Adric awoke slowly before daylight. Quickly getting his bearings, he remembered where he was and stared into two wide yellow eyes.
“Why did you sleep on the floor with me?” Hex whispered. She was worried her pheromones may have attracted him to her even though she had taken extra care to clean thoroughly the night before.
Adric stretched his stiff muscles and groaned, “I have no idea. It just seemed safer, I guess. To be close, you know?"
She shrugged, then propped herself on one arm to stare at him. The panther's fur slipped when she did so, exposing the bandage on her neck. She asked seriously, “Are you afraid?”
"Hell, yes, I’m scared,” He responded honestly, “but that has never stopped me from doing what I must for survival.”
Hex mulled that over briefly before nodding once, "I know you said it is okay, but I really am sorry for starting the initiation early for you...for us. I hate to think it, but I’m afraid it may have hurt our chances of survival more than it helped them,” Hex bit her lip; she didn't want to say what was coming next but had to for her own peace of mind. Steeling her resolve, she said, "I would understand if you wanted me to leave." Adric's eyes narrowed as soon as the words came out of her mouth, so she hurried to explain, "Yesterday when I nearly shot you and when I was being loud walking through the woods afterward because I was scared…”
Adric raised his eyebrows in amusement at Hex's obvious discomfort, but he let her continue.
She was babbling now, stumbling over her words, "I know you are better than I am at…everything, and I don't want to hold you back." She took a deep, nervous breath and finished, "So if you want me to go—"
"If I thought letting you stay was detrimental, I would ask you to leave," Adric assured her, cutting her off. "As it is, we are just starting out, and if I am not mistaken, today is the day the real battle for survival will start when the rest of the world is fully integrated.” He sat up, flipping the surprisingly soft panther pelt off his legs. He stretched, feeling his bones popping in various places as he continued, "Yesterday was a good learning experience for us as a team, and I have been compiling a list of our strengths and weaknesses." He gestured to her, "For example, your combat abilities aren't lacking; you can shoot straight, are lethal with that sword of yours, can stun and damage enemies with magic, and your sense of smell and hearing are exceptional. Plus, you have more knowledge of the System's workings than most; remember, you're my guide.”
Hex smiled; for some reason, Adric's words made her feel warm and happy inside like she was less of a crutch and more of an equal. Still, she had to ask, “What are my weaknesses?”
He gave her a slight smile, “You don't have that many, to be honest. It's things I would expect from a civilian with no combat experience. The main thing is that you need to learn how to operate as a teammate with me. And how to maintain an awareness of your surroundings not only to detect threats but also for other reasons. For example, suppose you are surprised by a group of enemies. In that case, you need to know how to use the terrain to your advantage without looking around and getting your bearings first. You can only do that if you consciously note the terrain advantages as you travel.”
Hex scrunched up her eyebrows. She wasn’t sure she fully understood what he was saying. It sounded like a lot of work, but she was determined to try her best and prove she wasn’t just an extra mouth to feed.
Adric noticed her confused look and decided it wouldn't hurt to explain. "Take the beavers from yesterday, for example. You wanted to slow them from reaching me when you noticed them. What if you had fired a couple of shots from your pistol to let me know they were there, then scrambled up the oak tree you were standing under to get out of their reach?" Hex cocked her head to the side when he said the name of the tree, so he elaborated, "The big tree with the low branches. Anyway, if you had hopped up on the first limb and reached down to lift me up when I got to you. We could have both attacked the beavers from a safe elevation."
"Don't beavers eat trees?" Hex asked, wondering if she was remembering it right.
“Yes, but I doubt they could have felled the tree before we managed to kill them…” Adric trailed off in thought. “Could they have? Did animals get special skills and spells like people?”
As if reading his thoughts, Hex said, "They may have had the skill to eat wood, but I understand your point. And you're right, at their low level, we would have killed them long before they could have taken down that big tree."
Adric nodded absently. He was going to have to start thinking about every situation differently now. He asked, "Will all creatures be given skills and spells by the System?”
Hex shook her head, "I don't know if every creature will be granted abilities, but I think many of them will. The panther yesterday probably had a movement or stealth ability, and it was only by luck that we managed to catch it off guard."
“Okay, that only reinforces our need for teamwork then. That's why I was trailing behind you yesterday in the woods. If we are too close together, then something could attack us both at the same time. If we are far enough apart, then the attacker will have to choose a single target, giving one of us the chance to retaliate. Do you understand my reasoning so far?”
Hex nodded enthusiastically. She wanted to survive just as much as he did and absorbed his knowledge like a sponge.
With another groan and a yawn, Adric stood, stretching his aching muscles again. Hex hopped up, too, then grabbed her head, "Ow, why did standing up hurt my head?”
Adric laughed, "Because you are hungover from all the wine you drank last night. Come on, I'll get you some juice and fix us a greasy breakfast." He said, walking to the kitchen with Hex right on his heels.
***
After the promised greasy breakfast consisting of bacon, toast, and eggs that Hex considered to be on par with the delicious steak the previous evening, they cleaned up the dishes—then gathered up all the looted weapons and armor Adric had taken from the goblins the previous day. After sorting and laying everything on the floor around his workbench, Adric started experimenting with his tinker skill. Picking one of the arrows he had pulled from his door, he laid it on the bench and selected 'Tinker' from his interface.
Wooden Arrow (Missile Weapon Level 1)
Sufficient Tinker level to attempt recreation or modification. Note: Tinker skill must have a template to fabricate from raw components.
Destroy this missile weapon to create a template Y/N
Selecting 'Yes,' they watched as the arrow glowed brightly for a second. When the light faded, the arrow was no more; in its stead was a framework of blue lines hovering just over the workbench's surface. Adric felt a flood of information enter his mind, and he understood the composition of the arrow a little better. Every individual component that made up the arrow was now accessible to him with a thought from the firm yet flexible wood it had been made from to the subpar stone arrowhead that had been laced to the tip. Even the feathers used for the fletching and the thin threads made of tanned intestines that secured the arrowhead and fletching registered as an organic compound in his mind. The information felt incomplete, and he instinctively knew the template for the arrow was still ongoing.
A check of his interface showed another tab named 'Templates.' Excited, Adric selected it.
Templates:
Missile Weapons:
Wooden Arrow 33%; Weapon Level 1 (Junk); Components needed for synthesis: Soft Wood, Organic Material, Stone.
"Well, that's neat," Adric said, reaching for another goblin arrow, "We may as well get this template to 100%."
"I agree," Hex replied, then asked, "How much energy did that take?"
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Adric stopped reaching for the arrow. He hadn’t thought about that, so he switched back to his status tab and was shocked it had taken nineteen units of magical energy in the few short seconds he had his skill active, leaving his energy level at one hundred. “Hey Hex, would you do me a favor and watch my magic energy when I add this next arrow to my template?” he asked.
She shifted to his left side at his request to get a better view of his status screen and gave him a thumbs up. Taking that as his cue, Adric selected Tinker again and destroyed the next arrow he placed on the bench. This time, he turned the skill off as soon as the blue framework appeared.
He looked at Hex questioningly, and she told him what she had seen, "As soon as you selected the skill, you lost a single magic unit, and a second later, you lost another. I think it takes one unit per second to keep the skill active. When you chose to destroy the arrow, you lost ten more magic units and two more while waiting for the light to dissipate. For a total of fourteen units in maybe five seconds."
"Damn, that adds up quickly, doesn't it?" he asked rhetorically, then said, "Let's watch and see what my recovery rate is. Adric remembered that he was full around an hour after completely bottoming out his magical energy the day before and wanted to see how fast it recovered.
Hex used her watch, calibrated to System rules, to time how long it took for Adric's magic to refill a few points. In less than three minutes, the thirty-three points of energy he had lost was restored. Adric calculated he recovered twelve units or one-tenth of his total magic energy every minute, one unit every five seconds. At first, he thought it was a fast recovery, but the more he thought about how much energy his skills used, the more he understood it wouldn't help that much in a fight.
Finally leaning back on his stool, Adric summarized his thoughts, "So, I will recover my full magic pool every ten minutes, but since most fights take less than five minutes, usually only two or three, my recovery rate has limited benefit inside combat."
“I will agree with that,” Hex said, “but the spell I cast at the panther used over fifty percent of my magical energy, that is to say, about eighty units." Seeing she had Adric's full attention, she elaborated, "I only had one hundred and eighteen points then, so that essentially meant, as you said, the fight would be over before I had enough energy to cast the spell again. But now I have one hundred forty units or points of magical energy." She could see understanding dawning on Adric and continued, "With that much energy, I could cast the spell, and within another minute, I will have enough to cast another one should I need to."
“Fair point,” Adric conceded, “that means we should get a good handle on exactly how much energy each of our skills use and plan our combat around our energy usage. Like your spell for example, if you can use two of those in a fight, then that's great, but if you can use five weaker spells? But each can be fired faster and carry a stunning effect; we may want to consider using your big spell as an opener and then switching to the weaker, faster spells.”
Hex was doing quick calculations in her head and nodding as he spoke. When he was done, she told him what she thought, “The spell I used with the wand last night was risky because I added the lightning element to a weapon that already had an attunement.”
"Weren't they both lightning attuned, though?" Adric asked, confused.
"Yes, and that is the only reason the wand didn't blow up in my hand," she answered. "The point is if an item or weapon is already enchanted with an attunement, then adding foreign magic into that item runs the risk of damaging or destroying the item. Think of it like overloading a circuit."
"So you're saying it's a risk we shouldn't take again," Adric asked.
"What I'm saying is we should keep enough energy reserved to give us the option to use a powerful attack as either a finishing blow or a means to escape should the need arise." Hex corrected.
Adric thought about that for a moment, then smiled, "I like the way you think, Hex; I believe we are going to make a good team," He grabbed another arrow, "Now let's get this template finished and see if my skill can make arrows that won’t explode in my hands.”
***
An hour later, Hex and Adric sat in the middle of the garage, staring at a pile of materials stacked in front of them.
“Are you sure this will work?” Hex asked.
“No idea, and Tinker isn’t giving me any information either," Adric responded happily, pulling up his interface.
Over the past hour, Hex had watched Adric use his skill to destroy every piece of the goblins' gear he had salvaged. Most of the items only gave him enough for partial templates. The more complex something was, the higher the item level, the less it gave toward the template percentage when it was destroyed. The only template he had gotten up to ninety-nine percent was the wooden arrows of the goblins. He didn't want to waste any of his modern arrows or those he looted just yet, so he stopped there. His skill told him he had to create at least one functional 'junk' goblin arrow to finish the template and bring it to one hundred percent. So, after destroying all their equipment, Adric and Hex gathered all the components needed for his arrow template.
Staring at the wood and leather scraps lying on top of a pile of rocks, Hex was doubtful this would work. But Adric had insisted on not using components that he could mold into an arrow without the System's help, explaining to Hex, "The skill mentions synthesis, so I want to see if it breaks down the components to create a finished product.”
Hex had to admit his reasoning was sound, but she was still doubtful. “I guess we’re about to find out,” she thought as Adric pulled up his interface and opened the templates tab.
Adric smiled at the list, reading everything he had so far.
Templates:
Melee Weapons:
1. Iron Dagger 6%; Weapon Level 3 (Common); Components needed for synthesis: Hardwood; Organic material; Iron.
2. Iron Sword 3%; Weapon Level 4 (Common); Components needed for synthesis: Hardwood; Organic material; Iron.
3. Wooden Spear 3%; Weapon Level 4 (Common); Components needed for synthesis: Hardwood, Organic material, Iron.
Missile Weapons:
1. Wooden Crossbow 1%; Weapon Level 10 (Common); Components needed for synthesis: Soft Wood, Hard Wood, Organic material, Iron, Steel.
2. Wooden Crossbow Bolt 93%; Weapon Level 2 (Common); Components needed for synthesis: Softwood, Organic material, Iron.
3. Wooden Arrow 99%; Weapon Level 1 (Junk); Components needed for synthesis: Softwood, Organic material, Stone.
Leather Armor:
1. Cuirass 1%; Armor Level 5 (Common); Components needed for synthesis: Organic material, Iron.
2. Chest Plate 3%; Armor Level 3 (Common); Components needed for synthesis: Organic material, Iron.
3. Helmet 33%; Armor Level 2 (Common); Components needed for synthesis: Organic material.
4. Bracers 18%; Armor Level 2 (Common); Components needed for synthesis: Organic material, Iron.
5. Greaves 18%; Armor Level 2 (Common); Components needed for synthesis: Organic material, Iron.
6. Boots 45%; Armor Level 1 (Common); Components needed for synthesis: Organic material, Iron.
7. Combat Robes 18%; Armor Level 2 (Common); Components needed for synthesis: Organic material, Iron.
“Adric?” Hex asked when he didn’t immediately select the arrow template from the dropdown list.
“Oh, sorry,” he apologized, “I got distracted for a second.” He quickly selected 'Wooden Arrow' from the menu. The template was highlighted, but nothing happened.
Adric looked at Hex at a loss, but she said, "Try to activate your tinker skill now."
"Oh yeah, why didn't I think of that," he said, switching to his status menu to select the skill.
As soon as he selected the skill, the blue outline of an arrow appeared in front of them. On a whim, Adric reached out to see if he could touch the template and found that he could manipulate the blue wireframe image of the arrow. Pushing it closer to the pile of scraps, Adric was rewarded when thin blue lines reached out from different parts of the template to touch specific scrap pieces. As each line touched a piece of scrap, the component was highlighted in a light blue glow.
Adric noted that the arrowhead, fletching, and twine only highlighted a piece of the gathered material. In contrast, the arrow shaft highlighted several small pieces of lumber. "One more thing," he said and reached to grasp the frame shaft. With a light tug and mental prodding, he stretched the shaft a little to get the arrow the correct length for his recurve bow. Thankfully, the framework reacted to his needs and expanded as he wanted. The only thing that changed was that an extra small piece of wood scrap was highlighted to accommodate the additional length.
“Uh, assemble?” Adric thought, not knowing what else to do. He focused on wanting the arrow to form when he thought the words. The instant he thought it, the scrap pieces silently burst into blue mist, channeling down the blue lines attached to the wireframe to fill the template in. The entire process took less than a second. When it was over, a single arrow dropped to the garage's concrete floor with a light thump as the heavier arrowhead struck first. Grabbing his new creation, Adric eagerly inspected the arrow with his Tinker skill.
Wooden Arrow (Missile Weapon Level 1)
Sufficient components detected to synthesize additional Wooden Arrows from raw components.
Duplicate single or multiple?
"Yes!" Adric cheered, pumping his fist in triumph.
Hex clapped her hands, mimicking his excitement. Adric could make weapons, ammo, and gear! She was already fantasizing about the amazing armor he would be designing. A flash of light brought her attention back to the present, and when she looked back to the arrow he had made, she saw it had been joined by dozens more.
Adric set the pile of arrows he made to the side until the template was visible again. He shortened the shaft slightly before making twenty-four more arrows sized for his short bow and
for Hex to use.
Adric turned off his Tinker skill when he was out of magical energy and checked the Wooden Arrow template to see if making the arrows had brought up the final percentage.
Wooden Arrow 100%; 48% Until next upgrade; Weapon Level 1 (Junk); Components needed for synthesis: Softwood, Organic material, Stone.
Adric looked at Hex, who was buzzing with excitement, and asked, "Do you want to go try out some new arrows and maybe some tactics?"
"Yes! Yes, I do!" She said, jumping up and running to the wine cave to get kitted out.
Adric was right on her heels. As much as he wanted to stay inside and make arrows all day, he knew the only way they would stay ahead of the curve during this integration would be to find a good balance between combat and crafting.