Evening comes and goes, and I manage to keep the [Fists] hidden from Sheeno, so I can unveil them all at once, after I had successfully bonded them all together into one item.

And, fairly enough, Sheeno decided to keep what she was working on a secret from me until I revealed mine.

We had dinner at the usual table in the kitchen area, this time with a cut of red meat that somehow oozed something that resembled barbeque sauce, which I was told was from a [Spicy Salamander], and green sticks that tasted like something between celery and broccoli, which were named leekas.

This world was weird, but the company, magic, and food made it all more than bearable.

We ended up sleeping separately in our own rooms, since I was so mentally fatigued that I needed to actually get a good night of sleep, and not spend half of it fooling around, no matter how good Sheeno could make me feel.

I then awoke surprisingly early, and I chalked it up to it being a result of my increased [Stats]: The higher they were, the less sleep you needed, and the slower you aged. Something that I didn’t really bother researching properly, since I thought it would take longer for it to have any noticeable effect, but if it’s already affecting my everyday life then I should probably look it up when I have the time.

Breakfast is cooked by me, and it’s chicken pancakes, the closest approximation I could make to chicken waffles without a press and with my favorite green chicken. Sheeno ends up groaning in satisfaction after having a taste, so I’ll consider it a successful recreation of the recipe.

And then the rest of the morning is spent on our projects, with Sheeno doing her own thing, and me finishing the last two [Fists]; having already crafted two of them I manage to cut down the time it takes to make one through what I experienced, so I manage to finish both of them before lunch, but I don’t bring them out yet since I want to add some finishing touches before I’m happy with them.

Lunch comes, I and Sheeno talk about how happy we both are regarding our progress in our separate endeavors, and it seems that we might be ready to unveil them to each other sometime this evening.

That was fine with me, and I was mostly happy that Sheeno wasn’t worrying over me overworking myself anymore, but that in turn made me worry that she wasn’t doing so anymore because she now was the one overworking herself.

“Hey, whatever you’re doing… just don’t exaggerate, ok? Zeal is good and all, but I’m kind of living proof that one shouldn’t push their limits too many times in a row. So, don’t, ok?” I hesitantly try to get across before she could activate the diving screen.

“How eloquently put… but yes, I understand, but don’t worry: This is something I know I can take.

I’m not you, I was trained for this.”

And with all the sass in the world, followed by a wink and a cheeky wave, she separated the room back into two halves.

“She could have avoided taking the piss out of me, but at least she sounds like she’s doing fine…” I muttered to myself.

Moving on to the [Fists], I attempt at making the [System] recognize them as a single object, but I honestly don’t even know where to start.

A matching link.

“…I’m sorry?”

[Buddy]’s suggestion came completely out of the left field.

Link their mana signature together and then make them match an identical one that is sufficiently similar to all of them individually.

“Oh… thank you. But I thought you couldn’t help me?”

I can still do this much: The [System] would have aided any other [Crafter] with a similar level of knowledge, it’s just that I can extrapolate the relevant information much better than any other instance, at least when they need to be specialized for you.

“Uh, neat!”

Going back to crafting for real this time, I try to replicate what I understood from what [Buddy] tried explaining to me.

First came the part where I had to bring out the innate [Mana] of the items, that even with [Manakenesis] took way more effort than I thought, so I ended up experimenting slowly with only one of them and went ahead to try the others only after I figured out how to do it reliably. Turns out it was all in the motion, quite literally: Maybe it’s because [Crafters] normally have to physically use tools to do what I did, so they never noticed, but I had to be almost touching the item to stretch its own [Mana] out of it, without feeling like I was passing a kidney stone, but on a mental level.

“I really hate myself when I make such horrifically graphic images pop up in my mind.”

Me too.

I finally manage to have all the gauntlets/knuckles mingle their [Mana] in a central node, only after getting them closer together, because I was feeling silly from frantically waving my arms around trying to exert my will over all 4 of the pieces; the next step then is making the ‘mingled’ [Mana] more ‘orderly’, and then change the original innate signature into this new one.

And this time I didn’t even have it in me to lie and say that it was ‘relatively easy’.

I very slowly retraced one of the tendrils of [Mana] I had ended up creating back to its source, while taking my time to change it into the new one, but when I’m about to touch the object with the new [Mana] I could feel the whole process verging towards destabilization, so I took a step back. It didn’t take me long to notice that I would have to do them all 4 at once if I wanted this to work, so, with a muttered “fuck me” out of the way, I went ahead and did just that.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The process was slow, and it didn’t allow any distractions.

Even a single one could spell its destabilization, and it would make me start over.

I also needed to fully concentrate on this, otherwise, it would be even more painfully slow than it already was.

Centimeter after centimeter, even millimeter after millimeter, every ounce of progress is still progress, at least until it was uniform on all 4 pathways.

I really couldn’t afford any distractions here.

Despite my constant jinxing, I actually completed the process on my second attempt, without any outside interruption.

“Do I regularly get fucked with only when I’m doing my own thing, so now that I’m doing something for someone else I’m actually getting left alone!?”

Yes

I almost throw the newly finished weapon at the sudden window out of anger.

* * *

Not even a second had passed after Sheeno had turned off the dividing screen I immediately approached her with my hands behind my back, carrying my important package hidden from view, and made a proposition.

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours!”

It took a moment for her to register my unexpected words, but soon she forcefully held back herself from snorting in an unladylike manner, at least more than once.

“How quaint. I’m guessing that your words imply that you finished my weapon and now want to see what I’ve been working on, and not an actual suggestion at a ravishingly good time?” Sheeno fired back, making me frown and blush at the same time.

“You know, it kills the joke when you explain it.

Yes, your weapons are ready, and yes, I want to see what you made first before unveiling them.

As per the… ‘good time’, I really don’t know how to respond to that one…” I ended up mumbling as a response.

To which Sheeno responded as if it was an invitation to ruffle my hair, which I didn’t particularly like, but it was no bother letting her do her own thing.

“Ha! Ok, ok, I’ve had my fun. I’ll show mine so that you can then show me yours”, Sheeno finally said with a wink after having had her fill of the silky mop on my head.

She then went to the center of the room in order to show her new repertoire.

First, she stomped on the ground and a bunch of spikes jutted out in front of her in a mostly straight line; they looked like they were made of stone, but the frosty air they emanated was unmistakable.

“[Moving Glacier] is a move that can be used to both corral enemies by splitting them up, and I can cast it under my feet for a monodirectional burst of speed at a moment’s notice”, Sheeno explained.

“That sounds extremely useful and cool!” I gushed already at the first unveiling.

Instead of responding to the continuous use of the same pun, my mate went ahead and showed me what she had just demonstrated was not the only new thing. Soon, a familiar coldness spreads out of her, but without hostile intent, it ends up only feeling uncomfortable instead of dangerous, and pretty quickly she is left standing donning the icy bikini armor that I’ve come to know.

But before I could ask what there was new about it I could feel Sheeno casting the same [Spell] on top of the already active one, and seeing the armor visibly grow to cover her more, while feeling a strong icy wind starting to ramp up, I immediately understood what she had done.

Taking a page from my [Aurumon], probably, she made it so it could stack.

“[Suit of the Ice Queen] is now [Armory of the Winter Queen], and not only can it be further strengthened by casting it multiple times, but now it also empowers everything else I do by a flat percentage determined by how many times I’ve cast it”, Sheeno informs me while dispelling the new shiny pieces of ice.

“That is awesome! The two new [Spells] combined finally give you the needed survivability, which your build had severely lacked”, I nodded sagely after ‘fanboying’ a little bit at first.

“Oh, is that how it is? Then has the ‘expert’ managed to make me something else that I was ‘severely lacking’?” Sheeno asked with sass, but I could tell she was actually hopeful about it.

“Mhh, I don’t know… do you think that you’ve earned it?” I asked haughtily.

In response, Sheeno rolled her eyes, picked me up by the front of my shirt, and before I could complain about the treatment she gave me the biggest toe-twirling kiss I was ever part of.

After maybe a minute she unceremoniously dropped me on the ground, while lasciviously licking her lips, putting her shark-like teeth in full view, but I was too distracted by other thoughts from my second brain, and juggling the weapons behind my back without dropping them, to really comment on it.

“Do you find that answer satisfactory?” She cheekily asked.

“H-Hell yes!?” I inadvertently shouted, still feeling on cloud nine.

Sheeno laughed heartily at my response, and noticing the hint of a blush on her face, definitely more than mirrored from my own, I joined soon after.

Once we had recomposed ourselves I got the idea to present my work as royally as I possibly could, so I unlatched my mantle, covered the weapons with it, and then presented them while going down on one knee.

“For my lady, a weapon worthy of a [Royal]”, I announced as seriously as I could, earning another chuckle from her.

“Let me the judge of that, but I really doubt that anything coming from you could actually disappoint me”, Sheeno had started by playing along with my tone, but quickly warmed up at the gesture.

Without further delay, Sheeno picked up the leather cloak and dropped it to the side, which was fine because that was just a temporary piece that I didn’t care about, and then finally landed her gaze on her new weapons.

Name:

Supreme Dragon Fists

Owner:

Unowned

Type:

Gauntlet/Knuckles

Rank:

Legendary

Properties:

Elemental Amplification; Adaptability; Mana Shield; Repulsion; Linked Pieces

Materials:

Ice-Dragon bone; Wind-Dragon scales; Living-Rock Wood; Mithril

Four bone-white pieces with a scaly but polished green exterior and yellowish wooden interior padding rested on my arms, ready to be inspected and picked up.

Feeling a sudden shift in the emotion emanating from her I straighten up a bit to look at her face.

Her eyes are open wide, while her mouth is constantly twitching, undecided whether to settle on a frown or a smile. Using my [Aura] on her I can finally tell that what I was giving her had surpassed any expectation she could have had for my first craft, and now she was deciding whether to be moved by how hard I must have worked on them, or devastated at the newfound sense that she didn’t deserve them.

And that would not stand.

“I swear that if you don’t accept them in the next ten seconds I’m going to completely destroy them, and make them utterly unusable.”

No sooner had I finished speaking that Sheeno grabbed the knuckles and held them to her chest defensively.

Successful in my ruse I send a cheeky smile her way, to which she responds with a pout after figuring that in her haste she had been had. And before she could retort I brought up something that would interest her much more.

“Want to test them on some unfortunate [Monster]?” I asked.

“Do you even need to ask!?” Sheeno responded with childish glee.

It was good to see her this happy.