Ding.

Again? Only one laughable fight after I already leveled with the previous boss?

Ding.

I checked my new messages, and I was very excited. Something fun will happen, very soon!

Enfire Level 4. Information: The fire that coats your every attack can be edited from listed parameters.

Listed parameters? I'll find out later. These chains might be magical, but taking them would be too heavy, and we were already overloaded by carrying the mammoth's ribcage. Sure, Djraine and I were working together, but it was huge and awkward and heavy and annoying. One problem at a time.

It took almost two full days to get to the rolled-up hill. I'm going to need to make backpacks or something... maybe actual adventurer's kits! Since we couldn't carry any food due to a lack of containers, we just ate whatever scaries that attacked. They tasted better roasted, and their armor wasn't as hard. Spider bile and fire magic for the win, I guess.

...

There was something different about the rolled-up hill. I mean, it was super different anyway because it looked less like a gentle rolling slope and more like someone scrunched up a long piece of cloth, but even more so today. Someone had dug into it, and recently.

I peered into the, well it wasn't a cave, I don't think... but a sideways depression with a little bit of a dirt roof? After my eyes adjusted a little more, I could see something moving. It seemed like the earthy walls had collapsed a bit, but I was able to get partially inside. There were skeletons standing around, some of them with weapons.

Okay, so an undead army. Did they start digging their way out, preparing to attack? The skeleton closest to me just stood there, and pointed behind me.

"We brought some bones. We were going to bury them here, but didn't know the place was already claimed."

The skeleton just stood there. Maybe it would have talked if it could, but it was just bones.

"Can we leave the bones up there? There are a lot more. Consider them donations."

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Another couple skeletons came up, and stood next to the one I was talking at.

"You guys don't seem aggressive."

They stood there, but one started moving its head, probably would have been looking at or talking to one of the others if it could. It moved its head back and aimed its lack of a face at me.

This wasn't going anywhere, but they didn't seem like they'd stop me from dumping food trash all over them for as long as I felt like, so I guess that was a win? This was strange!

It was time to head back home. Without being burdened by the chore of trash duty, we got back much faster than we arrived. I didn't see the chains, but I wasn't sure we went the exact same path either- it wasn't paved with web this direction.

...

When we got home, I was more interested in standing around inside the cave than doing anything else! Somehow I just felt better, and couldn't seem to shake the desire to stand on top of the Yuck. It hadn't expanded much yet, but with the addition of the corpses from the battle, it should grow much further. Maybe even down into the basement!

Feeling weirdly invigorated, it seemed like a good idea to make some dummy targets. We didn't have any bows and arrows, but throwing rocks and in my case fireballs, accuracy was a good idea. I put up a thick stick that used to be a thin branch in the ground, and threw a rock at it which caught fire in midair.

As soon as it did, time stopped. I couldn't move, and all I could think about was the fire. Was this editing? Luckily, to make it easy, there was a popup in front of my eyes with a couple drop-down options.

[ 1475 Ks ] [ Red-Orange ] [ Ignite ]

I couldn't click on the down arrows on those tabs, but they were there. There must only be one option in each... for some reason the word 'chamber' entered my mind and I couldn't think of another word. Since I couldn't make another choice, I accepted what it was, and then time resumed.

I missed the stick, and the rock wasn't on fire anymore when it hit the ground. Red-orange was an option weighing on my mind. Such a thing could only mean one thing, and that was that the color of fire could be changed. But how, if there were no other options available? Light another fire and make sure that I change it directly?

There were some super fun crystals that I used to buy at a barbeque supply shop when I was still in my first life, that I had initially learned about from a friend whose entire family was either military, associated with the National Rifle Association, or a police officer. Maybe all of the above. The crystals turned fires blue, purple, green, all sorts of interesting colors.

Fireworks, I had learned, are colored as they are from burning metal oxide shavings. Iron was red, copper was green, aluminum was white, titanium was blue, and so on. I did need to get to gold panning after all if I wanted my fires to become more magical. Sift through the silt and sand and get out metal flakes and tiny nuggets, then make them sit in stagnant water until they rusted, since running water doesn't make stuff rust or whatever. Sprinkle the rusted metal into a candle or something, and then maybe another color option would appear.

If I was right, and that worked, then there was some loot that I had just gotten off that boss monster that I thought was stupid, but might have been just for me after all... but I couldn't replace it, so I'd better be sure my experiment worked before even trying with it.