Perry let out a grunt of effort as he forced the steel bar away from his chest, his arms shaking with the need to give out.

Quest Complete! Finish an extra set!

Reward: 5 XP

Blargh, Perry thought, hanging the bar back up, his vision gradually clearing as the pressure in his skull receded.

“Wow, dude, three thirty five on the bench. That’s pretty amazing.” Titan said from his machine, where he was doing bicep curls with over a thousand pounds. Dude couldn’t use freeweights because of size constraints.

“Don’t patronize me,” Perry said, smothering his smile as he shook his head.

Perry’d pumped his Body up between 2 and 10, using Sliding Stats to see how much variance he was experiencing.

It went between 230 and 335 on the bench, indicating that Perry’s natural bench with zero Body was about 205.

He’d improved by about fifty pounds since he’d started working out.

A 205 bench was not bad at all for a teen, but definitely not anything to write home about, either.

Brendon himself had been flirting with getting himself posted on the wall in the school’s weight room with the rest of the kids who broke the three-hundred-pound limit…at least, before school got shut down.

Three thirty-five was well within human potential, just not in someone who looked like Perry did.

“Nah, I’m not kidding. There’s maybe one Tinker in all of Franklin city who could hold a candle to you. Tinkers are generally pretty scrawny.” Titan said.

“Dr. Flex?” Perry asked, wiping off the bench.

“Yeah, but body enhancement is kinda his shtick, so…” Titan gave a small shrug before switching to his other arm, wincing with effort as the huge metal plates attached to his machine began lifting up and down.

“Don’t they have better equipment at Nexus?” Perry asked, grabbing a bottle of water and taking a drink. Just two more muscle groups and Perry would have his 25 daily XP.

“A little bit, but your place doesn’t have a line for the equipment. I mean, sometimes the competition is motivating, but sometimes I just wanna hog the squat machine.”

“Nnn,” Perry grunted around the mouth of the water bottle.

“So, you’re dating Hardcase?” Titan asked.

Perry spat a stream of water across the gym before devolving into a coughing fit.

“Yeah,” Perry croaked once he caught his breath. “Why do you ask?”

“Well,” Titan said, continuing to nonchalantly lift a thousand pounds. “I was Hardcase’s team leader for a lot longer than I’ve known you, and I still feel a certain responsibility for her well-being. I can’t help it. She’s adorable.”

“Fair enough,” Perry said, shrugging and taking another drink to soothe his throat.

“So are you cheating on her with Wraith?”

Perry mentally patted himself on the back for not shooting water out of his nose this time.

“…No.” Perry said.

“That’s good.” Titan said, leg-sized biceps flexing and unflexing. “Because there are people in the super community who wouldn’t take kindly to you breaking her heart.”

“What if she cheats on me with Wraith?” Perry muttered under his breath.

“What was that?” Titan asked from across the room.

“I said I’ll take that under advisement.” Perry said, checking the clock on the wall. “I gotta hustle to get the rest of my exercises done before noon.”

“Why, what’s at noon?” Titan asked.

“I got a date with Hardcase.”

“Oh? Whatcha doing?”

“We’re going to go to the mansion of a guy who’s my political enemy, and we’re gonna practice her newest skill, which involves magical forging.”

“So you’re gonna get a hard sell while you guys get covered in grease and soot?” Titan translated.

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Psshh,” Titan shook his head. “Tinkers.”

***Later***

“Behold, the spirit forge!” Andre Demetre said, throwing open the massive double doors.

Dust billowed inward with a gust of wind as light spilled into the dilapidated room. A thick layer of grey covered everything, just waiting to be removed.

Perry craned his neck to study the ceiling. The entire room was a smooth dome, covered with a thin layer of the same crystals he used for his soul surgery.

At the center of the ceiling was a pipe for ventilation that led down to a rather small forge, seemingly crafted of clay. It had a little opening that would fit maybe a sword or two, and a bed of coals that hadn’t been used since...the sixties, maybe?

“Made by the legendary spirit smith, Bellos Madrevan, my father was relieved when he managed to bring this priceless heirloom through the portal without breaking it. Sadly the master himself did not make it through.”

“What happens if I break it?” Natalie asked nervously.

“And that’s why our first lessons will be how to build and repair spirit forges!” Andre said, clapping his hands together.

Massive double doors at each corner of the dome opened and a veritable river of servants began flowing through, taking all the dust with them and depositing an anvil, racks of tools, massive tubs of raw clay, books, a whiteboard, and various other things, filling up the room in minutes.

“It’s sad that Bellos died keeping the portal open during the fall of the capital. There would have been no one better to teach you the intricacies of spirit forging.” The aged duelist said, sitting on the anvil and rolling up a smoke while the servants bustled around him.

“But it couldn’t be helped. Bellos, in typical spirit smith fashion, was a passionate man who had lovers all through the capital and was more than willing to die to rescue as many of them as possible.”

“How many are you up to now?” Andre asked, glancing at Nat.

“Just two,” Natalie squeaked, her face turning red.

“Well, you’re young,” Andre said with a shrug, before pushing himself off the anvil. “I’m told you know a bit of spirit smithing because of that ‘Gerome’ incident?”

“A bit, but it’s more like faded muscle memory than actual knowledge.” Nat said.

“Then let’s go over the theory while we wait for the room to be prepared.” He said, walking over to the whiteboard and picking up a marker.

“Intimate contact of any kind – doesn’t have to be sexual – causes two individual’s souls to some into contact, and harmlessly rub off on each other. We’ll call the traces of others souls left after contact…smudges.”

He drew a circular aura and made some smudges on it with the marker and his thumb.

“The size and intensity of the smudges vary, but they’re mostly dictated by the intensity of the emotions present upon contact. Smudges can be made during combat, since combat is intimate and charged with emotion, but it’s not recommended for obvious reasons.”

“Now, most people will absorb these smudges within a few hours, their soul breaking down and wiping clean the remnants of contact with others.”

“Spirit smiths, on the other hand…” Andre drew little circles around his smudges. “Their souls will encapsulate and preserve these smudges, like an oyster making pearls around sand. Once encapsulated, the smudge can remain indefinitely, and it is able to be manipulated consciously by the spirit smith.”

That is the currency a spirit smith uses to create their exceptional works of art: Tiny pieces of the soul, freely given. It allows them to bestow a blend of characteristics on their works that are simply not possible for a normal smith.”

Perry frowned and glanced at Nat, some things starting to make sense.

“Hardcase got hit by the crazed memories of a dead Tinker a few months ago and now she can use one of his abilities. Is that related?” Perry asked.

“Yep. I was wondering what that scar was, but didn’t want to bring it up if you didn’t want to speak of it.”

Andre looked at them askance. “I wouldn’t try to recreate that event in the hopes of recreating additional abilities, though. It was traumatic to her soul.”

Perry and Nat shook their heads enthusiastically. Neither of them wanted to go through that again.

“Good.” Andre said, picking up the eraser and wiping it clean. “Now, how to make and repair a spirit forge! First we must start with what a spirit forge is and how it works!”

I might be here for a while. At least it’s not boring. Magical theory was Perry’s bag.

As it turned out, a spirit forge was a damn interesting piece of magical technology that primed objects to receive the spirit smith’s blessing.

If Perry had to compare it to a modern technology, it was something like a vacuum infusion chamber, designed to pull out all of the air from an object so that resin could replace it.

Anything put into the spirit forge would get its natural essence sucked out of it, making it a blank slate that would desperately seek something to replace the void with anything it could.

The spirit smith would then apply magical ingredients and soul-smudges, which would be drawn deep into the fiber of the object, granting it extra magical abilities, sometimes even a personality.

But that wasn’t the end.

In order to seal those attributes inside, the object was placed back inside the forge, and the polarity of the forge was reversed with a foot pedal.

Those crystals lining the walls would reflect the explosion of energy as the spirit forge released the material’s original essence, bouncing it back into the material and creating a tight seal around the magical properties injected by the spirit smith.

All told, it was fascinating, but Perry would never have a chance at doing it himself. His soul was even more aggressive towards foreign influence than a normal one. Usually that was a good thing, but it precluded learning techniques like this one.

The entire day was filled with theory and practice, without touching the spirit forge once. Perry understood that you don’t just hand someone a priceless treasure and tell them to go hog wild with it, but still, it was a bit disappointing.

“So what are you planning on making when you finally get the opportunity to use it?” Perry asked as they walked through the busy streets, heading towards his motel.

“I’m not sure. Maybe some frames for my cockpit?”

“That’s…not exactly what I had in mind.” Perry had been thinking swords of unimaginable power, outlandishly shiny armor, and goblets flowing with ambrosia.

Proper magical stuff.

“Well, I’ve been looking for a way for my mechsuit to go faster without snapping my neck. Some frames that could diminish inertia inside the cockpit would be sweet.

“There’s no Tinker-tech for that?” Perry asked.

“Probably, but I haven’t come up with anything yet, and I don’t wanna pay anyone else for it. Plus, can you imagine magically enhanced super-capacitors?”

“Oh my god, what if you put a copper ingot in there, enchanted it, then used it to make a motherboard,” Perry said. “He said it might even have a personality.”

“Right!?”

“How about that gun you made, the one that uses all of your limbs to come together, Voltron-style?”

“Ehehehehe,” Natalie rubbed her hands together as she began geeking out.

“I don’t know exactly what I’m going to get out of the process. People’s soul bits often imbue a portion of their powers onto an object. At least, if they’re a super. Otherwise it’s just a blessing that’s kind of reflective of their personality.”

“Yeah, I remember that gameshow,” Perry said. It fit with his personal theory that superpowers were housed in the soul, similar to a mage’s symbiote.

“I can’t wait to try all kinds of stuff!”

“Gotta get those smudges, right?”

Natalie punched him in the shoulder, her face reddening. “That’s not what I meant!...But yes.”

From there the conversation evolved into way to improve the efficiency of the spirit forge. The main concern was that the process didn’t have the precision and efficiency that Earth-tech could bring to bear.

Nat was concerned about the backscatter from the crystals around the dome, sure that they hadn’t been mathematically aligned to provide a perfect reflection.

Perry was more interested with the mechanism of the polarity flip, and whether or not there was a way to make it happen instantly and efficiently, rather than by footpedal. At the speed of electricity, perhaps? And was the process uniform? Did the forge’s walls extract essence uniformly? They looked like they’d been formed by hand, which gave Perry doubts.

Never form any precision equipment by hand. That wasn’t rule number 1 for a tinker but it was pretty high up there.

Rule #1 was never go into the Tinker Twitch while you’re on the toilet.

“Alright kids, gimmie your wallet, and whatever’s in the purse.” A skeletal man said, smoothly stepping out of the nearby alleyway and pointing a gun at them. His life obviously wasn’t going great for him.

Nat froze in mid-stride and ducked behind Perry, being significantly less bulletproof.

Perry had learned a few lessons from the last time he’d been part of a stick-up.

“I’m a super.” Perry said. Gotta lead with that. Avoid problems early.

“Oh yeah?” The guy asked, obviously not believing him as he stepped forward.

“Yeah.”

“Prove it.” the thin man said, grinding the barrel of the gun against Perry’s forehead. Perry winced at the stench of decay that wafted out of the guy’s mouth. If anything, that was the most damage he would be taking from this fellow.

Body 6 -> 10

Perry looped his finger behind the hammer and yanked the gun out of the man’s hand. It was like he’d taken it from an unruly toddler.

“Hey, man…” The skeletal robber said, backing away and raising his hands as Perry hefted the weapon.

“You guys are gonna wanna cover your ears,” Perry said, holding the barrel to his palm.

Nat did so. Perry was less concerned about the other guy.

BLAM!

HP: 6

A moment later a hot piece of lead rested in the palm of Perry’s hand.

“Ow, ow, ow, Perry grunted, rolling the rapidly cooling drop of lead around in his hand until it was cool enough to touch without scalding himself.

“That good enough for you?” Perry asked, holding up the pancaked bullet with the hand that’d stopped it.

“Y-yeah man.”

“Cool,” Perry said, flicking the spent bullet aside before hitting the release on the magazine and pulling back the slide, allowing the round in the chamber to fall to the ground.

“I suggest conning people,” Perry said, handing the guy back his empty gun. “It’s safer and more lucrative than mugging. You’ll be way happier knowing there’s no chance you’ll accidentally kill them, and vice versa.”

“Now are you wanting to get off anything in particular?” Perry asked, noting the man’s skeletal appearance and rotting teeth. “I could put you in a coma for a couple months, give you a chance at getting clean. Free of charge.”

“I hear hospital food is way better than it used to be,” Nat said, peeking out from behind him.

The mugger turned and ran.

Perry cocked his head as the man ran away.

“How’s he gonna eat hospital food in a coma?” Perry asked, glancing back at Nat.

“I thought we were intimidating him. I was staying on theme.”

“I was intimidating him!?” Perry cried, causing Nat to burst into giggles.