Presenting: The mage. It's an elemental commando.

  Maybe a little more normal than what the others are/will be.

  After searching for their first goals on the towns map, Gunfrey was the second to leave. Making use of his cane to discretely wack at anyone in front of him, he shoved his way through the streets of Acacia.

  Even so, his weak physique left him heaving and clutching onto his cane as he arrived at his destination. He leaned on a nearby wall to catch his breath, then headed past the town guards with a glance at the door crystal.

  He stayed on the ground floor after consulting the map of the building and knocked on a door with a flame symbol.

  "Come in." The voice from behind the door sounded like the crackling of a warm hearth fire.

  The expert fire mage of Acacias Magic Research Society turned out to be quite literally a fire-mage.

  Behind her stone desk sat a female-shaped fire elemental, "Pyr Icebane". Wearing a burning robe with golden flame patterns and a set of jewelry with blue-glowing gems, her own flames seemed quite shallow in comparison, as if she would soon fade away.

  "Uh, I planned to just ask for a trade and be gone again, but are you alright?"

  "Hm hm hmm, no worries child. I may look a little weak, but I can still roast plenty of your size if I take these off." She traced one of her blue gems with a fiery finger.

  "Well if you say so. I am forging my own destiny. I want fire magic. What do you want?" Gunfrey slowly found back to his grumpy self.

  "Oh I see, hm hm, I already wondered why one of your kind would ever wear clothes like that." She got up to take a closer look at Gunfrey.

  "So that's what one of the new souls feels like... As you wish. I don't need much, so just take this to Gumo Barte on the second floor for a checkup." She took off her right bracelet and a faint heat wave assaulted Gunfrey.

  "I trust that as a follower of Dracoberta you are wise enough to not want to run off with it." "How-" "I know that coin on your knife. And your personality fits her too, hm hm hmm."

  Gunfrey took the bracelet - very - carefully from her hands. Then he made his way to the map and up the stairs, stopping at the start of the second floor to mutter silent curses directed at his constitution.

  Luckily for him, the door he needed was nearly next to the stairs. He knocked.

  "Yes, yes, it's open, come in, but be carefull. I'm scribing some very fine runes right now." This time, the voice sounded clear, almost mechanical.

  Gunfrey entered, only opening the door enough to squeeze through without endangering the bracelet. Then he patiently waited for the owner of the room to finish.

  The walls of the room where lined with all kinds of stands, some holding armors, some jewelry, one even held a crystal-like chalice.

  Hunched over the large table at the back of the room, stood a human-sized armor. Its most striking feature was the lack of a wearer, Gunfrey could see straight through some of the gaps.

  The armor was mostly metallic with some green trimmings and a flowing green cape.

  "You're Gumo Barte? I was sent to give this to you for a check up. Also, you are an enchanter, right?" Gunfrey immediately walked up to the armor as it turned around.

  "I didn't know the old Lady took an apprentice, you certainly don't look the part. Let me see that." After grabbing the bracelet with its gauntlet, Barte turned and clinked back to the table rather quietly for a suit of metal armor. "And yes, I am." It was already hunched in its original position again.

  "I'm not her apprentice, just forging my own destiny. I need that fire magic to improve my guns."

  "Guns? What's that? And why would you ever choose being trapped in a body not your own, free soul?" Barte stopped prodding and turning the bracelet just long enough to give Gunfrey a glance with its nonexistent eyes.

  "Uh, handheld projectile weapons using explosive force to propell projectiles? And why? Because it's different and exciting to live in another world, of course."

  "Hmm, since you can freely leave... Those guns though, sounds like the dwarven pressure cannons, but I never heard of handheld ones."

  After getting no answer, Barte turned around and found Gunfrey sprawled on the floor. "Hello? Are you alright, free soul?"

  "Haa, no. But I've got to continue, can't leave the others waiting. Say... what can enchanting do?" Gunfrey wobbled back onto his feet.

  "If you say so... Enchanting is similar to golemancy and necromancy in that you imbue things with power. Enchanting is the most passive and seemingly simple of the three, you input power and either it enhances certain aspects for as long as it is charged. Or, very popular with the young nobles right now, you simply slowly expell the element attuned power again, making for very flashy flaming swords."

  "Hmm, what happens if an enchanted tool breaks?" Gunfrey was already rapidly thinking again.

  "If it isn't handled very well, the charged power will escape at once, usually resulting in a pretty big explosion, since nobody ever makes any small or weak tools with enchanting, if not for practicing their craft."

  "Mwahahaha. That's it. I am forging my own destiny. What do I need to do for learning enchanting?" Gunfreys grin was more evil than happy.

  "Let's see, I can't decline, so making it hard for you may just come back to bite me later. You can't really do physical work with that body... Why don't you assist me for, say, an hour, just handing me the tools I need and maybe dusting and cleaning a little? After you returned this to the old Lady of course. There really was a slight crack, I already mended it."

  "I'll be back." Gunfrey recieved the bracelet and left the room.

  "I got it checked, apparently there really was a crack." He barged into the room of the old fire elemental.

  Then he got almost knocked over by the heat wave that assaulted him.

  "Walking into the room of a powerfull elemental without knocking? Dracoberta may want to rethink governing you." Said fire elemental was currently wearing almost no piece of her jewelry and holding a spoon made from black stone. On her desk stood a plate with small glass spheres containing even smaller, white-hot flame orbs and a side of crushed coal.

  She sighed and reattached the jewelry lying next to her plate, with every piece, the heat lessened and a faint blue bubble that conformed to her body and robe appeared before fading into invisibility.

  "I can't eat with a barrier around me. Now, since it's fixed, give me the bracelet, then I will teach you what you want and I can go back to eating. What subskill do you want?"

  "Hmm, after a change of plans, I will learn enchanting next, specifically elemental empowering or what it's called exactly." Gunfrey handed her the bracelet and the room went back to normal temperature after she attached it.

  "Enchanting? That should net you quite the money, how fitting." She turned around and looked out of the window behind her desk. "I guess, Fire Clad it is. It's basically a temporary enchantment, cast on a tool, the tool starts expelling flames from whichever part you tell it to."

  Turning back, she raised her hand at Gunfrey.

  Gunfrey decided to use mana, gave his thanks while already leaving and closed the door as a now familiar heat wave hit his back.

  The hour helping Gumo Barte passed rather uneventfully. However, Gunfrey was able to see a master enchanter at work. This proved especially usefull since he already got the enchanting skill at the start and could faintly feel what was going on:

  Gunfrey used mana again, as enchanting mid-battle is never a good idea. Barte had even found the time and desk space to let him try infusing a corn. With so little in both size and quality, Gunfrey immediately overloaded it, leaving behind a tiny patch of soot and a slightly stinging hand from the corn flaring up. There was simply not enough power for an explosion.

  He tried asking about why Barte called him free soul, but got denied as soon as he closed his mouth. At the end, he simply gave his farewells and left towards the basement.

  Although walking down the stairs was better, the second basement floor was a good bit deeper than the first, to accomodate higher test chambers and laboratories, so Gunfrey rested against the wall for a short while once more.

  After orienting himself, he walked down one of the branching hallways, feeling as the air turned colder and colder with each step. He braced himself after he stopped in front of a door covered in a faint layer of frost and knocked using his cane.

  "A visitor? Let me just close the door to this Ice Nimbus or I might just get you killed when I step out of here."

  A loud metallic bang was followed by a rapid increase in temperature, as if the heat wanted to reclaim lost territory. Gunfrey stepped away from the door before it opened and a wave of freezing cold mist covered the opposite wall in ice.

  The figure that stepped out of the door was humanoid, but currently covered in a layer of ice that hid more. "Trout Deepwinter" slowly thawed, revealing dark blue, scaled skin below a strange mask and blue-grey robes, Gunfrey also noticed a faint shimmer that seemed to stop the ice from getting all the way to his skin.

  Taking off his mask with a webbed hand, he revealed large, completely ice-blue eyes and hair that seemed more like long outside gills, similar to those of axolotl, but with less branches.

  "Well, this better be important."

  "I am forging my own destiny. I want ice magic, most likely Ice Clad. What do I need to do?"

  Trout seemed annoyed, but then shook his head. "Important enough for you, I guess. Destiny is a fickle thing. Go to Omgods Exotics, tell him you want my Nimbus food. It's one large block, so you should be able to store it if that info is correct. That leaves me more time down here. Just knock again when you have it." He walked back in and closed the door, soon followed by clanking sounds and a swath of cold.

  Back above ground, Gunfrey leaned against the same wall he had rested before entering the societies building to eat a bread and drink some water.

  Then he trotted back to the towns map and, cursing at Trout silently, headed off into a far away corner of the city.

  Several dozens of curses and a few more breaks later...

  Gunfrey flung open the metal door to Omgods Exotics to the best of his physical prowess. Marching into the shop, he focused "Rolfol Omgod", the grey, bald, sabertoothed mountain of a man behind the counter.

  "May I ask what race you are? And give me that goddamn Nimbus food for Mr. Popsicles freezing calamity." Gunfreys tone of voice switched sharply after the first question.

  Omgod stared at him.

  Then he slowly started to laugh, making his merchandise shake as it grew louder and deeper over time.

  After at least a minute, he slowly stopped again.

  "Horkin, that's my race. Though usually you'd find my brethren further north or way south. What did you do to deserve carrying that block of condensed, power-enriched ice?"

  "I am forging my own destiny and want him to teach me ice magic."

  "Oho, so you won't have to carry it after all, it's easily your height, mind you, Come get it in the back." Omgod waved and walked through a wide arch behind him.

  Following through the door, Gunfrey curiously glanced over the many different and strange items that lined even more shelves than in the front.

  "If you ever find or make something strange, I always hold enough coin to buy a small house. I might just be interested." He waved at a large cube of pristine whiteness, only the sparkling fog creeping around on its surface had a slightly different color to it.

  "He knows how to unpack it. So just take it as a whole."

  "Alright." Gunfrey sucked the cube into his inventory under the interested gaze of Omgod.

  "I'll be on my way, but I'll remember your offer." Gunfrey walked back to the front of the shop. "I assume you sell strange metals and other materials too? For later."

  "But of course. Although I specialize in food and plants, I still buy quite a few materials every week." Omgod rubbed his hands as Gunfrey left.

  Several dozens of new curses and another few breaks later...

  "I'll be right there, I hope it's you, Sir Gunfrey K., Nimble is getting hungry."

  Gunfrey held his forehead as he stepped back from the door.

  "Here's your icecube. Let's get this over with." Gunfrey was still rather pissed but didn't dare to rub someone with a freezing monster pet the wrong way.

  "Well well well. Nimble, you're food is here." The temperature turned a bit colder at his words and a faint rasping sound could be heard.

  "Oh, he's excited. Here, take your reward and leave." Trout raised his hand at Gunfrey.

  Gunfrey selected mana as power source another time and left towards the stairs while Trout dragged the large cube into his laboratory.

  No curses and not quite as many breaks later...

  Gunfrey stood in front of a building with a stylized bow and arrow as a sign.

  "Hello, I want to learn shooting, preferably starting with a rapid fire skill." He barged through the open door.

  "Hoo, calm, calm, chill down, man." From behind the counter, a bamboo-like tree person with a single large leave that curved backwards as hair and green pants drifted towards Gunfrey.

  "So you want to be an archer? You know, man, you need to be at least a bit strong to, like, use a bow effectively." "Laze Eastbark" tried to dissuade Gunfrey.

  "I am forging my own destiny, what's your task for me, I can shoot already. Just teach me the skill." Gunfrey disliked him already for speaking so slowly and trying to bring him away from shooting.

  "Oo. Proof. I want, like, that you shoot and hit a target a few times." Laze already turned around again, strangely a lot more determined and faster than before.

  Gunfrey followed him down a corridor and into a shooting range. Taking the smallest crossbow he found, still the size of his leg and thankfully already cocked, he loaded it, aimed at a scarecrow and shot.

  His arrow struck the small red spot on its chest roughly at the same time as Gunfrey hit the wall behind him.

  "Well, you hit, but, like I said, you, you know, you are too weak." Laze eyed Gunfrey from above as he sat against the wall.

  "Goddamit. Do you have any small bows? I'll need a few shots, but I am still confident in my shooting skill no matter the weapon." Gunfrey groaned as he got up and walked towards the displayed training weapons. After a short search, he picked out a shortbow that fit his size better, snatched a quiver of training arrows and marched back.

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  And, much to the surprise of Laze, he held word and was hitting the head or chest area of the scarecrow mostly consistently after a short period of frequent misses; with his rage filling from each hitting arrow, he also felt more and more energetic.

  "Oo. Proof. Very good. You, like, totally exceeded my expectations." Laze had a glint in his eyes. "You wanted a rapid fire subskill, correct? Feel free to try this out afterwards."

  Gunfrey blinked at Laze. "Lazir Eastbark?"

  "My grandfather, I learned everything from him."

  "I see. Not only the archery part I guess." Gunfrey selected Rage as power source.

  "Care for a quick demonstration?" Laze grabbed one of the larger longbows without waiting for an answer. Then, he pulled out five arrows, knocking one while keeping the other four in the same hand that drew the bowstring. As a faint yellow haze coated the arrow, he released the string and arrows. In a line, the first arrow pulled the other four, everything still coated in the yellow haze, until they all struck almost the same spot on the scarecrows head one after another.

  "Hmm, I guess it really is a lazy technique." Gunfrey followed up by taking three arrows, drawing the string and activating the skill. As he could feel the faint excitement subside along with his rage reserves, he let go and the leading arrow pulled the other two along, enveloped in faint red streaks of smoke. This time, however, he only managed to hit the lower end of the scarecrow.

  "See that. You need to draw stronger if you use this skill since the power you put in can only counter the weight of more arrows by so much." Laze commented, still showing appreciation for the weak imp shooting like an experienced archer.

  Gunfrey shot a few more arrows to bring his rage back up, then pulled out his last three and let loose another Lazir Shots. This time, his arrows struck the center of the scarecrow, a bit below the red spot.

  With Lazes help, Gunfrey collected the arrows again, thanked him - with a much improved opinion of the archer - and turned to leave. Then, he felt a slight odd feeling, like a bubble popping in his head and a message appeared in front of him.

  "What...?" Gunfrey stopped.

  "I appreciate the help, but what will it cost me?" Gunfrey grimaced.

  "Any advice on what ranged weapons I could use best?"

  "Thanks, that gave me an idea." Gunfrey opened his inventory and pulled out his Newbie Weapon Token to transform it.

  Finally, Laze, who was looking at Gunfrey with a confused gaze, couldn't hold it anymore. "What just happened and what is that?" He pointed at Gunfreys new weapon.

  Gunfrey wondered if this was really a newbie weapon, but even the game probably considered a slingshot a crappy weapon and added nice effects as compensation.

  Not so Gunfrey, because he had his plan.

  "I'll be right back." He walked into the shooting range to pick up the smaller coral debris that filled the ground there like gravel. He stuffed roughly fifty in his pouch before returning and taking aim.

  This time, he needed even longer until he could accurately hit the standing scarecrow. This did however fill up his rage enough for his next steps. The dumbfounded Laze still stared at Gunfrey.

  As Gunfrey took out three pebbles, keeping two in his hand, Laze slowly started to understand and looked at him in an even more dumbfounded way.

  On his fifth try, Gunfrey could finally feel his rage receding as red smoke collected around the pebbles, connecting and pulling them after the lead pebble to strike at the scarecrow.

  "Gotta catch 'em all!" Dong. Gunfrey was luckily wise enough to curse silently.

  "Ranged Combat." Beep.

  "If it takes a hundred times more as they mentioned in that one interview, that's five hundred..." Gunfrey was very gratefull for this advice and immediately made a note to tell the others later.

  He turned towards Laze. "Just my patron thinking I'm a bit more interesting than the others she governs." And walked off.

  Laze was now completely dazed and didn't recover even as Gunfrey was already out of the door after returning the bow, quiver and pebbles.

  After a bit, he turned into one of the lesser used alleyways to pick up a few coral pebbles. He tried to select similar ones to those that broke apart just from hitting the scarecrow earlier.

  Then, he found himself a quiet spot with a tree to sit down. He took one of the smallest pebbles he could find and slowly started infusing it with fire attuned mana. He stopped very early to not alert anyone with his next experiment. Then he stood up, gave the pebble a quick shake and tossed it at the ground near him.

  With a small bang, the pebble burst apart and released a small explosion of flames. Satisfied, Gunfrey took another pebble, infused it even slower with more fire mana until he could feel that the pebble couldn't take more.

  Loading it into his slingshot, he looked around. As soon as noone was around, he quickly shot the pebble into an even more deserted alley and walked away without looking back. Behind him, a bang and cracking sound signaled the impact of his pebble and a new message.

  Gunfrey sighed and then stated: "Bullet Production." Beep.

  Groaning, he started walking back to the magic research society.

  At the society, he walked back up to the second floor and knocked at Gumo Bartes door.

  "Yes, yes, it's open, come in." This time, Barte sat at his desk. "Hello again, free soul. Do you already have questions regarding enchanting? Or did you decide that you want to delve further into the matter and acquire more knowledge?"

  "Hello, sadly, neither of the above. I managed to evolve enchanting and would like to reacquire the skills I lost as I am still forging my destiny."

  "Evolved? Into what? And of course, this time, show me what you made and I'll consider that as pay."

  "Do you have something that can take a beating or something like a barrier so I don't damage anything?"

  "Of course, but how did you turn enchanting into something active that requires a barrier and not just simply a bit of space?" Barte clanked to a shelf and placed a platemail chestpiece on the ground in the middle of the room.

  "This was requested for a personal guard. When struck, a barrier is created around the wearer and another, wider one that hopefully traps whatever hit the chestplate inside, preventing damage to the lord."

  Taking out a pebble, Gunfrey infused it fast, although still with some precaution. He worried too much. As the pebble filled, he noticed his mana output automatically slowed down a lot, allowing him to fill the last bit comfortably.

  He grasped his slingshot and shot the pebble at the chestpiece with a quick motion. As it struck the chestplate, he could see for a moment as it shattered before a short-lived but loud fireball engulfed the armor, stopping its expansion just a bit short of where he could faintly make out the outer barrier.

  "I guess that counts as quite dangerous enchanting. I never thought to deliberately destroy enchanted items though, this opens up quite a few new ways... However, I guess they are too dangerous after all..." Gumo Barte seemed as fascinated as a suit of armor with no countenance could be.

  "You fulfilled your part and showed me something interesting, I'll remember that. I repeat myself, if you need more knowledge in enchanting, I'll gladly teach you for a small price as long as you have the capacity for it." Gumo Barte raised his gauntlet at Gunfrey.

  And, after confirming that he wanted mana as a power source a last time for now, Gunfrey could take a look at the class he had created.

  "Elemental Commando." Beep.

  "Add a seperate projectile inventory, add a fitting penalty to weight limit." Dong.

  "Gra. Bit? Was that effect too strong?" Beep.

  "Hmm...I guess that will have to do."

  "Add recoil dampening for ranged weapons and knockback increase for everything else."

  "That should help with at least having a crossbow as emergency weapon..." Gunfrey thanked Barte once more and helped clean up the soot that covered the floor around the chestpiece. Then he sat down at a silent place outside and started filling his pouch with a few dozen infused pebbles before heading back to the plaza.

  On his way, he took a look at his current stats.

  I originally planned for normal rapidfire, but the name just asked for it.

  Apparently crossbows recoil (according to internet sources, although someone mentioned differences depending on projectile weight), so if anyone knows better, don't tell me, it'll ruin tricks and fun I can use.

  God windows are shamelessly copied from World Seed, although I think there might be more stories using similar ideas.

  Next chapter might be out faster since I have more free time and it proves to be quite fun coming up with stuff that actually happens around the rough draft I already have.