The wooden sword shattered into rough sawn branches and leather strips in her hand as he plowed on, knocking her to the floor. Her surprise lasted an instant before she was moving, twisting under him in an intense grapple. She was stronger than him, and with more practical experience and so she eventually she had him pinned, arm wrenched painfully in her grip. A short training knife appeared in Gavin’s free hand, he used it to stab repeatedly into her side as she tried to wrench his arm from its socket. Grunting in pain, Sam let go, conceding the match.

  “Sneaky little-” Sam said, cutting herself off.

  “Ha. Told you it would be useful in combat.”

  “You wont get me like that again.”

  “Bet” Gavin said, squaring off again.

  Sam launched into a series of quick slashes, blurring past his guard as she pummeled him with a fresh training sword. Gavin was immediately on the defensive, backpedalling as he defended against her superior technique.

  A portal rose up between them and Sam moved to dodge around it, but Gavin had abruptly leapt forward, and through. He thrust his spear back through the portal and caught Sam on a shoulder as she attacked the point he'd just been. With a grunt she seized the weapon and tore it from his grip. The portal dropped as she made to chase him through it, leaving them on opposite sides of the training hall, Gavin without a weapon.

  They spared for another hour, dripping with sweat at the end of their session. True to her word Samania didn’t underestimate Gavin’s new abilities, at least not after the second time he'd caught her out, and beat him several more times to his one.

  Gavin wasn't put out, he was proud he'd caught her off guard and won even once. He suspected his fighting style would hinge on that sort of deception as he grew into his powers.

  Afterwards the two of them rested in the grounds in a semi secluded spot in a small copse of trees. Gavin was getting a feeling for his abilities and how they worked inside him, though had little real progress for them because of his lack of practice. He then retreated to his room to study for the rest of the day, stopping to eat and a quick trip into town before reading late into the night.

  The next few days progressed the same way, some days with a run in the morning until, on the sixth day of Gavin’s time in this world, he furrowed his brow then let out a loud “Ha” before burying himself back into his books.

  The next morning Sam barged into Gavin’s room, irritated she had to come kick him out of bed again, only to find him wild eyed at his desk, notes strewn even more erratically than normal. His eyes were bloodshot and baggy, his hair manically sticking out in clumps.

  “Are- are you okay?” asked Sam.

  “Never better. Think I broke magic theory by the way, like, actually it's kinda simple, can't believe it wasn't the first thing I checked.”

  “What did you find?”

  “So, you know how you can enchant items?”

  “I can't, but I know the process.”

  “I found an enchantment that enhances the power of an attribute by a small amount.” Gavin said, waving an enchanting theory textbook at her.

  “Okay, those enchantments are never worth it though, like a sword that increases your strength never work out as well as just putting a damage enchantment onto them or getting a power that increases your strength.”

  “Just wait, there's exactly one enchanting ability in Soliece’s book that’s enhanced by the power of an attribute instead of my level in that ability.”

  “So you want to use a loop to enchant an item that makes your enchanting more powerful. You'll still run up against the limit of power an item can take before it starts to break down, and if you put too many items on that push it too far you’ll run up against the limit your body can take before it breaks down.”

  “Wait, that's a thing? Shit.” Gavin said, flipping through to the index of his book.

  “Yes, normal enchanters can hit the limit when they get strong enough. Top tier enchanters have to be careful they don't break the items they enchant with how much mana they use.”

  “Pretty sure I saw something that increased the mana capacity of items?” Gavin said, abandoning the book to look back through the notes in his interface.

  “Yes, that's not unusual, but I bet it's by a tiny amount. You haven't found an infinite loop, sorry.”

  “But at least it'll be extremely good. Having an entire party where everyone has top tier gear at every level is a massive force multiplier.”

  “Gavin. I'm from an extremely wealthy family. I can just buy all the gear I need, I have entire gear sets ready for me to just pick up and use as soon as I'm strong enough to use them. With your looting power you will be able to afford anything you want too.”

  “Okay, that's fair, but I still think having the ability to fabricate top tier gear on the fly is a good idea. My class is artificer, I do kinda have to lean into item creation.”

  “Your class doesn't define who you are, if you focused on something else your soul would change over time to reflect that. If you focused on fighting like me in a year or three you’d get something else.

  “What’s your class?”

  “Warden, it gives me increased resistance to innate magical attacks.”

  “Wait, you’re a warden and your class is a warden?”

  “The profession is named after the class.”

  “Oh. Well, I do like the idea of making stuff, I like the idea of getting stuck into the nuts and bolts of how magic works.”

  “There are certain situations where it could be useful.” Sam said, trying to give him something. “Some items don’t get made because the effort to make them isn’t worth the cost. Do you know the other powers you need to get this to work?”

  “Yeah, I think so.” Gavin said “there's an item creation and an enchanting power that look pretty good, I think the enchanting power can wait though, there's some others that will be more useful immediately.”

  “Sounds like you have a handle on things, I still say you need more dedicated fighting powers if you want to be an adventurer. There's more to it than just having good gear.”

  “Fine. I guess. Can I skip morning training? I need to crash.”

  “One time. But I'm going to go harder on you tomorrow.”

  “That's fair.” Gavin said, barely caring about what she was going to put him through tomorrow.

  Samania left Gavin to sleep. He fell into his bed, collapsing into a deep slumber filled with wild dreams. Only to wake with a start a few hours later. It was still morning, so he figured Sam would be in the training hall. Stumbling out of bed he pulled his clothes on hastily.

  “Sam!” Gavin called stepping through his portal arch “I've got it this time! Well, it's not broken but it is cool as shit.”

  Sam broke off from her attack sequence with Gloria, her mentor and retired cleric of Paragon. Gloria had watched Gavin’s morning training sessions before, though hadn't interfered, he had never seen her fight, and just the second or two of combat he'd seen after stepping through his portal arch showed that she was an extremely skilled fighter.

  “What have you found this time?”

  “Well, not so much found as realised.”

  “What's that?”

  “Back in my world, there's this game where you basically simulate being an adventuring group. There's one person who controls all the monsters and people you meet and you control your one character and what they do. Your character gets stronger over time and you get new abilities.”

  “Sounds a lot like pretending to be a warden.”

  “Sorta but not really. Anyway, my favourite character was this bard called Drak.”

  “A bard? Like a musician.”

  “Yeah, but in the game bards have magical powers they get from being awesome as shit. Anyway, Drak ended up with a lot of magic items that no one else wanted and ended up being super useful in combat because he had so many different effects and abilities for every situation.”

  “So you want to play a battlefield support role?”

  “Ahh, sure. Bards are really powerful in subtle ways that most other players don't appreciate, but they can shut down whole encounters when they get going. They're like the grease in the machine making sure everything just works.”

  “Sounds like you do want to play a battlefield support role.”

  “Yeah. This time, I was wondering if you could sit in on the planning? I probably should have asked you for advice earlier, but delving into those books by myself was pretty interesting.”

  “I'd be glad to help Gavin. Gloria might be useful to have too, she's a bit of an expert with magic theory.”

  “Then I'd be honoured and privileged to have you help, if you don't mind?”

  After their training, Samania and Gloria met Gavin in the library. He'd splayed out his array of notes to go through when the two swordswomen entered the room walking in lockstep.

  “First things first, what abilities do you have already? I know what I think you have based on what I’ve seen, but in the interest of clarity tell me exactly what they do.” Gloria said sternly. She was giving Gavin highschool headmaster vibes

  Gavin gave her the overview of what his powers were and how they worked, as well as the written notes on them he'd compiled.

  “Good. You've already started on the path to realising the build you wanted.”

  “Being able to just read up on exactly what each ability does without having to search through incomplete merchant catalogues or word of mouth seems extremely useful” Sam said.

  “I think we should make a list of essential powers first, then work the ones that synergise the most with those and how you see yourself contributing to the fight.” Glora suggested.

  “Master Vale” Samania interjected “you've seen how he fights, he likes to take the most convoluted, complicated and difficult path to victory when he could have just fought more directly for the same result.”

  “Rude.”

  “Yes, I have noticed that. We should try to select powers that make use of that instead of building against it. If he's given straightforward powers he's just going to lose fights to people who actually like to fight that way.”

  “People? Not monsters?”

  “Sooner or later you'll have to fight people. People are generally smarter than monsters, they’re much more dangerous. Any lug can go out and kill monsters all day long, even ones of a higher tier, people will put you in the ground, so we train to fight them.”

  “Okay, well, I'd like to avoid killing people if I can, it's kinda frowned on where I come from.”

  “Things work a little differently here. If someone comes for you they know the stakes. When you find yourself in that position they will be trying to put you in the ground. There’s no taking prisoners when everyone is built specifically to kill.”

  “So I'm finding out.” Gavin said dejectedly.

  “First and most importantly you need some defensive powers so you don't just die to one big hit,” Sam said.

  “Body of iron is very useful,” Gloria said, pointing out one of the few defensive abilities Gavin had in his notes. “Samania and I have something that's almost identical to it” Gloria Said.

  “Sounds really boring though.” Gavin said “I almost didn't include it.”

  “Boring keeps you alive. It's a very useful power so when you get caught off guard, and you especially are going to get caught off guard, you don't just get squished and get your team killed.”

  “Okay, fair enough. What other abilities do you reckon we should go for?”

  They spent the next few hours discussing Gavin’s future before settling on a loose gameplan.

  The following day Sam took Gavins list, his stipend from her father, and his waterbreathing crystal into the guild stores to barter for the first few of his abilities, returning with the first three that they were confident would be in stock. The more esoteric spells would have to wait.

  Gavin took the three orbs from her on her return, one was slate grey like a weathered ball bearing that shed a dim silver light, the second was a similar colour, though translucent and glowing with a core of yellow and orange that seemed to pulse in his hand. The third was another solid ball of metal, though this one was wrapped with bands of bronze and silver. He absorbed all three in quick succession, feeling giddy as he solidified the base of his powers.

  [Fabricate]

  [Description: Create items from raw resources in your possession.]

  (Level 1): Construct items of up to your level in this ability from raw resources in your possession. Mana cost varies depending on item complexity and your [intelligence] attribute

  [Expert smith]

  [Description: Improve the properties of created items.]

  (Level 1): Expend additional mana during the crafting process to enhance the resulting item proportional to your rank in this ability up to a limit determined by the material of the item.

  [Body of iron]

  [Description: Description: Increases users' innate defensive properties.]

  (Level 1): physical resistances are increased proportional to your rank in this ability.

  ***

  Over the next week Sam led a combat training in the mornings, then, after the mid day meal Gavin worked on his own projects, namely tinkering with creating basic magic items and spending time with Garland, the house chef, learning to cook with foreign ingredients.

  At the end of the week Gavin prepared lunch for Sam and her parents.

  “Alright. As some of you know I've been working with Garland in the kitchens trying to work out how to make a proper kiwi pie with local ingredients, and yesterday I've come up with something I think I can be proud of. So, as a small gesture of thanks for your hospitality, please enjoy a humble steak and cheese.”

  They dug into their pies that Gavin had presented in brown paper bags. “Now that's a pie.” Gavin groaned as the hot chunks of meat burst with feelings of home in his mouth.

  “Gavin, this is fantastic.” Alana said “if passing the guild test doesn't work out you'd have a lucrative career as an exotic food merchant.”

  “I was thinking of getting a bit of a side hustle up and running. I know a good adventurer is going to make vastly more money than a food stall owner, but it's good to have other options.”

  “Can you give Garland the recipe?” Asked Griffon.

  “He knows it already, he's been great to work with, seemed to really enjoy trying to adapt the recipe to my vague description and a list of earth ingredients. Speaking of, Sam, I have some things I've made that are ready for field trials. Is there anywhere low risk we can go to find some monsters that are more forgiving?”

  “Sure. I'll find a low level contract and we can head out. Can Gavin tag along as an auxiliary contractor mother?”

  “Yes. He is your responsibility while he is in training. The second he joins the adventurers guild the other restrictions apply.”

  “Very well, come on Gavin. I want to see what you've been working on.”

  Sam took Gavin back to the guild jobs board in the centre of the compound. Other wardens were browsing the documents, picking out the most interesting or lucrative ones. Gavin looked at several himself, figuring out how they worked as Sam searched for a suitable one to try.

  “Here, Giant Reef Crabs have been coming out of the ocean and attacking Ansville near here at sunset, we have enough time to get there today, deal with them, stay the night there then come back tomorrow morning.” Sam said, holding up the papers.

  “What's a Giant Reef Crab? Where I’m from crabs don't get much bigger than a person's hand unless you go really deep out into the ocean.”

  “Crab monster, they’re as tall as a person with nasty teeth.”

  “Got anything less… terrifying.”

  “How about this one? It's a mud elemental that's been living in the sewers of Blacktree.”

  “In the sewers? So the mud is?”

  “Yes. It's what you think.”

  “So, what direction is Ansville?” Gavin said, snatching the Reef Crab contract.

  They set off at a run, Gavin found it surprising how similar the landscape was to what he remembered back on earth. The plant life was all different species but felt like it could have fit right into his homeland. Vast tracts of bush undulated into rugged hills around them. The ocean stretched out to their right, an azure blanket sparkling under the cloudless sky.

  “Back - in my world - the native - name - for my - country - translates - to - ‘the land - of the - long - white - cloud’ Gavin said between gasping breaths as they ran along the paved road "this place - seems - to be - sunny - all - the time.”

  “It is unusually good weather” Samania confirmed, looking out over the ocean “that is a rather poetic name, I like it.”

  “I'll tell you - about - my world - if you - tell me - about yours - when we've got - a moment - when we aren't - running” Gavin wheezed, finally struggling to maintain their pace.

  “You need to get your endurance up if you're going to be a proper adventurer.”

  “Yeah, well, you can add running - to our list - of things - that I need - to train - better. I'm already - doing better - since I - got - body of - iron.”

  “I will. Starting tomorrow we're going for a run before combat training every morning” Sam said clearly at ease with their pace.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Good. I wont get OP sitting on my ass.” Gavin said, trying to smile through his burning lungs.

  An hour later they arrived at Ansville, little more than a general store, a small market, and a collection of houses inside a wooden palisade, farmland had eaten into the bush and several horse-sized docile lizards roamed about paying them no mind. Sam called to a weather-worn woman as they entered the town's open gates.

  “Excuse me, do you know anything about the Reef Crab attacks?” Sam asked.

  “Good afternoon, little young miss, are you here from one of the guilds?”

  “Yes, Wildenesse wardens guild, we've come to deal with them.”

  “Well all I know is a few of them have been coming up every night or two a few of the lads have managed to lure them into the herd so they eat them instead of us.”

  “Doesn't sound ideal” Gavin mused “we'll get them for you, well, I will, hopefully.”

  “You should speak to Pam and Justin, they live down at that house there, it's them that've been luring the crabs away from us.”

  “Thank you mam.” Sam said “Come on Gavin.”

  They walked down to the house the woman had indicated. Knocking on the weather worn door, a weary woman the same age as Gavin pulled it open.

  “How's it going? Pam was it?” Gavin asked. “We spoke to someone who said you'd give us some info on the crab attacks, can you show us where they've been coming up? I'm Gavin by the way and this is Sam.”

  Pam's shoulders straightened, seeming a little less defeated. “Yes, come with me.”

  “Are these your lizards roaming around outside?”

  “Yes, we've lost four so far, it's going to be pretty rough for us for a while.”

  “Sorry to hear it. At the very least we can stop it getting worse.” Samania said sombrely.

  “They come up down there” Beth said, indicating the far end of a pebble beach “three, every day or two.”

  “Can you tell if they're the same ones? Do they have distinctive markings? Can we be sure the ones they've seen account for all of them?” Gavin asked turning to Sam

  “They're broadly similar, some have different colouring and shape but if they're from the same manifestation they could be easy to tell apart or impossible. Giant Crabs aren't smart enough to hide, they come up when they're hungry, feed, then return to their homes.”

  “One of them, Tom managed to throw a rock on it from the wall on the first night, cracked a chunk off just above its eye before we drew them away, it's been up every time, it should be the same ones,” Pam said.

  “Thanks for your help, we'll let you know how we get on.” Gavin said, nodding seriously to her.

  “Good luck.”

  “Cheers.” Gavin said, giving her a wave as they turned to walk towards.

  Gavin and Sam walked down to sit at the point where grass became shale. They looked out over the deep calm ocean, salt air washing over them as the blazing sun sank down towards the horizon. High overhead grey gulls floated on unseen air currents, and the trees behind them were abuzz with the sound of insects.

  “This is life.” Gavin mused, his forearms resting on his bent knees as they looked out over the ocean.

  “You haven't gotten to the hard part yet.”

  “Yeah, but back on earth my job is to crawl through pink bats and rat shit. Absolutely none of it is fun, I've never got to relax on a beach as part of my job. The best I get is a beer on Friday night, oh, Friday is like Fourthday for you, it's gonna take me forever to get used to a four day work week”

  “You can still work on fifthday and sixthday too, you know, you'll be able to pick up contracts on any days you please.”

  “The weekend is sacred time, no work on the weekends.”

  “I thought you said you didn't put stock in religion.”

  “I don't.” Gavin said with an implied ‘duh’.

  “Then how is it you hold the weekend sacred?” Sam asked.

  “Think of it like doing the things I want to do is my religion.”

  “You should find a church of Hedon, they're all about the feel good lifestyle.” Sam said

  “Is Hedon the god of hedonism?”

  “That's right.” Sam said, absently picking through the stones on the beach. “He’s one of the minor gods, showed up a few years ago, his influence is on the decline.”

  “Isn't his name a bit reductive?” Gavin Asked.

  “What, the god of having a lack of impulse control is named after the word for having a lack of impulse control?”

  “Yeah, like, Soliece isn't related to thinking, and the god of healing is FLorin right?”

  “That's right. I’m not sure why the gods take the names they do, it’s not for us to question their intentions.”

  “Yeah, well, that pretty much sums up why I'm not a massive fan of religions in general. Regardless, I don't think joining the church of hedonism sounds a great idea in the long term.”

  “I agree, this world isn't ready for that.” Sam said, elbowing Gavin with a friendly poke.

  “One thing I've been wondering. How do these monsters manifest in the world? Didn't you say they appear in those dimensional pockets?”

  “Not really, it's mostly demons that appear in the dimensional spaces, they're just the raw energy of the ether that's forced to take the form of something living, but they're not, their soul isn't real, it's artificial. They're basically just magical constructs. Monsters have real souls, they are, or were real creatures that have become corrupted through raw ether exposure, then there's elementals, they're like demons but their false-soul is even more simplistic, they're basically a tiny dimensional pocket that's influencing the outside world, they bind themselves to an element and animate it. They will eventually die out like a normal dimensional pocket, and they usually explode with whatever element they're made out of, a water elemental will usually make a flood, fire elementals will burn everything around them to the ground-”

  “And a poo elemental will?-” Gavin asked, wincing.

  “Yes, dealing with elementals and dimensional pockets is the most dangerous part of this job, but also the most important. Monsters will roam about killing when they’re hungry and won't really do much more harm, elementals and dimensional pockets do real damage.”

  “When I first got here you said, you didn't know any of this?” Gavin asked.

  “I didn't, after you asked I went and looked it up for myself.” Sam said, pulling herself up straighter “You’re not the only one who can research things.”

  Gavin smiled, turning to watch the sun creep towards the horizon. Wispy streaks of cloud were the only thing that broke up the deep peach colour fading to purple. He was beginning to come to understand his friend, she had access to some of the best tutors money could buy and was extremely dedicated, but she hadn’t yet built a habit of learning something unless she had a specific need to know it. If a tutor had taken the time to hammer in a lesson that was valuable to her career she was a wealth of information, but he doubted she'd ever gone out and learned something for herself outside of topics directly related to fighting monsters.

  “Thanks for all this Sam. I've really enjoyed the past week. You training me, these sweet magic powers, hanging out.” Gavin said, appreciatively.

  “It's been good. I haven't had many friends growing up here, my parents moved here six years ago, it's hard to meet people when you're the daughter of two of the most influential people in a hick town on the ass end of nowhere, then you go and get some of their promising wardens killed.”

  “Did you just say ass? I’m shocked Sam, shocked” Gavin said, arresting that topic of conversation.

  “You are actually a child.” Sam said.

  “It’s the filthiest thing I think I've heard you say” Gavin said.

  Sam turned to look Gavin in the eye, a serious expression on her face.

  “Fu- wait, I think that's them now. Off you go, I'll be here ready to jump in if you need it.”

  “No worries, I should be all good.” Gavin said, a feeling of heady excitement building inside.

  He sauntered down the beach to meet the horrifying creatures shambling out of the lapping waves. They were as tall as he was, huge rock crabs with vicious gnarled claws and a face filled with rows and rows of razor teeth with clacking mandibles to pull in their victims.

  “Here goes nothing.” Gavin said, flourishing his spear from his inventory.

  Gavin drove the blunt end of his spear into the shale, leaving it standing up at a jaunty angle. Several iron throwing stars appeared in his hands, glowing runes emblazoned on their faces. Waiting until just the right moment, he sent one after another skimming through the air at the nearest Crab. He’d been practicing his technique for days now and they all closed in on its unarmoured face, slicing deeply into its mouth and chitinous armour. A series of small detonations blew small chunks out of its face, creating several tennis ball sized holes. Slimy red goo splattered out of the ragged wounds as the monster crashed into the sand.

  [Item: Basic rune etched shuriken]

  [Type: Thrown]

  [Rank: Level 1, Common]

  [Description: A basic throwing weapon inscribed with an explosive rune]

  [Effect: Expend all stored mana in a violent explosion on contact with an enemy. Deals force and fire damage.]

  Next Gavin retrieved a small metal pot with a rune scratched into the sealed lid. Feeding mana into the rune he threw it across the sand, watching the intricate symbol come to life as it tumbled through the air. The rune itself was the result of a failed attempt at the ones that had been etched to his throwing stars, except instead of detonating when they came into contact with an enemy it circulated the mana in through itself in a feedback loop instead of detonating on contact, heating up and breaking down under its own power which took about three to five seconds.

  [item: Makeshift homemade grenade]

  [type: Thrown]

  [rank: Level 1, common]

  [description: Warning, do not use if you value your fingers]

  [Effect: Detonates to deal explosive force damage in a moderate area. Time of activation varies]

  The pot hit the shoals just in front of the second monster. It inexorably crawled over the makeshift grenade as it exploded, spraying stone, meat and shell shrapnel over a wide area of beach. The monster shambled on, a leg and part of the lower carapace torn open and streaming ichor.

  "I was hoping not to need this"

  He retrieved an arm length rod from his inventory and backed up the shoals to get more room. The crabs weren't fast but he'd been taking his unrushed time about it so far. Pointing the rod at the same second crab he channeled mana into the base. The weapon cracked a gout of white smoke plumed from the tip.

  Gavin had spent no small amount of time working on firearm designs this past week. He had watched enough gun restoration videos to have a basic idea of their function, he just lacked the ability to make anything other than the crudest possible gun: a hollow tube with an end plugged off, with a fire rune ready to ignite a chemical explosive he'd purchased from a local alchemist, and a sphere of steel he'd spent an afternoon fabricating to get as close to perfect as he could manage. The result was the world's first, and worst musket.

  [Item Gavin’s prototype gun]

  [Type: Firearm]

  [Rank: level 1, Uncommon]

  [Description: Definitely not an actual gun. Device may detonate unexpectedly when used instead of performing its normal function]

  [Effect: Single use. Fires a small projectile, dealing bludgeoning damage to the target.]

  The ball of steel flew at great speed, smashing through carapace just above the crabs' cracked eye socket. The beast faltered but came on in an unsteady shamble.

  Gavin turned to the final crab. He'd deal with the second after that one if it was still alive.

  He skittered around it taking his spear with him, it failed to track him as he dodged, its legs were not a good method for maneuvering its bulk. He jabbed at its leg joints with his spear, circling it as it tried to turn to face him. The tip found hard carapace more often than not, but the quick succession of strikes meant some were going to find a chink in the armour. Gavin bore his spear into its vulnerable areas between the chitin. The creature faltered, taking more weight on its front legs as ligaments tore, and the ruined limbs that dragged out behind it became dead weight.

  Thrusting his spear at the monster's shell close to the base of a leg, he felt the tip bite deep, quickly he activated its ability, the spear extending to push itself deeply into the monster. The beast thrashed and screamed a gargling roar. The spear tore free of Gavin’s grip, remaining lodged inside.

  With a flying leap Gavin threw himself at the creature before it could turn on him, his hands scrambling to find purchase on the slick gnarled shell. Finding his grip he hauled himself atop it. It was like riding a slippery mechanical bull, hellbent on murdering him if he came off.

  Gavin conjured a claw hammer into his hand using his fabricate ability and the stash of materials in his inventory. Now he used it for a more grizzly purpose than it was designed for. Raining blow after blow on its shell with adrenaline fueled strength. The head shattered spider-web cracks out from each impact. The crab continued to buck and thrash more recklessly than before. But Gavin had found his balance. Chunks of shell fell away revealing soft flesh beneath. Gavin slammed the hammer down, the tool crushing and tearing organs. He didn't stop smashing his hammer into the mushy flesh until the crab gave out with panicked cries that turned to feeble gurgles. Sliding off the carapace, his shoulder aching, and arm going numb, he looked over for the second crab he'd left alive earlier. It'd managed to shamble half way up the beach, turn around and succumb to its wounds not far from where he was now.

  “Well. As a proof of concept I think it went quite well.” Gavin said to no one in particular, surveying the scene.

  On his way back up to Sam he touched each corpse in turn, Each one disintegrating to crumbling ash which dissipated in the gentle breeze

  [You have looted three: Giant Reef Crab]

  [You have looted:]

  [3 level 1 Gold coins]

  [30 level 1 Silver coins]

  [60 level 1 Bronze coins]

  [90 level 1 Iron coins]

  [120 level 1 Copper coins]

  [Level 1 common healing potion]

  [Reinforced Reef Crab shield]

  "Not bad." Gavin said, feeling the items enter his inventory, appearing in the ‘unsorted tab’ before he mentally flicked the items to the right tabs.

  “Sloppy.” Sam said, frowning.

  Gavin shrugged, he was proud of his efforts and was used to Sam's training style now.

  “No. We're going to need to give you a lot more practice before you're ready to take the test. If Reef crabs weren't the easiest creatures in the area to fight you'd have been eaten.”

  “I'll need a bit of prep time, I've got more designs I can iterate on.”

  “Your consumables were interesting, what was the wand you used?”

  “In my world we have weapons called guns, basically every soldier has them as their primary weapon. What I just used was like the equivalent of instead of making a sword I got a stick off the ground and beat the crab with that instead.”

  “You can make it better?”

  “I think so. I know how they work, I just don't know how to make them well enough that they dont blow up in my hands or have the bullets just roll out the end. They’re quite fiddly and have some parts I’m not exactly clear on. With a bit of time I can make less and less crude versions, maybe when I level up and can use stronger materials to make more powerful designs.”

  “You're aiming to fight like an archery specialist but you use crafted consumables instead of arrows?”

  “I guess, yeah. We should get back to town, I bet that inn has a nice hot meal and a beer for us.”

  “We have to see Pam and Justin, you promised to let her know how you went.”

  “I did, yeah.” Gavin said reluctantly as the thought of a beer after his exertions called to him.

  They walked back up the beach, Sam sharing her observations of his fight while Gavin listened. A few minutes of hearing about all of the very many ways he could improve he knocked on the door of Pam's house.

  “Hey” Gavin said, as the door opened to reveal a gloomy Pam.

  “You got them?” She asked, as though the answer didn't truly matter.

  “Yeah. They're gone.” Gavin said.

  “Thank you” she said, though it was plain she was just defeated.

  “Hey. I have a looting power, I managed to loot some money from those crabs. Here, you need this more than me.”

  Gavin retrieved a stack of from his pockets and dumped them into a fabricated wooden container, he held it out for her, thrusting it into her hands when she didn’t immediately take it from him.

  “I can't take these.”

  “Yes, you can. In fact I'd be more upset if you didn't take the money. You do need the money right? You said your livestock have been eaten.”

  “Yes.” Pam said reluctantly.

  “Well, I don't, I looted some items I can sell later plus there's a reward from the guild, but that's just money, we're adventurers, we'll, shes a warden which is sorta the same thing, we protect people from the monsters, but I'd like to be the guy that doesn't just leave death behind him, I'd like to leave a bit of hope there too.”

  “Well, thank you, this really means a lot.” she said, opening the box to view the small amount of treasure.

  “No worries mate.”

  Gavin left with Sam to go get his long anticipated meal and ale, feeling a little bit better about himself.

  “Gods you love to hear yourself make an impassioned speech don't you?” Sam said, shaking her head as they drew out of earshot.

  “Of course. What's the point of doing good if you can't turn it into a philosophical monologue?”

  “You are so full of yourself.” Sam said, snorting back a smile.

  “You love it.” Gavin laughed.

  “I'm starting to rethink training you.”