Devin settled in to watch as Grigor and Casey set up shop next to the cabin. Grigor took some measurements and dug lines in a circle around the cabin and most of the clearing.

  “Once I’ve summoned the forge, I can’t leave this circle or it'll be destroyed,” Grigor said. “I want to make sure I’m in range to do everything I need to do.”

  Devin helped him clear out a space near the largest pile of debris from the cabin. Grigor took a small ingot of iron, a piece of charcoal and a rock. He placed them in the middle of the clear space, sat down, and closed his eyes.

  Orange light played over the area. A stream of material from the debris pile flowed into the area like it was being sucked up by a shop vac. After about five minutes, the iron formed into a tiny anvil, and the stone and charcoal combined into a mini forge with tiny flames inside.

  As cool as Grigor’s ability was, it didn’t take Devin long to get bored, so he turned to watch Casey. She’d found a medium-sized boulder that was flat on top and set it up in the clearing next to a stump.

  “I’m out of lab time, so I’ll have to do the rest the old-fashioned way,” she said.

  She sat on the stump, put her reagents out on the boulder, and went to work.

  It was like watching a surgeon. There were no wasted motions and she always seemed to be three steps ahead of herself. She pulled herbs out of thin air, ground them up, mixed them in jars and then created purified water to complete the concoctions.

  She explained the basics to Devin as she worked. Dozens of ingredients could be used to brew simple potions. Healing potions, for example, could use elm bark, aloe leaf, marigold leaves, shrimp shells, blue jay eggs and several other ingredients. More powerful potions required rarer ingredients.

  Once the mixing was done, she sat on the ground with the jars of ingredients in front of her.

  “This is where the magic happens,” she said. “It says 40 minutes, but this is my first try at a Blessed potion. I’m going to take it slow. I’ll be out of it for about an hour.”

  As she focused, the potions glowed with soft orange light. This was the part that required Concentration. Devin could see why making potions in combat wasn’t a great idea.

  Devin grunted and got to his feet. As he did, an Achievement window popped up.

  Achievement Unlocked! – Auditing Alchemy 101. You spent some time watching a master alchemist at work. Gaining knowledge for its own sake is its own reward and all that. More importantly, you managed to focus on something for more than five seconds. Are you sure you're from Earth?

  Reward: Concentration +1.

  “Yes!” Devin said. “Did you see that?”

  He trailed off. Casey and Grigor were both lost in their tasks. He remembered they had Concentration scores that made his look like a squirrel.

  Devin moved the rest of the debris over to Grigor’s pile while he studied his Automap. He’d set up his interface where it was mostly transparent and always open like a minimap when he wasn’t in combat. He was so used to it now he could walk around with it on.

  He got a couple of Might points from hauling debris, but then he hit the 50 percent bottleneck and lost Skill Hound for Might. He considered switching to another task that would use another Attribute, but this was what needed doing, and he was the Brute Squad.

  After he moved all the rubble, he started chopping down trees. He downed about a dozen before the axe broke. He sighed and tossed it aside, then stacked the logs into another pile by the cabin. Then he went to work pulling stumps out of the ground. With no tools, it was backbreaking work even for a Silver, but he managed to get most of them out of the ground before he was worn out.

  He plopped down to take a break. Casey and Grigor were still focused on their own tasks, so he scanned the map.

  Asha and Milo were moving around near the edge of his area of influence. He wondered what they were doing. There weren’t any animals nearby, so they weren’t hunting. He decided to try out one of his new Boosts.

  Boost ‘Crystal Cartography.’ Detailed maps of your areas of influence and everything within them will be shown on Devin’s Automap. An area’s map will be updated when you visit the node. You may focus your vision on a specific location within your area of influence using your Concentration Attribute. Party members will be aware of your use of this Boost, but only powerful enemies will be able to detect it.

  Devin closed his eyes and focused his awareness on Asha and Milo’s location. He could move his vision around to view them from any angle. It was like looking through a drone camera. He decided to call it the interface cam.

  Milo was napping on a tree branch, while Asha picked berries from a bush. Devin zoomed in on Milo. The cat’s eyes opened, fixed on Devin’s point of view, and closed again. He flopped over to face the other way.

  Devin grinned and moved to Asha. He forced himself to watch what she was doing instead of watching her.

  “Checking up on us, boss man?” she said. “I’m not slacking off. I’m gathering herbs. If you see any, let me know.”

  As soon as she spoke, several dots popped up on his Automap. Most were gray, but one small clump several meters away from Asha was white. None of them had a description.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  He zoomed in on the white clump. They were small mushrooms, outlined by a green glow. The mushrooms were growing under a nasty patch of weeds and thorns. He didn’t want to make Asha tramp through all that until he knew what they were.

  Why was there no description? He didn’t have the ‘Herbalism’ ability, so maybe that was why. The smart thing would be to let Asha know over Party Chat, but Devin hesitated. He had to learn this stuff for himself at some point. Some were white and some were gray. That had to mean something, didn’t it?

  This seemed like the kind of thing he could get an achievement out of. Concentration was the only mental Attribute he felt comfortable with, so he decided to use it. He zoomed in as close as he could to the mushrooms and focused all his attention on the largest one.

  It took him a few minutes to quiet his mind, but eventually, the sounds and smells around him faded. His whole world became that single mushroom. He almost jumped out of his skin when the flavor text popped up.

  Red Top Xanthils - (Herb, Silver, Very Rare)

  When they can be found, these tiny mushrooms are the sought-after ingredients for superior fire-based potions. Not only are they rare, but they also grow inside dense patches of vegetation - meaning they’re usually only found by masochists. Each cap contains a spark of energy from the Elemental Plane of Fire, and a good alchemist can find a way to substitute this stuff for just about any fire-based material and make the resultant potion even better than the original.

  He blinked back to reality and realized that several minutes had passed. Asha and Milo had already moved to another area, so Devin had to open Party Chat and send them back.

  He fidgeted as they backtracked. He hadn’t gotten an Achievement, and he was afraid the mushroom icons were going to vanish if he stopped focusing on them. It seemed to take Milo and Asha forever to get back to the area.

  Devin – Look at that big patch of weeds about three meters away. Yes, that one. Do you see anything?

  Asha – I love surprises as much as any girl, but I’m not going to stare at a patch of weeds for an hour. Why don’t you tell me what I’m looking for … Woah! A bunch of mushrooms just lit up.

  Milo – Fascinating.

  Asha walked into the patch of weeds like it wasn’t there. Devin flinched, but she moved through it without getting caught on a single thorn or vine.

  Asha - Red Top Xanthils? I’ve never seen these.

  Casey – Are you kidding me? I can do so much with those. You must get them!

  Asha – Already doing it.

  As soon as Asha picked the last mushroom, Devin got an Achievement.

  Achievement Unlocked! – Remote Herb Detection. You’ve used your Concentration Attribute and your Interface Boost to help a herbologist locate useful mushrooms. Keep this up and you’re going to be a fun guy to be around.

  Reward: New Feature ‘Locate Herb’ added to Milo’s Boost ‘Add-on – Automap.’ Any herbalists in your party can now locate herbs within 1 meter using the interface. Only active when the party leader and the herbalist are both within an area of control. Herbs detected will be marked on the Automap.

  Grats! The Boost ‘Add-on – Automap’ has upgraded to a Rare Boost!

  Reward: Asha has earned +1 to Intuition.

  Reward: Devin has earned +2 to Concentration.

  Milo – Nicely done, Devin.

  Casey – I agree. That was an impressive level of Concentration for a novice.

  Devin – Thanks! I can’t believe it worked.

  Milo – To be honest, neither can I. Not so much the Achievement as the reward. Improving a Boost by using only an Attribute is not something I’ve heard of, let alone improving someone else’s Boost.

  Devin – How is it usually done?

  Milo – There’s no formula for doing something like that, although there are a lot of theories. Mixing mental Attributes, for instance.

  Devin – How would that work? Using Intuition and Logic at the same time?

  Milo – It’s more complicated than that. For example, some sources claim that if you manage to inject mana from one sphere into a spell using a second sphere, the spell can be upgraded to a Boost.

  Devin – Really? Oh, man. I’ve got to try that.

  Milo – I should not have said that. Would you listen if I told you that was a terrible idea?

  Devin – Sure, I’ll listen. Doesn’t mean I won’t do it.

  Milo – It’s extremely dangerous for a novice.

  Devin – So was crossing the streams, but Venkman and Winston had to do it to beat the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

  Milo – You are not a god, Venkman. At least promise to tell me before you risk the entire party by trying something stupid.

  Devin – If there’s time.

  Casey – Devin. Promise me you won’t try mixing mental Attributes in the middle of a fight.

  Devin – What are ya’ll worried about? I don’t even have any spells!

  Casey – That’s not exactly a promise, but I’ll take it if you’ll get some sleep before you try anything else. You seem a little punchy.

  Devin – I’m not a baby! I don’t need to be told to when to take a nap.

  Asha – Listen to your healer, boss baby.

  Devin – Fine. I’ll sleep, but it’s because I want to, not because you told me to.

  He stretched out in the clearing and went right to sleep. It seemed like no time had passed when someone shook him awake.

  “Mmugh,” he said.

  “Hey,” Casey said. “Do you want to see the potion I made with your mushrooms?”

  “Yeah!” Devin said. She handed him a vial.

  Potion of Dancing Flames (Silver) -- This potion releases a dozen tiny fire elementals that spread out over an area up to 1 square meter. The elementals do Silver-level heat damage to whatever they touch. This damage bypasses any armor unless it has heat resistant properties. The flames can be extinguished by normal means, although the elementals will avoid such attempts. They are unable to start external fires, even when exposed to flammable materials.

  “Woah!” Devin said. “I like this one. Sucks that water will put it out, though. Hope it doesn’t rain.”

  “Asha says it won’t rain for a least a week,” Casey said.

  “I hope she’s right,” Devin said. “I didn’t see anything about being a weather witch on her character sheet, though.”

  Casey chuckled. Devin stood, stretched, and looked around the clearing. Grigor’s forge was finished, and he was napping next to his anvil.

  “You didn’t get an Achievement for making that potion? That sucks.”

  Casey set aside her materials and studied him.

  “I keep forgetting you don’t have any context for any of this,” she said. “Getting an Achievement for making a new potion is not a normal thing."

  “How many Achievements did you have before we teamed up?” Devin said.

  “In total?” Casey said. “Three.”

  Devin blinked. “Wait, what? How is that possible? You had all those blessings from Rainford.”

  “From Rainford, yes,” Casey said. “Gods don’t give Achievements – or maybe I should say, individual gods don’t give Achievements. You have to do something really noteworthy. At least, that’s how it worked before you came along.”

  “Hmph,” Devin said.

  “Also, it turns out the mana recharge buff even works while you’re casting,” Casey said. “So me and Grigor are actually recharging mana while casting crafting spells.”

  Devin whistled. “That is nice. Why’s he sleeping, then?”

  “He was exhausted,” Casey said.

  “Well, now that I’m awake, you can get a nap, too,” Devin said. “I’m the grunt around here. I’ll get started on …”

  An alert Devin hadn’t seen appeared in the middle of his vision. It was a blinking red icon with the letters ‘PN.’

  “Heads up,” he said. “This looks like a combat alert.”

  Casey drew her mace and scanned the trees. Devin sent a quick message to Milo and Asha to get back to the clearing, then he closed his eyes and focused on the icon.

  Warning: Hostiles have entered the area of influence around your primary node!