We raced to catch up with Keith. As we caught up the smell of the cooking pot wafted over. I had no idea what they were trying to cook. But you couldn’t pay me to get closer than ten feet from the pot, let alone taste it. I asked Keith. “Did you level up again?” He glanced over replying. “No, but I feel like I would need two or three more of those guys to do so. No experience bar visible, it’s just a feeling I get.” I nodded turning to face the cave. Right in front of us Erica wavered into visibility. “I checked the cave nothing else living. But there is an orb floating in the air.”

We glanced at each other. I shrugged replying “I’ll check it out, Keith check the walls as we venture inside there might be ore deposits.” Keith frowned at me. “Venture? Since when do you use the word venture?” I stopped for a second, thinking hard. “Did I really say that? I don’t normally use those words outloud.” That got the attention of everyone. Keith raised his eyebrows. “Try that again?” I looked up at Keith worried.

“OK, your going to be offended. I don’t intend to offend you, but it will sound offensive.” Keith just squinted back at me. “Spit it out man.” I sighed replying. “You know I read a lot of books, yes?” Keith smirked “I have seen your huge collection.” I waved my arms around. “Those are just my everyday books, the ones I prefer in paper form. I have about triple those in digital format.” He scowled. “What does that have to do with anything?” I shrugged. “When you read allot, you learn allot of words. When you say those words allot around people, who don’t read.”

I looked up at Keith. “This is the part your going to be offended by. But if you use vocabulary around people who don’t understand the words. They assume your making fun of them. So I usually purposely don’t use those words. So I don’t piss people off for unknowingly offended them.” Keith looked at me. “I’m not offended. You use whatever language you want. I know I don’t read enough, it’s hard to keep my attention on any one thing for long. So don’t limit yourself cause of me. I’ll give you shit regardless. That’s what family does.” I chuckled. “Wouldn’t have it any other way. Now let’s check out this orb.” We …ventured ‘ha’ into the cave. It looked like any rock cave I had ever seen. Dirt floor, rocky protrusions lining both the walls, and ceiling. About a hundred yards inside the cave was a floating red orb. As I got closer a tooltip box popped up.

[You have discovered a place of power. This orb can be captured. You may convert it into a safe zone. Or you can leave it alone. If you do the ambient magic will randomly send low level monsters into this area every few hours.]

I repeated to everyone what I saw. “Group meeting.” I called out. “I’d like to get your input here. I have an idea that might backfire, but could be smart.” The shared looks between the group gave me pause. Aiden replied “You want to claim the area?” I nodded. “Yes, and no.” Before I was interrupted again, I forged forward. “I’d like us to farm the area first, allow the goblins to spawn until we are all level 3, at least. Than we claim it. Only bad side I can see right now is the waiting time.” There didn’t sound like there was any objection. So we headed back out to the clearing…to wait. Ugghh why did it have to take so long. Keith stayed in the cave searching the walls. Every once in a while i’d hear a couple clinks or grunts. That’s when I remembered we had loot bags waiting on us. I grabbed those around me to see what goodies we got.

Three loot bags were at the location of the three we killed. I grabbed the one from the one I killed. I opened it to find a smaller bag, I tried opening it to get a strange tooltip.

[You have found mystic sand. This is a basic material used for enchanting purposes.]

Immediately after I got another tooltip.

[Would you like to learn the profession Enchanting?]

I immediately chose yes. Thoughts, concepts, diagrams, and theories all flooded my brain. I suddenly knew how to enchant. I also knew the bag of sand was enough sand, to turn my fake wand into a real wand. I grabbed the wand, held it in my left hand. While my right hand held the bag of sand. I pushed my intention to the sand. It evaporate into motes of blue. Which floated about like fireflys. I knew I had to use my mind to keep the motes floating where I wanted them to go. Not just float away.

As wierd as it sounds I was able to mentally push them to surround the wand. They collected along the shaft. I mentally chuckled unable to stop myself, than had to strain to keep control. As the motes reacted to my loss of control. I forced them back to..the wand. ‘Have to keep the gutter humor out of my head until i’m done’.. I mentally controlled myself. The wand flashed, glowing slightly. I re-examined the wand.

[You have created a magic wand. It shoots mana imbued bolts of arcane light. Doing a minimal amount of damage. You can charge the wand up to release 20 shots before needing to be recharged. Or you can channel your mana directly into the wand causing moderate damage.]

I lifted the wand to the sky letting a bolt go. A blue bolt of light shot up into the trees hitting a branch. The branch than started plummeting towards the ground. Right towards me. I mentally put my bubble up. Knowing I didn’t have the speed, or agility to move fast enough. It bonked off the top of my head falling to the ground. Katie stormed over. “What was that? What did you do now? Are you hurt?” I smiled at her. “I'm fine. I made a magic wand. I just wanted to test it out first.” She gave me a glare saying. “Maybe don’t suddenly toss magic into the sky where other ‘things’ may see it.”

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My mouth hung open for a second. Damn I hated when she was right. “Your right, my bad.” Trying to change the subject, I responded. “What was in your loot bag?” She scowled at me for a second, then smiled. “I got a staff.” I blinked for a second. “Like a magic staff? Or a long piece of wood?” She raised the staff in her hand. Wait when did she pick that up? Was she always holding it? Am I rambling? I shook my head saying. “May I examine it?” She slightly pulled it towards herself probably unconsciously afraid i’d try keeping it. “Katie come on, I just want to see if it’s magical. I’ll give it right back.” She slowly handed me the staff, than imperiously intoned. “Yes, I'll allow you to examine it.”

I shook my head looking at the staff. It was a very smooth wood with a knobby bit at the head. It almost looked like a crystal, or something could fit in. But other than that… nothing special. “I think a crystal can be inserted here at the top. That might turn it magical.” I handed the staff back. Exclaiming overly dramatically "Your hard shaft my lady." The scowl in return was worth it.

I walked over to Aiden to see what he had looted. As we got closer I heard some odd muttering. “…just the political ramifications of this new” …he stopped, turning towards us. “Can I help you?” I waved saying. “Sorry to interrupt, I just was wondering what you looted.” He held up a small bag, but did not look happy. “Its a bag of sand, not interested in the money pit that is enchanting.”

I got just a bit excited. “Mind if I steal it? I have already made a magic wand.” He immediately handed it over. “If I get enchanting materials i’ll give them to you, every once in a while enchant gear for me. Ok?” I grabbed the bag, “Deal.” I didn’t have any other gear to enchant. Katie’s staff was not ready for enchantment. But I knew Keith had two pieces of gear that could use some magical reinforcing. I headed to the cave hearing a faint tink, tink, tink sound. I walked in to see Keith using the handle of his sword to hit the wall over, and over.

My eyebrows rose. “Any issues here?” I asked with just a bit of hesitancy. Keith turned towards me saying. “There is ore here but I can’t get it out with this sword.” I deadpanned… “maybe use a pick?” He turned to me. “Wow great idea professor. Why didn’t I think if that? So glad your here to help me. Maybe if I just had a pick…ya think I would be using my sword?” I grinned catching the reference. “Maybe go check your two loot bags. Most of us got crafting materials, there might be a pick in yours.”

He walked out to check his loot bags. Surprise, surprise, the first bag had a pick. The second another bag of sand. He walked by me tossing the bag in my face. “Here do something with it. I’ll be breaking my back in here trying to get the ore needed to make my spatha.” I was not fast enough to stop the bag from hitting my face, but I was quick enough to stop it from hitting the ground.

I heard what Keith said, and replied. “A what?” He grinned saying. “A spatha is a one, or two handed sword. It’s what i’ve always wanted to make. I used to watch those blacksmithing reality shows. About the only reality show worth watching, besides the funny cooking one where they forced their opponents to cook with penalties. I loved watching them try cooking a steak with an easy bake oven. Anyways I lived for that forging show. Seamed really manly. While also artistic. Most of the swords looked cool, but could only really stab. The few chopping ones might break a single bone. Then I saw the Spatha. It was a nasty sword there, it cut the dummy in half. I wanted one ever since then. But not the crappy pot metal replica's they sell at stores. A real one.”

I nodded my head saying. “You do you boo boo. Watch yourself they should spawn here soon. Before they show up, let me have your shield, and sword. I’m going to enchant it. Might make it worthwhile to actually use on stronger monsters.” He handed them over, than immediately started attacking the wall with his pick. I enchanted the shield.

[You have enchanted a low quality shield. It now has increased knock back resistance.] Cool, now for the sword. [You have enchanted a low quality short sword. It now has increased chance to cause bleeding wounds.] Not too terribly great for the sword. But anything is better, than what we had an hour ago.

For the next few hours we tried not to be bored out of our minds. Keith kept mining, Erica watched his back. While the rest of us killed goblins as they materialized. All three of us reached level 3. Gaining another two stat points. I put one into intelligence giving me 13. The final point i put into wisdom giving me 9.

In the game intelligence increased our mana pool, while also increasing magical damage. It also increased the chance to critically hit with magic. Wisdom increased mana regeneration. While we were not facing long battles right now. I knew it wouldn’t be long until we did.

I used to live by the axiom, 'great power uses tons of mana. Run out and your dog food. To much wisdom your shooting all day, but it's like flies on a windshield. You need both.'

Erica had Keith stop mining so he could hit level 3 also. Than she solo killed the next group of five goblins to hit level 3 herself. By group concensus we decided this location was now too low of level, to give any worthwhile experience for killing. The goblins were just too easy to kill. They also took too long to respawn. So I walked into the cave to capture the orb. My hand went around the orb. I got the same tooltip prompt. I mentally chose to capture the area. A blast of wind with no sound blew away from the orb. It was now a whitish blue color.

[You have claimed this mine as a place of power. No longer will monsters spawn from this location. It is now a safe zone for 1 Square mile. No low, to mid tier monster will enter.]