The next days followed the same pattern, Gavin working on his enchanting skills while his team tried to make themselves useful where they could. It was on day four they were called to action, a level one anomaly had been detected as the magic surged and coalesced in an area the Storm Wardens had passed through on the second day.

  The team responded, taking the contract and map of the area and hiking out into the wilderness. Gavin portalled the team in short jumps, using lurching hops between areas of visibility through the dense jungle.

  They found the dimensional pocket easy enough, it was colossal, but had the unmistakable signature of a level one space. Whatever was inside would be more intense than anything they'd seen before.

  Readying themselves they stepped through, finding themselves at the top of a mountain.

  “So uhh, that's a new one” Gavin said as they overlooked the task before them. “Judy, what do your elf eyes see?”

  They were atop a high ridge overlooking a valley at the base of one of the sheer mountains. Built into the side of the cliff face below was a colossal ramshackle fortress, spewing smoke and ash. Thousands of goblins worked to tear down the forest as their camp sprawled out into the jungle.

  “I'm not an elf. Though it does look like a knock off Isengard down there.” Judy frowned.

  “Fuck yeah it does.” Gavin said.

  “I think we'll find even level one encounters have level two or three difficulty out here.” Sam said ignoring him.

  “Yeah, no kidding.” Val confirmed.

  “Guys, can I do the heavy lifting on this one?” Judy asked.

  “If you want,” Sam shrugged, “do you want us to run interference for you?”

  “I was thinking you stay up here and jump in if I need help.”

  “Sounds good to me.” Gavin said, taking out a folding chair to resume his crafting training.

  “Not like we’ve got anything better to do today.” Val said.

  “Do it.” Sam said. “Just keep in contact with us.”

  “With Sam and Val.” Gavin corrected “I'd rather not have the distraction.”

  Judy opened a portal down into the camp, a wicked smile on her face. It was her turn to push herself. With her new bow, her enchanted rings and gloves and her armour she was almost unable to run out of stamina and mana. She could win this fight, though it would strain her abilities to their limits.

  Judy's abilities were a struggle to level up. Not only were most of them purely combat abilities, but several of them required her to be taking damage. She had become increasingly adept at avoiding hits which slowed down her progress to a crawl on the remaining powers, not to mention Gavins armour and shield power as well as Sam and Val working to distract anything that came close.

  Her goal for this battle was to put herself in harm's way, trusting to her skills and Gavin's smithing ability to help her ride the line where she was taking damage at a rate she could deal with, but also working to actually kill everything in sight.

  She drew an arrow, eager to get started, and loosed twin streaks of light from her perch on the wooden tower out into the horde below. A rallying cry went up, dozens of crude horns blaring out their discordant warning. Judy jumped, relocating to a new position, staying just long enough to let a volley of arrows pelt the walls around her. Then the fight was on in earnest, she flitted between enemies, killing a handful each time before moving on letting a half dozen copies of herself dash around walls and debris to confuse the followup attackers. Eruptions of light and sound littered the battlefield as the goblin throng tried to understand what was happening and organise themselves while the more reckless members of their horde threw themselves in with wild abandon.

  She sprinted along the walkway of a makeshift palisade, shooting at everything ahead of her as she ran. She dismissed her armour, letting arrows and stones pelt her, her lucky dodge ability mitigated shots periodically and her Grit ability healed her with her mana and stamina for the ones that got through.

  The goblins were at a loss, unable to surround her and unable to form defensive positions they opted for the hard path, hiding. They scattered, forcing themselves into nooks and crevices, scrambling through their camp and out into the forest. Judy would have to dig them out herself.

  She drew her twin daggers, two curved blades that she now understood were replicas of legolas's weapons, and went hunting. Her archery skills were all level two, it was her defensive powers that were all needing to be trained, so she didn't mind getting stuck into the thick of the fighting.

  Bursting through into a hovel she engaged with a dozen of the small creatures, trading blows with their spears and knives, leaving them all bloody.

  ***

  “How's she going down there?” Gavin asked, his brow furrowed in concentration.

  “She's taken her armour off to let them hit her more.” Sam said from her perch.

  “When she levels up she's going to be an unstoppable skirmisher.” Val said, taking a seat on the edge of the cliff next to Sam. “We should think about going to the capital one year to join in the tournament of champions.”

  “Ohh yeah, what's that?” Gavin asked, wiping sweat from his brow.

  “It's the nation's largest tournament, people compete as teams, pairs or solo against each other. There's some serious prizes if you do well.”

  “Ehh, we don't really need prizes.”

  “What about the prestige of winning?”

  “Not as important as getting to hang out with you guys, the respect of my friends is all I need.” Gavin said, flashing a strained smile.

  “Gavin, you use every available opportunity to remind everyone of your every achievement.”

  “Yeah, I'm just pulling your leg, of course we're going to go take down this tournament” Gavin laughed, fabricating a ‘we're number 1’ trophy to enchant, harmless fire erupted from the top to cascade over them all before he disenchanted it a moment later.

  “We have to complete this assignment first.” Sam reminded them, her eyes on the battle below.

  “We also have to be at least level five.” Val said, “They don't let lowbies fight.”

  “Punters want to see people that know what they're doing?”

  “Yes, but also fights tend to go on a bit longer at higher ranks, it's not just who gets the first hit wins.”

  “Guys, Judy might need our hel- never mind, that was a good trick.” Sam said, tensing for a moment before she settled back down.

  ***

  “That was close.” Judy muttered, stumbling out of the warren brushing sticky webs off herself.

  She was covered in rapidly healing bites and stings, sickly black veins transitioning to purple, red then pink as the effects of her antivenom potion took hold. She surveyed the camp, goblins still infested the place, she could spot them easily peeking from their hiding places.

  The main doors to the ramshackle tower flung open, a pair of exceptionally large goblins flanked some sort of shaman. Upon its arrival the horde of hiding goblins had their courage reinvigorated. Cries of bloodlust went up, the creatures eager to bring death to their new quarry.

  The shaman raised a hand, streamers of purple lightning arced From its fingers, striking Judy, wracking her body in spasms of pain.

  She jumped away a second after a handful of arrows punched into her. That lightning was the first thing that really hurt her, and she wasn't sure it was a good idea to let it happen again. Taking aim with her bow she loosed two shots in quick succession, four arrows flew to impact the shamans hands that were in the process of conjuring another spell, the explosion destroy everything below the shamans elbow and threw shrapnel in all directions that caused minor damage to everything nearby.

  Swapping her bow for her two daggers she danced through her attackers, finding gaps in their defences with ease, slipping her blades into necks, eyes, and armpits to put as many down as quickly as possible. She took her fair share of attacks, but with her near unlimited mana and stamina she was able to heal herself as quickly as she took the damage.

  ***

  “You guys hungry?” Gavin asked “must be getting on lunch time by now.”

  “I could eat.” Val said looking over her shoulder at him “Judy's going to be a while yet, she's only killed two hundred so far.”

  ***

  She had fallen into a killing trance. There was so much death in one place her mind had switched off. Shoot. Stab. Heal. Dodge. Teleport. Rinse and repeat. The horde wasn't thinning, just an endless tide of bodies to put down. The ground was awash with blood, the scent thick in her nose, and still they came on. A bone deep wariness had set in, her stamina was full, but she'd pushed herself to a state of mental exhaustion she'd never experienced.

  Looking up at the tower, she jumped herself up, then again, then back to the top of the ridge, appearing in amongst the team.

  “Need your radiance ability Sam” she said flatly, “they're not dying fast enough.”

  “Jesus, you ok Jude?” Gavin asked, baulking at his gore covered friend.

  “I'm fine.” She said as she turned to dive off the cliff.

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  She felt the wind whip her hair and howl in her ears as she plummeted back into the camp below. When she was in range she shadowstepped down to the ground, bursting out of through the cover of a building into the open.

  She let her enemy draw in close, only making short jumps through the crowd, letting them bunch right up into a scrabbling mob. She ignored the prickling wounds from their arrows and thrown stones, feeling her wounds scab over and reopen as she became inundated with attacks. Picking her moment she activated Sam's radiance of the dawn power, her level two divine imitation ability letting her use the ranked up version.

  [Radiance of the Dawn]

  (Level 1): User emits bright radiant light for a short duration. Enemies within range take radiant damage proportional to their proximity to the source and the user's [intellect] attribute.

  (Level 2): Each enemy killed with this ability reduces the cooldown by one second per level of enemy killed.

  Divine white light spilled out from her, scrubbing the land clean of the vermin infesting it. Goblins burned and died where they stood, crude buildings washed away like sandcastles in the tide of radiant light. Wails of pain were silenced in an instant, snuffed out as the aura expanded to encompass the camp. She felt the power reset as hundreds and hundreds of goblins fell around her, leaving only ruin.

  The tower came crashing down behind her, collapsing in on itself as the loose string holding it all together frayed to the point of failure. The crashing debris erupted into a cloud of dust that glowed in the fading light as Judy let the power peter out.

  The palisade crumbled, tipping over from the central point, rolling like a wave as it broke along its length. Soon she was standing in a pyre of kindling, all life scattered to the winds.

  She stood there impassive for a stunned moment, the numbness buzzing in the back of her mind. Her hands balled into fists as she felt a wave of anguish wash over her. So much pain, so much death. She'd killed so much. Thousands of corpses lay around her, all of them dead at her hand. She knew in her head they were little more than magical constructs, but that didn't make her actions insignificant.

  “Its okay, you can rest now.” Gavin said, stepping through a portal.

  He stepped up beside her, draping an arm around her shoulders, uncaring that he'd smeared gore across his pristine armour. They stayed like that for a long moment while Judy processed what she'd done.

  “Here, take this” he said, producing a portable ritual circle of his own making.

  They each stood within the circle, activating it with a pulse of mana, feeling the tingling power scrub every inch of them clean as the clinging fluid flowed over their clothes and skin, dirt, blood and embedded detritus sloughing away in sheets.

  “Thanks.” Judy said, smiling wanly.

  “No worries mate. That was a bit of an ordeal. Why don't you go up and chill with Sam and Val for a minute while I sort this out. There's plenty of snacks up there”

  “I'm not hungry” she said in a monotone as she stumbled through Gavin's portal.

  Sighing, Gavin looked around, standing in the middle of a vast field of ruin he used his force of will to sift through the wreckage, finding a mental touch was enough to trigger his looting power, apparently it had become substantial enough to act as an extension of his own body for certain spells. Even so it was a chore, there were mountains of corpses buried under rubble, torn, scrubbed back to nothing but paste on the ground, body parts mingling in gruesome pick'n'mix bins in underground cracks and warrens.

  He deconstructed as much wood as he could carry, having to jettison some periodically to add more treasure. His inventory power had grown to a colossal chasm as more tabs opened up for more specialised categories, leaving him able to suck up a near limitless supply of the mundane resources. There was a limit though, and that was several hundred cubic metres of logs, twine, rope, and iron.

  Finally, the land reduced to a flat patch of wasteland, he stepped back through his portal. Judy, Val and Sam sat on Gavins picnic blanket, devouring the last of the food. Evidently Judy had found her appetite as she nibbled at a cold dire chicken leg, smeared with jasberry relish.

  “You guys all good to go home? I've got a special treat for us to watch tonight, just us, I won't invite the whole delegation”

  “That sounds good Gav.” Judy smiled, a bit more brightly than before.

  They returned to base, Gavin left the group to go turn in the quest. He stepped into the administration building, finding a bench to complete the paperwork describing the team's performance.

  “That took a while, you've been gone nearly all day, don't you have a portal power?”

  “Yeah, they were only level one, so Judy asked to do the whole thing” Gavin said, not looking up as he filled that information in on the contract with an ink pen, “there were a few of them.”

  “A few?”

  “Something like one thousand seven hundred eighty four goblin demons in a dimensional pocket.”

  “Specifically? You counted them?”

  “Looting power, tells me how many I looted, can't be sure I got them all, but that should be almost all of them.”

  “You got a lot of loot out of them then?”

  “Lets just say I don't have a money problem any longer.” Gavin smiled “I was gonna ask, I got like, a whole stack of junk from looting the camp, the goblins were absolutely full of little precious stones and crappy level one trinkets, stuff like a necklace that lets you change your eye colour for a few minutes a day. I don't actually want most of it. I've got a pile of mundane wood bigger than my fortress in my inventory just taking up space”

  “The guild will take the magical items in exchange for credit, I can offer the rest to the local chief on your behalf if you like.”

  “Sounds good, cheers. Anyway, I’m gonna go back to training, got a bet to win.”

  Gavin returned to the fortress, finding Sam and Val preparing to take Judy's turn cooking that evening. They were preparing a seafood dish that Judy loved making at least once a week and were arguing over the exact recipe.

  “How's Judy doing?” Gavin asked, leaning on the kitchen door frame “she looked a little wary when I went down to get her.”

  “She's meditating.” Sam said, looking up from the chopping board, wiping a platinum blonde hair from her eyes.

  “She's pretty worn out, she'll be fine though” Val said with a schooled expression, “you should go check on her.”

  “I agree. You're the best of us at boosting morale.” Sam confirmed, going back to removing the heads from a bowl of freshwater crustaceans.

  “Well, only because you two suck marhound balls- oi” Gavin shrieked as a kitchen knife bounced off the wall next to him “Fine, going.”

  Gavin made his way down to Judy's bedroom, stopping outside the heavy wooden door. He rapped on it with his knuckles and waited for an answer, none came. Knocking again he pushed it open, calling through the crack.

  “Judy, it's me, you in there?”

  “Huh, oh yeah, come in.”

  He pushed his way inside, then closed the door behind him. Judy's bedroom was both identical and completely different to his own. It was the same size with the same window looking out over the guild compound, enchanted to appear opaque, letting diffuse light filter through but no clear images. It had the same walk-in wardrobe, ensuite with enchanted bath that filtered filth and dirt out through its copper skin as hard cubes of minerals. She had the same bedframe and desk, but the embellishments and accents she'd given it changed the perspective.

  Her bed was in the far corner of the room instead of underneath the window, furnished with a light pastel blue blanket, and covered in soft pillows. A mannequin held her mother's old armour and bow standing proudly in the adjacent corner beside the perfectly neat desk. A plush rug covered the stone floors showing myriad footprints in its thick piles where feet had walked across it. On the wall between the ensuite and wardrobe was a large painting showing the knights of the round table, posing together, arms wrapped over each other's shoulders.

  The artist had done a fantastic job at capturing their smiling faces, each showing their characters perfectly. Sam's content smirk, lips turned up at the corners, clear blue eyes wrinkling just slightly. Judy's half moon eyes, upturned like upside down smiles, dimpled cheeks glowing with joy, Gavins toothy laugh, showing him full of energy and life. Lastly Valerie's wolfish grin, as if smiling at her own clever joke which was probably at their expense.

  “Judy?” Gavin called, not seeing her in the main room

  “Yeah, I'm here” she said, walking through the door from the bathroom. She was wrapped in a thick soft robe, hair still damp from a fresh rinse.

  “This is new?” Gavin said, though it might not have been, he hadn't been in here for some weeks.

  “Yes, I've been practising.”

  “You did this?” Gavin said, stepping closer to inspect the brushwork.

  “Yeah, it's been helping me better craft illusions, I started taking painting lessons before we left.”

  “No kidding? I didn't know, you're pretty fuckin good Jude.”

  “Thanks” she said, blushing.

  “Can you do me one of us all fighting that dragon?” he said.

  “If you want” she said, blushing even harder.

  “I do, it was a good day.”

  “For you. Not so good for me” she said, her smile fading.

  “You didn't let the team down that day.”

  “You didnt spend half the fight in your own head, that thing barely phased you.”

  “Val, Sam and I have had an unfair advantage over you from the start. I've said it before and I’ll say it again, you work harder than all of us and perform just as well despite everything. Sam's been trained from birth with the best teachers and equipment money can buy, Val has been a higher level than us all for most of the time we've known her with years more experience, and I've got super human levels of awesomeness that just can't be beat.”

  Judy laughed at that, hiding her face in her hands “gods you're the most arrogant man on the planet.”

  “Yeah well. What can you do?” he shrugged “you were a fuckin legend today. I know it took a lot out of you, I'm not super clued up on how this all works, but I do know emotional trauma has a physical effect on your soul. That much killing and death knocked you around, and the only way to heal it is time and support from your friends.”

  “I've been meditating since we got back, there is a little soul damage there, but a lot of progress with my abilities too.”

  “Even so I don't think the cost was worth it.”

  “You push yourself harder than I did today.”

  “I don't push myself to the point of soul damage. You've found where the line is, please don't cross it, we don't like to see you put yourself through that. You did a good job today, riding the line between taking and avoiding damage, you've found the line, now you know where it is I'm going to ask you not to cross it..”

  “Okay.”

  “Alright, I'm gonna go get some enchanting done, see ya at dinner Jude.”

  “Thanks, oh uhh-”

  “Yeah?” Gavin said, one hand on her door frame.

  “It's nothing, just, thanks.” She said, slumping down onto her bed as he shrugged and closed the door.

  ***

  Gavin bathed before dinner, he'd worked himself up into a lather, furiously enchanting in the time before the evening meal. Despite his assertion he never crossed the line with his crafting, he had spent a long time right on the edge, feeling the pricks at the edge of his consciousness. He might be better able to withstand the effects, but he was using that extra buffer to push himself beyond where he should. He had a pathological need to get as strong as possible as quickly as possible, at least with his crafting abilities. He was generally okay to train at the same rate as his team, but that wasn't the same to him. They had been close to the edge of disaster several times, and it was his job to make sure they were prepared for the next time.

  He took the early evening to relax, having dinner and joking with his friends. Afterwards, as promised, he delivered his special treat. The team relaxed back into their beanbags, now filled with tiny wooden beads as the intro played to the movie.

  “Gavin, what is going on? What's a teleph?ne system?” Sam asked, confused as the opening credits flashed on the black screen.

  “It's a thing like our telepathy power but you use a device to talk with each other, and anyone in the world can talk with anyone else if they know your number.”

  “What's a m??se? Gavin, what is this you're getting us to watch?” Val asked.

  “Shh, just watch the movie, it's rude to interrupt.” He whispered irritation bubbling up as he concentrated on remembering his beloved childhood movie.

  “Fine.” she grumbled, sitting back and crunching down on a handful of chips.

  The team sat back in silence until Sam spoke up “Gavin. Is that Arthur the same Arthur that founded the knights of the round table?”

  “Ahh… no ” he lied, “just watch the movie.”

  “Did you seriously name our team after this movie?” She said pinching The bridge of her nose.

  “I'm starting to understand you a lot better now.” Val laughed.