As he watched the creature get closer, Matt suddenly felt wood enter his material perception range very quickly, and faster then he could track it streaked past him and Matt watched as a flaming blue streak of energy flew past him and struck the creature. The force of the projectile immediately stopped its forward momentum and blasted it backward.

Then, just as fast a second projectile hit the still falling creature and pushed it into the ground. It let out a strangled gasp as it fell over and died. Now that it was no longer moving, Matt can see that the projectiles were arrows, still glowing with blue energy smoking off of the shaft, that had pierced into the head and chest of the creature.

Matt just sat there shocked, completely unsure of what had happened and what he should do. The total emotional whiplash from literally facing death in the face to confusion left him stunned for several seconds. It might have been longer if he wasn’t shaken from the paralysis by the shaking of leaves and thud of boots coming from behind him.

“You alright lad?” came a deep and gruff voice from behind him. Turning around, Matt saw a tall man wearing what could only be called standard fantasy archer attire. Green hood, which was currently covering most of his face, brown leather gloves, boots, several belts with just as many pouches and that one breastplate archers have. Brown pants, tan shirt, and a quiver strapped to his back.

He was tall, easily six foot five, and a bit broader than what he would expect from an archer. Walking up and pulling back his hood, Matt got a good look at him. He was an older man with tanned skin, long salt and pepper hair that was more salt than pepper that was tied back, but a bit looser around the sides so it framed his face as the hair disappeared behind his head and a neatly shaved and short goatee.

Matt just sat there in shock before he realized he was supposed to respond. “Oh, uh, yes. Thank you, uh sir.” Matt stumbled over his words as he went to take off his helmet, but was stopped by the tendrils both still wrapped around his arms and held in place by his Shaping. Chuckling nervously he looked over to see if the archer had noticed, he had, and Matt just looked down and focused on freeing himself from his foe.

Once he was sufficiently untangled, Matt reached up and removed his helmet. It was a little scratched from thrashing with the creature but it was in otherwise perfect condition. Now with his face uncovered, Matt turned back to the man. The archer was looking over Matt with an evaluative gaze that made Matt uncomfortable, he wasn’t very confident in front of older people who looked like they were very competent.

Seeming to come to a decision, the man stepped forward and offered a hand to Matt. He took it and the man effortlessly hoisted him up back to his feet. Seeing that Matt was now standing and stable, he continued. “What were you doing all the way out here getting chased by those beasties?”

Shoot, questions. No problem Matt, he's got this. “Oh, I was traveling to the town of, uh,” Taking a second to search his brain for what the name the system gave, he continued constructing his backstory “Jylen, but then I got separated from my guide and lost in the forest. I knew that if I kept going North I could get there, but then I was chased by those things.” Matt finished, gesturing to the bodies of the now dead creatures.

The man held a hand to his chin in thought as he looked over Matt in thought, coming to some kind of conclusion. Matt caught himself from holding his breath as the man continued. “Jylen you say? What luck, that’s where I am from. You’re lucky that you didn’t wander deeper into the forest, these things would be the strongest in the outskirts, and it isn’t safe to travel further if you don’t know what you’re doing.” Matt bristled a bit at the comment but kept his mouth shut as the man wasn’t wrong. He tried to keep his expression under control but apparently he failed as the man smirked, causing Matt to frown a bit more.

The man just chuckled a bit as he stepped past Matt to go look over the creature that he had killed. While the man was focusing on his task, Matt took the time to actually investigate now that he was presumably safe. He could still feel the wood of the creature, and now when he tried to bond with it he could, there was no barrier.

And the wood itself felt just like any other he had bonded with. Just material waiting and willing to listen to him, there was nothing remaining that could ever point that this was a ferocious monster that had tried to kill him. Weird.

New Achievement!

You have entered a physical confrontation with a monster stronger than you and physically overpowered it! Good job.

Reward: Small Level Progress.

New Achievement!

You have helped another teammate kill a monster with a trap that you have shaped! While a Shaper may not have the direct combat advantages that a Knight or Mage has, they are undefeated in technical ability and set up.

Reward: Small Level Progress

Level Up!

You have earned enough level progress and leveled up!

Reward: 1 point

Oh, that was a lot. It looks like the system waits until he is not busy before giving him notifications. That was good. Dismissing the windows, Matt quickly Shaped the rest of his armor free from the creature. Now that he could shape the wood of its body, Matt could see that it wasn’t wood all the way through and shaping it wasn’t as easy as the pure stuff, but for all that counted when Shaping it was still wood enough for him to do so.

Matt looked over the mess his bat had become and frowned. He could fix it of course, and it wasn’t really damaged at all besides the bite marks but it was still annoying it had to be so deformed. He guesses he will just have to get used to it as a Shaper, changing his weapon to fit the situation is the best way of doing it.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Moving his trusty weapon back into shape and pristine condition, Matt then finished fixing his armor before noticing that the archer had recovered his arrows and stopped doing.. Something with a knife and the corpse of the creature and was looking at him. Seeing that Matt had noticed him, the man spoke up.

“You a Shaper then?” He asked, jutting his chin to point at Matt's gear. Matt just nodded a bit sheepishly at the older adventurers question, unsure how this world worked or treated Shapers. The man just nodded.

“You specialize in wood then or just haven’t learned metal yet?”

“Um, a bit of both I guess. I was a late bloomer and didn’t have a lot of metal to practice with, so I focused on wood.” Matt offered, hoping his lie would work. Well, technically he didn’t lie, just stretched the truth. He did in fact have no metal to practice, he has focused only on shaping wood and he is definitely a late bloomer, although not as much as he is insinuating.

It seemed like the Man bought it as he bent over the corpse and finally dug free something he had been looking for. It looked like a small knotted sphere of wood about the size of a peach pit with green lines moving through the grain. Feeling it in his material sense, He could see that it was wood, but there was something… more in it.

Trying to bond with it surprised Matt as it reached back much more forcefully than normal wood, and when he investigated it with his bond, he could feel it looking back at him with way more intensity and something that Matt was hesitant to call agency, but felt close.

“What's that?” Matt asked, transfixed with the weird wood. The man raised an eyebrow at his question, slipping the ball into a pouch. Looks like it was a silly question. Time to put on his ‘fake it till you make it’ hat.

“It’s a core, pretty much all elemental monsters have them. And shapers use them to train and make better tools. Have you really never seen them before?” Okay, cores. Monsters are presumably a lot of monsters in this world, and this guy looks to be a professional. If there are mages and knights that have magic powers, then there must be a lot of people who fight monsters. What’s a good reason that he would not know something obvious?

“I, um, was pretty sheltered and just… figured out wood by chance.” Matt offered. It was weird, but it was plausible enough that it should work. Hopefully. The man just snorted with a slight shake of his head. Looks like it worked, victory. The man pointed his knife at the corpse at Matt's feet.

“If you don’t know, in the hearts of elemental monsters is some kind of core. They fetch a pretty penny, as well as most monster parts but the best thing is the core. And if you are a Shaper, cores infuse very well into objects and make them better for Shaping. Supposedly they also help Shapers awaken their material understanding easier, but I can’t make heads or tails what any of you are talking about when you explain Shaping. You should harvest that one too.” The man said, pointing his knife at the corpse at Matt's feet.

A bit confused since he didn’t feel anything like it, Matt bent down to the creature and bonded with it again. Feeling throughout the material, Matt tried to find the core and sure enough there it was. Matt missed it the first time since it was strangely disconnected from the rest of the material and he had to seek it out specifically.

Shaping away the material of the creature's body, he reached in and took hold of the core. Holding it in his hand, he barely even needed to reach out before it bonded with him. To shape other material, there usually was a bit of a barrier he had to ask to get through, but the core practically grabbed his connection at the door when he went to knock and dragged him inside the house.

It was a very interesting experience. Usually things felt like they were patiently waiting for his intent and guidance for how he wanted to Shape them, but this felt like an eager child asking repeatedly and loudly what they were going to do, urging his mind to choose and exert will.

Guided by instinct, Matt brought up his bat and held the core against it. Letting his intent flow through the core and wood, Matt felt astonished at how easy it responded. It practically melted into the bat's surface, spreading throughout the material. As it fused with the bat, faint green veins glowed within the grains. When he was done, he could no longer feel that eagerness and reactivity from the material, but the entirety of his batt was a bit more responsive to his bond and used less Connection to shape. He also felt that his shaping of its durability was enhanced a bit.

New Achievement!

You have used a Material Core for the first time! Elemental monsters form a core of their respective element in their hearts, and some of those cores represent materials that you can shape! Cores not only make unlocking new materials easier, they are also used in improving your gear and materials. They are incredibly important, and you have just learned this fact!

Reward: Small Level Progress

Having a thought, Matt turned back to the man who watched with amusement at his Shaping. Clearing his throat a bit from embarrassment, Matt spoke up.

“You said monster parts can be valuable, are these things worth anything? Also, do they have a name?” Looking down at the corpses, the man thought for a moment before turning back to Matt.

“Aye, usually these could be sold for a bit but they aren’t in the best condition. And they are called tree stalkers. They eat wood and other plant parts when they are young, adopting the material into their bodies and then use their plant manipulation and camouflage to hunt animals and other monsters. Nasty things, but easy enough to take care of when you know what to look for.”

“So if they were fixed up, would they be worth more?” Matt didn’t have any money, and while he didn’t doubt shaping would let him make some kind of money easily, any amount helps. The man nodded.

“Yup, if they weren’t as cracked and damaged you could probably get a bit more for them.” hearing the man's words, Matt nodded and bent down to the tree stalker he had killed. He was glad it wasn’t made of meat or anything, because this would have been a lot more gruesome if the blood was red. Mending the cracks and crude hole that Matt had made, Matt was left with a corpse for a tree stalker that looked completely undamaged, save for the green blood that was still present where he had fixed the damage.

The man chuckled a bit at Matt's look of pride at his work before he picked up his corpse and walked back over to where he came from. Setting the creature's body down, he bent down and rummaged through the bush for a second before he pulled out a large sack bag that looked to be filled with some other heavy objects. He opened it and dropped the corpse in. Guess it was a body bag…

“Well lad, you ready to get going? It will be dark in a few hours.” Looking around, Matt realized the hunter had already cleared away everything he had done and was waiting on him.

“Um, one second. I killed another one but had to run away, let me just go and…” Seeing the man nod his assent, Matt turned around and ran back down the path he had taken, grabbing the rest of his thankfully undamaged rope on the way. Getting back to his first kill, he freed it from the bush and retrieved the core, adding it to his bat and feeling the material resonate even further with his bond.

Repairing the creature, he grabbed it and returned to the archer and his other kill where he was waiting. Seeing Matt return, the man nodded and pulled back his hood.

“The name’s Bishop, good work. Not many newbies come out as unscathed as you. Now let's get going.”