Fresh stares at her reflection in the moon-glass mirror that she’s made with Jubilee’s help. It isn’t an enchanted mirror, like the one that they had to leave behind in the east before their vacation. But it’s a mirror, alright.

She stands on one leg, holding her other leg out to the side as she lifts her arms up in the air.

The girl in the reflection does the same thing.

Fresh lowers herself down to a one legged squat, sticking her other leg out to the side and holding her hands out forward towards the glass, wiggling her fingers.

The girl in the reflection does the same thing.

“Do I want to know?” asks a voice from next to her.

“I’m testing the mirror, Jubilee,” replies Fresh.

Jubilee rolls their eyes. “It’s a mirror. What’s there to test?”

“A lot of things,” says Fresh. She sits down with her back to the mirror and then lays down on her back. Pressing her head to the floor, she presses her hips up into the air and stares at the girl in the reflection, who also happens to be upside down, like she herself is.

“You do understand what a mirror is, right?” asks Jubilee. Fresh blinks, upside down, staring at Jubilee’s reflection who is standing there in front of her with crossed arms.

Fresh lifts a single leg. Jubilee just dodges out of the way in-time, barely avoiding getting kicked.

“Sorry, Jubilee!” apologizes Fresh. She has a hard time with her body coordination as is, let alone while she’s half-way upside down. Lifting her leg up into the air, she spins her foot around in a circle. Her dress falls down and Jubilee grabs it, pulling it back up.

“Can you please have some common decency in public, you creep?”

“It’s just my leg,” argues Fresh, continuing to spin her leg around while watching the reflection carefully. It’s copying her masterfully. Nothing is out of place, not a single hair on her head or twitch of her digits is wrong.

Speaking of her head -

Fresh rolls over, flopping onto her stomach. She was becoming light-headed.

Jubilee lets out an annoyed bark and by the time Fresh looks back down, she notices that she’s squishing them against the floor with her legs, having fallen on top of them. “Sorry, Jubilee!” apologizes Fresh, looking back at the mirror.

“Fuck’s sake,” sighs Jubilee, trying to pull themselves out from beneath herself. “You’re going to be the death of me one day, you know?”

Fresh turns around, looking at Jubilee and frowning. She lifts herself up, allowing Jubilee to scoot out from beneath herself. “If you die, can we die together, Jubilee?” asks Fresh, shifting around to sit there on the floor normally with crossed legs.

Jubilee shakes their head, dusting themselves off and readjusting their clothes. “That’s sad,” they say. “You’re a sad, creepy, weird thing.”

“Mm,” nods Fresh in agreement, not having any arguments against that. “You’re my best friend forever, Jubilee,” she states, grabbing their hand and holding it.

Jubilee looks down at their hand and tries to shake her off, a disgusted look on their face. “I don’t recall ever agreeing to this.”

“Forever…” repeats Fresh, her eyes going wide.

“Ugh. Fine. Maybe I have another two or three days left in me,” they reply, rolling their eyes.

Fresh nods. These terms are acceptable. “I’ll be back to renegotiate in three days then,” she says, already making a plan in her mind of how she is going to annoy Jubilee in three days.

“Get to work, goo-brain,” sighs Jubilee, shaking their head and pulling their hand free as they walk away. But Fresh can see the crack of their smile as they turn their face to hide it.

Beaming, she looks back at the mirror.

The girl in the mirror winks at her.

“Ah!” yelps Fresh. “Jubilee! The mirror did a thing!” she says, looking back at Jubilee.

Jubilee sighs.

Fresh looks back at the mirror. The girl on the other side shrugs and then resumes doing exactly what she herself is doing.

[Stone-Golem Fragment]{Nature}(Normal) A large chunk of carved, engraved stone that was once part of an animated stone-golem. It’s very heavy and is loaded with dense, natural magic. Weight: 12kg Value: 50 Obols

Fresh whistles. Fifty Obols is a lot for a single monster drop. But then again, golems are really tough cookies. So maybe this item is actually pretty worthless, for the effort required to get it? Plus it weighs twelve kilograms, so it’s a huge pain to carry out of the dungeon.

She tilts her head. She bets a lot of people don’t bother with them for exactly that reason, actually.

Running her fingers along the top of the square block of dark-gray stone, she touches the grass and moss that’s growing on the surface of it. The block itself is squarish and covered in runic, rectangular spiral carvings.

There’s strong nature-magic trapped inside of this, she can feel it. But what can she do with it? Stone isn’t well suited for weapons or armor. At best, some kinds of talismans or trinkets?

But… no, that doesn’t feel right either. She ‘did’ bracelets and jewelry already. And as a whole, it’s just too heavy to use for adventuring. Maybe…

Maybe…

Fresh narrows her eyes, thinking. “Basil?” she calls, looking over her shoulder. Basil, sitting at the table in the library and making a list of items to sell and to keep, looks up at her.

“Yes?”

“Can you use that spell again, please?” asks Fresh. “The big, round bubble-shield thing?” she requests.

Basil tilts her head. “It’s not good to use magic inside of the house,” she explains.

“Please? I won’t tell Jubilee!” promises Fresh. “I just need to see something.”

“Well…” Basil looks around. Jubilee and Shamrock are in the dungeon again. “Okay. But it’ll be our secret.”

“Mm!” agrees Fresh. “I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

Basil gets up and then holds her hands against the ground. White-magic runs through her fingers, tracing a spiral pattern around the spot her hands press against, repeating over and over until it then branches out all at once, like a multi-pronged arc of lightning, in all directions across the floor about a few meters out from herself. The prongs then rise up and make a bubble around the priestess that fills itself in in a matter of seconds.

(Basil) uses: [Consecrated Ground]

“Neat!” says Fresh, looking at the bubble that surrounds them. “It’s like with the city!” she says.

“Mhm,” nods Basil. “Holy magic and nature magic are closely linked.”

“Really?” asks Fresh.

“Well… yes,” says Basil, shifting a little nervously. “But so is dark-magic, actually. Nature magic is sort of in the middle of everything.”

“Huh… thanks Basil!” says Fresh, tapping against the shield. Her finger stops as it touches the solid bubble. It feels like warm glass. She smiles. She has her idea. Its use is… limited, perhaps. But she thinks that it’s a strong idea, nonetheless.

The shield fades, dissipating.

“Did that help?” asks the priestess, rubbing away a scuff mark on the floor with her foot.

“It did!” beams Fresh, setting to work on the large stone.

If nature-magic is similar to holy-magic, then there’s a potential application here. Fresh rubs the spiral engravings on the rock clean of moss with her finger. The pattern reminds her of the arcs of magic that left Basil’s fingers just a moment ago. But they look more ‘clean’ and structured, whereas Basil’s were more like chaotic electricity.

Fresh smiles, looking at the thing and then over towards Basil. She nods, having her idea.

(Fresh) uses: [Craftsman: Mason{Remove}]

Chunks of the rock fall off as Fresh holds her glowing hands above it, moving them around its surface as she makes the statue. She takes extra care to leave the naturally growing grass and moss on the top of it. It’s important for the look of the item.

Humming to herself as she works, hewing away more and more bits of rock, she then sets to the finer details, making grooves and branches in and from the stone.

(Fresh) uses: [Craftsman: Mason{Engrave}]

About an hour later, after a lot of tinkering and finicky work and one or two close calls where something almost broke off, Fresh is finished.

She dips her fingers into a bottle of harvest-moonwater, sprinkling it over the small statue of the world-tree.

[Stationary Shielding Statue]{Nature}(Excellent) Hewn out of a stone-golem core, this statue, modeled after the world-tree, emits a powerful natural magic out in all directions. Effect: While in a party, absorbs 25% of the combined total HP of all party-members within 24m, as damage, per day. When Activated: Emits a magical shield out in all directions, over a distance of 8m.

Quality Effect:

Restores 1% of MAX-HP every 5 minutes

Restores 1% of MAX-SOUL every 5 minutes

Weight: 7kg Value: ???

Fresh smiles a prideful smile as she turns to look at Basil, who is staring at her newest creation with a familiar expression of worry.