I stared at the choice before me with narrowed eyes. Did they expect me to just... pick? Without knowing anything about my options? What if one offered a significantly better benefit? What if one was incompatible with my equipment layout because of being, you know, a dog???

  Wait. I was getting ahead of myself. There was nothing to say that selecting one of the choices would automatically decide my choice. I might be able to look at the details, thus being fully informed about potential benefits.

  Still, since I wouldn’t know for certain until I clicked on one or the other, I should assume that once I chose I was locked in. So if I had to pick one blind...

  Of the two, a lance sounded less likely to be something that a dog could use. While I’d been wishing for more offensive capability for a while now, if I chose the lance and ended up with something utterly useless, I was going to feel quite the fool. I’d take the safer bet, at least for now.

  With that I selected the armor, and immediately a new window appeared.

  Okay, whew. It appeared I did get to review the equipment before ultimately deciding. That took a load off my mind. Even if the armor had ended up being perfect, I know I would have lost many nights of sleep wondering if the lance still wouldn’t have been a better choice. Now that wouldn’t be a problem.

  Also, how interesting was it to encounter another growth item? I’d been wondering when I might see one again, as nothing like that had ever dropped out a loot box for me. Perhaps they were the sort of treasures one only got from a legendary box? Made me wonder about how Crunch managed to start with one.

  But I digress. Canceling the armor, I selected the lance next.

  Okay, so both of them were equipped to this torso slot, whatever that meant. Otherwise, they seemed to work completely differently. Well, as different as armor and weapons could work, which in this case seemed to a bit more of an obtuse definition.

  The armor sounded like it would do well against all opponents, so long as I maintained the stats to support it. The lance, in comparison, talked in more absolute terms, such as 25%, 50%, instant death. I’d never heard health described as a percentage by the system before but figured out the concept readily enough.

  So which was the better choice? I guess it came down to what I hoped to get out of either piece of equipment and what I expected to encounter in the future.

  There was something about the lance’s wording that bothered me, though. Mention of ranks was something I’d only run into rarely so far, and never before in terms of how my own compared to someone else’s. A weapon like the lance felt as if it was made for punching above my weight class, since an enemy that was a full rank above was conceivably much more powerful. Taking out a percentage of its health instantly sounded rather powerful.

  But it was only usable once per hour. That... was a limitation I didn’t think I could be comfortable with.

  That left the armor. Was it really the better fit for me? I liked that it contained both a defensive and offensive aspect, but since I had no idea if the attack portion was really any good, it was more about the protection it could offer me.

  Which was substantial. 10% plus half the weapon’s level, which if it worked similarly to my collar would place it around level thirteen. So at least a 16% reduction that would only grow with time. That sounded like a good deal to me.

  Still, I didn’t want to jump on the armor without being certain. The unique aspect of this fight made me think a similar opportunity might not come along for a while. I had to make this one count.

  If I’d had the lance when I fought Crunch... based on my suspicions about rank, it likely would have taken almost a quarter of his health in one hit. That might have been enough to break through his defense and let me overwhelm him via conventional attacks.

  But if I’d had the armor, I might have been able to weather his attacks, heal up in between, and eventually wear him down. His strikes would have fueled my lightning as well, adding to the ways I could retaliate.

  Of the two... I would rather have had the armor for that fight. Heck, I might have been able to simply grab Riley and hightail it out of there without fighting at all.

  That settled it for me. I selected the armor from the menu, then confirmed it as my choice.

  Okay, so it seemed to function the same as the collar I got from Crunch. Five levels above my own... was there an upper limit to that? Was there an upper limit to my level? Only time would tell, I suppose.

  I selected the armor in my inventory and attempted to equip it. Immediately it appeared as a new slot under my equipment.

  How many more hidden slots were there? I assumed at least one more for my head, but were there others? Feet maybe? Or maybe not, since both of Zapper’s boots went to his leg slots.

  While I was on my equipment screen, I took the time to upgrade my bracelet and generator as well, since I’d never done that after gaining a level fighting the firefly. Raising my skill bracelet to level 13 didn’t change anything about—not that I expected it to—but my static generator’s slow effect increased to 40%, so that was something.

  Next, I used some cores to raise up my skill’s level, just because I hadn’t done that in a while. And you know what I discovered?

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  My cores were only raising my skill half as much as before. Not even half. Before I’d gotten a 5% boost from a common and a 75% boost from an uncommon, but now it was more like 2% and 30%, respectively. That significantly increased the effort to raise my skill by cores. Likely actual combat was also reduced, if how little the skill had grown already was any indication.

  I still ended up dropping a pair of uncommons and a few commons into it, then left it alone. The change in damage output between levels wasn’t enough to worry about right now.

  I still needed to decide what equipment I was going to use for this dungeon, but before that, I wanted to try something else out. Maybe it would work out for me, maybe it wouldn’t, but I was curious as a cat about what it might do.

  Which should tell you just how interested I was, if I’d resorted to using feline-isms to describe the problem.

  Opening my inventory back up, I selected one of my rare cores, then considered my next move. I knew that using it on an item would present two options: fusion and fracture. I didn’t really have anything left to fracture, but fusion, that felt like something I might be able to do. Unfortunately, I was loathe to risk any of the equipment I was currently using until I knew if there was any risk to its survival.

  Luckily, the system had seen fit to give me an utterly useless piece just for such an occasion. With the rare core activated, I concentrated on my Wand of Float.

  So far so good, that was the same choice I’d gotten last time. This time I selected fusion.

  Oh. Well, so much for that. Guess I’m done for the night!

  Not.

  Selecting the core again (and offering up thanks that a failed selection didn’t waste it), I considered my other items. What else could I afford to lose?

  My wands and collar were straight out, simply too precious to risk. So was the skill bracelet. I suppose I could try my Static Field Generator, since I hadn’t been super impressed with its functionality, but I wanted to keep my options open during this dungeon. That left my replication bracelet and my bandana. Of the two, I knew which one I could spare.

  Losing the bandana would mean shorter freeze times on my wands, but with my stats now increasing at double the previous rate it wouldn’t be long before I hit the limit on my wands anyway. I was willing to take a chance with the bandana.

  This time when I selected fusion the message winked away, though the core remained in my inventory. Another message appeared along with a long list.

  Ummm.... What the heck. They were all in gray—or red, apparently. I was starting to wonder if maybe I just couldn’t see that color, but that seemed ridiculous.

  Regardless, no matter how much I tried to select anything on the list, all I got were more angry gray messages. Eventually I cancelled out of the fusion entirely, then lay down to think.

  It seemed this fusion involved using two items. Something similar to my collar and tags, I was guessing? A way to use more items in combat, like creating new secret slots. The trick was to find the right two items to combine.

  Either the items needed to be similar to each other, or synergistic in some way I didn’t seem to understand. Which meant my only option was just running through my list, trying fusions until I found one that worked.

  I started working through my equipment. Both my collar and its tag resulted in an error message as soon as chose fusion, as did my new armor. No surprise there. My replication bracelet got me to the list again, but everything was still grayed out. Same with my skill bracelet.

  It wasn’t until I used the core on my static field generator that I hit paydirt.

  Okay, my static generator could be combined with... my wands.

  Oh boy. Deep breaths.

  I wasn’t entirely sure that was a leap I wanted to make. Both of my weapons, potentially gone? Left with nothing but my claws and my (rather mundane) teeth? It felt like a big risk.

  But also a risk with a potentially big reward.

  Screw it. I’d just gotten another weapon thanks to my armor, and while that one required me to take a pummeling in order to activate, it was still a viable option. Plus I had Zapper to back me up. It wasn’t as if I was alone in this fight.

  Even so, I held my breath as I selected the wands, my heart hammering in my chest as the screens winked away.

  A moment later another message flashed across my eyes.

  What was this? It made an entirely different item??? That was... not what I had been expecting at all. I honestly wasn’t sure if I was pleased or displeased by this turn of events.

  But I also suspected something. Choosing another rare core, I applied it to the item in my inventory. Just as before, I had the option to fracture (though interestingly, fusion was grayed out now). Selecting fracture, I received another message.

  The original items were still in there. While I’d only be able to salvage one if I didn’t like what the baton did, at least I had the option. I pulled the item up in my inventory.

  Uh, yes, I very much would. This was an improvement in almost every way from my old wands. Although it wouldn’t fire individual shots like they did, this provided damage on top of stunning, and had only half the cooldown time. It only took up a single slot, too.

  With a thought, I added it to the slot that the static generator had vacated.

  That fusion had simplified my equipment organization nicely, in that I didn’t have enough left to bother with anymore! Still, as I reviewed over my entire interface, I couldn’t say I was unhappy.

  Until I got another level, I couldn’t use my two remaining rare cores to increase my stats, and I had no further equipment eligible for fusion. It seemed as if my work for the night was done.

  [How are you doing?] I asked Zapper, who sat up with a snort and blinked at me. My tongue lolled. [Were you... sleeping?]

  [Just resting up for tomorrow, Boss! I didn’t have nearly as much as you to go over, I bet!!!] The little dog tilted his head as he looked at me, then started wagging his tail. [I like the new coat! It suits you.]

  [Coat?] I glanced back before I remembered I’d equipped the Armor of Argyr. My upper body, all the way from my shoulders to my haunches, was now covered in a thin layer of overlapping silvery plates. They rippled as I bent first one direction and then another to look at them.

  [Nice.] I turned back to Zapper. If I wasn’t looking at it, I couldn’t even feel the armor was there. It didn’t seem to inhibit my movement either. [You made a good point, though. It’s past time we get the human to bed and sleep ourselves. Something tells me tomorrow is going to be a busy day.]

  As we moved to once again block Riley’s show, my mind was already starting to dwell on the challenge ahead. I might not know what exactly awaited us, but I wasn’t too worried, either. Between Zapper’s speed and my strength, there wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle.

  Other than trying to smooth out an unruly human girl’s hair.