“A mutant? Why Karrn, that is quite the story. While I trust your word, I will need something more for the report.” Marvin told the party back at the guild hall once they returned and he had heard their story. Karrn looked at Matt and nodded, causing him to grab the core in his pack with his shaping and levitating it out of its compartment.

As Matt floated the core over and into his hands before holding it out and placing the orb of magical wood on Marvins desk. The receptionist looked at the core with widened eyes as he froze for a few seconds before snapping out of it and taking the core into his own hands to examine it. Marvin turned over the core and observed the flowing of the glowing veins before he took out what looked like a brass jeweler's monocle with glowing lines on its surface.

“My word, this must have been quite the mutation. I think the wood fiend would have been a low gold level threat with this level of energy.” Marvin said after a few moments and writing some things down, he placed the core back onto the counter and Matt returned the prize back to his pack.

“It’s a good thing that wood fiends can only control living creatures made of wood, otherwise you might have been facing the equivalent of a forest sentinel. Quite the monster. Well, good job all of you! This will be a huge help to Jylen. Here is your reward.” Marvin announced as he stamped the quest form and after setting aside some paper, he opened a drawer and grabbed three stacks of gold coins.

Karrn took the stacks and after looking at them with a smile he placed two of them into his bag but turned to Marvin with the last one. “Could I get this as half stacks please?” Marvin nodded and after switching the stack of ten for two stacks of five, Karrn stored one half before handing one to Matt.

“Here you go kid, your cut.” The swordsman said while trying to place the coins into his hand but Matt didn’t take it.

“Are you sure? I already got the core, and you said it was valuable.” Matt didn;t know how much money this was, but it was definitely a lot for an initiate adventurer.

“Consider it a bonus, we were already going to give you something for services rendered but the core was an unexpected gain. You wouldn’t want to make me look cheap to the rest of the guild, would you?” He asked with a grin, making Matt laugh and take the coins.

“No, I wouldn’t.”

“Hah! That’s the spirit. Well Matt, it’s been a pleasure. We look forward to seeing you rise up through the ranks and maybe work with you again, but I get the feeling you won’t stay at silver for long. Take care.” Karrn said while clapping Matt's shoulder again and stepping back.

“Yeah Matt, you were great! Definitely wouldn’t have been able to do this without you. I can’t wait to tell people I got to work with a mythril shaper before he got famous!” Janica said while crushing him in a hug he felt through his armor, causing Matt to laugh a bit more.

“Thanks Janica. I will never underestimate a mage dressed in red now because of you.” Matt said while Janica let go with a laugh before she stood next to Karrn.

“Indeed it was good Matt, you have an interesting path ahead of you and I wish you luck.” Florvan told Matt while offering his hand to shake, which Matt did. Turning to Drost, Matt was met with a sturdy fist to his arm that was strong enough Matt was glad he was wearing armor.

“I’ve still never worked with a shaper I wished I hadn’t, good job kid. You remind me of the shaper's back home, always thinking outside the box in ways that leave me baffled and impressed. Keep it up.” Matt smiled as Drost walked away and as Matt looked at the gathered party, he laughed and addressed all of them.

“Thank you all for the opportunity, it has been incredibly helpful to get to tag along and learn from you. I hope to prove you all right!”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As Matt was walking out of the guild hall, he had almost walked into another person trying to open the door.

“Oh, my bad I didn’t see you…” Matt trailed off as he looked at the other person. They were an elf, one of the dark skinned variety that he still didn’t know the same for and maybe should have asked Florvan about, but now it was too late. Matt could not see their face as they had a smooth, full mask made of black wood. Matt didn’t know how they could see without eye holes but he could feel them looking him over.

In fact, all of their equipment was made of black wood with green veins covering the surface. On their back they had a long staff with thicker ends, and they were wearing some of the thickest plate armor he had ever seen, and it was all made of wood. That, combined with their considerable height of maybe six foot eight, was quite intimidating.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

The armor also screamed out in his material sense, the resonance for connection was so strong he almost felt his energy bond to it without his intent. As he was captivated by the armor, he felt the elfs own bond reach out and interact with his. Matt was stunned at the strength of the other shapers' connection, it could easily crush his own will like an ant, but it was gentle as it looked him over and Matt came to a realization of what he was looking at. This was a forest sentinel.

Frozen in shock, the sentinel lifted a hand and pointed at the helmet under Matt's arm. He had been holding it while he was in the guild hall, but as his attention was brought to the helmet he felt the sentinels connection focus on it. Not sure what to do other than hold it out, Matt brought the helmet and presented it to the strange shaper. The elf nodded and gently picked it up, looked it over for a moment before moving to put it on Matt's head. Matt leaned forward and shaped the faceplate open so it would fit, and as he looked back over to the sentinel he was surprised to see their gauntleted hand move to cover his face.

Standing still in shock, Matt just watched as the sentinels connection flowed into Matt's helmet and face plate, and after pausing for a moment for what Matt was realizing was permission, Matt nodded. Upon his ascent, the sentinel started to shape his helmet so that the face plate was longer and reached further up his helmet as was similar to the elfs mask. Matt was confused since he needed eye holes to see but suddenly the wood in front of his eyes started to become clear, granting him vision that was comparable to when he didn’t even have the faceplate on in the first place.

Looking down, he could see how the plate became visible again in a sort of gradient, where it was the most clear right over his eyes. Seeing the sentinels hand move away and them nodding in satisfaction, Matt felt their connection leave the helmet but linger on his and he felt the impression of what the shaper had done. Matt felt over this strange link that the property of ‘transparency’ had been changed.

“Keep up the good work, you don’t see interesting wood shaping like that outside of the forests.” The sentinel told Matt before stepping past him and moving to the receptionist counter. Matt stood there for a moment before he reached up and disconnected the face plate and looked it over. On the front, it was regular wood. Completely solid and smooth besides the air slits, but turning it around he could see through it like glass. Incredible… Matt looked at the sentinels back for a moment before placing the mask plate back onto his helmet and left the guild hall.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Matt returned to his room after surprising Hannah with his helmets new look and a quick dinner. Walking back in, he set his pack down and after taking off his equipment, he flopped backwards onto the bed and relaxed for a moment. He had a lot of excitement the last day and laying in a real bed helped his mind feel the adventure was over. Matt grinned up at the ceiling as he remembered everything before he moved his attention to his status window.

Matthias Harding

Level 4

1st Bond Shaper

Purchase Points: 2

MATERIALS:

Wood

Fabric

PROPERTIES:

Durability

Weight

Hardness

Flammability

Resonance

Scale Level 2

Blueprint Level 0

Intent Level 0

QUESTS:

Scale Threshold

He still had two points and a quest to complete. Taking a deep breath, he focused on his scale level and chose to spend the points. A moment after the screen changed to reflect the new values he gasped as his perception widened another ten feet after slipping from his restrained control and the improved force of his energy. He took a moment to get used to the new feeling before another window appeared.

Quest Complete! Scale Threshold

You have reached the essential stepping stone of an improved scale, and have earned the right to be considered a second bond shaper! Not only do you have more connection to shape with, you can also shape two unconnected materials at the same time, or a material and a property at the same time!

Reward: Increase in Shaper Bond Tier, Large Level progress

Matt was once again hit with the intense feeling of his abilities changing, however instead of this time being his external senses, he felt as the connection inside of him expanded and grew in intensity. He gasped out as his energy burned and spread deeper throughout his body. It was hard to breathe as it expanded, but thankfully the feeling only lasted a few seconds as his energy ‘cooled’ down and settled. As Matt laid there panting to catch his breath, he figured that most shapers probably grew their connection reserves slowly over time instead of all at once.