Pulling up the system menu, my status screen pulled up (displayed at the end of this chapter), and I was reminded of the ability I got for my last level up. Impressive Crafting. It was the ability to impress people with my crafting skills or knowledge as long as my proficiency was equal to or greater than the person I was interacting with.

  That ability must have done a ton of work at the fair. I didn't mentally mark its use when it activated, but from the sheer amount of people who crowded around me after the fight with Barton Traxby and the amount of people who purchased my inventions, it must have activated quite a lot.

  I pulled up the level 10 level up notification. I got 3 stat points to allocate, and all my crafting skills went up another skill proficiency to a minimum of expert (5), and a new ability.

  Build: Allows the user to construct large-scale buildings, vehicles, and infrastructure in exchange for mana. More mana efficient than Manufacture for these purposes.

  I placed my 3 new stat points into intelligence. My intelligence went from 12 to 15, netting me 60 more max MP up to 300 total. Each point in intelligence also gave me a choice of intelligence perks. I chose Faster Crafting, Efficient Crafting, and Accelerated Comprehension.

  Faster Crafting: Increase crafting speed by 100%.

  Efficient Crafting: Reduce material cost by 40%.

  Accelerated Comprehension: Increase learning speed by 100%.

  They would all significantly improve my crafting. That's all I really needed at this point. To become a better crafter. Strength would come later. Maybe I'd even start investing stat points into my other stats next to even me out. Some better combat stats would go a long way towards making me a stronger adventurer.

  Closing the system screen, I closed the book I had been pretending to read. We were still on the carriage ride home. My new ability gave me an idea for new projects, but unfortunately I didn't have any cobblestone on my person. I thought it would be interesting to try to build a cobblestone road in front of the carriage, but my new Build ability probably wouldn't work that fast. It was a nice idea, though. Instead, I closed my eyes, leaned back, and tried to sleep on the ride home.

  We were all exhausted from the ride when we got home, regardless of how much sleep any of us got on the way back. I barely made dinner for all of us. We ate quickly and went straight to bed. I initially went to go back to sleep in my single bed, but I missed Valda holding me at night. I stood outside her door debating whether I should knock or go in.

  The door opened, and Valda stood there with an expectant look on her face. "Are you coming in or not?"

  "I, I mean…yes." I followed her in and we slept in the same bed like we had been doing for the last two weeks or so. She told me she had been opening the door to go to my room and ask me to come over to hers.

  It was cozy laying in bed with her arms wrapped around me from behind. I liked it. I'm not ashamed. I'm allowed to like things that aren't traditionally masculine. Also, it was just easier that way, with her being taller than me and all. Trying to big spoon someone taller than you is awkward at best and painful at worst. Trust me, I would know.

  Before everyone else woke up, I decided to try to catch Sam preparing the shop for opening and invite him to breakfast with us. I fiddled with the key in the lock to the backdoor of the shop. It should've been an easy open, but it had been nearly three weeks and the key always had a habit of sticking. It occurred to me I should fix that.

  When I opened the door, I heard someone yell, "Ahhh!!!" Instinctively, I jumped back in surprise, narrowly missing getting bashed in the head with a hammer. The person with the hammer stumbled forward, and I caught sight of Sam.

  "Sam? Are you trying to kill me?" I tried to decide if I should run. I couldn't tell if I was in danger or not.

  Sam looked up at hearing his name and recognized me. He breathed a heavy sigh of relief and put his hand on his chest. "Oh, Gwen, it's you." He looked at the hammer in his hand guiltily. "Sorry, I didn't mean to attack you. I thought you were one of Barton's men, trying to break in. It sounded like someone was picking the lock with how long it was taking to open the door."

  "Yeah, the lock sticks. Don't you remember?" I breathed a sigh of relief myself. He wasn't trying to kill me. Good.

  "Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. I'm so used to it adjusting for it that it opens right up for me." He looked at me funny.

  "Right. It used to do the same for me, but I've been gone so long, I forgot how to do it."

  "That makes sense. Well, come in." He gestured me to come inside.

  "Actually, I'm not here to stay. I was just coming by to see if you wanted to have breakfast with the rest of us at my house."

  Sam crossed his arms and shifted on his feet for a moment. "Yeah…sure. Why not?" He furrowed his eyebrows slightly. "What time?"

  "Right now."

  "Ok, let me grab my coat."

  I woke up the house when we got back and I made breakfast for everyone. With cooking being classified as a crafting discipline, my skills had significantly improved now that I had expert (5) proficiency in it. Everyone besides Sam—since he had never had my cooking before—noticed how much I'd improved.

  Valda, Delia, and even Brent complimented me on it. Although, I did have to prompt Brent by asking him how the food was. Sam complimented me on the food as well. He just had no point of reference to realize it was an improvement. I told everyone the story of how Sam almost brained me with a hammer, which is perfect breakfast conversation, I know. It wasn't the apt story to tell over food, but it was on my mind. Give me a break.

  "So why were you so jumpy?" Valda asked.

  "Oh, well, Barton's men have been hassling me at the store a lot. I thought they might just be escalating their game with a break in." Sam laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head.

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  I swallowed a piece of potato before speaking. "I suppose that's fair. Although, I feel like starting with a headshot might be a little extreme."

  "Hey, I assumed there would be more than one. If I could knock one out at the start, that would've given me a better chance." Sam put his hands up defensively.

  "I think you did the right thing, Mister." Delia waved her fork around with eggs on it. "Kill 'em all!"

  "What?" Everyone at the table said.

  "What?" Delia pulled her face down partly below the table so you could only see her eyes. "They tried to kill us in our home."

  I felt the tension in my shoulders relax. "I guess that's fair. Maybe just don't go saying stuff like that at school." I patted her head.

  "Ok!" She grinned with a mouthful of food.

  I turned to Sam. "So, anything new other than bandits?"

  "Yeah, actually. Some weird stuff's been happening with the dungeons around here. The entrances have all been closed off. No one knows why or who did it."

  "Huh. I guess we're going to have to find another way to get supplies."

  "We could just go monster hunting out in the plains." Valda suggested.

  "That's a good idea." I said.

  "So, how was your trip?" Sam asked.

  We told Sam about our trip and everything that had happened. There was a lot to fill him in on, so by the time we were done, the meal was almost over. After we talked about the Barton Traxby incident, Sam acted a little dodgy.

  "What's wrong?" I couldn't let it go that Sam was acting weird all of a sudden.

  "Oh. Yeah. There's something I have to come clean about." His shoulders slumped. "Barton is actually my brother. I haven't been involved in his mess since we were kids. I still worry about him. So, thanks for not killing him."

  "Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't know." I smoothed out an eyebrow. "Once he was defenseless, he stopped being a target for me. I don't kill defenseless people."

  "I appreciate that." Sam looked sadly at me. "I'm sorry to burden you all with my family issues. I hope we can still associate with each other and I can keep working for you."

  "Yeah. Of course. I wouldn't begrudge you your family problems." I finished up my plate and washed the dishes.

  "Thank you! You have no idea what that means to me. You have no idea how many times I've been kicked out of places because of my brother."

  "I'm sure I don't. You don't have to worry with us though. Right Valda?"

  Valda looked up. She had been staring at her plate. "Oh, yeah! No worries. Nothing against you, but your brother sucks."

  "I know."

  I sent Sam back to the shop after breakfast to open up and keep us in business. Valda and I were going to the Adventurers' Guild to see if we could rustle up a job. And Brent and Delia had to get to school.

  After walking my siblings to school, Valda and I walked to the guild. I noticed a lot more people out on the street begging than before. When we got into the guild, it was packed with adventurers. The recent dungeon closures must have been having a big impact not only on adventurers in the area, but on the town itself.

  The town heavily relied on income from the dungeons in a multitude of ways. From the things taken out of the dungeons, to the income that adventurers spent on restaurants, inns and other services, this place couldn't function without the adventuring industry.

  All the adventurers packed into the guild would probably normally be in a dungeon at that moment. The line for the front desk was packed. We had to wait half an hour to get to the front of the line.

  "Hi, my name is Doris. How can I help you today?" The woman behind the counter looked exhausted, but she put on a happy face.

  "We know the dungeons are closed, but can you tell us what jobs are available?" I asked.

  "Thank you. At least you're not complaining about the dungeons. It's not like I can do anything about it." She wiped some sweat off her brow and looked down at the papers in front of her. "We have monster hunting. Goblins, orcs, cockatrice, that sort of thing. And we have ingredient gathering. We need blueberry bellflowers, midnight moths, and buster roots. The goblins and orcs you can find in their tribes and the cockatrice and ingredients are just scattered throughout the plains."

  "Good to know. Could I get a map and a list of monsters, ingredients, and their prices?"

  "Sure. That'll be one silver."

  I exchanged the coin for the map and the list. I also purchased some more crafting supplies I thought I'd need, including wood, stone, rope, string, and fabrics of varying thickness. Valda and I left the guild and headed out of the town into the plains. I had a really dumb idea I wanted to try out.

  I used Build to make a tall but thin tower out of wood with a ladder going up to the top. It was basically a crow's nest, but I had built it in the middle of a field. I climbed up to the top with Valda whining that she wanted to go up, too. I told her she'd get to go after me, and that barely mollified her, but she stopped complaining. The crow's nest wasn't big enough for two people to fit.

  As I looked out over the plains with a makeshift spyglass I had Manufactured, I focused my Analyze ability to make ingredients and monsters pop out at me visually, so we didn't have to go wandering around to find things. The ingredients were scattered pretty evenly all over, so we would have to wander around for those, but I did spy a cockatrice a way off to the east.

  That's where we would head first. As I said I would, I let Valda climb up into the crow's nest and look around.

  "All I see is grass." Valda looked through the spyglass with frustration.

  "I figured."

  "Why do you get cool crafting powers and I can just hit things really hard?"

  "That would be your class, dear. You shouldn't discount what you have though. I wish I could hit things hard like you. That way, I wouldn't have to rely on you to keep me safe."

  "But I like protecting you. It makes me feel strong and important." She slid down the ladder all cool like and landed gracefully on the ground.

  "You are strong and important."

  "Thank you." Valda hugged me.

  "Anytime."

  Name: Gwen

  HP: (150/150)

  MP: (240/240)->(300/300)

  SP: (150/150)

  Class: Maker

  Stats:

  Strength: 5

  Dexterity: 4

  Constitution: 5

  Wisdom: 4

  Intelligence: 12->15

  Charisma: 4

  Proficiencies:

  Alchemy: Innovator (7)

  Blacksmithing: Innovator (7)

  Enchanting: Innovator (7)

  Tinkering: Master (6)

  Artifice: Expert (5)

  Woodworking: Expert (5)

  Stonework: Expert (5)

  Maker Abilities/Spells:

  Design: 3-D theoretical designs inside mind

  Test: Test designs

  Assemble: Assemble inventions if all the pieces are made and ready

  Manufacture: Ability to make things you have the materials and proficiencies for using mana rather than tools.

  Advanced Testing: Ability to test the specific effects of a design on other things like objects or people.

  Synthesize: The ability to derive chemicals by breaking down or combining objects or chemicals, elements, or compounds.

  Excavate: The ability to move earth and stone in exchange for mana.

  Impressive Crafting: The ability to impress anyone with equal or lower skill proficiency to you in the skill you demonstrate to them verbally or physically. The greater the disparity in skill, the more impressed they will be.

  ->Build: Allows the user to construct large-scale buildings, vehicles, and infrastructure in exchange for mana. More mana efficient than Manufacture for these purposes.

  Chosen Intelligence Perks:

  Arcane Infusion: Add magic damage to your attacks. The additional damage is 40% of your total damage amount. (Magic damage gets through non-magic defense, but not magic defense, and it doesn't activate weaknesses like elemental magic damage)

  Brilliant Inventor: Reduce the proficiency level requirement to invent something new by 2 on one skill, or by 1 on two skills. Does not affect the level requirements to manufacture known materials or items, unless it is a previous invention. Previous inventions require 2 less proficiency levels to produce.

  ->Faster Crafting: Increase crafting speed by 100%.

  ->Efficient Crafting: Reduce material cost by 40%.

  ->Accelerated Comprehension: Increase learning speed by 100%.