Homesteading in a fantasy world

The next morning, we again spent in the forest going further out to choose the correct trees for building and, so we don't overcut the area and leave it barren. After that, it was time for me to try to combine skills. Most of all I wanted to combine all my weapon skills.

Luckily there didn't seem to be anything different with the process although I did notice more emphasis on knowledge so I wasn’t stingy with it and gave everything I have to the new skill and hopefully create something that will help me a lot in the future.

In return, I got a skill called weaponry that seemed to be exactly what I wanted it to be and what my visualization of it was. I can’t say that I’m not a bit disappointed, but success is success, and I shouldn't be disappointed that I didn’t get something awesome out of it.

It was at basic level 6, so I had a lot of work to do to get it back up, but I think there’s still a lot of potentials there to get amazing abilities

This was relatively easily achieved as I had a really clear picture in my head of what I wanted. As I looked over my achievement page in the skill section I couldn’t really find anything else that I wanted to combine.

Perhaps my animal skills as they were quite similar, but I didn’t have a visual of what I wanted them to become. But then I noticed my two energy skills and wondered if I could do anything with them.

What do I want out of them? What do they want out of my energy? The first thing that came into my mind was cultivation. The practice of meditation to increase the amount of energy in your body or improve its quality.

The first part of it was completely out of the question as I have tested it a bit and there’s no way to cultivate at least I have not found a way to increase the amount of energy inside my body by myself the only way I know how to get more energy is to get more stat points.

But there are ways to improve the quality. One thing is the cores that are in me as they are constantly working on growing bigger and at the same time making higher quality energy.

This however is not something that can be forced, it just takes time. So unfortunately I left the skill section alone not coming up with anything useful. In the ability section, there was a bit more promise.

One possibility was armour enhancement and elemental armour tolerance, but I felt like I knew too little about those abilities to truly combine them into something useful. Another possibility was energy forms and energy weaving and combining them but again I felt like I knew too little about them. Perhaps in the future, I will have more similar skills to help me make something better.

Having found myself a lot more free time than I first expected I decided to go hunting for rabbits with my animals. I got my animal training to level up and honestly, it felt quite amazing having so many animals around me while we were hunting.

I wonder what we might look like to other people a few years later. Perhaps I should take everyone to the dungeon in the near future so they could also work on improving themselves. Just before I went to bed my meditation on my body skill finally paid off and I got it to level 25.

Then came Wednesday and it was time for another visit to the village. In the morning we did training that was quite mundane, but I felt like my sword control was getting better. Although compared to others I was complete crap.

Perhaps fine sword control was not for me, but I still pushed ahead and tried to study it, but I still felt that for me overwhelming and devastating strikes to the enemy might be a better way of going about it.

Then came my favourite part of the day, my time with Bert. He was quite enjoyable company and I enjoy it when he taught me about the world. We started off with him explaining more about druid magic.

Basically, all the components needed have some mana in them that the component have changed into a certain form that can be used to cast with energy. It was a huge limitation compared to mages and wizards who just needed their minds to manipulate mana into the properties they need.

“You see Rich, mana is extremely versatile, but it does come with a huge drawback that's not mentioned a lot and, in some places, even mentioning it can get you killed. Don't look at me like that this world is full of misinformation. Wherever you go to different places it's best if you don’t talk about anything you are not certain is common knowledge there.”

“Now back to what I was saying. You see controlling mana is not easy especially if it's inside your own body. There is quite a good and simple explanation for this. Energy strengthens the body and your lifespan. Holy power is neutral it neither helps nor hinders the body. Now mana, it leeches your strength and shortens your lifespan. Mages have found a way to counteract this by having more energy inside their bodies but even that it just helps patch the problem.”

“A simple rule for anyone using magic is to have one magic class and two classes that give a lot of stats so they can have bigger amounts of energy inside their bodies. If someone for example didn't do this and got three magic classes to level 40 then they’ll be quite lucky to make it past age 30. But with proper management, high-level mages can live up to 200 years and before they die, they usually like to spend all that they have accumulated into what we nowadays call a great working.”

“You see mana is something that constantly gets stronger over time as it eats the strength of the person wielding it. Mages that have lived for 200 years are the most powerful beings among us. But by that time their bodies are usually so frail that if they even cast once the magic would eat them alive and soon only dust will remain of them.”

“That’s why they usually do great working to leave something behind from all their accomplishments. The greatest of these great workings you have already come into contact with. I too enjoy telling this story.”

“You see about 1200 years ago there was a great mage the first one to be called an Archwizard and the last. There is yet to be someone as great as he. You see he was 245 when he started his great working, yet he had two magic classes, but he still followed the rule. He is one of the most famous 6th class holders although nowadays I guess he would be a seven-class holder.”

“But perhaps I should expand a little bit more on what the great workings are. The power of them completely depends on the person who makes them. Even your average village mage can make something incredible like a sword that can over time develop intelligence and improve itself.”

“Now this is not called the great working anymore it’s just something a mage can do. Usually, things so small are called artifacts and mages are not the only ones who can make them, incredible crafters can as well.”

“But why do we call them great workings? Well, let's start with how wizards and mages were trained back in the day. Nowadays we have Academies but back in the day, it was apprentices. So, wherever a mage lived when they would die, they made a great working on their property. Usually on the house to make it better suited for their apprentice. This happened every time the master died and over time these places become to be known as mage towers and whoever wasn't its master didn’t have a good time trying to enter it uninvited.”

“There are still hundreds of them around that no one dares to approach even though their masters are long dead with no apprentices left to take them over. Over time some of the greatest didn't choose to upgrade their towers or as time went by this became a less popular dwelling for any mage. Some of the greatest great workings are world wonders like the flying island of Calabrian or the Underpass that connects the southern continents with an underwater network of passages.”

“And yes they are like tunnels on the sea floor but you can just put your hand through it and touch the water and the other side. The trade network this created was so profitable that there are now cities, villages and inn rests inside the network of tunnels.”

“Then there is the Arena. It’s on the eastern continent's southwestern tip and it's located in the most powerful city-state in this world. Or more specifically it grew around it. It's an arena complex that can have hundreds of simultaneous fights and has hundreds of places where you can watch the action on the walls themselves. You can never miss what happened in the fight because it's like you're standing right next to them as they battle”

“The fighters themselves even have protection in the arena although you still can get maimed and have to pay quite a lot to the healers to get it fixed, but you can never die in the arena while fighting. It’s the most populous city on the planet and hosts huge tournaments. Unfortunately for the past few years, it has suffered a lot and the world tournaments have been cancelled but as the plague has been burning itself out by killing so many people it might soon start again.”

“Now there are more wonders around the world and I’m quite certain some are kept hidden or perhaps used by associations that commission them. But you see it’s not that easy to make the incredible great workings. Having just one magic class or even two at 160 is not enough and they don't just do it by themselves they have to have a kingdom worth of wealth and power to help them.”

“They start by removing their other classes and replacing them with magic ones during that entire time people that have incredible control of their energy and pour there’s into the mage's body to keep them alive by protecting their body from the mana. Then various methods are used to get the classes to the max level or as close as possible and then the mage starts its great working.”

“So, let's get back to the greatest great working ever known. His great working took the combined efforts of two continents pouring every ounce of resources they have into him, but it didn't stop there. Favours were called in and favours were given out as this great working needed all the information about the achievement pages that was possible to collect. So soon not only the two continents but the rest of the world to some extent put their resources behind this great working.”

“And yes, all his classes were eventually switched to magic and levelled up all to 160. It was said that his mana glow could be seen the next town over and then he finally started it. The spell didn't take too long to cast as he was a master of spellcraft and had worked on the spell for a long time.”

“He was surrounded by the accumulated knowledge of the world and in an instant, it all turned into dust along with him. Everything indicated that the great working was a failure because they can fail and there are more failures in the world than there are successes, but nothing changed and as people tested it, it seems that the great working didn't work.”

“It took over a year before someone in a dungeon got the drop that is nowadays called the adventuring orb and it was like a domino that started everything he said would happen. Now we can get a new class with its own system that I’m quite certain you already know about.”

“That was the greatest great working there has ever been. Some have tried to simulate what he did, but no one has succeeded, some might have made something similar but a lower version of it, but those things are guarded secrets.”

For the entire story, Rich barely breathed as he was so enraptured with what he was hearing but soon Bert continued in a lot less ecstatic voice. “There hasn't been a great working for quite some time.”

“For some reason, the mages aren’t quite at the same level as they used to be although everything indicates that their spells are more powerful as they are more refined over the years. Some people think it might be because of the academies but those places just help everyone learn faster.”

As their time for today was up Rich stood up and started to leave but before he did, he looked at Bert and said in a sombre voice. “It depends on how something is taught. I believe why there hasn’t been a successful great working is because you can have a lot more freedom if you have a good mentor that brings out what you are the best in. You see standardization is the death of innovation.” With that Rich left leaving Bert to contemplate on what Rich told him.