Luke and Bumblebee stared out over the salt marsh. They were waiting for the Gem Flies to leave the area so that they could look for the Flame Sword. That damn basilisk had knocked it off and Luke wished that he could kill it again. The place smelled like mold and spoiled fish, giving them both a permanent scowl underneath their visors. There wasn't a better option though, they had to get that sword.

  The entire experience was an advertisement for a sword sheath instead of attaching it to his hip with magnets. It probably wouldn’t have fallen out in that situation. But having his weapons readily available, even when he was fumbling, was a good thing. He decided against changing the design.

  Instead of focusing on the bad, Luke tried to look on the bright side. He had leveled up his War Machine class. He had two more stat points to spend.

  The first point was easy to decide on. He pushed it into his constitution, bringing it up to six. He didn’t feel any different, but he knew that he was much more resilient and his health resource went up too. Since it was a multiple of six, he suspected there was some other bonus too, maybe he would heal faster now.

  It was tough to decide on where to place the last point. It would take him three points to get Strength up to six, four points to get Acuity up to twelve, and five points to get Perception up to twelve.

  Extra strength was tempting, but he didn’t think his class needed strength. It wasn’t about the strength of his arms, it was about using the machine around him to the greatest effect. Acuity would help him think faster and provide him with a faster resource regeneration. He went ahead and pushed his last point into Acuity. He would keep working on it for the next few level ups.

  While he had his stat screen up, he wondered again what Machine Soul did. It was in the resources section, so it was clearly something he could use to get some sort of benefit. It had stayed at 2/2 the entire time he had the class. If only there was some clue how he could use it.

  Nothing came to mind, he didn’t have enough information. He was back to waiting. It had been a little over an hour since they left Jinx with Kruro, but with the way the Gem Flies were behaving, he might be stuck here for several more hours. They had to wait anyway. The naga had made it clear that the elemental swords were worth more than their lives.

  While they were waiting, Luke had counted over a hundred of the Gem Flies, twenty in front of him and the rest scattered about the salt marsh. Bumblebee wasn’t sure if that was more or less than last time, but he guessed more. Either way, the Gem Fly survey was complete now.

  So the only thing they needed before they left was that damn Flame Sword stuck in the mud in front of him. Luke stretched his hand out like he was a Jedi and pretended to pull the sword to him.

  He hadn’t gotten pumped full of midi-chlorians when he wasn’t looking, so nothing happened. The mental imagery did stir his mana though. It raced through channels in his body, pooling in his outstretched hand for a moment before returning to his core.

  Too bad he didn’t have a spell that would help here. Unless... maybe Repair Craft would work? Returning the sword to his hip wasn’t exactly a repair, but maybe he could convince the spell that it was. Kruro had said the skill had a temporal aspect to it, rewinding time to affect its repairs. It might work. It was a tenuous stretch, but Luke decided to try it anyway.

  Luke stood to the side and concentrated on the second half of Repair Craft. He activated it and focused on the memory of the sword at his hip. Just like when he worked with runes, he knew the exact intent mattered. He told the skill that the sword was part of his craft and it needed to fix it to his side. The claw marks and punctures on the power armor back were repaired, but Luke didn’t let the skill stop.

  He pushed more mana into the skill, focusing hard. He was starting to get a headache, but the skill wasn’t done yet. Not until - the skill abruptly ended. The headache spiked and his mana bottomed out.

  Something hit Luke’s waist. He opened his eyes and looked down. The Flame Sword was there, magnetized to his hip once more. He laughed in relief and surprise. It worked!

  “Dude, I didn’t know you could do that.”

  “Me either. I was just trying to stretch my repair skill, and it worked!” Luke said and threw his arms up in celebration.

  The System of the World added to his joy with a pair of notifications.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  A feeling of satisfaction washed over him. They weren’t going to spend the whole day searching for the sword now. And to think, he had almost picked a different skill when he first picked up his class. He had never been more happy to have a repair skill. Of course it would be nice if he wasn’t getting hit, but at least he could repair his suit when he did get hit.

  “Let’s go. I want to check on the Purpleheart Ents before we head back.” Luke said and gestured for Bumblebee to lead the way.

  They left the salt marsh heading directly west. Marsh transitioned to marshy grasslands, then to a wide empty field of yellow grass with stalks six feet tall. A gentle wind blew through the meadow and Luke trailed his hands through them like that one scene in Gladiator.

  Bumblebee slowed and whispered, “We gotta be careful here. There are Stalker Jackals in the grass. We need to be quiet so they don’t catch us. If you hear rustling in the grass, just run. We can’t fight them here.”

  “Why not? You gotta tell me all the details, remember?” Luke said. He felt like he was pulling teeth.

  Bumblebee sighed and gave Luke the full rundown on the monsters that lurked in the tall grass. Apparently Stalker Jackals were tall and thin canid type monsters. Their natural coloring matched the yellow grass perfectly. They were hit-and-run predators, and were practically unkillable. When they were damaged, they used the surrounding grasses to reconstitute themselves. As long as they were within the grassland, they had limitless health.

  Luke turned around and walked to the edge of the tall grass meadow. There was no way he was going up against relentless predators without his Repair Craft skill running. They waited until he had the requisite mana and he cast the skill.

  Then they were off again. Luke led the way across the grassland, with his digitigrade legs activated, he could see farther than his partner. He kept an eye out for grass that didn’t move as it should when the wind blew. The tall grasses moved like waves with every zephir, so anything out of place should be obvious.

  They crept across the grassland, moving faster as his confidence grew. A few times he thought he heard something behind them, but saw nothing when he turned to look. When the end of the grassland was in sight, Luke finally saw something.

  Three monsters slipped through the tall grass stalks and attacked Bumblebee as one. He was prepared for them. He already had his Lightning Sword in hand and sent out a blast as soon as he heard them coming. One jackal went down with a yip. He used Evade to bend space slightly so the second caught only grass. The third hit him from the side, binding up his sword arm and knocking him down.

  Luke was firing his arm gun even as he turned, missing one, but hitting the other two monsters with a blast of icy magic. Frost crept across the Stalker Jackal attacking Bumblebee, slowing it down slightly. Luke kicked it off him and helped Bumblebee to his feet.

  They both turned and ran then, knowing that killing the monsters wouldn’t work. The Stalker Jackals abandoned their frozen bodies and reconstituted themselves out of the surrounding grass. They were racing after the humans moments later.

  Bumblebee was struggling to keep up. Several of his runes had been damaged and his left arm was hanging useless by his side. His left leg was sparking, but he kept moving with copious uses of Rush.

  The trio of monsters caught up with them when they were almost out of the grasslands. They must have sensed their chance slipping away and put on a final burst of speed. Luke was acting like rearguard this time, pointing his right arm at the incoming jackals. He missed two shots, the monsters somehow redirecting at the last moment.

  Luke's left hand held his Ice Sledgehammer and he used it as one of them grew close. He pushed a point of mana into the hammer and swung it down with all his might. The jackal didn’t have the chance to yelp before its head was crushed. Ice started forming over its downed form. That should slow its recovery.

  The other two Stalker Jackals hit him then, coordinating their attack to hit his shoulders from both sides. Luke stumbled back as they held on and bit into his pauldrons. He growled in frustration as his armor was once again treated like cardboard.

  Before they could get to the squishy human inside, Luke pulled his left arm up to smash the monster on his right arm. The hanging jackals slowed down the strike, but the ice magic within his hammer still did its job. Its bites soon slowed and then stopped. It fell off his arm a moment later.

  Something critical in his left arm snapped then, the sequence of runes broken. His arm fell limp then and he dropped his hammer. His entire form grew sluggish. The Adept Agility rune that helped him move the hulking armor had been broken. He tipped back and almost fell.

  Luke pushed more intent into Machine Bond, trying to keep himself upright. He managed, barely. The Stalker Jackal moved up then, crawling up his armor with too sharp claws. Why did everything have the ability to get through his armor? It snapped at his face, Luke leaning his helmet away at the last second.

  An instant later the monster yipped in surprise. Luke had brought up his right arm and fired his ice magnet into its belly point blank. The jackal lost its grip and fell off him moments later.

  Luke turned and ran. By now the first monster would be almost whole again. Bumblebee hadn’t stopped when Luke had, so he was almost to the edge of the grassland. His mana must be exhausted though, he was barely moving. The runes on his right leg were dim and he was limping along.

  It wasn’t long before Luke caught up with him and put his arm around him. Together they helped each other exit the yellow grassland and start to climb the hill covered in regular green grass.

  The Stalker Jackals burst out of the yellow grass in a coordinated attack. Luke was ready for them. He dropped Bumblebee who yelped in surprise. Luke ignored him and grabbed the Flame Sword off his hip. He pumped mana into the sword and swung it in a wide arc.

  Great gouts of flame shot from the sword, extending its blade another five feet. The longer flaming blade cut off the first and second jackal’s heads and nicked the last one’s forelimb.

  The monsters went up in flames, the dry grasses they were made of were very flammable. The third monster stamped out its burning leg and turned to race away. It just barely reached the grass when Luke caught up to it. He cut it in half, burning the grass around it in the same strike.

  Magic reached out from each of the monster corpses, but couldn’t grasp any grass that wasn’t already burning. The regeneration failed and three monster cores appeared in the ashes.

  Luke tsked to himself. He should have been a little more careful with the flame sword near a literal field of tinder. The entire field might go up in flames. He had to spend three more magnets to freeze the burning grasses before the fire was out.

  He popped open the feeder to check how many rounds he had left. There were only six. He shook his head at himself. He had started the day with so many and thought he would never need more in a day. Instead he was already considering bringing three times as many round magnets along with him next time. Thankfully, the neodymium magnets weren’t that expensive. In fact, they were cheaper than the bullets he was used to buying.

  Once he was sure there were no more monsters coming, Luke collected the three cores. They were each tier three, nice. He was making bank today. Still, he planned on avoiding the yellow grassland in the future. Almost immortal monsters weren’t fun to fight.

  Bumblebee asked for some help but Luke asked for him to wait a bit. He closed his eyes and focused on the second half Repair Craft. He had dropped the Ice Sledgehammer in the fight and wanted to see if he could repeat the earlier trick. He pushed mana into the skill, guiding it to restore everything to its proper place.

  His shoulder knitted up, the agility runes reactivating. Tears and holes closed up. He felt the magic reach for his hammer, but then cut out. He had ran out of mana before it could work. They hadn’t waited long enough on the other side of the grasses for his mana to fully refill and the fight had taken some as well.

  Luke sighed and stomped into the grass to grab his hammer. It wasn’t that inconvenient, but he had been hoping for another skill up. He did get a level up from the fight though, so at least there was that. He was now a level five War Machine. He put both extra stat points into Dexterity, bringing that number up to eight. He had been planning on upgrading some of the other stats, but he knew that Dexterity was needed for now. It would help him avoid being hit so often, and it would be useful when he carved runes. It wasn't exciting because he was still so far away from a multiple of six, but he needed the boost.

  The extra stats were put to use fixing Bumblebee's suit. Working with runes highlighted how easy it was for him now. His higher Dexterity helped him carve out the runes, his Memory helped him hold the intents in place, and his Acuity made it all go faster and work more accurately.

  Once they were both ready to go, they hiked over the top of the hill and looked down into the valley below. The Purpleheart Ents were scattered throughout, easy to pick out from the natural trees around them.

  The ents had blue bark and green leaves. They were about the same height as the other trees, fifty feet tall. One of them was fairly close, just at the base of the hill. Luke’s face scrunched with disgust.

  It didn’t have bark. The ent had skin with pulsing veins and everything. It was moving slowly like the Tolkien version, but it looked like a flesh abomination from an Alien movie.

  Bumblebee pointed to something in the middle of the valley. “That lowkey slaps. We don’t have to count trees or worry about the Hive Wolves with the hydra in the forest. There is no way the hydra would let any other predator in this valley.”

  Luke followed his arm to see a distant form. It was a six headed hydra, stalking through the forest. It was about four times the size of the monster he had seen near the portal on his first day here. “So the ents are fine then? Are they symbiotes like the Gem Flies and the Basilisks?”

  “Oh, no. We still gotta kill it. The hydra is just waiting for the ents to mature and then it will eat the hearts out of them.”

  Luke swore softly.

  Today’s chapter title comes from Gladiator (2000)

  Today is the last Saturday chapter. Tomorrow is the last Sunday chapter. After this, we are five days a week Monday-Friday. That is the schedule from here on out, I don't expect any other schedule changes.