"You said meet you in the morning," Arnold said, cracking his neck and stroking his waist long beard.

"Can't deny what I said..." I mumbled through a yawn. Light was spilling down into the training building through the leafy ceiling Samuel had constructed to patch where the Appendage had pecked. The man in question was already gone, surely to deal with farming shenanigans.

"Well, I've got a question."

"Can I get some time to wake up?" I said, almost flopping to the ground when I tried to stand from the couch. Did the people on the surface lose their sense of personal space? I wasn't entirely bothered about Arnold entering the house since there wasn't anything secretive going on, but pseudo-acquaintances don't normally shake you awake while you are doing your best to sleep in.

The dwarf waited a whole two seconds. "That good enough?"

"Fine, whatever. Walk and talk. I need some breakfast," I said, rubbing the sleep from my eyes and heading towards the living area of the training building.

"I done did speak with Rommel. He told me about your Infusing. We need to get everyone going on that."

"That sounds more like a command than a question, Arnold," I said, wagging my finger in his direction. A bowl with strawberries and oranges laid completely unprotected on the counter as I slunk closer.

"Fine. Please?"

"Better, but that isn't the main problem. Perhaps when the crystal has given more people Implants it will feel so inclined as to tell us what the requirements are for what I do, but I'm the only one able to pass the miscellaneous Skills. Something about needing a boat load of mana. If all goes well, then maybe you can take over the job." Arnold didn't seem to appreciate me gesturing with fruit, but it was too early for me to really care about his opinion. I wonder if anyone might have some coffee beans around. No doubt Sam could grow some and save everyone's mornings...

The frown on Arnold's face could have split rocks. For all I knew, that was part of his job, even if there weren't very many large rocks in Florida. He fumbled about with his thoughts until he finally asked what I planned to do.

"Why, thank you for your consideration, Arnold! I was going to check in with the Council members, figure out when they were going to start running people to Tec. Then, I was going to look for you, maybe try to set up a few transfers before lunch time, followed by that lesson I mentioned. That sound good to you?" You could have drowned in the amount of sarcasm I was putting out.

The dwarf grumbled, but just nodded in turn. He snagged an orange from the table before he vanished down the stairs.

"It's going to be a long day..."

---+---

As it turned out, Dylan already had everything coordinated. Somehow, the councilman had woken up, visited Tec, gotten an Implant and then returned to speak with Sarah. "When opportunity comes knocking, you answer the door even if you are in your underwear," he said, as if it was some sage saying. Sarah, on the other hand, was running the trainees through a new set of cardio exercises. Whenever she saw a group return, she would single out people for them to head to the Blessing of Magic. The ones that returned were pretty much out for the day as they tried to get acclimated to the Status and to new Skills acquired thanks to the Entity Cluster.

With the Implantation process ongoing, I headed out to meet Arnold near the center of town. Several crews of people, including a redheaded merwoman from the Guard, worked to clear away the bile regurgitations of the carrion crows. The rest of the crafters, lacking facilities for them to ply their crafts, assisted transporting goods to and from the recovery efforts. The whole thing was controlled chaos, as the pavilions that had once stood proudly in the center of town were so much firewood. Rotted firewood, which was probably worse.

"Ah! He finally shows up!" Arnold called out. He's less than five years older than me, why does he feel the need to prod for authority. It was entirely possible that I'd woken up in a less-than-stellar mood thanks to the way things progressed the day before.

"Yes! And he can't stand the mess that he's seeing!" I called back in reply. The dwarven department head seemed a bit taken aback, but I didn't give him enough time to recover. "You aren't using people to the best of their abilities."

"What could you possibly mean? We are still working on the problems from yesterday," he said, frowning.

"Not that, I mean the way you have things set up. You've got people walking through the bile washout just to get to the destroyed stuff. Use the environment to your advantage. Are you going to use this stuff for anything?" I pointed to the pile of half decayed-half usable wood the townsfolk were collecting.

"Errm... Maybe?" The man backpedaled slightly. "What would you suggest we do instead then?"

"We are going to have to restructure this whole area if we are going to move from just standard crafting to Infusion Crafting. A lot of what I will be teaching you is just how to dip your feet in, I haven't had the time to explore the limits of using Infusions. What I do know is that Infusions are highly dangerous if not handled carefully and that the aftereffects can be... unpredictable.

"My suggestion? Dump anything that isn't completely clear onto the carrion piles to erode, then wash it out into some kind of basin using the Guard's help. We are talking magic here, there is no sense in using normal physical logic. The rest of the stuff we set aside and I get the other Earth Attuned to help. You included, if you get a earth manipulating Skill with your Implant."

Arnold really had nothing to say to that. He repeated my instructions out loud, getting confused looks from almost everyone working under him. Except for the merwoman. She gave me a knowing smirk before releasing her spell chain. She'd been fire hosing down the asphalt parking lot and cleared home foundations where the pavilions had been erected. Instead of staying with the others while they worked to mound up the damaged materials, she strode up to me.

"We haven't been introduced. My name is Jolene." The woman held her chest and I watched her gills flutter before my eyes locked with hers. Emerald green ringing a deep black hole, framed by auburn locks and a dazzling smile.

I took a step back, reaching out with my hand just to break the unwanted details of my Perception. Why did I want to start counting her freckles? "Ronan."

"Of course. I don't think there is anyone here who hasn't heard of the Vanguard, mighty hero of stone," Jolene said, swooning dramatically before straightening and shaking my hand. "What brings such a celebrity of the new world to this corner of swamp land?"

"Uh... what?"

"What are you doing here silly? Sarah told me to help out Arnold since the squads are dissolved while we integrate the trainees. Since it looks like you just told Arnold what to do, I'm not helping you out. Make sense?" Her gills fluttered again, and I was only just able to get my thoughts in order.

"Just trying to help the town get moving. If we want to make enough gear to make a difference against Dreg or otherwise, then I'm going to need some serious help," I said.

"Ah. A scrapper, a leader and a craftsman. Tell me, Ronan, is there something you don't do?" Why is she making my skin crawl when she says my name? Why do I want her to say it again? Magic, it has to be some kind of Skill. Unfortunately, there weren't any visible spell chains about her person, and when my eyes zeroed in on her, her information in my Status didn't lend itself to someone capable of affecting the mind.

"Is there something on my face?" Jolene said, stepping back from where she'd most certainly been inside my personal space bubble. Not that I minded...

"No, sorry. The Implants, if you are close enough and attentive enough to someone, bring up their information. If all goes well, you'll have one too by the end of the day," I said, quickly switching topics. The instincts I'd honed for beasts was flying off the handle with the woman, and I wasn't sure why. She wasn't even wearing armor or weapons.

"Right, of course. My apologies." Dazzling smile number three. "So, what do you need, Ronan?"

"Well... I don't want to bother you too much, but I need Sarah to send any Earth Attuned - you guys call them Geos - to help make the Infusion area. Maybe she can send you to get your Implant while I work on this stuff?"

My voice dropped slowly as I saw her smile slip slightly. However, instead of slipping all the way, she nodded with a serious expression. "You got it. If I overheard you right, I won't need to wash all that muck off until later! I will see you later, Ronan."

I wasn't sure how long I stood around, but it was enough that Arnold came back. The man snapped his fingers in my face, drawing me out of my thoughts. "We're done pushing stuff back. Did you want to do your magic mumbo jumbo now or later?"

"I'm going to pass Infusion to each of the people in charge of different trades first. Well, as many as I can take with my mana. Might as well start with you, that way people will be less hesitant to approach," I said, glancing at the workers who worked to stack the last of the rotting materials up. The rest were piling up the salvageable stuff inside one of the houses-turned-warehouse within Wildwood.

"Gah. Fine. Just don't do anything strange will you?" I reached down and placed my palm on his forehead. "Like that..."

He didn't get to finish the thought as my own mind pushed the concept of into him. My mana dropped at a steady trickle. Thankfully, unlike in previous times, didn't trigger. However, snippets of memory did spill through the brief connection. The joy of hammering metal. The companionship between me and my father, working the bellows. Then the coldness of the forge when the beasts of the Wild took him. Hammering that metal to protect and grow the people of the town was what kept me going. Even if I had to hammer it alone, the goal was still the same.

The image cut out with Arnold staring daggers at an Earth Infusion that I knew belonged to his father. The one I knew was tucked away safely in a necklace hidden behind his prominent beard.

"Gah, that's a headache not even some 'shine will give you!" the dwarf said, groaning and stepping back from my palm.

"That's what's coming for those who will work with Infusions. Don't worry, it will pass. For now, I want you to start separating out what stock of them we have into the different quotients. People without the Implants will be able to Infuse, but they won't be able to check which Quotient Level they have." When the dwarf scrunched up his face in confusion, I waved him off. "That will come in the lecture! Just go get your Implant and separate out the stock we have. If one of the Implanted Wild Guards are around, have them help you."

The still somewhat dazed Dwarf stumbled off towards the Blessing of Magic. It only took a few seconds for me to realize that neither him nor Jolene were there to introduce me to the leaders of the different trades. "Wait, Arnold!"

---+---

Even with my trickle of mana regeneration, my sizable mana pool let me transfer to five people before needing a break. Unlike with my Skills, the gut wrenching feeling didn't surface at all despite my empty mana pool. Yet another thing to ask the Entities. After giving to the seamstress, carpenter, farmer, blacksmith and boatwright leaders, the general workers funneled through where I was marking out the crafting area.

It was my most ambitious project yet, and having the help of the other Earth Attuned Wild Guards made it the first construction project I'd directed. I was more than a little bit excited, despite the entire lead up to my expedited efforts.

Godfrey and his shovel-hammer were exceptional at moving large quantities of material from one place to another. The Karl-Carl twins were excellent at consolidating and hardening with the massive spell chain they could cast together. Group Skills was something I hadn't even touched as an offensive possibility, but I did my best to keep my mind from wandering.

The twins I directed to consolidate the worn and cracked parking lot area. They would use their to break any stubborn portions of asphalt before leveling the whole area. Godfrey essentially dug a trench around the entire space, throwing the magically formed and mundanely excavated dirt into person-tall berms. The idle crafters watched the process somewhat flabbergasted until I had them start to mark out their work locations. Other than a central hallway and the location of supporting, reinforced walls I marked, they were free to organize the space as they wanted.

Jolene returned, somewhat dazed, a few hours later. Right away, the woman utilized the Skill she'd acquired, pushing a finger thin stream of water out of her palm. The runic symbols spun slower or faster as she cut through the ground ahead of Godfrey, softening it and letting him rip larger chunks with each of his dirt tosses.

The day went by in a flash. Well, more like a nonstop strobe party of unwanted memories. At some point Arnold called an end to the work day, the sun starting its dip out of sight. While it didn't look like much, a roughly rectangular mud wall with piles of dirt arranged in rows down the middle, it was the foundations of a proper building. I sat on one of the walls, leaning into the sun-warmed soil, letting my muscles relax as I sunk into the unconsolidated earth.

I'd mostly been marking and digging the trench outlines, but my mind spun hundreds of different ways. Over thirty snips of life, of living memory, bounced around my head. One for each of the people that I'd imparted . Childhood, youths, adulthood, old age. Childbirth, sorrow at the death of loved ones, uncertainties of the future. Entire personality molding events for the people I'd touched, cramped into first-person picture frames that muddled my own thoughts. It was nowhere as intense as when I'd forcibly extracted information from Charles in order to find the trainees, but the volume was something my mind would not let me ignore. I'd become more intimately familiar with the crafters of Wildwood in the span of a day than I had any right to be.

The demon night shift crew piddled around, getting ready for the day ahead as the rest of the others wound down. A few were crafters like the day workers, and so Arnold directed them to my slumped form. I cracked my neck, rising out of the warm earth to do one final round of people for the day.

"You folks can snag Ronan tomorrow. I'm sure we'll all be plenty busy, and as you can see we've done a whole lot already. yes?" A voice like that first surface summer rain rolled over me.

To much grumbled consent, the approaching group of demons wandered back to Arnold for other tasks. The dwarf frowned in Jolene's general direction before pointing them to the scattered materials and different equipment that needed to be relocated.

"Thanks," I said, sinking back into my dirt pile. Man, maybe I should just sleep outside?

"You are most welcome, Ronan. You are a busy man for someone that just joined our little town," the redhead said, pulling a stray bucket over so she could sit across from me.

"One does what he can," I said, slowly drifting deeper into the mound.

"Did you forget you promised to pass on the Skill? The one I got from the crystal has been immensely helpful, so I can only imagine what the one you have been giving out will do," she said softly.

Propping myself on my elbows I met her gaze. Her emerald eyes were staring intently at me and for some reason I couldn't put it off. She didn't strike me as a crafter or anything of the sort, but she was determined. Who was I to deny that?

I wiped my hand as clean as possible on my pants once I stood. She was almost a foot smaller than me, something that I had neglected to notice thanks to just how much bigger her presence made her. She kept her eyes on me as I placed my palm on her forehead. The scales were almost indistinguishable from her skin at a glance, unlike with the lizard variants of water attuned, however they stood against my own hand. Letting out a soft breath, I pictured wrapping my mind around and passing it through to her. My mana trickled, then jerked into a torrent out of me as triggered as well.

"Ah sh--" was all I was able to get out before my consciousness was swept up into a whirlpool of memories. Flashes of Jolene's life appeared through my mind barely more than wisps until I landed square onto the wall of Wildwood.

"Donovan?" I called out, voice as soft as ever. A flowing spell chain like a babbling brook orbited my hand as I swept the area right around my post. Donovan was supposed to return almost an hour ago after bringing the farmers back. Now, she stood guard alone for him to return.

Just outside of view I could see something lurking in the shadows of the destroyed buildings. The people of Wildwood had opted to work the farm as opposed to clearing the area around the wall as much as possible. Sarah had told them they should, and Sarah always seemed to have a hunch for those things, yet they hadn't listened. A strangled cry cut through the silence I hadn't noticed falling around me. My spell chain wavered, my own hands shaking as fear wrapped tighter around my heart.

"Donovan!?" My voice cracked. The shadows tensed in the trees and I knew there was something there, lurking.

"Sarah! We have something outside!" my voice wavered, but I passed the warning down the line. Another of the too-young guards, Karl or Carl I could never tell them apart, took up the call.

When the message was repeated the third time, Donovan appeared. The part goat man hobbled into the open, picking up speed when his hooved feet touched worn asphalt. My heart nearly stopped in my chest as I watched him bleeding from numerous wounds, a spell chain of his own wrapped around his leg. I knew he didn't have healing abilities, only something to boost strength, but if he was already injured...

A yip cut all rational thought. My hands gripped the edge of the battlement. Fear and the desire to rush out there battled inside me, the spell chain rotating faster and thinner than ever before. "Just a little closer, Donovan!"

The satyr didn't have time to make it just a little closer. Just into the range of my water bubbles. A hound, or a coyote, or something vaguely dog-like cut through the field with ease, pouncing on Donovan. Another creature pushed out of the bush towards my love and I hesitated. The hesitation broke a few seconds later, but it was too late.

My spell chain broke as I poured all of my heat, all of the warmth I lost with my magic, into a punch of water. The spray knocked one beast into the other just as a gun cracked. The second beast yipped, running off into the woods and out of sight. Before I knew what happened I had pulled open the gates and hovered over Donovan. There was just so much blood. Everywhere. The scruff goatee on his face quivered as his own heat was drawn out of his body.

"Oh... Donny..." I whispered. He knew better than to use his strengthening magic. He bled out faster!

"J-jolly," he chittered. "I-I made it." The man's eyes fluttered one last time as I felt his skin go as cold as my own. The cold of the dead and lost.

The memory cut out midway through Jolene's strangled cry and the emotion flowing through the memory caused me to falter. Jolene held me up, slightly dazed herself but giving me a quizzical look. "Are you alright, Ronan?"

"Y-Yes. I'm alright. Might just be too many transfers for the day," I said. My voice was somewhat choked up as I shook my head, trying to clear the image of Donovan dying right before me. The first death I'd seen, even if not through my own eyes, carried through emotions I couldn't even begin to comprehend.

"Of course. I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have pushed. You wouldn't have been laying down if you hadn't been spent," Jolene said, frowning as she led me out of the work area. "Let me make sure you are at least on your way."

Her eyes and mine met for the briefest of seconds. I was somehow able to pierce through and understand what I'd witnessed just from the passing glance. The moment when she'd gained her Refinement, and the weight of the loss it carried. My thoughts were a turbulent mess as I climbed the stairs and barely made it to my designated couch. Should have just stayed in the dirt pile...