Josh picked up one of the other pieces of wood he had prepared. “Instant Crafting.” He went with a rat this time. Still stylized, more like a small block with vaguely rat-like features than a true statue.

Darius nodded again, slowly. “I felt the pattern that time. I just need a better look at it.”

Josh picked up the last piece of wood. “Instant Crafting.”

This time, it was a pig. He'd certainly seen more than enough of those.

Darius was quiet for a very long time. He sat there, eyes closed, meditating on what he had observed. No one spoke, not wanting to interrupt him. Josh and Mary communicated in sign language, and she brought over the materials Darius would need for their shrouds. Ruth also brought over a few more heavy sticks if he needed to demonstrate the spell again.

After ten minutes or so, Josh got up to take a walk.

After twenty more minutes, Josh wondered if Darius had fallen asleep.

He sighed to himself. He probably shouldn't have let Darius try this so early. Darius had exactly one blueprint, and he had crafted it exactly once. He understood why Darius was rushing. [Instant Crafting] changed the equation entirely. He just wasn't sure if Darius knew how crafting as a whole worked well enough to replicate it.

On a whim, Josh decided to meditate on the spell himself. Due to earning it from a class advancement, he had a clear, if shallow, understanding of the spell. He knew the exact pattern to move his mana in, when and where it should enter and leave his body and in what concentrations, to produce the desired effect. However, he didn't know why that pattern was needed, making it difficult to teach.

The spell patterns reminded him of runes. In school, he had been taught that runes were like tiny, stabilized spell patterns. He wasn't sure if that was actually true, and no one had bothered to teach him anything more than that, but he could still see the connection.

Would Ruth be able to study spell patterns to learn runes? Probably not. Especially since it was generally easier to find runes than watch spell patterns. They should just wait for the mayor to come back with enchanted items.

Still, he thought there was something there, in the spell patterns. Something he could work with. It was enormously complex, like trying to follow a circulatory system that extended outside the body. But maybe, if he changed the pattern just a little, he could...

“Ah-HA!” Darius cried with surprising enthusiasm. “I've got it!”

Josh blinked out of his trance. “Wot? Really?”

Darius' mood dimmed. “Well, not quite. It's... here.” He flicked his fingers at Josh, sending him a screen.

Combat Crafting. With the proper tools, complete any known blueprint crafting automatically, in half the normal time.

“...huh,” Josh said. “That's more than nothing, that's for sure.”

“Hold on a mo',” Mary said, looking at an invisible screen in front of herself. “Is this anything but a bump down? That doesn't seem fair.”

Darius shrugged. “That happens. Considering I do not technically have a [Crafter] class this might be the best I can hope for.”

“Maybe it has better mana costs?” Josh suggested.

Darius shook his head. “We have no overlapping blueprints. There is no way to be certain.” He paused. “My instincts tell me no, however. The name implies this is intended to be used, if not during combat, then at least soon before. Perhaps to set up traps and defenses. I am not sure it is intended for use with any blueprint I don't want to bother constructing by hand.”

Mary shrugged. “Then they should have put in a limiter, right?” She punched Darius in the arm. “Come on, let's see what you see.”

Darius rolled his eyes, but put out all his materials and tools in a semi-circle in front of himself. He took a few moments making sure that everything was in its proper place before he nodded once.

“Combat Crafting,” he said solemnly.

Everything instantly floated up into the air. Like darting insects, the enchanted knives and small stones and tweezers and monster parts all swirled together, a tornado of motion all bent towards a singular goal.

Josh still didn't understand how crafting shrouds worked, but it seemed very different to what either he or Ruth did. There were no runes, no mechanisms. Parts glowed or stopped glowing seemingly at random, and he could feel energy being transferred at the edges of his awareness. He knew that it was “infusion” magic, moving mana from one vessel to another, but how did it then stick? How did the enchanted object know what it was supposed to do?

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

After less than a minute, it was done. Darius held in his hand a small metal bracelet, a single solid piece, as if it was the holy grail personally handed to him by Jesus.

“It worked,” Darius breathed.

Josh chuckled. “That's a surprise, is it?”

Darius shot him an annoyed look. “Auto-build, Mister Hundredborn. No chance of failure. Do you realize how valuable this is?”

Josh just stared back, confused.

“Wait...” Ruth said slowly. “What do you mean, no chance of failure?”

Darius blinked at them both. “When I use this spell, there is no chance of failing to craft the item. Yes, it costs more mana, which will be a problem, but it is still an invaluable new tool in our arsenal.”

“Do your shrouds come with a chance of failure?” Josh asked, face scrunched up. “Baked in, I mean. Not just if you screw something up, but things go sideways with a random flip?” Some techniques and spells were like that, a flat chance to succeed or fail or some other effect. The Gambler class was most famous for it, but there were plenty of others.

“No—well, not quite. It's not random.” Darius shrugged. “The blueprint description simply says that the materials will be ruined if I fail when crafting the shroud.” He paused. “Do yours not say anything about that?”

Josh and Ruth both shook their heads.

Darius thought for a moment. “Perhaps it is because I use delicate and expensive materials,” he mused. “Ruin a stone and it can be replaced. Ruin an Avian Anemo Feather and it is another matter entirely.”

He had a point there. Josh had ruined plenty of arrows and other simple items while crafting by hand. He hadn't even considered the fact that he hadn't had any such mishaps while using either of his spells. And Ruth had constant problems with her runes. Sometimes they were bad enough that she had to start over.

“That still don't solve the biggest problem,” Mary pointed out bluntly. “You need more blues.” She poked his new shroud. “This is pretty and all, but it's basic as dirt. We need to tier up if we want to make a dent in the world.”

Darius nodded. “I want to study these devices more. Learn what I can about infusing magic into items. Compare them to traditional enchanting, if possible, to see what the difference is.” He paused. “You were talking about blueprints, weren't you?”

Mary cocked her eyebrow at him like he was an idiot.

Before that could turn into yet another argument, Josh heard a surprising sound: The rumble of a truck driving up to their gate. They all looked at each other, then got up to investigate the noise.

It was indeed a truck. Not one of the giant eighteen-wheelers which Josh hadn't seen since he was a kid, but a decent-sized pickup truck that only looked a decade or two old. There was an aluminum factory in the City, so they could make a new chassis for a vehicle without too much trouble. Even if the insides were still just constantly refurbished parts from almost a hundred years ago.

The truck parked in front of their gate, and the mayor's bodyguard stepped out. He gave a short, but polite bow. “I am told the princess needs materials?”

Ruth blushed, half in embarrassment and half in anger. “H-hey! I'm not some spoiled little doll! I can take care of myself!”

The guard held up his hands in surrender. “Sorry. Sore spot?” He didn't wait for an answer, just turned around and pulled the tarp off the back of the truck. “Couldn't get much on short notice, and it will have to go back.” He shrugged. “Still, I think you'll like it.”

Ruth's face turned from angry to delighted in a second. “Oh, wow! There's so much in here!”

She was exaggerating. There was... a decent selection. Josh spotted a spear with a rune glowing on the head, a shield with an entire circle of runes, two sheathed swords, and a simple t-shirt that looked like it was fresh from the factory, but was probably kept fresh by the runes on the collar. Josh doubted anything here was all that impressive. The good stuff stayed in the City, or was sometimes rented out to the reclaimers on the Burn Line. Not sent out into the wilds where it could be lost.

Ruth hopped into the bed of the truck. Josh smirked. She kept finding excuses to show off her new, higher Strength score. “I'm not seeing anything obviously elemental...” She cupped her hands around her mouth. “Sorry, Mary! We're not getting you any more of those spells today!”

“I'm right here, no need to shout,” Mary said as she walked up. She stuck a finger in her ear and grimaced, as if getting out a blockage. “What's all this? The bird came through?”

Josh rolled his eyes. “Still not my bird.”

Ruth just grinned. “Yeah, this stuff is great!” She picked the spear up, and her eyes went distant as she checked its properties. “I won't be sure until I learn the runes, but I think this is some sort of Attack rune?” She looked at it more closely. “Yeah, it's similar to the one I already have, but different.”

“Learn all of them,” Josh said. “There's no limit to the amount of blueprints you can have, so there's no reason to be stingy. We're not on a time crunch.”

“Except for the big one,” Mary quipped.

Josh winced. Yeah, there was one big scaly time limit looming over them. But an extra couple hours to let Ruth learn a new rune that turned out to be useless wasn't going to kill them. Mary was just being an ass.

“Darius, finish up those shroud focuses,” Josh ordered. “If you've got golden luck, you'll proc a new blueprint.” That happened sometimes. He had earned a couple variant blueprints while endlessly making arrows. “Either way, you can experiment once you're done.”

“And you?” Darius asked. He looked around at the pile of mostly useless stone equipment. “Are you going to continue working on the wall?”

Josh grinned. Samson—with impeccable dramatic timing—brought out two heavy burlap sacks. They weren't labeled, and they had the consistency of sand or something close to it.

“Nope,” Josh said, “I'm gonna play with cement!”