“I wanna hold Mr. Squishels!” Adreanell reaches into the pen and picks up the diminutive gray slime, holding it close to her face.

“He’s such a cutie!” A tendril of slime slaps onto her face, but she just giggles. “Colt, look at how cute he is!” She holds the slime out toward him.

Colt looks a little closer at the slime, but stays a healthy distance away, hesitant to get too near it. The slime leaps from Adreanell’s hands suddenly, attaching onto Colt’s face. He looks unamused.

“Awww, Colt, he likes you.” Adreanell smiles as if she’s watching someone holding a kitten.

“I think he’s trying to digest my face.” Colt peels the slime off of his face, poking it and watching it jiggle. “...I have to admit this is weirdly satisfying.” He jiggles the slime in his hand slightly before handing it back to Adreanell.

Looking at it warily myself, I elect to not go so close to the slime. My first experience with them wasn’t pleasant after all.

Adreanell pets the slime slightly before putting it back in the pen. “It looks like they’re both still hungry. Cassandra, Colt, do you two want to feed them? Maybe you can get the Talent too! Never hurts to have more stats.”

“Sure, I think they’re kinda cute too.” Cassandra approaches me and takes the food pellet I hand her.

“Why not?” Colt shrugs and takes a food pellet as well.

They pet the slimes for a second then give them the food pellet. The slimes jiggle with what I assume to be pleasure at being fed and possibly even the physical affection. ‘Who knew, slimes like to be pet.’

“I got it!” Cassandra looks happy with the new Talent.

“Holy shit.” Colt seems to be looking at one of his menus.

“What happened?” Checking the pen, I make sure he hasn’t lost a finger or something.

“I just hit the 150 Charisma unlock.” He excitedly taps away at a menu.

“I didn’t realize you were so close, couldn’t you have topped it off with stat points? Also, just tell us what it is already!”

“Oh, right. Sorry, got distracted trying to figure this out. It’s like a social tab in a game! There’s a friend’s list… guild list… there’s even a block list and party list! Oh god, making a guild is expensive. It’s 100 Gleams just to start it! I wonder what benefits it would have though…

“And no, I’ve been applying my points to my combat stats. Wait. Lucas, don’t tell me you haven’t been spending your stat points again.” He looks at me critically.

“Uhhhh, perhaps. I spent one on Charisma for the first milestone bonus!”

Cassandra and Adreanell look at me critically as well.

“What? I’m a generalist! I don’t just use an anchor and I don’t just use magic! I don’t know what to spend them on! Besides, I get so many stat points from level ups it’s felt less critical to spend these...”

“...How many unspent points do you have, Lucas?” Cassandra crosses her arms, staring critically at me as well.

“49…” Glancing to the side, I don’t meet anyone’s eyes.

“Lucas! That’s so many stats! How have you not spent them?” Adreanell looks exasperated.

The door to the house opens and Becky walks in. “Sup bitches, it’s me!” She’s wearing rhinestone-studded pink sunglasses and has a light blue neck scarf worn in the same fashion as flight attendants.

She lowers the sunglasses as she takes the scene in. “Oh, are we criticizing Lucas? I want to join!”

Glaring at her, I take in the rest of her outfit. It’s a well-hemmed sundress in lighter tones of pink, complemented by a pair of pink flip flops with more rhinestones studding the foot strap. “Why are you here, Becky?”

“Well, I wanted to show off my new outfit, behold!” She flourishes the dress, causing it to sparkle and glitter as she spins. “Dazzling Touch! It gives everything I make that extra oomph!”

Adreanell goes over to inspect the dress. I begin to creep away before I feel eyes on my back. Turning around, Colt is standing with his arms crossed. “Lucas, you’re not going anywhere until you decide where to spend your stat points.”

“Oh, he hasn’t spent those? Even I know to do that, Lucas.” She scoffs and puts her sunglasses in her hair. She snaps bubblegum and stares at me just as critically as everyone else.

“I told you, I get so many stat rewards from my level ups! It’s hard to decide what to just put points into… Where are you even getting that bubblegum, Becky?”

“It’s a Skill, and don’t try to change the subject stat-boy.”

“Well, what should I spend them on?”

“...We won’t know if you don’t show us your stats. Are you okay with doing that?” Cassandra looks apprehensive even asking the question. The culture is clearly already shifting towards stats being considered a private affair.

“Yeah, I guess I don’t mind. Status.” Willing it to show for the rest of them, they all crowd to look at the menu screen.

Lucas Creo

Age: 22

Race: Human

Status:

Level: 23

Exp: 5365/8668

HP: 6855/6855 (29.25 HP/min regeneration)

MP: 7105/7105 (43.75 MP/min regeneration)

Strength: 324

Endurance: 457

Dexterity: 176

Intelligence: 302

Attunement: 421

Willpower: 229

Charisma: 52

Insight: 237

Stat points: 49

Perk Points: 0

“Holy shit, Lucas. These stat totals are insane!” Cassandra lays a hand over her mouth in shock.

Becky acts like she doesn’t care, but I can see her mentally adding up the numbers.

Colt knows about all my Perks and has a lot of fusion perks himself, so he’s less impressed overall.

Adreanell is at a loss for words.

“...Well, I can see why you have trouble deciding when they’re already that high. How much Endurance do you get in a level up?” Cassandra has gone into full analytical gamer mode.

“49. I considered bringing it to 500 to see what happens, but I’m kinda close to a level up anyway, so that’s made me consider putting points in Endurance less. It’s already so high too.”

“Well, what about Dexterity? Is that the one with the lowest stat growth? Let’s ignore Charisma and Insight for now.” She continues to look through the list.

Colt, Adreanell, and Becky look out of their element, so they’re letting Cassandra take the reins for now.

“Yeah, Dexterity is only 14 per level up.” Doublechecking my bonuses, I make sure I have the number right.

“Dexterity is probably the way to go then. With how much your Strength is unbalanced from your Dexterity, you probably have a lot of lost power because you can’t control it. Besides, you’ve been enchanting a ton and had Adreanell buy you all those blacksmithing supplies right?

“The Dexterity would definitely help you be more precise there too. And from seeing you fight, you’re definitely more of a physical fighter than a magical fighter, so your current magic stats should suffice for now.”

“Hmmm, good point. I think I’ll do that then. But I’ll save like, 10 points in case I need them to top something off.”

“That’s fine, just make sure you spend them if you still think you need them in the end.”

Spending 39 points on Dexterity, I bring that stat up to 215. The huge dump of points into a single stat is much more noticeable toward the effects than a level up which just feels like a general powerup.

Flexing my fingers, my control over them feels immense. Paying attention to it, I can’t even tell if my right hand feels like the dominant hand anymore. Taking out a pad of paper, I scribble my name down with my left hand.

“Woah, that’s weird. High Dexterity makes you ambidextrous.”

“Makes sense though, Dexterity seems to be all about control of your body. Kinda like how Willpower is control of the mind.” Colt gestures as if he’s weighing the two with his hands.

“It’s no wonder Ilmarinen can use all those arms at once, his Dexterity must be insane. I wonder if octopus people even have a dominant arm to begin with.” Adreanell gets a dreamy look to her eyes as she unfocuses.

“...Anyway, you mentioned the Charisma unlock, Colt. Are you able to add us as friends or invite us to a party?” Cassandra gets that clinical look once more, ready to dissect the information.

“I was trying before… definitely can’t send a friend request. You must need the unlock too. As for the party… let me just try… nope.” He shrugs. “Not too useful when I’m the only one with access to it.”

“I’m getting close to 150 myself, Colt.” Becky grins smugly at him. “Look’s like we’re gonna be bestiesss.”

Colt groans. “I… suppose it’ll be useful to contact you.”

“Yeah, of course it will. I’m incredibly resourceful. Anyway, what were you guys- ew are those slimes?” Becky turns away, immediately disinterested. “Hey, Lucas, think you could teach me how to enchant?”

“Uh, sure. Did you bring the things you wanted to enchant? Actually, probably better if you practice on some bolts of cloth first. We could practice in my forge, I’ve been wanting to get back into smithing after all.”

She nods and walks toward my forge.

“Hey, Colt, would you mind making a table and chair in there for Becky to work at?”

“No problem, after that she’s your responsibility though.” He glares at her from afar. “Oh, and Becky. Guess who has a storage perk now!”

She turns to him, mouth agape. “No. Way.”

He grins. “Yes, way.”

“Well, I bet mine is prettier.” She scoffs.

“Mine is a Personal Pantry.” His trump card played, Becky crosses her arms.

“Damnit, food always wins.” She flips her hair over her shoulder and turns back toward the forge, walking through the doorway.

Following her in, she begins to take out various pieces of clothing and bolts of cloth while Colt quickly builds her a table to work on.

Once Becky has everything set up, I curse, remembering that she won’t have Inscriber’s Touch.

“Shit, sorry, Becky. I’m gonna need to run to the Shop quickly and pick you up an inscribing pen. Just… stay here and make more clothes or something, I don’t know.”

“One step ahead of you, Lucas.” She winks as she’s suddenly twirling an inscribing pen around her fingers. “One of us can think ahead at the very least.”

Glaring at her, I sigh and sit down next to her. The next hour goes by explaining how enchantments work. She leafs through the enchantment book, deciding what kinds of runes she wants to practice first.

“...No, Becky. You can’t just take shortcuts, these are really specific shapes you need to draw.”

“But that line still connects there anyway. I should just be able to draw a straight line across. It’s still the same kinda circle thing.” She gestures across the cloth, indicating the softness rune she was practicing.

“...That’s just wrong. No. That’s not how enchanting works.” My frustration is building, she’s like a kid in math class questioning every small aspect.

She snaps her gum loudly. “I’d like to think I’m right in spirit.”

Groaning, I continue to show her how runes work, slowly but surely she concedes that the lines are important after she sees that the runes don’t work if she takes shortcuts.

Finally stepping away, I address my own situation finally. Taking in the stock of everything Adreanell got me, it’s a lot of various metals, none of which I recognize aside from some steel.

Taking a greyish black ingot, I Inspect it.

Dark Steel Ingot

Quality: High

Traits: Durable

Description: Steel that has been smelted through a process that makes the ingot highly durable.

‘Pretty simple, I think that club I got from the goblin warlord was made of this. Adreanell bought me high quality, hopefully it wasn’t too expensive...’ Noting that Adreanell got me five of these ingots, neatly stacked in a pyramid shape, I move on.

There’s also a stack of five normal steel ingots. ‘Basic, but that doesn’t mean bad. I can still enchant these. Priming Touch will help for sure here. Also, I can sell them as something more affordable for people.

The last metal seems to be where Adreanell decided to put the most money into. Looking at the pile of twenty pale gray ingots, I Inspect them.

Tier 1 Neutrite Ingot

Quality: High

Traits: Neutral

Description: This unattuned ingot smelts at low temperatures and takes on any aspects added into it, changing its form and function drastically depending on the additives. Tier 1 neutrite can only contain a maximum of two aspects before losing structural integrity.

‘Okay, good choice, Adreanell. Tiers and qualities? The quality makes sense I suppose, lower quality makes shittier stuff.’ My excitement grows as I open the door to the alchemy room to make myself all kinds of aspect crystals using all the plants in the room.

Calling out to Adreanell while I gather and refine plants into aspect crystals, she yells back from the other room that there was no tier higher than tier 1 in the shop.

‘That’s weird, I wonder how I get higher tiers…’

With my hold loaded up on aspect crystals of all the different plants in the garden, I move back into the forge.

Becky is hard at work on the table, enchanting various pieces of clothing.

“How’s the enchanting going, Becky?”

“Fab. This sundress is silky smooth, durable, defensive, and has pockets.” She pulls open one of the pockets, showing me that it is indeed functional.

“Okay, so I kind of get you making it silky smooth, durable and defensive make sense, but why pockets? You have a storage Perk now.”

She rolls her eyes and scoffs. “Boys.”

Feeling confused, I decide to not question her any further and leave her to her work.

Picking up one of the neutrite ingots, it’s strangely light for a metal.

Just as I’m about to pick what aspect crystals to add to the metal, Colt steps into the room. “Hey, Lucas, could I borrow your boots? I wanted to study the effects of them to see if I can improve my Geomancy.”

“Oh, sure.” Taking off my boots, I grimace at the prospect of smithing metal barefooted. ‘Well, free Heat Resistance training I guess.’ “Here you go.”

He thanks me and ducks out of the room.

“Isn’t smithing barefooted dangerous?” Becky quirks an eyebrow at me.

“Normally yes, but I have healing perks so I’ll be fine.”

She shrugs. “Your funeral.” She returns to snipping fabrics and folding them into bows.

Rolling my eyes, I turn back to the ingots. Spotting a box sitting next to the forge, I find a crucible and several ingot casts sitting inside. They’re perfectly smooth, likely from the Construct Shop in that case.

There’s a note under them. Picking it up, I read through the messy script.

Hey, Lucas!

Figured you might need these as well, I didn’t see any in your forge room. Hopefully this helps!

Adreanell

Yelling into the other room, I thank Adreanell for her forward thinking. She yells back something about slime up her nose.

Chuckling, I grab one of the neutrite ingots and place it inside the crucible. Looking through my hold, I decide to go back to basics for my first experience. Taking out a bright red healing crystal and a resonation crystal from a sweetkiss chime, I drop them into the crucible as well.

Besides, I’m curious what happens when I make metal with a healing property.

They make satisfying plinks when they land on the metal. Fortunately, the crucible is made of clay so I’m able to levitate it with my Geomancy, removing the need for any kind of tongs.

Placing the crucible into the forge, I turn on the runes. A slight tug on my mana pool tells me that the runes are operating properly to power somewhat from my own resources. The entire forge lights up red as magical tongues of fire lick at the crucible, quickly heating it up.

As the neutrite has a low melting point for a metal, I see a flash of light rather quickly that indicates the metal has melted and the aspect crystals have fused in.

Floating the crucible back out of the forge, I pour the bright red contents into the ingot cast. It fills perfectly and I set it off to the side to cool down.

The crucible itself is completely clean, my assumption is that the casting works similar to taking doses from potions and it all comes out perfectly measured.

Level up! For fusing tier 1 neutrite with aspects for the first time, your Talent: Fledgling Blacksmith has reached (26/50)!

‘It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a Fledgling Blacksmith level. Feels good to get back into it.’

The next ingot I make is made from a mana restoration and a resonation crystal, following the theme of starting with the basics. This one heats up just as quickly and I pour it out. The resultant liquid metal is bright blue in color.

‘Ooooh, now this feels fantasy. Guess the bright red of the last cast wasn’t just heat but the actual color of the metal?’

Looking back at the original cast, it’s already hardened into a true ingot. Poking it, it’s definitely hot to the touch but I can handle it. ‘Inspect.’

Pranite Ingot

Quality: Medium

Traits: Healing

Description: Metal imbued with the aspect of healing. The effects of this metal will vary based on what it is smithed into.

‘Not the most helpful description ever, but whatever. I wonder if I can…’ Attempting to use Metallomancy to levitate the ingot, I find it hard to mentally “grasp” the metal. It shudders slightly, but it’s almost as if it’s slippery and hard to get a hold of.

Shrugging, I grab another neutrite ingot. Looking through my stock of crystals, I take out a guidance crystal and a swiftness crystal.

Melting down the ingot in the crucible with these crystals, I pour out an extremely pale lavender ingot.

Level up! For combining two synergistic aspects into tier 1 neutrite, your Talent: Fledgling Blacksmith has reached (27/50)!

Checking the mana restoration ingot now that it’s complete, I pick up the still-hot bright blue ingot.

Manite

Quality: Medium

Traits: Mana Restoration

Description: Metal imbued with the aspect of mana restoration. The effects of this metal will vary based on what it is smithed into.

‘Well, I don’t know what I expected. Pretty much the same as the healing one just with mana subbed in for prana. Let’s get a little more experimental…’

Trying a combination I haven’t before, I take waterbreathing and ironskin just to see what happens.

The next few minutes involve me using Aeromancy to clear smoke out of the forge after the result turns into a charred mess.

Becky coughs and glares at me. The smoke stuck to some of the clothes she couldn’t put away in time so they’re ruined now.

‘I guess not all aspects combine well, better be careful about things that seem like bad combos.’

Level up! For combining aspects with poor synergy and learning from your failures, your Talent: Fledgling Blacksmith has reached (28/50)!

‘Don’t you sass me, Construct. But I guess I did learn from that failure.’ My hairs stand on end as I feel Becky’s piercing gaze on my back.

“I told you I was sorry!”

“Sorry doesn’t save my masterwork.” She pouts, turning her head from me.

“You were literally just mumbling about how you weren’t liking that shirt you were making.”

“I don’t have to like my masterworks.” She continues to keep her back to me.

Sighing, I use the ace I always keep up my metaphorical sleeve. “Hey, Colt! Could you make Becky some food?”

“Sure! What does she want?” He calls back from the yard, I can see him through the window in the forge that now looks out over the garden he made.

Looking to Becky, I can tell she’s trying to resist but she turns to me. “...Could he make a pie?”

“Can you make a pie?”

“Uh, I’ll have to check my ingredients but I can try. Clusterspring pie might taste nice!” He begins to head inside. Looking in the yard, I note shards of the amber crystals from my boots all over the place.

“...You’re forgiven.” She turns back to her work.

Rolling my eyes, I laugh to myself and look at the results of my last successful metal now that it’s cooled. It’s even paler lavender than before, nearly white.

Sendite

Quality: Medium

Traits: Guidance, Swiftness

Description: Metal imbued with the aspects of guidance and swiftness. The effects of this metal will vary based on what it is smithed into.

Holding the ingot in my hand, I feel a strange connection to it somewhat similar to when I was using the flight potion.

Lost in thought slightly, I imagine the ingot flying out of my hand, and it immediately does, directly into the wall. Becky jumps at the loud crashing noise, glaring at me once again.

“Uh, sorry. Magic metal.”

She shakes her head and continues sewing buttons on to the shirt she’s making.

‘Let’s try another simple one.’ Picking up the lavender ingot, I place it in my hold with the other two ingots I’ve successfully made so far.

Taking the aspect crystal I condensed from a bolt pepper, I find that it’s simply a “lightning” trait. ‘Hm, guess it only gives lightning breath in the pepper form because I eat it?’

Cleaning out the crucible with Hydromancy quickly, I place everything in it.

Combining the lightning crystal with another resonation crystal to hopefully ensure success, I have the metal completely melted a few minutes later.

Pouring out the bright yellow metal, it arcs with electricity, grounding on the nearby steel and dark steel ingots.

Carefully placing the ingot cast to the side, I follow the same process with the fire and ice aspects from the flare pepper and the gell pepper.

The fire ingot is an orange-red in color as if the bar itself is still slightly molten even upon cooling, which it never does completely.

The ice ingot is a pale powder blue as well as slightly translucent and completely cools instantly upon being poured in the ingot cast.

Just touching it brings pinpricks to my fingers from the cold it generates. Inspecting all three, the results follow the same descriptive system of the other ingots. The names of the metals, however, are galvanite, cardarite, and cryonite respectively.

Showing Becky the last one, I grin devilishly. “Hey, Becky. This last one kinda looks like an ingot of ice, huh? Pretty cool, don’t you think?”

The next second I’m dodging a thrown pair of scissors that sticks dangerously deep into the wall.

“Woah! That could have hurt me!”

She shrugs. “I threw it slow enough. I know your stats now. You can dodge it.” She pulls the scissors back out of the wall, frowning at them.

“You made me bend my scissors. Fix them.” She hands the scissors to me.

Glaring at her, I take a look at the metal. It’s fairly low quality from what I could make, but it seems to be her original pair of scissors, judging from all the nicks and scratches on the metal.

“...How about I use one of my metals after I’m finished and make you a new pair of scissors?”

“...You’d do that?” She takes the old pair back from me, storing them away in her boutique.

“Well duh, I’m planning on making us all some cool stuff.” Winking, I raise the ingot in my hand again. She raises another pair of scissors threateningly but thinks better of throwing them.

“Go back to your forging, Lucas.” She turns back to the shirt. It’s definitely a male cut, making me think it’s either for me or Colt.

Storing the rest of the metals away, I return to my experiments. Taking the lightning reactions aspect from a zingpod and the springlimb aspect from a clusterspring, I combine them with the neutrite in the crucible.

The resultant metal is confusingly a grayish-blue color as I pour it, but I shrug and accept it as I don’t know color theory.

Level up! For combining aspects with high synergy once again as well as making several elemental ingots, your Talent: Fledgling Blacksmith has reached (29/50)!

‘Hmm, hopefully, I can get to Adept after I smith all of these if I make some more.’

Having an idea for one that might make a nice ingot. I take the dark purple heavyweight crystal that came from a tonion, even the crystal itself is heavier than it should be, and combine it with the growth crystal from a colossus mushroom.

The metal I pour out ends up being very dark purple, bordering on black.

Level up! For combining aspects with very high synergy, your Talent: Fledgling Blacksmith has reached (30/50)!

For reaching your sixth Talent milestone in Fledgling Blacksmith, you have been awarded applicable stat points to Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Insight and + 180 XP. In addition, you have been granted the Perk: Tempered Strike!

Perks:

Tempered Strike

Description: You have tempered your strength, allowing you vastly increased control of that power. You have an increased understanding of your physical strength, granting you increased precision with your power output. Dexterity increased by 2. +2 Dexterity per level up.

‘Well that sounds useful. I was worried I might destroy the metal I smith if I can’t control my Strength.’

After checking the new perk, the last ingot has cooled and I’m able to Inspect it.

Ocelite

Quality: Medium

Traits: Feline Grace

Description: Metal imbued with the aspect of feline grace. The effects of this metal will vary based on what it is smithed into.

‘I could see myself making a spear for Mary with this. If it combines the quick reactions of the zingpods and the springiness of the clustersprings, it would make a perfect metal for a spear.’

Looking back to my hold, I pick out two more aspect crystals. Botanical shapeshifting and burning poison, simply because I’m curious what the result will be.

The resulting ingot pours out as a greenish-orange metal. It even feels dangerous to look at.

Level up! For combining aspects with high synergy and gaining strange results, your Talent: Fledgling Blacksmith has reached (31/50)!

‘I wonder what those strange results are…’

The heavyweight growth ingot is ready, so I take the dark purple ingot out of the cast. It expands to twice its size and the weight increases proportionally. ‘Holy shit, this is heavy. I hope I can make this a little lighter somehow, this will be impossible to smith.’

On that thought, the ingot suddenly becomes significantly lighter as it shrinks back down to normal size. ‘Oh, I can control the aspects of the ingots mentally. I guess I should have realized with the sendite, but that one has guidance so I thought it was unique to that.’

Inspecting it, the name is bulkite and it has the same aspects I would expect.

Wanting to test it, I walk over to Becky. Setting the bar on the table, I allow it to expand to full size. The table creaks ominously under the weight. She stares up at me. “...Can I help you?”

“Focus on this metal, maybe touch it or something, and try to make it shrink back down to normal size.”

She looks at me warily but pokes a finger to the metal and closes her eyes. Nothing happens. “Huh, just as I thought.”

“What?” She takes her hands off the metal, glaring at it.

“I think this probably has to do with trade-based ownership.” Touching the metal, it returns to its original size and I store it away in my hold.

“Making it smaller?” She checks the table leg after the creaking ceases to make sure there’s no damage.

“And less heavy. It’s called bulkite, apparently. I’m curious what kind of weapon I could make out of it.”

“That’s your job, smithy.” She goes back to sewing sleeves onto a t-shirt.

Shaking my head, I turn back to my metals. The conversation gave enough time for the botanical shapeshifting and burning poison metal to cool.

Turning the ingot cast upside down, I pat out the ingot, letting it fall to the floor. As it does, it shifts shape, becoming a mass of spiky leaves on stems. Mentally willing it to revert to its previous shape, it loses some of its orange hues, shifting darker green.

‘Guess that’s what The Construct meant by strange results. It’s like this metal is alive…’

Wincing, I pick it up, but no poison effect happens. ‘Thank goodness, that would have been annoying to deal with.’

Inspecting it, I take a point of HP damage as I read the name. “Metalnettle. Goddamnit, even the metals can be puns!”

Level up! Pun resistance has reached (2/100)!

‘Goddamnit.’

The aspects of the metal have remained the same, but even while the effects are inert, the metal feels… strangely flexible.

‘This should be interesting to smith…’

Setting into a rhythm, I use up the remaining ten neutrite ingots I have to make a whole host of different ingots. Putting off any more messages, I’m pleased when I come back to find decent progress.

Level up! For continuing to improve your craft and combining aspects of various synergies with tier 1 neutrite, your Talent: Fledgling Blacksmith has reached (39/50)!

For reaching your seventh Talent milestone in Fledgling Blacksmith, you have been awarded applicable stat points to Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Insight and + 210 XP. In addition, you have been granted the Perk: Honed Will!

Perks:

Honed Will

Description: Like a weapon, you have sharpened your mind. This not only increases the accuracy of your smithing, but also the power of Skills that operate off the power of your will. Willpower increased by 2. +2 Willpower per level up.

‘Well, that’s weird. Skills that operate off of my will? Like Storm’s Rage?’ Activating the skill with very little mana, I feel the power of my aura awaken with it. There does seem to be a cutting edge to it now.

Focusing on the ground near me, I lash out with the aura and a cut marks the ground. It’s not particularly deep as I wasn’t pumping much mana into the Skill, but it’s impressive nonetheless.

“Who rained on your parade, Lucas?” Becky grins at me, seeing that I’m currently in a focused storm of water and wind.

“Just testing a new Perk, Becky. Wanna see all the new metals I made?”

She stands up and stretches, making an exaggerated show of it. “Sure, I could use a break, my hands are getting tired.”

Picking up a deeper red ingot, I show it to her. “So, this is pranasteel. It’s a combination of the healing and grasping aspects. It has a lifesteal type of ability. I figure I might make you some scissors out of these. The name is a bit on the nose if you ask me though.”

“I wouldn’t mind sucking the life out of some monsters.” She grins, her gaze growing violent.

Clearing my throat, I show her the dark blue ingot next. “Following that theme, I combined mana restoration with grasping and made manasteel. Same effect, it just steals mana instead of prana. I’m not sure how much it steals though.”

She nods, touching the metal and drawing it back just as quickly as she feels mana sapped from her. “Not a lot from that single touch, but it feels creepy.”

Storing those two ingots away, I indicate the next, a yellowish-brown metal. Making sure to disable its effect before touching it, I show Becky the ingot.

“This is medusa fang steel. I combined a paralysis aspect with a thorns aspect to get this one. Unfortunately, the metal seems really brittle, so I’m going to have to be careful with smithing it.”

Becky elects to not touch this metal. “Next.”

“...Okay then.” Grabbing a reddish-brown ingot, I hold it up to Becky.

“This is hydralite, I combined an aspect of strengthening and an aspect of recovery. My guess is that this weapon will get stronger the more you use and damage it. There’s probably an upper limit, but I think it’ll make for a strong weapon. The aspects actually fused to make a new trait called ‘hydra’s power.’”

“Well, the color is uggo for sure, but I guess I could allow you to make my scissors out of those.” She puts on a haughty air, making me stare daggers at her.

“I’ll make you at most two pairs of scissors, and only because you’ve made me new clothes. You’re on your own past that.”

“My outfits are super cute on you and you know it.” She winks, pointing to the next ingot. “What’s that one? The color is pretty.”

“Oh, that one came out nicely. It’s levitation and guidance. It’s called teletite. Watch.” The bright purple ingot floats out of my hands and swirls around my body as I command it.

“Oh. But I can already do that with my scissors using Metallomancy.” She looks disappointed that a pretty color metal is so useless to her.

“Well, these magical metals seem harder to control with Metallomancy, trust me, I tried. You don’t own these metals so you might struggle even more to control them right now.”

She focuses for a second, her face contorting in concentration. She gives up, unable to even touch the metals with her mind. “Damnit, that’s hard.”

“I still think other metals would be a better fit for you anyway. Speaking of, on to the next. This one came out really neat.” Grabbing an icy blue ingot, I hold it up to Becky. She looks impressed as she notes the pale blue glow coming from inside the ingot.

“It’s called coldsnap steel, it has an aspect called frozen lightning. It has all the speed of lightning, but the sparks freeze on touch.” Holding my hand close, a blue arc of electricity touches my finger, frost forming where it does. “See?”

“That looks dangerous. I want it.” She looks greedily at the metal.

“You can only have two pairs of scissors. Given the right aspects though, I might be able to make your scissors with two kinds of blades on each one.”

“If you don’t think it’ll fuck anything up, sure.” She shrugs.

“Uh, no. Hopefully, it won’t. Anyway, this next ingot came out… interesting.” Holding up a deep orange ingot, I stare at it strangely.

“I combined nutrition and growth aspect crystals to make this one. I’m… not sure how to feed a weapon but my theory is it will grow when fed. It’s called voracitite.”

“Maybe it can eat blood so you just need to shank a bitch.” She peacefully checks her nails out despite the creepy statement.

“...You might be right, but that’s still weird to say so casually.”

“Lucas, when you’re me in high school, you need to know when to fend off bitches.” She takes out a pair of scissors, making me create a healthy amount of space between us.

Changing the subject, I show her a burgundy ingot. “I decided to follow what I did with an iron maiden potion I made, so I combined ironskin with thorns. It’s called retaliatite. It has a trait called iron retaliation, so I think this metal might make good shields or armor.”

Becky yawns. “Booooring. The best defense is a great offense. Next.”

Frowning at her, I pick up the next ingot. This one is light orange. “It’s… somewhat volatile I think, so it might only be single-use. It’s called detonite. It’s made from an incendiary aspect from a flashfire sprout and a swiftness aspect from a Hermes’ sandal. It might explode.”

“You could use it for arrows or something then.” She edges away from the metal, looking wary.

Storing it away, I feel somewhat concerned about it detonating inside me, but my hold seems to place things in some kind of stasis, so it’s probably fine.

“Well, last one. This one was kind of a weird failure.” Showing her the maroon ingot, she seems interested in the color. “I combined strengthening with internal sheathe to make this one. It’s… durable. I’m not even sure how I’m going to shape this metal.”

“Could always just attach it to a stick, call it a hammer, and call it good.” She seems less interested now, knowing that the effects are so bland.

“...Not a horrible idea, but it would look really ugly. I’m sure it will make a good doorstop or something.”

“What would make a good doorstop?” Turning around, Colt is standing in the doorway.

“Hey, Colt. This shitty ingot I made. It’s so goddamn inflexible, I’m not sure I’ll even be able to shape it.” My primordial perception helps me determine the strength of metals, and this one feels almost completely immobile.

“Well, the pie should be cool enough now if you guys wanna take a break to eat.” He gestures with his thumb toward the upstairs. Becky is gone in a flash before he even completes his sentence.

“A pie break sounds nice, by the way, are you done with my boots?” My feet are fortunately unaffected as I was doing all the pouring of metal with my Geomancy from a safe distance, but I still want my boots back.

“Oh, yeah, I’m all done with them.” He hands them back and I reequip them as well as a pair of socks.

“Ahhh, nice and cozy again. Now, I believe there’s some pie with my name on it.” Sprinting out of the room and up the stairs, I pray the glutton hasn’t eaten all of it already somehow.

The break is nice and refreshing, and the pie is delicious. Afterward, I feel refreshed and ready to smith some of the metals into weapons and equipment.