I walked towards the mine, while trying to decode the words of our newest addition to the town. Is it possible he was speaking English, but with such a strong accent I couldn’t understand? Did it matter? No, not right now. From behind me I could hear Katie explaining to Erica the significance of “Bork, Bork, Bork.” The more I heard the words the harder it was to not smile. And now that saying was stuck in my head. It repeated over, and over.

I entered the mine not hearing the telltale tinking sound that was the norm. I opened the forge to feel the blast furnace of heat. There in the back was Keith, with a cloth polishing a metal helm to a high sheen. He looked up grinning. “Almost done with my fell set. Just need to buff it out a bit to make it extra shiney.”

I looked around seeing parts, and pieces laid out all over. All were shining brightly. I reached over to grab a metal glove. It was very well made at least from what I could see. Just like the museum pieces I had seen. I looked over to Keith saying. “Good job bro, what’s the glove made of?” He grimaced saying. “It’s a gauntlet, and it’s made of steel. All of my full plate pieces are made of steel. Still need to level up my blacksmithing a bit more to move on to other types.”

I nodded using the gauntlet as a prop, waving at Keith. “Once I find where Aiden has squirreled himself away too. I’ll enchant the gear. Not sure if I can choose a route the enchant goes yet. But do you have a preference if I do?” He thought for a second, replying slowly. “In all the games I played stamina, and strength were the number one, and two priority. But this isn’t a game. The hardest thing about tanking right now is the pain, and shock of being hit. If you can add any pain reduction, or shock resistance? That would help me survive.” I nodded to myself, that made allot of sense. “I’m also thinking maybe some weight reduction, and sound muffling. All those pieces of metal clanking together all the time will cause a huge racket. Plus all that armor will be heavy, granted standing still taking hits is the job of a tank. But if you can’t move around you can’t dodge.”

With all four of us, working together. We helped Keith get into his armor. There were way to many pieces. Half had to be put on in specific order, or it blocked another piece from attaching. Keith ofcourse didnt help by saying “A little to the left, yaahh right there.” in as creepy a way as possible. With many arguments over proper order, and more than a few pinched fingers. We finally got everything on correctly,…hopefully. As we turned to leave Keith had a surprise for Erica.

“Hey baby don’t think I forgot you. I made you a couple pig stickers.” He revealed two knives, both were straight. But the edges were nasty looking. “This one here is thin, but made extra strong. It’s designed to go through tough leather armor. The other one here. Notice the jagged points pointing towards the hilt? It’s designed to go in deep, then you twist slightly as you pull out. It will cause massive internal bleeding on the way out.” Erica marveled at her new toys kissing Keith while twirling them around.

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I was not wrong about the racket full plate made. If I didn’t know better, i’d say it was designed to alert everything around. We walked over to the general store looking for Aiden. Our racket announced our arrival. Both River, and Adien were at the counter looking around for the slow car wreck they expected to see. Aiden saw Keith which caused him to burst out laughing. “So that’s what that noise was.” I shook my head in exasperation. “Can you give me the enchanting sand? I want to see if I can enchant his gear to make it better.” See I can be diplomatic.

Aiden handed over allot more bags than I was expecting. I guess we just shoved them all in there without counting. I walked over to Keith. As I held a bag of enchanting sand each piece of gear flashed in my sight. I visualized enchanting a specific piece. I got the idea of a couple different enchants I could do. Discussing each option with Keith, we ended up enchanting every piece of gear he had. Giving him plus five to stamina, plus five to strength, a 25% reduction in kinetic damage, and 10% knock back resistance. Unfortunately I couldn't do any pain resistance yet.

Just as I was about to call it done. I got a surprise. Instead of each piece flashing in my eyes, the entire set flashed. I could see I could give the entire set a noise canceling enchant, or a durability increase. I knew which Keith, and the rest of us wanted. But I informed Keith of both choices. “Umm ya not a hard choice right now. Maybe after I get some legendary gear i’ll go with the durability one.” I enchanted his set. After it was finished he gained the well oiled enchant. It didn't remove all the klanks. But he didn’t sound like a broken car anymore.

I turned to Erica. “Would you like me to enchant your knives?” She nodded. I saw I could add damage to each, or add a percentage of bleed effect for the jagged one. The other one surpringly could receive a life stealing enchant. Erica took the bleed effect, and life steal. It increased the bleeding effect by 25%. The life steal enchant took half the damage delivered as healing to her.

Before Aiden could go back into hiding, I gathered us all together to discuss our encounter in town. I described the sights, the lack of sounds. I also explained why we had returned. Keith jumped in at that point. “Good call coming back, better to have backup, and not need it. Than need it, and not have it.” I agreed I also mentioned our newest addition to the town. Before I could say anything more Katie said “Mmm Bork, Bork, Bork.” I smiled knowing it was stuck back in my head again.

Keith twitched saying. “You recruited the Swedish chef as a lumberjack?” I stared confused at Keith than replied. “No, he just sounds like him. Oh, and I got three new spells.” That got everyone's attention. A chorus of “What?” sounded out. I told them how Mythra gave me extra spells for hitting level ten.

They all glanced at each other than in unison said. “How do we get a diety?”