Andrew woke up and crawled out of his burrow, stretching out the aches in his joints as usual. He was almost getting used to sleeping in a little hole in the dirt. Not something he had ever expected in life, even after failing out of college.

Focus on what's important right now. Enchanting rocks.

He made his way over to the pile of rocks and sat down, taking in the morning chill and the rising sun as he began pouring his mana into rock after rock.

[+1 Intelligence for pushing the limits of your mana control]

He made it through nine rocks before running out of mana.

It seems like intelligence trains faster if I empty my mana pool. This could be good training for my int stat, Its been falling behind a little.

He set aside the first pile of rocks and scooted over to the second. He picked a rock from the pile and set it in front of him, before taking his chisel and hammer up in either hand. The chisel still felt slightly warm to the touch, and he regretted that he didn't have any mana to channel into it. The glow on the chisel's tip when he actively powered it was intriguing, but he would test that later. Right now he needed to save that mana for making magic rocks. Very important stuff.

He began to carefully chisel one of the flame runes into the rock. Moving very slowly and brushing away the excess rock dust that built up as he carved. It was far more difficult than hacking lines into the wooden boards and it took him much longer. The chisel seemed to glide through the rock, moving much further and smoother with each tap of his hammer than he expected. He had to compensate for it and ended up pushing back against the force of the hammer and making lighter and lighter taps as he gained practice.

The first rune took him about 45 minutes to finish and once he was done he had to stand up and stretch again.

If I ever manage to make an axe the first thing on the to do list is a fucking table. The boards can wait. My high vitality must be doing something for me here because otherwise I bet I'd be sore as hell from all this hunched over tap tap tapping.

His mana was full once again so he empowered another nine rocks.

[+1 Intelligence for pushing the limits of your mana control]

He then chiseled another rune into a nice flat stone. He repeated this process all morning, completing six runes in four hours. He was getting a lot faster at chiseling, but this was taking a bit longer than he was expecting. Far longer than the boards had taken.

[+1 Intelligence for pushing the limits of your mana control]

[+1 Intelligence for pushing the limits of your mana control]

[+1 intelligence for pushing the limits of your mana control]

[Stone Carving Skill Created]

[+1 Dexterity for creating a precision based skill]

[+1 Dexterity for performing precise work]

[+1 Dexterity for performing precise work]

[+1 Wisdom for sustaining constant mana control]

[Stone Carving lvl 1-2]

Maybe a three ring furnace was a little ambitious. I still need to do the connecting runes as well. I also wanted to include a heat binding circle in the middle. Sixty four runes in total. At my current rate that would take about ninety six hours. Four days. I could cut one heating circle, reduce that to three days. That would leave me with two heating circles and a heat binding circle. Should be enough, though it might take some time to warm up sufficiently. I'll have to test the first one and see how well it does. I did finish all the mana transferal rocks though. Maybe pushing mana into the chisel as I work could speed the process up. Though it's already difficult to control with how easily it carves trough the rock. It might even take me longer.

He decided to stretch his legs and explore a little. Chiseling for four hours straight was wearing on him and he would be able to do just as much of it later in the evening. He made his way uphill again. His wrist was entirely healed, he had his hammer, binding circle, and empowered clothing. He wasn't looking for a fight this time though.

As nice as the burrow is, and it isn't very nice, there is no storage space and no real protection. There has got to be a better spot to hole up while I build strength.

He made his way up the hill keeping an eye out around him. He moved deeper and deeper into the forest. Past where he had fought the wolves yesterday. There was still some blood spattered around, but it looked like the surrounding wildlife had taken care of most of the mess.

He continued upwards, staying within earshot of the river. As he continued the trees got denser. The branches above constricted more and more of the sunlight coming from above and the ferns thinned out. Long winding vines of ivy became more common, snaking their way up the trees and into the tall canopies above. He kept a vigilant eye around him but didn’t see many creatures. The rabbits that were plentiful before seemed to avoid this part of the forest, where undergrowth was less plentiful. He saw a boar once, but it was a good distance off and ignored him as he ignored it.

Sunlight broke through in a solid wall ahead of him and as he got closer he could see a sheer cliffside. Light grey stones extending a good fifty feet over his head. The cliffside seemed to curve away from him, inward in the direction of the river. There were far fewer trees around the base of the cliff and he enjoyed the sunlight as he followed the curve of the cliff towards the ever present sound of flowing water. He eventually found the river which seemed to split the cliff face in two, leaving only a foot or so of access on either side between the cliff face and the water. He could see the cliff curve off away from him forming a U shape with the river flowing through the center.

The river was only about three feet wide at this point, dug deep into the solid, rocky earth that surrounded the cliffs. He peeked through the opening in the cliffside that the river flowed through and was presented with the sight of a small clearing. Grass grew in the patchy dirt on either side of the river, but most of the clearing was coated in flat slabs of stone, varying from fifteen feet across to only a few inches. The stone was light grey matching the surrounding cliffs.

The clearing was long and snaky and the cliffs to either side were more jagged and sharp than those outside. It almost looked as if a massive blade had smashed the crevice into the earth, then scraped most of the shattered pieces of rock out. The river flowed along it's entire length, pooling under a small waterfall, it's origin a modest hole a few feet up the cliff.

It was perfect. Almost.

it was hard to miss the massive curled brown form resting by the riverbank inside. The bonewhite spines jutting up from it's sleeping form, drawing little circles in the air with each breath.

[Dire Bear lvl 46]

That fucking thing. Of course. Of Course it had to be living in my valley. It's even higher leveled now too! What is that, like ten levels since I last saw it? What the hell has it been eating? The wolves I've been fighting shouldn't be worth any experience to this monster.

He slowly crept back from the crevice leading to the small valley and began heading his way back through the forest towards his camp.

Ok. I really want that little crevice. Sure I need to go out and find more people. Track down anyone else who was transported here, work together, rebuild civilization and all those good things. But that valley looked cozy as hell and I'm not about to set off down that road until I'm confident I can survive a real ambush. A few wolf kills surrounded by freeze traps isn't exactly extraordinary combat prowess. I'm not sure my current binding circle would even last long enough for me to kill that thing with my hammer.

[Perception lvl 5-6]

He was keeping an eye on his surroundings as he went of course, at least as much as he could, lost in thought as he was. He made it back to camp without incident.

Maybe those dead wolves were the top of the food chain in this neck of the woods. Might be safe to wander for a little while until something else moves in. Still though. What was that bear eating? The wolves I saw on the first day were a fair bit bigger than the ones I've encountered so far, but they didn't look that much stronger. They couldn't be anywhere near strong enough for that bear to have gained levels as quickly as it did eating those.

The whole trip uphill had only taken three hours at his best guess and the sun was directly above as he picked up his tools and sat down to work on carving runes once again.

Before he started though, he wanted to experiment with the chisel. He picked it up and began pulsing mana into it. The inky purple glow that reflected out of the metal shifted and gathered at the tip. He grabbed a random stone, set the tip at an angle on top, and gave the back of the empowered chisel a light tap with his hammer. The chisel glided into the stone a solid half inch, instantly ruining any chances of inscribing a rune on it. He pulled it out of the stone just as smoothly. The gouge it left behind was smooth and almost glassy almost as if it had been melted through rather than carved.

He abandoned the hammer and tried using the sharply tipped chisel as more of a pen. It took significant force to pull it through the rock, but it was much faster and more precise than using the hammer had been. He spent twenty minutes experimenting with the chisel on his test rock before setting it aside and grabbing one of his river stones.

Fifteen minutes later he had a completed heat rune sitting in front of him. Carved slightly deeper than his chiseling from before, with smooth melted edges to the lines.

Way faster, way way faster than doing this the old fashioned way. With this I'll even have time to get the full three ring furnace done in good time. This thing is fantastic. Good thing it works so well too, with the rate that monster is leveling up, the sooner I can deal with it the better.

He settled in for a long day of carving. He set all his gathered riverstones our around him and sat with his back to the boulder, pulling each stone into his lap and working them with his chisel.

[Mana Inscription Skill Created]

[+1 Dexterity for creating a precision skill]

[+1 Intelligence for creating a mana based skill]

The skill appeared after he finished his third rune. It made sense that what he was doing was not stone carving, and it was the second time that he had gained two attributes for creating a skill.

I assume that’s better. The skill must be more rare, or simply more difficult to achieve. This system rewards challenges, if level-ups are anything to go by. Precision and mana based skill definitely sounds better than a sacrificial skill anyways. Not sure how much I'll use something like that until I can find out more about what exactly that means.

He had to rest occasionally as constantly charging the chisel drained his mana, and he waited until it fully recharged to cut down on interruptions. During the periods in-between he worked on digging a pit under where he planned to build the small forge. He would stuff the underside with twigs and branches and other things to get the fire started. He covered the trench in the ground with a large flat stone, which would be heated by the fire beneath.

[+1 Wisdom for sustaining constant mana control]

[+1 Wisdom for sustaining constant mana control]

[+1 Dexterity for performing precise work]

[Mana Inscription lvl 1-2]

[+1 Wisdom for sustaining constant mana control]

[+1 Dexterity for performing precise work]

[+1 Intelligence for pushing the limits of your mana control]

He continued with this pattern of rune carving all day, progressing from pit digging, to firewood gathering, to eventually burning the metal heads off of each of the pickaxes in order to consume the time between mana recharges.

He completed the three heating circles around the time night fell, and spent the early hours of the night assembling the first circle and rocks on top that formed the base of the forge. His fingers ached as he crawled his way into his burrow, dozing off to thoughts of the little valley he would soon claim.

He spent the rest of the morning working tirelessly to complete the binding circle that was the last step for his forge.

[+1 Wisdom for sustaining constant mana control]

[+1 Dexterity for performing precise work]

Once it was done he put the whole thing together. Three heating circles with a heat binding rune between the first two. Each was sandwiched between the mana conductive rocks that made up the main body of the furnace.

A dry run first. Just mana, let's see how long it takes to get up to temperature.

He placed the metal head of the pick axe he had split his chisel off of into the furnace through the small opening in one side, grabbed his mana conducting 'staff' and started channeling mana into the furnace.

Ten points.

Twenty.

Thirty.

Fourty.

The furnace was drinking up the all the mana he could give it, and he got the sense it could take a lot more than he was capable of channeling in this moment.

Fifty.

Sixty.

The stones of the furnace were glowing a bright red, the glassy material of the empowered stones was almost shining, though he felt very little heat emanating from the furnace. He stopped pushing mana in for a moment and leaned down to look into the furnace and was shocked when he saw the orange puddle dripping from the stone to the dirt hole below the furnace.

Oh shit, this thing might be more effective than I thought. I was only going for a few minutes there and it's already this hot. Shit okay. Three circles may have been overboard.

He sat back and watched, waiting for the forge to cool.

Ten minutes. The stones were still glowing red. The puddle had crusted over, but still glowed orange.

Twenty minutes. Stones, still red. Puddle, still orange.

Okay shit that heat binding circle is way too effective. This thing isn't going to cool down anytime soon huh. First thing on the list to make, a little repository for the metal I can remove to give it a chance to cool. I'm sure that has a name. A crucible? I used to watch videos on this sort of thing all the time. Heat the metal in a crucible, pour into a mold. A mold, which is made of…….

Stone should work right?

Oh well, nothing to do but test it.

He went rock picking around the river again. Finding a large rectangular rock, and another more spherical one. He sat himself in front of the still cooling forge and took up his chisel, carving up the rocks.

He trimmed down the rectangular rock until it formed a little rectangular trough, with a thick walls and bottom. The spherical rock he bored into, turning it into a deep stone bowl with thick walls.

He collected two of the axe handles nearby to use as makeshift tongs. The whole process took almost two hours, and by that time the red glow of the furnace stones had faded. He tested the bottom of the stone base of the furnace with a finger and while it was hot it wasn't quite enough to burn him instantly.

The metal on top had pooled into big lumpy black rock and he had to work at it with his chisel to pry it free from the stone base. It looked nothing like the grey iron that went into the forge, but it certainly weighed just as much.

Shit, I'm definitely doing something wrong here. This thing looks like garbage. It's iron but it's all mixed up with rocks and shit.

He took the lumpy bits and broke them up into smaller pieces with his hammer. Then collected the other lumpy bits that had pooled off the side of the rock into the dirt below and piled them all to the side. He then picked up his little stone bowl and held it between both hands. He began to pour mana into it as he focused on empowering the stone.

You will resist heat. You will not crack. You will not break. Heat will pass through you, but will not damage you. You will transfer mana, but it will not break you.

He poured mana into the stone easily and the bowl took on a similar glassy texture that the other stones that made up the furnace had. He repeated the process with his little butter dish.

You will resist heat. You will not crack. You will not break. Heat will not damage you.

He then gathered up the chunks of ruined iron, deposited them into the bowl, and placed the bowl in his forge.

Okay, iron melts, iron stays in the bowl, the bowl doesn't melt. The lil garbage rock bits should separate if it gets hot enough. So I just need to pull it out. With what? A wooden stick probably isn't a great idea.

He grabbed one of the pickaxe heads and began to empower it.

One end will bend forming a scoop. The other will straighten out. One end will bend forming a scoop. The other will straighten out.

He still couldn't alter the form of something too much, but in this case it was probably enough. The flat bladed end of the pick had bent ninety degrees about an inch from the edge and the whole thing was ever so slightly narrower and straighter.

He fired up the forge again and crouched to watch it heat up from the small window this time. The little bowl quickly began glowing orange-red, a similar shine to the stones around it. He stood up and looked down from an angle seeing the little black rocks begin to turn orange and melt.

He let it cook for a minute or two, periodically adding a little more mana into the forge to ensure it continued to build and retain heat. He wrapped his hand in his empowered shirt, then grabbed his little metal scoop and lowered it into the bowl. He fished around for a minute and skimmed some lumpy material from the top of the bowl. He repeated this a few times, dumping the excess in the nearby dirt until it felt about right.

I have no idea what I'm doing.

He set his little butter dish securely in the dirt before picking up his two axe handles and approaching the window in the forge.

Shit this things probably really heavy. Should've thought ahead.

He quickly empowered the two wooden handles.

I need you to curve a little, grip at the ends, resist heat and grip and the ends damnit.

It was his first time trying to empower two things at once and he was surprised when it worked fairly easily.

I guess wood might just be more mana conductive or something.

He reached the now slightly curved sticks into the fire and gripped the bottom of the bowl, struggling to hold it between them as he walked over to his butter dish and poured the molten metal in. Little orange sparks bounced out of the mixture as it settled into the now glowing ingot mold.

Okay, let that cool and I'll find out how well I did with that. Now. What was I doing this for again? Ah right. Metal plates. All that for some flat metal.

He sat down and rested a little. He had been working at this process for hours now without stopping and his limbs ached.

No empower item skill gains at all either. Either it slows down at level 5 or the system doesn't think much of my slapdash bowlchanting skills. Okay review.

Melt axe heads. Hammer metal flat and thin. Inscribe binding runes into metal. Level up and practice some combat skills. I suspect I'll need something with a little more oomph than my hammer to deal with that bear.

….

Wait.

That furnace got really hot. Like REALLY hot. Quickly.

Make three metal circles

One for the initial bind.

A second one built similarly to the wooden firestarter, two runes per plate. To generate heat and trap heat.

Cook the bear.

If the iron that makes up the binding circle is empowered to resist fire, it should probably outlast the bear in the circle. Probably.

Maybe I make a spear too. Just to poke it a little while it cooks. Just in case.

Okay, project outlines set.

32 sheets of metal.

Three runic circles

A spear.

One dead bear.

He worked throughout the rest of the day, through evening and into the night. Tossing axe heads into the fire to melt into manageable iron rocks, breaking the rocks into smaller pieces, filling the bowl with rocks, and then pouring the molten metal into the mold. Once the molds cooled to a manageable level he dumped them out on the flat top of his boulder and refilled them.

[+1 Intelligence for pushing the limits of your mana control]

[+1 Strength for performing physical labor that pushes your limits]

[+1 Intelligence for pushing the limits of your mana control]

[+1 Strength for performing physical labor that pushes your limits]

[Mana Smelting Skill Created]

[+1 Intelligence for the creation of a mana based skill]

[+1 Wisdom for the creation of a channeled mana skill]

[+1 vitality for pushing the limits of your endurance]

[Mana Smelting lvl 1-2]

By the end of the night he had a little stack of ingots on the boulder. Ten total. He was filled with pride seeing them stacked up there. The culmination of all his hard work over the past few days. Almost ready to actually be put to use.

The ingots themselves turned out a little strange. They had a slight reddish hue to them, especially prominent in the shine of a reflection. When he pulsed mana into one it grew warm, and the mana flowed into the ingot almost as easily as it did his chisel.

Status:

Name: Andrew Neilson

Race: Human

Catalyst: None

Class: Scavenger lvl 8

Profession: None

Titles: Pioneer

Status:

HP: 230/230

SP: 230/230

MP: 212/260

Attribute points: 35

Strength: 19

Dexterity: 30

Vitality: 26

Intelligence: 29

Wisdom: 28

Skills:

-Perception lvl 6

-Camouflage lvl 1

-Mana Control lvl 5

-Woodcarving lvl 4

-Rune Inscription lvl 3

-Adaptive Weapon Mastery lvl 2

-Empower Item lvl 5

-Rune Modification lvl 1

-Blood Infusion lvl 1

-Stone Carving lvl 2

-Mana Inscription lvl 2

-Mana Smelting lvl 2

Alright my stats are looking good. For level 8 at least I'm sure. I still have all those free attribute points banked up too. I could boost the hell out of one of my stats anytime I wanted. I'm still getting pretty regular attribute gains and my health is increasing pretty- wait. Something's fucked up. I have twenty six vitality, but only two hundred and thirty health. That's not right, right? Same with mana, thirty points lower than it should be. What the hell? When did that happen? Does it have something to do with one of my new skills?

The skill I got after finishing the chisel was described as 'sacrificial'. Did that end up leeching some of my stats or some shit?

Blood Infusion!

Check Skill, Blood Infusion.

Skill Description Blood Infusion!

Blood Infusion lvl 1: You have learned to mix your lifeblood into mana infusions binding them to you and expending your natural energies to increase their power. Blood Infusion is a custom technique pioneered by Andrew Neilson using a mixture of Item Empowerment and Mana Control. The mana conductivity of items infused with your blood is increased. Items created with an infusion of your lifeblood are more strongly affected by your will, and will only show their true potential through your use.

…..

Why is this the first time I've tried this.

I bet there's a bunch of useful information in here.

And I've totally missed it.

Also, what the fuck. 'Expending natural energies'? That definitely seems like the kind of shit I would notice doing. Was that what the weird warm feeling I got was when I was empowering the chisel? That didn't feel like losing thirty fucking points of health, though I was dead tired end of last night.

Shit.

That sucks.

That’s like losing six stat points, or like, just the beneficial part of those six stat points. They're still there on the sheet, probably still influencing how hard it is to gain more. Just, not good for anything anymore, at least not anything I'm aware of. Not great.

It is a powerful skill though, that chisel is incredibly useful. If I empowered a weapon in a similar way I bet it would be super effective. Based on how the chisel works it might give me some ability to channel mana through it, make the blade sharper or something like that.

I'm…. not sure that it would be useful right now though. Most of the things I'm fighting right now go down in a few hits, The bear certainly won't but plan A was to never need to stab it in the first place. Just like regular empowerment, I'm sure it will have stronger effects the closer the original item is to completion anyways. I think I'll wait on that one until I have materials worthy of the sacrifice, and I have a better grasp on how I actually plan to fight in the future.

Well, might as well check the rest while I'm taking a sit-down here.

Mana Smelting lvl 2: You've learned to infuse mana into the structure of metal as part of the smelting process. Using a custom technique pioneered by Andrew Neilson, you condense fire mana within a forge and melt metal through pure mana concentration. The mana is infused into the metal through a custom mana conductive crucible and allowed to cool within a mana resistant mold, expertly binding the mana to the metal and increasing it's affinity.

Alright well look at that, that all sounds cool as fuck, and I had no idea that's what was happening. Sounds a lot better than sacrificing my lifeblood for a lil boost to empowerment.

Condensing fire mana into metal?

I didn't even know fire mana was a thing. So those circles just convert my mana to fire mana? How is that different than just creating heat? This skill description seems to imply that I've done something special by melting metal through mana concentration so there must be some distinction.

It also has my name in it, same as the blood infusion skill. "Pioneered by Andrew Neilson," If I teach someone how to do this will that show up in their skill description as well?

Also. 'Expertly'. Yeah right. Totally intentional that one. Thanks for the cred status bot.

Perception lvl 5: Your constant observation of your surroundings has sharpened your senses. You can see slightly farther. Your hearing has become more sensitive and it is easier to pick out individual sounds.

Camouflage lvl 1: You have learned to make use of the terrain around you to conceal your presence. Obscurations will be denser and you are more likely to spot mistakes in your own work.

Mana Control lvl 5: You have learned to sense and manipulate the mana within your body as well as items you directly touch. Using a custom technique pioneered by Andrew Neilson, you felt the pulse of pure mana through a mana crystal and developed control of that mana through constant exposure. Additionally you have immersed yourself in nature during this process, strengthening your affinity for nature mana.

Woodcarving lvl 4: You have learned to cut delicate lines into wood. Shaping it to please the eye and fulfill your purposes. You gain an instinctive knowledge for the properties of mundane wood. Nature affinity increases the effects of this skill.

Rune Inscription lvl 3: You have learned to carve arcane runes into a variety of metals. These runes channel mana with unmatched efficiency and precision. Your accuracy when inscribing runes is increased and you are better able to resist the effects of warded runes.

Adaptive Weapon Mastery lvl 2: Stick em with the pointy end. Hit them with the heavy part. Don't hit yourself with any of it. You have an instinctive feel for how weapons of all kinds work, and can make most anything into a weapon. You aren't a master by any means but you'll deal more damage and have more control over any weapon you wield.

Empower Item lvl 5: Imbue an item with your mana, imposing your will upon the item and altering it to fit your needs. Your advanced mana control allows you to further alter an object and saturate it with mana.

Rune Modification lvl 1: You have deciphered runes from the age before and learned to modify them to suit your purposes. You gain an instinctive insight as to the purpose of runes and will gain more insight as this skill progresses.

Stone Carving lvl 2: You have learned to shave stone and shape it to your purposes. You gain better control over stone shaping and gain an instinctive knowledge for the properties of mundane stone. Earth Affinity increases the effects of this skill.

Mana Inscription lvl 2: You have learned to use mana infused tools to shape materials to your will. The power of concentrated mana knows few limits. Channeling mana into inscription tools is more efficient and you gain finer control over mana concentration.

These skill descriptions are… A lot to take in.

The pioneered by Andrew bit pops up a bunch. It seems to show up in particularly unique skills. It may have something to do with that pioneer title, though based on the Primer I assumed that was something everyone got.

It also seems like mana types and affinities are becoming more and more important, at least now that I'm aware of them. Apparently I've gained nature affinity for immersing myself in nature. I guess sleeping under a tree for a few weeks will do it for ya. I wonder If I got earth affinity too. I was technically a little underground.

Andrew felt his eyes begin to drift closed as he read through his skill descriptions closely. After the primer this was the most information about how this world works he had found. He crawled drowsily into his burrow and curled up to sleep.

Increased nature affinity it is. For now.