The Bandit Raid Pt 1 (I)

Three Weeks, Three Days

Selene finally did it, she made it to Early Steampunk Era. She was tired, and she had almost mined out an entire tunnel of her mine, adding metal paneling to the outside of the walls and inside to provide reinforcement, albeit thin. She was ignoring gold veins entirely, as there was no reason to even touch them right now. There was no one to trade with, no one to buy from. She was alone against a bandit task force heading to kill her or turn her into a slave. Once she reached the tech up, she immediately started mining to create the basic automatons. What would they look like? Would they be a game changer for her? She needed back up in this coming battle, so whatever they did would help.

Maybe they're like spider drones that slice at things, or maybe humanoid bodies that can fight like me.

After an hour of mining up anything she could find, smelting it and finally crafting a basic automaton fabrication unit in her inventory which was expensive in its own right, would act as a new factory station, she slowly crafted one automaton. Despite her crafting speed being at fifty percent, it still took an hour to get out. She received a new skill she could put points into, Steampunk Mechanical Engineering. Given that she only had ten Skill Points left right now until she leveled up, it probably wouldn't do much just yet, and more importantly, it probably wouldn't speed things up given it wasn't a stat.

Once the basic X Light Automaton appeared in her inventory, she placed it, holding her breath. As it dropped from her inventory and slowly activated, she was… woefully unimpressed. The whole thing looked like a box on two stubby legs, reminding her of the historical footage of Star Wars, specifically Gonk Droids. It didn't even talk, just made an acknowledgement beep when it heard her rudimentary commands due to the voice controls being Early design. It could beep at commands, make a low long horn sound if it didn't understand what she wanted, an alarm when it had no orders and a whistle when it ran out of ammo once she had a crossbow installed on top of it. There were no standard arms, just a pivot handlebar with a hole in it to install a pick axe, woodcutting axe or a hoe for farming. It was really lackluster in almost all regards.

As the dev checked to see if there were stats on the thing, she had it fire the crossbow at the training dummy and found that the accuracy was at fifty percent, which meant something like thirty-five percent against a moving target. It was slow, clunky and just made her depressed looking at it. It was also easy to destroy, as it was considered an X Light. The sizing for the automatons she found out as she reached the tech tier was Extremely Light, Very Light, Light, Medium, Heavy, Very Heavy and Extremely Heavy. She'd have to build one hundred of the X Lights to sacrifice them and build a Very Light, and she didn't even know if she wanted to do that if they came out as walking washing machines.

Was this what Early Steampunk gives? I could have sworn I'd get something cool… I mean, I have a robot walking around that can fight… sort of… maybe… fuck! I need like a hundred of these things just to take out like twenty-five bandits! God damn it!

She built a pick axe, not having it fight and just sent it down to the mine. It slowly moved down the ramp into a tunnel and started up what could only be described as a vertical rapid strike at a part of the tunnel where it could verify there was ore to be gained. It would scan first, then move into position, then start striking. She facepalmed, hard. It was faster to just use Molecular Reformation, and that was hardly upgraded. She'd need like twenty of them just to get anything done in the mines. The problem also was that it didn't collect the ore it picked out, just let it drop on the ground and walked to a new location. So, she knew she would need to build some with robot arms just to pick up the ore and hand it to her. That would turn into forty of them just to mine efficiently. That wasn't including cutting trees or dragging the trees slowly back to the fort.

I gotta at least build the other stuff I have access to. There seems to be a steam jet nozzle system I can emplace right next to the walls, I could install them in the trenches at angles with boilers below the foundation. Combined together with the boiling tar, it'll keep everything down below, but the boilers will lose pressure, eventually needing to allow the auto valves to turn off to rebuild it. Hmm…

She got to work on crafting the nozzle paneling in the trenches outside the walls and installing metal piping hiding under the foundation. She then burrowed through her foundation to build a basement where all the boilers would be standing, along with a wood eating steam generator she un-affectionately named "Wood Gobbler." Once that was complete, the boilers were installed, water was poured into them via the lake, and wood was used to boil the water. This also allowed hydraulic units to be installed into the lower part of the walls, allowing a sectional launcher trap to be used to knock down ladders for her. She didn't have the resources for anything truly electrical to work beyond bringing the wall launchers back into place or activating the valves, missing quite a few alchemical ingredients. There were a few new schematics she could have access to, but most of the really good stuff was stuck behind Late Steampunk Era or Advanced Steampunk. The big problem was just not having what some of the schematics requested, which was a really big hamper.

What she noticed was the basic automaton could at least be made with just materials she had right now, but boy were they expensive. Just one of them took forty ingots alone for the different parts, along with hardened tar for the feet and vegetable oil to lubricate, crystal or glass for a "primitive auto core" that was then enchanted twice with all of her enchanting bar, a burner to feed wood in as fuel and hydraulic units with the ingots. The cost was just insane, but she needed them. She needed a whole bunch of them. One of the few things that actually made her even a little happy about the Era was she finally had access to a basic clock that she built immediately and shoved in her inventory. It disappeared, just as she thought it might be similar to the map and popped up a small little clock on her Hud. Now she at least knew what time it was and could set an alarm. The time at the moment was 11 am.

To assist the four catapults, she built a steam powered multi ballista that would arc the bolts over the walls and then intentionally break apart mid air to carpet bomb an area. It might only have one chance to fire, given how large the bolts were, but it was something. By the time it was nightfall, she had made seven of the basic automatons, installed repeater crossbows on each of them along with pick axes to mine until it got really dark. She picked up the ore after them, not even trying to build any with robotic arms to do that easy work. By midnight, she had another six. She now had thirteen built.

Could I skip one more night of sleep? God I'm tired… but the potions are keeping me going, somewhat.

She couldn't do it, after forty-eight hours of nonstop work, she needed at least some rest. Selene pulled five of the stupid walking boxes and placed them on the walls on guard duty. She'd hear the alarm go off if anything attacked too early. By her guestimate calculations, she still had one more day to build up before they came for her, but if they had horses…

If they have horses, they could be here by tomorrow morning, early tomorrow morning. I might only get a few hours rest.

She bit her lip, the stress getting to her. The wolves whined a little at her present state, as she just didn't stop moving or doing stuff around the fort. She built a vertical rising portcullis for the gate, reinforced bracing she could push in front of the gate doors to further restrict damage, made crude Molotov's to throw out of liquid tar and vegetable oil. Her main problem was getting enough automatons on the ramparts to shoot out.

"Grrrahhh… fuck, I'll put all of the ones I have now on the walls, go down and mine quick, make a few more in queue and try and get up to like twenty or something." She quickly went down into the mine, gathered some ore, smelted it and shoved it into the fabrication unit, built a second fabrication unit, but couldn't fuel it with any more materials. Then she immediately ran to the cabin, got undressed and almost instantly fell asleep with her alarm set for 4 am. Four hours wasn't enough, but it was sleep. What she hadn't checked was that her actions were still going up throughout all this personal work, getting her closer to Late Steampunk or Late Middle Ages. She hadn't been checking on it at all, with all the work she was doing to improve the fort for the fight she knew was coming. If there wasn't a bell going off, it didn't matter right now.

Three Weeks, Four Days, 4 am

The dev groggily woke up from the alarm with the wolves looking at her. Was it time to go hunting? There would be no hunting today, as she had to finish the guard soda machines. Her head was still stuck in her old routine.

For all I know, having angry vending machines launching soda cans might be better than these stumpy things.

She checked her character sheet quickly, not expecting much of a change. She was two thirds to level twenty, the deceitful little experience bar slowly going up at a snail's pace. She really didn't want to get out of the nice warm bed. At first it wasn't very soft due to it being filled with cut up fine straw, but now it was like a cloud she had to rip herself away from.

She slowly got up and checked her inventory. Four more basic automatons. Four more crossbows. More bolts made. She put them outside, installed the crossbows, added the bolts to their magazines and started to cook an early breakfast. She luckily had some spare meat left over for the wolves, but all she was going to eat was a vegetable and peas stew. She ate in silence as she stared at the campfire. There were now seventeen droids she could protect the walls with. She sighed, a deep depressed sigh. This wasn't like the break down she had before when she was trying to figure out how to survive, this was too much stuff piling on just her. Maybe it was a warning to get up and leave the fort, to hide away until she had the strength to retake it.

"No… no, this is my home… I built this place from the fucking ground up. It's taken me almost a month to get this place to livable, to get my garden up and running, to make at least a few friends from Gold Pine… I'm not going out like this. This place is mine, if they want it, they have to come and take it from me." Her words fell on apparently deaf ears, as there was no one to acknowledge it. She cast Lesser Rejuvenate on herself to ease any sleepiness, took an anti-fatigue potion and eased into her fort build up. She installed supports to the mining tunnels to make sure the box heads wouldn't collapse the place down on themselves once she put them to task again. A quick Forecast spell and she knew due to the rain before there would be fog tonight. That might dampen the ramparts of the walls, so she'd need to be careful while walking up there.

New installations of a catwalk heading to the ceiling of the outside cave entrances allowed her to start building a small tunnel outward to break up some boulders and set them up on a pulley barricade hidden with bushes growing on the mountainside. If the task force came from that direction, the avalanche would get at least a few of them, make them run into bad positions where the box heads could get some shots in. The tree line was cut back a little further in one direction towards the North, not because she needed more line of sight but because she needed the wood. The box heads used it as fuel, the boilers needed it for fuel, the supports in the mine used it, the barricade for the man-made avalanche needed it.

By noon, she was really tired, using Lesser Rejuvenate on herself almost hourly as she used both her Molecular Reformation and made a fast trip to the lake to check her fish traps, having her head on a swivel. Those were the only two times she left the fort, to get wood and grab the fish. As if on cue when she got back to the fort, she found herself ready for another tech up. "Thank god, I could really use the…" she thought to herself. Her mind was a little hazy due to lack of sleep, but she could at least see the connection for Late Middle Ages. The branch had to go through Late Middle Ages, then it broke off to Late Steampunk Era, then pushed back into Renaissance before allowing Advanced Steampunk Era and Colonial Era after. She sighed a trembling sigh.

So close and yet so far. I'm seriously surprised I've gotten two tech ups in how many days now? I haven't had this many since I first started. Of course, I haven't worked this hard for it either. I wonder if the things I'm doing as a routine are considered low tier for experience, despite doing the same stuff over and over for the bonuses. I couldn't be… could I? I'm building Early Steampunk Era stuff, so hopefully I'm raising that damned bar.

It was true, her experience bar was slowly going up more so than when she was hunting and fishing.

Her hands were cleaning her armor and making sure all weapons were properly loaded. She wasn't physically tired, the potions and Lesser Rejuvenate were taking care of that, but sometimes she forgot if she already did something or not and went to do it again, her mind needing to rest and dream to work through the day's memories. With the last of her materials before she teched to Late Middle Ages, she reinforced the hell of out of the cabin and extended a section of the cave a bit so that she could fit Asterion, the sheep and Penny inside temporarily, a stone panic room. She started to check her walls to make sure there were no entrances she didn't know about besides the gate. There were very small openings at the pivot points that would allow the gate to open, but no human could fit through there. Plus, she had added barricades near the openings to stop any bandit from trying to shoot a crossbow bolt through them with their outstretched arm, the bolt would hit the barricades no matter what.

A final installation was two more Arteirobolos aimed at the gate in the event they did break through. By the time it was 6 pm, she had fourteen more automatons, now numbering thirty-one in total. They were all mining right now, getting more resources to fuel the fabrication units. She started to practice on the training dummy her melee attacks, again and again. Her actions were going up and up, and she didn't notice, just on auto pilot. Her practice swapped from sword to spear to bow to crossbow.

Check once you think your level twenty. Check once you think your level twenty. There might be a bonus you'll get.

She was repeating mantras in her head just to keep remembering what to do. The dev stopped practicing, sweat pouring from her body as she looked at the cave and mine. "Quick wipe down, put the box heads on the walls… I need some sleep… just a little more… four hours and I'll be good to go…" She prepped Asterion, the sheep and penny in the stone panic room, letting Ash, Luna and Blue rest with her after the guards were in place, the tar was pre heated and the steam was checked. Once all of that was done, she went into her cabin and set the alarm clock for maybe four hours, tops. Once she woke up, she could get a little more done. Once she wiped herself down with a linen washcloth and some cold water, the last thing she saw on her character sheet before she fell asleep was being one hundred experience away from level twenty.

10 pm

Her eyes shot open as her clock alarm went off before disabling it. The alarm kept going. "What the hell?" she groaned out as she brought her hand up to her face and looked around. That sound was one of the box heads warning her it detected hostiles beyond the one-kilometer range. The others followed suit. She jumped out of bed and put on her armor, grabbed her gear, cast a quick Lesser Rejuvenate and went from stumbling out of the cabin to combat ready. Her legs carried her to the top of the wall as she looked out and cast a scroll of firebolt, lighting multiple torches hidden out there and casting her buff spells, drinking the elixirs and potions she would need to stay alive. The fog was heavy, but she could see men creeping towards the walls. As soon as the torches lit up, arrows started being fired at her from afar as their cover of night had been blown. "Shit!" she ducked and ran for the pulley for the avalanche. The boulders started to crash down into the area, killing a few of the ones that couldn't get out of the way fast enough. She immediately used a scroll of sense hostile and knew there was a number beyond one hundred, more like two hundred. The avalanche had killed a good ten of them, but the other one hundred and ninety were still moving forward now that she knew they were there. She jumped down and activated the catapults, rotating them in that direction, and fired each one individually. That killed a good ten more as the box heads started opening up on the encroaching bandits. They fired once every three seconds, a year in her eyes, but there were thirty-one of them launching bolts out there so some would be hit.

The dev pressurized the steam ballista and fired it up, seeing the cluster bolt spread out and drop down, taking out four more bandits and scaring the hell out of them. Her Light Orb spell was cast at a ranged target to see where they were, giving her a good idea where she needed to be next. She kept hiding behind corbels as arrows returned back at her, one of them hitting a box head and damaging the crossbow, slowing its firing rate to once every twelve seconds. It could still fight, but barely. She fired one of the Arteirobolos out and hit two more, then a second pintle mount, trying to empty all of her hard hitters to whittle down the amount of arrows returning her way. Three ladders appeared on the South East wall one after another, and she could hear climbing of the bastards going up. The woman lifted a lever on the tar brazier and doused the enemy trying to get inside, hearing screaming and yelling as they fell off from their bodies being cooked alive from the murder holes. One hundred fifty remaining. The section walls were engaged to knock off the ladders, damaging the steps so they couldn't be used again as the wall launchers reconnected back into place.

Multiple grappling hooks were seen to the Southernmost side of the gate, which prompted her to grab a hatchet and cut the ropes each time, making them fall onto the wooden spiked barricades below, impaling them or breaking bones. That was another ten, one hundred and forty left. More grappling hooks were thrown up on the South East wall where the ladders were used, and the tar braziers were empty. The box heads took out a few archers in the distance with volleys, dropping in total ten more with thirty-one bolts flying. The accuracy was horrible for them. The section walls wouldn't do anything to the grappling hooks, so Selene activated the steam nozzles, spraying directly up and roasting the climbers a second time. The steam needed to be built back up, but during that time she fired the last Arteirobolos at the archers, taking out clusters of them.

That didn't go without return fire, however, as a few arrows disabled some of her automatons, dropping her down to twenty-six. She popped a stamina potion to get her energy back as she fired arrows from her quiver, engaging rapid fire and aimed shot at the same time, taking out six, seven, eight archers in the volley she launched from the recurve bow she was using. The longbow took too long to fire compared to the recurve. They were down to one hundred and twenty now, taking out eighty of the brigands while they had destroyed five automatons. An arrow clipped her chainmail coif helmet, making her immediately duck. She could feel a dent in it now, which scared her and thankful she had a helmet to block that shot. Only a few arrows were still launching now from the enemy, taking out another two automatons. Another ladder, then a second one, appeared on the other side of the gate, making her dash as fast as she could over to that rampart. Luckily, there were filled tar braziers waiting to pour down. One hundred and ten. An arrow shot out and barely missed her left shoulder, then another as she jumped down with the arrow hitting the stone she was standing on. The box heads fired another volley, taking out another nine. One hundred and one.

"Take that fort!" She heard yelled outside as a battle cry was heard. More grappling hooks appeared. The automatons were of no use to the ones trying to climb up, due to their weight and angle causing them to tip over if they aimed down too far. She bolted for the other side, almost out of breath and drinking a second stamina potion. She fired a firebolt spell down, catching them on fire for each rope, then fired a scroll of lightning bolt down. A crossbow bolt hit her left shoulder, but it was a glancing blow and spun her a little. The special passive "Move a Mountain" helped keep her steady, but just barely. Her shoulder ached from the strike, but she couldn't see the bandit who shot her. Ninety. Two more automatons were lost, dropping her forces to twenty-two. She opened up on a few remaining archers she could barely see as she used a Light Orb to find them. Eighty.

"Get in there you bastards! It's just one woman!" she heard, probably from the lieutenant. One final ladder raised up to a spot that didn't have steam ready or tar boiling. She tried to push it away, but there were ten men climbing up that made it pretty heavy. One bandit made it up, but she was ready with a sword and shield, practicing the gear swap at the speed of thought from her inventory and Spider Radial. The bandit tried to strike, but a shield bash launched him ten feet back, proving just how powerful it was when combined with Throw Your Weight Around special ability. A second bandit was just coming up the ladder, but a quick stab into his chest while he was ascending ended that. As she finally got the ladder pushed back and they all fell to the spiked barricades, she nearly fell herself. Her chainmail had caught a torch sconce and allowed her to pull back from the edge. The sconce was damaged, but it did save her life. Seventy.

A second ladder was latched, with two bandits made it up quick and took out two automatons, but she stepped quickly in and leg swept one while clashing with the second. He tried to strike at her arm, barely cutting at the slight opening in the wrist before the gloves, making her wince, before getting his arm chopped off and impaled soon after, with the poisoned blade not doing anything to her besides the cut thanks to her preparations. The second one got up from the floor and struck at her shield, with her blocking and rolling backwards while pulling out her spear, stabbing him as he tried to charge, shocked that she could swap weapons so quickly. The ladder was pushed off, another eight. Sixty. They were retreating now despite a protest from the lieutenant that was still somewhere out there, scattering to the wind back from where they came from, and just in the nick of time. She didn't have any stamina left. Her stamina potions were dwindling due to the running from place to place. The box heads were useless in that regard.

She was panting as she barely managed to get through that. All tar braziers were empty, the steam was just about built back up for the nozzles to be engaged, the section walls were ready again. She stood up to try and see if there were any playing dead out there while the last seventy ran. There wasn't due to the box heads still watching over the battlefield, but that was a mistake she just made that would cost her dearly. A crossbow bolt shot out, flew true, and slammed into her right shoulder, penetrating through the armor. She reeled back and screamed, her back falling to the ramparts, not because of the force of the impact, but because she wanted to get as low to the ground as possible in a panic with her legs wobbling from shock. The bolt had flown from a tree just beyond the kilometer perimeter which was amazing given the crude weapon used, with the automatons firing a hail of bolts in return fire but only hitting the tree as the attacker ducked back behind. He must have used some sort of special ability to allow that attack.

She panted heavily as she looked at the huge bolt extending from her shoulder.

Holy fuck! I'm hit! Oh my god! I'm fucking hit! I gotta… I gotta remove the bolt… I have to… oh god it hurts so much!

Her left hand grabbed the bolt and broke it in half, then reached under the chainmail to feel for the wound. Explosive fire erupted at the spot, her vision seeing stars. Not thinking, she did the worst thing she could do at that very moment. She pulled the bolt tip out, cutting through more skin and muscle… and nicking an artery to her arm. Blood started pouring out from the wound as she winced, unable to cast any healing spells. She was hissing and gritting her teeth.

The pain! Fuck, the pain! It's stopping me from healing myself! I forgot about interruptions! Wait! The… the potions! I have twenty V Minor Healing Potions! I've got to drink those!

Unbeknownst to her, Ash was snarling and got out of the cabin, running for the gate, and crawled under the small openings at the corners. She was charging for the assailant hiding behind the tree. Selene opened her Spider Radial, concentrating as hard as she could on getting the potion inventory "hotkey" opened and getting a little light headed. She hadn't added any points into interruption resistance. Now was not the time for her to try and fiddle with attribute points.

She drank one, saw the wound ever so slightly close, then popped another, and another. The wound was closing, but it was a near fatal opening and still bleeding. She popped two more and felt her stomach gurgling. Apparently, healing potions didn't agree with her stomach if she took more than one, similar to how some games provide a cooldown period before you can use another one. By the time she got to seven, the wound was almost closed enough for the bleeding to stop. She was bleary eyed and sleepy.

Don't go to sleep! If I do, I'm dead! Drink another!

She got to nine down before she felt really nauseous. She had to fight vomiting, or the juice wouldn't be absorbed well enough, finishing her off. With the tenth, the bleeding stopped. She didn't want to attempt another potion, but the wound was now a large gash. She fought back wanting to vomit with all her might and pushed a poultice into the opening, stinging quite a bit before numbing the pain. She tried controlled breaths to get some fresh air into her lungs… then heard the loud yelp and whimper from Ash. The automatons fired again, and she feared the worst. Selene fought back nausea and rolled to her left to get herself up on two feet, stumbled down the stairs and headed for the gate. She opened the locks and headed out, her sword in her left hand and tried her best to keep low, with the same tree in the way. As she approached it, she saw Ash on the ground with multiple stab wounds. She was still alive, panting and whimpering, but just barely. "Oh god, Ash… hang on… just hang on…" she kneeled next to her and immediately concentrated on casting Lesser Heal on her now with only soreness in her shoulder causing no interruption, noticing it did help a little. She casted it again, and again, emptying her mana pool, then pulling out scrolls of Lesser heal and Cleanse Lesser Poison. As she ran out of them, Ash only had gashes in her stomach and chest, just fur deep, but the organs were all working. The grey wolf whimpered.

"Easy, just stay still, it's ok… you're going to be fine…" she brushed her head to sooth her as she heard movement behind her. She turned around and saw a man lying on the ground just behind the tree, a few of the crossbow bolts from the automatons had hit him after Ash had attacked, peppering straight into his left arm and three in his chest, with a bite wound on his other arm. He had been knocked out of his cover by the grey wolf. He chuckled at her, and she recognized the face as one of Volgo's lieutenants. "You think you won? You think you're going to keep living after this? Once my men get back and tell Volgo… you're as good as done. This means nothing, he'll bring the whole army here. All twenty-five hundred of them. Say your prayers whore. Maybe if you're lucky, he'll kill you, but if you aren't… hehe… a leash on your neck as he walks you around like a naked pet… that's if this doesn't end you..." He coughed up blood as he lay there on the ground, but what she didn't see was the crossbow was still loaded and aimed at her. She almost felt time slow down as he laughed one last laugh… before a pair of teeth landed around his neck and ripped it out. The arm went limp. Blue was here to protect them. He was practically invisible in the fog.

"Good boy. Next time we hunt, I'm making sure you get some prime cuts if we find it. Both of you, god Ash… don't ever do that again…" He came over to her and whined as he saw Ash lying on the ground. They stayed there for another twenty-five minutes to regenerate her mana with their heads spinning for a renewed attack, not wanting to attempt to drink a mana potion in fear she still had some of the healing potion working its way in her system or the "cooldown" was still in effect. Once Ash was healed again by Lesser Heal, they all got back into the fort, with the dev bandaging her shoulder. The poultice would slowly heal the wound and keep it clean, with no scar. It would take a day, but by then she'd have enough mana to fully heal it. As she sat down on the stone stairs up to the wall ramparts, she looked around. Twenty automatons still functioning, all catapults used, steam ballista used, tar braziers used, steam nozzles used once, section wall launchers used, avalanche used, all Arteirobolos used excluding the ones in front of the gate. The ramparts and some of the main area of the fort had an assortment of arrows peppering the grounds, along with cut grappling hooks still hanging from the sides of the walls.

She had gone through a full quiver of arrows and ten crossbow bolts. The dev… was also exhausted. She laid her head back on the stairs and started to laugh as if she had lost it, but her mind was still functioning at its peak.

He's going to send twenty-five hundred bandits here. I'm either a dead woman or going to abandon ship. I barely fought off two hundred, and sixty of them cut and ran. I'm not walking out of here alive I don't think. I'm completely fucked. But at least I'll go down fighting or find a way to hide. I'm not surrendering yet, not a second time. I haven't given up yet. I just don't know what to do to turn the tide.

Selene held her arm still as she nursed her shoulder and tried to think of a way out of this. How many more automatons could she make before they showed up? Fifty? Seventy? That would take out maybe one hundred of them with everything she has before they would crash against her walls, climb up over or battering ram through the gate… and that would be it. The thought of becoming some pet on a leash was disgusting, she'd rather slit her own throat than allow that to happen. She wasn't losing it, but she hoped that something had happened during that battle to help her out… or she was going to abandon the fort. If worse came to worse, she was going to go North, hide in another cave until she could reach a higher tech tier, then come back and retake it. Until then though, she was going to check her character sheet.

Her hp, despite being buffed by enchants, had dropped to a dangerous level due to the bleeding. There was only a quarter of her life left, and thankfully, a combat log was available that seemed like a small miracle. She checked it quickly and saw the crossbow bolt had done about a tenth of her hp worth of damage, not a huge amount, but the removal of it had caused damage and then the bleeding. "Shit, I did more damage to myself than the bolt did…" The dev realized it was one of the worst things to do to pull that bolt tip out of her shoulder without preparing for it first. In any movies she had seen, the actor always waited for someone to cauterize the wound after.