“So, what even are the benefits of being level three or four in the guild?” Gavin asked later that evening as the team sat down for dinner.

  “It allows you to take up to level three and four contracts, and also lead expeditions” Val said

  “Expeditions?”

  “Sometimes there are contracts or quests that need multiple teams to complete. Usually out in the areas where higher level monsters spawn. You've seen that even level one encounters out here are much worse than around Wildenesse and Edomont, level one encounters out in the high level areas can be taken down by big teams of low level adventurers.” Val said.

  “New adventurers in those areas still need to rank up too, though they tend to end up better at large battles instead of efficient strike teams like us.” Sam said.

  “Ha, we're efficient?” Gavin laughed.

  “We are. We take on a dozen contracts a week and have a very high completion rate.”

  “Very high? We haven’t failed one yet.” Gavin said.

  “We have.” Sam corrected.

  “The extradimensional space blowing up before we got there doesn't count. If we'd stopped for breakfast before you collected the contracts it would have blown up before we even got to the hall.”

  “Guild doesn't see it that way.”

  “Whatever.” Gavin said grumpily, the stain on their record was there of no fault of their own in his mind.

  “One other thing, you can also requisition items from other guild stores so long as it's related to a contract. Level three contracts tend to have a lot of investigating while level four is a lot more leading.” Val said, pulling Gavin away from a tirade.

  “If we ever make it to level five we start getting a say in guild politics.” Sam added.

  “So, there's basically no reason to rank up our guild level?”

  “That will be decades away now though, probably never.” Sam said, her tone flat as she ignored his comment.

  “That's reasonable, I'm not super big on wanting to get into politics, I'd much rather just find jobs that need doing and do them.”

  “I think if you were fifth rank you'd find a way to start a war.” Val joked.

  “Probably, nearly started one at first rank though, so I don’t think rank has much to do with it.”

  “We should debrief over what happened today.” Sam said, leaning forward in her seat at the round table changing the subject abruptly.

  “We should.” Val said, setting her beer down.

  “Okay, what worked well today and what didn't?” Sam said no one in particular.

  “We didn't die, but only just.” Gavin said flippantly, waggling his ruined stump for emphasis.

  “We’re developing a very frustrating fighting style.” Judy said, trying to head off any negativity with something productive to say, “Gavin jumping into the demon's mouth aside, we did a good job of controlling the fight.”

  “Gavin’s new weapons and armour made that fight possible.” Val said, nodding to him in acknowledgement, “my level two swords weren't even touching it, I'd hate to see what would have happened if we went in there with our old gear. ”

  “Yes, that's why I wanted to push myself so hard so fast. If I had another day or two the fight would have been easier, but what's done is done.” Gavin said, looking pointedly at Sam. “Judy, you did well, the three of us are much better equipped to deal with that sort of thing, but you pulled your weight.”

  “I'm just glad the Tzar bomba strategy worked as well as we thought it would. It's good to have that up our sleeve.” Sam said.

  “Yes. I need to make something that can see through it though.” Gavin said running a hand through his hair, “You and Val can see what you're doing when it's going off, but I'm blind.

  “Speaking of you making items, when we first met you had several situationally useful wands, I think it's a good idea that you revisit that idea. If we'd been able to make the monster weightless we would have had a much easier time.” Sam said.

  “I agree. Once I have our basic gear done I'll Start churning out whatever I can think of.”

  “Can you make a couple things in between the big items? What we have should be adequate, for now.”

  “Yeah sure, one thing I want to try to get is a short range teleport enchantment, I know they exist, as I see it our main weakness is a lack of mobility, Judy and I are pretty hard to pin down, but as soon as we have an enemy that can keep up with you or Val we have to start taking risks.”

  “I do need to be up in combat though.”

  “Yes, but you don't need to sit there trading blows until one of you falls over. We can work smarter, take today, with more prep we could have just kited it around the arena.”

  “Looks like you have a lot of work cut out for yourself then.” Sam said, putting a pin in the debrief, which was much less productive than normal.

  Her heart wasn't in it to go through in-depth tactics after such a narrow win.

  “Anything else?” She asked.

  “I'm gonna start trying to find out more about this tower with the sword.” Gavin said sighing “because I obviously don't have enough projects at the moment.”

  “How?” Val asked, “just going to walk around the jungle looking for it?”

  “Nah, I reckon either the guild knows about it or they don't, if they don't know, one of our teams will stumble on it sooner or later. We can probably tease rumours out of the other teams if we meet up with them.”

  “And if they do know?” Sam asked, concern finding its way into her voice

  “They might have a dead spot in the map where the beacons aren't being placed.”

  “How would you ever find out where that is?” Judy asked, her tone inquisitive as she started considering ideas, “it's not like we have a map of where they are. The Storm Wardens only have a map of their ones, so we can't get the whole map off them.”

  “I know where one of their beacons are and a bunch of the runic blades ones, they're enchanted to talk to each other, I could pretty easily go out and find them, it'd just take a while to map them all out.”

  “That's a lot of effort to go on a maybe. What if you spend the next few months covertly mapping it out and it doesn't matter?” Sam asked.

  “The tower could be enchanted to be hidden, if no one’s spotted it in however long, it might be that you could walk right past it and not notice it.” Judy said.

  “Maybe. I think anything that powerful would show up on the sensors, it'd have to be really really complicated enchanting to remain hidden and not show up as an anomaly.” Gavin said.

  “Is there any way to prove any of these ideas will work before we start? I don't want you wasting time on a side project unless we’re confident it might work.” Sam said, her tone letting him know in no uncertain terms that this was his quest to deal with.

  “Probably. Let me think a minute.” Gavin said, leaning back in his chair using his force of will to keep it toppling over.

  “You know, we could find out if the locals have any legends about a powerful wizard in a tower with a sword.” Judy said, throwing an idea out into the meeting. “If it happened hundreds of years ago there might be stories about it passed down through the generations.”

  “That's a good idea.” Sam said.

  “Except Haylee made it clear we aren't allowed to interact with the locals. We don't even speak their language.” Val said joining the conversation.

  “She made it clear our team can't talk with the locals. The Storm Wardens are guild rank four.” Judy corrected.

  “You want to follow up that lead then?” Sam said, “Gods know Gavin is as likely to bungle it as he is to get them to do what he wants.”

  The three looked over at Gavin who remained lost in thought.

  “I could go see if I can get anything out of Haylee.” Val said.

  “Be careful. Out of all of these ideas trying to pry information out of a guild representative is going to be the most likely to blow up in our faces.” Sam said seriously.

  “Nope.” Gavin said, his chair clunking on the hard stone floor, “not even close.”

  ***

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I have to say Gavin,” Koyo said, loading her new rifle, “I think I got the better side of our deal.”

  “For now.” Gavin said, his toothy smile widening. “Everything I know came from skill books and one magic theory book I found in a provincial city in the middle of nowhere, having someone explain why to do something is much better than reading how to do it, it's gonna make my enchantments way more efficient.”

  “Well, regardless you picked up on adjusting the metallic structure faster than anyone I've seen.”

  “I had an unfair advantage, where I’m from we know way way more about the mechanics of how that works than here, Soliece-”

  “Bribed you not to talk about it, yeah, you mentioned.”

  “To be fair, she knows everything I know about it, you could hit up a priest to see what she’ll tell you about it.”

  “I might just do that, just as soon as we're done out here.” Koyo said gesturing all around her.

  “Well, anyway, I'm gonna go get my arm back, this healer prick's been taking his sweet time getting out to the village.”

  “You need to level up, if I get my arm bitten off, a healing potion will fix it right up.”

  “Working on it, I've gotta rank up by killing stuff, I can't just grind out my crafting abilities at home to rank up like you.”

  “Yeah, such a hardship getting to sleep in a proper bedroom instead of this.” Koyo said, glancing around at her spartan bedroom in the middle of the guild compound.

  “Speaking of, we’re having a movie night this coming fifth day, if your team can get its way to and from Nyümbakka you're welcome to come along.

  Gavin stood, stretching after a long day's work. He held out his good hand to shake, smiling warmly as koyo took it. Behind him his gothic portal arch rose from the floor.

  “Cheers mate, catcha later.” he said, stepping back through to emerge outside of the guild hall back in his village.

  He found Val sitting on the corner of Haylees desk in the middle of retelling the fight with the demon that took gavins arm off.

  “Go on, show her Gav” she said.

  “Can't sorry, I've copied one of Koyo’s powers, won't be able to do the illusion thing until I see Judy again. It's probably a bit anticlimactic though, after I kicked you out of the way it's just going to be bright light, then a dead monster. Judy would be able to show what happened better than me.”

  “That's a shame, it sounded exciting” Haylee said.

  “It was a bit.” Gavin said scratching the back of his neck.

  “You could come out with us sometime.” Val suggested.

  “Ooh, yeah.” Gavin said, “it'd have to be something close though, she can't go through my portal at her rank.”

  “I couldn't.” Haylee said apprehensively. “I can't take time away from my work here.”

  Gavin shrugged half heartedly “Sounds boring. Anyway, has that healer showed up yet?”

  “She has, she's out healing the sick in the village.”

  “How does that work? Aren't they pretty negative on the whole healing thing?”

  “Yes and no, they seem to be fine with the guild healing them then providing soul crystals so they can reapply their tattoos.”

  “Wait, what?” That's some next level public health insurance.”

  “We got the idea from you actually, the guild has been making no small amount of profit off this deal, they feel that giving back is in the best interests of everyone.”

  “Huh, no shit” Gavin said, shocked. “Where I'm from this sort of thing would absolutely never happen.”

  “I'm a little surprised myself, it seems like the guild wants this expedition to be as smooth a transition as possible.”

  “Well, if you need more donations for the cause I'm happy to pitch in. Since I got my deconstruct power to level three I can loot my enchanted items, I've been slowly stockpiling a bunch of low level potions and crafting mats every time I do any training. We don't really have a good use for common healing potions anymore since three of us have wound up with healing powers.”

  “I'll take you up on that.” Haylee said, happy that the discussion was moving away from her being put in danger. “I'm getting a little kick out of getting to report all the good things coming out of this village when they refuse to officially reward you for any of it.”

  “Ha, we'll make a warden out of you yet.” Val laughed.

  Gavin unloaded a good portion of his stockpiled goods out into the guild stores. He idly thought about what a difference this sort of power would make back on earth. He could make unlimited material resources, and as a byproduct could create health potions, food, random trinkets and other assorted items. He could set up shop somewhere and sustain a small village by himself without ever setting foot outside his house. Infectious diseases and minor ailments would be a thing of the past, once he got a bit stronger his enchantments might get powerful enough to break down for things like soul crystals or elixirs.

  He had once made a bet with Sam that he would break the system, and he felt he'd taken more than a few steps down that path already. He felt that with sufficient time that he would become unstoppable. If he ever got to the level of commander Kalista, he and his team would be a force to be reckoned with.

  “You must be Gavin” said a wary voice behind him “I'm Klara, healer for team Razorfish”

  “Jesus.” He yelped, turning to talk to his Healer, her sudden appearance startling him. “Was the arm that gave it away?”

  “No, actually, I was told to look for someone that thought they were the gods gift to the world, then saw you over here with that smug grin on your face and figured it must be you.”

  “Yeah, must have been the arm thing” Gavin said, ignoring her. “Wait. Holy fuckin shit, are you an outworlder?”

  The woman was older than him by a good number of years, taller and more athletically built. Her skin was a mottled yellowish tan and her ears were ever so slightly sharper than normal.

  “Yes, actually. That's not the first thing most people jump to, have you met another one before?”

  “Yeah bro, I am that other one. Where’d you come from?”

  “A planet called Salasthesia, and you?”

  “Earth.”

  “How original.” she said, mirth in her eyes.

  “So anyway, I'm pretty keen to get my arm back, but after that you wanna come over and meet my team? Swap some stories?”

  “I'm afraid I must return to my team shortly.”

  “Ahh, that sucks. If you want I’m putting on a movie night on fifthday just after dinner, bring your team, I’ll chuck on a movie from my world.”

  “Your world has movies? God's I haven't seen a movie in four years.” she said, sighing as her focus drifted away.

  “Well, there's gonna be one on in a couple days.”

  “I'll be there.” Klara said, her mood obviously brightening.

  “Awesome. So. About this arm situation?”

  ***

  Over the next week, Gavin had continued work on his crafting skills, his level three enchanting skill allowed him to make set items.

  Set items were a game changer. The previous armour iterations he'd made for the team were essentially just a set of separate pieces that all did the same thing; they shared mana between themselves and provided a mana shield. Being able to make set items shared the enchantment between each equipped piece. He could make bracers that provided a mana shield and that mana shield would cover everything else in the set, freeing him up to make items with varying effects without having to compromise.

  The main drawback was the current limit on items that could be forged into a set. Wearing multiple sets would interfere with each other, or so Koyo told him repeatedly. He could combine up to three items per person, which was fine for a start, but it only served to energise him into ranking up his skills as quickly as possible. He'd hit the soft cap of his abilities, he could very slowly rank them up, but without access to level three mana there was only so much he could do.

  “Okay team.” Gavin said on the afternoon of fifth day “Before our guests arrive there's a few things I think we should go over.”

  “Oh?” Val said.

  “Yeah. With the storm wardens coming tonight it's a good opportunity to try to get that map of their beacon locations, I'll need that before I can start Project Gruber.”

  “I can handle that.” Judy said, volunteering for that duty, “if I get a look at it I can copy it for us to use later. This rank two intellect makes remembering that sort of thing much easier.”

  “Good.” Gavin said “have you had any luck on your front Val?”

  “Actually no.” Val said, her tone serious, “I think we should drop that line of inquiry. Haylee is good people, I don't want to get her in trouble over anything we've done.”

  “Okay, that's fair. If you do happen to get anything off her, we can work to find that same information somewhere else before we act on it.”

  “Thanks.” Val said, relaxing somewhat.

  “Next thing. I have some presents. Turns out that making four sets of gear is really easy to do now.”

  Gavin retrieved the wealth of armour from his inventory, placing it on the table. Each member of the team had a breastplate, and helmet, Sam and Val had a set of gauntlets while Judy and Gavin had bracers. They were all of a similar style with fine designs that wouldn't look out of place in Lothlorien. The metal glittered with rainbow light, revealing the etherium it was made from.

  Sam plucked her helmet off the table, inspecting it. It was an acorn shape providing more than adequate vision, in fact, to her eye too much of her face would be visible.

  “Gavin. What is this?”

  “Huh?”

  “This looks like something from your movies, not something that's actually practical. As soon as someone shoots an arrow at my face it's going to kill me.”

  “Oh, nah, check the breastplate.”

  Sam touched the breastplate and her eyes went wide.

  “Oh, nevermind then”

  [Item: Sam's Helm]

  Type: Armour, Helmet

  Rarity: Level 3, Epic

  Set: Samania’s Regalia

  Description: The body cannot exist without the mind]

  Effect: Mana storage. Absorbs and stores Mana]

  Effect: Users [Intellect] attribute is increased

  Effect: Users resistances to hostile effects that alter their perception are increased

  [Can be soulbound]

  [Item: Sam's Breastplate]

  Type: Armour, Chest

  Rarity: Level 3, Epic

  Set: Samania’s Regalia

  Description: I am here, not because of the path that lies before me, but because of the path that lies behind me.

  Effect: Mana storage. Absorbs and stores Mana

  Effect: Users [Endurance] attribute is increased.

  Effect: Mana Shield. Incoming attacks around all set items are wholly negated until [Samania's Regalia] mana storage is depleted. Mana cost directly proportional to incoming damage

  [Can be soulbound]

  [Item: Sam's Gauntlets]

  Type: Armour, Gauntlets

  Rarity: Level 3, Epic

  Set: Samania’s Regalia

  Description: dodge this.

  Effect: Mana storage. Absorbs and stores Mana

  Effect: Users [Agility] attribute is increased

  Effect: Reduces cooldowns of abilities proportional to [Samania's Regalia] stored mana level

  [Can be soulbound]