Jason leaned his back against the wall and rested for a few moments while he waited for Tersk to return. To his surprise, the dizziness quickly passed, and his vague nausea from the least potion vanished with it.

He cracked one eye open and checked his status, and was surprised to see that he was suffering from neither mana fatigue nor mana withdrawal. His stamina was still nearly full as well; he saw nothing more than ordinary expenditure due to normal physical exertion.

Strange, he thought. Perhaps there’s more to mana usage status effects than I thought.

At least he didn’t have some kind of saturation status effect screaming warnings at him. That didn’t mean he was in he clear, but Jason felt it was a good sign.

He’d still have Aldin check him over as soon as possible, though.

Jason closed his status and sat back up, examining the arcanite ingot that Tersk had removed from the cast. He hefted it in one hand, and was surprised by how light it was. It felt to him more like aluminum than steel. Not that he was any expert.

Jason placed the ingot back down onto the table and checked his notifications.

Congratulations! Through experimentation with rare metals and alchemical substances, you have successfully uncovered the recipe for the transmutation of the legendary metal known as Arcanite! You have been granted the achievement, [Alchemical Metallurgist]. Achievement XP Granted: 25,600. Cumulative level penalties applied. You have earned a new skill: Advanced Metallurgy. Would you like to purchase it for 3 skill points? Y/N?

As before, Jason saw that he’d gained a slew of new levels thanks to the way achievement experience was awarded. He condensed the multiple notifications into a summary:

Levels Gained: Artificer 14, Alchemist 14, Machinist 10-12. Hybrid Class Milestone reached. 9 Skill Points acquired. 3 Stat Points Acquired. 1 Class Point Acquired. +100 Maximum Mana. Skill Specialization choice available.

Jason blinked. Strangely enough, his foray into metallurgy had applied to [Machinist], which was an unexpected, if pleasant surprise.

I suppose metallurgy is considered a branch of the engineering sciences back home, he reflected. Still, would have thought that would fall under blacksmithing here. For that matter, why Artificer? I didn’t enchant anything. Though I suppose technically making Arcanite could constitute crafting a magic item.

He hummed thoughtfully to himself for a moment in consideration. Then he shrugged.

Well whatever. Time to spend points. Let’s see… at least one more into Spirit, that will net me another hundred mana. Maybe the other two into Might? If I’m going to be wearing armor now, I should at least have better than I do now.

Jason pushed his Spirit up to 25, and his Might to 13. He noted with pleasure that his Magic Resistance was an even 30, now.

Then Jason opened his skill list, focused on [Expert Craftsman], and selected arcanite for his material of choice. His skill choice gave him some pause though. The skill wouldn’t stack with itself, so choosing [Engrave] along with arcanite seemed relatively pointless. He was fairly certain he didn’t really need to choose [Inscription] either: actual gold could be found in all sorts of medieval art forms, from the embroidery thread in the clothing of the nobility to the inlay in their furniture. Gold dust was even sometimes found in the ink for religious manuscripts.

In short, Jason felt that finding ways to include arcanite in most of his projects was bound to be a trivial matter, especially as an [Alchemist], so it wasn’t like he needed to pick [Engrave] or [Inscription]. He’d be better off choosing a broad-application skill that was unlikely to make use of arcanite. Unfortunately, Brew Potion wasn’t one of his options; Jason assumed this was probably because alchemical golems were only available through that [Discovery] choice he’d seen pop up.

Too bad. An ooze-monster-in-a-bottle might be pretty hilarious, Jason thought.

Cooking likewise wasn’t available, which Jason found vaguely disappointing. No concocting giant , candy-cane marshmallow golems, apparently. Not that he wanted to; rather it would have been nice to simply get an additional five free skill points for a skill he used every day. He enjoyed cooking for the girls after all, and wouldn’t mind being even better at it than he already was.

After some additional deliberation, Jason settled on [Engineering]. It was technically a crafting skill under the system in addition to being a knowledge skill, much like [Chemistry] seemed to be, and while Jason didn’t really expect to be doing much in the way of say, electrical wiring, [Engineering] was a broad subject where he wasn’t guaranteed to necessarily want to be working with Arcanite. He could always swap it out if he found he was using something else with greater frequency.

Jason’s [Machinist] milestone choice was a far easier decision. Just as with [Artificer], he found he had an option to choose a sphere of study instead of specifically advancing a skill, so naturally, he chose Mage-Tech.

Unlike his previous specialization choices, upon confirming his choice, Jason didn’t receive any new skills, skill evolutions, or synergies. Instead, he was granted 10 bonus skill points, which he was only allowed to spend on a limited selection of skills. Along with his other 9 new points, this meant Jason had quite a few points to throw around, but he wasn’t sure what he wanted to prioritize. He could invest most of them straight into [Engraving] or [Brewing]. After all, the higher his skill there, the stronger the potions he made or the more enchantments he could pack into something.

On the other hand… he was already going to be getting five bonus ranks in [Engrave] whenever he worked with the arcanite. That already put him at a whopping twenty ranks for [Engrave]. On top of that, combined with arcanite’s inherent abilities, he didn’t actuallyneed more ranks in order to fit a lot more enchantments into a given piece. He was already getting three or four extras.

He could put some into potion brewing, but franky he felt he was currently bottlenecked until he actually had the opportunity to go searching for rare ingredients, or at least get back to his currently-benched greenhouse project. Flora’s supplies of the things he needed were already nearly spent; he didn’t want to keep pestering her for more.

What Jason really wanted to do currently was design more mage-tech. The prospect of making actual set items excited him to no end. For that, he’d definitely need more than just [Engraving]. Physics, math, metalworking, clockwork… Anything and everything related to science and engineering might turn out to be applicable.

Of course, there was also the issue that Jason wasn’t sure he'd have the time to actually engrave dozens of enchantments into a full suit. Not until after the raid, anyway. He’d be better off designing a suit of armor that he could use now, with an emphasis on being able to upgrade it further later on. Planning ahead meant needing to understand any potential problems he might be faced with, and that meant improving all sorts of things.

Nodding to himself, Jason decided to spread his points around. He dumped five full points into [Engineering], bringing it up to a ten. Two points went into [Metalworking], to bring it up to five alongside [Chemistry] and [Clockwork]. Then, to even things out a little, he dumped varying amounts of points into [Construction], [Physics], and [Mathematics], bringing them up to five as well.

He brought up his revised skill list and examined it. Yes, with his golemist bonus involved, he’d now have anywhere from ten to fifteen ranks in more than half a dozen different applicable skills, as well as six ranks in both [Tailoring] and [Carpentry], provided he could figure out a way to get it to apply, which he was fairly confident in.

With his notifications now cleared and his points spent, Jason found himself at something of a loss as to what to do next. Fortunately, he was saved from his indecision by the sound of voices from outside the forge. He made his way to the open front, and saw that Tersk had returned.

As Tersk’s family filed into the smithy behind him, Tersk gave each of them orders in his native language, and within minutes the furnaces were roaring and the sound of hammers upon metal rang like bells. Tersk moved from station to station as the arcanite was removed from the molds, spending a brief moment observing before moving on the next. Some ingots he ordered cleaned and polished, while others he had thrown into the forges to be reheated, to begin the laborious process of tempering and remolding them into the sheets and rods that were the foundation of creating armor.

Once Tersk was satisfied that everyone knew their task and was properly carrying it out, he pulled Jason aside into an office, where a heavy stone door closed out most of the noise.

“Phew. Impossible to be heard in there once we get going,” Terks said. He tossed an arcanite ingot that he’d grabbed onto the desk, then wiped the sweat from his forehead and face with a rag he pulled from his apron pocket.

Then he leveled a serious look at Jason. “Now. This next part will take a few hours. Basic shaping and tempering is something that lot can do on their own without supervision. You and I, meanwhile, need to have a frank discussion that’s best not overheard.”

Jason frowned. That sounds ominous.

“Hold on there now,” Tersk said, holding up one hand in a placating gesture. “Don’t go making assumptions. I’m not blackmailing you here. But we do need to talk business. That’s my metal stocks you’ve been using here after all.”

Jason rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “Ah, that’s true. If I wanted to keep all the arcanite, that would be… expensive, I’m guessing?”

Tersk snorted as he motioned Jason to take a seat. “Expensive doesn’t even begin to cover it, lad.”

Tersk swept a space clear of clutter, then pulled a strange, hemispherical piece of crystal from a drawer and set it on the desk in front of him, next to the arcanite, It vaguely reminded Jason of the AVL reader Therissa had, but was one solid piece and had no slot. It was enchanted though.

He rested a hand on top of the device and spoke a command word. The crystal pulsed once, bathing the room in a sudden glow.

“There. That’ll give us some privacy,” Tersk said with a satisfied nod. He leaned back into his seat, and regarded Jason carefully, mulling things over and idly scratching at his beard.

After a moment, he leaned forwards again.

“I don’t know how things are wherever it is you’re from, but it’s pretty clear to me that you either have no real idea of what things are worth here, or you come from a place that is so fantastically wealthy it might as well mean the same thing. At this point, it wouldn’t shock me to learn you were some kind of royalty with the kind of wealth you sling around. Nobody with good business sense would have provided half a town with enchantments, even basic ones, for as little as you have.”

“I did receive an entire furnished home,” Jason pointed out, “and an open license to take what I needed for the job, no question asked.”

“See, that’s what I’m talking about,” Tersk said with a grunt. “No idea at all.”

Tersk sat forward slightly. “Let me put this in perspective for you,” he explained. “You stayed at Arn’s place for your first days here, correct?”

“That’s right.”

“And how much did that cost you per day?”

“Uh, well we actually had the full service suite that I guess visiting merchants usually use? I think it was a gold coin a day?”

Tersk tilted his hand from side to side in a gesture of approximation. “Eh, sounds like he gave you a bit of a discount there due to the season, but that’ll do.” he said. “Now, I’m not trying to malign Arnold, but his inn is fairly middle of the road, you understand me? It’s no back alley watering hole, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the high-class places you might find in some of the bigger cities, understand?”

“Sure.”

Tersk rapped a knuckle on the arcanite ingot. “If this stuff you’ve made was only mithral, —and mark me, what you have here is far more valuable— and I was forging you a full suit of plate out of it? I could afford to live at Arn’s for ten years off of what you would have to pay me for that one suit.”

Jason blanched. “So much?”

“And,” Tersk continued on, “we’ve made enough of this ‘arcanite’ that I could forge… oh, let’s call it a dozen sets of armor, and still have some left over for several good swords.”

Jason reeled. When he’d talked with Lumi earlier, he’d made light of the kind of money adventurers tended to make in comparison to the average person. He knew his potions were worth a lot as well, but this seemed off the scale. He had, in the space of a few hours, gone from what probably qualified as ‘independently wealthy’ to effectively being a member of the one-percent club.

He paled as what he and Tersk actually accomplished really began to sink in. The potions had been bad enough. This was firmly within turning-straw-into-gold territory. He’d found the proverbial philosopher’s stone, and now every kingdom, every organization in the world would be after forcibly recruiting him whether he wanted it or not. If the secret got out. And he’d just casually invited Tersk in on it because he thought the dwarf was probably trustworthy.

His thoughts were interrupted by Tersk continuing onward.

“Good,” the dwarf said with a significant look. “You seem to have at least some idea of what you’ve just gotten yourself into, then.”

Jason nodded slowly. Then a sudden though shot a thrill of fear through him. He started to panic, turning in his seat to look towards the door, but a word from Tersk caused him to subside.

“Don’t worry about them. They know nothing more than you’ve asked me to forge a strange alloy into something useful. Neither how it was made, where it came from, nor it’s properties, and they won’t ask either. They’ll hold their tongues.

“That… chakan… thing?”

Tersk gave a curt nod. “Correct.”

Jason wasn’t sure he was comfortable trusting Tersk’s word that they’d keep quiet, but he knew that at least in fiction, questioning a dwarf’s word was usually a surefire way to get on their bad side, so he let it drop. For now.

“Which brings me to some sage advice that you damn well better listen to, because it’ll be on my head as much as yours if the wrong ears overhear,” Tersk said sternly. “This new metal of yours will be worth a king’s ransom once people figure out what it’s good for. That kind of money can turn the heads of even the most scrupulous of men. So, stop talking about what you can do. If someone asks, lie. If they don’t, let them misunderstand. And above all, don’t mention these things where other people can overhear. That you approached me without so much as a privacy ward…”

Tersk shook his head ruefully, blowing out a heavy breath in exasperation.

Jason cleared his throat awkwardly. He had screwed up there. He’d just been too excited to think about the fact that he could have just asked Therissa for a meeting room.

“Buck up, there,” Tersk said cheerfully at Jason’s sour expression. “It’s not all bad. At least you‘re aware of your problem, unlike my younger self. Fortunately, with something like this arcanite, fostering a misunderstanding to shield yourself from prying questions is easy. There’s so many unusual materials out there that even I can’t keep track of them all, and new ones are discovered all the time, most of them local to very specific areas. Even better, while your fellow adventurers will be more knowledgeable than most when it comes to strange materials, and may have the skills to identify them, you also tend to lead lives that foster the tendency to leave each other’s secrets well alone.”

“That you’ve solely got adventuring classes helps,” Tersk said, steepling his fingers and leaning backwards. “You lot are always uncovering strange artifacts and bizarre weapons in ancient ruins, and even the lowliest of dungeons has the potential at least to spit out something truly unique. Any lie you care to tell about having come into possession a cache of strange metal and hiring somebody to work it for you is liable to be believed by default, because that’s normal. And depending on your phrasing, it might even not be a lie.”

“What about the Archive?” Jason asked, perturbed.

Tersk shrugged. “What about them? Nothing world-shaking about a lump of metal that happens to enchant particularly well, now is there? And money isn’t exactly something that interests them. Sure, if you were selling, someone might mail them a piece to see if anybody could properly identify it, and they might try and track down where it came from, but this isn’t the kind if thing they’d care about out of anything other than idle curiosity. Now if you were to let slip that you can make it, that’s another story…”

Tersk trailed off with a meaningful look.

Jason blew out a sigh. “Yeah, no, I get it.” He made a sour face and a lip-buttoning motion. “I’ve got enough problems with secrets already. I’ll just add this one to the pile. I don’t suppose there’s some kind of magic I could learn that would stop me from being forced or even accidentally talking about it where people could hear?”

“Yes, but not the kind that you’d want to use,” Tersk replied gravely. “Not unless you fancy scribing one of those Baradellan control runes into your skin and submitting yourself to someone else.”

“Uh, no. Definitely not.”

Tersk pulled some parchment from a drawer and placed it on the desk. “Now that you understand the situation you’re in—”

Not that that’s a new thing, Jason thought sourly to himself as the dwarf stood briefly to retrieve a pot of ink.

Tersk reseated himself. “—let’s talk actual business, and decide how you’re going to pay for all this.”

Jason did end up signing over a significant portion of the arcanite to Tersk, roughly twenty percent. The dwarf was providing the lion’s share of the material costs, labor, and expertise after all. It helped that they’d started with copper and gold and silver, rather than their magical counterparts. Even still, the cost of the raw materials alone had boggled Jason’s mind.

Fortunately, it seemed the old dwarf was either exceedingly generous, didn’t need the money, or wanted to ensure he had Jason’s continued business, because he didn’t actually charge Jason according to the value of the final product. Instead he opted to keep in consideration the fact that Jason had provided perhaps the most important facet of the operation, namely a unique skill, without which the whole thing would never have been possible. Jason considered this something similar to how in tabletop games, there was an incredible markup on enchanted items over the base cost of their raw materials, even if the game took crafting time into consideration.

Not for the first time, Jason reflected that it was a very good thing that Tersk had been nothing but straight with him. In fact, the old dwarf seemed to be much more concerned with the ability to improve his craft, rather than specifically the ability to earn money with it. Not that he didn't have that shopkeeper's gleam in his eye when it came to the prospect of new business, but it wasn't his main priority.

Which was why half an hour later, surrounded by the cacophony of steel upon metal, Jason found himself seated at a desk alongside a highly animated Tersk, in full view of the forge, pouring over a series of rough diagrams and sketches that they had been drafting.

Initially, Jason had been giving strong consideration to the idea of building fully enclosed exosuit, which seemed like a natural endpoint for mixing all of his classes. Once he had begun, however, Tersk had pointed out some major flaws in Jason’s thinking when Jason sketched some rough ideas and explained the basic premise.

First off, it was unlikely that Jason was ever going to end up in outer space and thus need some kind of vacuum seal. Not that Tersk used those words, or that they even discussed those particular subjects, but he did point out that there was little need to build a fully enclosed system, because if you needed something to help you breathe, all he needed was something as simple as a [Breath Pebble], which Jason could simply make on his own.

Nor did Jason need some kind of sealed enviro-suit, because again, the right enchantments could do anything from helping you survive the crushing depths of the ocean to providing the ability to swim through lava.

Jason idly reflected that superheroes didn’t have anything on overpowered wizards. Except for maybe Superman, whose real superpower always seemed to be the ability to manifest whatever effect the writers felt he needed at the time, for the most spurious of hastily-made reasons.

Maybe that was unfair. Jason was never much of a comic-book person, but that was the impression he’d gotten from movies.

At least abandoning the enclosed suit idea solved several problems from him. For one, it meant he didn’t have to work out some kind of injection system for potions, because it was hard to drink a potion through a sealed faceplate. Not only did he not want to have to rely on actual physical injections, as if he were some kind of Bane Jr., but rigging up some kind of system where he could slot in a potion in order to drink it through a straw like an astronaut would have been a pain. Doable, but a pain.

Tersk also had a suggestion for pieces that Jason hadn’t even considered: rings and amulets. They were classic magic items; Jason didn’t know why it had never occurred to him to invest in some. In point of fact, the very enchantments used to survive harsh environments were most commonly affixed to such things, because when you didn’t need them you could simply store them away for later.

“Is there a limit to the number of rings you can wear?” Jason asked. “For that matter, what about other kind of accessories? Bracelets? Hairbands? Earrings? Ribbons tied into your hair?”

Tersk looked amused. “Not specifically for rings. But in general? A person can usually wear no more than twenty different system-distinct pieces at a time. After that, you tend to start getting strange interaction problems with your gear. It’s quite the subject for debate amongst the Archive as to why things work that way, because nobody has ever been able to actually observe what causes the exact problems. Enchantment threshold doesn’t affect that number, nor does the actual quantity, strength, or complexity of enchantments on the pieces.”

“Quite a few people,” Tersk continued, “myself included, believe it’s nothing more than an arbitrary limit placed upon us by The Voice. We’re allowed the flexibility of choice in what we wish to use, but as with every part of the system, some limits are put in place in order to foster creativity.”

Jason drummed his fingers on the table thoughtfully. “Hmm. You might very well be right about that.”

He sat up more fully. “Well, that means that just means if I want more swappable gear like my shardcannon, I’ll want a hardpoint system.”

“A… hardpoint?”

Jason explained the concept of reinforcing specific portions of a structure in order to provide standardized attachment points, so that customized gear could be added or removed as needed. They could then be used for additional storage, weaponry, extra armor, defenses, utility modules, and more, all depending on need. Not unlike swapping out a set of enchanted rings.

“An interesting idea,” Tersk mused. “But the stress on the connections could cause metal fatigue depending on bulk, and you’d be showing obvious weak points if you didn’t slot something in.”

“Actually that one’s pretty easy,” Jason said confidently. “What you need is a high-strength, lightweight alloy, which we’ve got, and maybe some kind of weight reduction enchantment to take some of the load off. As for the visible weak points, well… pass me my bag?”

Tersk leaned over to the nearby table and grabbed the Haversack, sliding it over to Jason.

He dug into the main section for the sack of scrap parts that Tersk had made for him. Then, activating [Some Assembly Required], Jason quickly selected a few spare plates, an handful of springs, screws, and hinges. Conjuring up a few tools, he quickly got to work while Tersk watched in fascination.

It was only a few minutes work for Jason to assemble a relatively simply-looking device that resembled something a little bit like a bear trap: essentially a steel plate with a pair of flaps connected to each end by hinges. The free ends folded over the hinges to interlock with each other, snapping into place and lying on top of the main plate. Jason demonstrated how the interlocked plates could be pressed down upon in order to release a hidden catch, once again freeing the flaps from one another.

One use of [Improvise] later to temporarily imbue the device with a quick and dirty variant of Kera’s clothing morph enchantment, and Jason once against demonstrated snapping the flaps into place. This time, they seamlessly merged into one another, taking on the appearance of a single, solid plane of steel that shielded the one beneath.

“Well now that’s something,” Tersk said, intrigued. He picked up the device and turned it over in his hands a few times, giving it a detailed examination. He unsealed and resealed the catch a few times, examining it critically as the parts seamlessly separated and merged.

“Yes, I do think I can work with this,” he said finally. “I’ll need to run through some designs of my own and you’ll need to give me some idea of the.. what was the word you used? Hardware? That you’d be looking to attach, and where, but I do think this is feasible. Likely I’ll need to include some other materials in the construction process though.”

“I assumed as much,” Jason said with shrug. “I mean, where I’m from it’s rare to build… well, anything really, out of all just one metal. I mean even ordinary armor uses different kinds when you factor in things like padding and buckles and rivets and all, right?”

Tersk chuckled. “Indeed it does.”

The two continued their back and forth in that vein for some time. Jason would talk about potential uses, weapons, or capabilities he’d be interested in maybe attempting at some point, and often times Tersk would have a counter-suggestion or offer some insight that would prompt another round of discussion. All the while, Tersk’s family toiled away around them. Every so often Tersk would get up and move about the smithy, checking everyone’s work, assigning new tasks occasionally putting the finishing touches on something himself. Jason had never really thought about the sheer amount of work it could take to make something like a suit of armor. Not to mention all the various sundry mechanical parts he wanted, both arcanite and ordinary steel; after all, he wasn’t just making armor. He still needed to fill out his [Contraption] weapon, and design some portable turrets. Lumi needed some new armor, and Aldin still hadn’t gotten anything from him yet either.

Eventually, as late afternoon turned into evening, Jason’s companions made an appearance, having decided to come together to check up on his progress and to make sure he didn’t go into some kind of crafting trance again and forget to eat. Kera had gotten Arn to wrap up some kind of boxed-lunch equivalent in a cloth for him, for which he was quite grateful. While he ate, he solicited enchantment or weapon ideas from everyone in the hopes of getting some additional perspectives. He also got Aldin to check his mana saturation status while he was there.

It turned out that while he hadn’t done himself any permanent harm, his saturation level had definitely risen higher than was healthy. It was safe enough for him to spend mana, but Aldin told him to stay away from any additional potions; if he wanted to do any more enchanting that evening, he was to rely on passive regeneration only. That suited Jason just fine, because the majority of the work Tersk was doing for him wouldn’t be completed for another few more hours, and by that point, it would be too late to start engraving.

In the end, after finalizing Jason's plans and taking some measurements, Tersk sent Jason off home with instructions to return first thing in morning for pickup, and so he could decide on what to do with any the remainder of the arcanite. As much as Jason wanted to stay up and keep working, he acceded. He needed to have a clear head when he started actually engraving the parts Tersk was forging; ruining a scrap of steel due to a mistake was one thing, but ruining a piece of arcanite plating because he was tired would be like throwing a wad of thousand-dollar bills into a toilet and flushing it.

Everyone had had a late night last night, and Jason was no exception. So he bid Tersk a good night, and headed home alongside Kera and Lumi.