“Saaaam, I don’t know what to piiiiick.” I whine at my girlfriend. By this time I’ve already gone over the entire list a couple of times but I’m really stuck as to what I should take.
“What about spell control, you never can go wrong with that, right?”
“But I can already controll my spells pretty well…”
“I know, but better control is always… better…” Sam scratches her chin and looks to the side. “That sounded better in my head.”
I chuckle. “Oh well, it only costs five points so I guess I’ll take it.” I click the skill which immediately reduces my remaining points total, although, to my surprise, the spell control skill adds a couple more skills to my options. “Is it normal that this also leads to different skills?” I ask.
“I don’t know. What else did you get?”
“A couple, I noticed because a couple of skills jumped further down the list…” I go up and down the list to see what the new skills are that have popped up. One of them that I notice is expert spell control which costs another fifteen points, I take that one as well because why not. A couple of others that appeared have to do with casting magic from a very long distance. As a healer that’s pretty useful as well so I take those too. That’s another thirty points gone, but now I can cast my heal spells from a very long distance. That having been said, for my very strong heals and my revives, I do need to be quite a bit closer, but I can now cast those from approximately ten meters away if I really need to as well.
“How many points left?” Sam asks.
“Fifty-five…”
“Well, I suppose you could let it be at that for now. Maybe you’ll get more skills when you level up a bit more as well.”
“Hmm. Perhaps.” I scroll down the list one more time, right before I’m about to close my skill list window, I spot a new skill completely at the bottom. “Wait a minute… this skill is called ‘divine artifact control’…It costs 50 points…”
“Does it say what it does?”
“Acquired after attuning with a divine artifact and mastering your controll of magic.This skill allows you to use divine artifacts that are not of your own make.”
“So… does that mean that if you take that… that you can control whatever power that bracelet has?”
“I-I think so.” I nod.
“Are you… going to take it?”
“Now that you ask me… I don’t really know… it’s pretty scary isn’t it?”
Sam nods. “Want to discuss it with the rest before you make a decision on it?”
I think for a second before I give her a nod. “Yeah… I think that’d probably be best.”
“Right.” Sam gets up. “Although I’m not sure if we should have that conversation with Brianna around. Not that I don’t trust her… but you know.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” I agree. Talking about things that concern the gods and furthermore has already caused a big conflict, it might be a good idea to just keep it within the party.
“Ready to head back?” Sam asks and offers me her hand so she can pull me up.
“Yep.” She pulls me up, but doesn’t stop pulling once I’m on my feet, so that she pulls me in close to her and follows up with a kiss.
“Sorry, I couldn't contain myself.” She winks.
“How dare you.” I giggle and kiss her again on my own accord. “There, that was the fine you had to pay.”
“Awh, can’t you give me a bigger fine then next time?”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“I’ll consider it.”
Sam smiles and takes my hand in hers, together we walk back to the beach where, to our surprise, there was still a discussion ongoing.
“Uh, is this still about the same thing?” Sam asks to Hilda who’s just looking at Lise and Nikki going at it.
“Oh, you two are back.” Hilda smiles at us and then turns back around to my sister and her lover. “Believe it or not, they are actually discussing sand castles.”
“Sand… castles…?” I repeat in disbelief.
“I know. But it’s funny to watch.” Hilda chuckles. “In short, your sister wants to have a big moat around the sandcastle while Nikki was going more for a fort on top of a mountain.”
“Can’t they just build two castles?”
“That’s what I said but they want to work together.”
I roll my eyes and giggle.
“And what did you girls do in the meantime?”
“We did Ami’s skills, but there’s something we’d like to discuss with the entire group, once we are back alone.”
“Ah.” Hilda looks at Brianna who’s following the discussion from the other side of the campfire. She’s not really paying any attention to us. “Is it something serious?”
“Let’s say it has something to do with a certain… bracelet.” I reply.
“Oh. Right. Okay.” Hilda nods. “That’s probably not a bad plan to do it when we are alone.”
“That’s what we were thinking.” I sit down next to her.
She smiles and gives me a head pat.
When the sandcastle debacle finally cools down the group sits back together to discuss our next course of action. To summarize, we are basically going to continue the plan that we had originally set out to do, constructing some more long-term huts. But this time with trees that are not suspiciously colored. We also decided to not split the groups this time as it is more fun to do so together.
We pick out a plot of trees that is close by so we can prepare the ground afterwards. Here we will be able to plant crops and grow flowers. But first things first, let’s go and cut down some trees!
With Hilda and Sam back to guide our work, we make a lot of progress, clearing half of the area in the matter of two hours, together with laying the foundation of four separate huts. And another two hours later, those foundations had turned into full sized huts already. It actually felt like cheating. There was no way one could build a hut this fast in real life, let alone four at once.
“Pfffff, it’s getting really bloody hot.” My sister wipes away the sweat from her brow. She’s already gone down to only a shirt, but what she says is definitely true. After a rainy early morning, the sun has been baking pretty much constantly. Together with a change of wind direction which brought in some warm air as well, it’s getting a lot hotter than it was yesterday.
“Yeah. We should stop for now.” Hilda agrees. “We’ve done a lot already, let’s just work on the bedding in the evening and leave it at that.”
“But what are we going to do now then?” Nikki asks.
“Well. I’d actually like to give spear fishing a try.” Hilda replies. “And you all might enjoy having a little swim as well.”
“Now that you say it… We’ve not gone swimming ever since we arrived. It would be a missed opportunity if we didn’t, right?” Sam smiles and scratches her chin.
“True.” My sister is already taking off her pants. “I’m going to take a dip immediately.” And with that she starts running towards the ocean, just in her underwear and with a shirt on. Closely followed by Nikki who practically does the same.
Sam’s taking her shirt off and her pants as well. “You joining as well, Ami?”
“Uh… shouldn’t I… make us a bikini or something like that first? I really wouldn’t like to get my underwear wet…”
“Hmm? You can do that?” Hilda asks. She was waiting on Brianna to come back from a bathroom break first before heading to the ocean herself.
“Ah yeah. Ami learned how to do tailoring.”
“Oh. Need some cloth and a needle? I got some rolls of cloth in my bag.”
“Do we want to know why?” Sam chuckles.
“One can never be too prepared.” Hilda smiles and then looks back at me. “So, do you need it or not?”
“Sure. I kinda wanted to test it out anyway.”
“Kay.” Hilda gives me a pat on the head and then walks over to her bag. In a moments notice she returns with a bolt of some high quality cloth. “Will this do?”
“I think so.” I gladly accept the offering. Hilda also hands over some thread and needles to me which are neatly packed in a tough leather case. “Give me a second.” I look at my girlfriend’s proportions to figure out what size her swimwear needs to be.
Sam quickly notices what I’m doing and gets a little embarrassed, however, she doesn’t cover anything up tho. In the meantime, Hilda just giggles.
It only takes me a couple of minutes before I manage to make a black bikini for my girlfriend and hand it over to her. It’s very strange to go from a layman to someone who can fabricate such a high quality product with the flip of a switch. But right now I really don’t care to think about that that much, I just want to see my girlfriend in the bathing suit I made for her.
“Okay, I’ll be right back.” Sam smiles at the bikini I put in her hands and then she walks off.
“I’m actually kinda curious how good it’ll look.” Hilda admits.
-So am I, but a lot more gayly.-