"Jump boots do exactly what the name suggests," Noted Tammy as she snatched the image of the winged boots and set it in the middle of the air. An image of a random human wearing them came to be, two dimensional and floating there. The human took a few steps before leaping.

The wings of the boots began to pump, allowing them to sail across the room in a straight line for an impressive distance before they came back down, thumbed up, and reset, starting to do the motion again. "Just like that!"

Spike hiked both thumbs at himself. "I've learned that I don't know as much as I want to, so, what do you suggest for me? I'm a front row divine lord with a 'martyr' focus? I can take damage for my team and return that to a bad guy by hitting them with this." He raised his staff for inspection. "I can shoot energy, uh, white? I have a shield." He raised his shield, both arms then high.

"And you're a dragon with lots of fire," noted Tammy with a soft nodding. "Can't forget that part. Alright. First of all..." She leaned in close, a swirl of information flashing in front of her eyes, illuminating her face a moment as she examined the staff, then the shield. "These are inadequate! Enough for the training fields, but not much more." She turned her vision to his chest, his shirt glowing a moment. "That barely even counts as armor! How have you survived until now?"

"By not being hit," explained Spike with a single raised finger. "And mostly by hiding in the back row, which I want to fix."

She snatched the leaping human right out of the air, squirming helplessly as she shoved them back onto the selection menu where they became just the jumping boots. "Well this just won't do even a little bit. Being a divine lord, you can wear heavy armor, and if you plan to be in front, you may want to consider it, but heavy armor may get in the way of using those cute little wings of yours."

"About that." Spike glanced back at his wings and at Tammy. "I notice you don't call us demi-humans, like everyone else that isn't Sandra and even she had to learn the difference. Why?"

"Because you're dragons." She began to scroll through her selection of things. "Because dragons aren't even part human, like the others. Only stupid people think that."

"Hey," defended Sandra, rubbing one of her arms.

"Sorry Sandcakes, I didn't mean you. At least you learned." She brought her finger down on a new staff and pulled it free. Instead of hanging it in the air, she shoved the image against Spike. "Try that."

Suddenly Spike's staff had a new staff overlaid atop it. It had a big jewel at the top and was a little longer. He could feel some warmth coming from the inside as he gave it a few test swings. It felt good in his hands. "Nice... What does it do?"

"What staves do, better," helpfully explained Tammy. "With that you'll cast your spells better, hit things better, and run out of energy slower. It doesn't do anything, like new things, just lets you do what you do better."

Smolder suddenly snatched the staff away from Spike and held out the strange dual-staff at Tammy. "So what if we want it do something too? You said you could go that extra mile with the breath we so graciously contributed, right?"

Tammy casually snatched the image back, peeling it free of the actual staff easily. "Then I'm making a new staff, which I am totally ready to try. Remember what I said about that."

Garble lifted his shoulders. "Go on. You got three dragons' worth of fire, yeah? Do something cool with it."

"Exactly what I was hoping for." She shoved the image back where it had come from and closed the window it had lived in. She pulled open a new one and started tapping materials shown there. "This, this... definitely this... Spike, give me that staff you have."

"Huh? Okay." He offered it towards Tammy, just to have it yanked away and thrown right into the furnace, consumed in flames. "Uh... Good luck?"

"I'll need a dash of that." She swiped from left to right and the bar appeared, warming up rapidly into mid-yellow. "Let's try this out..." The staff rose out of the pit of flames, unharmed for its time there, but visibly smoldering. Metal oozed upwards, creating supporting lines and a claw at the end. A great gem lifted to rest in that claw as a plume of flames engulfed the entire thing. "Oooo, this is... Right, delicate part." She sucked on her breath through her teeth as she fiddled with dials, rapidly tapping at the glowing keys in the air.

Just as suddenly, she was reaching into the flames, pulling the staff free. The furnace's levels began to lower back towards high green as she swung it towards Spike. "I present!"

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Spike reached and she didn't resist him taking the staff. It was his staff, but also note, clearly modified. It felt different in his hand, a touch heavier, but more... powerful. He could feel his magic flowing through it, gathering... "Is this orb thingie collecting my magic." He peered at it. Whatever crystal it was made of, it smelled delicious.

"Is it? That's good to know." Tammy dutifully made notes as she added it to her recipe list. "It should be keyed to your class and, you know, being a dragon. I made it for you! Now, that doesn't mean I won't sell it to someone else who happens to be a divine lord martyr, but those are so rare these days. Most people don't go for that spec anymore."

Spike slung his staff on his back with a satisfied nod. "I don't get it. Isn't that what a divine lord is basically? A healer that, you know, sacrifices for the good of others?"

Smolder swatted Spike's back. "That's one thing they can be, figures you saw it that way. You're always ready to give it all up for other creatures. One of your really noble traits."

"Weird traits," scoffed Garble. "Alright, he got a new staff, we got plenty more to go."

Tammy was perfectly happy to get right back to work. Smolder got a new set of daggers, red and blue in color, equally fit for cooking or stabbing. A new set of mail covered her with fine rings that didn't clink when she moved. Garble was given nothing at all. "Nice sword," she complimented. "Easily the best gear in the party. If you ever swap to something else, I call dibs on melting it down."

"Yeah, not happening." He huffed out a small bit of flames before hiking a thumb at Sandra. "What about her?"

Tammy pulled Sandra closer, looking her over. "Hmm hmm... Hmmm... Alright." She snapped her fingers and reached for her recipe list, pulling a set of robes free. "I think this would do pretty well."

Sandra took the picture of robes from Tammy and held it to her chest. It expanded out, overlapping her current suit. "Oh!" Apparently she could feel some difference in it as she looked herself over. "It's warm and feels... supportive."

"Supportive is just the right word." Tammy nodded firmly. "It'll keep your magic going strong, and your magic is what you use, right? You're still a spellcaster?"

Sandra held out an empty hand. With a flare of light and heat, Aiden came into being, wings spread out and folding back as embers drifted down around it. "Meet Aiden."

"Hello, Aiden." Tammy pointed past Aiden to Sandra. "I'm giving her more power so you can use it." Aiden hooted and Tammy nodded as if she understood it. "Right? I knew you'd like it." Tammy danced back to her furnace. "Shall I begin?"

Sandra was soon wearing a new set of robes, colored with red and orange trims to match her first summon. She also had a wire tiara on her head. Tammy didn't seem done, busily crafting with soft murmurings, fingers quickly at work. "Now this isn't a new thing, but 'new' doesn't always mean 'better', in this case. I made this up myself a while ago, but I like it." She plucked a shield free of her furnace and twirled it in place, examining it for defects before hurling it like a frisbee towards Spike.

He caught it and slid it over his arm. His original fell to the ground, apparently realizing he had swapped. "Huh." He reached down, but Tammy snatched it up before he got it.

"You don't need that." She tossed it casually into the furnace. "We can reclaim some of its materials for later. How does the new one feel?"

It was made of smooth metal, wider at the top and coming to a point at the bottom. It was a soft cyan shade and had the icon of a dragon on the front, flames erupting from its mouth. Spike smirked at that as he waved it softly, testing its heft. "Did it have that picture before?"

"Nope, added that for you." Tammy leaned in with a big grin. "Like it? It's a nice combination of strength and small size. It's no tower shield, but you're not a tower shield kinda guy I don't think."

"Nah, nothing that huge." He pulled his staff off and tried them together, parrying invisible blows with his shield and thrusting his staff out, grunting and shouting in false combat.

As he did that, Tammy turned to the rest. "Satisfied? Did you want something for him?" She indicated Garble with a smile. "He's still lapping you all with that sweet drop there."

Garble thrust a claw at Spike. "You swapped his stick and his shield but no armor?" He clanged his claws against his own breastplate. "If he wants to be front row, he'll want some armor."

"Martyr builds don't usually do heavy armor," mused Tammy, looking thoughtful as she tapped a foot. "What do you think, Spike?"

"Huh?" He willed his shield away and slung his staff. "A little armor wouldn't be bad. Maybe some chain like Smolder has?"

"Chain it is!" Tammy was quick to produce another set of chain armor sized for Spike, tossing it his way. "There you go, all suited up. Now go crush that tower, or at least come back with second level materials for me to play with." She giggled, eyes shining with the thought of the more exotic materials gotten from higher up the tower. "Either way's fine by me."

Sandra stepped up, offering an arm. The two were soon hugging. "Thanks for taking care of us."

Tammy waved at the dragons and soon had Spike and Smolder in the hug, Garble sneering at the whole thing. Tammy shugged and enjoyed her hug with the others. "Alright, seriously, come back with some great news." She hopped back and fired a double thumbs-up. "I'll keep the furnace warm while you're away."

They emerged into the dimmer light of evening, the day spent getting kitted out. Garble softly shrugged as he went. "She was nice enough. Why didn't you bring her up before?"

"We didn't have anything for her to do," sighed out Sandra. "Once we had materials..."

"She could get to work," cut in Smolder with a grin. "Makes sense to me. Glad to see you have a friend besides us. You should stop by and say hi to her, even if you aren't buying things."

"I was... kind of embarrassed... I told her last time I would get it right." She rubbed her cheek awkwardly. "I only just started doing that."

Spike hopped ahead. "Pity she couldn't make you fly, but let's get a bite to eat and tomorrow, group training."

Garble rolled his eyes mightily. "Ugh, guess we should. You need some practice to keep up with my awesome moves."