By the end of the day Tutor had shown its worth. Kennon had several small containers of arcane water sealed tight in hollow stone orbs.

  He also had one stone orb with a piece of treated leather poking out. It had been treated to survive contact with arcane water and could be easily removed to clean things.

  Frankly arcane water was absurd overkill when it came to cleanliness. But the leather rag held so little at a time that over exposure wasn’t a problem.

  That wasn’t the only thing he made. Tutor taught him to use a nut he had gathered as a binding agent for healing salves. The best way pre apply it to bandages. And how to modify it to help with stomach problems.

  He had decent quantities of all of it.

  Not that medicine was the only thing on the menu. He learned how to infuse beast meat when cooking to preserve its stamina enhancing properties. That tiger steak gave him more energy than three cups of tea. With none of the crash.

  He thought that would be more of a cooking thing. But he wasn’t going to complain.

  It also taught him how to harvest and preserve the poison in the golden death flowers.

  Though that was entirely about how to safely seal it for later processing. When he asked Tutor to teach him how to reactivate the poison he got the same answer as when he asked to make a healing potion.

  Your current knowledge is not adequate to explain topics of that complexity.

  Apparently it wasn't just going to teach him everything immediately. It was a little annoying. He asked what he needed to learn first. And was given a list of topics he could choose to listen to a lecture on. The list made it very clear that making a healing potion wasn’t beyond him. Only that the system wanted to teach him everything from first principles. And it wouldn’t give him a recipe until it thought he could actually understand the recipe.

  Though with the poison he kind of thought it was just an excuse to make sure he didn’t poison himself.

  It was a pain. But at least he knew that whatever he learned from the system wouldn’t leave massive gaps in his foundation of understanding.

  Right now though Bev had something to show him.

  “So,” she started, “I finished the dagger. And I think you will be impressed.”

  It was about time! She had decided to start the day by making a full sized axe for tree felling. But even though that only took a couple hours she didn’t finish the dagger till the sun began to set.

  Kennon smiled as she held her hand out, and a gleaming dagger appeared. It was.

  Underwhelming. Honestly.

  It was great, he had no complaints. But yesterday she made a full set of steel blacksmith tools and a halberd. When she spent nearly all day on a single dagger he expected it to be sparking and speaking fluent common.

  It was beautiful though. Polished to a shine. And oddly he didn’t see a single engraving.

  She must have caught the look on his face. She started grinning like a maniac and said, "appraise it.”

  He did.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Steel parrying dagger(masterwork) - dagger - T1

  A steel dagger with a hilt made from beast bone. Crafted with extreme care, and desire to protect its eventual owner. The entire weapon is infused with the essence of the tiger. Despite being inscribed only on the hilt the entire weapon contains enhanced strength.

  A mix of both dagger and wand, spells cast through it leach ambient mana to increase their potency.

  This particular dagger was made by a novice with great care. Lending it the quality normally seen only in the works of masters.

  Enchantments

  Durability 3, Self repair, Mana conductivity(capacity 50), Mana leach.

  Kennon just shook his head.

  “Of course you made a masterwork the second day of forging with a class. I would have expected no less you overachiever."

  He grabbed the dagger, felt its weight. It was much lighter than he expected. A few practice cuts and he knew it was no mundane effect.

  “It is amazing. So light. And it works like a wand too? Is that the mana conductivity enchantment?”

  “Yep.”

  “What does ‘essence of the tiger’ mean? The blade feels, I don’t know, faster?”

  “That is a simple explanation of the effect. Tutor says it is caused by mana from the material effecting the final result. Like, a portion of the tigers mana is still active in it. That is also the cause of the leach effect. That had nothing to do with me.”

  Kennon shook his head and smiled. “I think it had plenty to do with you. Intentional or not. Frankly, with an achievement like this I am almost surprised you didn’t level up”

  “About that, check your soul size.”

  Kennon closed his eyes and focused inward. His soul had grown significantly! Probably a whole five points worth. He had never had a growth that large. Aside from killing the tiger of course. He had done nothing to warrant that.

  Then he remembered, he and Bev had always leveled at the exact same time. To the second. That couldn’t be a coincidence.

  Putting aside all distractions he followed the link to Bev’s soul and inspected it as well. It was exactly the same size as his.

  “We share soul growth?” he said. Almost too stunned to speak.

  She simply nodded.

  That meant, he was holding her back. She would have leveled if he hadn’t soaked half of her experience.

  She said, “I’m lucky. I have been getting the results of all your hunts while playing with stones.”

  Kennon let out a sharp bark of laughter.

  He supposed it did go both ways. And he hadn’t exactly been slacking off.

  “Well, now that we are both armed, you can join me in the hunts.”

  Bev groaned, “Not yet! Or have you forgotten that you almost died yesterday! You need to put together a tiger hide cloak for armor. I need to make you a shield too. I need a helmet for myself. At a minimum. I would suggest waiting till I had full plate but I doubt you have the patience. We need walls to keep things secure when we are gone. And you are never leaving again without me coming with you. One near death experience is enough.”

  Kennon just started laughing mid rant. And kept laughing till he was blue in the face.

  Slowly he started to catch his breath.

  “I know. I know. I can work on the wood. You work on the metal. Trust me, I don’t fancy running for my life from a T1 beast any more than you do. Though with this dagger I doubt that particular situation will ever happen again.”

  “Good, don’t forget that. I can’t lose you too.”

  Kennon went dead quiet. It had been hard. He had been keeping busy. Trying not to think about their lives being turned upside down. Losing Margie. Bev had mostly been stuck working around camp.

  “You will never lose me. And if you think it would help, we will wait till you get full plate. I can’t lose you either.”

  He deposited His dagger in his pack and went in for a hug.

  Bev sighed.

  “I didn’t mean to lose my temper.”

  “No, it’s fine. The system itself makes your desire to protect me clear. And we have no reason to believe the beasts stop at T1. No one goes alone anymore.”

  Taking a step back Kennon looked at the axe laying on the ground.

  “So, how about I get some logs so we can make a proper place to sleep.”