"The hide you and Anne got this time is fantastic, I know if it gets treated properly it would be able to hold up for a while. Ah, where are my manners!? You said you came to have some work done on your gloves? Come on then, let me see them!" Kirky reached out with his hands and Johan reached out his own gloved hands before Kirky gently grabbed then and looked at the gloves. "Wow, you weren't kidding. It'd be better if you could get just new gloves outright, but we don't have much hide to work with, I'd only be able to make 1 glove, maybe a bit more with the amount you have with you."

"Yeah, that's why I just wanted them reinforced. I figure if I can at least reinforce my gloves they'll last longer, heck, you could just replace the backs of them with the scaled part and just reinforce the front with more of the same material they are made of to start with. The scales being on the back might help with defensive needs as well since most things we fight have claws." Johan explained.

"Oh...! that's a neat idea. I might just do that. Hm... Yes, I think that's what I'll do." Kirky began to tap his fingers on the table beside him, "Alright, just leave your gloves here for now and I'll cure the hides and then go ahead and do that. It'll be a few days, maybe a little longer if I get into a tizzy."

"Sounds good. Thanks Kirky." Johan stood to leave.

"No problem. I have to do something anyways, otherwise I get to antsy." Johan just smiled and left.

Johan went back to Cals. Cal was currently doing some work for a couple other folks in town, notably Taeo who had a couple of shelves fall out of the wall because the wood in the wall needed replacing.

Cal being out was fine with Johan since that let him have some peace of mind to work on his new goal of being able to form a sphere of mana rather than an egg. So that was what Johan set to do. He left the meat he had in the dugout storage, which was just a hole covered by a trapdoor that was used to store the more perishable items, even being just barely under the earth left it relatively cool since the inside of the home was shaded by a roof.

Johan sat himself in the middle of the living room between some of the old furniture and began to slowly move his mana, forming the egg the same way he had when he was with Nath earlier that day.

Once that was done, he slowly changed the way he was controlling his mana. External mana control was called that primarily because most of the mana used for external mana control was already there. it was like having several pieces of clay, you take a piece of clay and stick it to another, and then you continue to do that until you have enough clay to make something. In this case what he was making was a ball, since it didn't need a certain attribute, i.e. water, fire, earth, air, etc. he was able to just use any mana making it quite easy for him.

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As Johan continued to experiment the egg like features began to slowly ween out, and the shape became rounder. it still wasn't the perfect sphere that Nath had shown him by any means, what with the small spikes and rough patches, but it was already significantly better than it was earlier that day.

Johan checked his watch noticing it was around 6 now. and decided to cook some food. His sister had gotten a bit better since she had made the 'bread' that was like porridge, but he still considered himself the better cook between them. So Johan cooked up some meat and also prepared some black bread that Markus had given to them to eat, making a portion for Cal as well. The man was a bit off sometimes, but he had still offered his home to them after all.

Shortly after he had finished making the food, Anne walked in. Given the miner cuts on her arms, he didn't need to ask what she had been up to. Markus was pretty gung ho about training. Though given how long she was gone, she had probably been hanging out with Jen and Pat as well.

The two of them set about eating, talking about a few things, Johan talked about how his magic training had been going, while Anne talked about how Finch had given her some more teachings about traps and how to skin some stuff, such as the creature they hunted earlier, which according to Finch was a scaled hound. Made sense to Johan, that is what it could be described as after all.

About half way through their meal, Cal walked in.

"Ah, foods already cooked then?" He asked

"Yep. should still be warm, I also got some of your bread out for you too, figured you'd like it as a sandwich as well." Johan held up his own sandwich.

"Ugh. Thanks for doing that, can't believe Markus has you kids eating that blackened bread though, that crap is disgusting." Johan laughed a bit at this, and Anne also smirked a bit.

"It definitely isn't gourmet, but it is still food, and Markus does have a point, it is nutritious and fills you up good too. Perfect for us since Anne and I are still growing and my mana fueled regeneration takes up more food." Johan responded.

"Ah, true enough." Cal settled into his comfy chair, the only good furniture in the house, "Ooh, that feels good after some hard work."

The trio ate talking a bit here and there, with Anne only saying a few words now that Cal was there, but still talking somewhat, to Johans great delight.

After dinner, they all headed off to sleep, and Johan thought of the things he wanted to accomplish once again. It was times like this that he would renew his resolve for the next day.