The next day, after breakfast, Kennon threw himself at the trees with reckless abandon. It took time to chop down a full sized tree. But at the rate he was going Bev figured he would be chopping trees down faster than she could use them.

  Despite Kennon’s statement what they really needed right now wasn’t some sort of log cabin. It was storage chests. No matter how well built it was, a building made of ordinary logs could not hold up against a T1 beast that desperately wanted to get inside.

  The alarm stone had worked on the tiger, so they would have plenty of warning if something came. But it was better if nothing did. And they had acquired enough meat, berries, and fruit that she was certain the illusion array was pointless when it came to blocking smell. No, they needed a way to stash their things away. Prevent a beast from even testing their defences.

  And even a sloppy cabin would take days to build. But a storage box good enough to block the smell could be done in a single day. Though it would probably take the entire day. Storage enchantments were hard.

  Her first thought was to make it out of stone. She could have a box whipped together in less than an hour. Not counting enchantments of course. But Tutor disagreed.

  Magically molded stone is renowned for not taking enchants well. If you insist on making a storage box I insist it be made of iron plated wood.

  Tutor was not happy when Bev told it what she planned to build. It insisted that storage enchantments were beyond her. If she didn’t have an entire section of her notebook dedicated to them, and said she was going to build one with or without Tutor’s advice, Tutor would have been still claiming it was impossible.

  Eventually Tutor agreed it could be done. And even agreed to do more than warn her if things were going to explode as long as Bev followed Tutor instructions to the letter.

  Not that Bev would complain about the instructions given by the system itself. Supposedly the entire art of enchantment was derived from instructions from the system.

  Though she supposed that was referencing the primary system. Not the growth system.

  While Kennon worked on the tree Bev worked on the metal plating.

  Despite not being in the blacksmith class, I must inform you that stable enchants of this type require mana treated materials. For a box of the required dimensions you will need six steel plates half a meter square. With a thickness between one centimeter, and half a centimeter. The metal must be saturated with mana while heated to critical temperature, and kept saturated until cooled. The pins connecting it to the box must also be mana saturated. And the saturation must be manually maintained during every alteration and inscription.

  Tutor was being an absolute stickler. But she couldn’t blame it. She had plenty of notes on the construction. But a quarter of the notes were about the horrible things that could go wrong if you messed up. Best case scenario you lost the box, and everything in it.

  Worst case scenario it caused a minor dimensional implosion and everything within fifty meters got turned inside out. But that result took effort to achieve.

  The box would be three meters, by two meters, and one meter tall. Almost big enough to hold their things without enchantments. Though the enchants would thoroughly remove any trace of the contents to beasts. Sadly not even Bev was ambitious enough to try stasis storage enchants. Their food would still rot. Although at a far slower rate as it wasn’t actually exposed to the atmosphere.

  The size was another of the compromises with Tutor. In theory you could store an entire realm in a ring if it was enchanted well. But the bigger it was the less strain on the enchantments. And less damage if it failed.

  Each side would have a steel plate with the actual storage enchants on it. The wood would merely contain connection runes.

  They wouldn’t need hinges on the box at least. Or a lock. Storage enchants were universally used entirely via mana injection. A little mana to link it to your mind. And a flick of intent to withdraw something.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Bev had barely finished making all the nails she expected to need, all mana saturated of course, obsessive Tutor, when she heard the first tree fall to the ground. She would need to pick up the pace.

  After felling the first tree Bev ran over.

  “Wonderful. I’ll get started milling.” she said.

  Kennon just stared at her, “I told you, the wood will be my job. I can handle that much.”

  Bev looked at him, “Really?”

  Kennon laughed, “Did you already forget, we took the wood working lessons together. I can handle it.”

  “Ok, but if you need help let me know.”

  “I will.”

  Bev was the better crafter, the better builder, they both knew that. But she forgot sometimes that he was more than familiar with crafting. Sure, he wouldn’t dream of making a masterwork dagger in a single day. But milling planks he could do.

  The first task was to trim the branches. Allowing himself some inefficiency he pulled his dagger from his pack and began to cast wind blade. With the dagger as the intended target, the moment the spell was woven it was attracted to the blade like a magnet. The blade drank the mana in and held it tight.

  He did have to work to keep the spell locked in the blade. But honestly it took more work to keep the dagger firm in his hand. He had seen wands in action. Heard of their effects. Even seen a few spellblades. But holding the spell like this himself. It was a great feeling.

  And the capacity. It would hold a spell up to 50 mana. Plenty to hold a wind blade at his maximum empowerment.

  Aiming the blade at a rather large branch he let go of the spell. Instantly it tore from the blade and through the branch. Cutting it cleanly.

  Kennon flourished the dagger as he began casting again. It was a great day. And the moment he got lighting spells he would be flinging lighting like some sort of thunder god.

  Then, for an instant, everything went quiet.

  “I unlocked spark!”

  Not just that. He also unlocked telekinesis. More soul points, inscription slots, and more suggested skills! How had he forgotten!

  He was so focused with Tutor, alchemy, and revelations about the system he forgot he had other things to try!

  With a thought the spell array for spark appeared at the tip of his dagger.

  It was, simple, shockingly so. No pun intended. It did literally nothing other than summon electrical energy.

  It was woven, and embedded into his blade less than a minute later.

  Holding the dagger at arms length he loosed the spell. There was a sharp snap! And a flash of light. But nothing else. Casting the spell again, this time right next to a bundle of leaves it flashed again. This time the leaves burst into flames before quickly dying out.

  Interesting. But its main use was to prepare for lightning bolt.

  He pulled up telekinesis next.

  And promptly got a headache.

  It was by far the most complex spell array he had ever seen. But, he wasn’t going to let that stop him. He began to weave. When casting wind blade he only used the system to correct minor flows at the moment. He figured that if he completely ignored speed he could weave the spell perfectly. But telekinesis.

  This was hard. Several times he sent his mana in the complete wrong direction. The system was constantly correcting him. And near the end he moved the entire array a bit farther away in case it collapsed.

  But it didn’t.

  He felt something strange. A presence in his mind. He had targeted a cut branch with the spell. And now he could feel it. Not as if he was holding it. But as if it were one of his limbs.

  It only took a trickle of mana to keep the spell intact. But to actually move the branch he had to expend quite a bit more. And keeping it aloft was actually rather expensive. And it wasn’t a large branch either.

  While he was still nearly topped off he wanted to see just how much force he could generate. Throwing all his mana into the spell he felt his grip tighten to new levels. With a thought the branch moved with a speed far faster than he could move his arm.

  An idea.

  With maximum grip he moved the branch away from him as fast as he could. After accelerating for a couple meters he let it go, ending the spell.

  The branch continued on at the same speed. Flying far further than he could have thrown it. He smiled. Then, while he continued to strip the tree, he pulled up his new suggested skills.