"It's raw," Clover said, quoting a chef he had seen on TV. He had always wanted to say something dramatic like that. Ron's face dropped. "Just kidding. It smells very good. Sorry."

"It's gonna taste better than it looks; I put a bunch of salt on it," Ron said. He leaned closer as if he was about to spill one of the most profound secrets in existence then, he whispered. "Salt is the secret ingredient that makes everything at McDonald's taste good. Most home cooks don't use nearly enough."

Clover nodded along, not really understanding the secret salt agenda Ron seemed to be pushing. He looked down at the slab of slightly burnt meat that rested on a paper plate in his lap - he wasn't sure what part of the animal it had come from.

To his left, Claire used an ancient Incan obsidian blade that she had snagged while he wasn't looking and cut into the meat, skewering a piece of it with the blade's tip. She took a bite and chewed it carefully like a professional wine taster, or in this case, a squirrel taster. "Tastes like chicken," she said with a proud and self-satisfied nod.

"Ah ha, I knew it wouldn't be raw," Ron said as he skewered a slice of meat with a stick and then took a bite.

Clover chuckled. “Thanks for cooking.”

Quickly, he realized there was a problem. He didn't have a knife or a fork. Of course, he could always pick it up with his hands and eat it like a hamburger, but he was more civilized than that. Ok, he wasn't, but with [Minor Tactile Terrakinesis], he had an opportunity to make utensils out of stone, and that, at least to him, was too cool to pass up.

He placed a hand on the concrete below him and pulled, activating the Skill. The material shifted beneath his grasp, moving with a speed that it had lacked the previous day. Ten seconds later, two rough slabs of material separated from the ground. Then, about a minute after that, after he had refined their shapes, he had a pair of utensils.

Congratulations! Sculpting has reached Level 25. +1 Skill Point.

Clover cheered internally. Now that he had hit Level 25 in the Skill, he could finally complete its second Landmark Path. Well, assuming that he had completed its Prerequisites and Requirements.

He’d check after he finished his food. He didn't want the squirrel to go cold - food was better when it was hot.

“Is that sanitary?” Claire asked, eyeing his freshly constructed pair of silverware

"No, not really," Clover responded. He jerked the utensils back and forth as if he could shake the germs off them. Actually… He paused his motion. Why wasn't that possible? If he shook it fast enough, shouldn't everything attached to it, bacteria and germs included, come flying off? He intensified his efforts, moving the utensils so fast that they began to blur.

Claire looked at him, her lips twitching upward, but she didn’t say anything.

Finally, with all the prep work done, Clover cut off a piece of the squirrel. “It really does taste like chicken,” he said between bites. “I thought it’d taste like acorns or nuts or something. I’m kinda disappointed by how normal it tastes.”

“You’d think them being magical monsters would add an extra element of flavor to it,” Ron said. Now that he had finished cooking the beast, he seemed content. How it had come out wasn’t much concern to him.

Claire handed out two bottles of blue liquid. “If you want some extra flavor, add this. It’ll make it taste like mint.”

Mint and chicken wasn’t an optimal flavor combo, but Clover forced himself to drink the mana potion. He needed his MP to be full for what was to come.

He glanced at the dwindling fire, listening to it crackle as slight tufts of smoke wafted off of it. Suddenly, an idea occurred to him. He wasn't sure if it was genius or stupid - probably somewhere in between. "Why don't we set the cave on fire?" Clover said.

“What?” Ron mumbled, taken off guard by the suggestion.

"I mean, the squirrels are trapped down there, and the vines in the caves are flammable to a magical degree. Shouldn't it be possible for Claire to set them on fire from a distance?"

Ron nodded, leaning forward as his interest peaked. “It could work. There’s probably not enough wood down there to start a big fire, but if we wanted to go with that plan, we could drag some done there.”

Claire traced a small circle around her knee with her fingernail. “Not that I don’t hate the squirrels, but even if the plan worked, and I set them on fire, wouldn’t that cause the magical fruits in the center of the cave to go up in flames too?” She lifted her finger, pointing it at the campfire. “Plus, I wouldn’t want to accidentally burn down the museum. I’d feel bad about doing that.”

“I guess that makes sense; it sounded cool,” Clover said.

"How about the other tunnel? If we scope it out and there's nothing valuable in it that looks flammable, it could still be a valid strategy. Even if we don't gather enough wood to completely light up the cave, the smoke would be enough to suffocate or at least weaken them," Ron said.

Clover hadn't considered that option. Theoretically, it should have been possible for him to manipulate the Monster Nest's walls with [Minor Tactile Terrakinesis] and trap the monsters inside. It would take a while, and he'd be vulnerable to attack while doing it, but it was definitely possible. Though he didn't know if the Monster Nest operated on a different set of rules than the outside world, maybe it was impossible to heavily edit its terrain like that.

At the very least, after they scoped it out, it could be worth a shot.

“It sounds dangerous. If we somehow got trapped down there, we’d be stuck in the fire too,” Claire said, her lips in a thin and even line, not revealing much.

When he had first heard of her Affinity, he had somewhat expected her to have been a pyromaniac or serial arsonist, but he had been wrong. For someone with an innate Fire Affinity, she sure wasn’t passionate about burning things down.

“Anyways, I made this. Check it out,” she said with an enthusiasm that didn’t all the way reach her eyes.” She held up a circular glass bottle that looked somewhat like a Christmas ornament - something out of an alchemist's workshop.

Inside, waves of blue fire lazily lapped at the bottle's edges, shifting between liquid, gas, and fire in swirling patterns.

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“Wow, what is it?” Clover asked

“It’s a potion of lesser mana fire. I don’t know what exactly it's supposed to do, but from the looks of it, it’ll burn down whatever it touches.”

While eating, the group discussed strategy, evaluating the different ways they could combine their attacks and lure out monsters. They came up with a few new ideas, though, like his plan to set the entire cave on fire, he wasn’t sure how effective they’d be. Soon, they finished their meal.

Before venturing back into the museum and Monster Nest, Clover opened his Status Screen.

Name: Clover Hills

Race: Human

Class: Apprentice Golemancer (Common) Lvl 8 - 1203/1750

Shard:

HP: 300/300 (11)

SP: 23/100 (10)

MP: 307/310 (10)

Affinity: Bone - Tier 1 (Low)

Strength: 6

Endurance: 1

Vitality: 20

Dexterity: 8

Agility: 1

Perception: 5

Intelligence: 12

Magic: 21

Skill Points: 26

Stat Points: 3

The numbers had gone up! Clover swelled with pride. Compared to a few short days ago, his Stats were incomparable - drastically higher in every category.

Beyond the simple pride and satisfaction Clover felt, he couldn’t help but wonder if his lopsided distribution of Stats were optimal - his Endurance and Agility were still stuck at 1. He couldn’t make use of Agility in the way most others could, so he was okay with it lagging behind a bit, but even in his circumstance, there had to have been some benefit from the Stat that he was missing.

However, even knowing that there wasn't much he could do about it. He only got three Stat Points per Level that he could spend freely, and he had already committed to putting the majority of them into Vitality.

His Endurance, the other Stat that was lagging behind, had clearer use cases. If he bumped it up, he’d be able to sculpt and use [Lesser Tactile Terrakinesis] for longer.

Clover tapped his fingers. His mind raced as he tried to predict how many Points he could spare away from Vitality - if it would be best to dump a bunch of Points in at once or spread out the change.

Not wanting to give himself a headache with a full day ahead of him, he evenly split his Stat Points, putting 1 into Vitality, Endurance, and Agility.

He sighed pleasantly as a warm wave of power washed over him, bolstering his body.

Next, he moved on to his Skill Paths Screen - fighting had a way of racking up Points almost as fast as he could spend them. Having completed the Quest for the [Named Sculpture] Path, he decided to immediately invest 10 Points into it, finishing it. While he didn’t know what exactly the [Named Golem] Trait did, all his Golems that had it seemed to perform exceptionally well.

A name can bind and bend - a shortcut, equal parts linguistic and magical. A blade without a name is just a blade, but one with a name can grow in legend. For those with magic, cultivating histories and legends through different naming conventions holds a path to power. By completing this Path, you gain more weight to your words and are able to mold legends with the names you give.

Accept Sub-Skill Y/N: Name - Lvl 0 (Common)

Consume 5 MP and SP to etch a name into the core of a sculpture.

Clover accepted the Sub-Skill. While the System hadn't given him much to go off of, with the number of Points he had invested in the Path, he couldn't justify passing it up. Not that he would want to - the Skill sounded solid. If it did what its description implied it would do, he would be satisfied.

A vague spark of knowledge lodged itself in his chest as his soul space shifted to accommodate the new Skill. Instinctively, he now knew how to activate it. Though, past that, the System didn’t give him anything.

Slowly, he wheeled over to his damaged velociraptor Golem. The glow-in-the-dark dinosaur wasn't technically a sculpture anymore, having been turned into a Golem, but technically, if he blurred the lines a bit, it could still be considered a sculpture at its core - he was optimistic about his chances.

And, on the off chance that the Skill somehow catastrophically failed and caused the Golem to blow up, well, he'd be the least mad if it happened to the glowing Golem.

Clover crossed his fingers, then reached out and touched the head of the dinosaur. Delving through his soul space, he spoke with intent, activating his newest Skill. "Your [Name] is… Sol," he said, his voice carrying unnaturally over the wind. As magic folded in his chest, it all felt oddly familiar to Clover, like he had done it a thousand times before - similar to the feeling he had when he had first used [Unstable Mana Bolt].

As energy gathered, flowing into the Golem, guided by a strange instinct - a memory of what he had seen the one-handed apprentice do inside the Skill Stone that only the deepest recess of his subconscious mind remembered, Clover spoke again.

"Like the sun, you'll always shine bright, a beacon in the darkness - a distant star that the shadows can never touch," Clover trailed off, his mind finally catching up with the words his mouth was speaking. While in the moment, they had been genuine, but now, he couldn't help but feel embarrassment over the dramatic speech he had given.

He didn't have time to feel embarrassed for long as the Golem's structure began to lightly vibrate a couple of seconds later. Its exterior flashed twice - a golden glow that spontaneously shifted its size and design slightly. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the rumbling stopped.

Congratulations! Name has reached Level 1.

Congratulations! Name has reached Level 2. +1 Skill Point.

Congratulations! Name has reached Level 3.

Clover used [Appraisal], checking to see what had changed.

Lesser Golem: Sol

Durability: 17/40

Mana: 23/25

Bones Break So They Can Mend: 64/100

Traits: [Named Golem], [Phosphorescent I].

Naming the Golem had restored a portion of its Durability, and given it an additional Trait. Past that, though it was difficult to see in broad daylight, the color of which the Golem lightly glowed had shifted to a more golden hue.

Just to be sure nothing else had changed, he opened an expanded view of the Traits.

Named Golem - Common

This Golem’s name has bound it, twisting its physical form to match its History and Identity.

Phosphorescent I - Inferior

From its bones, this Golem can reflect back the light it has stored. Due to its name, this Golem can absorb and store sunlight at an increased rate.

It hadn’t been enough to boost the Trait to the next Rarity Level, but it had increased its function somewhat. Clover wasn’t going to complain about that.

Without further testing, he couldn't be sure, but he suspected that [Named Golem] had sparked less of a physical change in the Golem because of how late in its lifespan he had given it its name. He predicted that it would be optimal to use [Name] before he used [Lesser Golem Creation], or at least in quick conjunction. On a logical level, that made sense to him.

Content with his progress and the fun new Skill he had unlocked, he reopened his Skill Paths Screen and put 10 Points into [Sculpting II], completing the Landmark Path.

Once again, like with his strange use of [Appraisal] on the elephant, the screen took almost a full thirty seconds to appear. Clover couldn't help but wonder why. Maybe the System's servers, if the alien construct even used such a thing, were under heavy load and needed maintenance.

He shook his head mirthfully and inspected the blue screen that popped up.

Available: Durability (Minor), Ignition (Minor), Sprout (Minor)

Recommended: Lost (Minor), Antique (Minor), Animal (Inferior).