Four days later, Josh had a new appreciation for the work ethic of a City operative. Josh had assumed that Jonah would bring him out to fight monsters. That was, after all, how everyone else leveled up. Instead, either due to concerns for his daughter's safety or simply because he didn't think a non-combat class should see combat, the operative had practically locked them in a warehouse and told them to work.

The various craftsmen and artisans in the camp were brought in to teach them how to craft new items, anything that they could possibly get a blueprint for. Every moment they weren't learning a new blueprint, they were crafting. Piles of wood, leather, and stone were brought in to provide materials, and they both used their spells constantly to maximize efficiency.

Josh preferred using Hands-Free Crafting, so that he didn't need to worry about tools, while Ruth preferred using Instant Crafting, so that she could craft extra batches while she was working with her hands. Of course, she didn't have enough mana to keep it up constantly.

Josh had almost been surprised when the operative brought in the entire camp to help. Somehow, he had assumed that they would keep this whole thing secret. When asked, Jonah had pointed out that keeping the two of them out of sight or in hoods to hide from Identify skills wasn't a realistic solution. They had to just trust that the reclaimers understood how important this was. More importantly, no one else in camp was unclassed, so there wasn't much point in trying to steal a bloodstone off them. Even so, Josh and Ruth were both ordered to keep their bloodstones on them at all times.

After four days of grueling, mind-numbing labor, of doing absolutely nothing but working with wood until his hands were numb and smelled perpetually of sap, Josh finally reached his next class milestone.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached level 16! You do not meet the minimum requirements for class refinement. You do not possess any class advancement resources. Would you like to pause your level-up to obtain advancement resources?

Josh sighed. Every eight levels, you gained a class refinement. Or a class advancement, but the difference was mostly just vocabulary. Every eight levels, you either changed a class—which required either reaching hidden stat milestones or a bloodstone—or stuck with what you already had. Either way, you earned new abilities.

He had been hoping he would be able to refine his class into something better, but it was probably too much to expect that so early. Still, sticking with one class had its own advantages. Even though he hated that he was still forced to work with wood. He clicked [NO].

CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 16 Woodcrafter! You have 1 free attribute point and 1 class attribute point to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.

NEW SKILL LEARNED: Architecture. Learn and utilize blueprints for large-scale construction.

Josh froze. So far, every blueprint he had learned had been for something small. The largest had been a wooden shield. He had made blueprints for every type of toy, tool, and equipment you could possibly make out of wood, even if it wouldn't actually be effective. He had wooden swords, wooden trowels, wooden buckets and bowls... anything that was at least made from a majority of wood.

He'd tried to make a table. While he had, to a limited degree, been able to use some of his woodworking techniques to help the process, he hadn't gotten a blueprint out of it, so he hadn't bothered to try again.

Now, he suspected that it was simply because he hadn't had the right skill.

Would furniture be covered under this skill? It said “large-scale construction,” did that mean furniture, or just buildings?

He decided he didn't care, because this might be what he needed to advance at a faster pace. As with any class, performing your role actions earned you experience. More specifically, he had found that learning new blueprints earned him a decent experience boost, as did learning new techniques related to woodworking.

What really earned him the most experience was crafting items from a blueprint—at first. His gains dropped quickly, and he had to learn a new blueprint to continue gaining experience at a reasonable rate. Unfortunately, there were only so many tools that you could make out of wood.

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But if he could make buildings, then that opened up all new options for him.

Across the worktable, Ruth Moore continued her own project, oblivious to his sudden level-up and epiphany. She was carving a small wooden figure, trying to get a new blueprint. Unfortunately, that sort of thing was lumped together by the system. Any sculpture of a certain size was listed just as “Sculpture (wood, small),” no matter what it depicted or what art style was used to create it. Ruth kept trying to trick the system, figure out what counted as a new blueprint.

Ruth finally noticed that he had stopped making arrows. They got him almost nothing for experience now, but they were still something the camp needed. Besides, the experience did add up.

“What's wrong?” she asked, hands still moving.

“I leveled,” Josh said. “No new class, but I—”

Ruth put down her finished sculpture, then blinked in surprise. “Oh, me too! I guess that put me over the edge.” Her eyes went distant. “No refinement from stats... no surprise there. I guess I'll just use this after all.” She pulled out her Mender bloodstone and concentrated on it. The stone shattered into red mist, which turned white even as she breathed it in.

“Did it work?” Josh asked.

A slow smile spread over Ruth's face. “Yeah. I got it.” She raised her arms over her head in an expression of victory. “I am now officially the only Enchanter in the world!”

Josh smiled too. “I'm happy for you,” he said, genuinely. “Do you still have all your Woodworker abilities?” That was how it worked for Combat classes, but no one was sure about Utility classes. Well, he knew how it worked, but may as well let Ruth figure it out on her own.

Ruth nodded happily. “Uh-huh! See?” She picked up the block of wood and carving knife. “Instant Crafting!” Block and tool both glowed for a moment, and then there was a small wooden sculpture on the table. Josh wasn't sure what it was supposed to be. Some sort of... horse? “I really want to figure out how to enchant things, though!” Her eyes glazed over as she checked her screens, then she frowned.

“What's wrong?” Josh asked, tensing. They hadn't really talked much the past four days, being too busy, but you couldn't spend hours sitting next to a person without learning something about them. This was Ruth's “I'm worried what my father will think” face.

“I don't have any runes,” she said. Her voice was quiet, disappointed. “I suppose it makes sense—we didn't get any blueprints with the Woodcrafter class. I just hoped...” She shook her head. “I don't know where to go from here,” she admitted. “I don't think I can just guess runes.” She wrinkled her nose. “I have a skill called Rune-Chains. It says I can link runes together to make bigger effects. What does that matter if I don't actually have runes?”

For a moment, Josh was stumped. She was right, there was no way you could just guess runes. Getting the shape right would be hard enough. You also had to get the depth of the carving right, and the exact type of magic you put into it. Human magic, colorless mana, would work for many runes, but not all.

“You have an enchanted dagger, yeah?” he asked.

She looked up. “What? Right here.” She pulled a small dagger out of her sleeve. He suspected it was a gift from her father. “What of it?”

“Just a mo'.” He used his Identify skill on it, just to be sure.

Dagger: One-handed, stabbing. Enchanted. Unidentified enchantment. Level requirement: Level 8. This isn't yours, buddy. If you want to get a closer look, you should ask nicely! Or have a dagger of your own.

He ignored the flavor text. “What's the enchantment?”

She shrugged. “It says plus one damage. I think that means it's as if I put in one extra stamina point.”

Joshua nodded. Many of the system messages were like that. They could be specific in some places, and frustratingly vague in others. “It has a rune. Just one, right? Try copying that.”

Ruth flipped the dagger over to reveal a rune carved into the blade. It was a simple, geometric pattern, and if anything it reminded him of a few fours smashed together with an extra line or two. The rune glowed white and leaked radiant mist, the color of purified, colorless mana.

She grinned. “Yeah, I think that will do the trick!”

It wouldn't, he knew. Even the simplest of runes would require luck to get all the details right, and she wouldn't get it right on the first try. But it was a start. Between her new runes and his new architecture, he was looking forward to the next few days.

Josh took a deep breath. For the first time in a very long time, he felt... at peace.

Which was why he was surprised when that peace was rudely interrupted.