The pile of cores lay where Prometheus had left them. He clambered up to the top and waved his arms. [Alright, pull these into your inventory!]

[Don’t you want any of them?] I asked.

[I’ve already taken what I need. Now go on, add these to your inventory!]

I did as he asked, and a moment later the pile disappeared underneath him. Prometheus tumbled to the floor with a soft chittering. I thought it might have been his version of laughter.

30 Common Cores added to your inventory.

[That was just as fun as I’d hoped it would be! Almost makes me want to have you pull them out and try again, but we shouldn’t waste any more time. You must have stirred up the whole horde of goblins chasing that one earlier.]

[So how do I upgrade equipment?] I asked. With the addition of these new cores and the ones I’d gotten earlier from fighting, I was up to forty-six common cores in total. Another box appeared asking if I wanted to combine any of them, but I just dismissed it.

[Let me see...] Prometheus’s eyes glazed over, and it took me a second to realize he must have accessed his own interface. Is that what I looked like whenever I used it? I’d never really given it much thought.

[Alright!] The rat’s eyes returned to normal, and he clapped his hands together. [So, first of all, you’ve probably been wondering if those cores have any use, haven’t you?]

[Actually—]

[Luckily, they do! If you use one while in your inventory and mentally direct it to an equipped items, you can increase its level—and possibly its abilities by association.]

This caught my attention. My tail started wagging. [How much of an increase?]

[Hmm, that seems to vary based on the piece of equipment. Ones which give you a direct boost to your stats increase by two points for every level. Others that tie into skills and such don’t seem quite as straightforward. I’m still working out the particulars.]

Now my tail was wagging furiously. I started thinking about the equipment pieces I had. Even my worn collar could suddenly become a powerhouse just by increasing its level a few times. Imagine what I could do with a +10 bonus to power. +20. +30...

[However, there are some caveats,] Prometheus said, cutting off my daydreaming. My tail slowed.

[What kind of caveats?]

[First, there’s the cost. It takes three common cores to raise an item by a single level. Or you can combine ten for an uncommon core, which will give an item five levels all at once.]

Okay, that significantly reduced my aspirations. Still, with forty-six cores...

Prometheus continued, [The second are level caps, both for your equipment and yourself. In my experience, no piece of equipment with a description of worn, ragged, broken, or old can go above level five. Other equipment seems to cap out around five levels past what it started as. And you can’t equip a piece of gear if it’s more than five levels past your own.]

[Is that why you didn’t want any more cores?] I asked. All of Prometheus’s equipment was between level five and seven, with his own level being two.

[Yep! I already picked out the best from what was... left behind. Now it’s maxed out, at least until I get another level. So I don’t really have any use for the cores.]

[Actually...] I gave him a quick rundown of what I had discovered so far about the cores. The rat’s eyes grew wider the more I spoke.

[So that’s how the wound on your back healed so quickly!] he said when I finished. [I had been wondering about that. Interesting. Healing capability, increasing skills... I wonder what other uses there are for these cores?]

[I suppose we’ll just have to find out as we go. Still, I don’t think your original suggestion was wrong. I should definitely increase my equipment. That’s bound to provide more benefit than my singular skill.]

I started to open my inventory, then paused. I dimly remembered something from when I looked at Prometheus’s stat sheet. It was on the tip of my long tongue.

Before I had a chance to pull up the party menu again, the little rat must have read my mind, or extrapolated from my expression. [You noticed my class skill, didn’t you.]

[Yeah.] He had a skill called ‘Purge’. When I’d looked over his stat sheet before, I saw it was still at level one, and 0% progression. [Do you want the cores back so you can raise your skill?]

[There’s no point,] Prometheus said.

[Why?]

He didn’t respond, so I went ahead and pulled up his stat sheet. From there I focused on his class skill.

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Purge — A Plague Doctor utilizes their knowledge to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, ranging from airborne to waterborne to contact. Does not affect sexually transmitted diseases, so don’t go rushing off to the brothel just yet.

Activation of this skill immediately halts the spread of all CGI-inflicted diseases in a target and reduces all infection rates by 5%. Usable once per hour.

Brothel? I wondered to myself. My system-enhanced mind rushed to fill in the gap, and I let out a yip of horror as images assaulted me. It took several seconds of intense concentration to chase them away.

Humans are simply disgusting! Mating outside of season, no less.

[It was stupid of me to pick that one,] Prometheus said as my notifications flicked away. [I thought it sounded so useful when I first read it, but I’ve never even had a chance to use it. Maybe it’s because the goblins don’t inflict any diseases, or rats are simply immune to them, but either way it’s been stuck on zero percent since I first got it.]

[What about practice?] I asked. [I’m able to use my Claw Slash even without an enemy around. It levels up slowly, but...]

The little rat shook his head. [It won’t let me use the skill unless I have a valid target. Anyway, what does it matter? Even if I raise it up, it’ll still be useless.]

I wasn’t entirely sure about that. The system wouldn’t grant these abilities if they didn’t have some use, so it was likely just a matter of time and experience. However, Prometheus was right in that it didn’t exactly help our current situation.

The rat was watching me intently. [Go on, raise up your equipment. We need to move before another raiding party arrives.]

Not needing to be told twice, I opened my interface.

Name: Bubba

Race: Canid (Advanced)

Class: Wildling

Level: 3

XP: 1,600/2,500

-Equipment-

Collar: Worn Leather Collar (lv 2)

Left Front Leg: Wand of Stupefy (lv 3)

Right Front Leg: Wand of Stupefy (lv 3)

Left Back Leg: Bracelet of Minor Replication (lv 5)

Right Back Leg: Bandana of Cleverness (lv 4)

-Racial Skills-

Skill 1: Night Vision

Skill 2: Enhanced Smell

Skill 3: Song of the Night

Skill 4: Pack Loyalty

-Class Skills-

Skill 1: Claw Slash 2 (30%)

-Stats-

Power: 10 (+2)

Speed: 5

Agility: 15

Presence: 5 (+2)

Mind: 13 (+8)

Points Available: 0

Here was the dilemma. I had forty-six common cores, but I didn’t want to spend them all, in case I needed healing. Prometheus claimed to still have three more of those healing scrolls he used on me, but I didn’t want to trust my safety entirely to another creature...

At most, I thought it best to use forty of the cores. If I combined them all into uncommons, that would give a total of 20 combined item levels. Unfortunately, that would push all but my wand to a level higher than I could use.

To maximize core benefit, I should probably save increasing my hind leg equipment until I was a higher level. Then again, odds were good I’d stumble upon some better equipment sooner or later. Did I want to use up all the cores on equipment I might end up tossing in the next day or two?

Benefit now versus saving the cores for later. It was a dilemma, to be certain. Before I decided, I needed to settle a matter first.

I turned to Prometheus. [These goblins. You’re certain you want to face them? I get that you feel an obligation to your friends, but it’s hardly worth throwing your life away over.]

[That’s...] He seemed to struggle with getting the words out. I let him take his time. Glancing around, I wondered just how long he’d been living here by himself. Probably for about as long as I had wandered the shipyard, if not more.

[Yes,] he said at last. [It’s not just about what they did to me and my friends. If I leave, they’ll just continue attacking other innocents. They need to die.]

[Alright, then I’m in. We’ll take down these goblins together.] I’d been waffling with the decision of whether or not to help Prometheus since I’d met him. All of this still felt like manipulation by the system, and I didn’t care for that.

But this? The pain and guilt that he was suffering because of the death of his friends? That was real. I couldn’t simply ignore it. Dogs are empathetic creatures, and I was no exception.

[Hurray!] the rat said, jumping up and down. He came to a sudden halt. [Wait, were you not before?]

Ignoring him, I turned back to study my interface. If this goblin horde was as big as I feared, I’d want to maximize my advantages against them. But again, I didn’t want to use all of my cores and then find myself in a dire situation later.

So I compromised. I settled on using twenty or so now, and saving the remainder until I had a better idea of what we were facing.

First, I combined ten to make an uncommon core, then applied it to my Wand of Stupefy, bringing its level up to eight. Afterwards, I checked the description again to see what had changed.

Dual Wands of Stupefy

Level 8 (+5)

For the discerning canine who wants to level the playing field with humanity and their pesky guns, these tools are invaluable. Each wand can release (3) shots that will stun a target for X seconds equal to your Mind value (currently: 13), up to 30. After all shots are fired, the wands have a ten-minute cooldown.

Note: This is a two-handed (pawed) weapon. Must be equipped to forelegs.

Interesting. Adding five levels tripled the number of shots I could get off with the weapons, from 2 to 6. Not a bad upgrade at all.

The actual stun time hadn’t changed, but it seemed that was entirely tied in with my Mind stat. I made that the next item on my agenda, and spent three more cores to raise my bandana, bringing my total Mind up to 15.

My collar was last, and I spent a total of nine cores to bring it up to level five, which was also the bonus it now provided to both Power and Presence. A bit of a waste, when one more core should have gotten me almost twice as many levels... but having the collar maxed out came with one additional benefit. I finally felt confident enough to clip on the Second Chance tag I’d been holding in reserve.

Maybe that was still a waste, using it on a worn piece of equipment, but something told me I’d be glad for the lethal blow protection it provided.

Interestingly enough, when I equipped the tag, it appeared as a whole new line on my interface, right underneath the collar. Made me wonder if there were more equipment types I could equip that wasn’t currently listed.

Well, something to explore another day. Done with my upgrading, I turned back to Prometheus. [Ready to go teach these goblins a lesson?]

[If by lesson, you mean ‘slaughter them without mercy’, then yes!] The rat did another excited hop, then leapt onto my back. [Onward, noble companion!]

I wriggled back and forth until I popped out of the rat hole, then made my way back through the apartment. The goblins were still splattered everywhere, so I had to hop gingerly from clear space to clear space. Eventually I made the door.

[Okay, head that way to the nearest stairwell!] Prometheus said, pointing. [Now mush! Mush!]

[Yeah, don’t do that,] I said, making for the stairs.