“You’ve really outdone yourself,” Julian said, essence leaking from his weave as Burning Resolve turned the inert lines into streams of magma. Unlike his old sword, his new one grew alongside him until the blade was almost 6 feet long.

  “Thanks! Everything feels ok? Does it still feel balanced after using your skill?” Harvey asked.

  “Yep, feels exactly the same,” Julian answered, shrinking back to his already hulking frame after a few test swings. “What’s it called?”

  “Excuse me?” Harvey asked.

  “The sword! It’s gotta have a name,” Julian smiled.

  “Oh,” Harvey paused, checking the notifications patiently waiting at the edge of his mind.

  You have created | Sentinel Steel Longsword | F Grade | Rare | Major Essence Gained.

  Your profession, Runeforged Artificer, has reached Level 35. +8 Endurance, +10 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +12 Willpower, +8 Free Points

  Your race, Veilstrider, has reached Level 32. +2 to all stats

  A new Profession skill can be created at a Loom. Congratulations

  “Right now, the System calls it a Sentinel Steel Longsword, but it will probably change once it’s inscribed,” he answered.

  “Who cares what the System calls it?” Hannah asked. “You should give it something cool, like Toothpick.”

  “Toothpick? That’s what you think a cool name for a sword is?” Harvey chuckled.

  “Yeah! Because he uses it to knock the skeleton’s teeth out!” she replied.

  “It’s… an idea. We’ll add it to the list,” Julian laughed.

  “The name should match the inscriptions. Aftershock makes a lot of sense for a hammer that turns kinetic force into lightning,” Harvey proposed.

  “Ok, well, what type of inscriptions were you thinking?” Julian asked.

  “Honestly, I don’t know. I wanted to add inscriptions to my Profession so I’d have the freedom to explore all the different kinds of magic, but so far I’ve really only dabbled with lightning arrays,” Harvey explained.

  “Now probably isn’t the time to test something new,” Julian replied.

  “Nah, screw that. You can be the lightning guy, Harvey. Julian needs his own shtick for the superhero movies we’re going to make once we get back home,” Hannah rejected.

  “Awe no way! That would be so sick,” Harvey exclaimed. “What should our names be?”

  “Not you too,” Julian groaned. “I told you guys, everyone has magic powers now. Nobody’s going to want to watch a movie about three randos with swords.”

  “Not if that’s how you advertise it!” Hannah laughed. “It’s all about branding, and that starts with cool superhero names! Harvey gets it!”

  “Shut up,” Julian grumbled. “We’ll go with lightning.”

  “Sounds good. That just leaves the inscriptions on the handle. I don’t want to waste Buttercup’s antler by leaving it empty,” he agreed.

  “Could you add some sort of healing to it? That should mesh well with the antler, right?” Julian asked.

  “I probably could, but I don’t have any F Grade materials with that resonance,” Harvey answered.

  “Would a potion work?” Julian continued.

  “Maybe? I don’t actually know, since an alchemist already refined the ingredients for the potion. Either way, all I have are G Grade minor healing potions, and we’d need a ton of them to infuse enough energy to match my F Grade blood,” he replied.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Whoops, totally forgot to give these to you,” Julian winced, pulling three vials of ruby liquid from his slipsack that were significantly larger than the minor potions Harvey held in his own storage. Taking them, Julian retrieved a similar set of sapphire and emerald vials and passed them along as well. Inspecting them, Harvey confirmed they were, in fact, F Grade potions.

  “How did you get these?” he asked.

  “The Hell Hotel’s reward for winning the quest was being upgraded to an F Grade Outpost. Didn’t change much other than better equipment appearing in John’s shop along with a few more mirrors and Looms,” Julian explained.

  “Extra looms? Were they different at all from ours?” Harvey asked, wondering if they’d need an evolved loom to create evolved skills.

  “Nope, just more of them. We already had lines here at Veils End, and that was for a group of 50 people. Could you imagine waiting to craft your skill in a hotel filled with a couple thousand?” Hannah chuckled.

  “So, will these work?” Julian asked.

  “Honestly, I don’t know, but I’m happy to try!” Harvey responded, stepping back into the smithy.

  It was already late into the night, the moon suggesting they were closer to dawn than dusk. Still, Harvey had enough energy left to try a batch of healing ink before hitting the hay. The room was cramped with Buttercup wedged inside with them, but they weren’t going to force the buck to sleep outside after barricading themselves in.

  “Try to stay quiet while I try this, please,” Harvey asked, pulling the empty inkwell in front of him while placing the blade of Julian’s old infantry sword against his palm. “I need to focus.”

  The sharper blade made filling the cauldron much easier, and the runes engraved all along its surface flared to life as his Willpower entered the bowl. He still felt clumsy maneuvering his weave through the inkwell, but he was improving with every batch. When enough blood was inside, he uncorked a potion and added it to the mix. Bracing himself for a fight, he was surprised to find no latent will rising up to rebuff him. On the contrary, the pure healing essence tried desperately to heal his blood. The mix of dead and dying cells was restored to the state they were in when they left his bone marrow, using up motes of the healing essence in the process.

  “Damn,” he swore.

  “What’s wrong?” Hannah asked.

  “Shut up, he told us to be quiet!” Julian urged.

  Not answering, Harvey uncorked a second potion and poured it in. The inkwell leaked energy every second, unable to contain the essence within. That was expected. If it could contain any rampant energy forever, ink refinement would be a near-infallible process. What he didn’t expect was to lose even more to the potions, willingly expending their power to heal him when he expected them to fight back.

  A new batch of raw power added, Harvey struggled to find a way to seal the potion and integrate its power into his blood. Usually, he’d have to strip the essence down until only the resonance he needed remained to be coaxed into his waiting cells. This time, there was nothing to strip away. It was almost entirely healing essence, other than a few minor impurities left from the alchemical processes or dust that made its way into the cauldron.

  Instead of fighting the potion, he used his Willpower to overpower its innate desire to mend the broken, tricking it into thinking there was nothing left to heal. He was acting by instinct, and almost an entire potion was gone by the time he started to understand the new approach. He knew what was left wouldn’t be enough, so he poured his final health potion into the mix and strained to bring it under his control.

  He’d gotten used to fighting wolves looking to devour his weave, but that was nothing like stopping an excited puppy from exploring the blood inside the bowl. He could feel his hands trembling as sweat beaded on his brow, but he held firm until the ink coalesced and the light shining from the runes covering the inkwell faded.

  “Looks like they put up a fight,” Julian hesitated.

  “The opposite, actually,” Harvey croaked. “They were a little too helpful.”

  “Did it work?” Hannah asked.

  Carefully, Harvey poured the ink into a large, empty glass bottle before inspecting it with Artificer’s Eyes.

  A new creation has been made | Healing Ink | F Grade | Uncommon. Major Essence Gained.

  Satisfied with the result, Harvey shared the screen.

  “It’s literally called Healing Ink? The System is usually a little more creative than that,” Hannah laughed.

  “I think it’s because it’s only got one ingredient. I haven’t really had a chance to mix more than one yet since nothing I’ve got on hand shares resonances, but I’m assuming things will get a lot more complicated once I move past single-ingredient inks,” Harvey explained.

  “Basic or not, it sounds like exactly what we need,” Julian cheered. “Do you need anything else to get started?”

  “Sleep,” he sighed. “I’m sorry, but I’m exhausted. I’ll need another batch of lightning ink anyway, and I can’t bleed myself too fast, or I’ll start feeling sick.”

  “That’s ok. Let’s all catch some Z’s, and we can pick back up in the morning,” Julian said.