The first few times he tried shaping the bonded bottles did not go well, as Roge could only really shape the liquid glass by hand. The rest of his team started practicing their new skills while he worked, the dragon deciding to take a break to watch.

  Each had their main classes upgraded with Roge’s help with added effects based upon their species. Marge’s [Cervid Archer] class upgraded her movement ability to [Nature Stride], apparently making her better at running across natural surfaces like fields and rock. It did nothing in the city, but the deer woman had been excited for how it was going to improve when they went out on their first adventure together.

  Hops’ skills now worked even better when he made runes replicate natural effects, boosted even more when he used Roge’s plant-based bombs. He’d hooked himself and Marge up with multiple runed bombs that they could throw during combat to start out, buying multiple books to make sure his runes followed what was naturally found out in the world. It was fascinating for the dragon, as he was told that runes were all taken from magical monsters and animals rather than made up by people. Magical skills and abilities would make the monster grow a rune on them, either as a design on fur or a literal growth on an organ. That was apparently why Hops went out on the adventures, to find new runes he could use.

  Finally was Sean, the lion’s abilities the strangest of them all. Whereas before he was a decent enough tank with his class, the [Leonine Knight] class improved that massively for him. The species information had been all about nobility, justice, and protecting the pride, so it was no surprise to the dragon that the class would follow that route. Sean’s shield skill had a buff that effected the entirety of the party, drawing all of a foe’s attention to him like a taunt video game skill. It even ran off of how well the party’s defenses were, so it would theoretically train their defensive skills as well. Roge was also excited to see how his [Light Magic] would work with the class, wondering if it would make another class based around healing and attacking with light, or if it would give better options for the Lion’s current classes. He had to remind himself to have them try out adding light mana to some of their skills, knowing it’s how he upgraded his gardening skill before. Even funneling mana through an aligned object would help the ability improve on its own and give more effects.

  That thought brought him up short as it sparked an idea, Roge pulling out a couple of blueoak branches and getting to work. With his [Nature Magic], he could shape them to a degree, which he used to make a cast for the shaping of his new bottle. He even used the existing arrow to make the shape of the head, though he had to remove it to make the portion of the arrowhead that would attach to the shaft. Once he had a wooden mold and made it a half foot tall, he got to work shaping the glass bottles to the shape, finding the process vastly easier.

  What he ended up with was an oddly shaped straight flash, but one that, when the mixture solidified, would make sure the arrowhead maintained the correct shape. He likened it to a mold more than anything, keeping most of the wood around the flask for aesthetic purposes, though using some of it to make a molded cork for the top. The shape wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough for his first try at making the arrow, pulling out the ingredients he’d need for it.

  He started with the longer part of the process, placing a freshly harvested samara into the bottom of the flask. He always called them windmill seeds as a kid, the helicopter-shaped seeds always flying in the wind during spring. Next went in the ash sap, curious as to how it would solidify the potion he poured in right after. He took the warnings seriously and corked the flash immediately, noting the boiling reaction the mixture started to have.

  Shaping the shaft took no time at all, the wood easily following his commands to turn into a straight cylinder. The hole and notch on each end was simple, as was attaching the severed leaf, as he could just tell the shaft to grow around the stem. While he left the bark on the branch so the brighter wood wouldn’t stand out, he smoothed it as much as he could, knowing bumps would lead to inaccurate arrows.

  The potion was done while he was smoothing out the bark, deciding to stop as he knew he’d never get the shape perfect. As for how he knew the reaction was done, the bonding of the flask to his hoard made it simple to pay attention to when the potion hardened simply by feeling it. Popping open the cork and shaking out the bright orange arrowhead, Roge was surprised at how nicely shaped it was, finding the outline to not be too bumpy. It needed sharpening anyway, so getting it that smooth was just a plus in his eyes. Commanding the wood to grow around the base of the arrowhead secured it in place, finishing the odd looking arrow. With an orange head, the darker blue shaft, and the grey leaf fletching, it certainly stood out. But the effects spoke for themselves in his opinion.

  ‘I mean… it is mine, right?’ he thought to himself, reaching out to the arrow and trying to change the color of it, using his colorful buff. Surprisingly, it worked, allowing him to change the arrowhead and shaft to a pure black. He then made the leaf fletching a bright orange, knowing that that was the main part Marge would see when taking out an arrow to use.

  ‘And now… to make the others.’

  ~~~

  "What do you mean you ended up with seven types of arrows?!” Sean growled out, earning an embarrassed look from the dragon.

  “Well… I went with the normal four, then with [Explosive] and [Flaming Spark]…”

  “And finally with the blight. What does that one do?” Hops asked, [Inspecting] the various arrows.

  “It calls it a disease?” Marge asked, looking very excited.

  “It’s a tree disease. Well… now a magical tree disease,” Roge commented, shrinking from Sean’s stare. “It just means I have to make the various potions-“

  “This was very dangerous,” Sean growled, earning him a look from Marge. “What happened if he mishandled one of the materials? We don’t have a cure disease potion.”

  “Probably do,” Roge commented, holding up his hands when Sean’s eyes narrowed even more. “I have the [Purify] ability from the tobacco. Do you want me to try and make it into a potion?”

  Sean sighed, rubbing the sides of his muzzle before growling out a, “Yes.” The dragon quickly got to work at that, pulling a [Purify] coin from one of the tobacco leaves they were going to deliver to Madam Madrid later in the day. Swapping it out with the healing on one of Hops’ potions gave him exactly the effect he wanted.

  “There you go. And now I have something else to show at the test.” Sean grumbled at that, letting out a sigh before grinning at the dragon.

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  “Fair point Roge. I guess break time is over for you, if you can make things like that.” Roge was about to pull up his sheet at that before Sean held up a paw to stop him. “But no binding trees. We’ll do one of those a week. You got rid of one of each like I asked, right?”

  “Yes, dad,” Roge grumbled, looking over his plant list and sighing while Marge and Hops laughed. No matter how annoyed he felt, it made sense. Not only would he forget about certain powers if he got a bunch at once, but Hops had warned him that getting too high of a power boost could be harmful for one’s health. Something about exploding like a bomb made of mana or something.

  “Pick one you want to bind for tomorrow. I think it’ll be a good treat for passing the test.”

  “If I pass the test,” Roge grumbled, feeling the antsy feeling come back at the thought of the test later that night. To distract himself, he looked over the list of treasures he had in his hoard, feeling quite proud of the things he had.

  “That’s going to be hard,” he groaned, wanting to figure out so many of the potential buffs he had. “Why allow me to do that if it’s dangerous?!”

  “One of the many mysteries,” Hops replied. “Like why working out too much can hurt. It’s just a fact of life.”

  Roge facepalmed at that, holding back giggles so as to not try and explain why he found that funny. “Can I at least try the cards now?”

  “After your accuracy training,” Sean dictated, smiling at Roge’s groan. “Hey we train mostly every day too. It’s the only way to stay on top of our abilities and skills.”

  “No, I get it,” Roge growled, pulling out his wand and swapping it to what he was calling ‘paintball mode’. Using the [Pigment] coins made for a lot less damage for the guild to have to clean up due to the effect being largely temporary. Besides, he could still use his various buffs to swap around what kind of attack he was using.

  They quickly found out that the glow buff was going to be the main thing he used, forcing almost all of his attacks into a straight line that extended past his manipulation range. The fog buff was best for creating a smoke cloud for cover or running away, while the thunder buff was useful against a hoard of enemies. Acid and Icing were both used for shorter range fighting, as the former made the effect a damage over time effect, while the later made the effect pack a better punch. All of the various buffs were combined with the sparking and healing buffs, which made all of his attacks faster and take less aggro. Of course, he also used his colorful buff to make all of his attacks some shade of blue, liking the color a lot better and making it so he could distinguish his attacks from enemy attacks.

  Turning the blight effect blue made it even stranger, the fire looking radically different with the black streaking through and around it. That one he kept purple after fiddling with it during training, deciding it was too confusing with three flame like attacks to have them all be the same color, but have different effects. ‘Hopefully, they assume that if something is purple, it’s going to cause a debuff,’ he thought to himself, getting back to running around and throwing various magics at the dummy.