“Your spinal column has begun realigning, though I don’t believe your nerves will be repaired tonight. Not in full.”


    “Is Flash Heal losing strength from how much we’re using it?”


    Quala gingerly replaced the stretch of cloth that was heavily washed every day and shook her head. “No, not exactly. We are reaching the damage that my ability doesn’t normally address. Those with broken backs can be stabilized, though it takes a general healer of at least level 5 to fully restore them with ease.”


    “How long?”


    “A week.” Daniel sighed in relief, the noise deeper than normal. He stretched both of his clawed hands in front of him, glad that at least both arms were working now.


    “I flew today. It needs more work, but I flew.” He breathed deeply a few times, trying to corner the rage inside of him and cage it. “I saw more memories of Hammer.”


    The continued quandary Quala faced with this topic didn’t escape him as she bought a few moments looking into the journal she’d recorded his recovery in. He was sure these notes would be going into some theory regarding how other powers affected the healing rate but right now he didn’t care. “Have these changed your perspective?”


    “Not really. He’s an asshole. Maybe a lonely asshole. He warned me about Cloak, by the way.” He held her gaze for a few moments to drive the ‘I told you so’ home. “Thinking about how easily he just rode over me, it, it…” He clenched his hands hard for a moment, breathing becoming forced before it evened back out. Quala didn’t look alarmed at this, though then again there was little he could do in this state. “I think it’s good. He gave me something I can kill with.”


    “And have you talked with the rest of your team about your rage power?”


    “No.” Daniel passed an eye over the room. “I don’t get it. Spending so much time in here. Out there, there’s so much space. I could go anywhere.”


    “You’re avoiding the question.”


    “I, I know. I could be dangerous to them. They should know the risks,” he said tiredly, as if having already repeated the words a hundred times over. “They already know the basics.”


    “Do you remember why you didn’t approach Claire after Roost’s Peak?” Daniel glared at the Cleric as she poked a wound deeper than the one in his back. “You shouldn’t let doubt or uncertainty prevent you from communicating. Oftentimes we make situations out to be worse than they actually are, but that doesn’t excuse us from doing right by other people.”


    “I don’t want to scare them.” All traces of the rage within him fled as he dipped his head, the tips of his fangs dipping into the mattress. “I don’t know if I can trust myself like this. I know I’m the same person, but there are still… differences. If I can’t, they can’t.”


    “This may not be what you want to hear, but if you can’t trust this form, don’t use it until you can. Until they can.”


    “I’m stronger like this. Too many useless powers for combat as an Artificer.”


    She leaned forward in her seat, speaking deliberately. “Are you stronger alone than you are with them?”


    He wanted to say yes. Based purely on killing potential he could outmatch anyone here, except for Tlara who was cheating and not really on the team. But that wasn’t the point. “I’m stronger with them.”


    “You are the one who has chosen this path. You are the one who wants to be on a team,” she reminded him. “You can’t have it both ways. This divide between man and beast within you can’t be sustained as it is. You must either let it grow to the point where you are different people and sever the halves, let one triumph, or compromise to find a middle ground. For your soul’s sake, if nothing else. And remember, always, that the leader of a team is still part of the team.” Daniel laughed weakly at that. “What?”


    “I’m not the leader, I’m just filling in for her.” Ultimately, he was glad Quala put up with him. The past couple of weeks here had been crucial in allowing him to reign in the rage Hammer had awakened, and she was moving to other areas he needed to improve. “I’ll talk to them tomorrow. I’ll be busy, but I’ll do it.” Quala nodded in approval, and it seemed that was as far as she’d wanted to go tonight.


    As she left, the noise from her footsteps quickly fading thanks to Padri’s power still being active on the room until the next dawn, Daniel’s cat eyes inspected the bundle of items on his workbench. After calming down from the vision this morning, he’d decided to pursue the feathercut affix since that was the only thing standing in his way from putting all the pieces together for flight.


    He’d ended up trading with another level 2 Artificer, an avianoid who’d followed Arpan’s path of pure enchanting. The deal had ended up involving much more than just the affix he was after since the unique lightning bolt and spineshard formulae he’d traded had given him a lot of leverage. Combined with the material he requested through Temir, he even had a way to scratch off the last item on his list.


    But that was for when he was back to being a human. Beast Mode had come off cooldown, though he still spent as much of every night as he could in this form to get the mana burn effect of Regeneration. Rather than fall asleep immediately, he called out to the window. “Tlara.”


    The head of the wyvern appeared as the house creaked slightly. She could put her wings up and stand without completely toppling the structure. He knew this because she enjoyed waking him up by barking through a window. The single eye that faced him took in his changed form and didn’t blink.


    “We’re getting close to going back out for hunts. We need to get stronger if we’re going to go to these ruins, level 3 if we can. Willow wants to come and if your bond works how it seems, that’s fine. I’m glad. Let’s just get one thing straight.” He bared his teeth for a moment and caught Tlara mid eye roll with the growl he added to his voice. “If you try to fuck us up or bail like you’ve done so many times, I will murder you and not care one bit. You’ll come back, you’ll just lose that ‘tool’ of yours. I made a promise to Quala and I’m fulfilling part of it now. I’ve got a rage power, and I’ve already killed one level 3 with it. It’s what got me here, sure, but I learn from my mistakes. Learn from yours, or I’m going to make you.”


    Lightning crackled across the scales of her borrowed form for a moment, and then the head slowly retracted.


    …


    “So, I don’t think I should use Beast Mode, at least for the first hunt. Quala’s been helping but in the heat of the moment the anger can get to me. Right now I have a clear head, but once I change it’s like I’m constantly slipping down a slope towards losing it,” Daniel said to those on the bottom floor of the house, the barest scraps of sunlight coming through. He’d still wanted to put this off, but Quala had been right. Also, the timing was convenient as Khiat was about to go to sleep.


    Khare and Willow were also in the room, but Thomas wasn’t. The Cleric had been growing more distant as he continued to help with his church. Daniel felt a moment of sadness for that, but he’d made his choice clear before they’d left the Thormundz. He was sure they’d see more of each other once Silora’s Focus Chamber was finished and the Fate started scanning for his missing friends.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    “I guess I’m bringing this up now because we’re getting close to getting back out there,” he said when no one else immediately commented. “I’ve got what I need to get us flying, and for me to make a new crossbow. I just want to make sure everyone’s feeling alright with everything. I know what happened with the monster spawning thing was…”


    “Those people, it’s so horrible,” Khiat murmured. “Is there anything we can do to stop that?”


    “Kind of?” The only way he could think of to revert the Collapse conditions would be to allow the gods to regain control of the Octyrrum. Since Cloak was so insistent on him getting to those ruins, and hunting would help get them there, “Yes, but we need to be stronger for it. The best we can do now is get stronger. It won’t stop the spawns, but every monster we take out is one that won’t find its way to Aurus.”


    “Weapons.”


    “I think what I’m going to make myself is going to be too big for you Khare, but I’ll look into something smaller. I can enchant a new bow for Khiat, but don’t worry, I’ll just copy what you have now since you’re so used to it.” He looked to Willow then and she shifted.


    “My wisdom and charisma are at nine. I, I could do it today.”


    “We still have time. I’ll be busy making sets of wings and boots as well as my weapon for at least a few days, longer if Padri stiffs me on his end. It’s a big step, but we’ll be here for you. Especially Tlara.” He looked to the side and couldn’t see her through any of the windows, which was ominous. She hadn’t done anything too out there, but she had to be getting restless. The demented Beastmaster had never been the most sociable, but her getting her real body back was trapped behind the same nebulous promises of the ruins as his ambitions were. Plus, hunting meant having the opportunity to get more bodies for her to try out and she took to the flying kind far better than horrific spiders.


    “I’ll take a few more days then. I’ve been talking to people, praying, thinking about it.” She pecked at some of the breakfast bread idly. “Thomas hasn’t heard of anyone getting odd classes yet, but it does sound like people who’ve hit walls are breaking through. Part of me wants to wait until someone else awakens one… but I’m going through with this. I’ll keep advancing my other attributes until then, but I won’t get anything else over 8. Does the end of the week sound fine?”


    “Yeah! Actually, it’d help if you cleared your level disparity as soon as you could after getting your class. It sucks.”


    “I’m glad I don’t have to worry about that,” Khiat murmured, increasingly sleepy.


    Khare let out a creaking sound that was their version of a grumble. The gestalt had shared their attributes with him at some point and Daniel knew Khare’s mental stats had been fairly low when they’d leveled, meaning they had a long way to go to get to his balanced state. Given how Kob’s array had ended up he was sure the berserker had given Khare some advice about how to manage their attributes but hadn’t been able to stick around to tell them how to handle it at this part.


    Easy solution though, kill more monsters. “Alright, I need to get enchanting. I still owe Temir a good deal of bags for the supplies he advanced me too, so, yeah. Probably not going to let us into the guild until that’s tidied up. Everyone good?”


    Khiat lazily nodded and headed for her section while Willow wrapped some food for herself. “I’m going flying with Tlara. We’ll need to stay close to each other when we hunt and I’ll need to get used to it when she’s moving fast. Honestly, she still needs to get used to flying in that body too.”


    “Alright, but be careful. Tlara should know if a monster spawn’s dropping on you. If she suddenly dives or something and you don’t know why, that’s probably it.”


    “Got it.” She opened the door and ask she did, Khare shot him in the face with one of the bone marbles. Sighing, Daniel began to rethink giving the Martialist hand cannons.


    …


    Back in his room, Daniel opened a bag of holding, frowned as he realized it was the wrong one, and then withdrew the contents of the one he’d received yesterday. This is starting to feel like I’ve got a giant trading card collection or something. I need to label these.


    From the list of available materials Temir had given him, he’d opted for four. Two were crucial for finishing the flight preparations and the others were needed for his new weapon. Daniel spoke under his breath as he pulled out each one, having already read their descriptions.


    “Tempestfowl Elemental feathers, weight reduction effect with use in armor or worn items. Level 3.” They were a very light shade of green, different from Quala’s darker primary color. The feathers themselves were grouped into a pouch as they were too loose to store individually. While a higher level material, the thing they came from was big and he’d been able to get a sizable quantity.


    “Arrakan moth fur, more distasteful than I’d think. Makes things cling on mental command like really strong velcro. Level 2.” The sections of fuzz that could loosely be called fur were indeed itchy. The Craftsmen had been able to get the grittiness out of the wastewolf fur, but this was another story. Still, it would be crucial for the gear of one party member in particular.


    “Hammerite, level 3. Malleability.” He looked distastefully at the couple of ingots of red metal. With all of his affixes that allowed the use of monster parts, he’d forgotten he could use naturally magical materials too. Doing so would free up an affix spot, though for most of what he was going to use this for he’d still need Patchwork. The level 3 material was certainly expensive but it was the only level the material came in, and that was true for the last special material he’d requested as well.


    “Andorite, level 2. Durability improvement.” Even though this was a level lower than the Hammerite, it had cost him more in the bargaining process because the source had been Roost’s Peak. He recalled it being used as the bait to entice Lograve’s team into the trap Ashier had set for them through the influenced fort’s headwoman. Considering Threst had sponsored the entire mine, it wasn’t a surprise they still had some left months after the Thormundz had fallen.


    The Andorite was absolutely crucial for what he wanted to do, but its scarcity and it being level 2 was a problem. He put the gray-blue metal back in the bag, knowing he’d have more work to do before he’d attempt to use it. Instead, he brought wastewolf fur and some of the feathers together into a pile and prepared himself for a difficult enchant.


    Interestingly, he’d become able to prep his part of the winged boots after working with Padri. His Focus hadn’t explained this, but he guessed he’d needed to have someone in mind to finish the project before he could truly start. Whether this meant no other Craftsman could do the job he didn’t know, and didn’t want to find out.


    The feathers along with the fur were plentiful, so he could fail with these. And he would. Combining the feathers and fur with patchwork was another difficulty step up, both because of the second material and, as far as he could tell, the level of material provided was averaged between the two. Still, it was worth it, both because of the practice he’d get and the improvement to speed reducing his weight would bring. Khiat wouldn’t be able to fly at all without that benefit.


    His morning was spent failing three times, getting closest to success on the second try while during the third he was burned out and couldn’t do it. Daniel smiled as the third try faded into dust, though. He was getting better. Mana control, as he suspected, was crucial for this. He could train his seventh sense just through enchanting, though he didn’t begrudge his earlier methods for multiple reasons.


    Daniel started to head downstairs to get lunch and recharge when he paused and looked for Khare’s aura. The gestalt had taken more and more to ‘training’, mostly because Daniel hadn’t discouraged them. It was improving his general awareness, aided by Hunter’s Keen Senses, but he should reign it in some. Khare wasn’t lying in wait, though they were doing… something. Daniel closed his eyes and focused on his hearing, barely picking out another creature near the gestalt.


    <hr>


    Jhoven (Gestalt: Earth)


    <hr>


    A friend? Huh. The two gestalt were in Khare’s room and Daniel didn’t feel like intruding, so he just made his meal as quietly as he could. Despite his gains from the Artificer trade, he’d struck out when it came to Muffle Sound.


    As Daniel was eating, he couldn’t help but notice the other gestalt slip along the side of the house as it left, avoiding every window as it did. The subterfuge was strange since someone his level would have normally been able to sense this, even without Hunter’s power. Daniel had been enchanting though, tuning out the outside world. He almost went up to ask, or to just mark Jhoven so Khare would know he’d seen, but then he thought about Khiat.


    Khare probably told them to avoid the common room to not disturb her, he thought, putting the matter aside. I’ll ask them later. Sighing a little, Daniel stood up and prepared to get back at it. It felt like he was about to fight a boss he’d already died to fifty times, but he’d get through it. Being able to fly was worth it, and even if it wasn’t, he needed to do this. For Hunter.