The late afternoon sun leaks golden light into the room Colt and I share. I quickly Clean myself, get dressed, and head downstairs.

Colt is walking around the shop, organizing slightly, grumbling to himself. “Damned Fae wouldn’t know a vitaleaf stem from a fleetchute sapling…”

“Good morn- evening. Sorry, weird sleep hours. I realized something and wanted to ask you… Where did Becky go last night? We never said bye to her when we got off the ship and I don’t remember seeing her. And where’s Pasivier? I thought he said he’d be here when I woke up.”

Colt tilts his head upward slightly in thought for a moment. “Come to think of it, I don’t know where Becky went. Weird. We were all so distracted, I guess she just walked off before us? Pasivier is in the garden. Did you know he’s always just bought his own potions? Never made them himself.” He folds his arms, glaring toward the direction of Pasivier.

“I’m assuming you’re teaching him about plants then?”

“Mhm. I told him to study each of the plants and come back later. He promised us he’d be able to make potions of similar quality while we were gone but look at this garbage.” Colt holds up a red potion, the liquid inside is murky and dull.

Healing Potion

Quality: Low

Traits: Healing

Description: A refined mixture of the healing herb vitaleaf and red slime, the two ingredients have had a synergistic effect which increased the efficacy of this potion. An overbalance of red slime has made this potion considerably viscous. Restores 113 HP. Doses: 7

“...Well, the dose count is good at least. I’m assuming our ingredient quality carried the rest of the potion stats. Anyway, I think I offended Becky with my comment about her saying sorry. That might be why she left without saying bye… I have something I have to do first, but I’ll find her later. I need to apologize.”

“Oh? What are you gonna do?”

“You’ll see.”

“Alright. Again, if you need to talk about Erika…” He lays a hand on my arm for a moment.

Taking his hand in mine, I stare into his eyes for a moment, watching the multicolored lights I recognize as a part of his Wild Magick now flicker around his irises. “I’ll be fine. I just need to do something. It feels… right.”

“Well okay, but I’m always here for you.” He kisses me quickly. “I’m gonna go check on Pasivier’s progress. You do whatever it is you need to do to feel better.” We hug quickly and he heads out the front door.

I walk into my forge room and take out the whip I made Erika, the Toxitail. Touching the various runes on my forge, it boots to life and I put the metalnettle whip into it. Heat blasts the metal, quickly bringing it to a bright hot orange-white.

With the wrenching sound of metal snapping, I pull the burning pieces of whip apart from each other by hand. I haven’t applied a heat resistance enchantment to myself, so I simply allow the metal to burn me as I break it into small pieces.

Promethean runs at high capacity alongside Spellbound Physique to keep my hands constantly regenerating as I do this. My teeth grit as the smell of burning flesh fills the room, the ventilation runes are unable to keep the scent completely filtered.

Placing a piece of the white-hot metalnettle on my anvil, I reel back my fist and punch. The pain brings me relief through penance. Metal flattens slowly under my blows. Flesh regenerates after every hit.

Hours pass by as I shape the metalnettle by hand, forcing it into shape with raw strength alone. I only use Metallomancy as needed to fine-tune details and smooth out bumps.

Tears fall from my face onto the metal, mixing with the blood that occasionally drips out from wounds during the process. My physical endurance is high, but it only does so much for hours of pounding out metal by hand.

By the end, twelve badges sit in front of me. Each is in the shape of a leaf with a mountain inscribed on it. The green-orange metal glistens with an ethereal white sheen.

Badge of the Pale Sacrifice

Quality: Very High

Traits: Botanical Shapeshifting, Poison Resistance, Skill: Burning Anguish

Description: A badge made of metalnettle. The owner of the metal this badge was made from sacrificed their life in the protection of others, shifting the properties of this metal from causing poison damage to granting poison resistance. The leaf shape of this badge can change to the shapes of various leaves due to its botanical shapeshifting aspect. Through violent crafting methods, the essence of the creator’s lifeblood has infused into the metal of this badge, granting the Skill: Burning Anguish for a thirty-second duration. This badge must be left in nature for thirty minutes for the effect to recharge. Burning Anguish allows the user to target another and inflict a sensation of painful burning upon them, draining 5 HP per second. Stored Power: 10/10

One final item sits next to the badges on my worktable. A carnation, the same green-orange with the white sheen of the badges.

Repentant Pale Carnation

Quality: Very High

Traits: Botanical Shapeshifting, Defense of the Weak

Description: A carnation made of metalnettle. The owner of the metal this carnation was made from sacrificed their life in the protection of others. This carnation channels that protective spirit, causing the metal to lash out at any who would dare to inflict harm on those that it is set to protect. This metal flower can shift shapes into various flowers due to its botanical shapeshifting aspect.

Sighing deeply, I actually feel a lot better now.

“Lucas, did you try cooking something in your forge again? Something smells burn- What the actual fuck?” Colt rounds the corner into my forge and stops dead in his tracks. He takes in the scene in front of him. Flesh, gore, and blood coat my anvil and the floor around me.

“Uhh, I was doing… percussive therapy.” Colt follows my eyes over to the badges and flower on the table.

“Oh, so that’s what you were making.” He looks at my arms, also coated in blood. “...Did you punch the metal into shape?”

“...Yes?”

“...Do you feel better?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I don’t recommend methods like these but… we’ll call this a special occasion. Just promise me you won’t turn this into a habit, okay?” He steps closer to me, staring into my eyes.

“I promise.” I smile at him. We kiss briefly. Grabbing one of the badges off the table, I hand it to him. “Here. This one’s for you.”

He takes the leaf-shaped badge, Inspecting it. “Burning Anguish? Christ, Lucas. That’s… totally metal.” His shit-eating grin makes me sigh deeply.

-1 HP

“Goddamnit, Colt. Anyway… I’m gonna stop by the graveyard I made and put this carnation on Erika’s grave.”

“You want me to come?”

“...Not right now. Next time?”

“Sure thing.”

“Alright. See you later.” We kiss again and I quickly clean up my work area using a mix of Hemomancy and Hydromancy. It feels better than just using Clean on it.

Finally, I head out the front door, running off toward the direction of the graveyard. I check my notifications finally on the way.

Level up! For forging metal with unconventional methods for the first time, your Talent: Adept Blacksmith has reached (42/50)!

Level up! Crush Resistance has reached (4/100)!

Level up! Heat Resistance has reached (5/100)!

Level up! Pun Resistance has reached (4/100)!

‘Well, I guess something came out of burning my hands for hours.’

Leaping up, I climb the wall of Portland, waving to a few of the people on top of it before jumping off. Within minutes, I arrive at the graveyard. Someone else is here.

“...Becky?”

She turns around to face me, tears on her own face. “Lucas?”

“What are you doing here?”

She sniffles. “You think you were the only one who talked to Erika during the dungeon?”

“No, I just- nevermind. Becky, I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“You apologized to us on the airship and I just… brushed you off. I made you feel bad for trying and I feel really guilty about it. So, I’m sorry.”

“Lucas, I’ve been shitty to you. I deserved that. But… thank you.” She smiles. A bright, genuine smile.

“I knew where you were coming from with what you’d say sometimes, Becky. It’s your way of protecting yourself. I never faulted you for it.”

“I don’t want to be like that though. I want to be better. It’s just so hard.” She frowns.

“Well, you’re doing a good job so far. I don’t think you have too much to worry about.”

Her face reddens slightly. “Thanks.”

“Hug?”

“Hug.” We embrace, she squeezes me tightly for a moment before we step away from each other.

“How’d you find this place anyway? I literally made it yesterday.”

“Oh. I followed you.” She shrugs.

“Ah.”

“Mhm. So why are you back already?”

“I made something.” Producing the carnation from my hold, I show her it.

“Oh. Is that from her whip?”

“Yeah, I have this for you too.” I hand her the leaf badge. Moments later, burning pain roils through my body. The sensation is eerily similar to how handling the burning hot metalnettle felt, except across my entire body.

“Oops. Sorry. Testing it.” Her ears turn bright red.

I give her a blank stare for a few moments before walking over to Erika’s grave. Planting the metal carnation in the ground, it stands up straight. “Well, here’s to hoping it works. I don’t know if Restruct creatures care enough about human corpses, but you can never be too safe.”

“Right. And Lucas? You need more new clothes. I’ll get on that. I can try to fix your coat if you want too. I saw that it has a bunch of holes in it.”

“...That’d be nice. I like this coat.” Taking the sauna coat out of my inventory, I hand it to Becky and it disappears into her storage. “Anyway, I need to go give these out. Will you do the fixing at The Barket or your house?”

“I think my house for now. I’d… like to be alone for a bit longer.”

“Sure thing, Becky. Don’t be a stranger though. Our door is always open to you.”

She smiles once again. “Thanks. See you later.”

“See ya.” We hug once more.

“Oh, actually. Real quick before I go. Check this shit out.” Becky shows me her voracitite scissors. “They can do this ice cut thing now because of the dragon blood. I uh, won’t show you now because well…” She gestures to the general graveyard. “But it’s cool as shit, trust me.” She grins.

“I’ll trust that. See you later.” We both head off.

It takes me a bit, especially with it being dusk out, but I’m able to find each person’s house after asking for directions several times. Fortunately, it seems that most people take advantage of stats decreasing sleep needs.

Vincent simply gives me a sad smile and we chat for a bit. Pierce is similar, but he invites me inside. I decline, too many deliveries left to make.

Kayla and Caleb invite me into their home as well. Their invitation is more of “you are staying for a meal and that is final” type, so I stay for a bit and try Caleb’s cooking. It’s delicious.

Next up, I visit Cassandra and Adreanell’s house. Adreanell is gliding off the roof, getting used to her wings and Cassandra is inside making more candy to restock the shop. Both of them tear up when I hand them the badges and give me hugs.

Afterward, I find Charlie’s house with a bit more difficulty. I actually end up spotting it due to the explosion marks his Hammerspace dynamite leaves. Melinda, Charlie’s mom, thanks me profusely for keeping him safe and even tries to offer me money.

I outright refuse it, of course, but the gesture is certainly sweet. Melinda takes the badge to offer to Charlie later. He’s still grounded for now and she’s uncertain on giving him access to a Skill like Burning Anguish, understandably. It might just be a display piece or used exclusively in self-defense.

Lastly, I visit Gabe’s house. It’s a similar style to most of the houses in Portland. Fresh evergleam fir wood. Walking up to the door, I knock twice and wait.

Selena answers the door, looking quite confused as to who would visit at this late hour.

“Oh, Lucas!” She pulls me into a hug immediately, tears dripping onto my shoulder. “Thank you for keeping my children safe.” Her squeeze tightens.

“Of course. I apologize for visiting so late but-”

“Nonsense. Come in, come in.” She gestures me in. Inside, she sets a kettle on a rune stovetop in the kitchen I can see from the living room. “I’ll make us some tea.”

“That would be lovely. Thank you, Selena. ...Are Daniel and Maria around?”

“They’re asleep, thankfully. Gabe is out right now, on the walls.” Her face shifts to a frown at this.

“Ah. I uh, made something for Daniel and Maria. You see…” Taking the time to explain Erika’s sacrifice in detail to Selena, she begins crying once more.

“Thank you, Lucas. For making these. I’m… not sure what you’re going through-” The kettle begins to whistle. “Oh, let me get that.”

A few minutes later, Selena returns from the kitchen with two fired clay cups in hand. She hands me one. “If you don’t mind me asking, where’d you get tea?”

“Ah, the upgrades to the shop. There are some plant seeds being offered now, we bought a tea seed that has a calming trait.”

Staring down into the cup, I notice the tea leaves at the bottom. “Oh, well that’s cool.” I take a sip, feeling a sense of calm settle over me. The tea tastes earthy and slightly sweet. “Wow, this is nice.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

“So, how are things going on the combat schooling front?”

“Problematic as always, though a little less. I actually plan to take advantage of the children’s success to sway some people’s minds. If we hadn’t trained the three of them, things could have ended a lot worse for them in that dungeon.”

“How’s the training work anyway?”

“Oh, there’s this girl named Sydney-”

“Animal Tamer Sydney?”

“Yes, actually. How did you know?”

“She was with me in my squad after Portland... disintegrated.”

“Oh. Interesting. Well, she tames plenty of monsters for the children to train against. It keeps things fairly realistic. She has a partial tame she can do, so the kids can earn some XP too if they end up killing it.”

“Isn’t that… terrifying for the kids?”

Selena sighs. “And so falls the main argument against combat training. It’s an unfortunate necessity. We don’t have a dome around Portland, we can’t protect the kids forever. We try to keep it to spars when possible, but there’s nothing like experience against something more similar to the real thing.”

“Hm, true. If you want, I can toy around with some enchantments to see if I can make sparring weapons that will just cause momentary pain but little to no actual damage.”

She sits up straighter. “Oh, would you? That would be perfect. It’d certainly help convince some more parents. Some simply don’t allow their children to come to school. We have a strict all or nothing policy right now with the combat school, but I’ve heard someone else is making a second school.”

“This world is too dangerous for kids to not know how to defend themselves. Walls don’t do anything against flying creatures.”

“I agree. Unfortunately, not all parents do. One child was almost taken while your group was gone. He’s part of my combat classes, however, and was able to free himself. A healing potion later and he was fine.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Someone I know has a training room with a Protection enchantment. I’ll see if that’s even remotely in the realm of my capabilities. It prevents HP damage entirely, it just needs a mana source. If you rounded up enough people with decent mana pools, we might be able to work something out. Might need some mana potions too.”

Selena leans in, looking more excited. “If we can manage an enchantment like that, it would take the wind out of most of the parents’ sails. This could be the perfect solution!”

“I’ll go check with my mentor, Ilmarinen. It’s his training room that I got the idea from. I can’t make any promises… he’s much higher level than, well, any of us. If I can even make an inferior version though, it’d help a lot I’m sure.”

We iron out the details a bit more, mostly just on where the training room can go in the school, and I head back home.

Colt is upstairs making dinner, so I go into my forge and knock on the door to Ilmarinen’s quickly before peeking my head in.

“Ah, lad, yer back. How was the dungeon?” Ilmarinen gestures me over.

“We beat it, but…” Unable to say more, I show him the badge I made for myself.

“Oh, lad… I know how it feels to lose a teammate. Me race is a bit more… solitary… but I had people in me past that I would have trusted me life with. Some still around, others… not so lucky. Me point is, don’t blame yerself, which I can tell yer doing.”

“If I just… was better, I could have saved her.”

“Ay, but ye did yer best, didn’t ye? Lad, yer growth has been exponential since I met ye, don’t rush yerself too much. Ye need to have time to grow, not just grow.”

“But… you said the same thing.”

“And they have different meaning, don’t they, lad?”

“I guess… Anyway, I came here because I have a few questions.”

“Oh? Do tell, lad.”

Reaching into my hold, I pull out the slab of frozenforce ice from the ice trout, best to start with the simplest question. “Okay, first. How do I forge this? It says it cancels out force. Should I just… chisel it somehow?”

“Ah, ye have the Honed Will Perk, do ye not? Use yer aura to cut the ice. Should prove a simple task fer you after that. This ice should make fer a fine weapon, or even a piece of armor.

“Oh. That makes sense. Okay, next question.” A tile slab with the enchantments from the yetis appears from my hold. “...Do you know what these enchantments are?”

“Gah! What ye be doing bringing curses into me home, lad?” Ilmarinen backs away from the enchantment.

“Sorry! I just… found a lot of these in the dungeon.”

“Ye didn’t happen to encounter… yetis in this dungeon, did ye?”

“I did, actually. They attacked us. They’re the ones that left the enchantments too I’m pretty sure. They worshiped the dragon that was the dungeon boss I think.”

“Ay, yetis are notoriously dedicated to serving powerful beings. Violent buggers, the lot of them. I would recognize these curses anywhere. I don’t recommend ye learn these, lad. The risks are too high fer the reward. Curses are not to be trifled with. Good job on disabling them, however. I see yer work here.” He gestures toward the area where I disabled the enchantment.

“Alright, I trust you there. The curse prevented one of our party members from regenerating his arm, so I can see what you mean. He only managed to revert the curse due to part of his Talent.”

“Ye know someone who can revert curses? Lad, keep that information under wraps. Just like yer… ahem... special blood type, cursebreakers are rare and valued by the wrong beings at times. What be his Talent?”

“Tarot Reader. He has these magic cards that are a part of our culture, I guess he can use an inverse draw of them to reverse their effects. They have a pretty hefty cooldown though.”

“Hmmm, well, just warn yer friend to be careful about who he shows his newfound abilities to. That information is dangerous in the wrong hands.”

“I can do that, Ilmarinen. Anyway, one last thing. Do you think it’s within the realm of possibility for me to learn how to do the Protection enchantments you have on your training room?”

Ilmarinen thinks for a moment. “Ye may be able to do a simplified version. There will be an… efficiency loss fer sure, but I believe it in the realm of yer capabilities. Come, I shall show ye the specifics.” He stands up and gestures me to follow him.

Analytic Eyes proves its value once again, letting me study and convert Ilmarinen’s enchantments into schematics in my menu. After explaining them to me in more detail, I get an understanding of how they work.

They link up to mana sources and use that mana to cancel out physical damage. The sensation of pain still transfers through, but the prana inside the body is protected and the physical body itself doesn’t sustain any damage.

There are a lot of complex runes that decrease the mana costs of the enchantment, but the basic Protection effect is… still complex, but less so. It’s within the realm of possibility for me.

Colt comes in during the explanation, bringing dinner for Ilmarinen as well. Once I feel like I understand the enchantment, I level up Adept Enchanter once more. It’s at level 24 now. One more level and I get a Perk Point.

Thanking Ilmarinen, I leave with Colt to work on some tests with the Protection enchantment.

------------

“Dastardly Wild Fae… making me redo potions. My potions were fine! I just… lack experience.” Pasivier grumbles as he sets out new potions on the shelves of The Barket.

“Why if he wasn’t… well, I would just… ugh. This is peasant work. If Colt had lived in the prime of the Fae, well, he would understand that our Magick pools grow so large we rarely even need potions!”

Pasivier’s mind goes to darker places as he remembers the systematic hunting of Faes. Distantly, he feels a tug at his heart for his lost king. “Well, with Colt, there’s hope for the Fae race once more. After all...”