"The requirements to unlock skills and traits for purchase is both very valuable, and almost worthless. This is because it is known that while similar classes share similar requirements for similar unlocks, that small difference between similar and the same can cause what is a cornerstone in one person's build to become completely useless in another, as such most people are hesitant to buy such information unless they have the exact class of the seller."

-Excerpt from 'Skills and You', by Norwin Boyd

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It was about three quarters of the way through the day by the time we were all settled into our new housing, and even though we no longer shared housing between all of us, we still planned to have dinner together, both due to how we have all grown closer these past few days, and because Jason's mom got more EXP the more people she cooked for. Since there were still a few hours until sunset, we split up and started to explore the town. We already knew all the stone houses were just housing, and since we were not the main characters in an RPG, we didn't pay them any attention and went to the rebuilt areas to see if there was anything interesting. Once we got to the divide between the clearing and the ruined city, we noticed a surprisingly well built notice board, that had what looked like carved stone slates on it rather than paper, with each slate having a job written on it with what seemed to be charcoal, along with any requirements and the payment for it. It was interesting, and since each of them had the requester written on it, I was able to tell that while some of them were from the city itself, many were from random people with requests like wanting someone to help practice a skill, or join a hunting group, or similar things, all in all it seemed like something out of a video game, but considering the lack of internet or solid method of widespread communication, I suppose there really wasn't a better way to get a message out, barring standing in the middle of town and yelling. Since none of us were interested in doing or posting any jobs, as by the foot of the board there was a stack of stone plates and a few sticks of charcoal if we needed to post something, we continued on and examined the now mostly rebuilt buildings, all of which still lacking any kind of glass but no longer having cracked or broken walls covered in plantlife, and unlike the town hall, none of the buildings had their purpose carved into them inlaid with a different color of stone.

There were only three buildings other than the town hall currently finished, but we could see a few groups of people clearing out rubble and removing plantlife from a few other buildings, focusing on those that were only one story tall and ignoring any of the taller buildings, though even the buildings that were once skyscrapers only had three stories at most remaining. Since it was still daytime, there were still people walking around or standing near the notice board, so we were able to ask about what each building was for, though apparently only two of them were public. The public ones were for people to practice crafting, as the houses were too small for people to set up workshops, but unfortunately neither building had any available room, as they were first come first served and had already been filled with workshops that weren't compatible with any of our classes, so our crafters would have to either wait or make their own buildings if they wanted a workshop. The last building, which was the largest of them all, was apparently for storage, and when we were checking it out we noticed that there were people guarding the doors, which is how we learned what it was and that we weren't allowed to enter. By the time we finished checking out all the buildings and talking to a few other residents, it was close enough to sunset that we decided to have dinner, and even though we hadn't been able to hunt for ourselves today, we were still able to get some meat and even a few spices with the contribution points from selling extra equipment.

One hearty meal later, and we all retired to our various houses, where I was happy to finally have a few walls between myself and the seemingly genetic snoring that Leo's family all had. The next morning over breakfast, we all discussed what we would be doing from here on out, as even though we had enough contribution points to last us a few days thanks to the stuff we sold, as we found that a days worth of food was roughly 100 points if we wanted meat, our recent lifestyle had made it so that we felt uncomfortable if we weren't doing anything, and we were still far from being truly safe or secure. Since most of our group were crafters, it was decided that the first thing we would do is get them a workshop, and since our group had the classes and skills to rebuild one of the ruined buildings, all we had to do was let Jonathan know and he would tell us which building we could use. Though it was important to be said that amongst the non-combatants, only Jackson, his dad, Leo's dad, Jason's dad, and my mom actually needed a workshop as Jason's mom and my dad was already invited to work for the mayor once we got settled, since their [Architect] and [Chef] classes were extremely useful to a developing town.

Meanwhile, those in our group without crafting classes tentatively planned to become hunters, since there wasn't much else we could do, though none of us were particularly against hunting in the first place, the fact that there were five of us worked out great as according to some of the people in the town, EXP was halved again if there were 6 people participating, though we were somewhat unbalanced, as only Leo and Sir Lora were melee fighters, the latter being more of a hit and run fighter than a tank, but none of the monsters near the start of the forest were high level, so it didn't matter all that much. With plans decided, everyone bar me, since I was still waiting for the person with the [Bestial Constructor] class gem to come by, went to the city hall to request a building, carrying some tools that I had spent almost all of my mana making to ensure they wouldn't break or dissipate until I got there. After they left, and with no set time for when to expect my guest other than Jonathan saying they were eager to trade as soon as possible, I decided to spend my time practicing my connections, since the elemental density here was as bad as the rest of the city, and it wasn't long, maybe two hours at most, before I heard a knocking at the door and quickly got up to answer.

Opening the door revealed a rather short woman that looked to be around my age, maybe a few years older, probably somewhere around 5'4-5'5 with short brown hair and piercing blue eyes that was level 10 and decked out in gear that made it apparent that she was a tank, most of her armor being metal and having an axe around her waist and a shield on her back. She was examining me at the same time I was her, and I was also wearing all my gear since I didn't have any other clothes and putting on the accessories had become a habit. After we finished sizing each other up, I invited here inside and we both sat at the table, where she was the first to speak up.

"You are the guy who wanted the [Bestial Constructor] class right?"(Woman)

"Probably, but I want to see its description first, since my class uses something other than mana and I want to see if the wording of the class specifies that it has to be mana."(Mason)

Hearing my response made a slightly annoyed expression appear on her face when I didn't give a definite yes, but it quickly changed to an understanding, then happy expression as she heard the rest of my sentence.

"That shouldn't be a problem, though at least now I know why it's worded so funny, didn't even know there was stuff other than mana."(Woman)

After saying so she reached into the starter backpack that was on her waist and held out a gem, which I quickly examined and pulled up the screen for, her words making me hopeful that the class would work as I wanted it to.

Name: Class Gem of Bestial Constructor Rarity: Rare Category: Combat, Magical, Mid-Long Range Description: This class is capable of creating temporary constructs out of various magical energies that mimic beasts to aid them in combat.

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Reading the description made me very relieved, as I couldn't imagine that elemental energy wasn't considered magical, and made me happy I decided to set up this meeting rather than just settling for [Illusionist], as while it was certainly not a bad class, I would be lying if I said that I didn't want two rare classes instead of a rare and an uncommon. Since I didn't try to hide my relief, the grin on the woman's face widened as she spoke up.

"Alright, judging by your face, you seem interested, and since Jonathan already told me 'bout what class you were trading, I'm pretty sure it'll work but I'd like to see it for myself first."(Woman)

With no reason to refuse, I fished the class gem out from my backpack, which was hanging on my chair, and showed it to her and waited for her to read it, and after a few seconds she gave a satisfied nod.

"I was hoping for something a bit more up close and personal, but I certainly won't complain about the versatility that some ranged options will give me, plus I'm getting tired of being stuck at level 10 and I doubt anyone with a better class will come along and want to trade anytime soon."(Woman)

Both of us satisfied with what the other person had, we wasted no time in giving them to each other, both of us using them immediately since neither of us had any reason to wait and we were both impatient to finally start levelling again, and I felt a number of pings appear in my system as soon as I activated the gem, which I ignored as the woman started to speak once more while she got up and left.

"Whew, that feels nice. Pleasure doing business with ya, and by the by, I'm tryin' to put together a group of people above level 10 to do some deeper dives into the forest, see if we can't find something good, if you're interested come find me sometime in the next few days."(Woman)

"Sounds interesting, but I'll need to think about it and see the group before making a decision."(Mason)

"Fair 'nuff, just come by my place in the next week or so, I usually spend one day hunting and one day off so if I'm not there just come the next day. Name's Roxanne by the way, though I go by Roxy."(Roxy)

"Mason."(Mason)

Offering a handshake while I introduced myself, which she returned with a firm grip as she told me how to get to her house, we both thanked one another once more for the trade before she left and I opened up the system messages that I had felt earlier, seeing the messages for my new class and level, and checking out my new skills.

Congratulations, you have gained the Class: [Bestial Constructor] Congratulations, you have gained the Skills: [Construct Beast 1/20], [Detonate Construct 1/10], and [Fortified Constructs 1/5] Congratulations, you have levelled up! You have 6 free points to assign

[Construct Beast 1/20] Create a construct out of magical energy that mimics an animal, duration and strength depends on amount of energy used and understanding of the animal you mimic. [Detonate Construct 1/10] Detonate a created construct to unleash all of its remaining energy in an explosion around it.(Range of 10m per level) [Fortified Constructs 1/5] Constructs you make are more resistant to damage.(5% per level)

Reading the skill descriptions and going over the new knowledge that was in my head, I was very satisfied with my choice, since I could instinctively tell that elemental energy would work with it. And if I was understanding the information that came with the skill correctly, it seemed that the constructs were actually mostly autonomous, only needing me to give general instructions rather than needing to control them like puppets. But I could test out my new skills later, as I still had free points to assign, not to mention checking what stats the class itself gives and to check if any new skills were in the shop. Checking my stat sheet first told me that the class gave +4 WIS, +2 INT, and +2 WIL per level, and after assigning my free points and giving 2 to INT and 4 to WIS made my stat screen look like this.

Name:

Mason King Race: Human(+6 Free Points per level Level: 11 SP: 1 Classes: Elementalist(Rare), Bestial Constructor(Rare) Titles: N/A Attunements: [Lightning I], [Crystal II] EXP 0 EXP to next Level 6050 Mana 70/540 Stamina 280/280 STR: 15 INT: 45+3 DEX: 15+2 WILL: 56+2 END: 25+3 WIS: 49+5 Skills: [Elemental Channeling 1/10], [Elemental Meditation 2/10], [Elemental Sight 1/5], [Elemental Manipulation 1/10], [Construct Beast 1/20], [Detonate Construct 1/10], [Fortified Constructs 1/5] Traits: [Elementalist]

While it was unfortunate that I didn't save any EXP beyond what was required for the next level, it was expected, and I was just happy that I had managed to get a good class so quickly. Since I wanted to test out this class before being tempted by anything in the skill shop, I decided to use 50 of my remaining mana to try and create my first construct. I wanted to use regular mana first so that I could get a solid baseline for how/if different elemental energies affected them, and when I initiated the skill I pictured a fennec fox as the mana flowed through my body, exiting through my hand before shaping itself into the animal that I had pictured, a barely visible outline that solidified into a semi-transparent pure white fox as it started filling itself with my mana. In total it only took a few seconds to form, and since I didn't create it with any orders in mind it just stood there silently, though it still swished its tail and twitched its ears every now and then, and might have been blinking, though it was hard to tell due to it all being the same shade of white. Due to its transparency and pure white color, it was certainly not going to fool anyone into believing that it was a real creature anytime soon, but as I reached out to it and felt how solid it was, though it felt more like it was made out of marble than flesh due to the smoothness and lack of give that even the fur had, I was still very satisfied with it, and I felt the connection with it in the back of my mind, feeling somewhat similar to how it felt when I connected with crystals.

Another thing was that even though it was sitting there idly, I could still feel it leaking mana, and over the minute or two that I had spent poking and prodding it in various places, moving the tail, examining the teeth and such, it had become slightly more transparent, and even if it didn't do anything it would still run out of mana after a while, and I assumed that more active movement plus both taking and dealing hits would make it deplete far faster than simply existing, and since I was unable to add more mana to it when I tried, it was clear that the temporary part about the constructs was serious. Not wanting to test my [Construct Detonation] skill indoors, I cut the connection with it, causing to to shatter into motes of light, before setting off to find the others of my group to help them with the rebuilding while I waited for my mana to regenerate.