As the days passed, Sam and Fiona quickly settled into a workable routine. Sam kept up with her morning quests and training, while Fiona took over the care of the beasts, quickly establishing herself as a reliable hand. She even managed the eagle chicks, which were now growing rapidly and entering their fledgling stage. Terrance still came by first thing in the morning to oversee the eagle chicks care, while Sam was typically cloistered in her workshop or training with her tames.
Sam had been intensely focused on creating potions and gadgets to stock the shop, supplementing her usual accessories and clothes. Since she lacked dedicated class levels or high-tier skills for Alchemy and Artificer, her resulting items were only low to mid-range. However, she still managed to produce a decent, functional starting inventory.
Lesser Healing Tonic
Type: Tonic | Rarity: Common
Restores 25 HP over 10 seconds.
Cooldown: 20s.
Description: "Tastes like dirt. Works like a charm."
Ingredients: Redleaf herb, distilled spring water, bloodmoss extract.
Standard Healing Potion
Type: Potion | Rarity: Uncommon
Instantly restores 75 HP.
Cooldown: 30s.
Description: "A staple for adventurers. Don't leave town without it."
Ingredients: Heartroot, powdered healing crystal, red mushroom caps.
Lesser Mana Potion
Type: Potion | Rarity: Common
Restores 30 MP instantly.
Cooldown: 20s.
Description: "Like drinking a lightning bug."
Ingredients: Manaweed, azure flower, crystal water.
Standard Mana Elixir
Type: Elixir | Rarity: Uncommon
Restores 100 MP over 15 seconds.
Cooldown: 45s.
Description: "Sip slowly, or your spells might stutter."
Ingredients: Starleaf, windberry, condensed aether.
The powdered healing crystal and condensed aether were a pain to acquire, requiring specialized effort, but everything else was procured with just a simple trip to the woods. Since her enchanted pendants and rings yielded better and more reliable results, Sam priced the potions cheaply. They were intended more as "Stash in a first aid box" items rather than primary adventuring reliance—unless a customer bought dozens, though she knew drinking that many would lead to diminishing returns.
Her Artificer items, conversely, proved far more labor-intensive than the simple rings she made. Some required a few working parts and gears; some demanded many more. After spending time forging the necessary new, specialized tools, Sam started with beginner-level items.
As her class proficiency increased, she would gain access to more complex, high-tier gadgets. At the moment, she was working on a device called The Watchful Compass.
It was a small, perfectly round brass compass with a singular, slender arrow housed beneath a smooth glass face. Inside its base, she meticulously inscribed a location rune linked to a small mana crystal. Thankfully, the required crystal wasn't high-level, but even basic ones still cost her a fair bit. The S.I.S.T.E.M. store had plenty on hand, which was a lifesaver, as the stalls at the market didn't seem to stock them.
In the end, it was a relatively simple device. Instead of pointing north like most compasses, this one pointed directly to a specific, predefined location. It was ideal for the directionally challenged, or for setting a rapid emergency homing point.
To set the destination, the user simply stood in the desired place, sent their mana into the device, and stated, "Primary Location." Once set, the next time the user activated it, they'd simply say "Locate," and the arrow would spin decisively toward the set destination. Alternatively, a user could also place it flat on a map and state "Map Location" to establish a target before using it normally.
Once the first Watchful Compass was meticulously crafted, Sam made the required internal parts, and Item Creation took over the repetitive assembly process. After she had a half-dozen made, she moved on to the next item in her artificer queue: the Self-Balancing Canteen.
This item was perfect for adventurers. With a weighted bottom and a stabilizing enchantment, the canteen would never fall over—at least not without major, intentional force. It was ideal for uneven ground, though Sam noted it did have some physics limitations. Any surface that placed it more than 45 degree from level wouldn't activate the enchantment. That limitation, however, instantly sparked an idea for a more complex project she could tackle later. She produced a dozen of the canteens for the shop and kept one aside for herself.
Then, she scrolled through the rest of the options listed in the Artificer Mana-pad. Many recipes were very situational and a little too specific for her inventory. She was aiming to build a successful general store, featuring an assortment of items that would be needed by a wide assortment of people. Sure, a quick-change wrench that self-adjusted to any nut or bolt head may be handy, but it wasn't something most adventurers would spontaneously purchase. While continuing to browse the complex list, Jarvis spoke up, his calm voice cutting through her concentration:
{"Pardon the interruption, Sam, but you may want to visit the AHA so you can finish doing your quests. You do have a few months left before expiration, but there may be some you can hand in if you have the resources on you. Though you may want to double-check to make sure the rules haven't changed."}
"Oh right! I'm almost Level 20; I probably could have advanced a while ago. Thanks for the reminder, Jarvis." Sam leaned back, tapping her fingers on the Mana-pad thoughtfully.
{"That's what I'm here for. Your dedicated personal assistant."}
"Oh please, you're much more than a simple assistant reminding me of my schedule. I'd like to think you're a friend and confidante as well."
{"I'm pleased you think of me that way, Sam."}
The AI's reply sounded as close to genuine warmth as a strictly logical construct could manage.
After giving Fiona and Terrance a quick heads-up that she was stepping out for a bit, Sam left the property with Abe, Nox, and Nyx. She left the rest of her tames at home to continue their training or relax in their beast space—which, she supposed, was technically still taking them with her, but meh, semantics.
Sam strolled down the street, her two adorable panther cubs flanking her. Nyx and Nox had grown significantly, now reaching up to her knee. Sam was otherwise dressed in her regular attire, though she wore the belt that went with her armor that contained Abe in his little mouse pouch. The weather was starting to change to autumn, so she had made herself a fur-lined leather jacket—a piece she loved—over a simple tunic-like top and leather pants. Both garments carried a subtle, custom warming enchantment.
When she arrived at the AHA building, she double-checked the wood-level quest board, its surface scratched and scored by countless interactions. There, she found four quests that would bring her total to ten, each asking for certain common plants or resources she just happened to have on hand.
She waited patiently in line at the quest booth, quietly talking to her tames and explaining the bustling new environment. Nyx and Nox were clearly fascinated by the crowds of people, the noise, and the movement, but they kept close to Sam's legs, their instincts hard-wired for protection and proximity. This closeness was particularly evident when someone ahead of them produced an assortment of glistening hides from recently hunted Shadowshades.
Then it was her turn.
"By any chance," she asked the clerk, "if I happen to have the item required to finish a quest on me, does that still count as completing the quest?"
The woman behind the counter, who looked vaguely bored, didn't even glance up from her desk. "As long as the item is in the condition the quest asks for, we don't care how or when you get it... well, as long as it's not stolen, obviously."
"Excellent, in that case." Sam then retrieved four quest tokens and handed them over. "Also, how many cores do I owe? I'm assuming it's the cores of beasts killed during quests, not just... in general. Right?"
"Correct, unless a quest specifically asks for the core," the clerk recited automatically. She pulled up Sam's account on her screen as she accepted the new quest tokens. "Says here you completed a quest in Thrasien? Oh dear, a rat quest... never fun. With that and the quests you signed up for here... You owe twelve cores. Eight from the first twenty rats, then the remaining five rats, in combination with the deer and stalkers, that comes to a little over ten cores, but we can put the remaining three towards your next ten if you want. So, four from that lot." She spoke the arcane math quickly, almost like it made perfect sense.
"Right... so twelve." Sam didn't bother trying to follow the core accounting. "Do you have a bin or something?" She then produced and placed the required cores on the table: nine smaller cores from the rats, one from the Dappledback deer, and two of the Plains Stalker cores (she was careful not to waste the higher-level ones). She also placed the requested herbs and plants for the new quests on the counter between them.
"There we go, cores and quest requirements." She slid the now-signed quest scrolls back across the counter. "So, that's ten completed quests, which means I get upgraded to Iron Level, right?" The woman accepted the cores and plants, finally starting to pay attention as she checked her screen.
"You do indeed," the clerk confirmed, giving a small, crisp nod. "As long as you're Level fifteen or over. Just hand over your badge, and I'll give you another."
"Level 18, actually," Sam said, offering a quick, confident wink as she slid her old, wooden badge across the counter.
"Impressive for someone your age. Congrats." The clerk gave her a fleeting, genuine smile before replacing the wooden badge with a new one made of dull, textured iron.
"So, I take it most adventurers take on at least five multi-beast quests a month? Just so they can provide the expected cores?" Sam asked, examining the weight of her new badge.
"Yes, four cores is the minimum you can turn in, so quests totaling ten beasts is the minimum requirement overall," the clerk explained, her tone now turning instructional. "Though most quests require multiple beasts to be slain, so you could get away with two or three quests a month that are beast-related. Or one, if you find a large four-beast quest and don't keep any cores. It depends on how proficient you are at fighting, and how willing you are to part with the cores. Unless your main or support class requires cores for some reason, the only thing you can usually do with them is sell them here. Or provide them to various crafters when making things to lower the final price of the item. Some adventurers even hand over dungeon monster cores in return for only taking non-beast killing quests."
Sam nodded along thoughtfully, the new rules clicking into place. She knew she would need cores as ingredients for various things she made. As she advanced her crafting skills, the recipes would likely require increasingly specific or higher-level cores.
"Well, that's all settled. You almost have the required cores for the next month just by clearing those quests. If you have more that you don't want or need, you can sell them here or hand them over to me to save you the need to come in every month. Most people are in here regularly, so they don't bother, but it's entirely up to you," the clerk finished, tapping a stylus on her screen.
Sam looked down at the stack of cores she had held back in her inventory, then asked Jarvis privately, his voice audible only to her.
"Jarvis, looking through my collection of cores, are there any you think I wouldn't really benefit from keeping or selling?"
{"The goblin cores won't really do much for your advanced crafting since they are such low-levels. That's five right there, plus the two hobgoblin ones from the first and tenth floor of The Lab. The rat cores could be used as just general mana powder for your mana ink, but higher levels would be better for that purpose. So, you could get away with handing over four more of those, giving you a good three-month buffer."}
Sam handed over the cores Jarvis mentioned, immediately feeling a much-needed reprieve from the administrative tasks. She could now focus on the store and her crafting, only needing to return to the AHA office for quest-related matters.
With that settled, Sam and her tames made their way back to her property, ready to continue where she left off. Her store's grand opening was just a few days away, and she couldn't wait.
The cubs, Nyx and Nox, immediately dashed off to the backyard to roughhouse with Tempy and Iggy, while Syn deliberately found a sun-drenched spot near the fence line to lay down and relax. Sam had to admit, having a nature-affinity tame like Syn did wonders for her yard. The grass was thick and luscious, wildflowers had begun to bloom everywhere in vibrant patches despite the time of year, and she was pretty sure the trees had grown visibly taller.
As she walked into the house, she called out Terrance's name. She needed to finally craft the armor for his Ice Falcon, Blizzard, and his Arctic Fox, Squall. Sam wanted to get the kinks worked out of her bird and fox armor designs so she could confidently offer them in the store. She figured fox armor wouldn't be too dissimilar to wolf armor, just a bit smaller, but the adorable, fluffy, albeit cold fox was always fun to pet.
In her workshop, she got to work, meticulously measuring Blizzard and Squall. She asked Terrance if there was anything specific he wanted her to incorporate. They settled on a chest piece for Blizzard that provided essential protection to his vital spots without sacrificing comfort or maneuverability. Sam chose Galehorn Antelope leather—a lightweight material known for giving a natural boost to flight speed—as the primary component. Sam even made specially designed talon guards with sleek metal coverings to aid in striking attacks.
She then began the intensive enchanting process, painting the runes onto the leather and metal. She layered enchantments for Durability, Protection, Beast Tamer, and Mana Regen. She also added extra stat enchantments for vitality. To make Terrance's life a little easier, Sam even incorporated the Auto-Clean enchantment into the leather. On the talon guards, she added a slicing enchantment that dealt a bleeding debuff of 5 HP for 10 seconds, and on the chest piece, she placed elemental enchantments that provided a necessary resistance to heat and fire—Blizzard's obvious weakness, being an Ice Falcon. Finally, she added a small, unobtrusive ring to the armor for Terrance to securely attach his beast tag.
"This is amazing, Sam, thank you so much! Bliz says it's comfortable, too," Terrance said, a huge, grateful smile spreading across his face as the Ice Falcon ruffled its new leather chest piece.
"Well, you are doing so much for me; it's only right. Okay, Squall, your turn, cutie."
Squall's armor was simpler. As Sam had theorized, it was basically a smaller version of Syn's armor. Made from a durable combination of Maplefrost Badger and Galehorn Antelope leather, it was lightweight and also provided a 10% boost to his Ice skills. He also received a sturdy new collar and the same suite of protective and supportive enchantments as Blizzard's chest piece.
When she was finished crafting, Sam carefully added her One Size Fits All skill to both pieces, just in case the two tames happened to evolve and grow in the future. She even received a chilly, wet fox kiss on her cheek while she was adjusting Squall's final chest strap.
Once her work was complete, she invited Terrance to stay for dinner. They enjoyed a relaxed meal together, reminiscing about their experiences in the various dungeons they'd challenged and chatting about Terrance's work at his sister's farm.
When night fell and her tames were either safely tucked back into their beast spaces or sleeping soundly in the new beds in Sam's room, she finally allowed herself to review the immense gains she'd made over the last few days of focused labor.
All of her Enchantress skills had significantly increased. The newest active skill, Multiple Enchantment, was already at Level 3. She hadn't really needed to use Enchantment Removal yet, but she was thinking of trying it out on the enchanted junk items she gained from the dungeons and The Lab that she was planning to scrap for raw ores. That process would also efficiently help level her Disassemble/Reassemble skill when she took them apart. Most of her passives for her enchanting class had also leveled up in tandem.
Best of all, she had leveled up her Master Crafter class twice to Level 7. With her first four active and passive skills at or above Level 6, she had advanced her primary support class quickly. She resolved to check her newest workbenches in the morning to see if the level boost had made a difference. With no dedicated skills for Alchemy and Artificer items yet, she was still in the dark as to when she'd be able to make the higher-difficulty potions and gadgets. She assumed she'd have to level either the Master Crafter class or her base Item Creation skill to a certain threshold before those options would unlock.