The forest seemed to pull back, making space. In the center of the glade stood a tree that didn't belong—or maybe it belonged more than anything else ever had.
Its trunk was smooth and golden, like sun-warmed maple syrup, but laced with glowing green veins that pulsed slowly, rhythmically. Not like mana, exactly. Like breath. Like life.
Sam stepped closer, boots squishing into moss so soft it felt intentional, like nature was cushioning each step. Her hand rose of its own accord, brushing against the bark. It was warm—not just sun-warm, but alive-warm.
A gentle thrum buzzed through her fingertips, she used 'Inspect' and the screen flickered briefly before blinking a soft [Analyzing...]
Above her, wide branches stretched outward and up, supporting a canopy of shimmering leaves—each one a different green, some edged with silver, others glowing faintly like stars behind a curtain. Fruits hung low in clusters, their skins dappled like speckled goldstone. Nuts curled in spiraling pods like tiny ram's horns.
She blinked.
{Discovery: Legendary Tree — Nature's Bounty]
This tree offers a rare type of fruit and a completely different nut, in harmony. Consuming its produce grants enhanced food buffs.
Harvestable wood: Cooking implements crafted from this material multiply buff potency by 50%.
WARNING: Overharvesting may damage or kill the tree. Use with reverence.
"Nature's Bounty is not a gift—it's a trust."}
Sam exhaled slowly, fingers still resting on the bark. Her health ticked up by two points. She hadn't even eaten anything yet.
She smiled, weary and awestruck. "Well... that's new."
Her stomach growled. Loudly.
Sam knelt at the base of the tree, taking a slow breath. The air here smelled like crushed herbs and late-summer warmth—clean, almost sacred. She didn't want to break the moment… but her stomach had opinions.
Carefully, she reached for a low-hanging fruit—its skin was the color of apricot and star-glow, warm and slightly fuzzy, like a baby peach. The stem detached with a gentle twist, no resistance. As soon as it left the branch she used Inspect.
{Item: Bountyfruit
Type: Fruit (Legendary)
Effects (Raw): +10% health regen over 60s, +1 mana/sec for 2 minutes
Cooked: Buffs from associated meals enhanced by 50%
"The taste of kindness, the strength of wild places."}
"Okay, now you're just showing off," Sam muttered, gently setting the fruit in her inventory.
Nearby, she spotted a few spiraled nut pods, curled like fiddleheads, tucked beneath a thick spray of leaves. She plucked one, surprised by its weight—dense, like carved wood. A second Inspect showed.
{Item: Heartnut Pod
Crack open to reveal 3–5 Heartnuts.
Base Effect: Increases buff duration by 25% when cooked into meals.
"Crunchy wisdom wrapped in patience."}
She gave a low whistle, then noticed a handful of fallen branches, scattered like driftwood at the tree's roots—none broken or rotted, just clean-fallen. As she gathered a few, she felt a warmth pulse through her palms again, as though the tree had acknowledged the respectful harvest.
{Item: Nature's Bounty Wood ×6
Can be used to craft:
Cooking utensils (buff potency +50%) Campfires (health regen aura) Food prep stations (increased crafting quality}
"Use it well—or not at all."}
She stood slowly after gathering the fallen fruit, still as fresh as the ones on the tree, and the scattered nuts by the dozen. Hands full of miracle-grade produce and precious wood, heart fluttering from more than the earlier fight.
{"Ah, I see. You've traded bloodshed and squirrel trauma for divine snack time. Wise."}
Then a pause
{"If you accidentally cook those with your usual culinary chaos, I'm disowning myself from your interface."}
Sam snorted. "Too bad you don't get a choice."
{"Correction: Too bad you don't have a culinary license."}
Sam smirked, sending the last pod into her inventory.
{Legendary Foraging = +50xp x10 Fruit = 500xp, +50xp x 5doz =3000xp, +100xp x6 branches = 600xp
Total XP gained = 4100xp}
The clearing whispered behind her as she stepped away, the glow of the tree dimming gently, like a curtain falling after a show.
{Ding! You've Leveled Up! Your now LVL 11 462/5783xp}
As she walked back to the cave she felt them again, someone or something was watching her.
"Are you sure this map thing is working Jarvis? I swear something is watching me but it's not showing up on the map"
{"Then it obviously means you no harm. I'd suggest it's just a squirrel…but we know how they feel about you"}
"You're never letting that go are you?" she huffed "It's not a squirrel… Well, if it means me no harm then lets get back and give Tempy and Sunblaze these cores. That should help boost their tier."
When she got home she added the collected resources to her various and highly effective method of organized dump piles, and stepped up to Sunblaze.
"Alright girl, I think this is it! This will add another 42.5% and a rare purple at that" Sam smiled "My math isn't so bad that I'm not aware this will take you over the threshold but hopefully it will give you a little boost." She lays the air core on her palm. "Bottoms up" Sunblaze took the core from her hand.
Although they didn't really get much of a chance to test out her skills, their trip to the next village over should prove a good testing grounds. Sunblaze appeared like her name sake. Like the first blaze of sun at dawn.
Her body now emitted dawn-hued reflections, like a glossy opal. Her hooves glowed lightly with a sunrise gradient. And a subtle aura of light wind surrounded her lifting dust and the straw of her bed as she walked towards her.
{Sunblaze has evolved into a Dawnsveil Courser}
'She was glorious…and sure to get me robbed' thought Sam. Rubbing Sunblaze's face and talking softly to her a notification popped up
{A deep connection has been found between you and Sunblaze: A Dawnsveil Courser. Emotional connection 100%, Would you like to add her to your Tame List?}
{Yes/No}
Excitedly Sam yelled "Yes! Ya Sunny you're officially a Tame and can do a bunch of magical shit!" She laughed hopping up and down. Then another two notifications popped up.
{Ding! You've Tamed your first Beast (1/4)
Reward: +200xp}
{You've now have access to your Beast Space:
Now tamed, Sunblaze can be transferred to your Beast Space. An alternate dimension contained in the heart of every Beast Tamer. Each beast is allocated an area custom tailored to their ideal environment.
Beast Tames do not require food or water in their bond space. They do however require mana to heal if injured.
(Mana is taken from the ambient mana surrounding Tamer if injuries are minor, Middle-grade injures require 25 mana, Major injuries 50 mana, Life threatening injuries 100 mana.)
Mana cost: 10MP/summons}
"Would you like to try it out?" She asked Sunblaze.
'Sure why not. Also I've always been able to do 'Magical Shit' as you so eloquently put.' A reply came to Sam's mind. "Oh My God… I can hear you now!"
Sunblaze tilted her head 'And I can understand you much better too. This is good, we shall be a much stronger herd if we all understand each other.'
'Herd? Must be a horse thing' Sam thought. "Okay Sunny let me just make a Beast Space pendant first. I saw it in my crafting bench, I'm not sure how to do it otherwise. Jarvis?."
{"You are still able to send tames to the beast space without the pendant. You just need to touch them and think about it. The pendant allows you to do it from a far. Once made, you simply need to attune the tame by holding the pendant while touching the tame and send them to the beast space. After that simply holding the pendant and thinking or saying their name will do the same."}
"Ok, we'll try out the non pendant method first. I assume I can release them by just thinking their name?" Sam asked Jarvis
{"Correct"}
Sam placed her hand back in Sunblaze and thought of her beast space. Instantly the horse dematerialized and a glowing yellow light flowed into Sam. "Can you still hear me in there Sunny?"
'I can. It is quite beautiful in here. Green pastures as wide as I can see. Trees for shade and a gentle breeze. A slow river lazily winding through, Very relaxing.' Sunblaze's voice said in Sam's head.
"I'm glad you like it" Sam said back to her. Before making the pendant she walked over to Tempy who was currently trying to find Sunblaze looking around in confusion.
"Don't worry little buddy, you'll find out soon where she went." Sam pulled out the second Air core. Seeing it's size she went to the kitchen and lit the fire.
"More core stew for you I guess" Sam made one for Tempy with the remaining Air core and one for Iggy with her remaining fire core. "And one for my little Iggy Pop. Don't worry baby, we'll find you another fire core soon. Hmmm Jarvis, with so many fire cores already ingested a light core won't change anything right?." Sam asked as she stirred the stew.
{"Light magic is the traditional magic for healing, and as an Embercat is capable of healing, it shouldn't hurt. It might even boost her healing skills. Plus, what is one of the main uses for fire?..."}
"Light…Well there you have it Iggs we might have you fully integrated tonight as well." Sam scratched the little cats head then moved the stew off the fire to cool a bit. "Besides, I have an idea for how to keep are little friends warm. I'm just not sure how to do it." Sam gently lifted the flap of the satchel and showed the kittens.
"Now I know birds are traditionally a cat foe not friend. But these little guys will be helping us. We just have to keep them warm. Maybe you can help Iggy, if my idea doesn't work."
{"What Idea?"} Jarvis asked.
"Well, back home we had these things called incubators. They were for hatching eggs without the parents. Or if the eggs were deemed to precious to let nature do it's thing. They'd be used to give the eggs a better chance at survival and hatching. The only problem is not knowing how long it will take."
{"*Cough* Inspect *cough*} Jarvis hinted
"Alright alright, sometimes I don't think about all these magical powers ok!" Sam pouted putting the bowls for the kittens down. She inspected the eggs and sure enough they were 35% throught their development stage. If they were regular eagles they'd probably hatch in a more weeks. In this world who knows.
{"I'm just teasing. If you look at the mana-pad you'll see a new button. I took the liberty of adding it. Think of it as a level 10 congratulations present."}
Intreaged Sam carefully set the satchel on her bed and went over to the workbench. Activating the mana-pad a new button appeared to replace the sync button. 'Invent' glowed in its place.
{"All you have to do is think about the item you wish to create, how or at least why it works and the bench will do the rest."} Jarvis told her.
Taking a moment to think about how an incubator worked, she pressed the button. She thought about the area to hold the eggs, how it warmed to keep the ideal temperature with a gadget to tell her how hot it was and the humidity. Even the dome over top to watch the eggs progress. She even thought about a tray underneath that could hold crushed cores to help solidify the type of beast she wanted or change it completely, should the eggs be in the very early stages.
{Ding! New invention created! }
{Ding! For creating a new item you've been rewarded}
{Reward: +250xp, +10 SKP)
Blueprint: Embercradle Incubator
Crafting Tier: Good → Great
Type: Utility Device — Beast Tamer Exclusive (or Crafter with Beast Affinity)
Function: Rapid Incubation of Beast Eggs using controlled mana heat and elemental balance.}
{Parts Required
Component:
Source Description
Fire Core (x1):
Mid-tier beast drop or dungeon loot. Provides steady heat and mana infusion.
Cindersap Wood (x3):
Forest biome near heat-affinity trees. Fire-resistant wood, naturally insulative.
Aetherglass Shards (x2)
Rare drop or salvaged from mage tech. Transparent, mana-conductive—used for viewing dome.
Ironshade Thread (x10ft):
From shadow spiders or traded. Used for thermal seams and mana-weaving.
Glowrock Pebble (x1):
Found in caves or mines. Glows based on ambient mana—used to track heat levels.
Mana Circulator Rune (etched or crafted): Crafted by Operator or looted from a lab/dungeon. Channels mana evenly around egg.}
"Well looks like I'll be using that store function after all…assuming I have the coin for it. Otherwise there will be…" Sam shudders "Caves and spiders in my future."
{Crafting Steps
Carve Base Shell:
Shape the Cindersap Wood into a shallow half-dome nest with carved rune slots.
Add venting grooves for safe pressure dispersion.
Install Core Socket:
Embed the Fire Core in the center, stabilized with Ironshade Thread to prevent mana surges.
Embed Viewing Dome:
Place Aetherglass Shards above the core with a protective mana-dome (think magical Tupperware lid).
Weave Heat Regulation Lines:
Thread Ironshade Thread through carved rune grooves, anchoring to four points—acts as mana veins.
Insert Mana Circulator Rune:
Carefully inscribe or insert the Circulator Rune. Once activated, it balances mana infusion and regulates Fire Core emissions.
Place Glowrock:
Mount the Glowrock Pebble in a small carved recess—it glows brighter the warmer the incubator gets, acting as a built-in heat gauge.}
{"For new inventions you will have to do a little manual labour to create each step. Once the knowledge is obtained, you will only need to gather the resources and create the individual parts and then the bench will do the rest. At least once you unlock the runes but that won't be until you have your Enchantress class."}