“Ok, I think I’m ready,” Harvey said, standing up from the workbench when he saw Elena finally break her concentration after an intense crafting session.

  “Really? Want to go over your plan with me?” She asked.

  “No, I want it to be a surprise.”

  They left the forge and set out to find Julian and Hannah. It was early afternoon, and Harvey was relieved to see his friends eating sandwiches outside the General Store. Most of Veils End was out hunting, and he would’ve hated to wait for them to get back if they’d gone out as well.

  “Hold on, Harvey. I have to finish my sandwich.” Hannah began, chewing as slowly as possible. He waited patiently for her to finish the first bite, but snatched it out of her hand when he saw her doing her best sloth impression. “Hey!”

  “Buttercup! Catch!” Harvey called, tossing it to the buck who snatched it out of the air.

  “Ah! You already ate your lunch, that was mommy’s sandwich!”

  Buttercup flinched back, hurrying to swallow before Hannah could wrench the food away. Harvey couldn’t speak to him like she could, but still tried his best to send a mental thumbs-up his way.

  “Look at that! Your food's gone! Time to go!” Harvey cheered, grabbing her wrist and dragging her to the Loom.

  “Could you two act like adults for once?” Julian complained, walking alongside Elena to the church.

  I could, but you gotta find fun where you can. Rushing into the chapel, he found it was blissfully empty. He’d delayed his evolution long enough and wasn’t going to wait another second. The other three found a seat in a pew, Buttercup almost knocking one over as he tried to back his way into the narrow row. He’d grown a lot over the last week, at least 25% larger than when they’d found him cornered by the Moonshade Stalker. Harvey didn’t know much about white tailed deer to begin with, but it sure seemed like the Essence was helping it grow much faster than normal.

  Placing his hands on the crystal ball, the rainbow haze surrounded him. He admired for a moment how the already quiet outpost was replaced with the absolute silence of the Loom. There were scant few moments in the trial where safety was guaranteed, so he needed to make the most of each and every one.

  Taking deep breaths, he focused on every part of his body, doing his best to enter a meditative state. Plans, problems, hopes, and dreams were all set aside for the moment as he worked to relax every muscle. It was a fight, suppressing the buzz of the impending evolution, but he wasn’t going to do it without a clear head.

  He could feel the unfathomable presence behind the Loom patiently waiting for him to begin. Hannah and Julian hadn’t said much about their actual experience evolving, only that the thread burrowing deep into their bodies was twice as painful and invigorating as it had been when they created their G Grade professions. If the barrier surrounding him was impenetrable during the evolution, was it possible to wait out the end of the trial in the Loom?

  The thought tugged at the Stain on his chest, his will faltering for a moment until he eviscerated the thought. He would never do that. How could he become strong if he were sitting safe in a bubble? But maybe it would be good for Elena…

  Finally settled, he set to creating his final class skill for the G Grade. It would be short-lived, seeing as it would immediately evolve to F Grade alongside him.

  Why even have a skill slot at the same level as the evolution? It doesn’t make sense to wait to evolve… unless there’s more than just hitting the level cap for the higher grades. Harvey thought.

  He took his time sifting through the ocean of memories surrounding him, searching for the five he’d planned to include in his skill. None of his fights had included any sort of essence constructs, so the first ingredient had to come from his profession. To anyone living in a civilized society, a skill like Inventor’s Toolbox would be supremely underwhelming. The ability to create molds, bits, and temporary tools out of pure essence was useless when you could just buy a better version for less merit than a few monster kills. Even if you couldn’t afford everything up front, you were better off using a skill slot for something better and saving up. Harvey had neither the time nor the merit to take that approach, so he’d been forced to make do with using a skill as a shortcut.

  He’d gotten better at molding pure essence into shape after making countless molds and rounding tools, improving both their durability and the time it took them to break down. Technically, he could already use the Inventor’s Toolbox to mold a hammer or a shield, but not with the speed needed for combat use. With the Loom’s help, he hoped that would change.

  From the sea of experiences, he plucked a vision where he hammered wrought iron over a mold in the shape of his own head. Being able to take his dimensions with Inventor’s Insight let him form a perfect replica, making it significantly easier to shape the metal to a perfect fit. It accounted for all the bumps and valleys of his skull, leaving the perfect amount of room for his brow and nose so the armor fit snugly and comfortably.

  Hopefully that’s enough detail for you, System. He thought, moving to the next memory.

  Having no other personal experience with the skill he was aiming for, he turned to all the times he wished he had one. Fighting the giant Kalthera Widow, unable to do enough damage with his fireballs while being held at bay by the flurry of kicks. Getting pummeled by the F Grade Iron Elemental after it disarmed him and destroyed his warhammer. Sitting helpless in a sea of blood mist while desperately protecting Elena on their Bloodrunn hunt, unable to take a swing without exposing his throat first.

  The glow surrounding the bundle of visions started dim, but grew brighter as each piece was added. The washed-out colors began to look like he was seeing each experience through his own eyes instead of an old video camera. The Loom didn’t know what to do with a simple essence mold alone, but it seemed like it was beginning to understand his idea.

  Beginning, but not quite there yet. What else could he include? He had plenty of fights where a skill like this would have been helpful, but none where it was absolutely necessary. He sat for a long time, watching the sea of visions with growing frustration. If he created the skill now, it would be serviceable, but nothing special. Perfection may be impossible. But exceptional? He wouldn’t settle for less.

  Vision after vision passed by his eyes. Fight after fight. Nothing was good enough. An itch nagged at the back of his neck, but the Loom kept his hands glued to the crystal ball until the process was complete.

  There has to be something.

  The itch grew louder, begging for his attention as his shoulders began to twitch.

  What the hell?

  His concentration broken, he struggled to wiggle his head and shoulders to satisfy the sting, but its call only grew louder. Then it hit him.

  The Mark.

  With a thought, the tattoo of his jerry-rigged grindstone floated off his body and joined the swirl before him, the glow turning from a star to a sun.

  Of course. You’re pretty dense, Harvey.

  The Mark joined his memories, and something deep within him knew the skill was complete. With a nod, pieces floated one by one into the Loom, the spools of thread almost humming as they whirled to life. Silver, Blue, and Black threads cascaded down, weaving into a stunning pattern of a spectral sword, spear, and hammer crossed behind a shield. It felt like ages before the spools finally severed their threads and the pattern lifted off the Loom.

  His final G Grade skill was complete.

  The sigil parted the inky strands of his weave stretching down his right bicep and branded itself into his skin, and a surge of essence roaring from within his body flooded the tattoo. He grit his teeth, feeling his jaw quiver as he waited out the pain. When it was finally over, the rainbow haze retreated, and he pulled up the screen for his new skill.

  “Took you long enough!” Hannah quipped behind him.

  “Sorry! This probably won’t make much sense to you since your class doesn’t give Wisdom, but some of us like to actually think before we act.” Harvey chuckled.

  “Hey! My profession gives Wisdom!” Hannah complained.

  “Really? It must all be going to Buttercup.” Harvey called back, rushing to place his hands back on the orb before she could hit him. The rainbow haze returned, and he grinned as Hannah’s fist was blocked from view.

  Probably should take my time so she can cool off a bit…

  Things were different this time. Instead of the single open area to tinker with a skill, there were two. One for his class, and another for his profession. After nearly forgetting he could include his Mark in his skill, he wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. The first ingredients for his Profession would obviously be Born Innovator and the knowledge from John’s guide, but should he also include the Mark in his class?

  It was easy to silo his solitary Mark as purely crafting-based. A tool for pushing past creative blocks and improving on designs, but it was so much more than that. Innovation wasn’t just about building things. It was about taking a new approach. Early civilizations innovated when they learned to forge swords, and the knights who wielded them innovated new techniques and fighting styles. You weren’t just designing a product, but also how to use it.

  If he wanted to be an adaptive fighter who could handle any situation at any distance, he’d need to make the concept a foundational part of his class. Plus, if the System rewarded a coherent legacy, why wouldn’t he use his core nature for both?

  Settling on including it in both, identical copies of his Mark floated to either side of the Loom. Deciding the profession upgrade would likely be more straightforward, he turned his attention to filling out the missing pieces there.

  He’d pushed himself in the forge harder than he ever had as a coder. Coding came naturally to him. Once you knew the language, you just had to speak it efficiently. Blacksmithing was an entirely different ball game. Imperfections in the materials, variance in temperature, and imprecise tools made it more art than science. That was probably fine for most people, but if he was going to take the craft to its limits, he’d need to bend it to his own proclivities. Luckily, that was a fundamental tenet of blacksmithing.

  Don’t like something? Heat it up, hit it hard, and bend it to your will.

  As such, he chose to include all the ways he’d made his forgework more exacting. Creating complex molds. Using his skills for precise measurements and adjustments. Painstakingly working and reworking the metal until it was exactly what he wanted. No single vision made his progress more evident than crafting his own set of plate armor. He’d taken the time to make it perfect, which is why it was so infuriating to have it dinged and dented every time he fought.

  Maybe there’s some self-repair skill I can get? Or just an inscription. Keep it simple, stupid…

  Mentally plucking the vision from the ocean around him, he added it to the Mark and Inscription Guide. Next, he added his first successful inscription. He honestly couldn’t say whether the force redistribution he’d added to his breastplate did much good, but it was the catalyst for his first Mark. Now that he’d read John’s Guide for himself, his next set of armor would be even better.

  He debated adding his time spent building Aurelia back on Earth. It didn’t make the glow any brighter, but it did change its color. He’d already included it when making Apprentice Inventor, and it hadn’t really affected his skills so far. He couldn’t exactly code here in the trial, but who’s to say he couldn’t create some complicated magitech later? It was one of the few pre-System memories the Loom seemed to value, so he decided to include it in the end.

  Finally, he added the System notification he’d gotten when he finished his first batch of nails. Not because it was an awe-inspiring feat, but because it was when he fell in love with his profession.

  No matter what anybody says, we all crave validation. Anyone who disagrees is either a sociopath or a liar. It’s what drives humanity forward. What forces us to reach beyond our limits. Without it, fire never would have become steel, and steel would have never become cellphones. The System seemed to know all too well that even a simple mental nudge of progress is enough to trick us into continually pushing forward.

  When he got that first notification, he learned that there was more to his new life than zombies in the woods. It wasn’t all death and destruction, but also creation. Knowing there was a brighter side to his new world helped him push through those early days when his Willpower was whittled down to nothing. It gave him hope, and he wanted that passion to be a part of his F Grade class even if the act itself was nothing special.

  Surprisingly, adding the vision didn’t diminish his profession but helped it shine brighter.

  Perfect. He smiled.

  Not wanting to dilute his path forward with too many memories, he turned to the space for his Class. There would be a lot of overlap with the ingredients for his Capstone skill, so he started with those.

  His single most important fight so far had been facing the F Grade Iron Elemental. Not only had it broken his body, but also his spirit. His weave had been damaged to the point that healing it gave him a permanent 2% bonus to Endurance and 1% to Willpower. It was the closest to death he’d ever been, and part of him felt like he deserved to die in that moment.

  He’d fought against myriad monsters here in the trial. He’d been forced to become a killer despite his nature as a creator, and none hurt his heart more than the elementals. Sapient, intelligent minds that would have been able to speak to him one day if he hadn’t crushed their cores early.

  He couldn’t entirely blame himself. They had attacked first after all, but it still weighed on him. The metal man accused him of wearing his dead brethren as costumes and using their bones as tools to kill more. And he was right. But if Harvey were going to survive, he would have to accept that blood and bodies would be left in his wake. He couldn’t create the lifesaving armor and weapons Veils End needed to survive without killing a few elementals, so it had to be done.

  Still, he didn’t want to lose sight of his old morals. Just change them to fit the System. Take what he must, and do as much good as possible with it.

  Aside from the emotional weight of the fight, it was the most clear-cut example of lacking the proper tools to survive. It was only through ingenuity that he’d survived, flooding the wand with essence before shoving it down the man’s throat. Hopefully, his new class would make sure he never had to resort to such a desperate option again. It seemed to mesh well with his Mark when he pulled the memory towards it, so he looked for his next target.

  There were plenty of fights where he’d performed well. Admirably even. Taking down foes with efficiency while making the most of the tools he’d created over his days in the trial. But if he wanted his class to be adaptive, it seemed apt to include the times he’d made the most of his situation when he had almost nothing at his disposal.

  It took some searching, but he found the memory of his first fight with a Carrionwing just minutes after arriving. He’d fought to keep the bird at a distance, creating an opening where he could blast it apart with his arcane bolts. He’d let the sharp talons sink into his forearm, shredding down to the bone, instead of letting it carve into his throat. Back then, he barely had enough essence for more than a few shots at a time, so he needed to make each one count. Some would call his tactic of suffering a grievous wound to avoid a lethal one nothing more than instinct.

  Or dumb luck… He thought.

  But maybe he could twist it so that it was the instinct of an innovator doing whatever it takes to survive. The brighter glow of his budding class seemed to agree with him, so he left it in for now.

  Next, he added his fight with the Kalthera. It was the first fight where he got to make the most of his fireball, and even though it wasn’t enough to handle the F Grades, it mowed through the weaker spiders.

  That skill represented two fundamental changes for Harvey, despite being almost comically simple for a level 20 Class skill. It was his first skill needing nothing more than his own two hands to work, and proof that he’d finally let go of his strange obsession with pleasing the system.

  Adding a ranged and area of effect option to his repertoire was great in and of itself. It made him useful against large groups, whereas his old skill set was really only suited to fighting one strong opponent at a time. It also let him support his allies from a distance, which was crucial given his inability to constantly leap around the battlefield like Julian. He wanted his class to have options, so even if his friends had the highlight reel for that fight, he was going to include it.

  More than all that, though, it was Harvey letting go of trying to do everything right in the eyes of the System, and starting to become his own person. Forge his own path in this new world. Fireballs weren’t complicated. They were fun. He’d spent his whole life trying to be responsible. Trying to be perfect. A little chaos…controlled chaos…was good for him.

  Finally, he added his bloodrunn hunt with Elena. Before that moment, he’d been the one hiding in his friends' shadows while they saved him from the forest. After, he’d realized he was strong enough to save someone else. The choice that stained his soul had left his sanity crumbling in the early days of the trial, but the choice to put his own life on the line to save hers had proven his life was worth more than his darkest moment.

  When he had a reason to fight, a person to protect, he rose to the challenge, put his body on the line, and survived. He’d been baptized on stonetusk blood, surrounded by hungry bloodrunn that wanted nothing more than to tear both he and Elena apart, but quick, decisive action had carried them through to the other side.

  The final piece in place, he smiled at the result. Judging by the glow, his Profession would be stronger than his Class, but that was ok. It was his class that needed the most help becoming something truly his own, rather than a misguided attempt to please the System. If it needed some time to catch up, so be it.

  Alright, Harvey, this is probably gonna hurt like hell, but there’s no turning back now.

  With a nod, his visions flooded the Loom, and a cascade of thread shot out to meet him.