After the whole treant thing, I had to go through my notifications for a bit. Not exactly the most fun thing to do, but it was necessary.
Congratulations! For enchanting your bow without using a table, you have gained and RANKED UP the skill ENCHANTING!
Enchanting
You can imbue items with incredible power in order to grant them new attributes. You're limited to three enchants per item.
RANK 2 - You can use and remove Uncommon rank enchantments and come up with common rank ones from scratch. Next RANK costs 20 LEVELS.
Congratulations! For killing an enemy 20 LEVELS higher than your current LEVEL, you have gained all their LEVELS!
Congratulations! For killing a unique enemy type for the first time, you have gained a Rare Gacha Token!
To go through the list in order, after getting enchanting, or Enchanting I guess, I decided to sit down in one of the trees and think about it. See, before I was working off of knowledge given to me my Citrine and the half-baked information provided to me by the Minecraft enchantments pack. Now, it wasn't that the information was bad per se, but it did lead me to making an almost critical flaw. Well, technically it was a critical flaw, but that'd just be arguing pedantics. Instead of focusing on what the enchant I wanted to apply did, I focused more on what it was.
Sounds dumb, I know. However, that ended up fucking with my attempts to actually enchant something. Personally, I blame the Minecraft enchantment pack for that one. I knew what all the enchants do, but I didn't really understand why or how since I didn't have Enchanting at the time. Now, the reason I was able to get it right with the sword arrow is actually kind of easy to understand. I had known idea what enchantment to use. Since it was technically a sword, I could use knockback, but as it was also an arrow, I could use punch. I get that punch is a bow only enchantment in game, but here that's a little more complicated, and I'll get to it. Anyway, because of my indecision and short amount of time, I instead ended up focusing on the effect of the enchantment I wanted rather than the name.
Now that I had Enchanting and the surprisingly in-depth knowledge it granted, I can kind of see how I went wrong, and fix that for future use. Also, it was cheap as fuck to use. One point of magic per item, no matter how many enchantments you put on it. Well, the maximum is three, but now I can remove enchants as well, so I suppose it doesn't matter if I accidentally enchant something onto my weapons or armor and then immediately regret it. Could I even do that? Eh, thoughts for later.
Well, the maximum is three, for most of my gear. Master and Pupil probably have a pass on that, so that means I can fucking go nuts with them.
Getting back to that knockback or punch scenario, it's a little more complicated here than it is in game. Actually, it's way simpler, but it just requires a bit of common sense. See, technically any enchant can go on any item, no matter what. However, not all enchants will work properly. For example, you can place sharpness on a helmet if you want, but unless you're planning to cut off the fingers of anyone who tries to grab it, it's not going to do much. This means that I can get… creative with how I manifest the enchants and their effects.
Now, the twenty-level thing. I'm not sure if that's a rule of thumb or not, but if it is, now I have a reason to stay as low as I possibly can level wise. Levels don't actually change how strong I am, so there's no reason to hoard them unless I'm trying to grind for a specific skill. Speaking of skills.
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
Sure, I could have ranked up Enchanting, but I wanted to wait until I had a solid grip on how I can use it both in battle, and out of it. Right now, it's third in the list of priorities. Craft is first, and Reinforcement is second. I feel like I had a point to all this, but for the life of me I can't remember.
Story of my fucking life.
And as for the Gacha coin… I haven't actually used it yet. I'm waiting until I'm somewhere nice and comfy before I do that. I mean, if I'm goin to be flipping a magic coin to see if I get any cool toys, I may as well be comfy for it.
"-and those are all of the reasons why you should've run away Darius!"
Oh right, I was supposed to be listening to someone. To be honest, Evanora had been talking my ear off for like ten minutes already, and I just could not find a single shit to give. Sure, she's worried and all that, but that is no reason to be yelling at me for doing something awesomely dangerous. I'm not an anime harem protagonist god damn it!
Wait a minute, am I? So far, I've been going from town to town finding cute girls and befriending them, I have a tragic backstory, and my powers are complete bullshit. Well, I'll be damned with a slice of toast, I am an anime harem protagonist. Can I get a refund because those guys never end up having sex with their harem.
"Darius? Are you even listening right now?"
Not even remotely honey. Still, I should probably apologize for… something. If only to ease her mind. "I get where you're coming from Evanora, I do. However, as I was trying to evade the darn thing, I realized that it would probably follow me back. So, I decided to kill it. And didn't that work wonderfully?"
I really need to work on my apology game. Evanora glared at me frostily, and she crossed her arms. "That doesn't change the fact that you could've died. Sure, it worked out this time, but you might not be so lucky next time. You might end up knocking on death's door, or worse."
Big talk for someone who didn't even actually run back to town. I found her barely five minutes away from the pond, pacing to herself and muttering. I couldn't quite catch what she was saying, but I did get a few bits and pieces out of it. Something about retrieving my corpse for study, or something like that. So, if it looks like I'm being an asshole for no reason, there's why.
She had a point though, just probably not the one she was trying to get across. I really needed to get back to training, or at the very least, grinding. Sure, I may have been able to kill the treant, as the large wooden corpse in my inventory can attest to, but I was just lucky. The large open area and the brutish nature of the treant made for a particularly easy fight. Once I figured out a decent way to hurt him, all I had to do was run away like a bitch and just shoot it till it died. Maybe it was because it was a young treant? I mean, that's about the only reason I could think of for why it was so dumb.
Right, it's time to concede while at the same time promising nothing. "Of course, Evanora. Next time, I'll make sure to do better."
That seemed to do the trick, as she nodded her head and began to strut forward in front of me, satisfied with her victory. Speaking of going ahead, town should be close by. We were at most like a mile away from town at the pond, and we've been walking for almost half an hour. I really needed to get back to town and find me a new shirt since I don't have enough fabric or cotton to actually make a new one. If push comes to shove and the shirts are too expensive, I'll just see if I can make one from some leaves. Until then, I was left with the tattered remains of one, the ripped cotton only barely hanging onto my frame.
Hang on a second, I could work with this. I mean, sure it's kind of a dick-ish thing to do, but I'm still kind of upset from that whole corpse thing. Time to crank up the char-
"Darius, we're here!"
Son of a bitch. Looking forward, I could catch the glimpses of the large walls bordering the town. Yeah, that's definitely it alright. I began to walk a bit faster, ignoring the slight flare of pain from my still healing chest.
A hand grasped my arm, and as I turned to face Evanora, she began to speak gently. "Hey, I didn't really get to say thank you for earlier. So why don't you take some of these."
She let go of my arm and began to take out a couple of potion vials, two red ones and four green ones. They weren't all that large, around the size of a shot glass each. "These two red ones are healing potions and should help with those scratches. The green ones are stamina potions, for future use. You look like you used up a lot of energy fighting, so I figured you'd appreciate these."
Damn it, now I feel bad for holding a grudge against her. Taking the potion vials from her hands, I gave her a quick thanks and placed them in my inventory, pretending that my pants had a storage enchant just like her hat did. Taking one of the healing potions, I drank it and felt my wounds begin to heal faster. It wasn't the instant gratification of the gold blood vials, instead it was just a boost to my healing. I didn't have Reinforcement active since that would just be a drain on my body to maintain.
We walked up to the gate, and I simply flashed a smile to one of the guards as we waited for the large gate to open. As we waited, Evanora spoke up and stole my attention. "Hey, Brynjar, Citrine, and I won't be in the tavern this afternoon. We're going to be preparing for our first outing into the mansion on the hill. But maybe when we're done, I could teach you a bit about potion making. If you'd like to, of course."
Bingo. Learning alchemy has suddenly become a level four priority for me, especially since it can make stamina potions. My greatest weakness right now was the fact that my fighting style and skills were so stamina and energy expensive, meaning that I wouldn't be able to stay in fight long term. Especially if I enhance Reinforcement with some Magic, making the skill even more exhausting to maintain. Sure, as time goes by and I use the skill more, my body should adapt to it, but that was a bit more long term than I'd like.
I tilted my head and gave Evanora a smile. "That'd be great. I'm sure you've got a lot to teach me, and I'm eager to learn."
She gave me a nod, her expression having shifted into a smug grin. It was adorable, but I didn't have time to comment on it as the gate finished opening, and the guards rushed us in. Evanora and I went out separate ways, her heading towards one of the random buildings that I hadn't bothered checking out, and I went towards the good old fashion tavern, ready to take a quick nap.
The tavern itself was fairly empty, only a few patrons milling about and doing their business. Despite my currently torn attire, I didn't draw too many stares, as the rest of the patrons didn't seem to care. Honesty, you gotta love that mentality in a group of people. Sure, it wasn't very conducive to banding together and uniting under a common goal, but damn did it make life easier. Speaking of making life easier, I did my best to quickly get up the stairs, hoping that Emery wasn't nearby. If she saw me like this, she'd probably be all kinds of-
"Darius! What happened to you?!"
Sneak, why have you failed me?! I did my best to look reassuring as I gave Emery a smile. She was in her barmaid uniform, so her skirt was criminally short, and her shirt's neckline plunged a bit deeper than what would be considered appropriate. That didn't stop her from rocking it though, and as she began to look me up and down for injuries, of which she would find barely anything, I decided to take this as a win. She's cute, and the fact that she's so worried for my well-being is pretty flattering.
I placed my hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "I'm fine, mostly. Just a few minor wounds is all. I was just about to go to my room to patch them up, so you don't need to worry."
She looked ready to argue, but she was interrupted by a particularly loud patron asking for some more mead. Giving a quick nod to the patron, she leveled me with a light glare. "We will be talking about this later. For now, get yourself cleaned up and rest."
I watched as she walked away, my eyes straying a bit further south than they should have. If I'm going to be honest, her disappointment was probably worse than her anger. Though she was definitely a little upset at how things turned out, as she seemed to have a lot more backbone at the moment than she usually did. Tearing my eyes from Emery and her wonderful skirt, I climbed up the stairs and made my way up to my room, thankful for the lack of moaning and groaning.
Plopping myself down on my bed and removing my torn shirt, I activated Reinforcement and let my wounds heal. While I waited, I took the Gacha token out of my inventory and gave it a good flip.
Congratulations! You have gotten the Gentleman Scientist PERK from the Gacha!
Gentlemen Scientist
Your mind holds the knowledge of hundreds of different technologies, and an infinite number of variations on those technologies. Unfortunately, you were unable to fully grasp them, until now. You can now use your intelligence and ingenuity to build incredible technologies, and when combined with the power of CRAFT, you can build the impossible.
Hell yeah! If I weren't so tired, I'd be ready to celebrate with some tinkering. As things were now, I was a bit too drained from the intensity of rank three Reinforcement and was feeling a bit too lazy. Fuck, I must be out of shape if I'm already this tired. I need to get back to training and shit. Otherwise, I'll wither away like a flower in the cold grip of winter. Oh hey, my poetry skills are back.
Feeling the last of my wounds heal, I let go of Reinforcement and close my eyes, letting sleep take me in her motherly hold.
That's a weird metaphor.
…
After awakening from my well-deserved nap time, I decided to go out and use my Gentleman Scientist perk for a bit. You know, to see what happens. The results were… interesting to say the least.
Living Metal Recurve Bow
Rare
A bow made of living wood coated with bronzed iron. The metal components of the bow should make it unusable, but somehow, it's stronger and more flexible than ever. Is good for short distance power.
Living Metal Longbow
Rare
A bow made of living wood coated with bronzed iron. The metal components of the bow should make it unusable, but somehow, it's stronger and more flexible than ever. Is good for long distance power.
Well, the description did say impossible.
So, after spending some time testing the skill, I've gotten a decent grip on its capabilities. It's not the most extensive understanding, but it'll do for now. So, the skill couldn't make anything impossible happen, in fact it was very limited with what it could do. However, once you found those limits, they were easy to exploit. For one, I needed to still base my design off of something that could happen in reality, mostly. That mostly becomes important later.
So, I needed to make sure that whatever design I came up with, I could easily understand what does what and why. For example, the living wood is stronger than normal wood and just as flexible, all the while allowing for magic to flow through it incredibly easily. This is where the mostly from earlier comes in, as technically, the metal bits of the bow should invalidate the whole endeavor, right?
In 99.9 percent of the cases where this becomes an issue, the answer would obviously be yes. After all, metal doesn't bend that well, and if it does it's often too soft to bend back into shape. And here is where that other 0.01 percent comes into play. See, when combing Gentleman Scientist with the power and knowledge Craft gives me, I can sort of ignore these rules. Nothing extreme of course, but definitely enough that I can make bronzed iron a great material to make a bow out of, so long as I have some wood in it.
Honestly, explaining the peculiarities of the perk would take forever to do, and even then, it wouldn't capture everything. There are just way too many ways to somewhat break the rules of logic, while at the same time using a sort of perverted version of logical thinking to justify the changes and modifications I could add to an item. It'd be like explaining the difference between every grain of sand in a desert. Hell, even I don't know how much it can do, so I could be completely wrong with how it actually works.
I haven't done much else with it, since I wanted to actually get to doing something else that I had planned for the evening, which is why I found myself in the forge in the first place, watching as the metal slowly cooled and I was able to see my prize.
Bronzed Gold
Gold enhanced with the strengthening power of bronze, making it as strong as iron and far more efficient with working with magic.
Now that I had Enchanting, I actually had a reason to make this bronzed gold. The alloy itself was more on the gold side of things color-wise than on the bronze side. Though that didn't mean that the color hadn't changed dramatically because it most certainly had. The once bright gold was darker, looking more like a, well, dark gold color. Unlike the bronzed iron, I actually really liked this color change, since it didn't make me look like I should be playing in the mud.
I gave a quick peek outside, watching the sunset turn the sky a myriad of different colors. Emery's shift should be over, and she should be here any minute now. I had laid out the leather and furs I had gotten from the wargs on the workbench, and I had placed a stack of bronzed iron and bronzed gold on the shelves near the forge. Next to the leather, I had drawn out some blueprints for my gauntlets, and some minor revisions I had planned for them. I wasn't much of an artist, but the literal blueprint I had of them lodged in my brain made it easy to sketch out. Too bad I still can't draw a circle to save my life. Hmm, if I made a circle plate, and then used Structural Analysis on it, would I be able to draw a perfect circle by simply drawing the blueprint?
The sound of a door opening behind me brought me out of my philosophical musings, and I pivoted around to greet the woman entering the forge. "Emery! Good to see you here. I have all the materials you'll need laid out on the workbench and shelves, and some extra blueprints just in case. You ready to get busy?"
Emery gave me a smile, though it didn't seem to reach her eyes. Rather than answering my question, she chose to walk up to me and grab my arm, easing it and appeasing me. I was wearing a shirt made of some wool I had been able to bargain for, but it was sticking to me a bit since I was still a bit sweaty from the forge. "Um, Emery? I'm fine you know. I had a nice nap before I came her, so I'm all fresh and ready to go."
She let go of my arm, and. I watched as it dropped to my side. Looking back to Emery, I saw her face scrunch up slightly in hesitation, before hardening in resolve as she took another step forward and wrapped her arms around me. I was surprised for a second, not gonna lie. But I quickly caught up with the program and hugged her back. It was… nice.
Eventually, she pulled away. Her eyes weren't watery or red, so she definitely wasn't crying. However, I could still see the naked worry she held in her eyes. It was at this point that she finally broke the silence between us. "What happened out there exactly? When you came back your shirt was barely hanging on by a thread, and I could see some deep scratches on your skin. There were even some bruises on your chest too."
Ah, right. She did say that she wanted to hear what went down. Normally I'd try my best to make it sound better than what it actually was, but I had a feeling she'd notice if I did. Time for the whole truth then. "Well, first I had to take care of that pack of wargs. You see, Evanora was there too, and she was hunting down some aspids for their poison. Thing was, she hadn't noticed the wargs also eyeing up the same herd, and she startled them. So, we ended up having to take the pack down in a straight fight, kind of."
I paused for a moment, taking a look towards Emery. She was still paying close attention, and her eyes hadn't changed in the slightest. They were still that sort of resolved worry that felt almost painfully familiar. Not wanting to keep her waiting, I continued the story. "After we took care of them, we had thought were home free. Unfortunately, that was when the treant decided to show up. I told Evanora to run since she wasn't a fighter and would be vulnerable otherwise, and I decided to take it on myself. Luckily, I was able to take it out with my bow, though without getting one hell of a backhand."
Emery's face didn't change as I told the tale, showing a surprising amount of emotional control as she listened to me describe my near suicidal actions. Once I had finished, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, counting to ten before opening her eyes back up and glaring at me. "That was the dumbest thing I have ever heard you say or do. You fought a treant by yourself, after already having gone through a fight with a pack of wargs. What in the world goes through that darn brain of yours?"
Despite the obvious frustration in her voice, she never yelled. Instead choosing to keep her volume level and even. Somehow, that made the whole thing worse. I could handle angry, hell, I could even begrudgingly handle sad. But disappointed? That was a whole nother ballgame. "You're right. I should've been more careful. I promise to be more cautious next time, okay?"
I looked her in the eyes, watching as her glare faded into that damnable worried look once more. Finally, she sighed and pulled me in for another hug. "Fine. I'll hold you to that though. If you ever do something like this again, we will have a very long chat. You hear me?"
I didn't say anything, instead humming lightly and resting my chin on her head, bending forward slightly in order to do so. We stood there for longer than we should have, simply hugging each other. However, the call of work soon came, and we had to split. Leading her over to the workbench, I began to point out everything I had laid out for her. "This is the leather you wanted, but I didn't know if you also wanted the fur, so I separated it from the leather just in case. The metal over here is something of my own creation. I call it bronzed iron and bronzed gold, and they are pretty strong. The colors are a bit iffy, but I'm sure you could use your color thing and fix that right up. Oh, this is the blueprints for my gauntlets. Don't worry too much about them, I'll help out with it."
Emery gave a quick nod, sticking a hand out to feel the leather. She gave a hum, turning the leather around in her hands and appraising it from all sides. From there, she began to move some stuff out of the way and work on the leather, pulling out a small box from within the workbench and opening it to reveal a large surplus of sewing materials. Seeing that I was no longer necessary, I pat her on the back as I left to-
"Where are you going? I need your help on the gauntlets and metal bits. I just can't understand the design you have here, and you're a better smith than I am."
Damn, I think I just got voluntold.
…
Daria was a woman who had high standards. From her home, a luxurious mansion overlooking the Kingdom of the Dark Woods, all the way to her mission, which was to lure her little junior Seven out here and take him in for some… aggressively passionate procreation. Now, you couldn't exactly blame her for having such high standards. After all, she's been alive for far longer than most individuals, especially if you count the strange time warping effects of her… home.
Her face twitched downward. The thought of that place always did leave a sour taste on her tongue, and Daria hated sour things. They were just unnecessary really, I mean, candy is supposed to be sweet. So suddenly adding sourness to the equation was just a surefire way to ruin the flavor.
Damn those Sour Patch Kids.
"Mama Daria! Look what I found!"
The sweet and innocent voice belonged to her newest child, the wonderful little thing known as Merritt. Call her a softie, but just hearing her new daughter with such joy in her voice was enough to make Daria's heart flutter.
Leaning down to see what Merritt had clutched in her adorably tiny hands, Daria smiled and softly brushed a strand of hair away from her daughter's face. The girl had a small wooden doll clutched in her hands, the hair having long since fallen off and the wood being half rotten. It was a hideous thing, and it took all of Daria's willpower not to shudder at the look of it. "Wow sweetie, I can't believe you found… something like that."
Merritt was too young and too inexperienced to notice the tone her "mama's" voice had taken. Instead, she grinned and began to dance around with the doll, inviting Daria to join her. "As much as I would like to have a tea party dear, I'm afraid Mama Daria is going to have some visitors soon. I need you to stay with your… papa and be quiet, okay?"
The papa in question was simply a corpse that one of her children had attached to. A normally maddening sight, but there was no way Daria would let her child stay here without any sort of mental protection.
Merritt pouted slightly, but the girl obeyed in the end, following her "papa" down to the room assigned to her. Now then, it was time for Daria to strut her stuff greet Seven, using her many assets and assets to give him the night of their lives. She got her excitement out of the way now, cooing at what their future baby, or babies, would look like. Obviously, the child will be the cutest thing since Merritt, and with the power of two Aspects of Destruction, she was going to be an absolute powerhouse.
Daria smoothened out the nonexistent creases in her gown and fluffing her hair. Now was not the time to look merely "gorgeous". No, she had to look as jaw droppingly amazeballs as possible, she would tolerate no less.
Taking a deep breath, she schooled her expression and let her signature smirk grace her features. Two of her many children grabbed the double doors in front of her and swung them open. Dramatic and full of flair, just as she liked it.
She strut forward, relishing in the knowledge that her foolproof plans were finally going her way. She stopped at the banister, placing her hands on the railing and looking down at the group of adventurers within the large entrance hall in front of her. That was strange, Seven wasn't with the group. Instead, there was just two harlots, one of whom was wearing an incredibly ridiculous hat, and a large muscle bound brute. This was not a part of her foolproof plans. She couldn't help but contort her face into a grimace, and she began to address the peons below her. "Who are you? And where is the man you may know as Darius?"
Her many children skulked in the shadows, the cold blue flames doing nothing to weaken them. The adventurers hadn't seen them yet, as instead of screaming in terror and madness, they simply looked at one another confusedly. The harlot without the hat stepped forward, not knowing her place as she looked Daria in the eye. "We are a group of adventurers here to investigate the strange happenings surrounding this mansion. As for Darius, he is simply within the village, doing whatever it is that he does. What do you want with the boy? Who are you? Why do you look so much like Darius?"
Daria growled as she took in this information. So, after she spends all this time setting up a new nest and guiding Seven's horse to the forest, he simply just doesn't show up?! The nerve of some people! She had spent ages setting this place to be just right, and there was even a group of adventurers here to stop her. This was the perfect setup! But no, he just had to go and bum around a small town and ignore her. This will not stand. "Well if you must know, Darius and I are… well let's just say we're connected in a way. Or at least we would be if he weren't such a stubborn mule about it. And as for my name, well you aren't worthy enough to know it."
She clapped her hands, alerting the adventurers as her children began to reveal themselves from the shadows. "Now children, do be sure not to mess with their heads too much. If we want Seven to come here, we do need some bait."
The warbling of agreement and affection from her many children did ease her soul a bit. And as they began to fight with the adventurers, Daria had to start making some adjustments to her apparently not foolproof plans. If Seven wasn't going to show up on his own, then she was just going to have to pull him here herself.
Sending a mental command to her children, she watched as they began to switch to more nonlethal methods of attack. Sure it may be less effective, but she couldn't have Seven hate her for killing his friends. That would just make things far more difficult than they need be. Speaking of difficult, she needed to figure out what to make Merritt for dinner. Unfortunately, the poor girl was still hampered by her squishy human body, and she was a bit too young to be fully transformed into one of her own. Perhaps there were some aspids that she could kill for later? Drats, she didn't know how to cook. Hmm, maybe she could kidnap a chef from one of the towns?
A loud scream caught her attention, and as she turned her gaze towards the voice, Daria couldn't help but sigh. It looks like one of her children got a bit too over eager and bit off the arm of the hat wearing harlot. There was no way the girl would survive here, and Daria wasn't about to waste her own power on some nobody. Oh well, looks like she was going to die.
Unless…
"Bring the hat girl to me."
Her children wasted no time, snagging the girl and bringing her up to their mother. The harlot was unconscious, the pain from having lost a limb knocking her out cold. Well now, at least she had some good bait. One of her children gave her a piece of paper, obviously trying to make up for the fact that they disobeyed her orders. Grabbing the paper, she placed a finger on it and began to write, ink appearing where her finger touched. Once she was done, she placed the not on the girl and beckoned her children forward once more. "Take this harlot and leave her just outside the town gates. Make sure she is within seeing distance, and that the guards take notice. Don't want her dying on us and not delivering the message."
Her babies warbled, their beautiful voices draining her annoyance somewhat. They took the girl, blending into the shadows and disappearing from view. There, now Seven will have no choice but to show up here and save his friends. Of course, he was going to have to work for it now. You don't leave a woman waiting after all. Daria smirked once more.
Especially when that woman can crush you like an insect.
Sighing contently, Daria turned around and walked deeper into the dark mansion. Perhaps Merritt would like to have a tea party?
…
And there we go, chapter 11. The semifinal chapter of this arc. So, just as a disclaimer, I'm not going to be updating on Wednesday, as I want to focus on doing my best on the final chapter for the arc as well as preparing the next arc. So there you go.
Now, onto my review of the chapter, which I swear isn't just so that I can feel good about myself:
"I love the chaotic energy coming from this character! Though I do hope he gets some more long lasting friendships, considering his old friends are ded"
-RatherFu
Me too buddy, me too.
This has been A Decent Hoonter, and eventually I'll run out of end of AN jokes.