Jiran stepped through the portal from Sanctuary and giddy tingles of excitement prickled his skin. His emotional state was still far from stable; every little thing sent his feelings swinging in an entirely new direction and the clawing need to kill worthy prey burned just beneath his skin. The shimmering pond around him beckoned with its gentle, clear waters and he sighed wistfully, knowing there wasn’t time for him to relax, no matter how much his body needed it. With a gentle shake, he cast off the pointless thoughts.

His guess had been right and his quick trip into Sanctuary yielded far greater rewards than he thought possible. He took to the air in a spray of water, making his way toward the deepest woods at the center of the valley. He landed next to Niya and tossed her a crystal. “Here, take this,” She snatched the green crystal from the air and her brows furrowed as she inspected it.

“Another one? It’s a different color.” Her eyes flickered back and forth as she read the prompt that appeared in her interface. Her eyes widened as she gasped, “Is this for real? Does it work? Have you tested it yet?”

“Not all of the functions, just the first one, it definitely seems to do what it says. By the way, thank you, for… all of this” He tilted his head toward the long line of Timberlings, “Without you charging that first crystal, this wouldn’t have been possible.

She grinned until dimples appeared on her cheeks, “Hey, I’m here to help. Seriously though, this thing is amazing! This is going to change everything! What should-how do we—”

Jiran raised his hand, “For now, can you charge all of these?” He pulled two dozen more green crystals from his pocket, the sight making Niya’s eyes glow with greed.

She laughed so hard she had to hold her stomach. The nearby Timberlings eyed her warily, whispering to each other that she must have lost her bushels. She grabbed the proffered crystals, clutching them so tightly her arm was shaking, “Yeah, I’ll get these filled. I swear, you’re just not satisfied with your day until you turn the entire empire upside down, are you?”

“Well, doing the same thing day after day would be a bit boring…” Jiran shrugged with a chuckle. “Make sure you eat some of the tier seven meat I brought back. The sooner your growth is maxed, the better.”

“Yeah, yeah, in a minute,” Niya rolled her eyes and snorted. Eager to charge and test the new crystal, she turned to the nearest Timberling in line, motioning them forward with her finger, a maniacal grin on her face.

Seeing several people standing around awkwardly after Niya had drained half of their mana, Jiran looked around for Lulu, hoping to elicit her services to get everyone organized. Not finding her or any of the Matrons, he pursed his lips.

They must be out gathering people from other parts of the valley.

He flew into the air so most of those gathered could see him. More Timberlings trickled into the area with every passing second. Through Mana Omnis, he could see thousands more approaching. If he didn't get them organized within a few minutes, there would be total chaos.

Jiran covered his skin with strobing, elemental light, causing all eyes to gravitate toward him. He filled his voice with mana, “Anyone from the Sect of Hunting and the Sect of Conflict, please form a line to me now. Those from other sects who would like to fight, please join us as well. Everyone else should find Niya’s line. Once you have been seen by Niya or me, please find a transcended and eat as much as you can to restore your strength.”

He lowered himself back to the ground and for several long seconds, hundreds of Timberlings looked at their neighbors, unsure of what to do. Quite a few had run forward immediately, while others gathered around him in a circle to see what he intended. For some reason, not one drew closer to him than three meters, as if there were an invisible barrier preventing them from taking another step. As the crowd around him grew, more and more found their courage and soon a line of over a thousand teenage boys and mature women faced him.

“Thank you for coming. I can see that many of you are concerned about my intentions,” Jiran met the eyes of several individuals with fearful trepidation written across their features. He smiled at them, his voice soft and thrumming with a hint of mana, “I’m not going to force any of you to do anything you don’t agree with. Let me make my intentions clear: I believe my people are in danger. For hundreds of years, we have been at war with an enemy known as the Graymin. If you are willing to fight for me, and for my people, then I will bestow upon you the gifts spoken of in your prophecy. Those who don’t wish to fight or donate your mana to Niya, please return to your homes as this area will soon become very crowded.”

As soon as he was done speaking, a woman in front raised her hand with an eager expression. Jiran nodded at her and she sang in a soft timbre, “If these Graymin are a threat to your people, how are we to fight such a powerful evil? Will the gifts you provide, truly allow us to cross such a divide?”

“Yes, yes they will,” Jiran confirmed with a confident nod.

She stepped forward, her hands on her hips, “Then I decide, to fight by your side.” The woman’s proclamation was met with hundreds of nodded heads and hums of assent. Jiran hadn’t expected nearly so many to agree, but by the end, not a single person left after hearing his request. He clenched his jaw and took a deep breath, overwhelmed with emotions that refused to dissipate.

It’s just like their mother said. If they’re willing to go this far for me, then I better make damn sure they’re as well-equipped as possible.

Jiran held out his hand to the woman, “We’ll start with your weapons.”

She swallowed, suddenly nervous as she took a tentative step forward, breaching into the space that none had so far dared to tread. He relaxed his features and motioned her closer. With growing confidence, she closed the gap and handed him her spear and bow. Jiran sat on the grass with his legs crossed, examining the weapons on his lap.

With his aura, he could tell they were made from the woman's own bark. He didn’t know how quickly their bark grew, but he imagined it wasn’t a swift process to produce both weapons. He gently ran his fingers along the coarse wood, appreciating the care, time, and dedication that no doubt went into their construction. They were incredibly sturdy for being made of tier three materials. He wasn’t the best judge with his limited experience, but he was pretty certain they were nearly at the tier four standard other than the sub-par, metal tip of the spear.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“They’re beautiful. I’ll be very careful. Thank you for trusting me to work with them.” The woman nodded, staring at him in a daze. Jiran assumed she was being affected by his charisma in some way.

He started by flooding his mana into the spear. Mana Confluence broke down the warped, uneven micro-structures of the wood, then rebuilt them straighter while reinforcing the entire length. While he worked, he pondered the best design for what he had in mind. After examining the roughly beaten hunk of unprocessed metal that was the spear tip, he came to a decision.

Using his aura, he snatched up one of the logs he had brought and pulled it through the air. Elemental Castigation formed an inferno directly above him, rapidly reducing the huge tree to ash. He then filtered out the impurities, leaving himself with a huge pile of black carbon dust. He gathered the material beside him, ignoring the wide eyes and gaping jaws of the Timberlings.

He burrowed out a thin, circular tube inside the entire length of the shaft and filled the space with several folded sheets of graphene, massively boosting the weapon’s durability without sacrificing any of its flexibility. He melted the tip in a furnace of aura. After removing all the non-metallic impurities, he was left with a molten amalgamation of minerals. He examined them carefully with his aura and after choosing the two that felt the strongest, he converted the rest of the minerals into that same combination.

Next, he cooled the metal into a winged, leaf-shaped spearhead. He left the interior bored out completely and filled that space with hundreds of sheets of graphene to reinforce its structure and allow mana to be stored within it. Several incredibly tiny holes at the very point of the spearhead would allow the mana-chamber to release mana forward when activated. He then pushed his intent, aura, and mana inside, turning the mana-chamber into a true formation. Jiran examined his work with a satisfied nod.

Only two more steps.

Jiran pushed a long spike of graphene all the way down the center of the shaft. It connected to the interior of the spearhead so that no matter where she held the spear, she would be able to feed her mana into the formation. After Lulu failed to feed her mana into the sanctuary crystal, Jiran learned that the Timberlings couldn’t push mana out of their skin. Since that was the case, he just needed to create something that could go inside their skin to gain access to that mana.

With his eyes closed, he sharpened his focus while pulling more carbon dust to him. As he slid his hand down the length of the spear, he formed thousands of needle-like protrusions that stuck out of the wood. Each was long enough to reach the center of the shaft and connect with the central tube that fed the formation. The needles were made by wrapping a single, atom-thick layer of graphene into a tube so tiny they could easily fit into the woman’s pores. Together, they gave the spear a prickly texture that tickled his skin.

Setting the spear aside, he picked up the bow. Jiran was fully aware that accuracy with a bow was highly reliant on familiarity with that specific weapon. Since time was not on their side, he considered not making any changes because even if he could increase the weapon’s power and durability, it would ruin her ability to hit anything with it until she practiced for a while.

I should do it. There are far more advantages to having uniform weapons. No matter who picks up one of the bows I work on today, they will each feel exactly the same. And we’re going up against Graymin. If the numbers we encountered during the invasion of Mortan are anything to go by, accuracy isn’t going to be an issue.

He started with the string, using Mana Confluence to not only correct every minuscule flaw with the material, but also reinforce its durability, resistance to water, and elasticity. The process significantly drained his mana since he didn’t have a clear image of the material he was making, but now that he had done it once, the following bows would be much cheaper. Moving on to the bow’s limbs, he broke down the knotted, uneven textures within and reformed them with layers of reinforcing metal and graphene. Drawing the bow, Jiran tested the strength required and deemed it close enough to the original that she wouldn’t have any issues using the weapon.

He stood up and handed both weapons back to the woman who was still staring at him blankly. She idly caressed her weapons, her expression shifting between emotions too quickly for Jiran to interpret each of the alien looks.

“Please, make some space,” He pointed to the side and the Timberlings parted. Elemental Castigation reached into the ground and pulled up a condensed slab of stone half a meter thick and three meters tall. His mana carved out the rough shape of a Graymin Pawn on its surface. At the same time, he formed a thick plate of ice behind the wall.

“This one here is the weakest beast we will be fighting, known as a Graymin Pawn. Go ahead and try your bow first.”

She nodded, and in one smooth motion, pulled out an arrow from the quiver tied to her hip. She knocked it, drew the bow, and released. The last time Jiran had seen a Timberling shoot an arrow, it had streaked through the air like a laser. Due to his recent jump in attributes, he could more clearly see the arrow, though it was still incredibly fast. The bolt struck the carving in the neck, blasting a chest-sized hole straight through the reinforced stone. Jiran whistled appreciatively. He had made the stone as sturdy as a tier four and was shocked to see how much damage she had done. He was also glad he had thought ahead and made the layer of ice or someone might have been hurt.

“How did it feel?”

“I aimed for the head, but hit the neck instead. I will need practice, to reclaim my exactness. In power it does excel, which makes my heartwood swell,” While singing, she gazed at the bow with wonder and what Jiran could only assume was hunger.

“Okay, now the spear.”

She swung her bow over her back and brandished her spear. With a lunge, she shot forward and struck at the stone. Unsurprisingly, the tip sunk into the stone less than a centimeter. She frowned, clearly having expected something amazing after how long he had worked on it.

Jiran bit his lip, barely holding in his anticipation, “Focus on the feeling of when you connect to your song, but push that feeling into the spear, then try again. I’ll guide your energies and tell you when you’re doing it right.” She looked at him with confusion for a few seconds before closing her eyes and humming softly to herself. Mana Omnis tracked her energies and Enthralling Touch gently urged her mana along the right pathways until it flowed down her arms and into the needles protruding from the spear.

When the formation within the spearhead was charged, Jiran shouted, “Now!”

The air around her spear crackled with chaotic energies as she thrust it forward. When it struck the stone, the formation instantly released its stored payload. A deafening sound like a thousand panes of glass shattering all at once tore through the air. The entire wall exploded as a flower of ice was born within its center and instantly blossomed into a fifteen-meter-long cone of frigid destruction. Jiran’s mana and aura worked together to guide the energies into the air so no one was harmed. Every single pair of eyes stared upward, frozen in complete shock at the massive glacier that had been created with that single thrust.

With a snap of his fingers, the ice shattered into diamond dust that snowed down around them, “Good, looks like the weapons are going to work fine. Now, we need to make you some armor and you’ll be all set,” Jiran advanced on the dumbstruck woman with an evil grin and a glint in his eyes.