'...Those Rotten Desk Peckers'

Because my own hair and nails not quite long enough to function I ended up cutting Cweeper's hair short and simply clip her claws and give that to Hermes alongside my bloody hand. I received fifteen percent increased affinity on the spot and Hermes went right to work peeling the skin from meaty flesh and bone and then picking out the bones it wanted. Lana almost became sick while watching this and had to be led away but I stuck around and watched the goblin repair its armor.

After replacing a few broken pieces of bones with the bones of my fingers and hand, the redcap uses strips of flesh and twisted strands of hair to tie them in place and to their surroundings to further secure them in place. Then, it simply stretched the scraped skin of my hand across the chest of its upper dress before tying it stretched in place with its claws and more twisted locks of hair.

When he was done the description of his Raiment said that it was now fully restored and for receiving the addition of an opponent that spared their life all of the stats and resistances went up by one point or one percent. We had just gotten together and I had already upgraded his entire suit of armor. However, his weapon that did forty damage was an alchemy item I was not yet capable of doing anything with until I received more lessons from Ferithar or Oleander.

All it needed, though, was various forms of bone and ivory from different creatures.

Giving him another hand would probably skyrocket the bonuses and attack rating of the 'scythe'. The name kind of got on my nerves sense it was a sword to me, even with a crescent blade, but then again these were goblins so it was not worth arguing over. Arguing with a goblin would be pointless, anyway.

Once the current repairs were made, Sir Beryl promptly sent us on our way for fear that more redcaps or even worse would start coming out of the Passage. Lana was more than happy to be gone from this entire place and gratefully bid Sir Beryl farewell while repeatedly inviting and even demanding him to come visit at the first opportunity. She did not say much along the way, though, so I could tell she was upset about me having my hand chopped off.

"I won't apologize or ask for forgiveness since I do not see what I did as wrong, but I will ask that you try to understand and not be upset with me," I say after two confrontations in which neither of us really spoke but just fought and traveled. "I… do the most extreme things because those things usually get the most extreme results, you know? I damaged my new familiar's armor while capturing him and owed it to him to give him material to repair it with.

"The armor is naturally made from enemies that proved weaker than him," I go on, trying to explain some of the logic behind my actions. "So, if we just went and got any materials it would have only fixed the armor. Adding pieces of an enemy that spared his life increased not only the defense rating of his armor but also all of its stats and resistances. Just a few pieces of my hand made was as good as adding a single piece of a different monster for every stat and resistance."

Looking at me in surprise and then at the redcap walking behind us next to Cweeper, Lana asks, "Was it really that good? Do you think you could make pieces of armor like it?"

From my body parts? FUCK NO. "If I used monster parts and their cores all in a couple of large pieces, maybe, but nothing like the Raiment," I reply instead, knowing better than to let my manners slip that much. "It's got something to do with goblin magic rituals, traditions, and his own ancestral spirit guardian or something. Without those things, we can only create minor versions of the Raiment."

Nodding their head wordlessly, Lana seems thoughtful for a little while before saying, "It was horrible, disgusting, and the most terrifying thing I had ever seen. The person I can't help but think of as the strongest just let his hand be cut off as if it were nothing. But… I do kind of know you so I know you only do what you think really is the… very best. It is what makes you… you. Just, next time… please don't do it in front of me. I'm never going to NOT see… THAT."

The hell? What kind of response is this? What kind of person does she REALLY think I am?!

"I did not think of how you would react, which I now regret," I admit awkwardly, unable to look anywhere but at my feet as we walked through the darkened forestry. "I was distracted by learning about everything I did and figuring out what to do to get what results as well as how to teach the others and even you to do similar things. NOT cutting your own parts off, of course," I add quickly when she looks at me sharply.

"I should hope not," Lana grumbles, playfully shoving my shoulder before picking up the pace a little.

We passed through two more confrontations on the way back to the city in relative silence after that, but it was less awkward and strained and more just a tired quiet. It was already eleven when we got back to the city so it was pretty late for a prim and proper young lady like the one Lana was or was becoming. However, we still stopped by the smithy.

After exchanging materials and equipment with Canley, I gave him some money and asked him to take his family shopping under the excuse of studying currently popular clothing styles and entertainment trends. The entire concept of this confused him, but I dumbed it down for him by telling him to just write down what girls and ladies like as well as what attracts the attentions of children of all ages.

These were how we would introduce reality to the game, the same way some people already did with those rotten desk peckers.

When we finally got home it was only ten minutes shy of midnight and Mr. Harlow was unhappy when he answered the door. However, at least Lana was actually awake this time and unrecognizable in her heavy leather suit so there was little in the way of rumor risks. This did little to improve the mood, though.

After leaving Lana with Mr. Harlow to be taken to her room, I returned to the south wing where the others were all gathered in a commons at the end of the wing. Most of them were reading while the others were all being given a lesson in alchemy by Oleander about how to integrate mana into an object for transmuting or enchanting. I stuck around to learn what I could.

However, not long after I showed up and sat down the others all stopped what they were doing and started staring at me. At first I pretended that nothing was wrong until Go decided to bounce a book off of the side of my head. "Fine, God!" I say after losing fifteen HP from what was NOT a playful throw. "Once your goblin slaying achievements get as high as mine they have the negative affects of sending assassins after you. Everyone, meet Redcap Hermes, the assassin."

"How did you capture an assassin?!" Lil all but screams excitedly, jumping up from her seat to all but swarm Hermes while studying his body and equipment. "I can't believe it, he even has four fingers instead of three just like us and there's not an ounce of fat on him! If he were about a foot taller and human he'd be a snack."

"What did you just say?!" Papi demands in horror while the rest of us started laughing.

"What an adorable puppy!" Lil exclaims with a laugh as if there was any hope at all for sweeping her slip-up under the rug.

Everybody eventually calmed down after I told them the simplified story about how we fought and how I bound him to me willingly. Bringing this up obviously made me teach the others about Blood Binding which was similar to an intermediate skill the summoner and druid classes had.

Blood Binding could only be done as many times as familiars that a person could have, even if one dies you do not get a new binding because you keep the last stats and bonuses. Lil and Agnes could make their familiars Life Bound where they share stats the same way but that was all they shared and could be performed once per familiar. Now that they learned Blood Binding, though, they had the potential for more permanent stats.

Most of the others would only ever be able to have two or three familiars depending on how they acquired a mount so they had to be very picky when it came to Blood Binding. Of course, since our front liners had magic familiars they sought them out to gain the extra magic stats with their first binding. Even though I would have waited to raise the magic stats on their familiars for the most gains, it was still a smart move in its own right.

Since Cweeper and Missy were the prize gems of their queen's harem, their stats were higher from being used the most while the others would only get around seven and eight points but did not want to listen to reason even if I threatened them.

This was partly because they wanted to give their magic familiars their higher physical stats before making the trip up north. The enemies we would face along the way outside of the Canfor region would be level thirty and up while the enemies found in the Winter Wood were never below forty. They were still worried, whether about themselves or the pets.

I had once again basically cheated and stolen a mini-boss for a private guardian, so I was not too worried about the overall safety of our familiars. Instead, I saw this as a major training opportunity. Aside from the people who were making all the current walkthroughs, most people were still hovering around the edges of society near our levels just starting to get used to camping out and night hunting.

It would not be until they hit the next bottleneck in experience that they started venturing out into the 'early wilds' in the edges of their regions and beyond looking for hunting game that matched their levels. We were going to be rushing our way to the bottleneck and then threw it as much as we could as fast as we could while we could.

After half an hour later of simply watching and listening to the others experiment with materials to learn imbuing and transmutation, I finally took out a simple Hardened Hickory sapling that was still alive from being preserved in my inventory.

The entire sapling was a couple of feet taller than I was and had almost a dozen small leafy branches. Focusing on feeling the flow of mana in my 'being', I will it to gather in my hands gripping the medium grade wood and then flow into the sapling. After a few moments of simply pushing out a light pulsing energy, the mana finally started seeping into the wood.

It took a minute our two, but after my mana started filling the sapling I started FEELING the sapling in a cross between mental and physical experience. I could feel the direction and tightness of the wood's grain that made it tough and strong while the same resilience allowed it to particularly transfer the energy of a heavy blow.

As well, I could feel the different layers and parts of the sapling, as if the branches and leaves were their own arms and appendages for grasping food and the roots were sponge like tongues in search of water. It was almost a religious experience as I felt myself 'understanding' some of nature.

[Acquired Skill: Imbuing]

[+25XP]

[Imbuing Uninitiated: Transfer both your mana and some of your awareness into an object or substance to better analyze its different components and properties. The mana that remains in the imbued material will strengthen its natural properties while weakening its weaknesses. At higher levels, more mana can be imbued for stronger use later regardless of material quality as well as different forms of mana. Imbue twenty-five different items or materials with your mana to Initiate]

Because my eyes were closed I ended up being surprised by Melpomene's voice because she at first disguised her voice as someone deeper like a male before laughing when I was startled and continuing on normally. Afterward, though, I tried following the directions given to the others. Now, it was time to exert my will upon the material.

All I had to do was trim a single branch from the sapling.

[Acquired Skill: Transmutation]

[+25XP]

[Transmutation Uninitiated: While an object is under magical analysis or bent to your control, you can somewhat freely change its features and shape at the expense of your own mana. At the highest of levels, a single piece of a diamond's microstructure can be enlarged into an indestructible blade as thin and sharp as the horizon. Change the features or shape of an item twenty times to Initiate]

While Melpomene continued reading the skill information to me, I was already half of the way through the initiation just from trimming the branches. After trimming the roots by simply removing the mana in them as if they had been cut off, the skill was initiated and I received another twenty-five experience. However, I was not done.

Exercising the extent of my control, I envisioned the wood in my head taking the shape of a Bokuto underneath the bark before condensing the bark into a solid and smooth outer layer. This alone took a few minutes and more than ten percent of my mana

Next I compacted and condensed the grain structure and fibers of the wood together to increase its resilience before once more conforming the singularly fused cell wall of the wood.

By the time it was done, the outer bark layer was so thin and dense at the edge that it had achieved a cutting sharpness. The core of somewhat fused wood inside had increased its previous stats by almost a third, creating a very potent inner weapons Next, I created a parting above the rounded guard of the sword and then a vacuum within around the inner core.

[Successfully Crafted: Two-Layer Hardened Bokuto]

[Saved Quick Craft Recipe: Two-Layer Hardened Bokuto]

[+150XP]

[Leveled Up]

[All stats raised by 1]

[+150 Transmutation XP]

[Transmutation Leveled x4]

[+60XP]

[Endurance has reached 100. Received Endurance Perk: Toughened]

[+100XP]

[Toughened: After reaching one hundred points of Endurance, your skin, muscles, organs, bones, even your teeth and nail and hair becomes a little bit stronger. Your physical defenses are now raised by 10% of their current values and you now heal 5HP every 5 seconds]

"Let me guess, you unlocked the hidden classless version of an alchemist class's masteries and titles," Oleander says blandly while glaring at my sword. I could understand why, though, because the outer bark layer of blade had an attack rating of twenty-five- for me- and an intense knockback of six inches per ten points of Strength. With my current eighty-three overall Strength, I could send someone my size back four feet.

Hermes would fly and a hobgoblin warrior would take a knee under that pressure or even leave the ground if paired with 360 Edge. On top of this, the inner blade was so dense and thin that it had the same durability as the bark layer but had thirty damage with a ten-percent weapon damage bleed effect every second for five seconds.

This was only three damage per second, but dealing with a bleeding wound could take a moment when using a skill like Staunch. Using a pair of these Bokuto and 360 Edge to land roughly four bleeding wounds, that was sixty damage in five seconds. I could leave most enemies to die with that, here in the Potlatch forestry.

"Take this, study it, and find a way to both gild and galvanize these while retaining both the knockback and bleed effects," I order, sliding the blade-sheathed sword down the alchemy table toward Oleander. "If you have any new enchantment skills or can create them, experiment on it. I'm going to spend the rest of my mana making more and then go to sleep."

*