Andrew collected the unfinished sword and set it aside for the night. He joined Kalan and Shelby around the cook pot and took Kalan's place stirring the pot.

Kalan was sitting on a stone nearby, one hand wrapped in cloth and clutching a block of ice. He was forming and dispelling little fireballs with his other though, and stealing glances at the glowing red blade sitting on a nearby stone table.

Shelby was standing around the cook pot with him, bowl in hand watching it's progress closely.

"So when are you going to make something for me?" Shelby said, not taking her eyes off the stew. "You've made a bunch of stuff for Kalan already."

"Well, what do you want? It was easy to figure out what to make Kalan. He'll be on the front lines with me so I just made him the same armor. The sword was the same thing, can't really make much use of his fire channeler catalyst if he can't channel fire." Andrew said, "I'm not sure what to make you though. I don't know much about how to make a bow or arrows after all. I can get started on armor for you after I finish the sword tomorrow though."

"Okay yeah armor is definitely important. I might have been in trouble if one of those goblins got past you two earlier, but could you make me something else first though? I got a couple class options after killing those goblins yesterday, but nothing about catalysts. Could you try and do some of that power transfer stuff on my bow or some of my arrows? Or maybe make me something I could transfer mana into? I want to see some catalyst options before I even think about picking a class." Shelby said.

"Yeah definitely. That'll be a lot quicker than the armor. I can probably even do something with your bow tonight. If you can get a pair that work together really well I bet you'll be able to do some pretty cool stuff with that bow. Kalan shouldn't be the only one shooting magic around." Andrew said.

They continued to chat around the fire, Kalan trying to explain how his spells felt to cast, as Andrew gave similar advice about empowering items. Shelby listened intently, but confessed she had no idea what they were talking about with feeling mana. When they finished up dinner Andrew got out one of the untouched crystals and gave it to Shelby, explaining his experience with feeling the pulses of mana. She headed off to a quiet corner of the valley to practice.

Andrew gathered up a bunch of lively looking sticks along with her bow and arrows. He also grabbed the four ingots he drained of fire affinity earlier. He laid them all out in front of him.

Okay… Modifying a bow. Sure. Okay.

What do I know from games? Rangers use nature magic sometimes right? If I put a bunch of nature affinity into the bow what would that do? It would make nature infusions stronger, not something I know how to do. Not even sure What that would do. Physically it would probably make the wood more lively. It would probably decrease flexibility and increase draw weight. That would make the bow more powerful, but likely harder to use. She doesn't seem to have much trouble with it as is though. I could empower the whole bow. In fact I probably should've done that a while ago. That will likely improve it's durability at least.

I can alter the arrows as well. Increased durability would be big. Less broken arrows is always a good thing. Increased weight would mean more power, but it would also reduce distance. If I increase the bow draw weight as well it would mitigate that though. I think. Shit I don't know anything about bows.

Could I make the arrows explode? Probably not. The arrows are far too small for me to inscribe even a single circle on them. I would need much more delicate tools to pull that off, and a microscope, and like, robot arms, because there's no way my hands are steady enough for that kind of precision.

Alright focus. What can I do right now? Increase bow's nature affinity. Add metal affinity to arrows. Empower both. Sleep and finish that sick fucking fire sword tomorrow. Solid plan.

Andrew got to work. He transferred the nature affinity of two sticks into the bow. It increased in length slightly resulting in a much higher string tension. Something he hadn't counted on. The bow itself grew thicker, deeper in color. He could still pull the string easily, though it was slightly harder than before. He added another stick worth of affinity into the bow causing little leaves to sprout from places along it's limbs. It became slightly harder to draw, but not by as much as he had anticipated. He added one more stick to the mix, then trimmed off the extra little branches and leaves that sprouted from it, returning it to a smooth surface. He could still draw it, but it took much more effort now.

Hopefully that wasn’t too much. Could be good strength attribute training for Shelby though

He chuckled to himself as he set the bow aside and started on the arrows. He didn't want to increase the weight of them too much, and he would already be increasing their durability through empowerment. He transferred metal affinity from the drained ingots into the arrows only a single time per arrow.

He had to take several breaks to recharge his mana. After ten transfers the ingots grew fragile and brittle. They didn't crumble like the stone, but started to flake off in layers as the affinity was drained away. The amount of affinity drained after ten was significantly reduced, and he decide to call it there.

He took first watch and spent most of it alternating between transferring affinity from the ingots and listening to the forest around him. He managed to pull the affinity from all four drained ingots and transfer it into forty arrows, most of their total supply. He took occasional breaks to let his mana recharge, during which he finished his second four circle grenade.

He was struggling to stay awake during the latter half of a generous watch, but wanted to finish the project before he went to bed. He took the bow into his hands and pushed mana into it, activating his empowerment skill and trying to focus on how the mana reacted to the shifted affinity.

You will become stronger. You will maintain flexibility while increasing in durability. Your string will not snap. Your limbs will not shatter. You will launch projectiles at high speed. You will become more comfortable to hold.

His experience with transferring affinities let him pick up on some changes to the mana he injected into the bow. He could feel it expanding, becoming more airy and flowing in more distinct pulses as it moved through the bow. The effect of the altered affinity was subtle, but he was experienced enough to pick up on it now.

It was a struggle to open his eyes when he was finished and he forced himself to focus through the late night fatigue. The bow had little finger grips now, very important. The string appeared thicker, and the alterations to the bow caused by affinity transfer were smoothed out. It looked polished and felt easier to draw than before. He was concerned it had lost power from that, but could feel a slight tingle of something more running through the bowstring. He would have to test it out tomorrow.

He forced himself to start working on empowering the arrows before he got too satisfied with himself. He did them two at a time, one held in each hand, and spent less effort focusing on them.

You will become more durable. You will not break. You will fly through the air and pierce your target.

The arrows were a little heavier, and each piece seemed to blend together. There was no longer a clear distinction between arrow head, shaft and fletching. Each piece seemed to have grown organically out of the shaft. The metal of the arrow head shined a little brighter, and little streaks of silver could be seen filling in minute seams in the wooden shafts.

He set the arrows aside in a heap when he was finished and dragged himself up and over to the sleeping pallet. He shook Kalan awake for watch and was asleep before he even registered his compliance.

He awoke late the next morning to the Thud Thud Thud of arrows striking wood, echoing through the valley. He turned over on the pallet to see Shelby firing her new bow into a couple lengths of tree trunk propped up against the cliffiside in the valley. She seemed to be struggling a little more with the bow, but there was a determined smile on her face, and the arrows were digging deep into the wood of the log that was her target.

Good. That seems to have worked out. Finish the sword first so Kalan can practice with it. Then armor for Shelby. Then, mass produce a stockpile of stone grenades. Next time a caravan rolls through here they'll be so fucked, it'll be amazing.

Andrew pulled himself up from the pallet and stretched out. He could see Kalan firing firebolts into the stone wall again. He seemed focused, and as Andrew watched the fireballs seemed to be shifting slightly. One small, one slightly larger. Smaller, larger, smaller larger. Sometimes they curved a little, or floated through the air slower.

Shit, looks like everyone is practicing diligently here. I'm actually the lazy one for once, sleeping in all morning.

He stood up and headed over to the collection of tables where his various tools and projects were laid out. The sword laid alone on one table. The rough approximation of a blade with the thin core of a handle attached at the bottom.

I should be able to use empowerment to adhere the handle and guard onto the blade, so that wont be a problem. I do need to figure out what to make them out of though. It needs to be able to protect the user's hand from the heat of the blade. A handle made of wood, with nature and water affinity?

If I wrap an infusion circle around the handle- no. Any handle thick enough to hold a full eight rune circle would be far too large to wield comfortably. I wonder if I could make a circle with fewer runes? If I want to have a fireproof handle, it's either that or infuse a larger piece of wood and cut it down to size. That would mean reducing the durability infusions or spending some serious effort to get it into shape.

He gathered up his axe and began cutting chunks of log and dragging them back to his work station as he thought.

I could make the handle out of stone. Should be more resistant to damage from heat, but more likely to burn the one holding on to it as well. Less efficient at conducting water mana as well, and harder to inscribe with small runes. Heavy too. I'll try wood first.

He tried shaping up a wood handle first. He used a hobgoblin dagger to painstakingly shave down a block of wood into a cylindrical handle. He then experimented with carving a four rune circle into the wood, the smallest he could produce. He made it an earth circle, the most stable and least likely to do something weird or dangerous if it went off.

He started pumping mana into the circle. It flowed through the carved runes and completed the circle as usual. He continued to pump mana into it. The physical alterations still applied. It began to increase in weight and take on a darker, more stony appearance. It also took about five times as much mana to achieve the same results.

Cool cool. That’s great news actually. I can probably imbue a lot smaller things now by taking out some runes. Seems like its way less efficient though, takes a significant amount more mana to get the same results out of it. Now to make a full version.

He carved out another handle, and transferred the nature affinity of three sticks into it. He then shaved off the newly added wood to get the handle back down to size. It was considerably more difficult to shave down the post affinity wood, which he took as a good sign.

Now how to get water affinity into it.

He tried to sit by the river with one hand in the river and the other on the handle, but his skill wouldn't activate.

Apparently I can't just pull water affinity directly out of a river. Didn't hurt to try, not surprising, but still a little disappointing. Next idea.

He took the ice bowl and filled it with water before activating the runes. The water chilled quickly into solid ice which he broke up into chunks with his dagger. He then grabbed the handle and tried to transfer affinity from the ice into the handle.

It seemed to work. When his mana entered the ice it felt cold. It seemed to thicken up without growing heavier, and flowed through him at a steady pace. He transferred as much as he could out of each chunk of ice, but the removal of affinity seemed to effect the ice more significantly than other materials he had tried. It didn't melt, but instead thinned. After two transfers the solid block of ice crunched in his hand like snow.

He transferred ice blocks into the handle until it felt cold and slightly moist to the touch. The handle had taken on a deep mahogany brown appearance, with a slight blue tint. It felt slightly cold to the touch and was much heavier than it appeared.

He grabbed his chisel and got to work carving four rune circles around the handle. He carved water and earth gathering circles around the handle, to improve durability and further increase it's fire resistance. He then carved a battery rune which connected to each of the other circles through a separate bridgepair. The rune would hold the majority of the mana injected and push a slow and steady amount of it out into the other runes.

He then took his chisel and used it to bore a hole through the center of the handle for the sword's tang. The material resisted valiantly but with time he managed to drill a hole through the entire length.

Alright last part. I need to figure out the guard. The heat this thing puts out is pretty intense, and even with a protective handle the close proximity will probably burn his hand after a few minutes of exposure. I could make a wide guard, something rounded to protect his hand from the heat. Like a little bowl to protect the handle and hand from the heat of the sword above. It would use all the same principals as the handle, just over a larger surface area.

He got to work on the guard, it was shaped like an offset bowl, to give his hand protection but still allow for flexibility. He carved the rough shape out before imbuing it with the same affinities as the handle. He then finished the shaping and inscribed the same rune pattern into the guard. He drilled a hole through it and slid it down onto the tang. Then slid the handle on. They were a little loose, but a tighter fit than he had been expecting.

Shit. One problem. How am I supposed to push fire mana into the sword If I'm not touching the metal. That might be solved when I empower the whole thing together but I'm not sure If I want to rely on that. A strap of wood running from the handle to the blade, empowered to conduct mana? It's possible, but would probably burn easily. A little counter productive.

Andrew's work had taken him well past noon, and Kalan and Shelby were across the valley, hard at work. They had removed the two boar hides from the river and had stretched them across a rough wooden frame with wood bindings. Kalan was scraping the hair off of his hide with a dagger, while Shelby was contemplating her stripped hide.

Andrew decided to take a break from his project and see what they were up to. An idea was building but he wanted to check out what they had accomplished first.

"Hey Andrew! You finally finish playing with wood for the day?" Shelby called out as he approached.

"Done with the wood! Still not quite finished with the sword. What are you guys up to over here?" Andrew said.

"Well, we're about halfway through making proper leather, but I don't have any of the right chemicals for curing it. At least, not curing it professionally. We could do it the old fashioned way, but I'll need another boar and a good fire for that." Shelby said.

"I mean yeah, we could probably get another boar pretty easily. Fire is no problem, so I don't see why not. Good leather would be pretty nice for improving our armor with, so I don't see why not, even if it takes a few days to process." Andrew said.

"Well. It is kinda gross. You have to mush up the brains of the boar and lather them onto the leather. There's acids in the brains that cure the leather. I wrote a report about it back in one of my history classes. I'm not entirely sure about the whole process, but that was gross enough that I remembered it." Shelby said.

"Well, whatever you need to do. That sounds pretty fucking nasty yeah, but if it means getting good leather then I think it's worth it. Don't really have a lot of options for picking and choosing, and once we head out to try and free those prisoners I don't see us having a lot of time to sit around for a while after. Best to get as much as we can out of this time while we've got it right?" Andrew said. "Um, by the way, how usable is the leather you've already got right now?"

"Perfectly usable. The last half just keeps it from breaking down and rotting. It'll be almost as durable and a little softer than tanned leather, but still usable for a few things. Why?"

"Could I carve off a few strips of what you've got already? I need something more durable than wood bindings to finish off the sword. It'll be empowered with everything else so I don't think we'll have to worry about the durability. I can probably replace it later anyways."

"I suppose. Here, I'll cut of a piece for you."

Andrew took the length of leather offered to him and left the pair to their boar catching discussion. It was a long thin strip of leather and he took it in both hands and activated his item empowerment skill.

You will conduct mana. You will resist heat and fire damage. You will transfer mana of fire affinity easily. You will conduct mana.

The length of leather didn't change much. It had a slightly glossier look to it, and stiffened up a little, but was otherwise unchanged. He took the length and poked one end through the sword's guard, then wrapped it around the base of the blade, just above the handguard. He then wrapped the handle of the blade with the rest of the length of leather.

He held the blade out with one hand. The bowl shaped hand guard sat above a tan leather wrapped handle, the blade was a slivery red that glowed slightly. There was no edge on the blade, but the construction was more complete than it had ever been before. The handle was slightly cool to the touch.

He tried to push mana through the leather wrapping and up into the blade. He was familiar with the process having powered several circles this way, but it was his first time pushing mana into a material without any accompanying material. He had to force more mana through the material than he had anticipated, but managed to ignite the sword. The leather beneath his palm warmed slightly, and he could feel the heat from the blade on his skin, but the guard seemed to be doing it's job. His hand was unburned and still slightly cool within the wooden handguard.

It worked! Fuck yeah. Alright. Proof of concept done! Now I just need to empower this whole thing together and this fucking thing will finally be finished!

He sat down with the blade and held it across his lap in a familiar cross legged pose. This was the largest and most involved project he had worked on to date. More complex than any of his other creations. He waited for his mana to fill and tried to empty his mind. He wanted to get this right.

Focus.

You will become a blade. Your edges will sharpen and never dull. You will be durable. Your handle and guard will be secure and safe from harm. Your blade will conduct fire mana and magic spells. You will become a blade.

He focused mana into the blade and tried to maintain the empowerment for as long as possible. He strained to concentrated on keeping the mana within the blade, to flow it through all of the components and bind them together. He could feel the blade heat up in his hand as mana flowed through it but ignored the rising heat.

When his mana pool was nearly empty and he could stand it no longer he released the skill. A small backflow of mana returned to him but he ignored it and examined the finished blade in front of him. The long blade now had a wicked edge to it, the leather that connected the handle and blade was now a dark maroon black. The handguard was a purplish mahogany and they all flowed seamlessly into one another. There were no gaps or breaks between blade, guard and wrap. The blade glowed with red light concentrated on it's edges, the silvery metal of the blade more apparent in the inner metal of the blade.

[Empower Item lvl 7-8]

Andrew stood and on shakey mana deprived legs made his way over to where Kalan stood contemplating his now hairless hide.

"Hey Kalan. Its done. One magic sword. Promise it won't burn you this time."

"Oh shit, okay." Kalan turned and accepted the sword, examining it appreciatively before walking quietly in the direction of the stone wall he used for practice.

He pointed the finished blade at the wall and channeled mana into it once again.

Flames spread up from base to tip and a thick bolt of flame gushed out and shot out though the air. It splashed out against the wall, chipping some of the stone and leaving a blackened scorch mark behind. The blade still glowed with flame and a slight hissing sound could be heard from the handle.

"So? How's it feel? Any burning? Is it harder to conduct mana through? What are your thoughts?" Andrew said from the side.

"This thing is fucking awesome dude! Yeah it’s a little harder to push mana through than it was before, but like, only barely, and it doesn't burn my hand at all! The handle is a little cold honestly." Kalan said.

The sword flared up and the flames on it intensified, wrapping around the entire blade ins a swirling flow of flame.

"Makes my kindle weapon skill really go crazy too. The flames it makes on my other sword aren't even as strong as the residual this one gets from a firebolt! Dude this thing is crazy!" Kalan waved the sword around in front of him. Slashing at imaginary foes. The flames stuck to the blade, leaving a trailing wave of flame following in the wake of the blade.

"Good. Good good good. Well I expect you to keep up with me in goblin kills next time we have to fight of a wave then eh?" Andrew said.

"Are you kidding? Next time a wave comes I'll take them all myself! You won't even have a chance to get involved!" Kalan said excitedly, slashing the sword twice before extending it and launching several bolts of fire into the wall ahead.

"It does use my mana a little faster though. I suppose if theres enough of them, you might get a chance to step in towards the end. That is as long as Shelby doesn't punch holes in all of them hahaha!" Kalan

Well I'm glad he likes it at least. He might even be right about being able to handle another wave of goblins. I bet any class he gets to choose from in the future will be interesting. Shit. I really have to figure out a way to shoot fireballs myself. Grenades are effective and all, but that looks cool as hell.

No no. Gotta focus. Play to your strengths. Get a catalyst that works with all these runes I've learned. Work with what you've got.

But.

If I can figure out a way to do that using runes.

Then, I mean. I'll have to take advantage of it.

Armor for Shelby, more grenades. Stable consistent solutions first. Then, Andrew style fireball time.