Bev’s inner perfectionist was crying in the many flavors of crooked lines. But imperfect as it was, it was done. A fire put that could be resupplied without losing heat. A crucible that held the ore but allowed the slag to separate. Clear lines of vision so the heat spell could be used on it yet insulated as to prevent heat loss. Big enough to get the job done quickly yet small enough to not overwhelm them.

  The large pyramidal smelter took three days to finish.

  During that time Kennon had made a large supply of charcoal, and gathered more than enough wood to replace what was used. But best of all.

  Level 3 reached. + 10 soul points. + 100 max mana.

  Dropping her tools she excitedly checked the skill list.

  Skills.

  None

  Search all skills?

  “None? That’s impossible” she heard Kennon cry.

  She simply stared at it blankly. What did it want? Why give them power and then nothing to use it on? A quick look at all skills showed an overwhelming list. The first item…

  Abacus mind.

  Allows near instant and unconscious mental calculation.

  Size - 6

  Requires sub mind.

  That was useful. Sort of. But the size! And the requirement was something even crazier.

  Sub mind.

  Adds a second thread of thought to your consciousness. Not consciously controlably, sub skills are required to make full use of the second thread.

  Size - 15

  Requires mental enhancement T10 + 60

  Not wanting to enter that rabbit hole she put a pause on the search. There were literally hundreds of skills. Possibly thousands. There had to be a reason why there weren’t any recommended skills.

  Then she remembered physical enhancement. How it could take extra power. Was that what the system wanted them to do? Either way it seemed like a good idea. The boost to her physical and mental abilities was welcome.

  She and Kennon layed down in their tent and mentally poked the system to begin the skill building. But nothing happened. She sat confused for a moment.

  Soul sight!

  This must have been the reason they were given that skill. So they didn’t need to enter the fugue for every modification. With that clear she closed her eyes and focused on her soul. She didn’t think about it often. But for the last week it had sat at the edge of her perception, waiting for its time.

  Her soul had changed. It was ever so slightly larger. And were last time the soul fire was almost entirely bound in the skills not there was a large amount drifting free. But not for long. She began grabbing at the free power and was surprised how easy it was. Where before it was like controlling a numb limb now it was just doing hard work with a healthy one.

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  What caused that?

  While pondering this she shoved a thread of soul fire into the control of physical empowerment, then went for another one. This one was even easier! Was physical empowerment that effective at helping soul weaving? She was able to grab more than last time and added it to the skill. It was the skill! It was getting even easier!

  By the end she was shoving large portions of soul fire into the skill with ease. Deft work would still be hard. But this job, it had become as easy as walking.

  Opening her eyes to the real world she was taken back by the difference. Like last time everything about her seemed, more. More powerful, clearer, brighter. It was exhilarating! She found herself eager for the next level. Even if it didn’t give skills.

  Was this how everyone felt when receiving stats? If so, she was surprised they weren’t addicted to it. How could you go through an experience like that and stall out at level 20? Did leveling that hard? In Greentown most people stalled out at level 20. The highest leveled was 32. And he was an elderly man with a lifetime of experience.

  She knew that Margie was higher than that. Was it the effect of the growth system? It mentioned levels came faster. In any case, she couldn’t imagine stalling at 20, 30 or even 40. Not with how good she felt from reaching level 3.

  Taking a deep breath, she remembered what she had been doing. She was just about to test the smelter! Soon she would be making iron tools. She wanted to start with better forging tools than the stone stuff she had made in preparation. But after that would come proper axes, shovels, spears and shields, armor. Eventually an entire arsenal. She couldn’t wait. In moments she had the forge lit.

  As before it was Kennon’s job to heat the ore container while Bev worked on other things. Bev told him the temperature was perfect. So all he had to do now was sustain it. It was boring. After three days of chopping and cooking wood he was itching to try something new.

  Then it hit him, mana gathering. He had never done it while casting a spell before. And while the heat spells upkeep was small enough he could keep at it for hours it would be nice to say he could do it forever.

  With a deep breath he focused on the mana around him. There were the typical flows of the realm pushing the air. But there was also mana radiating from both the fire, and the box he was heating. Fire mana he assumed. He could almost feel the difference between the air mana. But he may have been imagining it.

  Finally there was the stream flowing from his core into the box. It was a strange thing to look at. Like steam was radiating off of him. Caught in the current of the spell and channeled towards the box. He did not want to interfere with that at all.

  Grabbing at other mana he felt his hold on the spell falter. He stopped for a moment, restabilizing the spell. Then splitting his will such that the majority of his mind was on the spell he grabbed at the free mana again.

  Success! He pulled it into his core and let it join the pool of his personal mana. Then he started the process again.

  It was slow. Excruciatingly so. And by the time he refilled his mana reserves he had a headache from focusing so hard. But it did work. He smiled, wondering when he might one day be able to cast two spells at once.

  Name: Kennon Vonn

  Age: 14

  Class: initiate

  Level: 3

  Soul points: 0/30

  System points: N/A

  growth system points: 1

  Health: Good.

  Mana: 299/300

  Conditions: twin bond

  Skills.

  Physical empowerment T1: 2/100 + 18

  Soul sight: 2/100

  Mana sight: 2/20

  Mana manipulation: 6/80

  Spell inscriptions 2/3

  identify(automatic)

  Fire bolt

  Proficiencies

  Fire magic- level 3

  Wind magic- level 2

  Water magic- level 1

  Earth magic- level 2

  Divination magic - level 2