The gouge carefully chipped the shavings off the wood. Its u-shape cut a smooth groove into the material. Slowly, the form took shape. An image its crafter held in her mind before she even began her work. Nothing complicated, just a simple geometrical shape. It was taught to every dwarven child in her clan. It was only made for practice.

“And this is what it should look like”, she said when she was finished. In her hands, she held an elongated form with a flat end on one side. From there, a bulbous body, almost like a bell, turned into a series of waves along its length. Many students had some inappropriate names for this object but you couldn’t deny its usefulness in teaching about the use of the rounded gouges. The dwarf had never fully understood how others could see this item as a seductive shape. Looking down from the top it was a four-pronged star. The four sharp corners would prevent any such usage. But still, youth would be youth.

Vivi looked up at her teacher. She gave a small nod. They barely used the mental communication provided by Fio’s weird item. It was a little unpleasant and exhausting. When it was possible to talk without words, they would do so instead.

The dwarf placed her creation on the workbench for the ocelot to look at.

“Go ahead”, she said as she reached for another prepared piece of wood, “Take a good look and then try it yourself.”

Vivi had a passion for carving comparable to the most successful of the dwarf's playmates and childhood friends. She had always enjoyed the practice and was skilled at it but only as an artistic hobby. She disliked the big machines used to mass-produce furniture and even the more filigree works nowadays were often-times not handmade for most of the process. Luckily, the cat agreed. That might be because she had not seen what those machines could do but for now, it was something the two could bond over.

The ocelot carefully shifted the finished curved pillar with her paws to look at it from all sides. She was impressed by the delicate work and the symmetry the dwarf had reached with just her hands. And that was with a level four [Carving] Skill, the same as her. How come they were so different in their capabilities?

Vivi went ahead and picked up the small log. It was a rounded cone just wide enough to create the sharp corners. If you took off too much material on a single side, you would have to remove more on all the others to keep the symmetry. The challenge was to keep as much material as possible. It was often used to test an apprentice for their precision. If they beat the work the master showed they would be allowed to proceed. Usually, this was done entirely with a rounded gouge. Or a whole set of them. To create the cleanest curves, you would have to make use of several different sizes. The cat, however, was not able to properly hold the tools. Instead, she used her Skill [Clawing Water] to form an imitation. The full tool was a difficult shape to hold so she only made the blade and ended up with something looking like a sickle. It looked much like her real claws and thus was very easy to hold. The Skill before its Breakthrough was after all her racial claw Skill. It gave her better cutting power and strength with her natural weapons.

Carefully, Vivi brought the blade to the wood. Piece by piece she carved out the gouges. The parts curving outwards required to make a perfect circle around the material. They were lacking the corners. This made them rather easy to carve. She only had to be careful not to cut through the parts that would be corners later. The inward curves were much more difficult. She had to carefully take a little material off every side one by one in order to keep them even as much as possible. Still, she had to go back a few times and adjust the rest of the piece to keep up the symmetry and proportions. Finally, she was done. Vivi proudly placed her curved pillar next to Safrah’s. It was a little smaller, maybe by a centimetre. She looked up at her teacher questioningly.

Safrah had carefully watched the ocelot work. She was fascinated by the magical blade of water and its versatility. It was every carvers dream tool. Thus, she already knew what to say to the cat.

“Yup. You did well for your first time. With a bit more practice you’ll quickly surpass me.”

Vivi could not hold her curiosity.

“Why are you better with the same Skill level?”, she asked.

The dwarf tapped a finger to her chin.

“That is a good question. Nobody really knows when and how Skills grow in level. It’s only really clear that you need something special to get a Breakthrough. Vis can help you there. Modifying a Skill with it makes it much easier to progress. It also often diverges a Skill’s path. For our [Carving], which is at the first Breakpoint, I don’t know for sure. Some scholars believe a Skill builds up experience at the Breakpoint before levelling up. Thus there can be a large difference between two people with the same Skill level. I personally believe it is more something of Skills having more than one way to grow. You did stone carving before, right?”

The ocelot nodded. She had mostly worked on stone and reliefs in her cave.

“See, I have no experience working stone. The [Carving] Skill encompasses more than just cutting wood. Especially when it's a general Skill, like for both of us, it has many different ways to grow. I believe if both of us Breakthrough on it, we will get different upgrades. Does that make sense?”

It did, to Vivi. She still had one question, though.

“Your Class. It’s not Carver?”

Safrah’s eyes looked at the ground for a moment before meeting the cat’s once again.

“I had the [Wood Carver] Class when I was in my clan. It did not make sense to keep it when I moved here and started on leatherworking. So I switched it. I got back my [Carving] Skill as a general Skill after a bit of practice but the other’s were pretty much lost.”

“What Skills?”, the cat was eager to know.

Safrah looked up, crunching her face in thought.

“Right… there waaas… Hmm, what Skills did I take again? I had [Carving] as a starting Skill and I believe the other one was called [Artistic Eye]. It helped me see how close I was to what I wanted to make while carving. I think I took some Strength boosting Skill when I reached the first Milestone since there was a lot of moving around heavy material in the workshop. What was it called again? [Logger’s Hefting] or something? I never reached the second Milestone before moving here.”

The ocelot nuzzled the dwarf. She let out a soft meow to calm her. Safrah started petting the soft fur of the animal. She enjoyed the feeling of running her fingers through the tiny hairs. Though spending this much time in the dusty workshop had muddled the sensation.

“Thank you. Come, let’s take a shower and then get something to eat. It’s getting late.”

The ocelot nodded and the two made their way to the bathroom.

The seemingly infinite amount of water coming out of the shower still fascinated Vivi. She loved water, not just because of her vis enrichment. It had been with her since she could think. The node was where she had awakened to sapience. It had given her the mental stats required for the system to recognize her as such. In a way, water was a surrogate mother, as much as that was possible. She pulled on the essence and drew the liquid towards her, letting it stream through her fur. The dwarf joined moments later activating another construct on the wall to make it warmer. Vivi minded a little but not enough to complain. She made sure to move the water around her friend as well.

The word was still difficult to parse for the ocelot but she thought it was applicable here. The book Fio had taught her with mentioned nothing about the idea but some of the others she had read when she was injured had enlightened her a little. It was not something applicable without sapience, it seemed. Vivi had found it possible to come to an agreement of sorts with other wildlife. Mostly it was just avoiding one another. She was good at avoiding as a nocturnal hunter and specializing in traps and poison. Most carnivores that could steal her prey would sense the danger and avoid eating it or challenging her. Luckily, the Skill that allowed her to coat her fangs and claws in poison also made her immune to it. At least to her own. She had not tested with other venomous substances mostly because she had found no reason to. The only animals that could produce such were not enough food to warrant the risk.

Vivi returned her focus on the shower. Safrah was slowly and carefully rubbing her fur with something she called shampoo. A wonderful substance that made her feel even cleaner than just using water. Vivi liked being clean. She did not mind being dirty or smelly but simply preferred the alternative. Maybe it would be nice to stay in the town?

She responded to Safrah’s care by using her vis to guide the water. Washing the dwarf thoroughly was only fair when she was getting taken care of so well. Safrah seemed to enjoy it too.

The two got dried with a towel, a wondrous pelt without an animal attached. It apparently had never had one either. It was made from something called cotton which was a plant. Vivi still wondered how a plant could become something so soft and pleasant. She wondered about many things in this town. There were many reasons to live here, many comforts she could never have in the forest. The only thing really stopping her from committing to that quite yet was the desire to grow stronger. Having her Class and her race-level improve giving her more Attribute Points felt wonderful. And she truly wanted to try and evolve, as Fio did.

The owl was the first friend Vivi had made and the first being, the first person, she had ever met. Another sapient animal was something she had not expected that night she was hunting in the woods. Being so suddenly identified after running into someone she could not even perceive until it was too late had been the scare of a lifetime. Vivi had only figured out it was [Identify] and thus a sign of sapience when she used the Skill on the owl herself. She had never dreamed of there being others like her. All the other animals in the forest were somewhere between stupid and careful. Only mild signs of intelligence were visible on a few of them. Vivi wanted to be more. She wanted to be a person. And she was seriously considering settling down after finding a major node to become a Guardian of.

“Alright, here we are”, Safrah said as she came back up the stairs. She held two plates with food, one with meat only. “Time to eat. Enjoy.”

One of the plates found its way onto the table before Vivi and when the dwarf had set down in front of her own, they began eating. It was a little weird for them to see how the other got to their food but they were slowly getting used to it. The different behaviour was not bad by any means. They enjoyed each other’s company and would keep doing so. The unlikely pair of a dwarf leather worker and a carving obsessed ocelot had become friends.

Hoot, a greeting sounded out from above. Fio had returned. The owl was answered by a meow and a “Welcome back” respectively. The one who was the reason for their friendship. They would happily eat with her but the predatory bird had some strange obsession about eating alone. Neither really cared. As long as she was happy, they would let her do as she pleased. That was the least they could do for their friend.