"So… are you ever going to give me that jacket back?"

This was a question that Emery had been avoiding with surprising grace. She's been dodging me like a god damn ninja. Strange, considering she wears dresses and skirts all the time.

We were in Avery's forge, which ended up being the only time we did get to hang out. Emery was hammering away at a blade, the results far better than when she was half asleep and exhausted, who would've thought it? I on the other hand, was taking great interest in a metal rod. See, I couldn't use an enchanting table, otherwise I'd get the enchanting skill at rank one. However, if I managed to do it without using the table? Well, that'd have to be significant enough to warrant me getting the skill at rank two.

I pushed magic into it, holding a piece of lapis in my offhand so that I didn't warrant any suspicion. The rod began to glow blue, vein-like lines of magic running along it. Come on durability. I just want to add one enchantment to it god damn it!

The veins began to warble, and the entire thing began to glow. I've had this blow up in my face too many times not to realize what was about to happen. I quickly tucked it away in my inventory before it could go off, leaving it stuck at near critical mass in my inventory, just like the others.

"Can you please not do that next to me? I'm worried it might explode and send shards everywhere. And no, you're not getting that thing back. Honestly, it's so old that I'm surprised it didn't break into dust the moment you put it on."

She is awfully sassy for someone who could barely look me in the eye a few days ago. Maybe it's seeing me fail at this over and over again. After all, what better way is there to make someone look bad then having them fail at something over and over again? Fine, I might be a little salty about the whole thing, but I've never had something take this long, even swordsmanship began to show some fruit after I got this far. I've been spending almost entire days on this for the past week! It was wake up, work on whatever the chieftess needs, then bang my head against the wall with this for the rest of the day.

Of course, that wasn't all I did. I also spent some time with Emery and the others. After all, can't have my social life wither and die. At least, not yet anyway.

I turned away from my failure and looked at Emery, watching as she worked up quite the sweat hammering away at a sword. "I don't see why I can't have it back. It's still mine you know. Besides, it has… sentimental value."

What? Don't give me that. Sure, it might be a bitch thing to do, but it was one of the last things Mason ever gave me. There was no way I'd let it be dismantled or thrown away, not without a proper goodbye at the very least anyway.

Emery stopped hammering at the sword, putting it to quench one final time. As she did this, she glanced back at me and answered my question. "Well for one, I've been studying it for it's style. Say what you want about the Kinsman, they're fantastic leather workers. Once I get the style and design down pact, I can start making you some new armor with similar designs. Of course, I'll update it where I see fit. Can't have you wearing out of date armor. Style is important."

Well, that was fair. Wait a minute, new armor? That was never on the table! I did not consent to this! How the hell was she even going to do that anyway? The jacket may be old, but it's still decent enough armor. Besides, she doesn't know Jack shit about my fighting style, so how was she going to compensate for that?

She must've read my mind or something, because as she took the blade out of the water and let it cool, she looked me in the eye and fixed me with a glare. It would've been more effective if she wasn't almost a foot and a half shorter than me. "Listen here mister, you've been great help the last few days with my smithing. Not just that, but you're also one of the only people who put aside time in their day to spend time with me, despite how much of a hassle it might be. You've introduced me to Citrine, and Brynjar, and Evanora too, I guess. So, if I say I'm going to make you armor, you're darn tootin' I'm going to make you some armor!"

She pointed her hammer… threateningly in my general direction. Was that considered threatening if she's doing it out of kindness? Not only that, but why doesn't the phrase "darn tootin'" even exist here? Like, is that seriously one of the few things that this world needed? Fucking hell, this world is just way too fucking inconsistent with its use of modern ideas and terminology. One minute I'm explaining what a boat is to Brynjar, the next I'm choking on my water as Emery makes a sixty-nine joke.

It was a minor issue, sure. Hell, technically it wasn't even an issue, but I'll be damned if it didn't bug me just a little bit.

I placed my hands in front of me, admitting defeat this time around. "Fine fine, you can do whatever your precious little heart desires. If it makes you happy, go for it."

And that ladies and gentlemen, was my submission for the "Most Condescending Admission of Approval" award. Huh, I'm not doing so hot today when it comes to the jokes. Oh well, you win some you lose some. Not like anyone else was going to see it.

Emery smiled brightly at me, beaming as she clapped her hands together and ran to her workbench. Ruffling through the messy workbench, she grabbed some papers and what looked to be a sketchbook. She began to show me each design she had on paper, prattling on about each one and even suggesting different ideas or edits to some of the armor. To be honest, I only understood like half of it, and that was only because I was decently versed in armoring. The rest of the fashion details went right over my head.

It was at this point that I decided to butt into her incessant but passionate rambling with my own two cents. "Right, so a lot of these have capes for some reason. No capes for me I'm afraid, I just don't think I'd be able to pull it off. Second, a lot of these seem to require colored metal and leather. For one, congrats on finding some kind of paint or something out here, cause I couldn't find any for the life of me. For another, I don't think paint is going to work on those things. And finally, your passion is adorable. That is all."

I couldn't just stomp on all her hard work without at least giving her a compliment. And what's a better compliment, than a true compliment? Well, besides telling someone that those pants don't make their ass look fat of course. God, that was horrible. I'm disappointed in myself for that one.

Taking my criticism and carefully tearing it apart in her head, Emery ignored the slight redness in her cheeks and retorted with almost record speed. "Well, I guess I can see the cape thing. To be honest, I didn't really like them either, you're just not a cape guy. And as for the color thing, I just used my mom's old color needle."

At that, she pulled out a silver-colored sewing needle the size of a spoon out of her skirt. Yeah, I'm having trouble with the logic on that one as well. How do you fit a needle like that in a skirt? Now, I haven't been in that skirt in particular, yet, but I'm like ninety percent sure that you couldn't fit something that sharp into a skirt comfortably. No way she was sticking that in either of her holes either, if only because sharp things hurt.

The needle wasn't very ornate or anything, in fact it was kind of dinky. Not that I was going to tell her that. I'm an asshole, but I'm not that much of an asshole. Instead leaned against the wall and regarded her once more. "Well, that's convenient. But these sketches call for a lot of leather, and while I do have some tucked away, I don't see how they'd be more useful than my jacket. Unless you're saying that we should get some of the more high-quality stuff, in which case need I remind you that we don't exactly have the coin for that."

Technically, I was actually just barely above being broke. The only reason I had money to begin with is because drunks are horrible with pattern recognition and don't understand that I don't get drunk. And what money I did have was usually spent on food or going to the bathhouse every once in a while. The life of being a… what even am I? I'm definitely not an adventurer, considering I've spent the last week and a half just twiddling my thumbs and just screwing around. Technically speaking, I'm just unpaid labor this point. Maybe I should unionize?

Emery cleared her throat, fidgeting in place slightly as all her bravado from earlier faded away and she looked up at me shyly. "Well, you see, wargs have pretty tough leather. You'd need something stronger than Normal iron just to pierce it. And they happen to love hunting aspids around this time of year, so I was wondering if you could maybe, I dunno, hunt some down and take their leather?"

Ah, I couldn't even be mad about it. The way she seemed to shrink in on herself after asking for my help was just too adorable, and to turn her down now would just be cruel. "Sure thing. I needed to stretch a bit anyway, so this'll be good for me."

She beamed at me, any nervousness she had faded immediately as she began to go on and on about different designs. Just as I was about to get into my usual routine of nodding along and thinking about bad jokes, she stopped and began to stare intently at one of the designs. The grin on her face grew wider and there was a look in her eyes that made me shift in place slightly. Before I could ask what was going on, she shoved her sketchbook in my face and began pointing at one of the designs on it. "This one is perfect! It looks awesome, and it won't get in your way while you fight! Plus, you'd totally be able to rock this!"

It was a definite improvement over the other designs. It was a simple leather long coat that had fur lining the edges and inside of the coat, an overly large collar standing tall and covering the little drawing of my face. Rather than it being held by any buttons or string, there was a large belt holding the coat together. The belt wasn't really detailed, but I had a feeling that would change once she actually got to making it. There weren't any gloves on it, so I could fit my gauntlets on it rather comfortably, and the pants didn't look to be as baggy as the ones I was wearing right now. Whether it was a blessing or a curse, only time would tell. Rather than typical boots, there was a pair of greaves and sabatons in its place.

I'd give it a solid eight point five out of ten, if only because it looks like a leather version of Santa's coat. Just not red, in fact there was a lot of black on the outfit, with the sole exception of the metal bits which were a dark blue instead. I think she was going for a navy color to match… my eyes, but I don't think it'll translate to metal very well. "A bit edgy, but I can work with it. Good job there Emery, you definitely have this whole tailor thing down pact."

God damn it Darius. You can't even praise someone without sounding like a sarcastic asshole. Luckily, Emery either didn't mind or didn't notice it, as she continued to go on about her ideas for it. At this point, she'd never get to it. Still, I listened to her ramble and watched as she made elaborate gestures around us.

What? It was a fun way to pass the time.

…

The quietness of the forest was a welcome change after the past few weeks of listening to drunks sing and laugh. It was still early in the morning, and I had asked one of the local hunters about the best places to find some wargs. It occurred to me shortly afterwards that I didn't know what a warg was, so after a brief explanation from the hunters and a vague direction to go in, I was off to go fuck up some nature.

So apparently a warg was just a souped-up wolf that could paralyze things near it's landing area after it leaps. It took way longer than I'd like to admit, but I finally realized where this thing was from. It was a fucking lycanite mob, which was honestly just a fucking shitshow for me if all of the mobs from it are present. That also meant that aspids were from lycanite as well, so at least it was consistent. If my memory serves me right, then aspids were fairly peaceful, with the exception of a constant poison cloud that follows them around like a lost puppy.

Gotta love nature.

I had completely forgotten to get me some better armor, and while I could make some from some leather bits I have now, it really won't be all that strong. So, I was stuck with a plain white cotton shirt and a pair of thick baggy pants. My boots were probably the strongest bit of equipment I had on right now, with the exception of my gauntlets of course. Those sat snugly on my arms, the warm leather interior soft against my hands and forearms. The parrying blades on the sides were actually kind of annoying though, since I had neglected to add any sort of closing mechanism into the gauntlets, so they just kind of stuck out annoyingly.

Well, I guess I could add some design input to Emery's armor ideas. Hell, with the limited mechanical know how the odds and ends pack gave me, I could probably pull it off. Maybe I could add some kind of grips on the bottom of the sabatons to work in tandem with the claws on my gauntlets. Soon, I'll be wall crawling like motherfucking Spider-Man.

As I walked forward, a bright light at the end of the path made itself clear, and beyond that I could see a large clearing with a small pond. Time to get to work.

I grappled up one of the trees, landing on one of the sturdy branches and scouting the area. There were a few aspids drinking from the pond, and if you paid close enough attention, you could see the slight greenish color of the poison clouds they emitted. Off in the back, hiding in the dark shadows of the thick forest trees, were a pack of wargs. They were concealed rather well, and if I weren't looking for them, I wouldn't have found them in the first place. Right, now I just had to wait for the wargs to attack the aspids, and either die from the poison, or get weakened enough that I could take them out without too much of a fuss.

Well, that was the plan anyway. Unfortunately, that ended up not being applicable as a masked stranger began to creep up on the aspids, knife in hand. They wore a really oversized witch hat and plague doctor mask, since apparently germ theory isn't common fucking knowledge here. Oh well, sucks to be them. Too bad, they had quite the ass.

Wait a minute, I recognize that ass.

Well, technically I recognized the shape of the ass in the leather and cloth robes, and I recognized the robes themselves. Also, the hat should've been really obvious. That only begged one question, why the fuck was Evanora trying to assassinate some aspids? Why did I recognize her ass and not her fucking comically oversized hat?! What does that even say about me?! And, on a more important note, why was she even here!? Damn it, she mustn't have seen the wargs hiding in the forest.

Right, let's work this out real quick. She's an alchemist, so she obviously has some kind of potion defense against poison, and since she works with Citrine her robes and mask must be enchanted enough to actually function. It would make sense as to why Evanora though heading into really obvious clouds of poison was a good idea. She was probably here to take the poison from the bodies of the aspids, so that would explain why she's here.

Now, what the hell was I going to do? Jumping down now would just startle the aspids, and they'll do their best to book it before they get hurt. I can't just shoot an arrow at one, since that would also startle the aspids, and might even make the wargs sense fresh meat and attack Evanora while her guard is down. I couldn't drop any of the quicklime bombs down since I wasn't completely sure if her mask would be able to keep it out of her lungs. Plus, I have no idea if it'll react explosively with the poison the aspids were letting out, and there was no way I was risking that. Taking out the wargs directly would be a challenge from this distance, and more than a few of them would escape, and maybe even try to fight back. My best bet was to sit up on this tree and protect Evanora the best I could, using my longbow to snipe any wargs that got cocky and tried to rush her.

I stood to my full height, obscured by the trees as I summoned my longbow and took aim, Reinforcing the bow and keeping an eye on Evanora. She was only going for one it seems, as she stalked one of the aspids that were on the outskirts of the pack. It drank happily from the pond, unaware of the certain death it was about to face. Slowly but surely, Evanora made her way to the unassuming aspid, until she jumped on it's back and slit its throat in an admittedly rather brutal fashion. The other aspids saw this and began to flee, though it was at this moment that the wargs decided to jump in and take out the rest of the small herd. Unfortunately, one of the wargs decided to go after the dying aspid Evanora was on, the young woman just realizing that she was kind of fucked.

Well, time to do my good deed for the day.

I imbued the arrow with destruction, watching as the red energy glowed off of the arrow, clashing with the calm blue of the Reinforced bow. Letting the arrow go, I watched as it pierced the wargs head in an explosion of gore, the arrow landing half buried in the dirt. I couldn't waste any more time appreciating my handiwork, as two more wargs saw what happened and began to investigate. I nocked another arrow and repeated the process, killing one of the wargs. Evanora must've gotten over her shock, as she reached into her hat and threw a potion, making the warg how as its flesh began to melt.

+30 Experience

Level Up!

14 - 15

Experience: 11/37

Ah, I missed this feeling.

I reinforced myself, feeling the slight strain from the skill. I guess I wasn't too used to it yet. Leaping from the tree and Crafting a pair of iron falchions and reinforcing them. If I'm going to fight a bunch of overly aggressive wolves, I may as well try and see if I can get some practice with enchanting in. I landed on the ground and rolled with the momentum, standing as I gave a quick glance around the clearing. The wargs weren't advancing yet, instead choosing to circle us and wait for an opening.

"Darius? What are you doing here?"

Evanora stood up and pulled off her mask, giving me a questioning gaze. I couldn't meet her gaze for long, as the wargs still circled us, and I had no intention of taking my eyes off of them. "I was hunting some wargs when I found this clearing. They like to hunt aspids around this time of year, so I figured why not wait in the tree until they're done. That plan was shot to hell as soon as you decided to assassinate one of the aspids and sending them running."

I could feel a back touch my own, and it didn't take long to realize that we were quite literally standing back-to-back against a common foe. It would've been cooler if the knowledge that Evanora was definitely not a fighter had decided to fuck off. Unfortunately, that thought stood firmly in my head as I realized that I was stuck defending her from around a dozen or so wargs. Right, time to do something stupid. "Evanora, when the wargs begin to attack, I'm going to need you to grab onto my back tightly and don't let go. Got it?"

"Got it."

Good, now all we needed to do was wait. I didn't want to set them off, just in case they decide to fuck off, however unlikely that was. Plus, having them all spread out like they are now would make my plan a bit more annoying to pull off, so it was best to wait until they begin to charge.

There we stood, a classic Mexican stand-off if there ever was one. I kept the wargs in my line of sight as I spied a tree close enough to grapple to, and I readied my gauntlet.

It was like that for what seemed like ages, before the biggest warg there howled, and then all hell broke loose.

To her credit, Evanora was quick on the draw as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and held on tight. Honestly, it's a good thing I was taller than her, otherwise this would've been really uncomfortable. I grappled to the nearest tree, grunting as the added weight from Evanora made the whole thing more difficult. She yelped slightly as we were airborne for a split second, squeezing her chest into my back. It was a feeling that would be far more enjoyable if we weren't in the middle of a life-or-death battle.

We landed on the tree branch and she let go, getting with the program as she settled on the tree and began to ready her potions. "Just try not to hit me Evanora. I really like this shirt and living."

She gave a swift nod, and I leaped out of the tree, grappling to a nearby warg and landing on top of it. The warg began to try and buck me off, and the others tried to attack me without hurting their comrade. That was good, but it wouldn't be long before they decide that my death was more important than the warg's life. I pushed magic into my falchion and did my best to enchant it with sharpness, though the blade began to hit critical mass. I stabbed it into the warg and jumped off of it, grunting as my feet hit against the ground and rolling with the momentum.

The sword exploded into a bunch of metal shards, cutting through the warg's body. It howled in pain and tried to run off, although it collapsed before it could get anywhere. The other wargs rushed at me from multiple directions, and I was forced to grapple to a near by tree and use it as a springboard. As I was in the air, I summoned my recurve bow and nocked an arrow back, imbuing destruction into it and letting it fly into an unlucky warg's head.

I landed and rolled, Crafting another cheap iron falchion and pushing magic into it once more, feeling it hit critical mass and throwing it like a boomerang at a nearby warg. The blade exploded and sent shards everywhere, hitting multiple wargs and wounding them. Damn it, at this rate enchanting was basically just an easy way to make something explode. What the hell was I missing?

"Dodge to your left!"

Evanora's voice rang out, and I wasted no time in rolling to the side. A potion splashed against the ground I was at, and a small mist began to rise slowly into the air. A few wargs began to choke on it, and they began to claw at their throats. Fucking hell, that's actually terrifying.

Not wanting to lose out on the experience, I summoned my recurve bow and nocked an explosive arrow, imbuing it and letting it fly. Limbs and viscera flew up in the air, but as I admired my work, a large weight pounced on my chest and threw me down.

I tried to move, but my body was stuck in place, almost as if I were stuck in fucking jello. What the hell was going- ah shit. The paralysis. The warg on my chest was the biggest one, and probably their leader. It snarled, and began to claw at my body, tearing up my shirt and chest.

The sound of glass shattering stopped the warg, and its expression changed from murderous to agonizing as it yelped and tried to roll around on its back. I didn't have time to tend to my wounds, as the final four wargs all leapt at me.

Well, three of them tried. The wounds they acquired from the shattered falchion put a stop to that real soon, and the fourth one was the only one actually leaping towards me. Right, let's try thing again. Crafting another falchion, I pushed magic into it, focusing on sharpness as I did so. The blade glowed once more, and it seemed to stabilize as I swung it into the warg. However, halfway through the beast, the damned thing began to go critical, and I had to abandon it inside the warg and dodge to the right.

The warg landed where I once was, dead as a door nail. I turned my attention back toward the other wargs, Crafting another falchion as I did so. They growled and limp ran towards me, lacking most of the speed that had made them even remotely fearsome before. I was getting closer with the enchantments, so I decided to try my luck once more. Doing my best to enchant the blade with sharpness, I cleaved through one of the wargs and got halfway through another before I could feel it begin to go critical. Finishing off that second warg, I narrowly dodged a lunge from the second and stuck the soon-to-be explosive into the beast, jumping back as the sword exploded and tore through the warg like slightly old jerky.

No, I don't know what that means.

Level Up!

15 - 20

Experience: 24/47

Right, time to play catch up with a few more skills. Well, I guess only one in this case actually.

20 - 2

Experience: 8/11

Structural Analysis

Learn the very being of anything you use this skill on.

RANK 3 - you learn a lot about an object and can make rare RANK blueprints of them. Next RANK costs 30 LEVELS.

Ah, progress. Honestly, my main priority skill wise is simply to get all of my skills up to rank three. That way, they'll all be high enough level to actually be useful. I don't have many skills as is, so I may as well master the ones I do. Speaking of skills, time to see if Deconstruct will work on corpses as mutilated as these. I reached down to touch the nearest warg corpse, whispering the name of the skill I was hoping to test.

+2 Warg Leather

Yep, that's in peak condition. All right then, time to cheat the system and get way more useable leather than I typically should. I touched each corpse, Deconstructing them and getting more warg leather by the foot. Well, technically is was about two and a half feet per piece of warg leather, but that didn't flow as well. Maybe I should've used yard instead?

"Well… that was impressive. I'm surprised you managed to handle them all."

Wow. You are just cold Evanora. The first thing you do when you slide down that tree after I save your ass is sass me. And in my opinion, I thought that fight was rather anticlimactic, thank yo I very much. I wasn't going to say that out loud of course, since that would just not be very conducive for a pleasant walk home together. "Thanks! I was worried I would be a bit rusty, but it's good to see that- "

A deep rumbling cut me off, and a deep… growl? It was definitely something like that. Howl would definitely be better now that I think about it. Focus Darius, we've got a new challenger to face. Me and my big mouth.

I stood in front of Evanora, letting her run back and take some potions out just in case. The loud rumbling gave way to even louder stomping, and it began to get louder and louder as the minutes passed. It was a good thing it was taking this long, otherwise I might've been forced to use a gold blood vial just to heal up, and the stamina drain those things had were just really annoying.

The stomping grew closer and closer, until an absolutely massive wooden beast tore through the forest and landed on the other side of the pond.

Young Treant

Health: 100/100

Magic: 10/10

Levels: 26

Oh. Oh fuck me! The worst part about this whole shitty situation was the fact that this thing was probably based off the lycanite treant too, meaning that the pond of water between us was basically free healing for the big bastard. Fuck!

"Evanora! I need you to run! If this thing decides that it should go after you, I'm not sure I'll be able to stop it! I'll hold it off for a bit, and once you're far enough away, I'll try and run away too!"

She looked ready to argue, however one look at the big tree dickhead in front of us shut her mouth real quick. With a light glare, she turned and legged it in the opposite direction. If she was a close ranged fighter, or even an archer, she wouldn't been useful as all hell against this thing. But alchemists were support, and I didn't need to worry about keeping her safe as well as myself. Unfortunately, now I had to try and solo this thing. Damn it, where's Brynjar where you need him?

The treant dashed forward, using all six of its long arms to pounce towards me. Looks like dodging was going to be the name of this game, because when wasn't it? Using the oversized leaf afro that the treant called hair, I grappled over it and landed on the other side, taking out Master and Pupil, readying them.

Despite its gigantic size, the treant was surprisingly fast, as it turned around and began to rush me once more. This time however, it's long arms were used to slam the ground in front of it, probably in an attempt to smash me like a bug. Well, if it was going to go with that age old tactic, I may as well use it to my advantage.

I began to lead it deeper into the forest, using the trees to grapple and launch myself through the thick foliage. Sure, I was technically leading it into its home turf, but I was also leading it way from the pond. Plus, I can use the trees as cover and to grapple around. Speaking of grappling, I landed on a tree on the opposite side of the large treant.

Damn, this thing is way too dangerous for close range combat. Good thing I sent Evanora away, otherwise I'd have to carry her with me as we grappled around, trying to take potshots at it. I readied my recurve bow and nocked an arrow back, imbuing it with destruction and letting it fly.

Young Treant

Health: 94/100

Magic: 10/10

Levels: 26

Oh, you have got to be fucking me right now. Damn it, despite my archery being the skill I was most confident it, my bow just wasn't as strong as the rest of my gear. Unlike a sword or armor, I couldn't use metal for it since that would fuck with the strength and draw of the weapon. And the wood from here just wasn't flexible enough to make a decent bow.

Cursing my shit planning, I jumped to another tree as one of the treant a arms came crashing down where I was. Damn it, I didn't have anything strong enough to actually hurt it for any significant damage besides my swords. But I couldn't use them because I needed to get in close for that, something which did not look possible to do safely. How was I even supposed to-

Wait a minute. Oh man, am I really that desperate?

A close call with one of the treant's hands confirmed how fucked I was, and how desperate I felt. I leapt and grappled as far away as I could, switching from my recurve bow to my longbow and taking my stance. I quickly went through my blueprints and combined the two I needed.

Sword Arrow

Common

A sword fashioned to be able to be shot from a bow. In the hands of any other person, this would be insane, but in yours, it can do some major damage.

Using swords as projectiles. This word has truly broken my sense of reason.

Nocking the sword arrow, I pushed magic into it and thought long and hard about knockback, or punch. Whichever one worked in this scenario, I didn't care. And then, I let the sword fly.

The blade hit the treant in its middle, pushing it back a few feet and doing actual damage.

Young Treant

Health: 86/100

Magic: 10/10

Levels: 26

Okay, fine. It wasn't that much more damage. However, this did mean something else. I finally managed to unlock Enchanting. I pushed the notification to the side and focused on the battle at hand. I didn't need it to suddenly understand the little intricacies that I had missed earlier, and the deeper well of Enchanting knowledge that I could call upon. Without wasting a moment, I placed Unbreaking, Power, and Punch on my bow, feeling the magic course through it and settle into mysteriously familiar patterns.

The treant began to charge once more, so I nocked another blade and this time imbued it with destruction. The sword hit the treant with all the force the last one had, but with the added damage and power of both Affinity for Destruction and the Power enchantment on my bow.

Young Treant

Health: 72/100

Magic: 10/10

Levels: 26

The treant flailed about as the power begin the sword interrupted its charge, stunning it. Now was my chance. I grappled to it, readying Master and Pupil and slashing at its face, the twin falchions carving into the wood like a hot knife through butter.

Young Treant

Health: 59/100

Magic: 10/10

Levels: 26

Unfortunately, it seemed the treant had enough of this, as one of its hands tried to slam me down. I wasn't in too good of a position, so dodging wasn't an option. Good thing I had a big ass fuck off shied to work with. Summoning the shield, I let it take the brunt of the damage, the hit sending me flying into a tree.

Health: 20/32

Oh, I was so going to feel that in the morning. Or now, definitely now.

Ow.

Still, it wasn't serious enough to warrant a gold blood vial, so I shook it off and held in a wince as I took to the trees once more. Fuck it, I may as well just shoot the bastard from a distance. I readied another sword arrow, imbuing it and letting it fly into the treant. I didn't waste time checking its health, instead mocking another sword and firing it. Each shot sent the treant stumbling, giving me time to set up the next shot, until, finally, I won. Was it kind of spammy? Fucking yeah it was, but at this point, I valued my life more than I valued fighting fair.

Young Treant

Health: 0/100

Magic: 10/10

Levels: 26

Level Up!

2 - 28

8/63

Whoa, that was a way bigger leap in levels than I should have gotten. Did the system just straight up give me the treant's levels? Was it because it was a stronger enemy type? Is this a new thing that happens all the time? And perhaps most importantly of all…

Why didn't the treant use magic?

…

And that is what we in the sandwich business call, a wrap. Both a lot, and almost nothing happened in this chapter, since it takes place over the course of like 12-16 hours, and we skip through most of them.

Here is our review of the week:

"I'm pretty sure that isn't a detective Merrit"

-dudepotatoes

I mean, how do you know? What if he really was a detective, but he was also a pedophile? You don't know him!

This has been A Decent Hoonter, and I don't endorse the protection of pedophiles. That's just common decency.