January 17, 2019, 1:05 pm. Shortly after escaping the clutches of the Fallen Triplets.

"Yeah. About flying," I start, responding to Beth's comment about my newest skill.

"Yes?" Beth queries while remaining vigilant for other threats.

"I think I could keep us all in the air, so long as I'm not trying to defend us at the same time," I state with reasonable certainty. I'd need to bounce back and forth between different team members but it's totally feasible. Little bit of wind mana under each person's wings, then presto, instant lift. Not as automatic as my lesser flight spell, but a solid start.

"That could be useful. It'd be a strain off Tipan at least," Beth replies.

"Yes, but Alexis is also our strongest ranged fighter. I think it would be best if we were able to fly without her aid," Roberts points out, either not noticing or dismissing the stare Beth sends his way.

"Maybe I can teach you guys then?" I suggest.

"That would be an excellent solution. Though if it's as difficult as the shield you taught us, I may have difficulty," Roberts reluctantly admits.

"We can try at least," I offer, looking around.

Rufka is grinning, Tipan seems confused and Josh appears dubious.

"Okay, the first thing you need to do is get a feel for your mana," I tell them. I spend the next few minutes trying to teach each of them how to use the basics of wind mana, yet other than Tipan and Rufka who both already have wind unlocked, we make no progress. Even when I try lifting them with nothing but wind none of my human companions are able to make so much as a small gust.

Josh and Roberts both have a lot of fun, and Smoulder even joined in when she saw them. She quickly changed her mind, deciding she'll leave flying to me. Which seems to be the current consensus since we're not making any progress. It's no wonder Rufka's mum made the game Astra's Stride.

Since wind mana is a bust, I figure I can at least explain the rune structure to them, but except for Rufka none of them have Runic Channeling. Not even Tipan. I also discover that no one else can form runes mentally. Tipan has heard it's a hidden interface upgrade, but she doesn't know the prerequisites to unlock it.

I try to instruct them anyway, but only Rufka has any success emulating my efforts, so after half an hour of trying to teach everyone we're back where we started.

Except now Rufka has a hoverboard spell too. So, I guess we're a little ahead. It's funny, but I didn't realize how… invisible the hoverboard is until I saw her floating on the air.

"Could we craft something?" Josh proposes, his dark hair falling in his eyes when we all turn in his direction.

Tipan replies forlornly as she speaks, "That would be a wonderful idea. But it would take so much essence. Plus, we don't have a proper Enchanter. It's not a subclass normally used in the field."

"Subclass, what's a subclass?" Roberts inquires as I glance over to Rufka who's grin is so large I want to hit her. The little imp probably has something that lets her fly but she made me figure out my spell. And then she let me try to teach….

Okay, flying without an item is pretty cool. I guess I can forgive her for that part. But I bet she didn't need to ride me like that. I need to figure out suitable revenge.

"Subclasses can do all sorts of things, though most are for crafting or resource gathering. You can only have one equipped at a time at iron rank. Unlike combat classes, they're not permanent, but you can only switch them out at a Nexus," Tipan lectures, slipping into her standard teacher's tone before deflating, "but it doesn't matter. I don't have the Enchanter subclass equipped."

"How do you unlock subclasses?" Beth asks while I stare at Rufka.

It takes all of two seconds, before she sighs out, "I do. I mean, I have the Enchanter subclass equipped."

I wasn't sure she'd have it currently, but I clearly remembered her telling me about it when she was showing off her fancy kettle.

"Oh, interesting," Beth responds, turning to Rufka, but Josh interrupts before she can say more.

"Yeah. Interesting. But how do we unlock subclasses? I'd love to have something creative instead of all this destructive power."

"Mum says every subclass has a primary skill associated with it. You need to complete four quests under the related skill's questline to unlock the subclass. Easy," Rufka replies, clearly glad to change the subject.

"Easy!? It took me six months of dedicated effort to unlock the Enchanter subclass," Tipan yells at Rufka making me wince.

"And how many times did you have to worry that you would be one head shorter if you took a single misstep during those six months?" Rufka asks nonchalantly.

"None, but-"

"Exactly. Easy. No danger required. Unless you count the boredom. Which is a significant hurdle for some," Rufka admits, shrugging at Tipan.

Before Tipan can reply, Josh fires off another question, "Cool. Cool. So, related, what if you fail to complete a step in the quest before the timer expires? Oh, and how does one go about creating iron-grade equipment?"

"If you fail to complete a skill quest in time, then you lose any integration points you would have gained. Most timed quests are like that," Tipan answers grudgingly.

"She's right. Some quests are limited though, like the zone quest here. We'll only ever get one shot at it. As for crafting, the easy way to create iron-grade gear is the same as making any mortal-grade equipment, but using iron-grade materials," Rufka adds.

"Like, an iron grade steel ingot for example," I wonder, thinking about my previous quest reward.

"Sure. Though you'd need enough to craft whatever you want to make," Rufka explains, deflating my dreams. My ingot is tiny. 0.032kg. While I'm trying to picture what I could even craft with such a small ingot, Rufka continues, "It's more common to infuse normal gear with iron grade essence. It takes more skill, but it's much cheaper material-wise."

"So, either way, you have to craft the item you want?" Josh questions, completely engrossed.

"Yep. Though if you're not careful you can destroy your materials when you attempt to infuse them."

"What like, I weave a cotton shirt, try to infuse it, and then it's reduced to shreds if I fail?" Josh asks.

"More like you fail to infuse it, you suffer feedback while your hard work puffs up in a cloud of blue dust, to be given to someone else by the system."

"That's never been proven," Tipan interjects.

"Whatever. Point is, all that hard work is gone."

"What's this about feedback?" Roberts demands.

"Failing to infuse your work causes feedback damage," Rufka replies, shrugging.

When it's clear that's all Rufka is going to offer, Tipan adds, "Crafting feedback applies to all your pools. Or to you, if your pools are too low. That's why crafting subclasses aren't equipped in the field. The system has crafting buildings that prevent feedback, making it much safer."

"Yep. Crafting without an appropriate building can be dangerous. Mum says more than one crafter has gone braindead trying to infuse materials above their skill level while outside a crafting building," Rufka shrugs not seeming particularly worried.

Note to self, don't try to create copper rank gear.

"Uhm, so what does enchanting do?" I ask, moving on from that disturbing news.

"Enchanting adds new effects to your base equipment. Or changes what your equipment does."

"Speaking of which, can we please get started on enchanting the gliders," Beth requests from near the edge of the roof.

Sighing, Rufka nods, taking one of the gliders in hand while checking it over carefully, "I can modify the existing enchantment to run on mana instead of Aero, but I'll need about ten mortal wind essence per glider. More for Rose and Roberts, since they're so heavy."

"What? How can you do it with so little essence?" Tipan demands as the rest of us pool our wind essence.

"Cause I'm amazing," Rufka says with a grin while inspecting our pile of wind essence, sorting them into separate piles then plucking several from different piles.

Then Rufka sets the glider down in a clear space on the roof, setting the shards down on a piece of leather nearby while Tipan watches her closely.

"Is there any chance you could teach us how to do enchanting?" I request as Rufka sets several tools out. She pauses to meet my eyes.

"I would be happy to teach you the basics Lexi, but not now. It is very delicate. Best to teach in an Enchanter's workshop. Luckily, Tipan should be able to assist me even though she's foolish enough to go adventuring with another subclass equipped," Rufka answers as she continues setting out tools. Most of them are a variation on screwdrivers or needle-nose pliers. There’s a mirror shaped like an octagon that stands out as well.

"The Explorer subclass is much more useful when travelling or venturing into new places," Tipan replies defensively.

"For not getting lost, sure. Not so great for modifying gear in the field though, is it?" Rufka teases as she holds each piece of gear up to her eye, inspecting it.

"Wait, what's the Explorer subclass?” I wonder.

"It's a subclass with special exploration-based quests and general abilities. Despite Rufka's opinion, it's a very common subclass when not staying in a stronghold or rest area," Tipan explains, crossing her arms while glaring down at Rufka.

"Sure, it's common. Because most users are lazy. Enchanter can provide most of the benefits of Explorer, you just need to put in a little more preparation," Rufka claims, "now either be quiet or take the conversation over there, I need to concentrate. Why is it like... This is...."

Tipan glances in our direction for a second before hunkering down next to Rufka, watching her start.

Looking around, since Beth's on lookout and it seems we're going to be here for a bit anyway, I open my quests, specifically reviewing my crafting quests. I was going to work on finishing my metal or stone quests, but I realize I haven't finished the basic ceramics quest yet. Now's the time to do it. No fear of failure while the moonshine is flowing through my veins.

"Quest: Plenty of pots. Description: Learn the ways of crafting with earth and fire. Requirements: Create 0/10 ceramic earthenware, raise Ceramics skill 4/25. Reward: 3 iron rank integration points. Time: 2/3 days remaining."

When I focus on the ceramics skill it indicates that clay is a good material to work with. I'm guessing the first part should be easy to accomplish.

"I'm thinking I'm going to work on one of my crafting skills while we're stopped," I decide while walking to the edge of the roof.

"Me too!" Josh exclaims, sitting down near Rufka while pulling out a set of clothes like the ones Roberts and I are wearing. He starts splitting the seams by running a single finger along it. That's kind of cool.

"Okay. But nothing you're not willing to drop. We might have to run. I'm not sure how secure we are here. That system boss could come back any moment," Beth says, sweeping her eyes along the nearby buildings as if a four-storey metal spider might be hiding just out of sight.

Meanwhile, Roberts sits near Josh, closing his eyes while drawing forth his small orb of water.

"Please don't go too far k-slick," Beth calls as I dive off the side of the building. I fly down to the base of the nearby cliff with my recently acquired flight.

Which is awesome.

I spend a little more time than necessary flying about before I find a clump of clay. Before I can recover it, I notice the lightning Fallen, Seldast, staring down at me from above. Despite Beth's warning, I may have gone 'too far'.

When I look at her, she grins, raising her hand to the sky unleashing a bolt of lightning. Ripping a large chunk of earth out of the wall, I block the bolt before it can hit me, pausing time while sending a flame torrent back at her. She blocks it with a transparent shield which audibly cracks and pops.

With both of our attacks being neutralized, she just shrugs, then turns away flying out of sight.

Keeping an eye above me, I hastily gather the clay, which I bring back to the roof.

Then, while going over my encounter with Beth, I spend the next few minutes shaping enough mugs, bowls and plates for everyone in the party to have their own.

Once I'm done updating Beth, I turn my attention back to my pottery. There's not much we can do about the Fallen yet. I try to make my pottery fancy with little grooved ridges at the edge, but when I try to finish the process by applying heat, I ruin most of my efforts.

It takes me several attempts to realize that I need to dry out the clay before I begin heating my results. Using water manipulation, it becomes easy to create my first bowl, though it is a little misshapen when I finish.

"Wow, Lexi. That's a lot of broken pots. You might want to stick to throwing your spells around," Rufka jokes, as she sets the second modified glider to the side. It's been half an hour, yet we haven't seen a sign of the system boss or the Fallen since my run-in with Seldast.

"Yeah, yeah," I reply as I continue working.

Rufka has finished modifying the third glider by the time I finally make my first bowl. Looking at my quest, I discover it doesn't count. Focusing on my skill, it tells me I need to apply a glaze. Luckily, my skill also tells me there are two simple methods I can use. Either salt or wood ash added at a high temperature will allow me to glaze my bowl.

Flying down to the wall of earth again, I'm able to draw salt forth using earth manipulation. Handy that. Since I'm already gathering it for my ceramics, I take the time to gather some extra salt for cooking which I intend to put in my bowl once it's finished.

As I return to the roof, I see that Rufka is still finishing the last glider, while Josh has made several changes to the set of brown clothes he was working with.

I take the lopsided bowl, blasting it to what I realize must be an uncomfortable temperature. But I'm able to float it barely a metre in front of me with no ill effects. Just how strong is my fire resistance?

If we were in a safer situation I'd consider running through actual testing. We didn't make much use of it during our earlier training, but Roberts's basic use of Reprieve to restore health is amazing. It only costs him 0.1 Reprieve to restore five health every ten seconds. He can spend more to instantly refill health at a 1 to 1 rate as well.

The point is, we can perform more dangerous tests than would normally be sensible, even for the average user. Which was the plan when we got back to Raz's. Kind of unlikely now. It'd be silly to do those kinds of tests without a secure location. And given that the other side has stone casters, a solid stone building isn't that secure. Hopefully, once we have flight, we'll be able to head back to Raz's.

My thoughts return to my bowl, which is even now cooling rapidly thanks to a liberal application of wind magic to blowing on it.

Once it's finished, I check my quest log, finally confirming my first piece of earthenware has been created. All this effort has been good for my ceramics skill at least, I'm already sitting at 26 of the 25 I need.

Now that I have a working method, I rapidly repeat the process with another twelve bowls, three of which are failures. Once the last bowl is successfully completed, I receive my hard-won quest rewards.

"Quest objective completed: Plenty of pots. Rewards: 3 iron rank integration points."

"That was…. Well, it looks like Link was here."

Quest updated: Plenty of pots. Requirements: Create 0/10 iron grade earthenware using ceramics, raise Ceramics skill 28/100. Reward: 7 iron rank integration points. Time: 30/30 days remaining."

"Geez. Thanks, Wyonna," I mumble sweeping all the broken pottery to a corner with a wave of wind magic.

That was a lot more work than levelling either of my other crafting skills, yet the three iron integration points are all the sweeter for it.

"You done, Lex?" Rufka questions while my last bowl is cooling, drawing me out of the happy dance I may have been doing. Wow, I just realized how much I miss music. It's weird not having a soundtrack to my life. I wonder if the system can do that?

"Yeah," I reply, turning to see the others experimenting with the gliders. It appears they're taking turns jumping off the side of the building under Tipan's watchful eye. Josh is currently stepping to the edge as Roberts lands smoothly, hitting the ground as if he's done this a thousand times. Josh waves at me nervously then turns back, jumping off.

"You know it didn't occur to me, but how is running his glider on mana going to help Josh," I ask Rufka, inspecting his tiny mana pool of 36 as he circles upwards.

"Eh. By itself, that would have been a waste of time. I decided to use an iron-grade mana essence on his glider to give him some range. It'll only give him an extra hour a day, but that should be enough to get wherever we need to go while we're here. Plus, we'll be able to recharge it if we need to," Rufka answers, gesturing to the surrounding buildings.

"Wow. Thank you," I respond. She may be a bit dramatic, but it occurs to me that Rufka has been very generous since I've met her.

"It is nothing. They will need more time to practice than you did, but I believe we will be able to outmaneuver Dhanni now," Rufka replies, her tone growing lower as she finishes speaking.

Even as Josh lands on the building, stumbling in place, Beth leaps with her glider, smoothly soaring around the building while I respond to Rufka.

"We'll take care of her. With tools like this, it's only a matter of time," I state, taking her hand and squeezing it.

Not that I have any idea what we're going to do now.