Cat With a Raygun

Joe went back to cast Harvest on the boar corpse and got a lot of good meats, including cured bacon and more sausages. His Intelligence and the spell level were high enough that he could collect nearly every useful part from the boar. So along with the bones Belstak asked for, he also got the organs and the leather. He got an interesting enchantment in a leather satchel made from the boar's hide.

Leather Satchel of Extra Storage (Rare). This satchel has ten times more space inside than its volume should provide.

With that done he went back to his cabin, spent the time to cast Preservation on the meat, then began working on ideas for weapons for Ferrite. He might be able to do a reversal of the Backtrack spell, which for the moment he thought of as Recall, on a sheathe for a throwing knife where it will summon its knife back to it. With Ferrite's profession and skills she should have a lot of Vitality which adds to her stamina pool. Making the recall feature of the sheathe need to be fueled by manachlorian energy shouldn't be a problem.

Joe used his new Test Pattern ability and the functionality seemed to do what he wanted. He had no particular enchantments he wanted to put onto the knives, so he would let the spell itself pick randomly for him. It was the sheathes themselves that had the arcane gadget functions.

Rather than ask Melanie to stop her training in the smithy, Joe decided to go rent a workshop in Trenos again. Now that they had a method to communicate over the distance it was fine. He grabbed a magisteel ingot and let Ferric know where he'd be. Crafting throwing knives didn't take too much time anymore, now that he was more experienced with it. He forged six knives in the course of the first day, each one enchanted.

Throwing Knife of Silencing (Uncommon). This knife has a chance to apply the Silence spell to a creature it hits, preventing them from making utterances for 7 minutes.

Throwing Knife of Shocking Strikes (Uncommon). This knife adds lightning damage to any strike it makes. The additional damage is seven times the user's Agility.

Throwing Knife of Nature's Wrath (Uncommon). This knife has a chance to cast Root Trap to a creature it hits, binding it in roots that rise from the ground for 7 minutes.

Throwing Knife of Extra Effort (Uncommon). This knife does additional damage equal to seven times the user's Agility.

Throwing Knife of Flaming Strikes (Rare). This knife adds fire damage to any strike it makes. The additional damage is ten times the user's Agility.

Throwing Knife of Frosted Strikes (Rare). This knife adds cold damage to any strike it makes. The additional damage is ten times the user's Agility.

The last two knives came out rare quality because his Imbue Metallic Object spell leveled up to 3, making the imbuing more effective. He intentionally picked Frosted Strikes for the last one so that Ferrite would have different options for damage types.

The next day Joe made the leather sheathes for the knives. Two sheathes were made, each with 3 slots to hold a knife. Each slot had the Recall circuit embedded in it with magisteel wire. Additional wire was threaded throughout and out to a leather square with a circuit to collect manachlorian energy. The concept was that Ferrite would put the leather squares under her armor against her skin, so she could then channel her stamina into the circuits to power the Recall function.

The entire process did help improve his Mana Channeling, Focus, Meditation, Smithing, and Leatherworking, each by one level.

Ferrite was quite happy with her new weapons. “I didn't think you could make an effective throwing weapon, but you've clearly proved me wrong. Not only are these all powerful in their own right, they also can't be lost without a lot of things going wrong.”

Ferrite gave Joe an eager look, “So, where will I be training?”

- - - - -

At the end of the day Ferrite finally got to level 2 in her Scout class, and the town had three more giant boars for Joe to Harvest. She even led the targets so all three died near each other, making it easy when Joe opened the portal for her to return. He stepped through from Rust's Edge and cast Levitation on all three boars to bring them back through the portal before it expired.

That evening in The Rusty Cup Ferrite was excitedly explaining to her brother how she crept up on the boars. She had Shadow Cloak, and it was helped by Joe making her cloak completely white with Dye Fabric to blend in with the snow. She was like a ghost when she hunted the boars and directed them where to go.

Belstak was in the corner gnawing on some rib bones from the boar Joe had killed days earlier. He suddenly moved to the center of the tavern and cleared his throat. “I have decided on a class for myself. I wanted versatility. Something that could make me effective in combat beyond just my natural dragon abilities, but also something that could make me just as ghost-like as Ferrite described her movements. I want to, when I get older, track down other dragons to try to get more eggs here to evolve others of my kind. To do that, I need to be able to move about incognito. As such, I have picked the Shifter class.”

Everyone looked to each other in confusion. Finally Lester broke the silence, “Forgive us, Belstak, but we've never heard of that class. Most of us only get to pick between Scout and Fighter.”

“Ah, well, let me explain. The Shifter class lets me transform into different animals. Imagine me bearing down on someone with the strength of a bear, then quickly flying away as a hawk before they can counterattack. They'll never even know that I'm a dragon.”

“That sounds awesome, Belstak,” Joe said. “Let's see it. How about you transform into a wolf?”

Belstak looked excited about showing off his new class ability. “Okay, watch this,” he announced.

Nothing changed.

Belstak looked annoyed as he read something on his CGS HUD. “It appears before I can transform into something I need to consume its heart.” He gave a half-hearted sigh, “At least it's a requirement fitting a predator like my species.”

Joe teleported away and came back a minute later. In his hands was a pulmonary organ almost the size of his entire chest. “How about a giant boar heart to get you started?”

Belstak shook his head, “That's way too big. I can't eat that at my current size.”

“Does your class say you have to consume the entire heart in one sitting?” Joe asked.

With a sparkle in his eye Belstak grinned and replied, “No, it does not. Let me get started on the feast.”

- - - - -

The next day had two big events. Not only did Belstak finish the boar heart, but Kerras turned 18 and became a Mage. Kerras immediately wanted to join Ferrite on her training exercises but everyone cautioned him away from that, telling him to start training his skills first. Lester and Sally took him into the mine to start learning how to mine to build up his strength.

It was also interesting to note that Kerras had a different list of initial spells to choose from than Joe did when he was level 1. He did fortunately get Minor Levitation, which he wanted. He also picked a new one called Launch. Joe would learn it later, but Kerras said it was like a magical sling, it could be used to launch small objects at targets near the speed of an arrow.

Jack, Melanie, Malcolm, and Tess joined Ferrite for her training that day. Since there were so many of them Joe decided to see how they'd fare against the Fire Toads. Melanie had made magic weapons for the others during her time training her Smithing skill as well as trying to level her Profession. She had the strongest weapon, her dragon bone sword, but her weapon would have limited effect on the Fire Toads as they resist cold damage. That meant Ferrite's magic knives would probably do the most work.

Joe did worry about them slightly, but he had to let them train on their own, even against tough opponents. To distract himself from worrying about them, Joe began to work on something for Kerras. Even though Joe didn't know Kerras's Launch spell, he still had the ability to craft a spell conduit. Joe decided to try something unusual and split his mana up between two different Imbue spells, Wooden Object and Spell Conduit, as well as keep enough to cast a boosted Backtrack in case he needs to hop over to the group training.

Instead of using magisteel, Joe made a wood glue and mixed in mana powder. Then he carved manachlorian flow patterns into the wood and filled them with the glue. He carved the pattern for Levitation as well. On the top of the staff he made a scoop, thinking that Kerras could use it like a lacrosse stick when he cast Launch to give it an extra speed boost.

Fortunately the training group checked in before the evening just to let Joe know how things had been going. Despite Ferrite having the strongest weapons Melanie was still doling out more kills as she could Speed Boost around and slice into the toads before they could react. Tess used Root Trap to keep the toads from launching their fire blasts and then Malcolm would go up to the trussed up toad and stab it with his long knife. Jack mostly used the others as a distraction before he came up and cleaved a toad in two with his new axe.

They wanted to stay there for another day before returning so Joe asked if they had any supplies they wanted him to drop off. He made a mental list and assured them he would get it all to them in a few hours, as well as tell everyone else how they're doing.

Joe went back to his current crafting project. It didn't take him too much longer before he finished.

Strengthened Spell Staff of Psychokinesis Enhancement (Common). This staff can be used to double the power of any spell involving psychokinesis, moving another object remotely. This staff is stronger than its materials due to a minor protection enchantment on its wood.

Not only did the staff meet his expectations, but he also gained a rank in his Advanced Imbuing ability. This new rank added a functionality that removed the 50% material requirement when he cast Imbue spells. That meant he could use multiple Imbue spells on the same thing even when it normally wouldn't have enough of a material to qualify. As he saw from his usage of it today, the spells synergize well together, so he can do more with the same amount of magic.

Joe then gathered the supplies and ferried them to the trainees far to the south and took the pile of toad corpses back with him to harvest the next day.