Petra’s boisterous laugh filled the little private bath as Seras continued to shrub at her skin with some of the inns steal wool.


    “Its not funny.” Seras muttered.


    “Yes, it is.” Petra countered. “The look on your face when you finally felt it was priceless.”


    “You should have warned me.” Seras muttered as she got a pop up alerting her that she had scrubbed her smart skin so hard that it now required an hour to repair. If it had been normal skin then she would have a huge rash.


    “Warn you, how would I? You gave us no warning that you were going to just ‘absorb’ an essence and rank up to iron.” Petra said with a shake of her head.


    “Then how come in none of our many discussions about magic and essences did this never come up?”


    “Because its gross and no one likes to talk about it.”


    Seras scowled as she tossed away the ruined scrubber and picked up another for her other arm.


    As Seras had learned, whenever a person ranks up their bodies are purged of toxins as the magic helps them ascend to a more perfect state. That purge happens all at once, and completely ruins everything you were wearing, and everything else within the splash zone.


    The inn owner was absolutely furious, Seras’ little fuckup caused everyone to clear out just to get away from the smell. He had said the floorboards were ruined and needed to be replaced. Dustin was currently talking him down.


    “Besides, I’ve never seen someone purge that much gunk. And that weird green stuff that bubbled through your skin, ” Petra continued.


    “That shouldn’t even be possible. Its not real skin!” Seras said as she finally got past the layer of bright neon green filth coating her arm.


    There was a knock at the door. “Is Seras decent?” Dustin’s muffled voice asked.


    “No” Petra answered.


    A pause, “Fine, just hand her this.” Dustin’s hand then came through a crack in the door and passed Petra a bottle of some sort of liquid.


    Petra looked at it and made an impressed noise. “Fancy.” She said.


    “What is it?” Seras asked.


    “Crystal wash.” Petra answered.


    Seras quirked an eyebrow. On Ruin crystal wash was a popular cleaning product for cybernetic limbs, at least it was until they realized that the company who made crystal wash engineered the chemical to make the seals in joints to break down faster so that their parent corp could sell more replacements. “I’m going to need some more context.” Seras said in a flat tone.


    Petra looked confused, “What, its just cleaning potion.”


    “Like a soap bottle or-”


    “Nah, better than soap. This stuff will clean anything. Just one bottle and you’ll cleaner than you’ve ever been.” Petra extended the bottle to Seras.


    Seras quirked an eyebrow. “How, is like some sort of universal solvent, or a sanitizer, or...?”


    “Just use the bottle, you’ll understand once you do.”


    Seras decided to trust Petra and lifted the bottle over her head and poured its contents out. In a wave of filth and goo all the nasty gunk clinging to Seras was washed off. By the end of it she was perfectly clean and smelled faintly of flowers.


    She didn’t even have to scrub.


    She staired at the bottle incredulously. “How? It cleaned my teeth, and I didn’t even get any in my mouth.”


    Petra shrugged “Magic.”


    “Why even bother with baths then?”


    “Because its expensive, especially out in the deserts. That’s why I called it fancy. Boss must have had some squirreled away.”


    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    “Well then.” Seras said at a loss for words. “I guess I’m done scrubbing.” She stepped out of the large patch of filth that smelled disturbingly like monster smoke.


    She opened her pocket space and pulled out a spare set of clean clothes. Since it was still late in the evening she decided to dress lightly in preparation for bed. On Ruin Seras used to just sleep in her under clothes, but after hearing plenty of complaints and startled noises from the men of the caravan Seras begrudgingly bought some comfortable sleeping clothes.


    Dustin was outside and gave her a short nod when she came out.


    “Sorry about the mess.” Seras apologized.


    “Its all good, a bit of crystal wash fixed the floor boards, and the owner has calmed down. That said I think we should retire for the night.”


    “Hold on, I want to know what confluence she got.” Petra interjected.


    “I’m with Petra on this one” Flint said.


    Dustin sighed. “Fine, but lets do this in our room.”


    No one argued and they followed Dustin up to his and Flint’s room. The moment they saw Seras going into the boss’s room the rest of the crew got up and followed them in.


    “Alright.” Petra said as everyone squeezed into the room only meant for two. “What’chy get.”


    Seras glanced around the room. “Tech, Metal, and Potent essences made for confluence of Avatar.”


    There was murmuring and grousing. Avatar was a pretty common confluence with lots of potential combos. Obviously, the crew were disappointed it wasn’t some never before seen confluence. Honestly Seras was a bit let down as well.


    “Alright hold’up.” Dustin said raising his hands. “While Avatar isn’t a new essence by any means it is a diverse one. We don’t know which way her avatar essence will sway.”


    “That’s right,” Flint added. “Avatar essence users can be anything from front lines fighters, to control specialists. What was the first ability you got from avatar?” Flint asked as he pulled out the essence list.


    “Its not on there” Seras said. “I checked while I was scrubbing. The ability is bullet control, it somehow allows me to guide and correct the course of bullets in motion.”


    Rohan straightened “Bullet control? Not ‘guide the path’, or ‘chosen marker’?”


    “No, what are those?” Seras asked.


    “Those are common bow essence abilities that guide the arrows path, some even make the arrow speed up in flight.”


    Seras tried to imagine her using the ability with a bow, but something within herself rebelled against the idea. Somehow, she had the innate sense that the ability would not be compatible with swords. “No dice, it seems it’ll only work on bullets.”


    “Which means you really will have to somehow make one of your gun things.” Flint said.


    Seras nodded. “Seems that way. Do you think there’s any chance I’ll get the ability to just summon a gun from the avatar essence?”


    Flint thought about as he searched the list. “I wouldn’t rule it out, but I’m not seeing any such abilities for the Avatar essence. Granted I don’t see anything like control bullets on here either. You should still see about making your own.”


    Dustin got a contemplative look on his face. “Could you pass that here? I want to check something.”


    Flint passed the list to Dustin. And while Dustin looked for… whatever he was searching for, Seras once again found herself trying to explain guns to the crew.


    “No, its not a one-use weapon. The gun powder explodes, but the gun stays in one piece. Usually” “I can fire it as many times as I want, so long as I have ammo.” “Yes, it is incredibly loud.” And so on.


    “Got it” Dustin called out.


    Everyone turned to him, he eld up the tablet and passed it to Seras. “Shape metal?” She read out loud in confusion.


    “Its one of the metal essence abilities, typically metal tends towards defense or crafting in its abilities. And this ability has recorded 65% chance to manifest if you use an Earth awakening stone. I figured it might be the best ability to help you make you guns.”


    “Boss” Garrette said slowly. “Seras is a fighter. I don’t think she’s going to need the abilities of a magic craftsmen.”


    “She’s a fighter, but none of the weapons or gear she’s experienced with exist on this world. If she wants to use any of her world’s weapons she’s going to need to make it. And we all know she isn’t good with our weapons.” Dustin explained.


    “I wasn’t that bad.” Seras muttered.


    “Seras, at the first opportunity you dropped your sabers to instead stab the eyes of and eel monster.” Frank said.


    “And you’re no good with spears.” Chase added.


    “You broke my bow.” Rohan muttered.


    “I said was sorry.” Seras defended herself.


    “See what I mean.” Dustin said firmly.  “What she needs is to make her own weapons.”


    Seras checked the other known combinations of earth and Metal. “Couldn’t it also bond to one of my other essences?”


    Dusitn nodded “There is a chance of that.”


    “Don’t forget Florence’s theory on essence compatibility” Flint said. “While any essence and awakening stone can pair, there are certain essences that have a higher chance of pairing. Earth and metal have a higher chance of bonding, at least on paper. While potent and earth could bond, or any of your other essences, Metal has the higher compatibility.”


    Seras thought about it as she summoned up the stone.


    Awakening stone of earth. Absorb to unlock the power of earth. Requires one unawakened essence ability.


    Would you like to convert into an appropriate form Y/N


    “Why the hell not” Seras muttered as she turned the yellow-colored stone into a shard and slotted it into her neck.


    The power surged through her and she felt it settle into her bones.


    You have awakened the Metal essence ability Shape metal


    Shape metal: Allows the user to manipulate the shape of metal.


    Cost: Varies.


    Cool down: None


    “Got it in one” Seras said as she pumped her fist.


    There was a polite applause, and Petra pulled out a metal fork and passed it over.


    “Try this” She said.


    Seras accepted the fork and focused her mind in it. She had a sort of feeling, like the fork was a long-lost limb that she had only just noticed, or like when her arms used to go numb and slowly woke up. With a little mental effort, the tines on the fork began to curl in on themselves, then she made it straighten put. Then she tried to make it squeeze in on itself and turn into a ball. But this time she felt like she was trying to lift a heavy weight with her pinky while at an awkward angle.


    She could get the fork to roll in on itself as if it had been bent, but she couldn’t seem to work the metal like it was clay or putty. At least not yet.


    Already she had ideas on how to use this.


    “It’ll get better.” Chase said with a smile. “This is the literally the weakest and most inexperienced you will ever be. Everything is up hill from here. Congratulations on reaching Iron by the way. Where did you even get that third essence?”


    “Best not to say” Flint said quickly, cutting off Seras’ own deflection.


    While Flint had gifted her with the final essence she needed to reach Iron, he obviously didn’t want the credit. And Seras was okay letting things stay as they were.


    Dustin slapped his hands against his “Whelp, its getting pretty late, were leaving day after tomorrow. If you have anything to do in Florin please go in groups, especially you Seras.” He said with a pointed look.


    Seras did her best not to look embarrassed. She was starting to understand the whole Outworlder’s and trouble going hand in hand thing.


    ~~~*~~~


    The next day Seras dragged Petra to every bookstore and blacksmith in Florin. She blew all her savings on magic theory books, technical manuals, and even a few skill books.


    Skill books wouldn’t make her a master in any trade, but they would cut down on thousands of hours of training and learning. And with enough background research Seras could fill in the gaps in her abilities.


    The next day when they left Florin Seras had a pocket space full of books and head full of ideas.


    She and the crew left the city and all the bad memories behind. Seras didn’t even glance back as they set out for their next destination, this time heading north.