Harvey awoke to the rumble of snoring as morning’s first light broke through the window. Stretching his arms wide, he recoiled when his hand brushed against matted fur. His heart skipped a beat until he realized it was just Buttercup’s butt, which had somehow ended up pointing right at his head during the night. He’d argued against letting the deer sleep inside, but eventually relented when Hannah reminded them he could literally tell her whenever he needed to go use the bathroom.

  It was a unique advantage most pets didn’t have, but it also meant Hannah could tell him to send any midnight farts Harvey’s direction. Still, it was nice having his friends close.

  They’d had a productive afternoon yesterday, and he’d been able to claw his way to his eighth profession level while blasting through another batch of nails, hinges, and hammers for the building crew. Leveling up making those simple building materials was getting harder, and he’d need to start working on more useful items soon if he wanted his contribution to Veils End to be anything more than providing creature comforts for the Veilstriders. Repairing houses was great, but they’d need weapons and armor if they wanted those homes to be anything more than a pit stop on their way down to hell.

  He’d put his two free points into Strength, deciding it needed the boost if he wanted to make the most of his new weapon. After some preliminary testing, he couldn’t be happier with how his new hammer paired with the Flamestrike skill. So far, he’d only tried it against rocks and trees since no one was brave enough to spar after seeing gouts of flame erupt like a rocket blast, but the splintered craters in the forest behind his shop spoke volumes.

  He’d have to take another trip into the mines today and test it out on a real foe, but he didn’t want to leave before seeing what profession Elena got. Maybe he’d try making a few knives too, not for killing, but as a utility tool. He couldn’t count how many times he’d wished he had a knife handy, but all they had were unwieldy swords or tiny chisels. Making a few would help him practice hammering an edge while he worked up to the swords and spears they’d use against the undead.

  A week ago, the infantry weapons John sold seemed impossibly extravagant. Now, as the merit bounties for killing higher-level monsters climbed, he realized that most people would have decent gear by the time the Undead arrived. The only way his blacksmithing efforts would be anything more than a personal power-up was if he made weapons from the essence-infused ore that outclassed the shop’s. He had no idea what kind of benefits a weapon like that would have, but there had to be some, considering how vital essence was to the System.

  “Sorry, guys. It’s about to get hot in here.” Harvey announced, piling coal into the firepot and tossing in a match.

  “I swear, Harvey, you make me hate you every single morning. Eventually, I won’t be able to like you again by the time I fall asleep.” Hannah groaned, her voice muffled by the cloak she used as a pillow.

  “You’ll get over it.” He laughed, opening the back door to retrieve a batch of normal and essence-infused ore. He could prep his materials while he waited for Elena to head over. He was tempted to knock on Gary’s door and drag her to the Loom, citing his generosity in buying the guide as an excuse for rushing her, but he restrained himself. He didn’t want to be the kid who couldn’t wait for their friend to open the birthday present they’d bought them.

  Her profession excited him for two reasons. One, she’d be able to start leveling again without him having to drag her out hunting. She’d probably hit a plateau at some point without leveling her class, but maybe the extra stats from her profession levels would give her the confidence to give hunting another shot. If not, she’d at least have some strength to protect herself when the Undead showed up.

  Two, inscriptions seemed like a complementary path to his own. If it were anything like what he expected, she’d provide a boost to the effectiveness of his creations. He’d make a sword, and she’d improve it with some fire enchantments or something. He’d bet money that her inscriptions would perform better on essence-infused materials, so he should at least make a pair of knives so she could compare the two.

  He’d cleaned off the shoddy mud patches he’d used to seal the forge and replaced them with clay the night before, and was satisfied to watch the temperature in the firepot rise faster while leaking less heat than before. He saved some to bake into molds of ingots and rods, unsure if the material was suitable for his needs, but willing to test it out. By the time Elena finally knocked on his door, he’d melted and poured all his material for the day.

  “Hello? Good morning!” She called out, pushing the door open. “Oh, sorry, Buttercup.”

  The buck was napping in the entryway, but didn’t seem bothered once he saw who’d bumped him.

  “You’re fine. It’s too cramped in here for a big, strong boy like him anyway. Come on, Buttercup, let’s go for a walk.” Hannah cooed.

  Harvey knew that Buttercup couldn’t actually understand her. They communicated telepathically, so her constant doting was for their benefit. With a snort, the buck rose to his feet and carefully maneuvered his antlers through the doorway and into the cold morning light.

  “Morning! Enjoy your night?” Harvey asked with a smile.

  “It was definitely… interesting.” Hannah sighed.

  “Interesting… as in a really interesting book that you definitely finished already?” Harvey sang, starting slow before rushing to the end.

  “Yeah, I read it. I was headed to the Loom when I realized you’d hate me if I didn’t let you come watch.” She laughed.

  “I wouldn’t hate you, per se, but you definitely made the right choice! I can’t wait to see what inscriptions are all about. I have so many theories.” Harvey chirped.

  Julian joined them, and they walked toward the church. To his surprise, there was a line of people waiting for a turn at The Loom. With the wall finally finished the day before, people had time again for hunting and profession work. That meant new skills were being created constantly, and the dusty old church was in service once more. People watched reverently as Veilstriders took turns transforming mundane experiences into magical skills, and a roar of applause erupted with every tattoo etched onto a Veilstrider's body.

  He almost needed to cover his ears, afraid his vitality wouldn’t save him from going deaf, but he cheered all the same. He wanted the Undead to hear them celebrating. To know that Veils End wasn’t going to lie down and die. The Veilstriders were fighting back.

  When it was finally Elena’s turn, she hesitated. He could see her hands gently shaking, and her mix of brown and black hair bobbed as she turned between him and the Loom.

  “I know you were disappointed with my skill. Hopefully, it’s different this time.” She whispered.

  “Who told you that?” Harvey asked.

  “Nobody... but I could tell. I may not say it loud enough, but I know how much you’ve invested in me. I still don’t understand why. I’m no good in a war… I’m not a killer, and I never will be. What is it you want?” She asked, the words catching in her throat.

  “You won’t believe me, but all I want is for you to be safe. Part of that is helping you raise your stats, so I tried to get you a profession you’d fall in love with. That way,” Harvey paused, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, “you can still get stronger, but with a smile on your face.”

  Elena paused, her eyes watering as she strained to maintain his gaze. He didn’t understand where all this emotion was coming from, but he wasn’t going to embarrass her for getting it out. For once, he didn’t reach for a fix the second tears started flowing. He just let her feel it.

  “O-Ok. Thanks, Harvey. It’s not lost on me that you’ve spent a small fortune helping me already, and after my reading last night, it sounds like I’m going to need a lot more help in the future.” She replied.

  “Not a problem,” He reassured her, “especially if this profession is as useful as I’m imagining it’s going to be.”

  A wicked grin cut offset the tear running down her cheek, her red eyes going sharp as she laughed. “Oh, it will be.”

  Steadied, she placed her hands on the crystal ball, and Harvey took his seat on the pew beside the loom. Floating in the space between her and that cosmic mystery, he saw visions of her reading the guidebook mix with art she’d created back home. He’d reminded her to check every combination she could think of, so it took a few minutes before the cosmic replays in the space between melted into the Loom. Where he’d been infused with red, orange, and silver thread, Elena was swarmed by every single color. It wasn’t that her profession was stronger than his, but that it needed a bit of everything the Loom had to offer.

  He winced as a panicked scream escaped her lips, dozens of threads snaking their way into her weave, but it wasn’t long before the loom settled and the rainbow haze retreated.

  “Are you ok?” Julian asked.

  “Yeah. I’m all right. It didn’t hurt as badly as I thought it would. It just scared me. Sorry, everyone!” She winced, cheeks rosy as dozens of nervous Veilstriders stared at her.

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  “Congrats! Now don’t keep us waiting, share the screen!” Harvey encouraged.

  “Wow, that’s the first profession I’ve seen give 4 points in a single stat, and yours does it for two!” Julian exclaimed, pulling Elena into a hug.

  “Congrats, Elena!” Hannah said, joining Julian to make it a group hug. “We’re excited for you.”

  Harvey waited off to the side, laughing when Hannah motioned for him to join in. He shook his head no, content to watch. He saw her mouth something, and ignored her completely when he made out the word girlfriend.

  She might not understand, but he didn’t see her that way.

  Another Veilstrider pushed past the group still blocking the Loom, and they finally remembered the line of people looking to make their own leaps forward. Leaving the church behind, the foursome plus deer walked back to the smithy. It was still hot from the remnant fire burning in the forge, so they gathered in the yard out back to escape the heat.

  “So, can you describe your profession for us? Harvey shared his theories, but in my experience, he is woefully ignorant about almost everything.” Hannah asked flatly.

  “He is?” Elena asked, flustered.

  “No, he’s not. Hannah just likes pressing everyone’s buttons.” Julian chastised.

  “Why would buttons exist if not to be pressed? Would God create an apple if it weren’t meant to be eaten?” She asked, doing her best impression of a wise philosopher.

  “That’s literally the story. Here’s a garden… there’s an apple… don’t eat it.” Harvey groaned.

  “Touché,” Hannah replied, putting her pinky up to her lip.

  “Umm, anyways. He was pretty close. Inscriptions are about imbuing objects with magical effects powered by essence and channeled through ink. It’s basically what the Loom does, except for objects instead of people.” Elena explained.

  “Ha! I told you so!” Harvey laughed, pointing a finger at Hannah. “You only deny my genius because you can’t bear your own ignorance.”

  “Surrounded… on all sides… by idiots,” Julian complained, sharing a sympathetic smile with Elena.

  “Does that mean you understand how a Loom works?” Harvey asked. “I’ve been mulling around on the idea that there’s some other language The System uses, and if we can figure out how to speak it, we’ll be able to create stronger skills.”

  “Kind of? But the Loom is infinitely more complex than anything I’d ever try. The guide did mention that there are two schools of thought when it comes to creating sigils. Early grade essence magic usually only needs one, but a footnote mentioned that you’d need to combine both if you wanted anything above D grade power.”

  “D grade?” Hannah asked.

  “Do you pay attention to anything?” Harvey quipped.

  “What!” She yelled. “I’ve never heard anything about grades before!”

  “Hannah, open your status screen.” Julian chuckled, hands on his face.

  “Why? What does that have to do with…” She began, “Oh, ok. I see it now.”

  “We’re G Grade, and apparently, as we level up, we’ll advance through the letters. The guide said there’s not just a quantitative difference between the power of a G-grade inscription and a higher-grade one, but a difference in the quality of essence needed to power them.” Elena explained.

  “But essence is just essence. It all feels the same to me.” Hannah said.

  “We’re barely entering the second week of an integration trial, I doubt we could even find something higher than G grade here,” Harvey explained.

  “My thoughts exactly,” Elena agreed, “Back on topic, though, there are two methods for creating inscriptions. The first is more art than science, and what I plan to focus on. All our tattoos so far have been images, right? Of important moments or a functional demonstration of what the skills do? The System uses this style for the more emotional races, like us. It uses ink to embed concepts into our weaves in a way that's very conceptual and descriptive. If you can paint a good picture and have the strength to will the essence to follow your instructions, you can create a template for it to follow.”

  “I guess that makes sense.” Harvey muttered, “I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted my flamestrike skill to be, and the Loom helped make it real.”

  “It’s all about ideas and concepts, but you have to be strong enough to bend the essence into the shape you want, or it won’t work.” Elena continued.

  “That’s why I couldn’t get a skill that turns my arrows into nuclear bombs, even though I really wanted that,” Hannah added.

  “What?” They all asked in unison.

  “Yeah! Wouldn’t that be so cool! We could wipe out the entire army with a single nuke arrow!” She exclaimed.

  “I guess that’s technically possible, but there’s no way you’d ever have enough power to accomplish something like that. At least in G Grade,” Elena laughed.

  “That’s why the Loom lets us combine our memories with components like the template Hannah got from her guide,” Harvey concluded. “It lets us stretch without breaking past the limits of our current power. Too bad it’s not just some coding language we can learn from a book, though, we’d have a lot more control that way.”

  “Actually, that’s basically the second method the System uses. It’s used for more analytical lifeforms, like golems or robots, but it’s basically a collection of patterns that perform specific functions.” Elena announced.

  “Like what?” Harvey asked, excited.

  “I only learned the basic ones, but think of them like building blocks that you can slot together in different configurations. One block might be for storing essence, while the next block transforms it into lighting, and the final block turns it into a ball you can shoot from your hand. That’s woefully oversimplified, but gives you an idea.” Elena explained, drawing simple patterns in the dirt and pointing to each as a quick demonstration.

  “That sounds like exactly what I’m looking for!” Harvey celebrated. “Can you teach me some of those patterns?”

  “Sure, but it will be trial and error for both of us. Everything I know is theoretical at this point.” Elena warned.

  “I know, it was the same for me when I started blacksmithing. You’ll pick it up fast.” He encouraged.

  “Not if I can’t get the materials I need.” She sighed.

  “Which are?” He probed.

  “Ink and art supplies.” She answered. “Inscriptions live or die based on the inscriber’s ability to balance their own power with the latent will of their tools. Most spend less than a third of their time actually creating sigils since the ink creation process is pretty intense. Not to mention finding a brush compatible with the effects you're going for.”

  “You have to make your own ink? I thought you’d get a skill or something for that.” Julian asked.

  “Well, you need a skill to refine it, but you can’t make something out of nothing. Every inscription would be single-use if they were made purely out of my own essence.” Elena explained.

  “What can you use for ink?” He continued.

  “Anything, really. The goal is to find the strongest materials you can find with the effects you want. The more essence inside of it, the better. Most beginners stick to beast blood, since it’s easy to come by and doesn’t need much refinement. Dip a sharpened bone in some blood and you’re all set.” Elena explained.

  “We can get that for you in five minutes. That won’t be too bad.” Harvey considered.

  “Yeah, it’s a good idea to start that way, but the best I’d be able to create would probably be an inscription that makes wounds bleed more. Blood and bones from a bloodrunn would do the trick, but I’d need better materials if the goal is to start reinforcing the walls or setting traps outside the outpost.”

  “That’s ideally what we want.” Julian said, “What would you need to do that?”

  “The guide gave me a blueprint for a cauldron thing that I’ll use to break stuff down into different inks. You can make the cauldron out of a lot of different things, but the preferred materials are a mix of essence-infused metal and crystallized essence. I don’t even know if John’s shop sells them, and I have no idea what to do if they don’t.” Elena sighed.

  Harvey looked at the black mouth of the tunnel stretching into the mountain behind her, wondering if he should tell the truth about the mine. He trusted her, but he wasn’t sure he could trust her to keep a secret this big from Gary. Even if she made an offhand comment about elementals or Essence crystals by accident, they could have a major problem on their hands. After all, they’d kept the mine a secret for a reason.

  Sweat gathered on the back of his neck, and he wrung his hands before looking to Julian. He nodded, and Hannah did the same.

  “Guys? What’s wrong?” Elena asked, noticing the temperature drop as the mood turned heavy.

  “If we tell you this, you have to promise never to tell Gary.” Harvey began. “We can’t trust him to keep the best interests of Veils End in mind if he learns our secret.”

  “That psycho? Trust me, I know how bad he can be. If you’re hiding something from him, I won’t be the one to let that slip.” Elena encouraged

  “Good.” Harvey nodded. “I think we can find both of those things in that tunnel over there.”

  “Really? That’s great! Why would Gary care?” She asked.

  “Well, first of all, pure crystallized essence seems like a cheat code to power leveling, but we already tested that out and found it was extremely dangerous. Second, the essence infused iron comes from killing elementals.” Harvey announced.

  He expected a bigger response, but she just stared at him.

  “Sooooo… what? I can kind of see the first part becoming an issue, but I’m a little lost on the second one.” She replied.

  Embarrassed, Harvey cleared his throat. Maybe it really wasn’t a problem, and he was making it a bigger deal than it should be.

  “Well, the elementals are pretty tough to kill if you can’t expose their cores. We didn’t want word to get out and have people dying at the hands of a foe they weren’t equipped to fight. As for Gary, I was worried he’d see the mine as a private hunting ground, and didn’t want to have to fight him for the ore we get from the elementals.”

  “Ok, I guess that makes sense. There are plenty of things to fight out in the forest already, but I’ll take your word that the elementals are hard to kill. I sure as hell won’t be going in there.” Elena said.

  “Good, let’s take a look at that cauldron blueprint together, and we can start there. I planned on heading into the mines today anyway to test my new hammer, so I can pick up some essence crystals while I’m down there.” Harvey said.

  “Sounds great to me! Thanks again, you guys. This really means the world to me.” She smiled.

  “Don’t thank us! This was all Harvey,” Julian replied.

  A huge smile split his face. He couldn’t wait to get started.