The next morning was just as nice and warm. We decided to take a day off because we were well past our expected ore-gathering count and the weather was fantastic. We were even able to swim in the clear water around the basecamp. There was truly little natural shade in marsh, the shaded side of the walls made for a good relaxation spot and even some fish found the shade attractive. Most of the time in the water we spent on the southern ramp because we could choose the depth of water to swim in and the ground was solid there.

I quickly cut down a few small pieces of magnetic ore, hung down with ropes into the water which worked as expected and kept the eels at bay but didn’t attract any bullfrogs.

I spent a bit of time sitting at the front entrance of Basecamp which was the name we were giving the place. Please don’t ask me about the name, everyone else seemed happy with it. I had the feeling that they had discussed that issue a long time ago and were patiently waiting for me to wake up and name the place.

I also decided to work on the new larger bath placed on the roof of the southwest corner above the stable. It required me to reinforce the roof with steel and thicken the walls of the room. That meant the bath measured five by three meters and about a meter and a bit deep. Until I could devise a windmill or a golem to do the job, a bucket collected the water from below. In the interim I used the water supply in my transfer storage. There was no point in making a more permanent solution if we were leaving soon.

I created iron mixed with Mustite bars that only needed touching to heat the water. There was only a small amount of Mustite needed in each bar. To calculate the amount of heat required simply adding each bar, which had about 50EE, into the water until the water was ready. I also added a few larger bars of 150EE as a heat turbo boost to bring the water quickly to temperature if needed. We simply added water drawn by the bucket to cool the bath and the extra water overflowed into a trough off the side into the marsh below. The bath had a plugged outlet that opened to release water when the bath was empty.

Other than that, we achieved little except playing around. Unfortunately, our vacation had to end due to a very practical reason. The limited food for the horses meant we had about three more day’s provisions for them before we ran out. Early tomorrow we would head back.

There was however something I wanted to do. With all that water I could collect quite a bit to fill up on any storage silos back in Obon or create another set of silos for the town. I used three transfer storages to store water in, that took me a good two hours. I took a bit of time to be careful, I didn’t want to draw in any plant material or mud. The spot where we had previously swum was not a bad spot for collecting water because it was deep.

We were surprisingly quiet that night, everyone sat around the warm fire and enjoyed the peace and stars on a moonless night. Man were those stars and galaxy were something, but I still couldn’t get over how alien they looked to me. A strange astronomical thought occurred to me. Was that galaxy moving away from that world or barrelling in for a crash?When morning arrived and as if reading our intentions, the weather turned to crap. If I ever returned there, I wanted to make a large tarpaulin covering the courtyard, that would make that horrid weather a bit more bearable. I didn’t feel sorry that we were leaving, but there was a tinge of regret, I enjoyed my time there with some good people and I really found peace there.

I walked down the ramp behind the cart, reluctantly closed the entrance with earth skill, and removed the earth ramp. We certainly didn’t want bullfrogs or other denizens making their home here. Whether we would be back there again was uncertain. When we finally left, everyone except Cortez was under the cart’s tarpaulin which I propped up using metal rods fastened to the side of the cart.

We watched as basecamp disappeared into the distance and we simply followed the track in the reeds where I created the earthen underwater pathway while getting here. The horses seemed to instinctively know where to go. As we passed along the track, I removed it because if the water ever receded for any reason, the path to our sanctuary would be painfully clear and I had a feeling Basecamp would become useful to me in the future. Removing the track eventually became a subconscious activity. Due to my constant use of earth skill my proficiency in using it skyrocketed.

We stopped over during lunch break spots, but the rain was still pelting down. There wasn’t any point in drying the horses, but I suggested we throw a blanket and a spare waterproof tarpaulin over them and created a nice warm wind to warm them up. It looked so funny watching them as the warm air removed the chill from them, they were visibly enjoying it and neighing at the same time, it must have tickled. We couldn’t light a fire in that rain, so I used an EE bar to warm up a pot of water to make us a warm beverage. The Red Sparrows had something vaguely like hot chocolate, but it was slightly bitter, so they added a bit of honey for sweetener. Overall, it wasn’t too bad, but I must admit a cup of good coffee would really have hit the spot.

That night I made another earthen pad, and it was good to be on some solid ground again, but everyone missed the functionality of basecamp. There was more than one casual comment about the warm bath we left behind in basecamp. Once again, I took the first shift. Once the others were sleeping, I took out the creation core and started programming with Ara. I had my first working golem, about the size of my hand. It looked a bit like a spider, and it was very mobile. I had a mission trying to corral the damn thing because it had an inquisitive nature and would quickly flitter in and out of people’s tents, checking everything out, and I mean literally everything. Even I got the once over as it sniffed, poked and prodded me everywhere.

The next morning, stiff and cold from having to sleep in a tent with three guys again I managed to get up. Cortez started a small fire with leftover kindling and started breakfast. We were going to spend some time in the cart again, I might as well use that time to learn something.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Seriously, that was just too cool.

I started to learn from the great elf lecturer, Alfred Vuduin Glendive. The elves read these books to children learning elementary skills.

We spent another night closer to shore and by afternoon the following day, we reached the shoreline and we travelled three hours westwards along the shoreline before camping out a little into the water.

“Hey Shane?”

It was Tobias.

“Can you make an earthen platform for us here? It would be good for us to stay where it’s wetter and more difficult for monsters to travel quickly.”

It was the first time that someone asked me to do something with earth skill to protect us. It felt good that they came to depend on my skills. Normally I would do it on my own volition.

“No problem, anything specific?”

“No, I’ll leave that to you.”

Now that is what I liked about Tobias. A natural leader.

I created the platform; it wasn’t high off the ground, but we could still use the tents on top and have enough place to move around on. That of course also created a natural moat around us, nullifying any direct attack.

I hoped we didn’t attract any unwanted attention from enemy scouts so I suggested we keep our cooking smells and activity sounds to a minimum. I loaned out infrared torches for everyone to use and included some personal heat bars to replace the lack of a fire. As for the here and now, I helped Cortez dry and clean the horses while the others set up camp. We kept a double vigil that night. Our plan B was to retreat into the water again if any direwolves turned up. We didn’t make a fire, no point in overly advertising our presence. I also produced some preprepared barbeque bullfrog meat and that picked up everyone’s spirits.

There was no doubt in my mind that we would meet monsters if we travelled the same route as the expedition team before us. I just wanted the events to be to our advantage.

I decided to stay on the first watch. I was now three volumes into Alfred’s “Learner Skills Handbook”. They were hardcore into the natural sciences. But more importantly they showed me how to create new skills and how to turn them into attributes, and there were thousands. However, I planned to put that off for another day because there was something else I thought worthwhile learning.

An exposition of wolf and goblin combat strategy began. No monsters turned up that night, and if there was anything, it preferred to stay hidden.

We entered the forest in the afternoon of the following day. We decided to take a wider route back, skirting the deeper forest. It meant that we would miss the previous expedition’s route but hopefully we would lose any scouting monsters by putting some distance between us and them.

Everyone was edgy but quiet. I was using presence sense to pick up any enemies. The cart was once again on an uneven path and rattled around.

By the late afternoon I made a temporary fort in a small space in the woods. In agreement with the rest of the team we created a similar fort arrangement as we made on the shore, only that time I made it higher and with thick walls. It made for a formidable fort. When we were preparing dinner, I raised the question with Tobias.

“Tobias.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking about what is waiting out there for us?”

“Yes. Unfortunately, we don’t have a choice. Chances we will have a run in with some monsters somewhere on our route.”

“I hear goblins and wolves are not big fans of operating during the daytime. It would be easier if we kept our travelling after morning tea and then set up camp at late tea. I can create another fort for us before it gets dark?”

“It sounds like a good plan. Better than anything I’ve got.”

Since we were back in the woods with a source of timber, Ara created more arrows for the archers and I also handed something to Aliz.

“Aliz, I left you out the other day when I made the flame arrows for the archers, so I’ve made something you’re definitely going to like.”

“Huh, this thing looks like a metal ball. Do I try to hit something with it?”

“No. It’s called a hand grenade.”

“A hand grenade you said?”

“Yup, this one here is a dummy grenade that I made for you to practice with, so it won’t hurt anyone.”

“How does it work?”

“Hold it in your hand, like this…”

I made sure that my hand was on the striker handle.

“…and you pull out this safety pin while holding onto the handle.”

“Then you throw the grenade at your enemies.”

“That sounds simple enough.”

“Yeah it does, but it can also blow up your buddies and kill them if you get it wrong.”

I spent most of the evening getting her to practice her throwing and tactical skills. By late evening I had drilled into her the basics of using them. I gave her four grenades and four for myself as well.

Hana kept eying me the whole time I was busy with Aliz. I suspected it had to do with only Aliz having access to hand grenades. Professional jealousy perhaps?

“Hey Hana.”

I called her over.

“Here’s something special for you.”

I handed her some special arrows.

“These are what I call flare arrows. When you fire them, you can light up the whole place in the dark. They’ll stay in place for about five hundred steps.”

Since there was no minutes or hours in that world, the best measurable distance was the expected time taken to walk a certain distance. Ara informed me that morning that I’d acquired the gravity skill. She wasn’t too sure when the next skill would be available but promised to tell me as soon as she had something ready. Immediately I asked Ara to create the flares and I was glad we did that seeing we might use them in earnest.

I was fast asleep, and it was still in the dark hours of the morning when Hana, who was on watch, woke me. By the time I was ready all the Red Sparrows were armed and ready. Man, they were fast.

A direwolf rider scout quietly circled the encampment out in the woods. No attack followed and we didn’t expect one. That was a formidable fortress, albeit a small one. A mortar would have blown the scout to bits. That morning we were ready at the usual time, but we didn’t get going until about ten in the morning, we were taking no chances with the monsters.

I couldn’t help but wonder what happened with the other adventurers. My answer came soon enough. Just after lunchtime we found them in a field opening in the forest.

There was carnage everywhere. Bits of carts and wagons lay strewn around, along with the remnants of people that were mostly unidentifiable. Wild animals had already found the bodies and stripped the bodies. Food and weapons were missing. The burnt-out remnants of the wooden carts and wagons lay in an ashen heap, no doubt the cause of the smoke we spotted at basecamp.

Judging by the pair of wagon tracks the adventurers opted for a western route for some reason. For whatever reason they changed course, they only made it to that point which just happened to intersect ours. They must have had a good reason to change course ninety degrees to the west. As if they were running away from something.

“Hey Shane. Look here.”

Hana pointed at a barrel of marsh-iron ore tipped over, but left untouched. We found another opened barrel. All together they must have found about a ton and a half of ore, it was no wonder they were in high spirits when they left.

“Tobias, I’m going to collect this ore. There might be someone back home who was expecting this.”

Tobias nodded his head. People took financial gambles to invest in teams like that, so it made sense. In a small town like Obon, it would be easy to go bankrupt by investing in a team like that. Although I have to say that it would have already been a risky undertaking which is why they had the big adventurer entourage. Not that it helped. If no-one claimed the money, then the least that could happen was the families could be compensated. We quickly packed the ore into my storage and found the team looking at something on the ground. It was a large footprint and a lot of them.

“Ogres.”

Said Corey, as if answering the question everyone had on their minds.