They all show a general assent towards the idea. They're apparently already used to thinking of Souls as a resource. That's, a little uncomfortable in some ways huh? Still, useful enough. "Alright, everybody okay with their current weapons? We're a little heavy on the clubs here. . . Should be fine for now though."

The first one to speak up is Crimson. "I found out about a weapon from an adventurer with the Assassin class that I'd like to use." They have my attention. I was not prepared. "See its called a Garrote, and I made my own from some of the mana thread I still had." They take a meter long segment of golden thread strung between two sturdy looking wood pegs.

I stare at the cord for a moment before collecting myself. "A-ahhh. I'm, not sure how well that would work in direct combat. . ." A gentle attempt to draw their attention back to a more normal weapon.

"I'll just use my stealth skill to sneak behind the monsters, then strangle them." They grip the pegs and swish the cord around a few times. Is this gap moe? Strangely cute, despite talking about some really violent stuff. And the monotone voice could be a charm point?

"Then, how about the garrote and the knife, so you have options?" They also have a multiple of ten on their SP since I used a larger piece of my own soul when making them to see if it'd work, so using two pieces will keep it even.

"Options? . . . I should get even more weapons!" Uh-oh.

"For now, lets just treat that as a long term goal." I gesture them over. "For now though, I'll go ahead and make those both into Spirit Arms for you." They approach, holding both the garrote and knife in their paired hands. I reach out with my spirit, wondering about how to even use a piece of another's soul for something. Then I notice an interesting point.

The others souls have all started to diverge from mine huh? They all have small souls, distinctly unlike my spiritual body which is more or less the same size as my body. But more importantly than that, they look rather different. Crimson's soul is small even relative to the others, despite having more SP than most of them, and solid black, but has a faint dark cloud hovering about it instead of colorful lights flickering within. It also gives the impression of someone with many interests.

Emeth's is rather clear, but with a somehow sturdy feeling blue glow about it. Number 1's is, mildly golden, and seems reliable. Goibniu's is a burning red, and exudes passion, presumably for their craft. Patch and Mend both have pink souls that seem energetic. The six nameless ones are, less different from myself compared to the others. They all have black souls with a few dim lights moving about, and I vaguely sense that they haven't really figured themselves out yet either.

Moving on, I extend my spiritual hand's reach to Crimson's soul. I grab at it lightly, just, testing the waters I suppose. Crimson twitches, looking in the air in front of them. Then speaks up. "The menu says you're requesting ten points of my SP?" Thats, pretty weird. Maybe the system could tell what I'm intending and simplified it?

"Two weapons, five points each. Sounds good. Little weird that it worked out that easily though. Anyway, go ahead and say yes, and brace yourself for a bit of pain. At least, soul stuff always seemed painful before I evolved, but it might work a little different here?" After a moment, they nod, and my spiritual hand, which had been kinda holding their soul like a doll passes through it, pulling away a mist of spiritual essence.

They jolted again, so it must have still hurt. But that was less of a reaction than Goibniu gave when animating one of the Slimes. I drag the loose essence over to the pair of weapons, then let go when it passes through them. The weapons are surrounded by a black glow. 

As we watch the glow surrounding the two items, seems to pull together? The total area then starts to shrink. At that point, we're all staring pretty closely. Finally, when the black light fades away, what is left behind is. Some kind of long armband with pockets? Crimson speaks up while I'm processing that, sounding a little upset. "M-my weapons?"

"Hang on. Don't be sad! This is still something. Just, lemme scan it." Naturally, I was rather curious already, but trying to calm down the slightly scary assassin is also important.

"Assassin's Kit? . . . Oh! Put it on your arm and call out for the garrote." They do as I say, putting the armband thing on their forearm. Then they seemingly by reflex, grab at one of the pockets, pulling out a familiar golden wire.I scan it again to check the garrote's abilities. Five attack, and a skill called Razor Wire 1. I don't think garrotes are usually meant for cutting, but okay.

"The Garrote is in the sleeve. Knife too?" They let go of the wire, which pulls itself back into the pocket, then they grab at the pocket again and pull out the knife this time. "Good."

"Ah, I guess. As long as its something an Assassin would use, you can probably put it in the Assassin's Kit?" I scan the knife. Ten attack, and the skills Force Knife 1 and Hidden Blade 1. "That said, this just raises more questions. Mostly, can I make other things by combining items that seem like they'd work together in a given theme?" I think for a moment, then look over to Goibniu. "Lets wait on yours till you have some Blacksmith Tools aside from just the Blood-Steel Hammer, okay?"

They seem surprised a moment. Then nod with understanding. "Thats fine, seems like they're more meant for combat anyway."

"We can't be totally certain of that. Tools might have different skills than weapons. Ehmm, if Tools can become Spirit Arms. A Garrote isn't a conventional weapon, so I don't see why not." I shrug, then move on. I step to another open space, then motion Emeth forward. "Everybody else, form a line if you're good with your current weapons."

Most of the rest line up, though two of the Nameless ones seem a little uncertain now that the idea has been presented to them. Notably, the two who grouped up with Crimson. I try to assure them, "No need to rush. If you'd rather pick different weapons then just practice with some others while you're in the dungeon." I think a moment, then look to Crimson. "Once we're done here. Take the coins we found in the dungeon and ask Marel, or the Assassin you learned about Garrotes from, about buying weapons. Make sure to leave a few for the other two instead of putting everything you get into your Kit."

Their eyes light up, probably thinking about finding new weapons for themself, despite my last comment. Hopefully they won't go overboard. I continue on through giving the remaining six Spirit Arms, playing out much the same way as with Crimson's only with specific weapon categories of Club and Pickax. Though all the clubs ended up a bit shorter, compared to my sword getting longer. Maybe Spirit Arms adjust their size to suit the wielder? And the stats and skills seem a bit inferior compared to my sword. Guess the enchantment was a pretty noticeable boost. Ah well. I'll give them enchanted gear to feed their Spirit Arms later. Oh, or try enchanting the Arms themselves?

"Ah, one more thing to think on before we go our separate ways. Gender identity. Specifically. I've been using They Them pronouns for all of us in my head so far. But, some of you have started to seem kinda, masculine or feminine to me. Which would be He Him and She Her pronouns respectively. So I want you all to think about what you'd like to present as. They Them seems most comfortable for me so far, and if thats what you all want to stick with, thats fine."

Crimson seems about to speak, but I hold up a hand to stop them. "I could tell you, but I'd rather let you decide for yourselves rather than just going with my impressions on the matter." Their head tilts in a familiar gesture I accidentally introduced to the others. "Alright, I'll tell you what I've been thinking, after you've had some time to consider for yourselves. If you still want to know then."

That seems to persuade them, so I move on. "Alright then. I guess we'll split up. I'll see if the dwarf who'll help with harvesting wood and building a workshop is here yet. Oh, and for you dungeon delving groups, don't worry about trying to clear it by beating the Dungeon Boss yet. But if you do, I'd say tell it to make better materials. I guess? And, try to keep your levels in mind. If you pass level fifteen you won't be able to reenter after leaving as things stand."

After that, the groups split up. Both myself and Crimson leaving the side room and walking into Marel's office. Looks like Granzine has wandered in to talk with him about something, though the hushed tones and how close he is standing to the other dwarf prevent me from overhearing. Once we enter, Marel clears his throat, causing Granzine to notice us as well, at which point he straightens up and steps away a bit before speaking louder. "Morning! So you already finished a quest for the Wise Balms huh?" I nod, then walk over to explain everything that happened to him while Crimson talks to Marel.

Crimson and co. finish talking to Marel before I'm done talking to Granzine, so once I'm done explaining, I turn to the Vice Guildmaster. "So, do you know if that Flynt guy has shown up yet?"

"He is pretty consistent about his timing, though not always about what days he shows up. I'd say he's most likely here already and just checking up on a few other things before coming up here." He looks at a small device that looks like a Sundial. Though that doesn't make much sense given that the room doesn't even have windows. After that, he nods. Then stands up. "Its about time for my morning training, so lets just head down and meet him while I go out for that."

"You train each morning? Is that to hone your skills or does it improve your stats or what?"

He starts walking for the door. "Both of those, a little. But its mostly routine and a meditation." I wave to the Guildmaster, and follow Marel out of the room. "Most people can raise their stats a little above what their level and skills allow. But if you do that you have to keep training to keep them elevated." We begin walking through the bar with that. "As for skills, you can level many of them by practicing the skill's specific abilities."

"Yeah. I've leveled up some of mine that way. And even gotten some new skills by trying new things." We reach the top of the stairs.

"I noticed. Prodigy titles are pretty good. Though the skills they grant aren't always consistent." Sounds almost like he's talking from experience there. Does he have a prodigy title? Before I act to check on that he calls out. "Oiii, Flynt!" A dwarf with a sort of milky gray beard looks over to him. Flynt has two noteworthy things on him. A staff of some black wood on his back, though it looks more like the sort of staff you'd hit something with, rather than use magic through, and a woodcutter's axe with a bone white handle and a sort of minty green head at his side. I guess his leather armor might be of note as well, but it looks rather plain.

"Oooooh! Does that armored guy have a Napalm Balm's branch?!" He charges over, almost matching the speed I used when running through the forest. I abruptly backpedal, bracing my right foot firmly on the ground, jumping back a bit, then sidestepping behind Marel. The rushing dwarf slides to a stop a foot shy of running into Marel. Then he stares at me a moment before cracking up laughing. "No need to be afraid, I'm not gonna bite!"

"Riiiight. Sorry. I was just a little surprised there." I step out from behind the Vice Guildmaster, rubbing at the back of my head. "I guess, I'm not great at handling boisterous personalities like yourself."

Marel cuts in, apparently in a hurry now. "Yes well. Did you talk to Rute already?" The other dwarf nods. "Right, well the quest is the collection of lumber and construction of a workshop for Anima here. I suppose you'd be fine with the rest of the Napalm Balm as payment?" Flynt's eyes seem to sparkle at that, and he gives a vigorous nod.

"Works for me! By the looks of that branch, it'll be a pretty thick one. Plenty to work with!" Marel nods, then leaves us to it, walking out the main door. Flynt mutters to himself for a moment, then looks at me. "Okay! So Balm Forest? You good to go now? Great!" He grabs onto my right hand and dashes towards the door. Though the physics of the situation don't work out quite that well. Surprisingly, he does manage to yank me almost halfway to the entrance. But due to being comprised mostly of metal, I'm much heavier than I look.

His legs end up moving faster than the rest of him, causing him to drop like a stone. Sapph flies up as I scramble a bit to get my feet under myself, and yank my hand back from him. "You need to calm down." I straighten up and roll my wrist, though naturally it doesn't hurt, just making sure nothing came loose. "Besides, don't we need some way to transport the wood first? We're talking about as many as a hundred trees, plus the Napalm Balm."

"You're heavy for somebody so thin! Ho ho ho!" He laughs like Santa?! "And don't cha worry about that. I've got the Advanced Skill Wood Warehouse! A hundred is a lot, but I think we can manage in two or three trips." Advanced Skill? . . My Unique Skill has two advanced skill abilities as bonuses. Dang. He hops back to his feet, then starts walking at a brisk pace. "Well, lets get going though."

At least he didn't grab me again. "Fine fine. Anyway, I'm not a thin person, I'm a living machine. So mostly metal." Sapph lands back on my head with a huff, and I follow the hyperactive dwarf out the door.

After a short while of walking he decides to chat along the way. "So, what're ya planning with that branch, if you don't mind me asking?" He turns to look at me, or more likely, the branch between my back and the basket.

"Ah, my Spirit friend here took a twig from the tree, and I figured we could get matching magic staves." I point up at Sapph, who, upon noticing the subject dives down into her pouch, pulling the twig out and showing it off.

"Ooooh! I've never heard of a staff that tiny. Sounds like some real delicate work." His tone lowers and he looks around shiftily. "Saaaay, I could carve em to the right shape for ya?"

"Why do I get the feeling that you just want the wood shavings from the twig and branch?" He makes an exaggerated gasping noise and clutches at his chest, then laughs it off a moment later. "Seriously, what would you even use shavings for?"

"I dunno for sure. I'll think of something." A flippant response, but I can't think of any particular uses either, so I can't much blame him.

Having passed that topic, he goes on to tell me a lot about Balm trees and their variants. Most of it is stuff I already picked up from looking at their skills. But there are some interesting points I learn during the conversation. Such as the fact that, wood has a higher compatibility with Vitality than metal. And that the typical Balm secretes a resin that when processed can become completely fireproof, and nearly as clear as glass.

When he hits a lull in his obsessing over trees I pipe up. "So, about that Vitality thing. Does that mean that if I had say, a wooden sword, my sword skills would deal more damage?"

"Ohho! Interesting idea. Yeah, pretty sure. Have to get some damned hard wood for it to keep an edge though." He drifts off into his own little world after saying that. Seemingly thinking about what kinds of wood would do.

Would that, be a concern for Spirit Arms? "Hmm? I think, if you can give it an edge, I can do something to make sure it keeps it." I can't, completely guarantee it. But it seems likely. Since my Spirit Arms transform, then they could probably recover to their default state pretty easily.

"Not sure how you'd do that, but I'm game. I love wooden weapons, but that mostly boils down to clubs and staves. I've tried a few other things, but most aren't practical at all." Hang on, does that mean that the metal clubs I gave the others are actually a bit worse than wood ones would have been? Eh. No, metal is definitely stronger than normal wood. Right? Oh well. Just. Feed their clubs some wooden ones later.

I suddenly sense a strong magic at some distance away. I pause in my tracks and try to pinpoint it. Flynt stops a moment later to look at me with a questioning gaze. My own eyes move up to follow the mana I'm feeling. He turns to follow my line of sight. High up above us, and to the north, there is something flying south, I.E. towards us. Its just close enough to get a bit of a look at, and it looks like a large horse, but scaly, and with bat like wings. . . "Hang on, is that a Dragon?!"

"Eh. Yeah. Looks like it. A Lesser one I'd say. Probably nothing to worry about. Dragons are prideful, and not prone to attacking things weaker than themselves." Well, he's comfortable saying that he's weaker than it is.

"Ahhuh. It does have more mana than me. So you might be right. . . But. I'm also pretty sure its gonna attack. Call it, a hunch." I try to scan it, but its apparently too far for now. Yeah. Theres no way its not gonna come after us in this situation.

"Don't know what makes ya think that. But if it does we can just make a run for the woods." We resume walking at a calm pace, the Dragon seems to coast along nearby, presumably riding a thermal by the looks of it. The closer we get to the forest, the closer it drifts. Eventually Flynt seems to think something is up too. "Huuuu-uh. Yeah. You might have a point there. Lemme think."

While he's thinking, I try scanning it again, this time, it works.

"Ooof. Stats averaging in the upper fifties. More than double my MP. And what's that Gravity Resistance skill? Maybe it needs that to fly with that oversized body? And, Force Breath?" I use Deep Scan on the Force Breath skill. [Force Breath: A breath attack utilizing raw mana. Has a greater impact than a same level elemental breath] Then I Deep Scan the dragon itself. [Lesser Dragon: Technically the original species of Dragon, but due to the greater size, majesty, and popularity of its more evolved species it has come to be seen as a degenerated version of the true Dragons. Has a high degree of adaptability, often producing Variants in only a generation or two] That's rough buddy.

Flynt stares at me, mouth working without saying anything for a few seconds. Then he finally gets to it. "Okay. So, good news. I think I know why it's following us. Bad news, the reason is you. Dragons are, rather known to like shiny objects. . ."

"Oh. Ooooh. Umm. Would it leave if I cover all the metal parts with my robe?" I pull my arms into the sleeves, then the robe up over my head.

"HOW WOULD THAT WORK?! Its not just gonna forget you cause you went under a shirt!"

"Yeah, that was a little too optimistic. Be pretty weird if anything had that little object permanence." I resettle my robe and glance back up at it. Its, starting to drift rather close. Probably within a hundred meters by now. "Well, should we attack it, or make a break for it? Pretty sure if we just try to run, it'll rush in."

"Yeaaah. But do you think you can do any damage to it?"

"Well, I think I'm decent at magic, for my level, and I have one spell I've practiced that should hit from here. If I can damage one of the wings it might fall hard enough to not chase us?" Optimistic idea, but maybe. He shrugs, then nods. I wait until it draws to about the fifty meter mark, pull out a mass of sixty point of mana, then I pressurize, spin, and convert it to water mana. Finally I turn to face it, look up, brace myself against the ground, and aim. "Aqua Shot!"

Thanks to the significant upward tilt, I don't go flying back this time. The beam of water shoots up, striking dead center of the lesser dragon's right wing. Despite that, its plainly visible that the pressurized aqua shot didn't even pierce through the dragon's thin wing membrane. The water struck against the wing with enough force that the water turned into a mist under the dragon instantly. The dragon roars, and after flapping its wings a few times to gain more height the mist clears enough to see the wing properly.

Its got a hand sized bruise where the spell struck. It looks painful, but clearly didn't do much actual damage. "What the hell? That spell went straight through the Napalm Balm!" I stare up at the reptilian beast, thinking for a moment. "Ah. Since Strength versus Vitality determine damage from physical attacks, maybe the caster and target's Wisdom determine spell damage. . . Which means since it has twice my wisdom, I can't do much damage?!"

"Forget that, lets run!!" As if to punctuate his point, the dragon roars again, then takes a deep breath. I can feel mana condensing in its throat. I turn to face the woods and take a sprinting pose. "What are ya doing!?"

"It's about to use its breath attack, so I'm waiting till it actually fires so it can't account for our movement." Seems logical to me, but he seems panicked about the idea. Sapph, realizing what I'm up to dives down into her pouch. Flynt moves around as if to start running anyway, then swears under his breath and braces himself to run as well. When I feel the mana burst forth I yell, "Now!" then push off against the ground hard and enter a full sprint practically instantly.

Two seconds later I'm already over ten meters away, with Flynt a meter or so behind. And there is a booming noise, almost like cannon fire as the breath impacts the point where we were a moment ago. The air pressure seems to push us forward a bit even at this distance, though I can't say I noticed it speeding me up, so I guess it doesn't count as a tailwind. Still, we keep running full speed.

It takes the dragon several seconds to start giving chase again, and it doesn't seem to be trying to fly very fast, so at least the wing is bothering it. While I'm running Sapph pops up and waves at me to draw my attention. Then when I look down she covers her right hand with the left and casts the Flash spell. Her left hand keeps it from blinding me, but I get what she was trying to convey right away. "Great idea!"

We're getting close to the tree line, so I'll wait for a little bit yet. Once we're actually among the trees the dragon has to put more thought into how it flies, slowing it down even more than its injured wing. Still chasing us though. I had a bit hoped that it'd give up at this point. 

When we enter the deep woods and I feel the strange mana field I decide to make my move. I skid to a stop and duck behind a large tree. I draw out a hundred points of MP, convert it to Light Mana and draw it all together into a small point. Then I lean out and lock eyes with the dragon. When it spots me it dives towards me. Exactly like I wanted. I move my right hand out pointed towards the beast, then add forward motion to the mana mass. "Flash!"

When I actually cast the spell the mana warps on its own, I apparently boosted it too much for my level of control. Even so, the effect is huge. A blinding two way spotlight directed towards the dragon, and back at myself. I feel like I also took some measure of spiritual damage from the backlash.

While I can't see, I can certainly feel it when the dragon rams into the tree, the entire thing practically vibrates. I chose to ignore my currently unreliable eyes and focus just on my mana sense. Given that all of the trees have their own mana, I can at least kind of tell where they are as I move to follow after Flynt this way. [Skill Mana Perception 2›3]

The dragon, isn't moving to follow. Must've knocked itself out against the tree. Still, I don't wanna be around when it wakes up. A ways ahead Flynt has slowed down, even coming to a stop after a few seconds. 〈You no longer need to worry about the dragon, we will deal with it〉

After that I feel the forest's mana field move through my mana sense. The burning feeling of fire mana mingles with the vaguely living sense of the mana field, then I get the impression of a flaming lion's paw descending on the Dragon. Then, I can no longer feel the dragon's mana.

By the time I walk up to Flynt, I've begun to regain my sight, though everything looks dark. Flynt looks like he's concentrating. So he is likely conversing with the trees. After a moment, he turns to look at me. "So, care to show me the way to the Napalm Balm?"

Chaos_Sinner777

I wanted to finish the workshop during this chapter, but it was starting to run a little long. Sooooo, time to bring it to a stop. I guess.