“Hello! Welcome. Come in, come in.” Gesturing the family inside, Karie enters after them, and they all glance around the main room of the house, taking in the vast open space.

“I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced, I’m Selena.” The mother offers me a handshake which I return.

“Lucas.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Lucas. And… thank you, for saving my family. It took some time to understand but… thank you. Oh, and this is our daughter, Maria, and our son, Daniel.”

The entire family has dark brown, bordering on black hair with deep, rich brown eyes which the two children stare up at me in wonder with.

Kneeling down, I smile at the two children. From the height difference, Maria appears to be the older child. “Hello, Maria. Hello, Daniel. How old are you two?”

“I’m eight.” Maria smiles at me, playing with a cat’s cradle made of yarn in her hands.

“And I’m seven!” Daniel mimics his sister’s smile, showing a few places where he’s lost his baby teeth.

“Wow! You guys are so grown up, huh?” Putting some excitement into my voice, they seem to become less nervous.

“Yeah! Mama says my growth spurt is coming any day now.” Daniel glances toward his sister who is about five inches taller than him.

“Hello! Sorry, I was just taking the roast out of the oven!” Colt comes down the stairs quickly, walking up and greeting everyone as well.

“Hey, why is your hair green?” Daniel looks up at Colt.

“Daniel! You can’t just ask those things.” Selena gives him a look that tells me he’s in trouble later.

“Oh. It’s fine, Selena. I’m what’s called a Fae, Daniel. That makes me a faerie. I’m made of magic. I used to be human like you but… things happened and I turned out like this.” Colt seems somewhat uncomfortable explaining, especially to a child, but he smiles anyway.

Maria’s eyes light up at the mention of faerie. “You’re a faerie? Can I see your wings?” She lays an arm on him, practically vibrating with excitement.

“Well, I don’t actually have wings. Not really sure why. I guess maybe that myth was wrong. But let me see if I can…” Colt casts Glamour and with a look of concentration, a set of green butterfly wings sprout from his back, fluttering unnaturally behind him.

Both children explode with excitement, asking Colt too many questions simultaneously. He pulls out his secret weapon to diffuse the situation. “Well, dinner is going to get cold. I made dessert too. Would you all like to join us for dinner?”

“Yes!” Both Daniel and Maria turn to their mother. “Can we pleaseeee?”

“Well, I don’t see why not. Thank you for having us, Colt and Lucas.”

Gabe nods as well. “That sounds great. It smells delicious too.”

“Okay, I just need to get Karie settled in and I’ll meet you all upstairs, okay?” Walking over to Karie, everyone else heads up the stairs.

“Hi, Karie. How did today go?”

“I made walls.” She seems happy about that fact.

The simple statement kills any momentum in the conversation, causing me to stumble my words a bit. “Well, that’s uh, great.” A somewhat evil but not undeserved thought comes to mind. “How about you and Argo have a chat and catch up while I go eat dinner?”

“Okay.” She follows me into the forge and I unclip Argo.

“Argo armed and not ready for this!”

Setting him on the floor, I kneel down next to him for a moment. “Okay, Argo. You and Karie chat while I go eat dinner.” Patting him twice, I stand up and begin to walk out.

“Lucas! Wait! Nooooo!”

Walking out of the room, I laugh at the anchor’s pleading. That’ll teach him for “kissing” my face after my empowering speech.

Taking the stairs two at the time, I arrive just as Colt is finishing setting the table. “Hello everyone. How was Karie today, Gabe?”

“She was amazing. We’ve never gotten so much work done in a single day. Our mages don’t have to do so much lifting anymore so they can reserve their mana for metal shaping and creation instead.”

“That’s really good to hear. I’m glad she seemed to enjoy it too.” Serving myself some of the food after everyone else has gotten their shares, I find that Colt even cooked some sheathestalk cobs. ‘Huh, I’ve never actually tried these.’

Taking a bite into the sheathestalk cob, my eyes widen. ‘Holy shit this is delicious.’ The flavor is savory, just slightly sweet, and incredibly satisfying.

Turning to Gabe, he looks like he has something on his mind. “What’s up?”

He lowers his voice, glancing at Colt and Selena who are keeping the kids invested in a conversation of their own. “We have a problem with the town. Selena here is a teacher. She even has the Talent for it now. She just reached Adept a few days ago.”

“How is that a problem? That’s great news!”

“Her being the teacher isn’t the problem. The problem is actually a few things. Attendance is one. Kids with stats are a lot harder to wrangle into school. Another is that we’re starting… combat classes. These kids need to be able to defend themselves and some parents are pushing against it.”

“Oh, I can see the attendance part being a problem. That’s in part because it’s summer though. Maybe as the seasons change attendance will increase. I agree that the combat classes are a necessity. This world is too dangerous for people to not know how to fight for themselves.”

“That’s what Selena and I keep trying to tell people. Just the other day some kind of lightning hawk attacked a kid who had gotten away from his family. He’s one of the ones who’s taking combat classes so he knew how to defend himself and got to help.”

“This kid didn’t happen to call himself The Cartoonist, did he?”

“Uh, yeah, how’d you know?”

“I watched him fight some really low level enemies once. I was ready to help if he needed it, but they were weak and he dispatched them quickly.”

“Ah. Yeah, that kid is always wandering off. It’s a good thing neither of my kids have Talents like that.”

“What are your kids' Talents? If you don’t mind my asking.”

“No problem. Maria loves to knit, so she gained a Fledgling Yarnbinder Talent. It seems to mix some magic and physical fighting together. I tell her to stay far away as much as possible.” He laughs at that.

“I can understand the concern. That’s certainly an interesting Talent. Kind of similar to a friend of ours, Becky. The blonde one you saw a while ago. What about Daniel?”

“Fledgling Clayshaper. Selena’s an art teacher so she’s always encouraged creative pursuits for our kids. Daniel liked making things out of clay, now he’s just especially good at it.”

Suppressing a shudder from when I made my first golem ever out of playdough, I nod. “Well, that sounds like a useful Talent. Maybe I can commission a golem body from him sometime. What weapon does he use?”

“Oh, he uses a clay cutting wire. I try to not have him fight with that if he can. It gets… messy.” His eyes go dark for a moment, clearly remembering something that a seven-year-old should never have seen.

“That’s… understandable.” My heart goes out to Gabe’s family and by extension all the other families that have suffered under Restruct’s designs.

“...So anyway. This is a nice home you have here, Lucas. It’s very… open air.” He glances around the room at all the excess space.

“Yeah, this is the first house Colt ever made. He uh, didn’t really know what to do with it all so there’s just a lot of space. Turns out that’s a good thing seeing as we’re opening a shop on the ground floor and there’s plenty of space for it now.”

“Oh, definitely. You’ll be able to fit a lot of stock down there.”

“Dessert time!” Colt reenters the dining area from the kitchen holding a pie in each hand.

Both kids cheer and several minutes later they’re floating through the room with an anxious Selena standing under them after they inhaled a slice of buoyoberry pie each.

Colt looks immensely embarrassed that he forgot to remove the magical effects but Gabe assures him it’s fine. With how much Endurance both his kids have, a small fall like that won’t even hurt them.

The night continues on with Colt and me impressing the kids with feats of magic. Daniel especially enjoys playing with the slimes, however.

We let him know that he can stop by any time if he wants to feed the slimes and play with them provided he has an adult supervising him. I make sure he doesn’t feed the red or purple slimes, Jello and Cuddles, as that would be painful.

There are two slime eggs in the pen right now, so I allow Maria and Daniel to name one each. Both are neutral slimes and they name them Slurms and Dips.

Marie’s yarn magic turns out to be an impressive sight. She can make large creatures, even humanoid ones, out of yarn and control them with tethered strings almost like a marionette. Their strength is impressive as well as their speed.

Daniel’s clay magic is impressive as well as highly flexible and adaptable. He’s able to very quickly shape large amounts of clay into the desired shapes he wants. He can even fire the clay instantly to harden it if needed.

Unlike normal fired clay, most of his is extremely shatter-resistant unless the intent is to fire clay shrapnel. He slices a large rock Colt conjures in two with ease using his cutting wire.

Gabe and Selena eventually tell Maria and Daniel that it’s time to go home, much to their displeasure. Waving them off, they head back home after rejecting my offer to walk them back.

Turning back inside, I look into my forge and recall an awkward scene I caused several hours ago. ‘Oh fuck, Argo!’

Heading inside, the poor anchor is sitting in a pool of… water? ‘What? Inspect.’

Salty Water

Quality: High

Traits: ?????

Description: A briny water produced from the Palemetal Anchor, Argo.

“...How?”

Kneeling down, Argo has gone into some sort of “off” state. Turning to Karie, she simply stares back at me.

“Hey, Karie. What happened with Argo while I was gone?”

“He talk. Then talk loud. Then… leak. Then silent.”

“Awww, buddy. So, what’d you two talk about?”

“Walls.”

“Walls.”

“Walls.” Her voice is fairly final on the matter.

“...Great. Let’s see if I can wake him up.” Tapping the metal a few times, I infuse a little mana into the anchor and Argo boots up once more.

“Argo armed and ready for- wait, where am I?” His glowing blue eye focuses on Karie for a second. “Karie! Hello! I am Argo! Wait, that’s the fifth time I’ve said that now.”

“We need to work on your flirting skills, Argo.”

“Lucas! You left me and I got flustered and… leaked.”

“Yeah, I uh. Wanted to question that. How?”

“Karie talked to me about walls, I told her my name again and then I was embarrassed. Then it just started happening.”

“Ah. Well.” Sniffing quickly, I assess the liquid. “It smells alchemically potent to my Porcine Nose so…”

Glancing around to make sure Colt isn’t watching, I use Hydromancy to fill a bottle with the water. It’s much harder to control than normal water, but with my medium affinity, it’s possible if I go slowly.

“Are you going to make an Argo potion, Lucas?”

“Uh, maybe? I don’t have enough Insight to see what traits the water has. Even the description was really vague.”

“Okay! Can you put me in storage mode now, Lucas?”

“Sure thing, Argo.” Returning him to his small size I clip him back to my earring.

“So, Karie. What do you want to do?”

“Build things.”

“Oh, okay. Uh, all night?”

“Yes.”

“Well, there’s not really enough space to do that in here. How about in the yard somewhere?”

“Yes.”

‘What a stunning conversationalist. I knew she was shy but this is just… wow.’

Leading her outside, I run off quickly and find her some rocks and wood. “Here you go.” Dumping them out of my hold, she immediately sets to work constructing… something out of them.

She seems happy, so I leave her to it and head inside, telling her to call for us if she needs assistance with anything.

It’s dark out and fairly late, so I decide to go to sleep so I can wake up early and work on more of Cassandra’s list. Seeing as Maria and Daniel have such distinctive weapons that don’t seem material-intensive, I figure I can make those quickly enough tomorrow.

Colt is out in the back yard practicing some difficult Fae nature magick so he says he’ll come up to bed a bit later as he thinks he’s near a breakthrough with it.

Falling asleep surprisingly easily, I wake up feeling refreshed. I have no way of telling time, but it feels like I slept for about two hours. It still being dark out supports that idea.

Colt must have come in at some point as he’s laying next to me, somewhat off to the side of the bed. ‘Oops, guess I was a bit of a bed hog.’

Slipping out of bed quietly, I walk out into the hall and cast Clean on myself. While a shower feels nicer to start a day with, this is faster and I care about the convenience more right now.

Heating up some leftovers, I eat a quick breakfast and head right down to feed the slimes. After feeding them, I check all of the slime bottles and find that there’s a full bottle of red slime, blue slime, purple slime, neutral slime, wind slime, and water slime.

The wind slime is pale green and constantly in motion. It swirls around inside the bottle, not acting at all like how slime should. The slimes are growing steadily larger, telling me that we might need to buy another pen soon.

‘A problem for another day…’

Moving outside, I check on Karie quickly. She’s happily building some kind of tower out of rocks, sticks, and mud. Shrugging, I decide to let her keep at it and head to my forge.

‘Hmmm… so knitting needles and a large length of wire with some handles. I might make them ring handles so they’re easier to use in combat.’

None of my current metals are really jumping out to me as the perfect either weapon, so I return to the drawing board.

Thinking through all the aspects I have access to, I think of something that will make for a good wire.

Heading into the alchemy room I grab a colossus mushroom and convert it into growth and strengthening aspects of high quality, using some visualization techniques to do so.

The Hermes’ sandal has grown a bit more, so I convert one of those into swiftness and guidance aspect crystals.

Taking the dark red strengthening crystal and the white swiftness crystal, I combine them with a neutrite bar. Deciding to see if it works, I visualize my hopes for this metal. The strengthening and swiftness aspects will work together, making the metal stronger the faster it moves.

Crossing my fingers as I pour the ingot and let it cool, I Inspect it once it does.

Accelerite

Quality: Medium

Traits: Strengthening, Swiftness

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

‘Damnit. Medium. Well, without making it into anything I don’t really have a way of testing its capabilities in any meaningful way, so I guess I’ll get to work.’

Hoping I don’t wake Colt, I cut off what I need of the ingot with Hydromancy and then search through all the smithing supplies Adreanell bought. Fortunately, I find exactly what I'm looking for.

A hand crank wire roller. It’s something that’s incredibly impractical for anyone without high-stat Strength, but with The Construct, it’s a possible tool to use I suppose.

Heating up the metal, I hammer it while rolling it to make it as thin as possible by hand. The wire is fairly long when I’m done, so I begin putting it through the various rollers of different thicknesses, shrinking the wire in size and reheating it as necessary.

With every run through the roller it gets longer as well. Eventually, the wire is incredibly thin so I decide this is as good as it’s going to get. Using my metal sensing Perks, I check the wire for any distinct faults I can find and fix them with Metallomancy.

‘Now for the handles.’ Grabbing the metal I think will work best, it’s some of the pale lavender ingot sendite. The aspects of guidance and swiftness in it will help to make this weapon more combat-usable without as much risk to the user.

Making basic ring shapes for the handles proves easy enough by rolling bands of wire and using Metallomancy to bond the ends together. A quick use of Hydromancy bores a hole through one part of the ring so that I can string the wire through it.

The other ring follows this same process, they’re both fairly thin as I plan on adding some togglable sharpness enchantments on them so they can cut too but won’t cut the hand of the wielder.

Once that process is done, I string the wire through the holes on each ring, giving handles on both ends. This wire doesn’t serve the function of cutting clay very well as it’s longer than usual, but it should give Daniel more reach if he needs it.

Bonding the wire knots into a full bead of metal to prevent it from going through the handle hole, I set to work enchanting.

Tensile-strength-enhancement enchantments assure me that this wire is incredibly hard to break and can withstand a lot of force put on it. Enchanting wire is only possible due to the advancements in Inscriber’s Elegance.

It allows me to make the engravings small enough, though it all has to be done by running my finger down the wire slowly while visualizing the runes I want to put on it. Fortunately, this wire is only going to be sharp when used at speed, so enchanting it isn’t problematic in terms of cutting my finger on the wire.

The sharpness toggle on the handles proves to be the difficult part, I use the Essence Paths in the wire to bring mana to the other end, enabling the sharpness enchantment to work.

This has a small startup lag to it, so it’s something of note to remind Daniel of once I give him the complete weapon.

With the weapon finished, I sit down and allow the notifications through while massaging my hands from all the small detail work I’ve had to do.

Level up! For working on a smaller scale and making a less conventional weapon type with intelligent material choice, your Talent: Adept Blacksmith has reached (6/50)!

Level up! For making clever use of the material at hand to create a togglable enchantment that synergizes well with the weapon created, your Talent: Adept Enchanter has reached (16/50)!

‘Well, lets Inspe-’

CRASH!