Harvey awoke with a start, the moon still high in the sky. Hannah gently shook him, holding a finger to his lips and pointing at the sleeping deer at the edge of the firelight.

  “He’s asleep, so I’m going to try and get some too. Wake me up if he gets fidgety.” She whispered.

  “If I wake him up right now, will you let me go back to bed?” He groaned.

  “I’m not sure knocked unconscious counts as sleeping, but you can test it out if you want.” She replied. “Goodnight, Harvey.”

  Sitting up, he leaned his back against a boulder and looked out at the dark forest. The night hummed softly with distant insects, rustling leaves, and the rhythmic breathing of the sleeping buck. It was alive with sound, but hard to see with the firelight messing with his night vision. With nothing better to do, he let himself get lost in thought.

  What kind of skill should he aim for? His fighting style had changed a lot over the last few days...

  When he got here, almost everything went down with just a few arcane bolts. That had carried him far enough to get fangbreaker, at which point he relied on that as his main method of creating openings. Now that it had been almost a week since the integration, the number of bolts it took to destroy most monsters was getting unsustainable. He’d bridged the gap with Fangbreaker-fueled punches and kicks, but the sturdy timberwolves had proven it wasn’t a viable long-term strategy. At best, it delayed his enemies, and he wouldn’t always have a competent hunter like Hannah backing him up.

  He wanted to be self-sustainable. Part of what stained him in the first place was his constant worry about what everyone else thought about him, and he would never really change if he couldn’t fight most battles on his own.

  Even if he wanted friends beside him while he fought, he couldn’t afford to need them.

  So, his level 10 skill should be a strong offensive option that complements the protection of Fangbreaker. Something that could take advantage of the openings it created to end a fight fast.

  His inner nerd still salivated at the thought of firebolts and lightning strikes, but that wasn’t his best option anymore. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure if it was an option since The Loom had rejected his desire for a similar skill at Level 5. Maybe he could combine the blistering heat of his forge with the form and function of an arcane bolt, but at best that would give him something moderately better against the forest creatures and arguably worse against the iron elementals. Worst of all, it would completely ignore the gains in strength he was getting from his profession.

  It was safe to assume the typical path for someone with the arcanist class was to double down on the magic. Most probably moved to some elementalist or mental magic path, where you choose a profession that lets you double down on the Wisdom and Endurance needed to withstand constantly using high-powered skills. Nigel, the stage magician, would probably do something like that. Expand on the magical blindness those pink marbles inflicted to the point he could break the minds of his enemies.

  Harvey was going in a different direction. His profession still gave a lot of endurance, but equally focused on improving his strength. This brought him to a crossroads, where a true arcane-focused class would leave his modest strength on the table, while moving towards a warrior focus, like Julian, would ignore his massive pool of wisdom.

  He was G grade at the moment, and assumed reaching the next grade would come with a new class of his own creation. The skills he made now would become the foundation, so he needed to make sure the next one made the most of his unique blend.

  Julian had already said he was punching with his mind... why not find a way to do that better? Fangbreaker may not be meant for killing, but having an easy way to add a little oomph to his swings worked wonders. He’d kicked a bloodrunn hard enough to break its neck, and ravaged the spine of the Moonshade with his hammer arms. Granted, he had the help of jumping out of a tree, but still, it was effective.

  What if he combined all the fights where he pounded down on his enemies with his time hammering in the forge? Each strike of the metal sent sparks flying, so what if his strikes could send gouts of fire his enemies' way? It might be a stretch, and he’d have to see how much imagination the Loom was willing to accommodate, but he envisioned a skill that combined the heat of the forge with the erupting force of a Fangbreaker to create some sort of flame strike.

  His heart started racing as the idea became clearer and clearer in his mind, but no matter how hard he prayed, the moon didn’t move any faster.

  When the sun finally did peak over the horizon, he shook Hannah awake.

  “What time is it?” She asked, stretching.

  “I haven’t known what time it was in days,” He laughed. “Sun’s up though.”

  She looked out, seeing it hadn’t even reached the bottom of the leaves yet. “Barely! What the hell, Harvey! Can’t anyone just let me sleep!”

  “What! How was I supposed to know what time you wanted to wake up!” He shouted back.

  Beside them, Buttercup’s eyes shot wide open, and he skittered to his feet.

  “Also, Buttercup’s awake, so we might as well get moving.” He laughed.

  “Only because you woke him up.” She groaned, pulling the sleeping bag over her head.

  “You’re the one who started shouting.” He poked.

  “YOU!” She yelled, pulling her head from the warm cloth. “Woke him up because you woke ME up!”

  It took a few minutes, but she finally convinced herself to brave the chilly morning. He was shivering himself, but it got a lot better once they started moving.

  She started the day by filling the wooden bowl with water and a few more drops of the health potion. Buttercup could just as easily drink from the river, but his eyes were laser-focused on the bowl the second it hit the ground. She poured the rest of the potion over another head of lettuce, and gingerly fed the buck like he was a puppy instead of a deer the size of a small horse.

  The light of her fifth level shone out as he finished eating, and her attitude toward rushing back to Veils End flipped on its head.

  “Why are you walking so slow? Hurry up!” She screeched.

  “You’re practically running!” He called after her. He’d never been much of a distance runner, favoring sports where he had to cover a 10x10 foot square with a racquet in his hand, but found it surprisingly easy with his body chock full of endurance. Buttercup had no complaints, following eagerly behind even without a potion luring it away from its forest home. There was some trepidation in the buck as the leaves turned from green to purple and the grassy ground changed to rot-covered dirt, but with some gentle coaxing, it kept following.

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  Veils End was already awake and bustling by the time they made it back in the mid-morning. The wall crew was hard at work, and it would likely only be another day or two before the first layer was complete. They got a few strange looks when people saw Buttercup, but nobody questioned Hannah when she said he was safe.

  “Probably good you picked him, convincing everyone you tamed a Bloodrunn and that it wouldn’t just start eating people would have been a lot harder,” Harvey said.

  “I know, right?” She laughed, pushing open the church doors.

  She wasted no time, rushing to the orb with Buttercup close behind. The buck huffed in alarm when the rainbow haze surrounded her, but a calming hand on its back from Harvey stopped it from knocking over all the dusty pews.

  Visions appeared one by one in the space between her and the Loom. Shooting a supercharged arrow into the Moonshade Stalker to pull its attention away as it tormented the wounded deer. Feeding him that first leaf of lettuce. Standing guard in the face of five timberwolves when her chosen ward had nowhere left to run.

  All were joined together, with the final addition of the symbol she’d been given in the guidebook as the template for a mental connection skill. It looked like a human head wearing an animal mask, and he assumed it was a reference to getting inside the animal’s head.

  With a nod, the Loom came to life, weaving a sigil that showed Hannah’s face with antlers sticking out of her head. Silently, it lifted into the air and floated toward her chest. She grimaced through the pain as her weave remolded, moving to accommodate the connections to her new skill.

  With a smile, she turned to face Buttercup, a glowing screen appearing in front of the buck. It skittered back, shocked at the entire proceeding. Harvey couldn’t read what the screen said. It was in a language that his translation skill didn’t seem to work on. They all stood frozen for a moment until an encouraging nod from Hannah was met with a contented snort. The screen disappeared, and the two stared at each other.

  “Umm, did it work?” He finally asked.

  “Shh! I’m talking to Buttercup!” She hissed.

  The two stared at each other for a long time.

  “What is he saying?” Harvey asked, wonder in his eyes as he stared at the buck.

  “He says I’m the prettiest princess in all the land, and that you smell bad,” Hannah said.

  Buttercup stamped his feet, shaking his head towards Harvey.

  “There’s no way that’s the first thing he said after finding out he can talk to a human.” Harvey groaned.

  “Nope, I’m sorry, but he really doesn’t like you.” She said as Buttercup gently nuzzled into his side.

  “Sure.” Harvey laughed. “Does the skill do anything else?”

  A screen appeared between them for Harvey to read.

  “Exactly what we thought you were going to get! I have to say, the tattoo looks great!” Harvey encouraged.

  “You’re never going to see it.” She said. “It’s in kind of a delicate spot…”

  “No worries, wasn’t going to ask.” He laughed. “Is there some sort of screen you can pull up about Buttercup? Can you see what level he is?”

  “No, but I can just ask him. He says he’s a level 6 white-tailed deer.” She replied.

  “How does he level up? I can’t imagine him hunting,” Harvey asked.

  “Eating, apparently. Now that everything’s absorbing essence, just snacking on some leaves is enough to slowly level.” She answered.

  “Can you just start force-feeding him salads until he’s level 100?” He laughed.

  “I would never! It’s important for growing boys to get enough food, but we don’t want Buttercup getting fat now, do we?” She gasped. Suddenly, radiant light began glowing out of both her and Buttercup.

  “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.” Harvey sighed.

  “Ha! Apparently, we both get levels when serving the purpose of our bond.” She laughed triumphantly.

  “This is so unfair. You get levels for NOT doing some stupid offhand suggestion I made as a joke!” Harvey griped.

  “Yeah, keep doing it. This is awesome! Six profession levels in just over a day, I love being a Beast Caretaker.” Hannah celebrated.

  Before he could die from jealousy, he moved to place his own hands on the crystal ball. He really was happy for Hannah and knew she’d worked plenty hard to deserve all the progress she was making. Now, it was time to make his own. Any lingering thoughts disappeared as he was cut off from the outside world, and it didn’t take long to find the memories he’d stewed about the night before.

  Leaping from the tree to crush the Moonshade Stalker. Crushing the Alpha bloodrunn after baiting it into a frontal assault in the sea of blood mist. Watching the forge reach over 2500 degrees Fahrenheit with his Inventor’s Insight skill, letting his body be bathed in the superheated air fighting to escape the firepot. Sparks flying as he struck the superheated metal over and over again, bending it to his will.

  Days in the forge combined with his latest combat victories, and entered the Loom. Silver, red, and brown thread cascaded down, weaving into the shape of a burning warhammer that implanted itself into his right bicep. His weave burned with the heat of the forge as his muscles swelled, searing pain heralding the call of the skill that would bring death to every undead monster that stood between him and his home.

  His skin still burned as the rainbow haze retreated, and he could almost smell singed flesh as he brought up the screen for both of them to read.

  There was that word again… Ascendant. Julian’s profession description mentioned it too. Something about the A grades still needing someone to build the beautiful palaces they all wanted to live in. Maybe that’s what The System called people like him?

  In any case, it was perfect. Exactly as he imagined it, proving that at least a few of his theories about The System and skill creation were correct. Seeing the beautiful warhammer, he realized it may be time for a new weapon. He needed to visit the shop to buy Elena’s skill anyway, so why shouldn’t he blow his safety net on a shiny new killing tool?