The problem with owning a good bed was that each night was extended by thirty minutes minimum.

Vivi lay in a cloud, with a mattress so comfortable she could have paid fifty thousand ether for it. Her blanket—blue, of course, to match the theme of her home—was the smoothest thing she owned. Vivi lay underneath its warmth with her hands above. The chilly night had caught to the blanket's outer layer. She brushed her arm across the cold parts, and the fabric warmed up.

Lucius floated above her, watching with his paws crossed. "I still don't understand what you're doing, Vivi."

"Nothing," Vivi said. "Just human things."

Lucius stared down at her. "You're rubbing your hand against the blanket? For what benefit?"

"It just feels pleasant," Vivi said.

"Even more pleasant than runesmithing?"

Vivi rolled her eyes and sighed. "If you could touch things, you'd know."

She lifted the blanket aside and put on her shirt—a simple undershirt to wear beneath her smithing apron. Vague sounds of construction pounded outside. Besides that, the Lost Raindrop was dead silent and without windows. Lucas and Coshi had done a good job to ensure Vivi could work alone, even in Shivenar's chaotic state, while everyone prepared for storm season.

Two weeks had passed after the return to Shivenar. Grandpa was still in a coma. The nobles of Shivenar were still queued up to purchase Vivi's runeswords. The Vanhammers were still mad at her. That was to say, not much had actually changed—except for Vivi's ether reserves. She shuddered looking at the sheer amount of ether in her core.

Thirty-eight million.

All because she sold a few runeswords.

The amount was so mind-numbing that Vivi had stopped thinking about it. She had a lot of ether, and that was it.

"Have you decided what kinds of exalted skills we're looking to buy?" Lucius asked. "We could already afford a simpler, more situational skill. Exalted ascension skills are obviously the best, but they will cost at least a hundred million, and finding a seller will be a pain."

"I'm trying to decide what to eat for breakfast, Lucius," Vivi said. She looked into her food cabinet. Today, her ice box was filled with slabs of meat and fish fillets. The dry cabinet had fruits Vivi couldn't identify, and more foods she didn't even want to consider eating. Despite her requests for Lucas to stop bringing in food, the food cabinet kept filling up with all sorts of nonsense while she wasn't looking. Whatever she didn't eat also disappeared after a few days.

Vivi sighed and grabbed the bag of oats and grains. She poured some in a pot and began cooking grain porridge. She heated up another pot through its strife runes. The water boiled in seconds. Vivi tossed in tea leaves—the expensive kind Senith had given her—and left them to brew.

Lucius watched with an amused smile. "All this ether, and you're still eating porridge? We could hire ten different cooks at once every day, you know."

"I don't want my stomach getting upset while we work," Vivi said.

"Interesting," Lucius said. "I thought human bodies were strong enough to handle meat."

"Lucius, I would appreciate it if you stopped trying to pry into my habits," Vivi said.

"What, I'm just trying to understand how you work."

And you're failing miserably, Vivi thought, which made Lucius pout.

Her morning routine took thirty minutes, which was far more than it ever used to. Back on the surface, the first thing she did when she woke up was see if there were ether roots she could use to start practicing on. Sometimes there were, though most times, Grandpa was the one to pull her aside to brew tea and cook porridge instead.

The last two weeks had made her appreciate a slow wakeup. Some time to rest in the morning was necessary to fully focus for the remaining sixteen hours of the day. She ate, and brewed her tea for twice the duration the leaves were supposed to, of course, to give it a bitter taste.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Coshi asked for a shockwave greatsword," Vivi said, ready to start working. "Something that can cut through hordes of weaker monsters. We'll need to complete that today."

Vivi picked up a vine root and moved to her vise. She stretched her fingers, grabbed her crochet hook, and thought, Lucius, initiate the root.

"We're practicing first again?" Lucius asked, noting the plant root. He sat in a loaf and flowed ether into the vine root, though he was yawning and barely looking in the root's direction.

As a result, the vine root shot erratically. Immediately, the main stalk tried to grow sideways like a locium root but even more extreme. Vivi focused, controlling it. Within minutes, it was already time to shape the first branches. Her crochet hook flowed along its growth, and practice took control of her limbs.

Whereas regular ether roots typically took an hour to fully shape, the vine root was done in under fifteen minutes. Its erratic growth forced Vivi to focus to her limits if she wanted to shape anything resembling a sword.

The end result vaguely resembled the veins of a runesword. The branches were shaped like branches, but half of them weren't symmetric, and most had inaccuracies. Even the main stalk was slightly twisted at parts. Vivi bit her lip looking at it.

"Alrighty, that's done," Lucius said, yawning. "Let's get to work now."

Vivi frowned at him. "Lucius… look at this thing."

"What?" Lucius asked, glancing at the assortment of green veins. "It's a practice piece?"

"It's a mess," Vivi said. "My hand slipped multiple times. And you… You barely paid any attention! You look like you're ready to start heating the crucible already."

"Yes?" Lucius said. "Your consistency has gone up a lot. Most three-runed attempts make it through." He felt Vivi's frown, then asked, "Is there a problem?"

"There is," Vivi said. "You're growing lazy. Your control over ether is getting sloppy. How am I supposed to shape a vine root if the root is growing that erratically?"

Lucius was taken aback. "But it's just a practice piece?"

"Yes, and you need to practice as well," Vivi said. "If I'm shaping veins, I expect you to be fully focused. You can lounge around while I'm forging the blade, but I will not work with a half-hearted ether distributor."

"It's good to preserve my focus for the real projects, is it not?" Lucius asked.

"You're sloppy with those too, Lucius," Vivi said. "You're growing lazy. Just because I'm getting better does not mean you can stop practicing."

Lucius pouted for a moment, then said, "Alright, alright. I get it. I'll focus."

He still didn't look fully convinced. He agreed because Vivi made him agree, not because he actually believed in it.

The schedule must have gotten boring to Lucius after doing it for two weeks straight. In the end, Lucius was an impatient spirit. He saw their everyday runeswords merely as something to sell for ether. He didn't care about pouring his heart into every project. He focused fully only when absolutely necessary.

If Vivi wanted to improve as a runesmith, Lucius's mindset had to change. She decided to try something.

Vivi picked up a vine root, tied it around the vise, picked up her tools, then initiated the root. By herself.

"Hey!" Lucius called.

Vivi ignored him. She flowed her own ether into the root. The vine began growing erratically. Her control over ether wasn't nearly as good as Lucius's. Using a simple ether distributor tool would have been more accurate. Vivi hadn't practiced doing the job herself, trusting her spirit to perform the job for her.

"Vivi, you idiot, you're doing it completely wrong!" Lucius shouted. He slashed at her vine root with his claws, cutting the vines and the ether root in half.

Now he was really scowling. He flew to the sack of vine roots and pulled one of them free. Being a spirit, he struggled to carry it, but he managed to lift it to the vise.

"Fine. I'll pay attention," he said.

"Will you really?" Vivi asked.

Lucius scowled. "I will."

"My goal as a runesmith is to be the best, Lucius," Vivi said. "That's my duty as Grandpa's apprentice. I want to craft a four-runed sword, a five-runed sword, and a six-runed sword. And in order for that to happen, I need you to practice as well. Vine roots are fantastic to practice for vein-shapers, but they're also insanely difficult for the ether distributor. I know you aren't skilled enough to keep a vine root stable."

"You know?" Lucius asked, paws crossed. "Are you sure about that?"

"Show me, then."

Lucius made a cat-like snorting sound with his eyes annoyedly shut. He now sat closer to the vise, looking more focused.

Vivi stretched, picked up her tools, and thought, Ready when you are.

The root initiated to life. It grew less erratically right away, though Lucius's expression twitched, eyes remaining closed. The vine root was far more difficult than even a locium root—those already made Lucius struggle. Even Grandpa couldn't fully control a vine root's growth.

Lucius's control was far better this time. The root was still unstable, which led to Vivi making a few mistakes, but those could also be blamed on her. She focused fully on her own job.

This time, the end product was far smoother. The main stalk was straight, and the branches were mostly without errors. Shaping a vine root was still impossibly difficult, but to perform loops with this accuracy was a good sign for the upcoming day.

"See?" Lucius said. "I can do it if I want to."

Vivi nodded. "This was a lot better. But you still aren't flawless. We both need a lot more practice. We'll practice on another vine root tomorrow morning, as always."

Lucius pouted. His emotions were annoyed, though he wasn't angry. More so, he seemed to agree with Vivi. Lucius knew his control wasn't perfect.

"Let's move to the real project now," Vivi said. "A three-runed shockwave critter slayer."

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