Waking up, it’s dark out once again, but Colt is missing from the bed so he must already be up and about.
Getting ready for the day quickly, I put on another outfit Becky made me, a bit embarrassed when I realize that I never changed out of the dirty one from yesterday.
Yawning, I walk into the kitchen to find something to eat. There are some leftovers from dinner last night, so I put the small cuts of seasoned meat and vegetables into a pan and begin to heat it up on the stove.
While I wait for my breakfast to heat up, I practice my magic a bit more, allowing lightning to jump from hand to hand while I brainstorm what kinds of weapons I’m going to make.
I’ll make Becky her new scissors I promised her, but Colt, Adreanell, and Cassandra are all magic users for the most part so making a weapon for them isn’t an immediate concern. I can’t think of anything I’d want to make them right now that seems fitting anyway.
After a bit of toying around with ideas, my breakfast is ready and I eat it quickly. It almost tastes better after having a night to marinate in the seasoning Colt applied to it.
‘Hm, I’ve been forgetting to eat anything but dinner lately, but it hasn’t really bothered me. I guess higher stats really do help me go longer without eating.’
Finishing, I stand up and stretch before heading downstairs to find Colt. It’s raining again, but I use Hydromancy like an umbrella and walk outside to find him after not finding him anywhere inside.
He’s sitting in the backyard, a similar bubble of water repulsion around him as he lays down stonework to serve as the eating area for his restaurant. He looks lost in thought as he does it, so he doesn’t notice me immediately.
“Mornin’ sunshine.”
“Oh, Lucas! Good morning. What’s up?” He stops his earth shaping for a second and comes over to give me a hug.
“Just wanted to find you and say good morning before I get to work on some blacksmithing. Is there anything you want me to make you? I couldn’t think of anything.”
He smiles at the gesture but shakes his head. “No, I think I’m good. I don’t really ever go in melee range so unless you can make some super powerful wand or staff or something I don’t know of anything that would be helpful.”
“Hm, I’ll keep that in mind but I don’t really know of any aspects I have right now that could help, except maybe a wind aspect.”
“Where did you get a wind aspect? None of our plants have that.” He looks over to the garden in the distance, as if to check to make sure he’s not forgetting some plant.
“Oh uh, don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.”
“No, tell me. I’m curious now.” He grabs my hands in his, meeting my eyes.
Looking to the side, I quietly explain the truth. “I uh, found a magic grasshopper called a gusthopper and converted it to aspect crystals.”
“Oh. Poor grasshopper. It was at least dead when you did it, right?” He gives me a critical stare.
“Well, it was probably dead once I converted it-.”
“Lucas!” He laughs and swats me on the chest. “You’re horrible, that poor grasshopper.”
“In my defense, he was hopping very aggressively.”
He quirks an eyebrow. “Was he now?”
“Uh, yeah. I totally saved our house from wind-based destruction.”
He chuckles and gives me a light push. “Well alright, you go work on your blacksmithing, oh savior of our house, I want to complete this patio.”
“Okay, okay. See you later then.” Giving him a light peck on the lips, I head back inside to work on some more weapons.
‘I think I’ll get that battleax done first. That way I can turn in the quest. I could use the money.’
Stopping in the slime room, I feed all the neutral slimes as well as Mr. Squishels and Jello. ‘Damn, gonna need to restock now. This box is empty. I’ll stop by the shop after I turn in this battleax.’
Heading into my forge, I find a light green bag laying on the table with a note sitting on top. Picking up the note, I smile when I see who it’s addressed from.
Lucas,
You totally fucked up one of the outfits I made you, so here’s some new shit I put together. Don’t ruin these ones.
XOXO,
Becky
Laughing at the content on the note, I open the bag and take out three shirts and three pairs of shorts. The shirts are purple, teal, and a green that makes me smile. ‘It’s basically my favorite shirt again! And so soft too!’
The shorts are teal, white, and… pink? ‘She’s been learning enchanting, so I wonder…’
Don’t Fucking Burn This One
Quality: High
Traits: Durable, Defensive, Soft
Description: This green shirt is made of magically produced cotton and has been enchanted to be more durable. Additional enchantments make this shirt capable of lowering physical force, increasing your defense as a result. The entire fabric has been enchanted to be incredibly soft and comfortable.
‘Well, I guess Becky named it. I can’t help but feel this is abuse of the naming system. Huh, the bag is enchanted too. Cotton as well?’ Stowing the bag away, I can’t really think of anything to do with it right now but it may be useful, who knows.
Unequipping the shirt I was wearing, I equip the green shirt, reveling in how soft it is. A quick check of the shorts shows that they’re the same enchantment-wise, so I equip the teal shorts to complement the green shirt.
‘Alright, time to get to work.’ Taking out the two bars of dark steel I’ll need to work with, I set them on the table. Remembering something, I shout out to Colt to bring me a large wooden pole to make the shaft from.
He stops in quick and gives me a large, long piece of wood that I can shape. Setting it aside, I work on heating up my first ingot. Dark steel appears to only be very slightly magical, so I’m able to influence it with both Metallomancy and Mystic Metalwork.
This massively helps improve the speed I can smith at. After hammering, sharpening, and magically tempering the metal, I finish the first blade within an hour. It takes even less time with what I’ve learned for the second blade, so I finish it in about 45 minutes.
Shaving the wooden staff to shape with some Hydromancy, I smooth it out using some sanding belts by hand.
It’s fairly basic, but I’m not trying for anything special, so I bolt the two blade pieces into one end of the wooden staff, fusing them together with a mix of Metallomancy and Floramancy.
Testing it for sturdiness, I give the weapon a few swings. It feels quite solid, so I’m happy with it being almost complete. The last step is to add some leather straps for the handle.
Using more volley stag leather, I cut it into strips and make small X shapes up the length of the wood to provide grip regardless of where someone holds the battleax.
Level up! For making a weapon type you haven’t before out of a material you haven’t worked with until now, your Talent: Fledgling Blacksmith has reached (48/50)!
‘So close to Adept, nice!’
Leaving the house feeling excited, I run to the quest board quickly and turn in the battleax.
Quest complete! Rewards received are: 35 Glints, 350 XP (Optional, costs 50 Sparks, 3 Glints)
Would you like to receive 350 XP in exchange for 50 Sparks, 3 Glints? Yes/No
Selecting no, I check my hold to make sure the 35 Glints are there and head to the shop instead. So that I don’t have to make the trip as often, I spend 25 Sparks for five boxes on slime food pellets.
Checking my stock, I buy 20 more tier 1 neutrite ingots for 5 Glints each, which seems to be the lowest price the ingots will sell for as I can’t haggle it any lower.
Alighting myself with Lightning Cloak, I dash home at high speeds, relishing the experience as the landscape blurs around me.
Arriving home, I try to stop myself quick and slip on mud. Just as I’m about to slam into the front wall of the house, an air cushion catches me. Colt stares at me from the backyard, lip quirked in a smirk.
Waving him thanks, I head into the house, but not until using a mixture of Geomancy and Hydromancy to clean my boots off. ‘I should create some kind of magic doormat…’
Setting that idea aside for another day, I head back to my forge, still considering what I want to make Becky’s scissors out of.
‘Well, Becky always seems to have problems with resource management, she probably doesn’t have a lot of Perks relating to regen boosts.’
Taking the pranasteel and manasteel ingots out of my hold, I set the dark red and blue ingots on the table for a moment. Sizing them up, I determine how much material I’ll need to make scissors from them.
Cutting off about 1/6th or so of each with Hydromancy, I realize these are more complex than I know how to build.
Stolen novel; please report.
Poking my head through the portal door, I get Ilmarinen to come over. He’s happy to help as he’s apparently never made scissors before.
“Well, lad, ye need to draw out a proper plan fer somethin’ ye never made before.”
“Right.” Taking out a notepad and pencil Colt gave me from my hold, I sketch out the basic shape I want the scissors to be. Ilmarinen makes a few corrections based on what he observed from Becky’s scissors.
He approves of my decision to make scissors out of pranasteel and manasteel. The combination will be powerful for Becky as she’s a close-range fighter who can really take advantage of the life steal and mana steal aspects.
“The person I used to go to for my haircuts had this special thumb part that swiveled, so I’d like to add that to these scissors to give Becky some maneuverability.” Showing Ilmarinen what I mean by sketching it out as best as I can, I’m no artist, he considers it for a moment.
“Ye will need te make the attachment piece out of somethin’ durable if yer wantin’ te make that.” He indicates on the separate thumb ring and the pins I’ve drawn.
“There’s a little immoblite leftover from the anvil, it should be enough to make this small piece out of, and that’s about as durable as you get right now.”
He nods and we get to work. Ilmarinen helps me monitor the heats I bring the metals to as apparently pranasteel and manasteel have different temperatures they’re forged at.
The basic scissor shape is fairly easy as it’s just a pointed piece of metal. The tricky part comes for when I need to shape out the more slender ends as well as the point that the two pieces of metal will be pinned together.
Ilmarinen helps me size everything properly to make sure the two halves will fit together. He seems to really be enjoying making a weapon he never has before.
There are a few times where I have to remind him that I’m still trying to gain some Fledgling Blacksmith levels out of this because he starts to do too much of the work on his own.
A lot of the work on these scissors requires less hammer use and more direct influence with Metallomancy and Mystic Metalwork.
Ilmarinen, being less stuck in his ways than he used to be, begrudgingly admits that my method is definitely more efficient without any kinds of drawbacks. He’s always done things very traditionally, using as little magic as possible in his blacksmithing.
Making the thumb ring and pins out of immoblite proves to be the most challenging part of creating these scissors. It’s such a sturdy metal that it’s far less responsive to magical means. Fortunately, heating it up lets me manipulate it more easily.
Finally, all of the pieces are complete and it’s just a matter of combining them together after I sharpen the scissor blades. Finishing that, I set all of the pieces together.
In the end, I have four pins made of immoblite. One for the center of the scissors to give a good level of structural support, and another three for the swivel points on the thumb ring.
Two of the pins are set on the sides of the ring to allow it to move up and down. First, I enchant them with a slipperiness enchantment to allow them to pivot easily, acting as if it’s been well-oiled.
Slotting them in, I seal the end with a small bit of extra immoblite to prevent it from sliding at all, making it a perfect fit.
The next pin goes where the ring attaches on to the rest of the scissors. I enchant this one with the same slippery enchantments to allow it to rotate around as much as Becky will need. This setup will give her far more maneuverability with this weapon.
Giving it a few test swivels, it works perfectly. Happy with the result, I attach the scissors together and seal it with one more immoblite pin.
Letting the scissors be auto-named, I Inspect the result before letting notifications come in.
Essence Thief Shears
Quality: Medium
Traits: Lifesteal, Manasteal, Internal Sheathe, Strengthening
Description: Scissors made with pranasteel and manasteel blades, held together with immoblite pins and thumb ring. The blade metals grant this weapon both lifesteal and manasteal while the immoblite components hold the piece together with a high level of durability that will strengthen as it incurs more stress. The amount of life and mana stolen per hit depends on the damage dealt as well as the depth of the strike.
‘Ooooh, good name, Construct.’
Congratulations, Lucas Creo! Due to creating a weapon type you haven’t before while experimenting with new materials, you have reached level 50/50 in the Talent: Fledgling Blacksmith! Talent upgrade will now occur!
Congratulations, Lucas Creo! Your Talent: Fledgling Blacksmith has evolved into Adept Blacksmith (1/50)! For reaching the Adept Talent Tier, you have been granted 5 unused stat points, double the original stat points given upon Talent milestones, and the Perk: Essence Paths!
Congratulations, Lucas Creo! For reaching Adept rank in 5 Talents, you have been granted a General Perk Point as a one time reward! General Perk Points may be applied to any Perk.
“Oh my god, Ilmarinen! I reached Adept Blacksmith, and got two new things too! The Perk, Essence Paths, and a General Perk Point.”
He genuinely smiles, happy for me. “Good job, apprentice o’ mine. Yer growth is astounding. It makes me proud te be yer mentor. Ye should look at that Perk before ye work on yer next project, tis useful. General Perk Points are quite flexible and useful as well. Do ye know what ye want to use yers on?”
“Thanks, Ilmarinen. For everything. You’ve been a huge help, I’m not sure I’d have ever gotten as far as I have in blacksmithing without you. As for the Perk Point, I think maybe Promethean, it’s a really strong Perk and I end up using it in battle a lot, but I’m going to give it a lot of thought.”
“As I told ye before lad, yer influence on me has been great. I haven’t been as excited about makin’ weapons as this in many tides. Yer right to wait on the Perk Point. Give it some thought.”
“I’ll do that. I’m happy to have breathed some fresh life into your work though. I actually have another idea for a second pair of scissors for Becky. She dual wields after all.”
He looks at me with interest. “Do ye, lad?”
“Mhm. Look.” Taking out a deep orange colored ingot from my hold, I show it to Ilmarinen.
“Voracitite, eh? Nutrition and growth aspects? A weapon as gluttonous as this fits the lass.” He laughs heartily. Ilmarinen is wholly aware of Becky’s love for food, even from his limited interactions with her.
“Yeah, my theory is that it grows by feeding off of things, but that’s just conjecture from its aspects.”
“Aye, that it might be. Ye create unexpected combinations with yer neutrite.”
“Hm, I guess I do. Some of them seem more straightforward though. Anyway, this one is going to be a more traditional scissor shape. I don’t think it’ll work as well with the swivel.” Beginning to draw the shape I want out on paper, Ilmarinen looks on with interest.
He adds a few ideas in to increase the structural stability of the scissors as well as small changes to make it more comfortable to hold.
“Okay, before we start, let me check out this Perk.”
Perks:
Essence Paths
Description: This Perk allows the user to channel mana into metal they are working to form channels within the material for guiding all forms of essence. This allows the wielder of the weapon to empower its durability or damage output as well as increasing the efficiency of energy flow to enchantments or Skills. Willpower increased by 3. +3 Willpower per level up.
“Wow, Ilmarinen, you’re right. This Perk is useful. This is what you used when making Argo, isn’t it? I think I’ll apply it to these scissors.”
He nods and indicates we should begin working. “That it is, lad. Argo is full o’ these channels, though me method is slightly different as I also carved more meself.”
“Hm, cool. Well, let’s get cracking.”
Setting to work, Ilmarinen gives me more pointers as I hammer out the metal and shape it magically. Throughout the process, I channel mana into the metal as I work it, creating the essence paths. It’s fairly mana intensive and requires a lot of focus.
It’s about mid-afternoon by the time the scissors are finished. Allowing The Construct to name them once again, I Inspect the scissors.
Gluttonous Maw
Quality: Medium
Traits: Nutrition, Growth
Description: Scissors made of voracitite. The metal that makes up these shears will grow in response to what is consumed. As a result, they will become longer, sharper, and even more ravenous. Due to the weaponized nature of this specific piece, it will consume blood most efficiently.
Level up! For combining aspects with very high synergy, your Talent: Adept Blacksmith has reached (2/50)!
‘Nice, another level up. I guess the essence paths aren’t accounted for in the description.’
Just by touching the metal I can feel the network within it, so I know that most people will innately be able to use it anyway. At most I’ll have to explain the function to them but it seems fairly self-explanatory.
Adding enchantments to the scissors, I increase the sharpness and durability of the blades as well as the structural integrity of the entire piece.
As I’m only using enchantments I’ve done millions of times now, I don’t receive a level for doing so, sadly.
Ilmarinen, full of inspiration now, heads back to his house as he apparently has many ideas he wants to test.
Thanking him before he leaves, he nods and heads through the door with an excited expression on his face.
Stowing both pairs of scissors away in my hold, I turn to my Perks menu to look through it and decide what to spend my General Perk Point on.
‘Hm, well obviously it has to be a fusion Perk that I won’t be able to upgrade otherwise.’
The decision comes down to either Promethean or Spellbound Physique. Promethean has Ballasted Body, Compound Strength, Echinodermal Flesh, Nimble Feet, Reforged Arms, and Tempered Body in it, which are all Perks I use frequently to some degree.
Overall, boosting it will be a huge buff to my combat prowess and survivability.
On the other hand, Spellbound Physique is my more magically inclined fusion Perk, containing Branching Mana, Catalytic Blood, Life Tap, Inscriber’s Touch, Neural-Magic Vessels, Priming Touch, Spellslinger, and Vital Mana.
These ones are all certainly helpful, especially Inscriber’s Touch, which is unfortunately locked into that Perk rather than something like Inscriber’s Elegance.
‘Well, I can always work towards making nicer stuff. This would just be an immediate boost. It’s hard to just work at being tougher in combat other than stats.’
Selecting Promethean, my entire body floods with energy as the Perks upgrade.
You have upgraded the perk: Promethean! Its innate abilities have been enhanced! Promethean has become Promethean (+1)!
Testing a few aspects of the Perk at random, I shift my weight through my body. It happens faster than usual and I find that I can even increase my weight beyond normal to some degree.
Lifting the table next to me with both arms, it feels incredibly light. Having never lifted the table before, I can’t tell the specific difference upgrading Compound Strength caused, but I certainly feel stronger.
With a few test jumps across the room, the mix of Ballasted Body and Nimble Feet within Promethean allow me to land at incredibly unbalanced angles with ease.
Cutting my arm with a Hydromancy blade, it seals up almost instantly when I focus on it with the Echinodermal Flesh aspect of Promethean. The HP and MP costs associated with using the ability seem lower as well.
It’s harder to tell for Reforged Arms or Tempered Body, but I certainly feel tougher.
Happy with my decision, I decide to go hand-deliver these scissors to Becky. Stopping in the backyard first, Colt’s patio is really coming together. It glistens with the last vestiges of water from the rain earlier.
“Wow, your stonework is amazing. This looks great, Colt!”
He smiles at me. “Thanks, doing this much fine detail takes a lot longer, but I really like the style I chose.”
The tilework is an ornate grid with a heavy focus on a nature motif. The beginnings of an awning are already started with twisting wooden supports creating the initial shape.
“It looks perfect, I’m excited to see the final result. Oh, and I’m going to deliver the new scissors I made for Becky to her, so I’ll be back in a bit. Wanna see them before I go?”
He nods. “Sure, why not?”
Taking them out of my hold, I show him the two pairs of scissors.
“Wow, she’s gonna love these. They’re so colorful too.” He runs his finger over the dark red and blue metals of the essence thief shears.
“Yeah, I’m a bit worried she’s gonna think the colors don’t go with her outfit or something, but whatever, they’re good weapons.”
“Hm, I could see her doing that. Or making outfits to match the weapons, who knows. She’s unpredictable.” Colt shrugs.
“Yeah I am.”
We both jump as Becky is suddenly next to us.
“Holy fuck, Becky!”
“...How did you do that?” Colt glances around, looking for however she just got here.
“Came down from the roof all sneaky-like while you two were making bedroom eyes at each other. I’m like a rogue class or whatever, I need to be sneaky, y’know?” She snaps her gum loudly, ruining her point.
“Well, yes, you clearly snuck up on us, but how?”
“Oh, I just lowered myself with my Magical Locks super slowly. Adreanell and Cassandra are here too, but they’re waiting inside. Anyway, I see you have something for me, Lucas!” She claps her hands together in excitement.
Sighing, I offer her the scissors and she takes them with a greedy gleam in her eyes. After reading the description, she looks at me. “...Can I test them on you?”
“...You want to spar? Well, alright.”