The flying fish monsters, thankfully, were not that big of a threat to James wearing his armor. They were more shocking than anything, but once they tackled him they fell to the ground and he was able to finish them off with a well-timed [Hammer Strike] to the head. The most annoying thing about dealing with them was cutting out materials. The rain and wind made doing anything more than cutting out the magic stone, either green or blue, from their heart too much effort.

So the Smith continued on, finishing off flying fish monsters as he went.

After about an hour of walking in the rainstorm James found one of the stone outcroppings and decided to rest. He put down some warding stakes, just enough to cover a small sitting area, and he sat down in the lee, out of the wind and rain.

Just in time for the winds to shift chaotically and put him right in the middle of it once again. The wind wasn't so much a problem for James, wearing his [Wind Resistance] armor as he was: it was the blasted rain getting in his eyes.

He pulled out his large iron shield and hunkered down behind it, just in case any flying fish monsters decided to take a shot at his head, and removed his Wind Visor Helmet. As fast as he could without fumbling, he swapped it out for his Water Visor Helmet, to see if perhaps the [Water Resistance] enchantment would help with the rain at all. And of course he was still wearing the Water Enhancement Amulet, having seen no reason to take it off even though it didn't do anything for his Wind Armor.

As he slipped the Water Visor Helmet over his head, he felt his mana chunk down, hard, all at once.

Immediately he pulled his Green Iron War Hammer out of his bag. He couldn't hear anything over the din of the rainstorm, so he carefully peeked out from behind his iron shield, and two things struck him.

First, the helmet was working. Although he could feel the pressure of the wind on his head, it was no more than a stiff breeze, and better, the rain was almost entirely avoiding his helmet. For the first time in over an hour, he could see somewhat clearly, even though he still couldn't see far through the storm.

Second, apparently monsters could not launch themselves into his ward. A flying fish, either lucky or devious, had tried to tackle him in the moment he was swapping helmets, and had flown smack dab into his ward. That is what had caused a chunk of his mana to drain. The wind was still pressing it against the edge of his ward on the ground, with a fin pinned under it, unable to fling itself back into the air.

As James stood and hefted his hammer, he felt his mana and realized that there was a connection between himself and the ward. There was a small but constant drain of mana as the flying fish monster continued to press against the ward.

BAM

As the monster died, the wind continued to push and rolled the carcass into James' ward. James breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing ever so slightly…

And the ward failed entirely.

Hurriedly he poured more magic energy into the ward, re-establishing it, and he checked the stakes for damage. They seemed fine, but he couldn't be sure… What he could tell was that they had been fully depleted of mana by the monster's flying tackle. Feeling for the connection he had felt before, he noticed that by sort of flexing his mana, for lack of a better term – remember, the Smith was mostly uneducated on magical matters – he could feel that there was still a connection between himself and the ward, even if no mana was flowing through it.

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James wondered what other functions existed within the stakes.

In any case, he no longer felt fully confident in his wards to protect him while he slept out in the open. Although it was good that the ward had stopped the tackle, even drawing on his mana to do so, he didn't want to wake up completely drained of mana right as his wards fell and monsters swarmed in.

At any rate, he certainly didn't intend to make camp in the middle of a rain storm. He gathered his stakes, swapped his hammer back to his magic bag and took out his trusty Earth War Hammer, and continued on, even more comfortable now that the rain was staying out of his visor and eyes.

Flying fish continued to tackle him every now and then but he dispatched them stoically.

And soon enough, he reached the end of the rainstorm.

It must have only been so deep.

The wind continued to blow as the rain faded and James found another outcropping of rock, and hunkered down behind his iron shield once again to swap helmets. Uninterrupted this time, he stood again and gazed around. Behind him was the rainstorm, and to the sides he saw that the horizon was uncomfortably close. It now felt like he was on a narrowing cliff some several hundred yards wide.

Ahead there was a flattish path of ground that climbed up, several hundred yards into the air, with a steep slope on either side. The slope continued until it formed a sort of valley on either side, presumably ending with another cliff on the outer edge. James couldn't exactly tell, because the view on either side was blocked.

On the left side there was a sandstorm raging. The grassy plains faded to sand in that direction, which was then whipped up into a localized storm.

On the right was fire tornadoes.

James had seen dust devils growing up, so the tornado part wasn't that big of a shock. He just didn't know they could catch fire like that. The ground there was cracked dry earth, with dry grass on fire, whipped up by the winds, with the smoke darkening the clouds above just a few shades darker.

The middle path seemed to be free of obvious hazards, but James felt sure that there would be something, even if only it was extra strong winds.

He certainly didn't fancy getting blown off one side or another, falling into a sand or firestorm.

After a break to eat lunch, he decided that he would try the middle path. His armor was highly wind resistant, and his boots were cleated. As long as he was careful, he didn't think he was at much risk of being blown over to one side or the other. He also hadn't seen any of the hawk monsters, though he suspected they might be around. And if he were blown over, on the sandstorm side at least he was wearing a set of armor: it might get scoured, but it should be enough to protect him. On the fire side, he was worried given how easily Green Iron melted, but he also had faith in his [Heat Resistance] skill.

Just to be safe, he set his wards and quickly removed his armor, put on his cooling strips, and put the armor back on. Less for himself, but hopefully it would keep his armor from getting so hot it started to melt if he was blown into the fire storm. Luckily nothing tried to tackle him out of nowhere.

He picked up his warding stakes and slung the iron shield on his back, weighing him down that much more, and started walking across the last bit of plains and then up the narrow middle path.

The path was only wide enough for two people at most to walk side by side. As he walked, head bent down by the weight of the shield, he noticed the grass faded and the ground turned to hard packed dirt, like the ground on the first floor of the Dungeon. His cleats sank into the dirt, giving him that much more stability.

The wind intensified, but to James it felt like a light breeze had only become slightly noticeable, so he pressed on, with each step focused on how he would try to fall if tackled, to stay on the path and not fall to either side.

But no tackles came.

Eventually, the slope evened out, and he found himself atop a ridge. To his left, a sandstorm raged below. To his right, a firestorm. Ahead was several hundred yards of narrow path, scattered with oddly shaped boulders he expected to have to pick his way around.

That is, until one of the boulders moved.

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