To my chagrin, Renee was absolutely right. Making dinner, cleaning the dishes, and cleaning and sweeping out the cabin netted me another two percent advancement. I guess it was all covered under the umbrella of ‘fixing stuff’.

The next morning, when Renee delicately shook me out of my entirely-too-comfortable and warm bedroll before the sun was up, and put me to work exercising, was similarly rewarding for a different reason.

I was literally doing push-ups until my arms failed. A brief rest, and then ‘halfway up’, which meant being in a push-up position with my arms bent, a torturous position that she would expect me to maintain as long as I physically could, and then she’d snap her belt lightly across my shoulders or back when I started to waver until finally I just collapsed.

That wasn’t the end, though. The minute my arms failed, she started me doing burpees. That meant you squatted, hopped until you were in the push-up position, did a single good push-up, tugged yourself into a squatting position, and then hopped back to your feet. It was less punishing on my arms than halfway-ups, but based on Renee’s grin she was a bit on the sadistic side about it.

And then running. Around and around the property on the beat-up and cracked sidewalks, until I was convinced I would need to come out here in the middle of the night to repair them just for self-preservation.

Jumping jacks, and finally sit-ups. The sit-ups were surprising, though, because the action of curling again and again while a gorgeous woman leaned on my knees was enough to cause an involuntary reaction… she smirked when she realized that I pressed through the soreness and exhaustion to do a few more sit-ups when it happened, but it was surprisingly pleasant under the pain… even though it only happened once.

Finally, mid-morning, I just couldn’t move anymore. I tried, dear lord I was trying, but I hurt in places I’d never realized I even had, especially after the ‘cooldown stretches’ that pulled muscles where muscles shouldn’t exist.

Renee was looking at me carefully, “Okay, you are done. Now tell me about your mend.”

I gasped, “What about it?”

“What can it fix? You said you cured your latent TB, can it cure other things?”

I shook my head, “I suspect it can probably cure… *gasp*… some poisoning too, or at least the damage caused by that poison. I mean, it says it ‘mends’ things. Stuff like poison and disease should just be one more thing to fix, right?”

She smiled slightly, “Check your wrist. Tell me if you have any conditions.”

Current conditions:

stunted growth

Tailored Y-gene decimation retrovirus (permanent remission)

full-body exhaustion (Can be cured by rest)

fatigue toxins (Can be cured by rest)

muscle stress and mild overstrain in 421 muscles. (can be cured by rest)

18 overstretched ligaments (can be cured by rest)

I let her know about the conditions other than the retrovirus, and she nodded… I expected her to feel at least a little guilty about the ligaments since working them more would sprain them and possibly cause permanent damage, but she just shrugged, “No cardiac strain or bone displacement, excellent. Good job. Did you gain any advancement?”

I shook my head, “Not since last night.”

She smiled a little wickedly and then sat down cross-legged on the grass next to me. “Did you gain any ranks in anything?”

I looked at her askance, “In one day?”

She laughed, “It is entirely possible if you have a restoration potion, but we don’t have any restoration potions to spare. So here’s where you gain advancement. I want you to fix them.”

“The conditions?” I was a little shocked.

She nodded, “Try to mend them. Can you?”

I closed my eyes to make things a little easier, and I could feel them… the overstrains, the fatigue toxins, even a slight constriction around some veins from minor cholesterol build-up. The worst part was that my recognize in conjunction with fieldcraft was letting me know all sorts of useful information at the same time, like what sorts of food I could prepare with my arms if they were removed and cooked, how to field-dress my own body, and even how to use my own brain to rough-tan a hide.

But it also let me know how to remove or flush the toxins, ease and mend the strains, and repair my own muscles so that they were stronger and larger than they were before. Honestly, I think I could have mended them until they were exactly the same as they were before the workout, but I think that would have completely defeated the purpose of the morning’s torture.

It took nearly half an hour since cells were tiny multiple things that all had to be separately mended, and the fatigue toxins and cholesterol had to be scrubbed out the same way a pan would be washed while being very careful not to let them clump together into heart attack or stroke territory. That wasn’t really much of a concern, at my age, but better safe than sorry, and I finally felt my essence, that endless essence, flowing back into my body from wherever it seemed to come from as I mended everything. I was sweating out some of it, and the rest was handled by my kidneys for later disposal.

When I opened my eyes, Renee was staring at me closely, so I asked, “What?”

She smiled slightly, “I have detect vulnerabilities. You had… stuff flowing beneath your skin, weak spots other than the obvious ones. Your mend cleared them up, it was kind of amazing to watch. Do you feel better? That took some time.”

I felt myself, “Yeah, I really do. Are we doing this again tomorrow?”

She shook her head, “Nope.”

I smiled a little, “Oh good, I could use a day or two to recover.”

She laughed, “No, you are recovered. I’m not detecting any conditions other than...well… long-term problems from starvation. Stand up. We are starting over, I will show you what people can do with the recovery potions that you apparently don’t need.”

“What?” I grumbled, but got to my feet, fuming. Dammit. On the plus side, I got a nice chunk of advancement out of it.

***

Six times.

She burned me through everything I had six times, without even a break for lunch, which became rations and water grabbed in between sets. She was a cruel, sadistic bitch, but I couldn’t say I hadn’t profited from it, I was pushing eighty-one percent advancement just from curing my own problems, and the bracelet had informed me of several things.

Your health has advanced from mediocre to fair.

Your durability has advanced from mediocre to fair.

Your health has advanced from fair to good.

Your will has advanced from good to great.

You have earned the general trait: running.

You have earned the combat trait: endurance.

You have earned the award: Knucklehead.

Your mend trait has advanced to improved mend.

The weird part was, that the general running trait went into utility but didn’t actually use up one of my slots.

Renee was absolutely delighted. “Now THAT is what happens when you use restoration potions to enhance your body. The best part is, no potion toxicity.”

I sighed and decided that tonight I was going to see if I could do anything about my stunted growth. Right after I fixed the sidewalk. “What’s that?”

She glared at me again, “Seriously?”

I nodded. “No clue.”

She shrugged, “Okay, any of the chemists, alchemists, or medicine vocations can make medicines or potions if they have the right traits, and you know traits can be improved, right?”

I nodded, “Yes.”

“Okay, as a trait improves, it gets a higher tag. No tag at all means that the trait is basic, even if it’s a higher-rarity trait, it’s still considered basic once it’s in your trait slot.”

“As you improve the trait, it gains enhancements. Improved is a single step, enhanced is two steps, then comes minor, lesser, greater, advanced, and even more steps but I haven’t heard of anyone taking a trait that far. I mean, greater regeneration will regrow your arm almost instantly after it gets lopped off, and after advanced regeneration, you can even regrow your head… dying takes real effort, then. I don’t even know what a higher step than advanced would be, maybe regrowing your whole body from a single living cell?”

“Your traits, attributes, and your native skills, which never show up on your listing, work together to form a total result. For instance, if someone had minor dodge, plus a decent reflex, then when someone of similar traits and ranks tried to hit them, they’d dodge about half the time.”

“If someone extensively trained in fighting, who analyzed attack patterns and weapon use and knew their own body very well, dodged the same attack, they would succeed a lot more often, just like if the person that was attacking them was a much lower rank. Silhouette is sort of like a game, but in a lot of ways it isn’t… stats and traits are not everything.”

“In the same way, an alchemist who understands how potion magic and chemistry interact with the human body created a potion, their skill, trait rank, and acuity interact to alter the potion to make it better or worse. A basic herbalist might be only able to create a basic-strength potion, but every potion has a toxicity and strength rating on top of its general healing rank.”

“Enhanced herbs, medicines, and ingredients have a bunch of different features and chemicals. That’s why alchemists work so hard to purify their ingredients down to just the aspects they need… because other parts of the formula could cause unintended results, and every potion has a certain level of toxicity that adds up as you drink them, weakening further effects and eventually poisoning or even killing you.”

She shook her head, “Charlie would have wasted a restoration potion on you while you were starving if she could have, but you were so weakened that if you took one, the toxicity would have killed you. High-toxicity potions are those made by beginners, the unskilled, or quacks that rely on the silhouette for everything.”

She laughed, “That’s one of the reasons really rich families produced privileged brats. They can afford valuable low-toxicity potions, and then restoration trains them into some stupidly amazing attributes and a bunch of traits that might otherwise take months, years, or decades to train if you had to wait and bleed off the toxic effects. Not to mention if your body has too much toxicity, it affects every part of your physical fitness and can kill you, especially if you get hurt and can’t use a healing potion because of it.”

“Poison resistance helps, some, but potion toxins aren’t exactly the same as poisons, they are caused by the magic of the potion itself, or rather the potential magical effects that exist within the ingredients that aren’t perfectly reduced before it’s empowered.”

I thought about that for a few minutes. “Can I heal toxicity? Or more importantly, can I mend a potion to fix its toxicity?”

She looked startled, and then looked at me closely, “If you can, I will let you grab my boobs.”

I scratched my head, “No offense, but I am not really in the mood for boob-grabbing right now, even if they are definitely top-shelf boobs. Can you owe me one?”

She laughed, and I felt the haze of anger she seemed to hold towards me dissolve a little. “Sure, but… wait… so you really didn’t know about the link between skills and traits?”

I nodded, “I had a nonstandard education. Most people expected me to die.”

She tilted her head curiously, rich auburn hair falling over her eye and the top of the white blouse she was wearing. I wasn’t kidding, she really did have a top-tier body, but I mostly just told her that to avoid offending her.

She and Charlie were, I guess, way too dominant to interest me except aesthetically, and I was determined not to become the team bicycle. I’d had a dream growing up about a face, not my mother since I’d never met her, but a face that was so far beyond beautiful that even beautiful itself was a pale term to compare...

She nodded slowly, “You know that tools affect that as well, right? I see you doing what you do, mending, and I thought it was like a spell, but it really isn’t, it’s an ability, and it seems to be tied to your attributes, most likely acuity and will, as well as specifically mentioning your knowledge and skills. I bet if you started using tools, and putting together things instead of just touching them and concentrating, your mending and maybe even improvised fieldcraft might get better results.”

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I nodded, that would explain why the boots I had fixed with improvised grass threads seemed to be a lot more durable than my own boots, which I had simply mended. Improved, not upgraded, that was my gold-circle gift and I was eager to get to that rank.

***

Tools. A tin pot, a gas range, a glass heat-resistant measuring cup, some tumblers, a dough cutter and cooking scale, a candy thermometer, an assortment of spoons, from stainless-steel pre-crash standard to wooden hand-carved, a ceramic Japanese ladle, and a pair of VERY interested women watching over my shoulders, Angelique and Lilah.

Skills? Well, I didn’t know shit about potions, but I knew too much chemistry for the modern age since it was on the library’s nets even though a lot of it would probably never be used again. I also had a pretty good pharmacology knowledge, knowledge I hoped would help me identify toxins. I also knew way too much about brewing, and I had no idea why I could tell the difference in flavor certain types of yeast and techniques would give certain blends of hops or grapes.

Ingredients were one really bottom-grade basic healing potion that Renee informed me was damned close to thirty percent toxic, two middling-grade basic restore potions at twenty-two and twenty-one percent, and a general antidote that was well past its expiration date… apparently potions, like wines, slowly gained in both strength and toxicity as time went by, and while an ancient potion might be incredibly powerful, that wouldn’t help much if it killed anyone that drank it.

I also had a couple of different types of yeast and the ingredients that Renee swore were part of one of the recipes of basic healing potions, dandelions, sugar, willow bark, mint leaves, and chicken blood.

I had to pour the antidote out to be able to use recognize on it, and I could, in fact, feel a malevolent sort of poison in it. I had no idea how to detect ‘magic’, but ironically, I realized that warming it up in a glass pot would help… Not too hot, about 105 degrees and the antidote had to have life in it in order to absorb a broad range of poisons.

In went the yeast, some boiled water, and a hint of sugar as well as a drop of blood. I stirred for a few minutes while the yeast activated and started eating the sugar, producing low levels of alcohol under the effects of my mending and fieldcrafting traits, and then mend slowly accumulated the drop of blood and yeast into the middle, greatly expanded after absorbing the toxic chemicals, in the middle of the water, which was slowly shifting from a dark, almost brownish green into a virulent lime color that almost seemed to glow.

I carefully fished the glob out with the ceramic spoon, looking at the remaining brilliantly-green mixture, and started to feel a sort of current running through it. The current felt… chaotic, but mend slowly soothed it despite it not being any sort of actual motion. After stirring it a few more times, I stripped a leaf from the dandelion and twisted and wrung out a single drop of juice.

“There,” I said triumphantly, looking at the mixture. It wasn’t alchemy, but it was close, and I looked around, “I need a filter.” The current made a weird sort of flowing pattern in the liquid. I didn’t recognize the pattern, but I tried to memorize it, because it felt… important, especially as my mend seemed to calm the pattern down, stabilize the chaos that seemed to flow through it and enhance it slightly.

After a moment, Lilah handed me a rather nice handkerchief, and I sort of regretted what I was going to do with it… I covered the glass measuring cup, and then slowly poured the now almost glowing mixture through the handkerchief, very slowly watching it settle and leave a sort of yellowish film behind. Looking at the liquid in the cup, I realized that I had way too much for a single vial, so I carefully started washing out several more potion bottles that the girls had given me from their own supply. They were expensive, but everyone who used potions saved the bottles for trade-in at an alchemist.

After the seep was finished, I tugged the handkerchief out and put it into the sink, running water over it… I did NOT squeeze it out, because some of the toxicity still remained, and would pollute the filtered majority. They wanted the toxicity reduced.

Three bottles later, I carefully melted a candle to make wax corks for the tiny vials that could be bitten off in an emergency, and then sat on the chair, looking at the three vials. My mending, improved as it was, was telling me that there was nothing more to fix, at least nothing in my trait’s strength.

“Okay, break the bad news to me. Did I screw them up?”

Lilah reached out and picked up one of the bottles, examining it closely. After a few seconds, she grinned, “No, no you definitely didn’t. Oh wow. Check it out, Angel.”

Angel grabbed the second bottle and pursued her lips. “Shit. I wish we had these last month. We have GOT to get you an examination trait, the antidotes are strong, but a little weaker than before, they apply to all biological poisons, including both paralytic and necrotic. You also seemed to… expand the supply, which might be why they are a little less potent. They aren’t weak, though, they are probably about as strong as a basic antidote can get.”

“What’s the toxicity?”

Lilah whistled, “Three percent.”

“Is that good?”

She nodded, “That’s like finding an oil well in your backyard good, Jeb.”

Angel grinned, “Seriously good. Even master-ranked alchemists can’t get a basic potion that low. To get into an alchemy guild requires fifteen percent or less, and ten percent is usually considered the best of the best even for easy portions. If you could do this with higher-ranked potions, you’d be set as a crafter… just buy crap or expired potions in bulk, clean them up, and sell them for ten times their value.”

I flopped into my chair, mentally exhausted.

“Are you okay?” Angel asked.

I nodded slowly, “Yeah. It’s like… I don’t know what it’s like, really, but it feels like I crammed all night for an examination, even though I have never actually done that. My brain is bleeding.”

“Seriously?”

I shook my head, “No, not really. There’s nothing on my condition list, but I still feel utterly drained.”

Lilah nodded, “It sounds like you overworked your mind, even if you didn’t use any essence or mana. That can happen to people who try to learn too many spells or variations too quickly, it’s like your brain was overcrowded like a subway to the point where you have to jam more people in with a crowbar, and when it stops it’s like an empty room.”

I nodded, “Right. I am brain stretched.”

Lilah laughed, “Brain stretched. Yeah. I always thought it was like being one girl in an orgy with a hundred guys. Afterward, you might not be injured, but you need some downtime for everything to tighten back up again.”

Angel glared at Lilah, “Like you would have the slightest idea…”

Lilah shrugged, “Anyway, yeah. Do you think you can do another one?”

I shook my head, “Naww. Seriously no. I might be able to do more in the future, but for right now, I think I’d wreck anything I tried. I think we need dinner, and then I am going to crash… I was going to try and work on some of my problems tonight, but I am way too drained.”

After I cleaned everything, I was a little shocked to realize something.

You have gained a rank in mender (basic)

You have earned the magic trait: adapt spellform

The real shocker, though, was that I got an extra trait slot in all three categories. What kind of monster vocation was this?

Thaniel Kushman Grimm

Vocation: Rank 3 Mender(basic) (24%)

Path: Troubleshooter

Health: good

Durability: fair

Reflex: good

Speed: mediocre

Will: great

Acuity: great

____________________

Combat Trait slots: 2

endurance

Utility trait slots: 4

improved mend

running

Improvised Fieldcraft

Magical Trait slots: 3

sexual empathy

recognize

adapt spellform

Free points available: 1

____________________

Affinity: Life

Mana: ∞ (Life affinity override)

Essence: ∞ (Life affinity override)

____________________

Current conditions:

stunted growth

Tailored Y-gene decimation retrovirus (permanent remission)

I still only got a single point for the rank, but was I supposed to be sucking down trait stones like they were going out of style?

***

The next morning was like the last, only Charlie was doing it after Renee instructed her on how much abuse I could take, dammit.

“So what is the knucklehead award?” I asked innocently as I panted.

Charlie laughed, “I think that might have been a mistake. Usually, you get that award from doing the same thing way past the point at which you’ve broken. Slamming your head into a wall you can’t get past, I guess. But you sort of cheated it by continuing to work out long past the point your body should have broken down, without using potions or external spells or anything.”

“Is it worth anything?”

She nodded, “Well, you are still alive. A lot of people who get that one get it posthumously or while they are laid up for months in a healer’s tent. That’s some serious bragging rights, right there. It’s also supposed to help you boost your will bonuses, and we are definitely going to put that to work.”

“Look at the bright side.” she said as I panted my way through more bodybreaking exercises, “After you are appropriately trained with a basic defense, we get to do resistance training! Your mend should make that very easy, if somewhat painful.”

“Ugh!” I panted, “Now you want me to lift weights?”

She looked thoughtful at that, “Yes, eventually, but that’s not resistance training. Resistance traits are general feats that don’t soak up any category slots. Resistance training means exposing you to the elements that cause certain types of effects, in order to gain the traits to resist them. All of us have done this, although our traits are fairly low because we never had the healing to survive more aggressive training methods, but you do! Lilah has already volunteered to help with fire and cold.”

I groaned, “That’s going to make me hurt and bleed, isn’t it?”

Charlie shook her head, “Oh no! Not at all. I mean, I plan to put you through it eventually, just like all of us, but you need to train your mending to the point where you can safely restore Renee’s hand. We are doing burnout training today, and tonight, when we are done, you are going to help train my fire and pain resistance. The damage should be shallow enough that you can handle it, right?”

“You are going to make Lilah burn you over and over, and then I heal it? Are you some kind of masochist?”

She nodded brightly, “Yes I am, and no I’m not. It’s specifically because I am not a masochist that I want this done, and for you to help me. I mean, I wish you had range, that way you could do it while she was burning me, but this can work, right?”

“But… burns are nasty, what if mend can’t handle it?”

She shrugged, “Then I get to chug a potion the first time and have a little downtime. I have been burned plenty of times, fire rifts are one of our specialties, and I can handle it, even if it will suck… although you might have to help comfort Lilah afterward, she will probably feel guilty.”

“Can we try something first?”

“What, will it interrupt your training?”

I nodded, “Yes, but it is something I need to do first so that I know I can heal you.”

She smiled slightly, “You are talking about my arm?”

I shook my head, “Yes, and no. I mean, I am actually pretty confident about that, and probably your scars if you want me to, but your kidneys hurt.

“Huh?”

“That damned sexual empathy trait Lilah gave me. I can actually feel the… not the pain, but pressure on them and your lungs every time I focus on you. I figure before we do burnouts, I could do it while I am fresh. If I can fix your other damage too, that means I can fix Lilah’s burns and maybe even Renee’s hand.”

Charlie shrugged, “That’s something interesting to remember. I actually barely feel it, because I have improved pain resistance, but I guess you can pick it up like it should be if I weren’t enhanced. That’s very very useful, but it might be dangerous.”

I nodded, “I can feel that you have the pain, not the pain itself. Whatever poison you caught really fucked you up, and I’d like to see if I can fix it. I figure sexual empathy is intended to set things up so you can err… figure out how best to make someone feel good, rather than actually doubling up on the sensations.”

Charlie smirked, “Are you sure you just aren’t using it as an excuse to see me naked?”

I hadn’t even thought about that. I gulped and blushed, “No… umm… no, not that you aren’t… I mean… crap. Would it help if I said trust me, I’m a healer?”

She laughed, “Yes, it does. And unlike Renee, you haven’t won a free grope at a time of your choosing. You might, though.”

I shrugged, “I owe you my life and more. If you want me to grope you, it’s not going to be as a favor.”

“What if I asked you to put a baby into me?”

I stammered, speechless.

She raised an eyebrow. “I thought that would shut you up. If it makes you feel better, not yet. But maybe someday, if Renee doesn’t get you first.”

“What?” I asked in shock. Renee hated me.