That was the smallest crystal. If it could power the grenade for 10 whole seconds, how strong would the larger bombs be?

  Harvey prepared to rush into the tunnel with grenades in hand, but stopped himself when he heard a bloodrunn howling in the distance. Freezing just inside the mouth of the tunnel, he took a moment to listen to the sounds of the forest. Birds were chirping. Bugs were chittering. It was strange.

  Why do I feel so… wrong? He thought, spinning to face the yard. His legs felt like tree trunks as he stumbled outside, and he stood silently in the clearing while he waited for an answer. He’d grown accustomed to the sounds of the forest over the past few weeks, so why did it feel so alien all of a sudden?

  Eventually, it hit him. It wasn’t something strange he was hearing. It was the fact that Veils End had gone silent. The gentle murmur of conversation, the crackle of the campfire, and leather boots trudging through dirt roads. It was all gone.

  He was alone.

  The realization didn’t bother him as much as he thought it should. Harvey waited for his Stain to take advantage of the momentary lapse in his mental armor, but the tattoo remained quiet on his chest.

  Huh.

  He’d been rushing from one project to another for weeks, and almost all were for the benefit of Veils End. Doing whatever he could to help his Outpost win the quest and the war that would follow. Now, all he had to focus on was himself.

  Walking back to the smithy, he realized that he didn’t have to sprint from one battle to another anymore... at least for the next few days. He could do what he wanted, when he wanted. And all he wanted in that moment was sleep.

  Sure, he’d lose out on a batch of ink, but he wasn’t trying to outfit an outpost anymore. He only needed enough for himself and his traps. If he tried to walk the knife-edge every minute between now and when Hannah and Julian returned, all they would find is a corpse.

  The last time he’d rushed into the mines after an all-nighter, he’d been beaten so badly that his weave was torn to shreds. He’d walked in so confident, ready to test his newest toy on some unsuspecting elemental, only to have it snapped in half. He’d escaped by the skin of his teeth that time, but he wasn’t going to push his luck again.

  No. Instead, he walked inside, slid the iron bars in front of the door, and collapsed into his cot. Normally, he’d strip out of his armor before bed, but since he needed to be ready at a moment's notice, he kept it on. A spectacular idea that really showed its merit when the extra weight was met with the wooden frame violently snapping beneath him.

  The clangor of steel crumpling to the floor filled the smithy along with a cavalcade of exhausted swearing. Rolling over the rubble, he pushed himself to his feet, opened the front door, and hurled the shattered furniture into the fire.

  SLAM! The door swung shut behind him, and he barred himself in. Like his first night in Veils End, he curled into the heavy cloth sleeping bag and fell asleep on the floor.

  The pale sun was high in the sky when Harvey awoke, light reflecting off the various metal odds and ends lying around the smithy in a dazzling array. He stretched wide, holding a deep breath until his body deflated like a balloon.

  “Good morning, Harvey,” he said to the empty room. “How’d you sleep, Harvey? Oh, pretty great, thanks for asking.”

  He’d expected to ache after sleeping in his steel suit all night long, but felt surprisingly comfortable. Whether it was a function of his improved Vitality or how snugly fit his armor was, he didn’t know, but it felt good to start the day on a good note.

  He’d left the arc charges on the floor beside him, worried the depleted grenade wouldn’t recharge tucked away in his slipsack. An elated grin split his face when he saw that all 3 shared the same steely-blue glow.

  Recharge time? Somewhere between 10 minutes and a good night’s rest.

  Placing a hand on each, he slipped them into his slipsack. Donning his helmet, he strode through the yard and into the mines. It was time to test them on a real foe. Inscriptions on his gloves and helmet flickered to life, illuminating the tunnel as he descended below the mountain. The walls all around his test run were covered in scorch marks, showcasing the terrifying amount of lightning a tiny metal ball could produce.

  It didn’t take long to reach the first crystal cavern. The Veilstriders hunting down here had erected defensive walls using fallen stones, giving at least a little cover as Harvey peered into the cavern. Stealth was almost impossible with his clunky armor shining like a streetlight, but he was still careful to ensure his presence wouldn’t echo down into deeper tunnels. Peering out, he did a quick sweep, including the area just above the door, to make sure there wasn’t any ambush waiting for him.

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  There wasn’t.

  Emily, who spent most of her time using thorny vines to burrow through the metal men, said they didn’t see many F Grades coming up to the main cavern anymore. Their first raid had wiped out almost all the evolved population, and they only needed to delve deeper once every day or two to find any that had recently broken through.

  He was sure they’d done a final sweep yesterday, just in case the kills could provide any last-minute levels, so there may not even be any for him to fight. Pushing into the cave, he made for one of the side passages covered by similar stone barricades. With as much time as he’d spent down in these mines, he’d never actually made it to one of these tunnels. Every step away from the minecart back before his first light inscriptions had felt like another foot in the grave, and every trip since had seen either him or his allies too wounded to focus on exploration.

  Peering into the tunnel, it was much smaller than the mineshaft. The stone was carved naturally, extending only a few feet before branching off to the side. Carefully, he picked his way through while making sure not to scrape his steel against the walls.

  I need to figure out some sort of self-repair inscription. There’s no way the System expects me to go repair my armor every time it gets dinged up.

  Before long, he found another cavern that was also lined with essence crystals like they were on the inside of a geode. A seething roar told him he wasn’t alone, and he scrambled to find the source before more accusations of genocide were thrown his way.

  “Destroyer!” the man screamed, only to have a steel ball plink off his chest. Stunned, he stared down at the charge slowly rolling away. “You think you can kill me with such…” A second, larger ball clunked into the floor before rolling up to it.

  “Sorry, still figuring out the range,” Harvey winced.

  “The range?” the elemental asked as a cascade of lightning assaulted his body. Last time, each bolt had shot in seemingly random connections, latching onto anything and everything within a 10-foot radius. This time, the elemental’s body acted like a lightning rod that attracted almost every bolt. Its body shook violently as the glowing eyes flared like halogen lightbulbs about to pop.

  Harvey watched with a mix of horror and fascination as nearly 15 seconds of lightning ravaged the creature, only stepping forward once the final bolts dissipated. The elemental was still alive, but it had yet to regain control of its body.

  “Curse… you,” it snarled, fighting desperately to move its arms to a defensive stance. Every inch looked like a mile as its glowing eyes flickered precariously. Carefully, he moved closer, aftershock in hand. The air surrounding the elemental still sizzled, causing the hairs on his arms to stand on end despite being covered in steel. Unwilling to watch the suffering continue, he imbued Aftershock with Flamestrike and sent a massive overhead swing crashing down toward its head.

  You have slain, Level 26 - Iron Elemental. Essence Gained. 2123 Merit Earned

  He wasn’t sure how to feel. His creation worked better than he could have ever asked for. Almost… too well.

  It couldn’t even fight back.

  Needless to say, the grenades would be nowhere near as effective against the Undead. They weren’t walking lightning rods whose own bodies contained the lightning resonance that made his arc charges possible.

  “Sorry,” he sighed. “At least I know I can kill you quickly.”

  Grabbing the depleted charge, he returned it to his slipsack. It was a good opportunity to test if it could replenish inside his storage space, but he doubted it. Whatever the strange memory realm his items disappeared into was, he doubted it had a large supply of essence floating around. Especially since it seemed frozen in time, with the food coming out just as hot and fresh as the moment he put it in.

  Next, he retrieved the first arc charge he’d thrown and dusted it off. He’d felt the connection slip away just before impacting the elemental and had been unable to activate the inscription with Modular Array. It was a valuable experience, reminding him that he needed to be absolutely sure his target was in range of his aura and that the grenades would bounce off hard targets. He’d been lucky his second charge hadn’t rolled back towards him mid-activation. Otherwise, he’d be just as cooked as the Elemental lying at his feet.

  I’ve gotta figure out how far my aura reaches. I should’ve done it before I came down here.

  Reaching down, he recoiled when the leftover energy zapped his hand. Just the single bolt hurt like getting cracked by a whip.

  “Ow! Damn it,” he groaned, tentatively reaching out again and patting its chest before it too disappeared into his slipsack.

  He only managed to find one more F Grade after searching 7 different side tunnels, using the baseball grenade to do most of the work before landing the killing blow with his warhammer. The kill had been enough for a level, pushing his Class to level 27 and his Race to level 30. He was surprised he hadn’t run into a single G Grade, until he found a cavern stuffed to the brim with a sea of dormant elementals.

  Almost every crystal had a piece of essence-infused iron latched onto it, sucking the cave dry in one fell swoop. The glow of the crystals was noticeably darker than usual, as if their group feeding were depleting the cavern faster than it could replenish itself. The ambient essence in the air was also noticeably weaker than it was far from the mountain. None stirred as he watched them for over 10 minutes. Whatever instructions the evolved elementals had given them were being followed to the letter.

  None of the G Grades had known to hide in the depths until the first had evolved. Without a sapient mind to teach them, how were they supposed to know venturing close to the surface would only put them in harm's way?

  This is good. Now I know where to start my search next time.

  He debated tossing his final arc charge into the cave and seeing if it was strong enough to kill a G Grade outright, but decided against it. Ambushing them with their cores exposed just felt wrong, and the benefits of killing an underleveled creature to add to his mountain of harvested materials weren’t worth the extra weight on his soul. Besides, killing them now would cut off his supply of evolved elementals he'd need later.

  He’d never been great with directions before, but his superpowered Wisdom stat easily guided him through the right tunnels back to the surface. It was like his mind just remembered his surroundings perfectly, whether he asked it to or not. Leaving the cave was like leaving his house... he didn’t have to think about where the doors were.

  Before long, he was standing in the sunlight, two fresh corpses ready to be turned into even more lightning grenades.