Arwin charged the door. In general, charging an orc was the act of either a madman or someone so strong that the orc posed absolutely no threat to them. But, in this instance, he was neither. I need to make sure they don’t make it out of the doorway. There are going to be at least two orcs coming out, and I can’t fend them off if they gang up on me. Routing them at the door is my only option. Arwin reached the doorway an instant before the orcs could emerge and thrust his hammer forward like a spear. The orc before him snarled and dodged out of the way, pressing its body to the wall to keep from getting struck. As soon as he got a good look at the monster, the Mesh identified it. [Swamp Orc – Journeyman 1] In the darkness behind the orc, Arwin could make out a pair of glowing green eyes and the rough form of another orc. That’s the shaman. It’ll stay out of the fight and try to whittle me down with magic while buffing up its warrior. I can’t let this drag on for long. I’m not going to win a battle of attrition. Almost as if on cue, the Mesh shimmered forth once more. [Swamp Orc Shaman – Journeyman 2] Behind him, Arwin heard Rodrick let out a battle cry. There was a loud thump, presumably the snake as it entered the fight with him, but Arwin didn’t have the liberty to turn and see how their fight was unfolding. The man let out a scream and jumped nearly a foot into the air, bringing his sword to bear. “Good gods!” Rodrick exclaimed, his eyes wide. “You look like a monster!” “Are you okay?” Reya asked, her face pale. Lillia looked like she wanted to say something as well, but she remained quiet. Anna hurried over to him and started to draw on her magic. Arwin looked down at his torn up armor, then wiped the blood from his face with the back of an arm. “I killed the orcs. Where’s the snake?” “Dead,” Rodrick said, stepping back so Arwin could see the corpse of the monster behind him. It was largely in one piece, having been run through the eye. Arwin gave Rodrick an approving nod, letting himself relax slightly. Anna’s magic washed over his body, stitching shut the wounds he’d picked up. “Thank you, and good job. We should pause here for a moment. That was… a little harder than I expected.” “You killed three of those things on your own?” Rodrick asked, looking over Arwin’s shoulder and shaking his head in disbelief. “Some smith you are.” “It’s not about the tools you have. It’s about how you use them.” “Do you even have any tools other than that armor?” Rodrick asked with a laugh. “With the amount of blood on you, it looks more like you used your head to beat the life out of them.” “Your whole body is a tool,” Arwin said. He touched the damage to his armor, then frowned. It had taken quite the beating from the fight. It didn’t feel like the magic within it was about to falter, but if he went through another fight that was as brutal as this one had been, there was a good chance it would be too ripped up to be repairable. At least I got a pretty nice achievement out of this. I’ve got more than enough scales to repair the damage I took back at home. If I can just gather some new material to work with, then I can consider this a huge success. Lillia dug through her pockets and pulled out a black napkin, tossing it down to Arwin. He caught it with a hand and wiped the blood off his face, giving her an appreciative nod. “Thanks. This is probably going to stain, though.” “That’s fine. I always use it to clean up blood. Butchering animals is messy.” Arwin looked at the napkin, then shrugged. It wasn’t going to be any less dirty than he already was, so he wiped the rest of his face off. He gave himself another few seconds to recover before standing back up. He handed the napkin back to Lillia, who took it between two fingers. “Should we go deeper?” Reya asked. “If the next room is even harder than this one…” “It could be difficult. My armor is pretty cut up,” Arwin said. He walked over to the snake and knelt beside it, examining the monster’s body. He pulled at one of the scales, bending it until it snapped. Not nearly as strong as the Forest Lizard scales. This thing must have been much more reliant on its stealth abilities. Not particularly useful for my forging, but it’s a good thing Lillia spotted it. Arwin pulled the monster’s head up, holding it by one of the fangs to study the inside of its mouth. The fangs were large, so he snapped them off and stuck them into a pocket. He wasn’t sure if he could use them, but it wouldn’t hurt to keep them around. He then knelt by the dead orc and ruffled through its belongings. Aside from the cleaver, there really wasn’t anything of real use on it. The first orc in the hallway was similarly useless, its sword far too rusted to be of use, but the shaman was different. Arwin hadn’t had a chance to see it during the fight, but the monster had been holding a wooden wand of some sort. There was a glittering purple gemstone tied to its top. Arwin wasn’t sure what it did – if it did anything at all, as the Mesh didn’t identify it. Either way, he ripped the gem free of the staff and tucked it into a pocket. At the very least, it would probably sell for a little. He returned to the room with the others in it. “Nothing too useful yet.” “I did get a good amount of energy from killing the snake,” Rodrick put in. Reya nodded. “I did too, even though I only helped a bit.” Both of them shook their heads.