The rest of the afternoon I spent laying the groundwork for the first room of our fort camp. Calling forth my mana with ease, the circular pattern formed around my hand. As I held it, the ground consolidated once again. After a few minutes of the slow process I stopped.

"What if..."

While I was much more comfortable with calling forth without actually casting it, I tried to imitate the result with . Sure enough, a brown colored circle formed around the area I would have cast the Skill. Keeping the Skill from triggering was a bit more slippery than my spikes had been, but I managed to hold back the effect.

The diameter of the magic circle was roughly the same as the width of the basic barrier. My mana dipped much faster than if I was just holding my other Skill, but the entire area under the magic circle compressed as if I'd set a large weight overtop. After a few seconds, the ash and grass roots had been pushed out of the ground leaving a relatively smooth circle in place. The effect was much more uniform, and intense, than when I'd waved my hand around. It could have been because of my initial work in flattening the area, but I had a sneaking suspicion it had to do with the nature of the Skills.

By the time I'd finished inspecting the compacted circle, my mana had completely regenerated. Remembering how draining stacking two on top of each other had been, I opted to just spend mana to get the space within the first wall flat and even. While in the process of pacing out columns and marking them with my pickaxe on the new hardened ground, a veritable cascade of water fell from the sky.

I blinked. It was as if someone had turned on the shower while I was fully clothed. Looking up gave me the simple answer, which was punctuated by a sharp crack of thunder. A lancing line of lightning manifested itself in the distant sky and I realized that at some point during the afternoon, clouds had blanketed the sky. Dirt and sweat rolled down my body and all I could do was stare up at the storm. The first bit of rain I'd experienced. It was a surreal feeling. I stuck my tongue out, tasting the dirt heavy droplets of fresh rain and marveling at the taste. Not even the boiled surface water tasted as fresh and natural.

At some point during my commune with nature, I heard chittering. An unhappy Anthony appeared from the area of the woods where Daniela had been and scurried into the lobby. The fire ant used one of its forelimbs to open the door and when it was inside it shook its thorax while flames coated its body. The visual of a dog drying itself was a weird thing to attribute to an ant.

"Suppose that's it for today. Glad I got the herd fed again before this storm." Sam sauntered into the space I'd cleared and paused when he stepped on the fruits of my labor. When I turned to my friend, I could see his boots were already coated in mud. "Did you turn the ground into stone, Ron?"

When I explained what I'd done, he looked pensive. Before I had a chance to ask what he was thinking about, Daniela grumbled her way into camp. The woman gave us each a look before walking straight into the bunker. Sam shrugged and headed in after her. I gave the slowly intensifying rain a longing look before stepping inside.

Our friend's grumbling and, from what I could see, her ant's, had continued unimpeded inside. Daniela was chattering away at Anthony the whole while, complaining about 'sky water' and how it had no business coming down from above. I'd never considered that one of my best friends would be both a fire mage and a cat. When I said as much, she glared in my direction while I removed my soggy clothes down to my trousers. At that point, she had the decency to blush and look away putting an end to her tirade while me and Sam hung our clothes from the mostly modified shower.

"You know, once upon a time that would have been considered awkward," Ben said while tinkering with the arrangement of tools and another series of crates. By my mental count, the man had either hidden boxes within other boxes, or he'd taken yet another trip down to the Bunker.

"We aren't living in the past, Mr. Burks. Plus, I don't see a dryer anywhere here," Sam said, going through one of the crates for a fresh change of clothes. He pulled out two vacuum sealed bags with a t-shirt and a pair of jeans. I copied my friend after wringing some of the water out of my clothes. It was hard to remember a time when I'd ever had my clothes so thoroughly soaked. Our teacher huffed and resumed taking stock of what we had available.

Suddenly without anything to do but listen to the rain, I twitched with pent up energy. Guess I know why kids invented that 'rain rain go away' song... There was still some light filtering through the clouds, mocking me with the potential of the rest of the day. When I turned to see if my friends would commiserate, they were all thoroughly engaged in other tasks. Samuel was tending to the original tomato plant, an intense look of concentration on his face as he channeled mana into two circular formations. Daniela was talking to Anthony non stop, and from what I knew about the fire ant, it was listening. Probably learning too. Ben was still stacking and counting away with a clipboard.

That left me. Wallowing on a rainy day. It was certainly a novel situation compared to wallowing in the Bunker with nothing to do but browse the archives, play games or assist one of the floors. I almost resigned myself to zoning out for the rest of the day, maybe a little daydreaming about plans for the fort camp, when Ben pulled out some of the Infusions to count.

A glance at my Status showed the two Skills burning a hole in my metaphorical pocket. I walked up to the crates where Ben had separated the Infusions we'd acquired. There was an overwhelming amount of the ones that belonged to the smaller, unrefined fire ants. I plucked one of the cool smoldering blobs and let the information populate before me.

Hmmm. They must lose integrity over time also... It was something to keep in mind. Considering how many of those we had, I grabbed a handful and set up shop near the door. After some consideration, I grabbed one of the little plastic containers that our Insta-meals came in. Ben gave me a questioning look, but turned back to his work while I focused on mine.

Unsure of how exactly the process would work, I gently pressed on the information associated with the Infusion Skill. The blob in my hand brightened slightly in response. When I concentrated on both it and the Skill, a hovering thread of crimson red unspooled itself from the Infusion. The thread snaked in the air without a care for gravity. I could feel my mana reacting to the process, draining. It was a slow trickle, but it didn't stop while the thread remained.

Testing what would happen, I released the Skill. The thread winked out and the Infusion was left darker. A look at its information revealed that it had lost a significant amount of integrity, nearly twenty percent in that short period. Gotta do it in one sitting, or probably make sure its properly attached to whatever item. Not wanting to waste any more of the Infusion, I willed the thread to unspool. Picturing my mana pinching the end of the thread seemed to do the trick as I directed the crimson line in the air.

With a mental flick, the Pith made contact with the little plastic tray. Two things happened immediately. First, the plastic melted as if I'd put it to the torch. Black acrid smoke suffocated me for a second. The other was that the rate of mana draw spiked hard enough that I felt it twisting my gut. The entire Infusion had transferred into the tray the moment I willed it. I coughed and spat out the acidic flavor of the smoke. The black goop that remained of the tray sizzled once before hardening again.

"Ronan, what did you do?" Ben said, waving a rag in the air to push away the last bits of smoke.

"Testing," I said between coughs. The taste of plastic really lingered. "Trying out using our Infusions."

"Was that what you intended to happen?" he asked, poking the charred tray.

"I am going to say that infusing plastic with fire is a bad idea. I wonder how the Pith from the other Attunements will react..." I said. My mind was already running a mile a minute. What the little exchange had made me realize, is that certain things needed to withstand the type of energy of the Attunement. Without waiting for Ben to say anything else, I grabbed one of the small gardening shovels we had available and another empty plastic tray. I contemplated saving the air Infusions we'd gotten from the squirrels, but I figured learning about the process was worth using them. What use was it if we kept them, only for them to destroy whatever we tried to infuse later because we didn't understand their behavior. I grabbed the cotton looking blob and let its information appear in my view.

With the air Infusion in hand, I crouched next to the black goop and set the new tray next to it. After giving Ben a meaningful look, he backed up. Just to be careful. The air Infusion unspooled the same way as the fire one, leaving a grey thread for me to control. Taking my own step back I flicked it at the plastic tray.

The thread made contact with the tray and I felt the dip in my mana pool. While the Quotient 0 Infusion had made me feel the draw, the Quotient 1 Infusion made me pay attention. It was through gritted teeth that I watched as the Pith wrapped around the plastic tray, vibrating it.

Small bits of the plastic chipped as it vibrated against the floor before the shaking stabilized. My mana kept flowing into the connection and I watched in amazement as the tray lifted up into the air with a gentle gust of wind. The tray floated gently in the wind like a falling leaf. Then violently exploded into shards of plastic.

"Gah!" Ben and I screamed in unison. Thankfully, we were standing over the tray and far enough away that we didn't get any plastic in our eyes. The rest of our body, however, got pelted by the fingernail sized bits. Ben, who was still wearing his combat vest, only got a few stuck in his arms. In my case, I took most of the blast straight to the chest.

My health only dipped 10%, but the pain radiating from all the small wounds certainly felt like it should have taken a larger portion of it. Samuel was at our side instantly. The blonde looked at all the little pinpricks of blood with worry, but when I explained the actual damage he took a breath in relief. Ben had only taken 4% damage, so he waved off Sam in my direction and went to fetch some tweezers. I didn't even know we had tweezers up here. After handing Sam a pair and grabbing some for himself, my old teacher started to pluck plastic from his arms.

"Sorry, Teach," I said, wincing as Sam helped me out of my shirt. Some of the plastic bits plinked off my skin as we tugged off the fabric, while others just cut through the fabric. Without much preamble, he started to pluck them from my body.

The old man waved it off. "Most pain I've felt in years was getting Attuned. This is a walk in the park really. And what can I say? Experimentation comes with a price. I could have just as well left you to tinker with magic nonsense alone, but where is the fun in that."

I really didn't have a counter to the 'because magic' argument. Mostly because it was the root of my own experimentation, but I would need to keep the possibility of failure in mind while Infusing.

It only took Sam ten minutes to get me all patched up. And by that I mean that he finally got to try out his Skill on a live human for the first time. "Stay still. Not sure exactly how this is going to pan out. The Entity only had me cast it but he didn't have the mana to give me a 'target'."

The life attuned in question called forth the magic circle that correlated with his Direct Skill and then placed his hands on my shoulder. A surge of soothing warmth traveled down my body numbing the areas around the plastic shards and leaving me painless. It wasn't total numbness and it was quickly followed by the feelings I expected from being bare-chested, minus a dozen cuts. The little cuts oozing blood stitched themselves back together before my very eyes.

"Impressive," I said, as I looked my healed body over. There were paper thin scars where the wounds had been, but other than that there wasn't any evidence that I'd been hurt. One of the pieces of plastic had actually pushed itself out of my skin to plink silently on the floor, the original wound not even leaving a trickle of blood to mark its passage.

"Mr. Burks, get over here please. I need to test some stuff..." Sam said, thoroughly lost in thought while walking back to his tomato plant. It took me a second to realize that it didn't quite look like a regular tomato plant anymore. The fruit was a darker red and the vertical stem was thicker than the trellis supporting it.

"Wish me luck. I survived your infusion explosion to be killed by the one with healing powers!" the man joked as he walked after my friend.

Daniela hadn't even moved from her spot through the whole ordeal. She gave me an amused wave then returned to talking with Anthony like nothing had happened. I shook my head at her while I gave my body a look. Instead of trying to clean myself, I stepped outside and rinsed off in the rain. After some consideration, I decided to conduct the next part of my Infusion experiments outside.

There was no sense in stopping now-- I already took the plastic shards to the chest!-- but nothing said I couldn't take my precautions even further.

Ignoring the pouring water and occasional thunder, I stepped out of the area outside I'd compressed. I dug a hole on the soil and went back inside to get the Fire Infusions and the little shovel. By the time I returned the hole was filled with runoff water and mud.

Now familiar with the process, I triggered the Infusion Skill. Making sure I aimed the thread at the metallic portion of the shovel, my mana started to drain like I expected. The metal of the shovel quickly jumped to a dull red and the rain falling on it instantly hissed into steam. With a nudge from my boot, the shovel went into the hole. The water that had accumulated instantly boiled over, but it only lasted a few seconds until I felt the draw on my mana ease.

I left the shovel in there for several seconds more, just to be sure it got a proper chance to cool, before I fished it out of the muddy water. The rubbery handle was completely gone, likely melted like the plastic tray had been. The metal on the other hand had a slight red tinge to it. It was cool to the touch, and when I scratched at the surface with my finger nothing came off to indicate it was some kind of residue. However, when I brought it up to my eyes, information started to scroll before my eyes and the shovel was outlined in gold.

Did the Entity anticipate this? I didn't realize we would be able to analyze items. While it wasn't clear what exactly I could do to reach a 'sufficient' amount of Pith in the shovel, trying to infuse it again was the simplest thing I could think of. I placed the enhanced shovel next to the muddy hole in preparation to kick it in again. Before I started infusing it again, I noticed that some of the mud that touched it flaked before turning back into mud when the rain hit it. The slight change was so mesmerizing that I didn't start the infusion until a crack of thunder shook me out of my thoughts.

"Focus, Ronan. Possibly dangerous magical process here." I pulled another Infusion and began the transfer of Pith. The tug on my mana was more intense this time, and I watched nearly twenty percent of it vanish before the whole thread had unspooled and the Infusion vanished. I didn't even wait for the metal to heat before I nudged it into the hole. The reaction this time was much more violent. Steaming bubbles of mud splattered my boots and I took a step back. The cooling process also took longer, but I watched intently as the muddy surface stilled other than from the falling rain. Making sure to wait a full sixty count, I reached into the hole and pulled the shovel out.

The first thing that caught my attention was the fact that the edge of the tool had acquired a wavy pattern to it and the handle had thinned and lengthened. Instead of the original 6-ish inches, it was nearly a foot in length. The red tinge hadn't changed. A trill of excitement rushed through me as I brought it closer and it was highlighted in gold once again. The information remained the same. I frowned down at the changed shovel then looked back at the Entity Crystal.

"You can't answer, but maybe when you get a chance, give a more thorough indication of how close to sufficient it is? I'm kind of scared of infusing this again," I said to the air, hopefully not talking to myself. A cow lowed in the distance and I chose to take that as affirmation that at least someone was listening.

Just for my peace of mind, I dug the makeshift quenching hole deeper, up to my elbow, and set the shovel just short of tipping into it. With now practiced ease, I focused on the third Fire Infusion and flicked it at the shovel. My mana was still transferring into the process when I shoved the metal in the hole. Sure enough, a small geyser of muddy water and steam rose up from the hole. I was thankful I'd dug it deeper.

The water churned as if something alive was moving in it but quickly stilled. Before my eyes, the mud in the hole hardened. The surface started alternating between solid and liquid until the shovel cooled. I stayed a full five minutes just to make sure it was okay to handle and I dug the metal out. The handle end had been sticking out, but the rest was embedded in the mud after the water evaporated and geysered out.

The shovel was nearly unrecognizable. The metal was now thoroughly red with only a tinge of the original silver black. The handle had lengthened by another inch or so, but the actual digging portion was what had morphed the most. The wavy pattern that had taken hold after my second infusion was much more pronounced, several small spokes that resembled flames reached up towards the handle. It looked as if the actual shovel was a flame frozen in time then cast in red colored steel.

When the no-longer-mundane tool was in scan range the golden outline encompassed it and new information appeared before me.

I had no idea what the lines meant other than the obvious. It wasn't clear how the shovel had a Quotient of 1 when I had used only Quotient 0 Infusions, but I wasn't going to complain. It was yet another thing to ask the Entity. I really need to write these down for the next time it can talk. Shaking that distracting thought, I swung the tool in the air experimentally. Nothing interesting happened other than the fact that I was sure I looked ridiculous out in the rain. Then I remembered I could now show off my success to my friends. Instead of hoarding the shovel like a greedy crafting dragon, I rushed back into the Bunker's lobby.