Jillian gave an enthusiastic response. “I’d love to Gavrin. It’ll be a great way to test my skills in a real world scenario,” Jillian replied with her eyes sparkling.

“Could you explain how an artificer fights? How have you reached level five?” I asked. “I assume you’ve been fighting somewhere.”

Jillian nodded her head. “I use various gadgets and magical constructs in battle. I have these little mechanical devices and I can infuse my creations with elemental magic. I can add effects like electrical charges to my gadgets or imbue them with fire, ice or wind.” She showed me the weapon she was using. “I’m using this slingshot, but I’m running low on ammo. I normally use those little ball bearings but I’ve been losing them all over the place.”

“Hmm.” I thoughtfully rubbed my chin. “Can I see that?” I asked. Jillian handed over the slingshot. It was a simple piece of wood in a y shape and using a simple rubber tube to shot the missile. “Not bad. Can you use any other type of weapon? I can make pretty simple wooden shapes. Bows, staves, maces, simple spears. How about one of those atlatl things?”

Now it was Jillian’s turn to look thoughtful. “I ran track and field in high school and college. The javelin wasn’t my preferred event, but I can definitely throw some sticks around. I don’t know about the atlatl. That used to be one of my favorite books. I could be like a modern day Ayla.” Jillian laughed as she pretended to throw something.

“Can you make a bowstring?” Jillian asked. “I was trying to make some ranged weapons but I am not a woodcarver. Anyway, I realized I didn’t have a string for anything I wanted to make.”

“That could be a problem.” I said. “I’ve been thinking of ways to make a bow string. I’m pretty sure my affinity with plants will let me make something suitable, but everything has been happening too fast.”

“I know what you mean.” Jillian replied. “If you could make some more bullets for my slingshot, I’d appreciate it.”

“Can do.” I replied. “First, I need some rocks.” I paused as I sent my senses down below. I couldn’t feel the stones I needed.

I sighed. “This place won’t work. Let’s head back towards town. You think you can handle the creatures out here on your own?” I asked.

Jillian looked hurt. “Why? Are you leaving?”

I smiled at her confusion. “No. But if I did all the work, you wouldn’t level up. I’d be harming your future.”

“But making the weapons wouldn’t?” Jillian demanded.

I bopped my head back and forth a couple of times in thought. “Not as much. You would still need to wield the weapon. Remember, the man makes the weapon, not the weapon makes the man. Or in your case, hot chick.”

“You think I’m hot?” Jillian teased me.

I simply sighed. I was too old for this shit.

We ventured deeper into the forest. I filled Thor and Loki in on the plan. Thor would only allow the stuff we felt Jillian could handle. I didn’t want to test out how close to death my healing could bring someone back from. I knew eventually I would find out but now wasn’t the time.

Our first encounter was a pack of shadow wolves. They blended into the shadows of the trees. They were all low level. Thor and Loki worked the flanks to make sure none of them got around us and attacked from behind.

Jillian quickly deployed a series of bright, flare-like gadgets that illuminated the area, revealing the wolves’ positions. The light also pulled Thor out of the shadows. I made a mental note of that, that could be a problem if we ever fought something that could do something similar.

Jillian then pulled out a little hand crossbow, firing bolts infused with light magic, which were particularly effective against the shadowy creatures. I was ready to step in with earth-based barriers to protect Jillian if the wolves got too close.

I didn’t need to worry. Jillian was a crack shot with the crossbow. She handled everything fine. Thor had to knock down a few that slipped to the sides but Jillian made short work of the wolves.

“That’s pretty nice.” I complimented her. “I didn’t realize you already had a crossbow. What’s the ammo situation on that.”

“I’m getting low.” She said. “I only had it because my boyfriend like to LARP. It was some stupid thing that he got me. But I can imbue mana into the bolts and that makes it much more effective.”

“Can I see one of the bolts?” I asked. “Perhaps I can make more.”

“Really?” Jillian asked. “I thought you would need the plastic, feathers and metal to make a new one.”

“Maybe to make an exact copy.” I answered. “But I have something in mind. Are there any modifications you would like on them?”

Jillian shrugged.

I felt around again to see if I could find any suitable stones. I felt some rocks underground and used my vines to dig into the ground and pull them up.

Jillian was suitably impressed with the ability. I looked around and found a stick on the ground. I figured the first try wouldn’t need anything fancy. It was more a proof of concept really.

My magic flowed into the wood and began to mold the wood into the desired shape. The stick straightened in my hands. A socket for the head formed on one end, and on the other little slit openings formed where I could put the feathers. In this case, I intended to use some leaves. I picked a few leaves from a handy tree and ripped them down the middle. I then placed the edges into the slits and formed the wood and leaf together. It looked right.

I moved onto making the head of the bolt. I knew the stone I had found wasn’t the best for this but I could make do with it. My magic flowed into the rock and the stone began to take on a triangular shape. I wasn’t sure what the best shape was so I kept it simple. I formed a simple piercing tip and pressed the back of the bolt head into the socket on the wood I already made. The wood oozed forward and gripped the tip and held it firmly in place.

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I compared my bolt to the bolt Jillian had shown me. It was a pretty decent copy except for the materials.

“Here, try this.” I held up the newly crafted bolt.

Jillian carefully took the bolt from me and began to load her crossbow.

“It won’t bite.” I joked.

“It’s a work of art.” Jillian replied. “I don’t want to break it.”

“Don’t worry.” I said, “I can always make more.”

Jillian pulled back on the string to cock the hand crossbow. The tip of the bolt glowed blue and then streaked from the hand crossbow and slammed into a tree twenty paces away. There was a loud zip and then a crack as the bolt shot through the air. A chunk of wood the size of fist burst from the tree and showered the area in splinters.

“Holy shit.” Jillian said. “That held so much more magic. Oh, yes. I need more of these please.”

I nodded my head. “Give me a couple of minutes. I can make more, but that was just a prototype, I am certain I can make better ones with better materials.”

Jillian jumped in excitement. “Gavrin, I don’t care. I just need your bolts. That was amazing. I wonder why your bolt held more mana than the ones I used?” Jillian’s voice trailed off as she continued to think out loud.

I tuned her out to focus on making a few more bolts for her. I had Thor and Loki circle our position and make sure nothing surprised us. It was a only a short break as it didn’t take me very long to make the items. The more familiar I became with the shape I was trying to make, the easier it became. I managed to fill up one Jillian's quivers in a little over thirty minutes. Or that’s what I estimated by the movement of the sun.

We continued our journey into the woods. In a denser part of the forest, we came across a network of animated Thorned Vines. The vines were aggressive, lashing out at anyone who came near.

Jillian used a combination of fire-based gadgets to burn through the vines and mechanical shears, enhanced with magic, to cut through the tougher sections. The shears looked like simple garden shears and Jillian was using her magic to increase their capability.

I manipulated the earth and slowed down and interfered with the vines so Jillian could move around safely. I used my healing magic to heal any scratches she sustained from the thorny attacks.

I discovered a new way to cast my heals. I could create a glowing green orb containing my healing powers and ‘shoot’ them at my target. The healing wasn’t as powerful as when I was touching my patient but shooting green balls of light at Jillian struck me as hilarious.

As my skill level increased, I could even guide the path of the ball and make sure I didn’t miss. The tip of my staff would glow green, then the ball would zip forward in a bolt of green and strike the patient. A green aura would flare over them and then settle into their body as they were healed. I even practiced shooting at Thor in stealth. The first time I did it, it made him yelp in surprise. He turned and gave me such a look of betrayal that I felt bad for a moment.

Our final fight of the day occurred at the river. Our town had a spring in the center of town and I was trying to find it outside the town. But as I previously suspected, the surrounding environment seemed to be shuffled. Things were not in the right place and other things were there that hadn’t been there before.

“I think we need to start mapping out the area.” I told Jillian. “I’ve been noticing that the world looks a lot different physically. Either we aren’t on earth anymore or we the world got significantly altered during the lightning storm.”

“Some of the guys back at the school are calling it god’s wrath for our wickedness.” Jillian told me.

I paused. “That sounds delightful.” I thought for a moment. “So are we blessed to have survived or are we cursed because we were left behind?” I finally asked.

“There was some debate about that.” Jillian told me. “That’s what we were arguing about at the first camp we made by the town hall. Someone started crying out about how were cursed and started lashing out. Things were already out of hand when we started getting attacked by those weird eared guys.”

“The elves?” I asked.

Jillian thought for a moment. “You could call them that. That’s definitely one way to interrupt what they were.”

We were interrupted in our conversation by the loud hissing of a serpent coming from the water. It was a large, agile snake. Bigger than snake I had seen before.

Jillian reacted quickly. She threw out a series of floating balls on the water. They exploded as they floated towards the snake. They seemed to sense and float towards the snake over the water.

She placed a stick with a spike in the ground. A blue shimmering shield appeared around the stick and blocked several of the spit attacks the snake lobbed our way.

I reached out to the water and began to constrict the snake with flows of water. Bands of water flowed around the snake and held it in place for Jillian to rain destruction down on the snake from afar. The snake quickly stilled in the water.

I used the water to push the snake to the bank. Once closer to the bank I used my vines to pull the snake from the water and placed it in my shard.

“What are you doing with all the animals we kill?” Jillian asked. “I think we should be sharing.”

I was surprised. “Oh, right. I probably should share. I’m storing them?”

Jillian crossed her arms. “You weren’t going to share them were you?” She demanded.

“I mean, I wasn’t not going to share them.” I said. “I just hadn’t thought of it. I was planning on feeding them to my garden. These things are chock full of essential elements and mana. Its what plants need.”

“uh, huh.” Jillian said. “Do you need the whole thing?” She asked.

“Probably not.” I answered. “Some of the things we fought had magical cores. I would like the cores. What did you want?”

“We could use the meat back at the school.” Jillian said. “Its not like our town was full of preppers. We really don’t have that much in the way of food. A lot of what we did have was lost one that first night. It was terrible. Then the zombies were attacking. Other monsters out there have been attacking us nearly non stop. That wall you made is really a life saver. Some did complain that it was too big and they can’t cover the whole thing.”

“Oh.” I said. “I plan on making that bigger. That is just the inner wall. I plan on clearing out the area around the school and putting another set of walls up.”

“I don’t know if that will work.” Jillian said. “Those are peoples houses out there. You just can’t tear them down.”

“I know it’s a difficult subject.” I said. “But what are we gonna do? We need food and shelter. I don’t think anyone is coming for us. Without our supermarkets getting resupplied everyday, how long can we realistically survive?” I began to warm up to rant. “I don’t know what happened or why, I only know that it has. This world is new and different.” My hands glowed with blue energy as I demonstrated what I meant. I tossed an orb of healing her way and watched it splash across her face.

She shuddered. “That feels so cold and wet. But oddly refreshing at the same time.” She sighed. “But I know these people. They are frightened and scared. And then you show up, doing these superhuman things. We are already struggling with losing so many of friends and family. Then creatures from nightmares and myth begin attacking us. I think too much more change and you will breed resentment.”

I nodded slowly. “I think I’m picking up what you are laying down.” I started shifting through the rocks on the side of the stream. This was what I was looking for. My vines quickly began sorting rocks and I placed the rocks and water I was pulling towards me into the dimensional shard. I was going to have the perfect garden.

“You know.” I said. “I’m not really that tied to this place. It was always just a place to me, not really a home. I can only ask if they want my assistance. If the do, that’s fine. If they don’t, that’s fine too. I think I can survive pretty much anywhere.”

Jillian seemed taken aback. She found a seat and took out her sketchbook. “Why were you here then? This town is tiny. There is nothing to do here.”

“That was the appeal.” I replied with a heavy sigh. “I was and still am, incredibly tired of people. I wanted to find a place where there were a few but not too many, and just sort of fade out of life.” My voice trailed off as I felt something in the ground. Something sang to me. It was the most beautiful aria.

Jillian mistook my quiet for reluctance. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to pry.”

It faintly registered on my mind what she said. “Oh, no. That’s not it. I think I feel gold.”