Sophie stroked Kyuubi's fur as the two of them walked behind her team. The mission they had been assigned was to inspect the great barrier that shielded the world tree and to ensure that there weren't any signs of invaders planning to attack the tree.

It was a very simple mission, but it held a significant importance, which only went to show how valuable Blue teams were to the council since even their induction missions wouldn't go without consequences if they weren't taken seriously.

Falin looked at Sophie and his face crumpled. "What are you doing back there, Human? Come and help us instead of being useless."

Sophie shrank back a little and wrapped both of her arms around Kyuubi who lightly snarled at Falin. "I'm not good at tracking physically. I already tried to sense any magic users or traces of magic outside of the barrier, but I couldn't find anything, so please, leave me alone."

"Like that would be useful. How far can you even detect magic, ten, twenty feet?" Falin snorted. He still held a grudge against Sophie for what she did to him during the combat test, but he wasn't petty enough to bully her pointlessly. He was just a bit frustrated that she had been doing nothing except for standing next to her strange pet.

"I... I can feel magic from more than three-thousand feet away..." Sophie mumbled.

"As if that's possible. Stop lying and just help us look for footprints or something. You can at least do that, can't you?" Falin said with a reasonable tone to his voice.

Sophie frowned. "A Ritlon Deer will walk out of the forest over there in a couple of seconds," she claimed as she pointed at the gathering of trees which was about five-hundred meters away from the world tree's barrier.

Falin and the other team members looked at the area Sophie alleged the deer would emerge from, and to their shock, a white-skinned creature with a pair of thirty-centimeter tall spiralled horns appeared from within the woods.

This creature, was, indeed, a Ritlon Deer, which were famous for their magical blood that was useful in healing potions. They were a species that the council had forbidden the hunting of and they were unmistakable at sight.

Letmir, the team's external leader, let out a sound of admiration. "That's a really good ability. How can you sense so far?" she asked.

Even though the distance was only a sixth of what Sophie claimed she was capable of, it stood to reason that she wasn't lying and embellishing her skills, as just being able to detect magic from five-hundred feet away was incredible in and of itself.

"I'm really sensitive to magic," Sophie said, evading the topic. She wasn't comfortable talking about herself to anyone except for Lone and Breena.

"So it's true that you don't sense any traces of Humans or other evil people aiming at our tree? Er, no offence," Letmir asked as she scratched her head with embarrassment after she remembered that Sophie was also a Human.

"It's fine," Sophie smiled. "Nope. As far as I can tell, nobody's been here for a while. The most recent traces of magic I can detect was from a group of five people leaving the tree."

"Probably a Blue or Purple team going out on a mission. Well, let's do one more sweep of the barrier's perimeter before we go back and report our findings. Good job, Sophie," Letmir replied with a cute smile.

Falin felt embarrassed, but he held his tongue. He didn't see a point in adding more conflict when it wasn't necessary. He was an internal leader now, so he had to start acting like one. Normally, he should have apologized to Sophie, but his pride wouldn't let him go that far.

"See the ones with the long green jagged petals? Those are the Mercurialis Perennials. We've got to get two-hundred by this evening. Be careful when you're extracting them, and give me a shout if you need some help," Falgoth said as he handed a wooden basket each to Fep, Breena, Ul'har and Swind.

He stopped for a moment in front of Swind and asked, "Will you be fine?" Naturally, he was concerned about the Lemurian since he only had one arm.

Swind nodded his head. "I actually collect herbs-ss in my ss-spare time, ss-so I'll be alright, Mr Falgoth."

Falgoth stroked his beard and laughed. He didn't usually get treated with any respect since he held the record for being a Green keeper for the longest amount of time. "Well, just let me know and I'll do your share for you. No point overburdening you."

Ul'har kicked the dirt and mumbled under his breathe. "Lucky lizard..."

Swind was thankful, but he refused. "I think I can manage, thank you regardless-ss, Mr Fargoth."

"Okay. Let's get started then. I want everyone to get at least forty each, but help your teammates if they're falling behind. Teamwork is very important for us world tree keepers," Falgoth ordered before he crouched down and began carefully picking the herbs.

Everyone else stopped standing around and got stuck in, even the reluctant Ul'har.

Roughly thirty minutes had passed and Falgoth had finally finished his share. He got up and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Now, let's see, who isn't done yet... Swind? Why is he helping Ul'har?"

Falgoth frowned as he approached the Lemurian and High Elf. "U'lhar! Did you force Swind to help you?"

Swind and Ul'har turned around and got up. Ul'har looked a bit annoyed. "No, he just decided to help me on his own."

"Don't speak nonsense! Why would he do that when he was struggling with his share?" Falgoth felt disappointed. While not of the same race, both he and Ul'har were Elves, so he felt like Ul'har's failures were his failures as well.

"I think there might be a misunderstanding here, Mr Falgoth," Swind interjected with a blank and expressionless face.

"Huh?" Fargoth looked confused. 'Was I wrong? With that arm, surely he couldn't have been done already. If Ul'har didn't threaten him to help, then why is he over here filling up his basket?'

"I finished picked my forty in about fifteen minutes-ss. I've been helping teach Ul'har how to properly harvest the herbs-ss without damaging them," Swind calmly explained.

"You were... teaching him?" Falgoth was starting to regret his haste in making assumptions. 'Wait, did he say fifteen minutes?! That's twice as fast as me and I've been doing this for years!'

"Yes-ss. Herb and ingredient gathering is-ss a hobby of mine that I do to help with my cooking. I have researched a lot of different plants-ss and know how to efficiently extract them without damaging them, ss-so Dog's-ss Mercury, or 'Mercurialis-ss Perennis-ss', as-ss it is-ss officially called, was-ss easy for me to gather. ss-Sorry for not telling you, Mr Fargoth," Swind apologised as he lowered his head into a bow.

"I-I see. I didn't realise..." Falgoth held his head and looked at Ulhar. "I'm very sorr-"

"This is why you'll never be promoted. Both weak and incompetent," Ul'har interrupted him before he grabbed his basket roughly and walked away. He briefly looked back and said, "Thanks, Swind. I appreciate your help."

"... I did it again..." Falgoth faintly sighed.

Swind placed his hand on the Wood Elf's shoulder and said, "We all make mistakes-ss."

"I guess. Anyway, let's go check on Breena and Fep, shall we?" Clearly, this aged man was used to such events happened, so he bounced back rather quickly.

"Of course. Please allow me to go get my basket first. I left it over there," Swind claimed as he pointed towards the world tree's trunk.

Lone sat in an unused room filled with brass bits and bobs. He had a pair of welding goggles on and an arm-shaped chunk of metal was in his hand while he carefully hammered away at it.

After a few minutes had passed, Lone put down the large arm made of brass and took off his goggles. "Well, that ought to just about do it. With these five mana orbs Eolande filled for me, I should be able to make an arm for Swind... hopefully. I'm gonna be fucking pissed if my understanding is too low and It wastes all of this mana."

Lone closed his eyes and imagined a brass arm that fitted Swind perfectly. He pictured it working via complex enchantments that linked themselves to Swind's brain which were imprinted of circular rings that coiled around the arm. The final thing he added were two options.

First, its metallic muscles could open up and pump out steam to blind enemies, and the second option would allow it to be fired as a consumable weapon that would explode on impact via an enchantment.

Item does not exist in Altros, however, there are a few similar items. 550,000 MP is required to compensate for the difference.

The host has a great understanding of the item and of its construction. Base MP cost: 50,000 MP.

The host possesses insufficient MP. The stored MP from 3 of the host's [Mana Orbs] has been consumed to compensate for the needed MP.

600,000 total MP has been consumed to create the item: Simple Enchanted Automatical Brass Arm.

All of Lone's over one-hundred thousand MP was completely drained and two mana orbs shattered while a third was half emptied of its stored mana.

A large and flexible limb made entirely out of enchanted brass appeared in front of Lone. "Thank fuck it succeeded. Well, now I just need to start creating the tail over and over again until I understand it completely. I really need Eolande to teach me more about enchanting. Two and a half mana orbs, while not even close to Swind's sword, is still pretty costly."

Lone cracked his neck and stored all of the hand-made arms in his personal storage dimension before he gently grabbed the one made from his Creation Magic and he then left the make-shift workshop.

On his way to the living room, he passed the Demon Princess. "Hi," he politely greeted her with a wave as he passed by.

The Demon Princess didn't reply and just watched him leave the hallway. "Was... Was that an arm slumped over his shoulder? These people are so weird..."

"Hmm?" Eolande looked up from the book she was reading and smiled knowingly as Lone walked into the room. "For Swind?"

Lone sat down on a sofa and replied, "Yeah. I finally had the confidence to create it without using up too much mana." He then closed his eyes and reclined his head. "Got bored of your Glade?"

"Of course. Any place without you, Husband, is infinitely dull," Eolande giggled softly.

Almost as if on cue, the door swung open and a small ball of cuteness flew towards Lone. He caught the moving object and smiled. "I missed you too, Soph."

The 'ball' looked up and kissed Lone. "Did your mission go well?" she asked.

"Yeah, it was easy. Yours?" Lone replied as he wrapped his arms around Sophie and repositioned her on his lap.

"Mmm, we only had to check the tree barrier's perimeter." Sophie grabbed a few of Lone's tails to cuddle when her eyes chanced upon the mechanical arm. "For Swind?"

"Yup," Lone nodded.

"It looks strange," Sophie stated.

Lone's face crumpled. "No, it doesn't. It's cool." He then grabbed Sophie's sides and squished them in a little act of revenge for her words.

"Ahaha... stop... it tickles! Ahahaha!" Sophie thrashed around and tried to escape Lone's firm hands but to no avail.

"It's cool! It's cool! Stop... ahahaha... please... ahahaha..." Only when she had said that, did Lone stop Sophie's 'torment'.

Sophie's breathing was ragged and her face was flushed. "Meanie."

Eolande, who was sat on the other side of the room, grimaced. "I think I need a sick bag, and Sophie, fix your expression. You look like you were just 'playing' with Lone."

"What...? Oh..." Sophie buried herself in Lone's fluffy limbs upon realising what Eolande meant by 'playing'.

It was at that moment that Fep, Eko, Breena and Swind all entered the living room. "Swind, I've got a gift for you," Lone announced.

"For me?" the Lemurian replied with a questioning tone.

"Yeah," Lone said as he grabbed the brass arm which was next to him and held it out. "I finally finished making this for you."