I woke up to find an exhausted Aerion leaning against the tunnel wall nearby, keeping guard. The goblins’ cart—the one that wasn’t a mangled heap of scrap—was right next to us, but strangely, I wasn’t in it.

“Oh thank Dominion!” Aerion cried. He was sweating heavily, and his skin was sickly pale. “I was worried you’d never awaken. I couldn’t get you in the cart.”

“Uh, sorry?” I said in a daze. The trauma of recent events made my brain feel like a trail of cobwebs.

“Our gambit… worked,” Aerion said, gasping out every word. “We defeated the goblins, though I was unable to hoist you into the cart. I’m… sorry.”

I wasn’t sure what was wrong with him, but I sure didn’t like the way he looked.

“Goblins… right. And don’t fret it.” I reached over to pat his shoulder and immediately regretted it—my broken leg exploded in pain the moment I tried. “Not my finest moment,” I grunted, blinking back the tears. “We should move. You good to go?”

“Yes… Lets.”

Aerion nodded weakly. “Already loaded your stones. Daggers… broke, I’m afraid.”

“Don’t worry about that. Weapons can be replaced. You sure you’re okay?” I asked.

Aerion nodded again. “I’ll live. Sanctuary will heal us.”

That was when I felt something cold and wet touch my leg.

Blood. A lot of it. And it was coming from Aerion.

“You’re injured!” I said, panicking. “Show me!”

“It’s nothing,” Aerion said, turning away weakly. I grabbed his shoulder and forced him the other way. The puncture wound was on his right rib, which is why I hadn’t noticed it earlier. One of the goblins that had rushed us must’ve skewered him.

“This is not nothing,” I said, fighting to keep my voice level. “This is full-on oh shit I’m gonna die-level stuff.”

He hadn’t cried out in pain. Or even said a word. Just like before, when we’d fought those goblins after taking down the troll.

I took a deep breath and pushed myself to my knees. I was ready for the pain this time, but I still almost passed out.

“Sanctuary. Now,” I gritted through clenched teeth.

I half-climbed, half-fell into the cart, and did my best to give Aerion a hand the moment I was in. The darkness at the edge of my vision was the least of my worries right now. If we didn’t get to a safe room, Aerion would die. I was no trauma surgeon, but I knew a lethal wound when I saw one.

“There’s one… not far from here. If memory serves,” Aerion said haltingly as he worked the controls.

The cart lurched, then picked up speed. Aerion thankfully kept us moving at half our earlier speed. I didn’t know if my body could handle all the lurching in my current state.

It was ironic, really. The safe room was not even a mile down the tunnel. It took us under a minute to get there. Which was good, because both Aerion and I were slipping in and out of consciousness. For me, that meant a respite from the pain. For Aerion, it meant a chance of derailment and killing us both, so I was euphoric when we saw the shimmering black portal embedded into the side of the wall.

There weren’t any signs or warnings—the thing was just stuck into the middle of a wall like an afterthought.

Which it probably is… I ruminated in my delirium.

Holding each other up for support, we stumbled and awkwardly hopped through the portal. Without any hesitation, we fell into the fountain’s pool, not even bothering with a soft landing.

I didn’t even fight the darkness this time. By the time the searing pain of healing hit me, I was long gone to la la land.

----------------------------------------

I sputtered awake, coming to under the fountain’s water.

For a brief moment, I wondered if some undersea monster had dragged me into the abyss, intending to kill me by asphyxiation.

I was, thankfully, very wrong.

“You know you can’t drown in those, right?” Aerion said with a smirk from nearby, his voice back to normal.

“Still scary as shit,” I said, pulling myself up, heaving. I ran my fingers through my wet hair—which was already drying out, mere seconds after my plunge. I felt as good as new. Maybe better, even.

“How long were we out?” I asked, stepping out of the pool. It wasn’t just my hair—my jeans were drying at a visible rate as well. I’d be dry in minutes.

Aerion shrugged. “Impossible to say. Long enough to heal. Not long enough for it to eject us. I got up a half hour ago.”

“Huh. The safe room on the last floor kicked us out after just a few minutes. Maybe Dominion’s taking a liking to us?”

Aerion snorted. “Keep dreaming. Dominion only favors the strong. And his Chosen, of course. No, I imagine it is due to the extent of our injuries,” he said, killing any hope I had for preferential godly treatment. “The more gravely injured, the more time we’re granted. With the two of us, our time is extended even further.”

“Interesting.” I’d have to get the full ruleset from Aerion later. My elven companion was now gorging himself with grapes from a tree. A wise choice, and I followed suit.

Food and water were good, but wasn’t enough. If our recent experiences had taught me anything, it was that we desperately needed the ability to heal. And, preferably, the ability to carry food and regular water, too.

I’d whined about it to Cosmo, but now that I was back, I had a few ideas. I got to work.

----------------------------------------

As I’d feared, making a water container turned out to be a bitch. My ideas weren’t feasible. My plans went up in flames before they even lit. I’d hoped I could find something, either inside the Sanctuary, as Aerion called it, or at the smoldering cart wreckage.

I was so very wrong. It made me wonder how ancient humans managed it. I felt like we didn’t give cavemen the credit they deserved. I mean, fire? With sticks and stones? That shit was hard.

These were my thoughts as I sat on the hard stone just outside the Sanctuary, keeping watch while Aerion slept beside me. As far as guard duty went, this one was pretty easy. The only way to get here was via cog cart, and I’d hear one coming a mile away.

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If one did come, we’d duck into the Sanctuary and wait for them to pass. Aerion assured me the goblins wouldn’t enter the Sanctuary. Whether they’d wait outside in ambush when we were forcibly ejected, however, was another matter entirely.

In the endless, boring silence, my mind wandered to my problems while Aerion slept.

Basically, my ability to bend metal was nonexistent, and that was equally true for most other materials out there, too. Aerion did prove exceedingly adept at weaving a sort of soft canteen out of the vines in the safe room, but it wasn’t waterproof.

And it didn’t count as armor when I’d tried to Initialize it.

“I don’t understand why you’re so upset. We can use my waterskin once we retrieve my pack from the goblins,” he’d said. That was fine and all, but if we were going up against a base full of goblins, I wanted as much of that miracle water as possible.

I glanced at my Essence. 47/60. Just under 80% utilized. While it was getting up there, I still had some overhead. I just had to find a way around the armor limitation.

“Inventory,” I muttered. A screen came up, neatly organizing all of my possessions.

Greg

Item

Count

Essence Cost

Ability

Stats

Condition

Pet Rock [Common]

2

2 (Total)

Rock Solid: Foundation - 0

50

Iron Cuirass [Common]

1

8

Obsidian Bane: Foundation - 2

49/50

Iron Arming Sword [Common]

1

7

Lightbringer: Foundation - 3

50/50

Otherworld T-shirt [Common]

1

6

V 2

5/10

Otherworld Jeans [Common]

1

6

V 2

8/10

Wooden Board Shield [Common]

1

5

Minor Blunt Force Resist: Foundation - 1

97/100

Aerion

Item

Count

Essence Cost

Ability

Stats

Condition

Elven Commoner Robe [Common]

1

9

P/G/C 1/2/1

70/70

Iron Dagger [Common]

1

4

Quick Slash: Foundation - 1

10/10

My cuirass’ Obsidian Bane had leveled when I’d gone flying. Unfortunately, it’d taken some condition loss as well, and my sword’s ability was still at a paltry F - 3 because I’d been using my Obsidian Club so much. That wasn’t going to be an issue any longer. I did miss that club, though.

I picked up the waterskin Aerion had woven. It was vaguely the shape of a desert canteen—like a sphere that had its sides lopped off. He’d fashioned a cap out of the same vines and stuffed it into the opening as a stopper, and when I’d asked, he’d also twisted some vine to fashion a makeshift rope. That was connected on both ends and acted like a sling, enabling me to wear it around me. I hoped that would be enough to get the System to recognize it as armor.

It was honestly incredibly impressive, given that Aerion had no tools on hand. There was no way I’d have been able to make anything near as nice.

C’mon, c’mon. Work!

Initialize [Makeshift Waterskin]? 99% chance to successfully Initialize [Common] armor. Essence Cost: 3. Current Utilization: 47/60

I pumped my fist. No error message!

“Initialize,” I muttered.

The waterskin glowed faintly with white light, and a message appeared.

Makeshift Waterskin [Common]

Look at you! Mooching off of an elf’s hard work! Aren’t you ashamed? Well, you oughta be. This Waterskin may be primitive, but it’s well-constructed. Can hold two liters of water. Just don’t throw it around. It’s also ostensibly armor. Somehow.

Essence Cost: 3

Condition: 5/5

Stats: None

Abilities: None

“Hell yeah!” I muttered, keeping my voice low so I didn’t wake Aerion.

This was honestly better than I’d hoped for. Not only did it do the right thing—making the container waterproof—its Essence cost was negligible. The waterskin had no stats or abilities, but that was a good thing. Well, the abilities at least. I’d been worried the System would give it some useless power and hike up the price. As things stood, I was pretty close to having my 15% emergency buffer.

I picked up the waterskin and raced into the Sanctuary, lingering just long enough to fill the thing. Initialization had imparted a sheen to it, and all the gaps between the woven vine had disappeared. Like someone had coated it with a gap-filling water sealant.

Even the cover slotted in securely now, and I wasn’t worried the sling would come off, even with significant jostling. Still, despite the upgrades, I was sure it would burst if I ever fell on it.

I’ll have to ask Aerion to make another when he wakes up, I thought as I stepped back outside. With each of us carrying one, I felt a lot better about our prospects.

I got to work smashing some of my rocks. As nice as they were to have around, waterskins took precedence, and I needed my buffer.

After that was done, we’d do something I’d been itching to do ever since the last floor. Something that would drastically improve our capabilities.

Power Leveling.