After her first average crafting success, she decided it was time to benchmark her creations. And to do so, she needed arrows.

Unfortunately, the regenerating maple wood of the forest was anything but ideal for fletching. While self-repairing arrows sounded like a good idea, especially inside a fallen enemy, that would be a massive failure if the arrows got permanently stuck.

Also, the arrows needed a more supple wood as they oscillated through the air. It was counterintuitive but flexible arrows were more likely to fly true than a rigid one. And rigid wood was more likely to break rather than bend on contact making it less effective at piercing armors.

Finally, last but not least, the magical wood did not agree with stone for some reason, so she had to make bone arrowheads instead, which were less than ideal for weight distribution and piercing.

So, all in all, she had plenty of nearly useless but self-repairing arrows.

And then, she started testing her bows in between two crafting sessions, which helped immensely her creative process. Shooting gave her nearly instant feedback on what went wrong with each bow

And it mostly boiled down to balance. Even her most successful bow felt like it could use some work. But there was also something else she couldn't quite put into words. While shooting, the reaction she got from her bow somehow felt wrong but she could not put her finger on it.

But at least, her crafting was going right and though she wasn't achieving any new shift in quality, the performance of her bows was quietly achieving incremental improvement as she fixed balance issues and marginally increased the bows' poundage with every iteration.

Until she finally got what went wrong with the bows. It didn't matter that she improved her crafting when she was crafting with a composite material as if it were pure wood. It was simplicity itself: the more she worked her material, the more she was creating structural flaws weakening her bows from within.

She had been shooting herself in the foot from the very start. And worse: she had wasted a large quantity of precious material through her ignorance. And she had barely enough silk and bone paste for about five bows.

This time, she would do better for sure. She just needed to cut yet another tree and learn from her mistake this time. What she wanted to do was not make the perfect composite blank: she had no need for a self-repairing bookcase.

What she needed was planks of wood that she would boil, bend, and sand into shape before she started turning them into a composite material. It required a bit more time and planning as what she was doing was the exact opposite of her previous industrial method.

But she was certain it would both increase the material and crafting quality of her future bows.

And it was a very wasteful process, and even more of trials and errors, relearning to do it right. A lot of wood went to the dumpster pile. But at least, she made those mistakes before she wasted any silk and paste.

But she learned from her mistake this time around and used the remaining silk and paste sparingly. If this turned out to be a mistake, she would still have enough to keep improving.

But she had done her homework so that bow would be nearly perfect. The less rework she would have to do on the composite material, the fewer structural flaws her bow would have.

In the end, she had stopped caring about how much time she had been spending on that single bow. She was fairly certain what she did was unfeasible on a mass-produced military scale. But it was okay, as her only goal was to produce two perfect bows and she had no deadline.

You have crafted a trainee composite shortbow. The item's material quality is outstanding, its crafting quality is good, and its durability is good. It has a self-repair special characteristic.

But at least, the system appraisal confirmed that her time had not been wasted on this endeavor. It had dropped the 'basic' and replaced it with 'trainee.' And everything but the bow durability had undergone a qualitative upgrade.

And even better: it was a difference she could feel while shooting. This new bow felt exactly like her starter bow, except it was made with a superior self-repairing material. And the bow performance was far superior than they had any right to be.

She had no way to tell for sure, as she did not have her old bow to compare. But getting at full draw with this new bow took a lot more effort than she was comfortable with. But as a trade-off, she could now do speed shooting efficiently without going full-draw, or pack a punch on a single arrow whenever needed.

A loud whistle interrupted her thoughts. "Someone had been busy." The old elf remarked appreciatively at her pile of trashy bows.

"Those are trash. That one is meh. Next is the okay pile. And the only good one is in my hand. I was about to try to replicate this beauty." She explained.

"Can you make two more instead? What I had in mind would not work on a finished item." The elf asked anxiously.

"I have just enough material for four more bows," Sophia confirmed.

"Let's make it count then." The elf concluded, before letting her work while quietly observing.

Right until she was about done.

"That's it. Give me the bow and don't touch it again until I say so." Ilbryen said.

And Sophia handed him the bow without arguing.

"Just observe and don't freak out." The old elf said before summoning a dagger and slashing his left hand. "Blood magic. I'm going to extract it with alchemy." He said before the blood started to levitate in a neat regular bubble before splitting in two. "Like this."

Ilbryen paused for effect.

"Do remember that we can't cast spells. This cauldron-less trick is just a perk of living here for so long. I guess a kinesist could do it but I don't know much about psionic. However, what I did is as simple as separating my blood magic from my real lifeblood, though that explanation was lost on all my old wannabe students so I don't expect you to get it either."

Sophia just nodded. She was a bit conflicted between awe and disgust as the old elf quietly reabsorbed the blood before pressing on the wound.

"Then, I'm going proceed and anchor the magic to a new substrate, which you are then going to coat the bow with," Ilbryen explained once again before handing her the transparent red liquid he just imbued with his blood magic.

"That's it?" Sophia asked when she was done.

"That's it." The old elf confirmed, before chuckling. "That's all there is to the success of the Sildithas House: some truly good instruments with a quite unique coating. It's kind of a family thing though."

"Why show it to me then?" Sophia asked.

"One of my ancestors managed to teach the technique to an adopted kid. So I know it's only a de facto family quirk. But they took that secret to the grave. And like it or not, you're going to be my last student. So just humor an old dying man, would you?"

There was no point in arguing against it. Ilbryen had already dropped his 'tragic' backstory on her. So she expected him to try something like this, sooner or later.

"Well, then, excuse me for being bold, but what is that special coat supposed to do?" She asked, playing along.

"Good question. And the answer is that it randomly improves any wooden tool to serve its intended purpose. It made instruments sound unique. On kitchen tools, it randomly made soup and sauce more tasty. And weapons always had been a family taboo, so I honestly don't know."

So the old elf was willing to break a taboo out of boredom? Not that there would be too many consequences for doing so in such a place. The worst thing that could happen would be dying. And if it was possible to commit suicide in there, Sophia was pretty sure Ilbryen would have done it before they ever met.

"So you want to test it out?" She offered.

"It's your bow. And it will not be finished unless you will for it. So I was kind of waiting on you." The old elf admitted, looking excited like a kid before Christmas.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

And then, the system notification finally popped in.

You have crafted a trainee composite shortbow. The item's material quality is outstanding, its crafting quality is good, and its durability is good. It has self-repair and pain-forged resolve special characteristics.

"Wow. You're right. The bow just got an additional characteristic. It's called 'pain-forged resolve." She said.

"Oh. That one is mine." Ilbryen exclaimed. "Probably one of the least useful for archery. But perfect for my old bones."

Sophia wasn't going to argue with that one. And so she went on to craft yet another bow. Until the old elf interrupted her again when she was almost done and this time, traded her bow for a blade identical to the dagger the elf had used earlier.

"Here. Use your own blood on this one. I have yet another surprise in store for you." The elf said with a knowing smile.

Even in a dream, and knowing that the magic of this place would heal her right away, Sophia was somewhat reluctant about hurting herself willingly. But in the end, it was all about getting an edge in her next life — correction: her last life.

She did not know how that knowledge would exactly help her but though self-aware of his condition, the old elf was also part of the tutorial and must have been placed here for a reason.

Surely that encounter was another test, one that might have its own reward if she could piece that particular puzzle together.

So she reluctantly went through with it and let her blood dance and levitate before her.

"And now?" She asked.

"Now, I'm going to separate your magic from your blood." The old elf replied simply.

Once again, he demonstrated. But he did it more slowly this time as if hoping she would catch on to something only he could see. But to her, it just looked like a sphere of blood being torn in two. There wasn't a single clue which sphere was what until Ilbryen nudged the real blood back into her wound.

"I see you didn't get it. It's okay. I had no right to expect anything of you." He said, still sounding mildly disappointed. "Now it's your part. Coat your weapon."

And so she did.

It felt awkward as hell, painting her creation with what looked like her own diluted blood. But soon enough, she was done.

You have crafted a trainee composite shortbow. The item's material quality is outstanding, its crafting quality is good, and its durability is good. It has self-repair and soothing whisper special characteristics.

And she was immediately disappointed upon reading the notification. That Soothing Whisper thing, while also perception-related, did not sound nearly as cool or useful as Ilbryen's had been.

"And I got something called Soothing Whisper. Why would I even want that from a bow?" She asked, feeling a bit down about her failure.

"Really? You got Soothing Whisper?" The old elf exclaimed, overjoyed.

"That's what I said. Why? You want it?" She asked back.

"I would not dare take it from you." Ilbryen vigorously retorted. "Soothing Whisper was a special ability associated with an elven, lost-to-time, fabled sword. Eon ago, it's supposed to have empowered an entire army to resist the Ruin long enough to let our people evacuate our home world."

So Sophia guessed it did not end well for the sword wielder and so she said:

"Errr, thanks. I would rather not die if I can help it though, no matter how heroic the deed was."

"Fair enough." The old elf conceded. "And though I appreciate your work, it honestly cannot compared to a legend quite yet. Now, I want you to hold that bow and try to reach out for the magic imbued on it."

It was a weird thing to ask as she couldn't do anything with the magic in this place. Plus, trying to draw magic from the environment to replenish her own required both time and to have anything to replenish at all. And from the many hours she had spent here without any need for eating or sleeping, she was already full anyway.

But she did what the elf asked without question and was rewarded with another system notification.

Weapon blood attunement detected.

Would you like to permanently bond with this trainee composite shortbow?

Warning: You have no bonded weapon or tool and your current limit is 1. First-time bond always accrues additional benefits.

"I guess you expect me to do that bond thing?" Sophia said, making sure to stress out that she would rather not. Mainly because she only discovered this new system mechanic. And also because she would rather keep that first-time bonus for something better.

"Trust me. Even without Soothing Whisper, this will be your best bow for a really long time." The old elf assured her. "And if you do, I will tell you more about your Fey ancestry and your Weavesinger Archetype."

Sophia already had some doubt, since Ilbryen had known about her crafting skills before she even mentioned it. But now, she had just gotten the verbal confirmation. The elven luthier somehow could read her status and might even know things that even she had no access to.

"You knew?" She exclaimed anyway, trying to extract more free information from the old elf. Which he eagerly delivered:

"About you being a greenhorn mastermind rogue who somehow stumbled upon rare divine power, advanced archery, and wælstòw arcuier? Yep. I knew from the moment we first met. You are still a bit too green to learn that boon just yet. But since you're a rogue, I might be able to give you pointers to protect yourself from it."

It was something that Sophia had always known it could theoretically exist. If the system was able to grant boons and show them to its users, it wasn't surprising that there were boons that played around the system itself.

Ilbryen simply confirmed to her the existence of two such boons: one to peek at someone's else data and another to somewhat obfuscate her own.

Still, she could not help but make a system inquiry:

'Hello, system. Can you tell if it's possible to replace my personal data with unreliable information as a countermeasure for people peeking at it?'

Your personal records are currently set on public. You do not have the accreditation to change this setting. Also, public records can never truly be removed or replaced.

A common strategy to achieve what you are asking for is to overflow the public records with false information. This is however a time-consuming flawed strategy. Also, you do not have the accreditation to create such forgery.

'Okay. What can I do about it right now that you would recommend?' Sophia asked.

Here is a plan to achieve what you are asking for in a suitable time frame:

-Significantly contribute to raise your current level of accreditation.

-Change your personal setting to private.

-Keep the real records at the forefront. And add just enough false information to the public records to make people believe the true information is a forgery.

However, this bluffing strategy is often dismissed as too dumb to actually work, which is exactly the point.

Yep. She could guess why 99% of people would dismiss that strategy immediately.

It was dumb. And it entirely relied on people believing you would not dare put your real records to the forefront. But as Ilbryen said, her records were so ludicrous that it might actually work out. She just had to add some equally ludicrous false records to the mix and let people wonder which one was right.

But that required of her that she make some major contribution to the system first, something that she wasn't going to make up out of nothing. So whatever she chose to do, it was still a problem for her future self.

'On another subject, how does a bonded weapon compare to a fighter Bonded Weapon?'

Both Bonded Weapons can be resummoned if taken or destroyed. But a fighter Bonded Weapon can return to its wielder side on its own. Both can also be upgraded but a fighter Bonded Weapon would automatically do so to stay relevant as its fighter chosen weapon. Finally, a regular Bonded Weapon would not guide your hand and help you learn and grow the way a fighter Bonded Weapon would.

So it was indeed significantly different. A fighter Bonded Weapon was supposedly better in every way. But that it had a mind on its own was still a bit creepy and a dealbreaker for Sophia. She had no idea how Lono ever bear with it.

But at least, it put most of her reluctance to rest.

'Okay, let's go through with this bonding process.' She willed to the system.

Your consent to the bonding has been acknowledged.

You have four choices of special characteristics for your first-time additional benefits to choose from, based on your weapon specifications.

Self-Repair Upgrade Soothing Whisper Upgrade Kinetic Push Wild Surge This bow naturally ignores and reverses most of the ravages of time, making it the perfect bow to be passed down to your descendants. This bowstring instills a state of inner peace and serene clarity that steadies the archer's nerves, and hands, helping them focus and reducing the effects of discomfort, fatigue, anxiety, and fear

This bow imbues a small amount of kinetic to any arrow nocked and fired with it.

This small amount of kinetic energy is marginally improving the arrow's speed and the maximum range of your bow.

This bow is so attuned to the Feywild magic that you can harmlessly channel your wild surge through it.

Let your arrows turn into ticking bombs, spread chaos, and carve the fear of the Feywild into your enemies' hearts.

Getting one free special characteristic was a nice added bonus. Unfortunately, two of them were rather lackluster.

Self-repair was already kind of redundant on a bow that could be resummoned once broken. So of course, upgrading that special characteristic was a no-go. And the wild surge characteristics were entirely lost on her since she was already doing that with her magus arcana boon. She did not know if doing so had damaged her bow in any way, but it didn't show and now she had a self-repairing bow the question was even less relevant.

So it was between the Soothing Whisper Upgrade and Kinetic Push.

And clearly, from Soothing Whisper's description, even its upgrade was technically a downgrade compared to what Ilbryen had described to her. It was only working on her and while the effects were broad and amazing, especially in a prolonged conflict, they were somewhat circumstantial at best, given Sophia's current situation. Meanwhile, Kinetic Push was doing one thing and one thing only, it would always be relevant, either increasing her arrow's impact or range.

Besides, her bow could always be upgraded later, as the system said so.

She would rather have more options now and improve them later rather than pass up a good option now for a rather minor upgrade.

'I will pick Kinetic Push' She decided.

And so the bow specifications were updated to confirm her choice.