The team rushed forward to James who was lying on the floor, Rashid walking a sedate pace behind them.

“James! Oh my god, oh babe!” Lucy said, rushing forward, skidding the last few meters on her knees through the loose rocks on the floor to grab James’ head and hold him.

“Dude that looks like it hurts.” Teddy said.

James was lying surrounded by loose rock, he had been fighting an earth elemental that was bronze rank, his power set was almost completely unsuitable for the monster and the fight had been a struggle. He had won and the remains of the monster were now spread around him waiting to be looted. He hadn’t got away from the fight without incident though, his left leg was almost flattened by the rock monster and was a mess on the floor.

Kyra was busy studying the leg on as Lucy was holding James’ head. “James, I think this is time for what we talked about you know.”

“Eurgh, really? This really hurts you know.”

“Well I think it’s going to hurt a whole lot more in a minute if you’re willing to try?”

James let out a sound that definitely wasn’t a whimper, big men do not whimper. He nodded at Kyra and reached up to grab Lucy’s wrists.

“Do it, Lucy let her do what she’s going to do”

“Let her what?…”

Kyra stood up from where she was inspecting the remains of the leg and conjured her diamond sword, with all her strength she swung down with a two handed blow and cut through his injured leg just above the damage.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Lucy screamed at her. Struggling against James’ grip.

After grimacing and controlling himself James looked down. “Damn Kyra, shit. Any higher and you would have chopped off something very dear to me.” He let go of Lucy with one hand as she stopped, stunned. He reached into his clothing and touched the bear tattoo on his chest and his mana was refilled. He then transformed his leg stump into a purple blob which immediately stopped bleeding, the tentacle then grew from the stump, the thin dexterous end wrapped around the discarded leg and moved it out of the way to allow the tentacle to grow, it let go and kept growing to the length of the other leg. When he was satisfied he released the magic that enabled the transformation and his leg was whole and fresh, bright pink in the midday sun. Kyra handed him his bloody boot she had unlaced from his other left foot.

Reuben was just behind the team and was wiping his mouth from where he had just vomited to the side. “Fascinating.” He choked out as he tried to pull out a notebook while trying not to gag.

“You’ve not seen injuries like this before then?” Teddy asked him while James, Kyra and Lucy were having an argument about chopping limbs off without knowing if they would grow back.

“No, I’m not an active adventurer, I did my assessment so that I would have more options for research and my work is generally with the magic society so I am excused contracts.”

The others were still arguing and Kyra turned to the others with Rashid. “Tell her its fine Rashid, even if it hadn’t worked which we were fairly confident it would then we could have magically re-attached the leg anyway.”

“Mrs Lucy, traumatic amputation is a fairly common injury for adventurers at least once in their career. I have seen many limbs re-attached and the church of the healer can re-grow limbs as required with a specialist.”

“See? We knew what we were doing.”

“I am still not happy with you chopping up my husband.”

“Lu, it’s fine, we’ll tell you about it next time, if there is a next time. It’s actually easier to manage during combat than the long complicated process of healing a damaged limb if I have the mana as it means I’m not out the fight.” James consoled his wife.

“I’m still not happy.” Lucy pouted.

“It’s actually rather fascinating, I will have to do some research on this to see if others with the Animagus power have done the same, it may be due to the fact your outworlder bodies are made entirely of magic that this is such an easy transition for you.”

“Made of magic? Go over that again for me?” James said.

“Oh come on, I’ve explained it enough times for you.” Kyra said in exasperation.

“Well when you left your own world it is common knowledge that your bodies are annihilated, your soul should then transverse the astral and on entering this universe your souls make a new body from the magic around them, much like a monster or an essence.”

“Bodies like monsters…” James said as he looked at the discarded leg, he reached forward and touched it with the tip of one finger, there was a moment of static on the interface before he saw the notification and shared it with the others.

Would you like to loot [James Mitchell - discarded leg]?

“Oh dude…” Teddy said, looking uneasy at James.

“What?!” Reuben asked, unable to see the interface.

“He can loot the leg.” Lucy said.

Reuben dived to the side to throw up again.

“Are you going to?” Kyra asked him.

“Well I’m not really emotionally attached to it now so…” James shrugged and accepted the notification. A surprisingly thick and disgusting rainbow smoke came from the leg that vanished.

You have looted [James Mitchell - discarded leg]

[Toe ring of agility] has been added to (James Mitchell’s) inventory

“Oh what in the god of mischiefs name is this…”

“What? What?!” Reuben asked, wiping his mouth with a handkerchief. As he turned in excitement towards the group he got a face full of the noxious rainbow smoke and turned back to vomit again.

“Ha, he got a toe ring!” Teddy exclaimed, looking at the notification.

Item: [Toe ring of agility] (iron rank, common)

A toe ring designed to protect the wearer from stubbing their toes.

Effect: When worn the toe ring will generate a small field of agility around the users feet. This will allow the user to have a very mild boost to agility when approaching an obstacle to the feet.

“Oh cute.” Kyra said from where she was standing next to Reuben rubbing his back while he was retching.

“Well if you think it’s cute then you have it!” A small sparrow-like bird flittered to his shoulder and deposited the ring in James’ hand before he tossed it to Kyra.

She caught the ring and with her iron rank agility caught it on her thumb, the large toe ring slipped easily over it.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“There is no way this is going to fit on my toes you troll! How damn big are your toes?! What size is this?”

The interface helpfully supplied the answer by updating its description.

Item: [Toe ring of agility] (iron rank, common) (Size = XXL)

She laughed and tossed the ring back to James who hung his head dejectedly.

“Oh come on, you won the loot lottery with that vambrace, all sorts of people get completely random loot.” Teddy said supportively.

“No Teddy, it’s not that random, you’re not getting away with the driving gloves, you like them secretly.” Lucy teased.

“Are you saying that your big burly husband secretly likes his new sexy toe ring?” Teddy retaliated.

“I retract my previous comment.”

“If we can get back on track.” Rashid said.

“Ruthless.”

“Slave driver”

“The man just lost a leg!”

“And that’s a good place to start with the feedback then I guess. I placed you against this monster because it was a bad match up, fighting one rank up is acceptable when the match up is good or you have adequate backup.” He looked around the team. “Even simulating this as a solo mission losing the capability of one leg is not a deal breaker, I assume you carry a high rank healing potion as you were taught? What else would you do?”

“If I hadn’t used my transport power I could do a full body transformation to something like a bird or multi legged animal so one limb isn’t a big factor. If there’s more monsters after this then I can always do this.”

James reached up and a pale green jade capped staff materialised and he spun it in his hands.

“You’re going to use that now?!” Teddy said.

The staff disappeared.

“Nah, it only counts if I plant it.”

“I wonder… Mr James, could I please see that again?” Reuben asked.

James shrugged and the staff appeared again with him spinning it over his head.

“Do you have to spin it like that every time?” Teddy asked.

“Do you have to pull your dimension blade out like a lightsaber every time?”

“I retract my previous comment.”

James smirked at him and held the staff out horizontally for Reuben to have a look. He pulled out a collection of measuring crystals and tools and moved them over and around the staff, he then stepped away to compare them to empty air then moved to James’ back to take readings from him away from the staff.

“Fascinating.”

“Well come on then, what’re you thinking?” James said, always uncomfortable to be tested on.

“Well it seems from preliminary results that my hypothesis is correct…” He trailed off, concentrating on his notebook.

“Which is?!”

“Oh, the staff you hold in you hands is a part of you, unlike Mr Theodore’s sword which is more a conjuration of a portal that is moveable or Mrs Kyra’s weapons which are the more traditional conjuration. This staff is from your racial gift making it more a part of your body, a part of you soul we could say.”

“I’m leaving chunks of my soul lying around when I plant these?”

“No nothing quite so dramatic, more that they come from the soul, an intrinsic part of you, they are made manifest from normal natural magic and resonate with your souls on an identical frequency.”

“All right doc, what does that mean?”

“Doc? Nevermind. It means that there may be some subtle differences how they interact with your other powers, am I correct in thinking that you receive an advantage for unarmed combat?”

“You are.”

“Well in the manner that these things go I could very well think that this would not count as being armed, it is using a part of yourself that is much more part of who you are than any other conjured weapon might be.”

James looked down at the staff. He was still holding it horizontally where Reuben had been examining it. It was a pale green marble, around seven feet long and capped on either end with jade orbs the size of grapefruits. There was an intricate pattern of leaves and vines winding up and down the staff.

“Well how about it, are you feeling up for it?” Kyra asked, summoning her sword and shield.

“I feel fresh.” James said, stamping his new leg and twirling the staff in front of him.

Kyra lunged, a perfect fencing thrust and James parried, the sword scraped over the patterned shaft causing little sparks. She moved into an attack pattern, pushing James on the back foot to warm him up into the staff fighting. He was rusty, they all had training in the annex but it was a skill that had to be maintained. Eventually he saw an opening and made an awkward thrust at Kyra. She caught it on her round shield and her eyes went wide in surprise as she was knocked back a good twenty feet by the blow.

“Wow.” James said. “That was definitely boosted.”

Ability: [Bear (Bare) Arms] (Bear)

Special ability / Special attack

Base cost: Varies

Cool-down: Varies

Current rank: Bronze 0 (00%)

Effect (iron): Unarmed attacks do 400% damage

Effect (Bronze): For a high mana cost the user can throw out a combination attack that is boosted to 800%. Very high long cooldown.

“You’re telling me.” Kyra said, dismissing her weapons.

“How about you Darth Dimension, fancy a spar?”

“Darth, really? That’s not going to be a thing.” Teddy said as a red blade materialised.

James grinned as he lunged in at Teddy, at first his brother toyed with him, his speed and reflexes from training with the sword every day made James look amateurish with his staff fighting. After a while of just dodging the attacks he moved to block an overhead blow. He grunted with the effort at catching the strike, his bronze rank level strength attribute pushed to the limit. When James tried to pull the staff back it stuck a little to the red blade and he received a notification.

[Staff of the Everglades] has been damaged in combat.

Summoning a glade is no longer possible until this ability comes off cooldown.

He saw next to the ability in the interface a twenty four hour timer had started. He stepped back and Teddy let him, seeing him concentrating. James attempted to plant the staff which did nothing. As he did he saw the chunk that was missing in the shaft. He dismissed the staff and re-summoned it, on inspection the chunk was still there.

“Reuben, tell me I haven’t just broken my toy, or a part of my soul.”

The magic society researcher rushed in, a different set of examination tools were pulled from his swirling vortex and he checked over the staff.

“Not to worry, not to worry. It is repairing, is your wonderful interface telling you anything?

“Yes, it says I cant use it until it comes off it’s usual once a day cool-down after I plant it.”

“Yes, yes, that makes sense. It will need time to repair itself, I imagine you could continue to fight and the conditions would remain the same no matter how much damage it takes or even if it was destroyed.”

“Well thats handy.” James said dismissing the staff again.

Rashid stepped up. “Very good. This has been a good day for discovery, we’ll set up camp here for the night and move on in the morning if you are all in agreement? James, I would suggest trying to meditate straight away as we discussed, consolidate the experience while it is still fresh.”

James nodded and released Koda, the big bear gave him a friendly headbutt before giving a terrifyingly tooth-full yawn and settling down for a nap. James leant against him and started to meditate. Teddy pulled out the model of their Serenity and placed it down to deploy so they could ‘camp’ for the night. The couples had their own rooms and there were two spare rooms at the rear, one was taken up by the workshop that Lucy and Teddy frequented but the other spare room had twin beds in it for Reuben and Rashid.

Teddy was dicing a local vegetable, it looked like a sweet potato but had a fruity citrus taste that paired well with a fish they had caught in the river earlier. He slipped when he saw a wall of notifications and would have cut his finger if it hadn’t been a normal rank and he at the top of iron. He made his way outside with Kyra, Rashid and Lucy who was busy writing out the notifications for Reuben who was looking over her shoulder.

All [Animagus Essence] abilities have reached [Bronze 0].

Linked attribute [Recovery] has increased from [Iron 9] to [Bronze 0].

All [Rat Essence] abilities have reached [Bronze 0].

Linked attribute [Speed] has increased from [Iron 9] to [Bronze 0].

All [Bear Essence] abilities have reached [Bronze 0].

Linked attribute [Power] has increased from [Iron 9] to [Bronze 0].

All [Eagle Essence] abilities have reached [Bronze 0].

Linked attribute [Spirit] has increased from [Iron 9] to [Bronze 0].

Progress to Bronze rank: 100% (4/4 essences complete).

All your attributes have reached bronze rank: ??? ???? ??????? ?????? ????.

??? ???? ?????? ?????????? ?? ???? ???? ??? ????? ?????? ???????? ??? ??????.

??? ??????? ?? ???? ???? ??? ?????????.

???? ???? ?????? ???? ????????: Progress to silver rank: 00%.

James Mitchell

Race: Outworlder

Current rank: Iron

Progression to bronze rank 100% (4/4 essences complete)

Attributes

[Power] (Bear): [Bronze 0]

[Speed] (Rat): [Bronze 0]

[Spirit] (Eagle): [Bronze 0]

[Recovery] (Animagus): [Bronze 0]

Racial abilities (Outworlder)

Interface system

Looting ability

Language adaptation - including animals

Princess power - storage

Staff of the Everglades

They all got to James who was still as they left him, tucked up against the side of Koda on the rocky floor. Reuben and Rashid stopped short as the others kept running forward. They stopped, in a semi-circle in front of the big man and waited for him to acknowledge them.

James slowly opened his eyes. He felt incredible, not quite the rush he felt when he first got his essences but still a buzz. And then he felt it stop, nothing else happened and he checked his notifications, he was disappointed but not surprised after what happened to Teddy. He looked up at his family around him, the others stopped short incase there was the foul goop that came with a rank up. He shook his head at the others to confirm it wasn’t going to happen.