Reid was almost shaking.

He'd made the greave solid. Almost entirely solid, just like the weapons. But armor and weapons had two different purposes. They never needed to be the same. They couldn't be.

Reid thought back to the moment he first strengthened his bones. At the time, he'd considered all the spongey areas, and even the marrow-producing centers to be major weaknesses. The changes he'd made had seemed to work, but if he'd messed things up, that meant Reid had spent weeks trying to better himself with a fundamental flaw holding him back.

Reid needed to test things.

He pushed his awareness into the greave, and methodically hollowed out cavities in the center of the thing to make it more like a sponge. It ended up looking a bit like a matrix or lattice, with some 'beams' in the bone that were thicker than others. The work itself was slow, and Reid stopped a few times to make sure he was keeping track of just how much he was removing and replacing. When he was done, Reid felt the change. A quick look confirmed it.

Fibula Greave [Common]

Reid slowly extended his hand and tapped the armor with his knuckles. He nearly gasped. The feeling of impact on his hand was about the same, but he didn't feel any of the impact on his leg. The greave deadened the force, just like good armor was supposed to.

A knock on the door interrupted Reid's testing. James and Sara entered the room. She had a towel in hand, and James threw Reid a paper bag. Reid glanced at the clock as he caught the warm bag, and realized that he'd missed dinner entirely. Sara didn't seem to mind that he was still working, but Reid knew she was just as worried about him as Susan was. He forced himself to breathe and relax. The last thing he wanted right now was forced rest. Answers were just out of reach. He just had to be patient.

"Hey dad - very fashionable bracelet. Dinner was twice-baked potatoes today. Mom was worried you missed it and asked me to check up on you. I'm also supposed to walk you over to the showers and tell you to take the rest of the night off. Mom's trying to do something new with her skill, so you're by yourself until sunrise." Reid thanked her and went to give Sara a hug, but she stopped him and pinched her nose. "After you shower, please. It smells like a locker room in here."

James gathered some spilled arrowheads and put them into bins as Reid ate the potato. He tried to move one of the bins closer to the door, but the bottom of it bent and gave out. Axe heads clattered to the floor, and James cursed.

"Eh, sorry. Looks like we're going to need stronger boxes for these things. I'll ask some of the guys to come clean this up and move everything. But damn did you make a lot. Tomorrow's going to be fun."

Reid brushed off the spilled ivory and chatted with James as they all headed for the showers. Things had been... awkward with the man since he came back after the Bertrand fight, and that had only gotten worse since Sara's takeover. Reid told himself that when he had more free time, he'd sort things out with James. The man was one of his only friends, and they both deserved a proper chat.

But now wasn't the time. He had other things he needed to do. Reid was out of the shower, clean and clothed in about four minutes. Sara gave him a hug goodnight, and set out for her own nighttime training. James was teaching her how to navigate in near darkness without using her skill. Reid was happy to see her expanding her knowledge, and he was relieved to see the dynamic between her and James hadn't changed much.

When he got home, Reid set up a cot and stripped off his sleeping clothes. Just because Susan and Sara wanted him to rest didn't mean Reid actually had to do that. He just needed to be careful and ensure he didn't do anything that would make them worried. He felt refueled enough to continue experimenting, and he couldn't fall asleep right now if he tried. There were too many possibilities to test - and too many gains to be made.

As long as Reid didn't lose track of time or exert himself too much, he'd be done well before his wife and daughter would be there to check in on him. Laying down while working on himself was always the best and safest choice. The cot would be comfortable enough - and it would save the bedsheets from any inevitable sweating if he needed to push himself.

Reid laid down. The room was dark. He could just barely hear a song playing at Warren's. He took a cool breath through his nose, and got to work.

Reid started off by creating another piece of armor. This one was a tight fitting piece around his forearm, and Reid took care to have it be the right size, shape, and the right thickness. He redid portions of the lattice to try and make it better. When he was done, he inspected his work.

Ulna Vambrace (Common) created!

Reid's mouth drew tight. He'd replicated the Common rarity on the first try, but common wasn't good enough. Reid had been able to make something incredible in Sara's sword, and he'd had uncommon versions of weapons during the crafting spree. If he was going to rework his own bones, he damn sure wasn't going to settle for common. He needed to be better.

Reid dove back in again and grew a new greave for himself. He designed it to be as perfect as possible, but it was still stuck at common rarity. Reid frowned.

The lattice, the beams, all of it came together well. The rarity had gone up to common, but he couldn't make it rise again, no matter how much time he spent building the lattice. The thickness of the supports didn't change the rarity. The connection style to the outer walls of the piece didn't seem to improve things either.

Reid made another vambrace, then a breastplate. He made a gauntlet and a pauldron. No changes. All were Common.

Reid took a break to get up and pace around the room.

The armor was good - but it wasn't good enough. Something was missing. Something fundamental that had allowed Sara's sword to become as incredible as it was. He had complexity in his current work - but Sara's sword went beyond that. It was... wholly interconnected. Balanced.

Reid couldn't make another growth piece like that. He didn't have the time, or Susan's help.

But he needed to test things.

He needed to know.

He could try it... just on his arm. Just a little.

Reid stared into the darkness out the window. Worst case scenario, Reid would mess up really really badly and lose function in one arm. If that happened, Susan could probably heal his bone back to 'normal'. If she couldn't, he could always just amputate the arm and see if Susan could heal him a new one, right?

But no matter what. he wouldn't be able to finish the experiment, not outside of himself. There were entire systems inside of his skeleton and in Queen's Edge that he just didn't have the energy to make from scratch.

He needed a live test.

Reid took off the bone armor he'd created, and laid back down on the cot. His breath was quick. He flexed his fingers. He'd already made the decision... it was time to make it happen. Nerves weren't going to stop him now.

Reid pushed down into his left arm. He worked slowly. Spaces opened up for marrow to exist and build red and white blood cells. Inner structures were strategically hollowed out and reconfigured to more closely match what they were before Reid had started all this self modification. He set up extra sponge at the joints - and then he started to feel it. Reid recreated blood vessels that had been interrupted by his first work. He pulled different threads of himself through the bone. Pressure was building against him. Reid had found another hill.

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He voraciously leapt into more of the bones in his arm. The increase in marrow produced more blood and was doing wonders for his internal systems. His arm felt just a bit more... balanced than it had before. Everything had started to feel just a little bit better.

Reid was hooked on the feeling. He finished the arm, then a leg. The largest bones represented the most work, and he decided to work through them before his headaches really started to come on. When they did, Reid didn't slow down. He fixed structures, slimmed down and reinforced his bones. He wound more blood vessels into himself. He made shorter pathways and grew out more marrow. Each time, he found that familiar hill that signaled he'd done as much as he possibly could in that area, and then moved on.

Each heartbeat throbbed in Reid's head and felt like he was getting stabbed in the brain with needles, but Reid kept going. His bones felt like they were itchy and on fire at the same time. But he needed it. He needed to finish. He needed to know.

#

Reid was panting when he finally finished and pulled himself back. He and the cot were both covered in sweat. Everything hurt.

And Reid beamed.

He brought up his status screen, and stared.

----------------------------------------

STATUS

Name: Reid Oliver Calderwall

Affiliation: "Earth"

Race: Human

Grade: G

Level: 12

Health: 342 / 350

Experience: 81,229 / 102,400

STATS:

Constitution: 32 -> 35

Dexterity: 2

Intelligence: 6

Perception: 11

Power: 35

Control: 70

Stat Upgrade Points: ERROR

SKILLS:

Strengthening [Basic]

Hardening [Common]

Calcification [Uncommon]

Petrification [Rare] (CORRUPTED)

Skill Upgrade Points: ERROR

ENHANCEMENTS:

Osteal Smithing Journeyman (Calcification)

RESISTANCES:

Substances - Sedatives

Active Skill Effects- All

RESTRICTED:

???: UNAVAILABLE

???: UNAVAILABLE

----------------------------------------

Weeks of frustration. Hours deep in thought, unsure of how he could improve Constitution. And in one evening, one of Reid's biggest issues had been solved by staring at a ceiling. Well, there was a little more to it than that, but thinking deeper meant acknowledging that Reid had caused the problem for himself in the first place. Working through his bones had helped him understand that, as well. Those early changes had given him a tiny, temporary amount of extra durability at the cost of his body's synergy and overall growth.

Reid's stomach growled.

He decided to celebrate his breakthrough with a flavored bottled water... and a trio of peanut butter protein bars that actually tasted like food. His body greedily took in the nutrients.

Reid sat on the cot, contemplative, while his body digested. He needed the rest, he knew. Working through his bones should've knocked him out, but the itching pain was actually keeping him awake.

Reid could almost feel his internal well of energy refilling. The cot was cold and damp, but Reid didn't feel like getting up just yet. He let his mind wander.

His constitution problem was fixed. He'd practiced heavily with his skill, and learned how to make decent external protections. He picked the pauldron off the floor and turned it in his hand.

Subdermal armor just wasn't a possibility. Or, maybe he'd eventually evolve his skill to a point where it could be, but he didn't have any idea right now of how to make the thing work for him. Answers to adjusting or breaking the skill felt entirely out of his depth, as well. So, bone armor pieces were going to be the way to go. He tapped a finger against the pauldron. It was a good piece. He pulled his bone knife out of its sheath and ran it across the guard. The knife left a visible nick in the bone armor. Reid left it there and stared at it.

He'd already been attacked by his own weapons once, and he wasn't optimistic enough to think that he was the toughest thing out there. The higher level salamanders were good proof of that. Their claws could probably chip armor like his, or cut through it entirely if they were strong enough. Reid frowned. He needed more strength and toughness. Something to prevent himself from getting injured, so he didn't have to rely on battlefield healing - or time spent out of the fight to fix himself and his armor.

Reid looked at the wall clock. It was only midnight, which meant he should have a few more hours to experiment if he stayed awake. He could try to jump back into one of his main stats, but Reid felt like that might be too much to start partway through the evening. If he was going to do more stat work, he wanted to have pure, uninterrupted time to do so. And he wanted to only try that stuff when he was at least midway full on his internal energy. So, if he wasn't going to directly work on stats, why not try something a bit different? If Reid couldn't make subdermal armor, why not try to experiment with making his skin itself more resilient?

Reid put the pauldron down and laid on the cot once again. He dove into his arm, and focused on a spot just above his right wrist. His skin was dotted with pores and hairs, and the deeper layers were fed by thousands of tiny pathways bringing blood and other bits to it. Reid decided to leave the living internals alone. Everything was as efficient as he could think to make it, and it was already up against the hill limitation-wise. There just didn't seem to be enough to work with there. Instead, he focused on the top layer.

It was layer on layer of dead cells. There wasn't much Reid could do to morph and change parts of him that were already dead, but he tried anyway. As Reid expected, his attempts only resulted in wasted time and energy. He pulled himself back, and brought up skill details he hadn't looked at in a long time.

Hardening [Common]

Scales with Level. Increases resistance to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage. Advanced practitioners can manually control the application of this skill.

Reid knew this skill, alongside strengthening and calcification, were part of what allowed him to manually improve himself so well. But that didn't mean he'd explored all of the potential applications those skills could have.

He knew his skin was stronger now, even without any self-improvement. He thought on how the skill worked. Stopping bludgeoning force was probably the result of elasticity and deadening. Piercing damage seemed like something only straight resilience and hardness would solve. Then, slashing resistance probably came out of a combination of stronger, yet more flexible skin.

Reid wondered if he could control the balance. He focused in on his arm again. The top layer of dead skin, to his surprise, was something he could slightly manipulate, but most of the control seemed to exist further down in the living layers.

Reid tried a full boost. He imagined and willed his skill to get both more resilient and more flexible at the same time. If he could get it to a higher level of resistance, he thought, maybe the skill itself would upgrade like calcification had - and then he wouldn't need bone armor at all.

Each attempt failed. There was no new balance to achieve - instead the skin kept reverting to what it was. But Reid had learned something in his attempts. He had some idea of how to elevate elasticity and resilience in his skin, and that would... probably eventually let him do what he wanted to improve the skill.

But he still had energy left. And he was awake. His bones itched. And he was frustrated. So why not do another test?

Reid focused in his skin again, but this time he only tried the hardening portion of the self-enhancement. Slowly, he felt his skin stiffen as it became firmer than before. Bits of dead skin cells seemed to fuse together like callouses as he willed them to become even more durable. But that still wasn't quite enough. There was more - and he could feel it. Something else just waiting to be discovered and used, just beyond his current understanding. A notification nearly distracted Reid but he shoved it aside.

He didn't just want hard skin - Reid wanted skin that was its own armor. He could feel it, like a thread of possibility that ran from his mind down into his body. Reid followed it, studied it, puzzled on the implications. He imagined himself as tough as a robot, as strong as a stone golem.

The thread ignited with energy and pulled hard on Reid's still-low reserves as skin began to change. This didn't feel like using his other skills - it felt... different. Like Reid was being carried along a river current instead of controlling the flow.

A speck of immensely solid, durable material formed on Reid's skin.

It grew to the size of a grain of sand, then a pebble, then a pea.

Reid watched as the surrounding skin was transformed.

Then it went deeper.

The transformation wasn't staying at Reid's outer layers. It plunged down into his arm as the area expanded.

It quickly grew to the size of a golf ball.

Blood vessels and muscle were made completely solid and Reid started to lose feeling in his hand.

Reid tried to stop it, but the reaction was out of his control, and his energy reserves were nearly empty.

The notification he'd ignored and a new one both popped into view as Reid opened his eyes.

WARNING! Attempted corrupted skill use detected. Corrupted skills may have unknown effects. Visit a beacon to awaken and resolve this issue.

WARNING! You have activated Petrification [Rare] (CORRUPTED). Seek out a beacon immediately to resolve this issue.

Reid couldn't move his lower arm.

He tried to get up from the cot, but fell to the floor.

Horror grew as he realized why.

His heartbeat slammed in his ears.

He hyperventilated and shook.

Reid's entire lower arm and the right side of the cot had both turned to stone - and were fused together.

But that wasn't the worst part.

The stone was still spreading.

Reid watched the transformation crawl up past his elbow, and he screamed.