The Concept of Crafting

I wake up in a situation that is becoming far too familiar: the empty wooden room of the guild infirmary, with Allysa sitting in the chair by the door reading. She looks up and smiles, marking her page and setting the book to the side. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

“Well? Don't just leave me in suspense, what class did you get?” Allysa said excitedly, leaning forward a bit and nearly bouncing with excitement.

I blink at her for a moment, my sleep-fogged brain still parsing what she means before responding.

“Aethersmith, Mythic crafting class and exactly what I wanted.” I say, grinning slightly at her enthusiasm. I read through the skill descriptions again before slowly standing up, Allysa moving over to help. As we leave the room, I explain the skills to her, sharing the descriptions with her as she guides me to the guildhall's forge, where adventurers can do quick repairs on their gear or contract a guild smith to make something.

We reach it eventually, having to move slowly due to my unsteady gait. I sit down at one of the workbenches and turn to Allysa.

“Could you go get me a piece of wood or something to test these on?”

She nods, walking over to a closet against one wall and disappearing inside, returning a short moment later with a hefty chunk of scrap wood. I take it, thank her and begin to study it. It doesn't take long, since it is literally just a cube of wood, probably oak.

I use [Sense Concepts], and examine it again. This time, I can feel something new about it, like a liquid soaked into the wood. It's hard to describe it, the concepts are distinct yet merged, tied into every grain of the wood, and I can feel three of them.

A concept of uniformity, of neatness, of control. Order.

A concept of resilience, of strength, of steadiness. Earth.

And a concept that is much harder to define. Wood, growth, and greenery. Plant, or something very similar.

The next skill was [Strip Essentia]. I activated it and was immediately presented with a choice. Not a system one, but one that was almost instinctive. Do I only want one of the concepts, or do I want them all? If I take one, I get the feeling the rest will be lost, and if I take them all, the concepts will still consider themselves as one solid thing.

I thought for a moment before deciding on all of them, and then the skill activated. The cube of wood crumbled to dust, collapsing into a pile of gray ash that rapidly disintegrated. In its place was left a transparent, vibrant mass vaguely in the shape of the cube. Allysa was watching me with rapt attention as I reached out and picked up the mass, grinning.

It felt like holding incredibly soft clay. I just sat there and played with it, molding it into different shapes but refusing to let it set or solidify. I thought about what to do with it now, and figured I might as well try to make a temporary fix for my leg. I sculpted the amorphous mass into a rough imitation of my leg, along with a socket to hold it on.

It was about then that I remembered [Essentia Forging], and the wording of the description. Specifically the part about intent. I focused, imagining drawing the plant essentia to the forefront and picturing the leg attaching to my stump. It surprisingly worked, and I felt my intent and image take hold of the wooden leg just as it began to solidify. The transparent essentia gained definition, hardening back into a smooth wooden leg that was distinctly lighter colored than the wood it began as.

I studied it for a moment, looking it over before remembering the [Inspect] command and using it. Shortly after, a windows appeared above the leg.

-==÷==-

Wooden Prosthetic (Aurisal Foreleg)

A basic wooden prosthetic shaped as an aurisal’s foreleg, when pressed to a missing limb of the corresponding type it will attach itself.

Provides no additional benefits.

-==÷==-

I smiled and nodded to myself, satisfied. Pressing the wooden paw to the stump of my leg, I felt the plant concept stir as a few tendrils of wood expanded from the socket, wrapping around my leg and holding the prosthetic firmly in place. I stood up, taking a few careful steps to test it before speeding up until I was running around the space, laughing at my freedom. I was only missing the leg for a few days, and yet I hadn't realized how much it changed my life until I regained it.

I looked over and saw that Allysa was smiling at me, leaning on her hand as she watched my sheer joy. I walked over to her, grinning like a loon the whole time.

“Well, it seems that your class and skills are perfect for you without intervention! Don't you still have two skills to try out?” Allysa said, and my eyes widened slightly as I realized that I had completely forgotten about my other two skills out of the five granted, and I could feel my cheeks heat a bit as she just chuckled. I walked over to the supply closet, ducking a bit to get through the door, and collected a few different materials. Returning to the workbench, I laid out the random pile of scraps:

A few cubes of wood, two iron ingots, a scrap of leather and a singular fang that was labeled as a red wolf fang. A red wolf, from what I remember, is a minor beast that is very common in the forests across the continent. I used [Sense Concepts] on each of them, making mental notes of each.

The wood blocks all had the same as that first piece, with order, earth, and plant.

The iron had metal and earth, which was unsurprising.

The leather was a bit more interesting, containing the concepts of beast, craft, and life.

And then the fang. It contained beast, life, hunger, and one I can just barely explain as magic.

Now, it was time to experiment.