System Notification: You’re embarking down a road never before traveled. Title Awarded: [Pioneer].

Pioneers are leaders in their fields.

* +15% control and -15% skill usage cost for [Enchant], [Essence Siphon], and all derivatives.

* +10 Intelligence, +10 Wisdom.

* +15% experience generation towards skills that you are the first player to learn.

“... Hell yes.”

Capra had heard of the Pioneer title, but it wasn’t something he had ever expected to gain.

[Pioneer] was a title that rewarded players for continuing to pioneer their path, therefore so long as Capra was able to develop more skills around essence siphon and enchant, he’d be able to level those skills 15% faster than normal.

Additionally, skills belonging to pioneer lowered the 35% experience penalty for leveling another classes skills to 20%— so long as as it was a skill Capra learned before anyone else. The bonus stats from the title were also nice bonus because they brought Capra closer to his goal of learning Workdidi’s Shaman spells.

“This is good.” Capra muttered.

Meanwhile Ulysses was busy considering his newfound circumstances. The little essence construct was curious about the world around it. It knew nothing, only that it was alive, and that it felt an affinity to the man before it.

Skriii!

...

System Notification: Ulysses demands your attention. Although you are its maker [Ulysses] is an uncontracted familiar and would like to form a contract.

Please Note:

* Unlike ordinary familiars Ulysses is an [Essence Construct] and may persist in the world without a mana bond.

* Because Ulysses is not a mana construct it cannot be regenerated with mana.

* Should Ulysses be destroyed its core will flee to your essence storage to regenerate and cannot be summoned for the duration of its regeneration. Estimated Duration: 10 minutes.

* Because you are its creator Ulysses does not require a mana deposit from you to form a contract, will be absolutely loyal, and it will never attempt to contract with anyone else.

Form Contract? Y/N.

Capra could hardly hide his surprise as he read the notification.

“What?” He exclaimed.

Familiars weren’t rare in Chaos and Fame, plenty of mages had them, but what surprised Capra was that he was being given the opportunity to contract with one.

Enchanters didn’t have any familiar binding skills, which meant the familiar had to take the initiative to form the contract— which was something incredibly difficult to convince a familiar to do, but Ulysses had done it on its own, saving Capra the trouble.

“Because you are its creator...” Capra repeated. Did that mean any familiars he made would want to contract him? If so he couldn’t accept.

A familiar would follow a player for life so the choice to form a contract was always a careful one.

Ulysses was obviously special in that it was an [Essence Construct]– which had its benefits and drawbacks – but its benefits weren’t enough to incite Capra to accept the contract right off the bat.

For starters, players inherited a portion of their familiar’s skills, — sometimes all of them, but Ulysses only had two. It was also tiny and weak, its stat distribution was pitiful, and it would hardly be able to survive a few hits— which meant it wouldn’t be much help in a fight.

Word on the forums was undoing a contract was nearly impossible, so if Capra contracted Ulysses he would be stuck with it.

“Maybe I can keep it as a pet.” Capra considered, as he raised his hand to decline the system prompt.

Bam!

Bam!

Two hard knocks hit the shack’s door, startling Capra and causing him to jump. The knocks were followed by a loud shout from outside.

“Human... Axe ready yet?”

From the voice Capra could tell It was Baba, and he relaxed.

“Not yet!” He replied. Then there was silence.

After a few seconds of waiting Capra heard Baba leave, and he turned back to the notification screen.

System Notification: Contract Formation accepted. You do not possess any familiar slots. Generating…

System Notification: Congratulations! Essence Construct [Ulysses] has become your familiar.

System Notification: You have learned: [Tackle], [Nature’s Fulmination], [Summon Familiar], and [Banish Familiar].

Clunk.

In a moment of shock Capra dropped Ulysses, and the little essence construct fell to the floor.

System Notification: Your familiar [Ulysses] has incurred 10 fall damage.

Ulysses writhed about in pain.

Skriii! It called out, obviously dissatisfied.

It had only been 10 damage, but ten damage was half its health and the poor creature could hardly take it. For better or worse it hadn’t been alive very long, and even NPCS had to learn a thing or two about the world they lived in. Sadly the first thing Ulysses learned was to be careful of heights— not that Capra noticed.

Capra was furious. Furious at Baba, and furious at himself for getting distracted enough to select the wrong option. Why hadn’t he just used a verbal command? That would’ve been much safer… however his anger didn’t last long.

He sighed and shook his head.

As annoyed as Capra was, it wasn’t Ulysses fault, and for better or worse they were partners now, and it wasn’t right to leave the little fellow injured on the ground.

“Nature’s Fulmination.”

System Notification: Your familiar [Ulysses] has regenerated 50 hp.

“50 hp? Wasn’t it five?”

For a second Capra thought the system had made a mistake, Capra had given [Nature’s Fulmination] a cursory glance alongside tackle before deciding they were both weak spells, but now he had to take another glance.

Tackle: Charge at your foe, wounding them with your body or weapon in an attempt to knock them down.

Damage: 5 – 10 (+5 per level, +0.5 per STR, 0.2 per DEX)

Cost: 10 mana (+5 per level)

Cool down: 30 seconds

Cast time: Instant.

Range: 3m.

Nature’s fulmination: Mother nature never was one to nurture gently. Target ally or self regenerate 5 hp/s while dealing half that amount in damage to nearby foes.

Damage: 5 (+5 per per level, +0.5 per INT, +0.2 Per WIS) Nature Damage.

Cost: 10 mana (+20 per level).

Cool down: 15 s.

Cast time: Instant.

Duration: 5 seconds.

Radius: 2.5 meters (+0.5m per level)

After re-checking Capra determined that tackle was just as lackluster as he had originally thought it to be, but nature’s fulmination was actually quite powerful.

It was at least as powerful as a cleric’s [heal] spell, but it scaled off intelligence and wisdom and had a lower cool-down. Its only real drawbacks were that it couldn’t provide instantaneous burst of healing, or stack; however, it’s strength was that it could also do damage, and with Capra’s glass cannon stats that was significant.

"Status!" Name: Capra Class: Enchanter Level: 8(65%) Currency: 0 gold, 1 silver, 40 copper. Health: 320/320 Mana: 1630/1630 Familiar Slot(s): 1/1 Mana Regen: 2.69 MP/s Health Regen: 0.25 HP/s Physical Defense: 3 PDef Magical Defense: 6.92 MDef Base damage with physical weapon: 27.83333333 Base damage with magic weapon: 93.16666667 Satiety: 15 / 100 Carry Capacity: 6.5 / 60 KG Available Stat Points: 0 Debuffs: Essence Siphoned: Strength: 10 ( +2 ) 12 -2 Dexterity 10 ( +37 ) 47 -2 Constitution 10 ( +2 ) 12 -2 Intelligence 10 ( +56 ) 66 -2 Wisdom: 10 ( +54 ) 64 -2 Karma: 0 ( +698 ) 698 -2 Bonuses from Achievements, titles, and levels: Strength: Dexterity: Constitution: Intelligence: Wisdom: Karma: 4 39 4 58 56 698 Titles: Essence Thief (+10 int, +10 wis) Friend of the Goblins (+5 wis, +5 dex). Pioneer (+10 int, +10 wis). Skills (Scaleable): Skill Level: Skill Damage: Skill Cost: Skill Cooldown: Cast Time: Proficiency: Skill Duration: Chaos Bolt: 2 20 - 25 (+52.5) 30 Mana None. 1.098 s 5.7 % Variable Enchant / Essence Siphon: 3 None. 80 Mana None. Variable. 45% Permanent. Steal: 1 None. 30 Mana None. Variable. 60% Instant. Flee! 1 None. 30 Mana 120 s Variable. 60% 20 seconds. Hide: 1 None. 30 Mana 90 s Variable. 60% Till caught. Tackle: 1 27.75 10 Mana 30 s Instant 0% Variable. Nature's Fulmination: 1 -50.8 /s 10 Mana 14.598 s Instant 0% 5 seconds Unscaleable Skills: Skilll Level: Skill Damage: Skill Cost: Skill Cooldown: Cast Time: Conjure Stale Bread: NA NA 35 12 hours 10 seconds Conjure Water: NA NA 20 NA None. Masteries: Level Proficiency: Beginner Tailoring Mastery 1 15% Beginner Skinning Mastery 1 15% Beginner WoodWorking Mastery 4 60% Beginner Enchanting Mastery: 3 45% Beginner thieving Mastery: 1 0 Stored Resources from [Essence Siphon]: Vital Essence: 20 units Uknown Fruit Essence (1): 180 units. Stone Essence: 906 units. Dirt Essence: 134 units. Leaf Essence: 34 units. Water Essence: 314 units Blue Moon Rabbit Essence: 50 Cursed Blue Moon Rabbit Essence: 200 Unknown Essence Fragment (1): 50. Flying Horror Essence: 4000.

Capra closed the status window after verifying the stat-adjusted values for his skills.

“Well, it’s something.” He said.

Nature’s fulmination softened the blow from the familiar contracting going wrong, but Capra was still pretty unhappy; however, no good ever came from sulking and he decided to put it behind him and keep working.

…

After making Ulysses Capra decided that the second essence he’d test would be the [Cursed Blue Moon Rabbit] Essence, and as expected, it behaved very differently from the normal [Blue Moon Rabbit] essence.

...

As Capra held the cursed essence above his palm, the cursed essence attacked the invisible barrier generated by the [Enchant] spell.

With every blow to the barrier the cursed essence glared at Capra. It was unrelenting, and untiring. It became quickly apparent to Capra, that it held a grudge, not that he would let it bother him; however, the grudge did prove to be a problem.

Controlling the cursed essence proved to be difficult because of its attitude, but thanks to the 15% increase in control given to him by [Pioneer] Capra was able to manage.

“Just… go in.”

However all the control in the world couldn’t convince the cursed essence to enter the test piece of its own volition and Capra ended up having to force it— the result of which was unexpected.

[Essence Forged Block of Wood]:

An ordinary block of wood that’s been essence forged with [Cursed Blue Moon Rabbit] essence. Items made out of this material will grow in a direction similar to the [Cursed Blue Moon Rabbit].

The wooden block didn’t turn into a tiny rebellious [Essence Construct], in fact little else happened other than it becoming essence forged and turning slightly black.

“Was it because the test piece was too small?” Capra wondered.

From what Capra understood the essence should’ve transformed the wooden block into an [Essence Construct] but it didn’t, so after some quiet deliberation Capra decided to try again with a larger test piece.

[Essence Forged Block of Wood]:

An ordinary block of wood that’s been essence forged with [Cursed Blue Moon Rabbit] essence. Items made out of this material will grow in a direction similar to the [Cursed Blue Moon Rabbit].

“Strange...”

Once again the cursed essence didn’t produce an [Essence Construct], so Capra grabbed the largest [Essence Forged Block of Wood] and examined it.

“It looks normal.” Capra mumbled as he played around with the test piece.

“Alright then… let’s try this.”

Capra picked up his skinning knifing and began carving the [Essence Forged Block of Wood].

It was a bit gross— given that the wood seemed to have become slightly more fleshy despite its appearance, but eventually Capra carved it into a small blade. He then took a normal piece of wood from his wood pile and made a handle.

“Good.”

It was a decent looking blade and handle, but because Capra didn’t have any sort of bondage agent he ended up nailing the handle and the blade together using essence forged wood splinters— which he subsequently sanded down as to avoid having them poke him. As a finishing touch Capra further infused stone essence into the blade and handle separately.

System Notification: Congratulations you have made an original item, would you like to name the piece?

“Test Dagger.” He answered.

System Notification: Acknowledged. Displaying item stats.

[Test Dagger (Uncommon)]

Lvl. 0.

Durability: 15/15

Damage: 15-20 cutting damage.

Item Effects:

[Grow]: Continued use of this item will cause it to grow more powerful and the dagger blade is capable of self-repair. 0/100 Item Experience.

[Rabbit’s Ferocity]: The blue moon rabbits of blue moon forest are known for their savagery despite their small frames. +15% attack speed.

[I Spite thee!]: Enemies struck by the blade of this dagger are marked. For each mark on a target this dagger will deal +1 darkness damage to the aforementioned target. Max +10 darkness damage. Marks last 10 seconds.

[Bane of the Elements]: Spells struck by this dagger have a 25% chance of being negated.

[A Complicated Construct]: This item was made with uncommon materials which cannot be repaired traditionally.

Only its maker can repair it.

User Requirements: Cannot be player [Capra], dagger level cannot exceed wielder’s level.

Item Description: A cursed dagger made with unknown methods. It bears a decent amount of power.

Weight: 1.5 kg

“Grow?”

A dagger that could grow with its user was powerful, and the implication was not missed by Capra; however, before he could become the least bit excited he noticed that the dagger’s usage requirements were quite… peculiar.

“Cannot be me? Seriously?”

In disbelief Capra reached out towards the dagger and picked it up, and then he stared on, wide-eyed, as the blade curved.

“Ow!”

The dagger slashed at the back of his hand, dealing 15 damage and marking him with a black “X”. Then it slashed again, and again. It all happened very quickly— hardly giving Capra any time to react, but by the third slash he dropped the dagger onto his workbench.

After some faint signs of struggle the dagger calmed down.

“Really?” Capra asked, seemingly to no one.

How much had the blue moon rabbit hated him in its dying moments, for the curse to affect the dagger so strongly? The dagger’s curse made it impossible to use and for a brief moment Capra considered essence siphoning the dagger, but he eventually decided against it. Sure, he couldn’t use it, but maybe it’d be worth something if he auctioned it in the future, so he stored it in his inventory—

“Youch!”

Suffering one last vengeful slash from the dagger in the process.

…

Four hours later Capra had tested the remaining essences and input their information into his data log. Part of him felt very lucky to have formed a contract with Ulysses, because as it turned out, making an essence construct wasn’t as easy as he had originally thought.

When he used the flying horror essence, a black figured manifested above his hand— ever changing in its form; however, unlike the cursed essence it wasn’t hostile to him so Capra attempted to guide it into a wooden test piece. He was unsuccessful.

Although the essence wasn’t hostile to him like the cursed essence, it refused to enter any object of its own free will, so Capra had to force it.

The resulting item was identical to the [Essence Forged Wooden Block] he’d made using cursed essence, with the exception that it would grow in a direction similar to a flying horror instead of a cursed blue moon rabbit.

[Essence Forged Block of Wood]:

An ordinary block of wood that’s been essence forged with [Flying Horror] essence. Items made out of this material will grow in a direction similar to the [Flying Horror].

“I see.”

Capra was beginning to develop a theory, and in order to test his theory he used the remaining blue moon rabbit essence in his possession.

“Enchant.”

As the essence showed its form above his hand he didn’t give it any time to acclimate and directly forced it into the test piece. Then he waited until he received the system notification he had been expecting.

[Essence Forged Block of Wood]:

An ordinary block of wood that’s been essence forged with [Blue Moon Rabbit] essence. Items made out of this material will grow in a direction similar to the [Blue Moon Rabbit].

“Bingo.”

It seemed that in order to make an essence construct, the essence had to voluntarily enter the vessel prepared for it. If Capra forcefully used the essence then instead of becoming a construct it would become [essence forged], resulting in a material instead of a companion— which for all intents and purposes wasn’t a bad thing, after all, he already had a familiar...

Capra tested the remaining wooden blocks and was able to prove his theory was correct by reproducing the effects every time, which left him with one inorganic essence left to test...