“Ok, I admit, I was expecting the house of some poor peasant widow,” Jason stated, “not some kind of miniature, middle-class pseudo-mansion.”

Kera and Lumi stood behind him, staring up at the half-timbered, two-story building that they’d been told would be their new home for the near future. It had a large, central portion flanked by two, smaller single-story wings, each one large enough to contain more than one room.

“If I had to venture a guess,” Lumi said, “she probably married one of the more successful shopkeepers over in the market district and then he died before they had kids or something. Because yeah…totally agree. This is way more than I expected.”

“Who cares?” Kera said with a grin. “It’s ours now! I’ve never been a homeowner before. Let’s go check it out!”

She gave Jason a gentle push forwards, so he opened the door and entered.

He found himself in a small antechamber which then opened up into a main living space. The entry hall itself was fairly sparse, if relatively well lit by windows. A coat rack stood in on corner by the door.

Jason walked slowly into the central room, which was dominated by a single large table in the center, with several bookcases and cabinets lining the back wall. A set of steps in one corner led up to the second floor, and there were four sets of doors, two on each side of the room.

Jason could see what looked to be a kitchen hearth through an open archway at the back of the room.

“Wow, we even get free furniture too?” Kera commented as she walked into the main room. “Sweet.” She opened one of the side doors and poked her head inside.

“We are paying for this, technically.” Lumi said in Kera’s direction as the girl entered whatever room she was examining.

Lumi looked thoughtful for a moment, then said followed up with, “Well, Jason is the one doing the paying.”

Lumi turned to Jason with a relatively serious expression on her face. “Thank you, by the way,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve really expressed how grateful I am that you’ve just been financing all three of us, no questions asked. I know you see it as a ‘we’re in this together’ kind of thing, but a great many people wouldn’t be so generous, or they’d be doing it with… certain expectations.”

Jason shrugged uncomfortably. “You’re welcome, I guess? I dunno, I guess the kind of funds we have access to with the potions just… makes money seem like a non issue right now?”

“I know,” Lumi replied, “I just wanted you to know I am grateful. I know Kera feels the same. Our situation would be a lot less comfortable if it wasn't for you. So…thanks.”

Jason was saved from trying to come up with a better response by Kera sticking her head out from a room she’d entered.

“Come check it out!” she exclaimed. “Bedrooms for each of us! They’ve even got some of those cool magic lamp things!”

Lumi rolled her eyes at the other girl but moved to join her.

Jason followed.

The bedrooms turned out to be quite cozy. Each one had a moderately-sized bed with a wool-stuffed mattress, with two chests for storage, a wardrobe for clothing, and a side table and chair. Each room also had one of the small, metal and glass enchanted lamps that had been present at the inn.

Jason made a mental note to find out if the lamps needed any kind of maintenance, and to maybe see if he couldn’t take one apart later to examine the enchantment in detail. Maybe he could learn something from them.

The four side rooms all turned out to be bedrooms, which meant each of them could finally have one to themselves. The back room was indeed a kitchen, with a large stone hearth complete with oven and smoke chimney, and storage space for food.

The second floor turned out to be entirely devoted to Jason’s alchemy lab: a single, large room with several long tables that had been piled high with the various apparatus he’d requested: Metal crucibles and calcinators, glass beakers and retorts, basins for water, and other similar things. All for the express purpose of his [Refine] and [Synthesize] skills, and the processing and storage of alchemical ingredients. Numerous shelves lined the walls of the room as well, split into different cubbyholes by vertical dividers.

“Whoa.” Kera said as she entered the room behind him. “How the heck did they manage this in one week?”

“Skills, I’m sure,” Jason replied. “And it doesnt hurt that Pelk’s family are all crafters of one kind or another.”

“What’s all this stuff for, anyway?” Kera asked. “I mean I know its for your alchemy and stuff, but I don’t even know what half these things are.

“Most of it is just for heating and cooling things in various ways,” he explained. “Like either burning something until it turns to ash with certain qualities, or heating a liquid so it evaporates and then capturing the gas and then cooling it back down so you can separate stuff out, that sort of thing.”

“Your skill tells you all that stuff?” Lumi asked.

“Basically,” Jason replied. “Sometimes I have to actually try and do something before it tells me, but yeah.”

“So what are you planning on making first?” Kera asked him. “More bombs?”

Jason shook his head. “Nothing right away. First I want to try the refinement process, and see how effective or time consuming it is. Ultimately, what I’d like to do is see if I can’t refine alchemy traits down into powders I can store in vials. If I can manage that, I’ll be able to do alchemy really quickly on the fly: just add two vials of something to a flask of water and infuse it, yeah?”

“But….” he emphasized, “even before that, I want to check out the books Jerrik gave me and pick my specializations, maybe spend some skill points, and pick a third or even fourth class, if I can find something unique to combine everything.”

“Yeah, we need to look over our own gains,” Lumi said. “I’ve got more than a dozen skill points I haven’t spent yet. It feels like a criminal waste. I’ve got class points to spend, too. And there’s the whole ‘experimenting with respec’ thing we talked about back in the ruins.”

Kera turned to Jason. “Oh, um… that reminds me,” she said hesitantly. “You’re gonna offer an Elixir of Rebirth to the Guild people, right?”

“Probably, yeah,” Jason replied. “I’m still a bit hesitant about it, but it seems like the best way to get the point across that we’re worth the trouble of declaring us under their protection.”

“Can I do the demonstration?” she asked him,

Jason cocked his head at her. “Demonstration?”

“Well they won’t really know what a respec is, right?” Kera said. “I’ve got class points I’m not using right now, and I…”

She trailed off for a second, and a morose expression flickered across her face for a moment, but she shook herself.

“Sorry,” she said. “Still not totally… over things.”

She took a deep breath. “Anyway,” she continued, “You’ll want something dramatic to prove to them these elixirs are worth it all, right? What better than to show what they can do? I’m willing to do dramatic.”

Lumi looked a little concerned. “Kera…”

Kera just waved her off. “It’s fine, Lumi. I’ve given this a lot of thought. I want this.”

Jason shrugged. “I don’t have a problem with it, if that’s what you want to do. Its a good suggestion.”

“Thank you,” she said quietly. Then she cleared her throat slightly.

“I, um, need to go let Ceri and Echo in,” Kera said, “now that we’ve checked the place out. I think I might set up that last room as place for my bonded, if you guys don’t mind.”

Jason looked over to Lumi.

“Fine by me,” she said, “but realistically, it’s your house.”

Jason shook his head. “Our house,” he emphasized. “We all live here, we all get a say. Even if I’m the one who’s paying for the building.”

”Besides,” he said with a laugh, “it’s not like you guys didn’t help kill all the stuff I’ll be turning into money.”

Lumi grinned. “True enough.”

“It’s settled then,” Jason said to Kera. “Go right ahead.”

“Thanks,” Kera replied, and headed back down the stairs.

“I’m going to pick out a room and get to work, I think,” Jason told Lumi. “I want to get in what work I can before meeting with this Aurion person.”

“Good idea,” she replied. “Meet up in a few hours for dinner then, unless we hear from Therissa before then?”

“Sounds good to me,” he said, “though I think we’ll be eating at the tavern. I’ll need time to get the hearth fire lit, unless you want to give it a try.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Jason closed the door to the room he’d chose, placed his pack on the side table, and then sank into his new bed with a sigh. It seemed like months since he’d last had any real privacy, even though it reality it had only been a week and a half.

He closed his eyes for a few minutes, but reopened them when he felt himself drifting off to sleep. It had been a long day already, what with having traveled half the day on horseback before having an extended meeting with Therissa, but he still had work to do. He had no idea how fast dungeons became a threat to nearby towns, but given that there had already been one attempt on his life by marauding Murklings, he didn’t feel like he had the luxury of time to rest.

So instead, he groaned and sat up, and began calling up the status windows he’d pinned just out of his field of view.

Level Gained: Alchemist Level 11. Skill Point acquired.

Hmm, that’s odd, Jason thought, First time I’ve not gotten a skill at an odd level.

Level Gained: Artificer Level 10. Skill Point acquired. Stat Point acquired. Class Point acquired. Hybrid Class, Level 10 Milestone reached: +100 Maximum Mana awarded. +5 Skill Points awarded. Skill Specialization acquired: You may now choose a crafting skill or sphere of study to advance to the next tier.

Wait. Sphere of study? That’s different from the Alchemist specialization, right?

Jason checked his class information. Yes, Alchemist’s specialization allowed him to choose between a crafting skill or a gathering skill.

So they’re different, depending on what class you’ve reached the milestone in. I wish I knew if I could refund a specialization with the Elixir…

He pulled up the selection window for his Artificer specialization. It was surprisingly short, containing entries only for improved standard potion-crafting, improved wand-making, and increasing the tier of his various crafting skills.

I bet it’s like the discovery list, Jason thought. It’s only showing me things that I meet perquisites for. Hmm. That poses an issue, then. If I want to come up with something that leverages all my classes into a whole, I’m going to need to really think carefully here.

Jason put aside his specialization choice for now. Instead, he opened up his pack and pulled out the package Jerrik gave him.

He opened the note first, which turned out to be a handwritten letter explaining that Jerrik had taken the liberty of speaking to a few people about the sorts of specific enchanting knowledge Jason might find most useful. Apparently Flora had been a great help in that respect.

Jason opened the package as he read through Jerrik’s note. The first book was small and thin, and was titled 'Inscription vs. Engraving: A Primer.' and was partly about alternative enchanting skills, but primarily dealt with making spell-scrolls and producing magically-charged inks to draw runes onto a surface rather than carve them physically into the object.

The second volume was more like a large, excessively dry textbook, filled to the brim with complex rune sequences. Jason could barely get his head around the brief look he took at the descriptions of what they did, much less the rune diagrams themselves. He suspected his engrave skill was simply too low currently to work any of them out.

Fortunately, he had plenty of skill points to burn. But that could come later.

The final two books in the bundle made Jason grin with glee. The first was a relatively simple primer on basic enchanting. While this would be unlikely to gain Jason any skill ranks, it did have several examples of common enchantments, including the one for creating a bag of holding.

The second book was equally as useful: a book on Life-Element enchantments and their effects on living creatures.

Now these, I can make use of, Jason thought. It’ll take me a few days to get through all this, but I’ll be damned if I can’t work out some kind of extra-dimensional greenhouse with this.

Jason stretched, then placed the package’s contents on the side table.

Speaking of…

Jason rummaged through his pack a second time, withdrawing the small anchor-shaped figurine he’d taken from Vittorio. He’d forgotten to examine it at the time.

“Analyze Item.”

[Spatial Anchor]: Upon activation, redirects all nearby teleportation destinations to itself.

Huh. Literally an anchor, OK then. I can see why that might be a useful tool for a bounty hunter to carry around.

He put the figuring back in his pack, slightly disappointed he hadn’t learned anything from it.

Next on the list… opening up [Engineer].

After his prior talk with Sevani, he’d had a fairly good idea how he could unlock the class; it was as simple as earning a related knowledge skill, and once you had the class you then became eligible to take a great number of inter-related skills dealing with construction and physics.

While Jason didn’t really think it would be a class he’d level much, it was a good candidate for testing out his respec potion: He was willing to spend some points to pick up a few ranks in some construction-related skills, unlock the class, and then see what he could or couldn’t do with the respec potion. If it turned out he could change things too much, it wouldn’t be a huge loss, and he really did want to test things out before Kera accidentally altered herself in some way she couldn’t undo.

This way, he had a legitimate excuse to test things out first. Besides, it wouldn’t do to offer up some [Elixir of Rebirth] to the Black Thorns without actually knowing exactly what it did; right now they were largely making assumptions.

So Jason stood, gathered his pack, and headed out to the market briefly after informing Lumi that he was headed out briefly.

First he visited Jerrik’s shop, in order to thank the older man for the books. He also picked up several short, thin rods of wood. They were supposed to be used as tent stakes, but he had Jerrik cut them short for him, and bought a bit of thick twine and some hide scraps to go with them.

Jason also stopped by the Lodge briefly, in order to withdraw several items from his Vault: his phone, the Elixirs, the dye bundles, and the remaining pouches of enchanted dirt.

While he was at it, he asked Therissa about how much he owed the Lodge currently in terms of potions, so he could whip up a batch of greater healing potions for her.

The reply he got surprised him a little.

“I’d rather you make me more of those least potions, actually,” she told him when they had a private moment away from all the bustle.

“Really? I mean, sure, I can do that, but why when I can make better?” Jason asked.

“Two reasons,” she explained. “The first one is that, well, they’ll be a lot easier to find buyers for. In fact, I’ve already sold the ones you gave me before to people here. Remember, eternal potions are quite valuable, and the more potent they are, the more expensive they get. A greater heal is far outside the average citizen’s price range, and even the more successful adventurers would hesitate to spend that kind of money. It’s much cheaper to buy normal ones before a job, even if it means they might go to waste.”

“The second one is, well, the rarity issue,” Therissa continued. “I don’t want to suddenly be offering a whole mess of high-end eternal potions; people will ask questions. It’s bad enough I’ll be trying to sell a fair number of least ones.”

“I see,” Jason replied. “In that case, least potions it is. Want some non-healing ones too? I can spread it out across different kinds, if you’d like.”

“Please.”

“Any word on the meeting with Auric?” Jason asked.

“Not yet,” Therissa replied. “He’s apparently out on some scouting errand. Something about wanting to checking things out personally. So it won’t be til tomorrow the earliest. Drop by in the morning and I’ll let you know when he’ll see you.”

“Thanks,” he replied.

Jason returned to the house, where he found that Lumi had managed to ignite the hearth fire in the kitchen, which also served to help heat the house.

Lumi gave him a wave as he entered.

“Hey,” she said. “Got deliveries of various stuff from people while you were out. Apparently the neighbors are the type who like housewarming gifts.”

“Oh?”

She laughed. “Yeah. And apparently they hadn’t been informed who was moving in either. Some poor lady practically had her socks scared off of her when Kera came to the door with Echo in tow.”

“Oh dear,” Jason replied.

“She was fine, at least,” Lumi said. “Anyway, we’ve got some foodstuffs I’ve put away in the cabinets, and logs to keep the fire going.”

She wrinkled her nose. “It does get awfully smoky though.”

Jason shrugged. “Comes with the technology level, really. Maybe I can rig up some kind of air flow or heating charm or something later.”

He bid Lumi goodbye, and headed up to the lab, where he sat down at one of the tables, and pulled out the twine and wooden dowels.

With a little bit of help from his phone, the scraps of hide, and some conjured tools, Jason soon had a working, miniature torsion catapult. It was a simple thing, just a wooden frame and a tightly-wound but of twine, but it did the job:

You have earned a new skill: Basic Carpentry. You have earned a new skill: Basic Engineering. You have earned a new skill: Basic Physics.

Jason gave a little fist-pump, and then opened his status screen to pay for all three skills. While he didn’t really think he’d ever make much use of [Carpentry], he figured that since you never knew what might be a prerequisite, he might as well grab it and respec it out if it didn't lead to anything.

After purchasing the skills, [Engineer] showed up in his class unlocks. He held off on paying for it just yet, though: he had one other task first, courtesy of Pelk’s father, Tersk.

Jason spent a minute trying to locate what he wanted amidst all the clutter on the other table; the delivery of equipment from Sevani had been deposited rather haphazardly, and it took a few moments to locate the small cloth bag filled with various sized springs and gears he’d requested..

It took Jason the better part of two hours, but soon he had assembled a simple clockwork timer. Simply wind the key as tight as you could, and approximately two minutes later, a small hammer would strike an equally small bell. The whole contraption the size of a toaster, and it wasn’t pretty in the slightest, but it did the job, and he was rewarded with three more skills:

You have earned a new skill: Basic Clockwork. You have earned a new skill: Basic Metalworking. You have earned a new skill: Basic Construction.

The second skill came as something of a surprise to Jason, though he’d had to actually file down a few of the parts, as they hadn’t come out quite the right shape in places.

Then again, I guess we’ve seen that the system is pretty lenient with things sometimes, he thought to himself. I am trying to learn about building things, here. Interesting I had to do more than one project before it offered me construction though. I’d have thought the mangonel would have gotten me that on its own.

Regardless of the whys, Jason paid for the skills, then checked his class unlocks again.

More new classes had appeared, and Jason was surprised to see one called [Golemancer] in the list. He supposed that Clockwork Golems were a thing in games, and maybe Metalworking applied there too along with [False Life].

Jason chuckled slightly. Sounds interesting, but I think I’ll pass on that route. Sorry Kera.

Next, Jason brought up his skill specialization options again. Sure enough, more options had appeared. Now, under Artificer, he had an option to convert [Basic Carpentry] into [Advanced Woodworking], presumably for the crafting of wands and staves. Metalworking and Clockwork were upgradable as well.

He also had a new area of study for Artificer, the previously seen Golemancy. Which was interesting, because it meant is sounded like he could technically learn about the subject without actually taking a specific class.

Jason thought carefully for a few minutes. He didn’t yet know if a re-spec would let him change non-point related choices. He suspect it would, but he didn’t want to just pick any old thing and then see what happened. Plus, he really wanted to at least see what new skills and runes Jerrik’s books might offer him before he made a final choice.

However… that was for Artificer. Jason didn’t think much would change for Alchemist, just as it hadn't here. Besides… he'd heard from Aria that a high harvesting skill would lead to extra drops from kills, and that was a prime source of alchemy traits. The same went for [Basic Herbalism]; a higher tier would mean more rare seeds and extra drops, and his whole project revolved around making sure he never ran out of supply.

After a few further minutes of debate, Jason pulled up his Alchemist Specialization list. He was about to select [Basic Herbalism] when he suddenly noticed that [Basic Cooking] was also on the list, but not as a simple tier upgrade like he’d previously thought.

There was a dividing line there on the screen, like there had been for Artificer’s fields of study.

Don’t tell me that Kera was right again, he thought.

He selected the skill.

Multiple Synergies Detected, Skill Evolution Available: Evolve [Basic Cooking] to [Prepare Legendary Fare]? Y/N?

Well, its as good a test as any for a respec, he thought. He supposed he'd go ahead and nab [Engineer] and [Golemist] afterwards, drop a few points into things, check out his selection lists...and then try out the respec potion to see what happened.

“Yes,” he commanded.