“You need me, huh?” I said.

Saskia leaned over and said, “We do need you. We have lost several arena fights because none of us are good planners.”

Now, the truth is coming out.

“Only adventuring,” I said. I looked at Belle, “Any lakes, ponds, rivers nearby? There must be.”

Belle pointed to the left, “Over that rise is a dam and water reservoir.”

“That's where we go. Wait a minute.” everybody paused, and half a dozen Kais dashed into the farmland. “Now we go.”

The dam was in a valley, as expected, but there was not a huge amount of water. It was only about twenty meters across and thirty length-wise. It was probably only four or five meters deep.

“How are we going to get the sparrows here?” Marcus asked.

I looked at Belle, “Air Pressure. Between you and Kirre, one can create a low pressure here and the other a high pressure there. Plus, I am assuming Kirre is large?”

“About my size,” Belles said.

“They will want to avoid her as she is bronze. She can panic them a bit, and with the wind flowing this way, they should come, partially without realising it. When they get there, you are up, Saskia. They will be running hot in the wind, so you use this water to cool them down and ground them if possible. We will set up traps to ground them, and then the rest of us cut and smash. If you can bring them down in the pond, that would be even better. How many trap-type abilities do we have? My tether is still only iron, as is Ardisia.”

Val looked at Marcus.

“What?” he said.

“Crushing Weight?” she reminded him.

“Oh yeah, but it is still iron too.”

“I can also create illusions of Kirre, so they keep close,” Saskia said.

“You can do that, and the water?” I asked.

“For a while, but the illusions don’t need to last long. The sparrows are not that bright.”

“Ok, let's do this,” I said.

I watched in camouflage and the approaching wave of fire. Or that is what it looked like. I was crouched in the pond with only my head above water. I figured being wet was an advantage against fire monsters. Ardistia was also planted in the edge of the pond and partially submerged.

Sparrows generally stay low to the ground, and fire sparrows are no different. There was a steady breeze on my face, and the smell of the fire sparrows was inter-mixed with the burning land they flew over. There were probably a dozen to fifteen or so of them, all bronze. This would not be easy.

Belle’s Kestral flock was also bronze, so that would help. They were also nipping at the edges and helping to herd the sparrows.

As soon as they got over the pond, it started to rain, and the water surged up. A sparrow dropped under Marcus’ Crushing Weight, and I cast my Hunter Tether on a shield floating in the lake. That, combined with a sudden downdraft, meant most of the sparrows were floundering. The few that escaped were the responsibility of Kirre and the Kestrels.

Ardisia was trashing with her thorns. Her vines were wet, and the sparrows were having difficulty with their flames, so I wasn’t worried. The Sparrows were small, so her aim was not good. This will help her get better and, hopefully, level.

I slammed a shield down flat on a sparrow that was struggling to take flight again, submerged it, and then laid into it with my axe. That was not very effective in the waist-deep water, and the sparrow just went under without the axe doing much damage. I switched it out for my claws, and Rend tested out the extended claws.

The sparrows might be small, but they are bronze rank tough. Unfortunately for them, Kai is boosting my claws up to silver rank. It still took several strikes as my power was still only iron, even boosted by Mighty Oak, and keeping up with them by using Quick Sharp.

I saw four Kais mob a sparrow in the shallow mud and got to town with their claws and teeth. They kept it down in the mud with a Kai on each wing, and feathers were flying. This was Kai’s first bronze solo kill. He had taken down Iron-rank ants and other small monsters, but becoming bronze rank himself made a big difference. The number of Kais also makes a big difference. Stone Kai landed on top of the sparrow, sinking it deeper into the mud.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I looked around, and everything seemed to be under control. Val’s Sword Wave seemed to be now bronze, which made sense as it was one of her goto skills. Saskia was keeping the surviving sparrows wet and underwater if possible.

There was a large splash, and a huge bird surfaced with a sparrow in her beak. Hello, Kirre. She hopped up on the earthen dam and went to work on the sparrow. That is one huge bird. Her body was probably only slightly smaller than Belle's, and I think her wing span might have been larger. Albatrosses are sea birds, so they are at home in the water. It had webbed feet, but I did see small claws there. The sparrow escaped briefly, but with a flick of a wing, it crashed back onto the earthen dam, and Kirre hopped over and bit with her beak. I smelled wind magic in that move. She and Belle are masters of wind and wing. Mistress is probably the correct term rather than master.

I saw Marcus coated in iron armour thigh-deep in mud. The armour was probably not a good idea here. He had an iron shield and was smashing a sparrow into the mud with his crushing weight on it. It seemed an inefficient way to do it to me, but I didn’t really know what other skills he had. He conjured an iron sword, and then it morphed into a knife, which worked better for him. That Crushing Weight skill sounded very useful to me, and if I had it, I would use it all the time.

As I moved to a sparrow near me, I wondered why they couldn’t come up with a plan like this. It just seemed sensible to me, yet they were going to fight over land. Countering fire with water is simple logic. I suppose getting the sparrows here was a bit tricker, but even just herding them with Kirre, the Kestrels, and some illusions would have worked. Surely, it is not that hard.

I refreshed my Hunters Tether, and we worked steadily. Soon, we were back on land, washing the mud off. If they had been silver, the water would have only slightly slowed them down. It would still be worth doing to minimise collateral damage and any small advantage is good. Silver rank monsters also tend to be smarter.

The Kais were feasting. I had Stone Kai absorbed. I think the chances of getting a fire Kai are very slim, but it is worth a try. I got more fire feathers. I had the option for arrows with the feather as the fletching, but that didn’t make sense to me. They weren’t fire arrows or anything.

I was lost in thought on the way back. I was turning over alchemy options to try and make my nets fireproof. That is going a bit far, but fire-resistant was a good start. I managed to do that with my Resin Armour, but the web is a different thing altogether. I need them to still cut. Maybe I need cold resistance as well because that can make them brittle.

“Hey, Theo,” Saskia interrupted me. “How would you counter a Pyromancer without a pond nearby?”

“That would depend on what was nearby, but I am not interested in discussing it. You know the Pyromancer and at least some of their skills. You deal with both fire and water. You can work it out. I am not interested in arena fighting.”

“You would be really good at it,” Marcus said.

“Doesn’t matter. I have a different focus.”

“But what if someone comes at you, and you haven’t practised fighting people?” Marcus continued.

I got a bit angry then. “Someone did come after Val and I. A bronze ranker, and we killed him back when we were mid-iron. We lost people in that fight. When people come after me, I will be happier if they don’t know what I am capable of. It gives me the edge. You go and show all your skills in public, but I am not going to.”

They shut up after that.

We got back and handed in the contract. We got a bonus for the high number of sparrows. Kai did not get any fire abilities and I didn’t have any skills to get into bronze. We helped Farming Village #3, though, and we got paid for it. That is what they needed.

I was working on my Webs and alchemy and trying to use my Resin as a more versatile alchemy component. That evening in my Tranquil Axe Meditation, I felt the Resin move into Bronze. That is good. I can start preparing my bronze-rank armour. I should be able to get more than one alchemy attribute into it. I was keen to start as it takes a lot of time to make the armour.

I explored the skill some more. Oh, that will speed things up tremendously. I can now form it straight into shapes, so rather than filling a mould and then hardening it, I can make the shape directly. I practised with the rings for the chainmail portion, and there it was at bronze rank. It was not the alchemy-strengthened Resin. It was just straight resin, but my control had also improved tremendously. I would have to adjust my alchemy formulae, but I could mix it, and then shape it and harden it directly. No waiting for it to dry in moulds. I can do instant repairs just with normal resin to keep going. This was awesome.

But wait, there is more. I can directly apply Resin to conjured items. I conjured a Shield, coated it with Resin, shaped it into spikes, hardened it and sharpened them. There was a moderate mana cost to it, but I had a spiked shield created in less than ten seconds, which was amazing.

What I actually had in my hand was an iron rank shield coated in bronze rank resin and sharpened with Bronze rank Razor Sharp. I could feel the bronze rank magic affecting me, but it wasn’t too bad. I could use this shield before I got to bronze because the iron-rank wood is sheltering me from the bronze-rank Resin.

My other conjured material is my Cutting Webs. I conjured them coated in resin. It worked fine but was useless as the resin stopped the cutting aspect. Maybe I will find a use for it one day, but a single strand of the web is not strong enough. I tried again and added small blobs of resin at the ends and where the webs crossed. That worked fine and it would speed up the net-making as well.

I wonder how Marcus and Val handle bronze-rank swords at iron rank? Is there an exception for being their own conjured item?

I updated my list.

* Resin {Pine Sap Stone} Bronze 1

* Iron Rank: Create and manipulate a sticky resin that hardens over time. Hardening can be sped up or slowed to a small degree. Hardening control improves with level, as does volume and manipulation. Manipulation is more difficult the harder it is. Resistant to impact, water and corrosion, weak to heat and light.

* Bronze Rank: Resin can be formed directly into shapes. Temperature and hardness are vastly sped up. Resin can be produced over conjured material.

Now, I have half of my skills in Bronze.