Lindle was a whirlwind as he jumped between different shelves and cases in his workshop, unsure just where to start with as the growing pile of materials and preserved reagents on his work table grew.

Nothing watched him, amusement emanating from their goopy form as their small head followed him back and forth.

Calm down Lindle. Remember to start small.

Lindle stopped with a sheepish grin. “Sorry, just excited.” He looked around. He’d been stockpiling anything he could sense Ethos in for the last few months, but now that he finally had his class, instead of rows of scales, hides, herbs, and feathers, he saw an endless amount of magic items.

He let out a deep breath, he couldn’t get ahead of himself. He had been an Artificer for less than an hour and he was acting like he was a master craftsman ready to outfit an army. Like Nothing said, start small.

He took a seat at his work table and picked through the pile. He eyed various ingredients both with his normal senses and his Ethos one. Combined with his new skill, he could feel the Ethos brimming inside of each item, and he knew he could try to pluck the clay out of any of them, but some would be easier than others. It was an aspect of the Ethos he hadn’t been able to clock before, but some felt sturdier, or was it stickier, than others.

Well he still had the Heartroot Ring fresh in his mind, so he would see what he could make out of other alchemical herbs. The idea of turning ingredients for what would otherwise be a one-time consumable into a continuously usable item was amazing.

He grabbed a blackbell blossom, the flower had an affinity for darkness magic and was one of the ingredients for a darkvision potion. He sensed its Ethos and found similar aspects in its Ethos to the greenroot that he expected such as growth and plants, as well as the minor alchemical bent to its flavor. Instead of a main aspect toward healing though of course, its Ethos had a clear leaning to the idea of darkness. Concentrating Lindle activated [Artifice Crafting] and coated his hands with Ethos, reaching into the flower and pulling out the black clay.

He tilted his head as the former flower crumbled to dust, looking at the physical Ethos. “Hey, Nothing?”

Yes Lindle?

“Is there a specific term for when Ethos is in this state? When it’s clay versus when it’s inside of something?”

Oh, I’m sorry Lindle. I suppose there would be no reason for you to have known all the technical terms. When Ethos is tangible and removed from a fabled object it is referred to as Pelos.

Lindle thanked Nothing and turned his attention back to the Pelos in his hand. The shape would be easy enough, he could just make another ring, not like he could make much else with how little of it the flower had given him. The real question was what did he want it to do?

The heartroot ring had come easily, he had wanted it to heal, so it was simple to simply let that aspect of the Ethos dominate the form, and when he thought about giving it to his mother, the alchemical undertone had come to the surface as well, and he simply allowed the two aspects do what they did naturally. When it came to something like darkness it felt like it wouldn’t be as simple.

He mulled it over as he molded the Pelos into a disc. The blackbell that he had taken it from was meant to be used in darkvision enhancers, so maybe he could simply try to make it easier to see in the dark? Maybe, but it didn’t seem like the best way to use it, blackbell was an ingredient in the potion, but it was only part of a more complex recipe that allowed someone to see better in the dark. Lindle simply couldn’t visualize achieving the same effect with just purely the darkness aspect of its Ethos. Being able to see in the dark was almost an opposite effect to the idea of the dark.

He should try and think simpler. Perhaps enhancing the darkness around someone would work better. Making things more powerful wasn’t complicated, it was simple addition. He brought the dark aspect of the Ethos to the forefront, making his intent clear. For the structure, instead of telling the plant aspect of the Ethos to shift towards wood, he allowed the original idea of the blackbells structure as soft plant material to remain.

Activating the solidifying portion of his skill, Lindle watched as the Pelos transformed into a ring made out of black plant material.

Petalshade Ring

Effect: When wearing the ring the wearer can deepen the shadows in their immediate vicinity a small amount for a limited period of time.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Lindle smiled at another success. The effect wasn’t powerful, but it undoubtedly was what he had been going for in concept. Perhaps Theodore would like it? He couldn’t deny the primary use he had been imagining for it was related to stealth, though the rogue probably wouldn’t need it. Even in broad moonlight, the man was able to completely disappear, shadows or no.

Actually, even before he thought about giving it to someone else, Lindle should try it himself. He hadn’t actually tested his first item before giving it to his mom. Sliding the ring around his finger, Lindle noticed that even though it was made out of soft plant material, it wasn’t too bendy or soft, it remained solid enough to function as a ring without stretching or risk of ripping. That wasn’t something he had intended to do. Were there aspects to its Ethos he had been adding unintentionally because he knew he it was going to be a ring? Or did becoming a ring add some kind of ring aspect to its Ethos all on its own?

As soon as the ring was in place, Lindle felt a new piece of information slide into his mind. It was similar yet much subtler and simpler than his skill. He just knew he could now will the ring into activating. He looked at one of the shadows cast by Nothings lamp, and he held his hand with the ring near it, and then activated the ring. Immediately he noticed the shadow get darker, as well as some other shadows around him. Moving the ring around didn’t change anything, but which shadows that got darker when he moved his entire body away did change.

At this point, Lindle had a massive smile on his face. This was exhilarating! So many ideas to test, so many ways to create something simply and purely magical. He put the ring down and went for something else in the pile. Something bigger.

Still keeping in tune with the plant theme he had decided to start with, Lindle pulled out a branch from a Wretched Willow. They were plant monsters deeper in the black woods that posed as trees near Steamheart trees before swiping their branches like claws. They enjoyed sucking the nutrients as well as leftover Mana and Aura points of their kills through their roots. When adventurers or hunters brought back branches they were used occasionally for wands or staves for apprentice mages. Generally speaking they weren’t specialized or aspected towards any traditional element, but Lindle could sense aspects towards the idea of violence, stealth, consumption, and growth in it’s Ethos.

Lindle activated [Artifice Crafting] for the third time that night, and tried to pluck the Pelos from the branch. This time, however, it hadn’t come out as easily as before. The Ethos resisted his pull, frowning, Lindle tugged harder, straining slightly, until eventually, he had a moderately-sized chunk of Pelos in his hand, the branch crumbling to dust. It scattered around his work table. He swiped it into a small waste bin.

You’re going to need a way to get rid of that dust. It tends to pile up over time.

Lindle shrugged "Don’t think I can just dump it outside though. People are gonna wonder why we have black dust spreading around the house. It can wait for later.” He ignored Nothing's doubtful look as he got to work with his new chunk of Pelos.

He rolled some of the Pelos out into a rod, creating a one-handed grip. He then started molding out the rest to form a flat head. The real challenge was trying to create a sharpened edge with clay. If he hadn’t been practicing with real clay to create mock swords and other weapons it would likely have taken him much longer to pinch out the edge and with as much patience and efficiency as he did. It still took him close to half an hour and probably wouldn’t be anywhere as close to sharp as even a moderately dull sword, but that was okay, he wasn’t crafting a weapon after all.

Molding something at this size took much longer than the rings had taken, but compared to carving something out of wood and then enchanting, it seemed like Artificing had an advantage over many other crafting disciplines when it came to speed. At least at early levels, Lindle had heard stories about how quickly high-level crafters could churn out quality items.

Eventually, Lindle had his finished object, setting it to solidify.

Hungry Trowel

Effect: When tending to plants the User may feed Mana Points into the Hungry Trowel to cause plants to experience an enhancement to their growth as they consume the Mana Points.

Taking inspiration from the Wretched Willow's ability to sap points away from their victims, Lindle had focused his intent on the consumption Ethos and combined it with the growth aspect. The trowel was completely made out of wood, he had been right that it was easier to make the finished object out of the same material as what he had taken the Ethos from.

Lindle’s confidence was soaring as he had placed his third item next to his second, ready to continue even further, but he paused as he sensed his own Ethos while searching for his next target. He activated his skill again and watched in concern as his Ethos traveled to his hands slower and less steadily as it had before.

Before he even asked, Nothing answered his question.

It’s Ethos strain. Don’t worry, it’s not permanent or damaging, I would have stopped you far before it got to that point. It’s just a side effect of your Ethos interacting with a lot of other sources of Ethos quickly when you use your skill. It’ll recover on its own with rest.

Lindle sighed, it was likely too much to ask that he could use [Artifice Crafting] over and over freely. “Should I stop?” He didn’t want to, but he wasn’t silly enough to risk damaging his own Ethos or whatever the consequences of this would be.

You can continue. In fact, the more you practice, the more you’ll be able to use your skill without strain. I’ll stop you when it’s too much, just don’t use anything as large as that branch again, smaller chunks at a time are less straining.

“Great.” Lindle cracked his knuckles. “I have a few more ideas I want to try.”