Homesteading in a fantasy world

After the fight, we all took a long rest because the fight took around 30 minutes which was quite crazy. I had heard from the instructors that monster fights sometimes lasted a long time giving the advantage to the monsters, but it looks like this time that advantage was towards us. I still remember those elemental abilities that it used and was glad that none of the wolves charged at the start of the fight as it would have been certain death for any of them.

Next was time for butchering. It was quite tough to get through the skin but with my abilities, I was able to skin it and then cut pieces of meat to give to the wolves and smaller pieces that Goose could eat.

Now, this fight was quite profitable for us all as it seems some of the wolves got some skills from the fight as some got a lot better than others during this engagement. What surprised me was that Lucky was actually lucky. One of the counterattacks missed her thanks to the monster wolf slipping, making the claw attack pass her by. Let’s hope that her string of bad luck is over.

Since this was a true battle, I decided to respect my fallen foe. I decided to eat its heart right here. It was an ancient tradition of my people that I had only practised once before but for some reason it made me feel closer to my ancestors.

I took a bite and gave my respect for the bounty it gave. It was a huge heart, so I shared it with everyone else. They seemed to pick up on my mood and didn't rip into their pieces as they usually did. When I had removed the skin and started to cut out more pieces but the wolves were finally stuffed so I started to cut out pieces we could take back. After a bit more I finally got my butchering to tier up.

Skill increases basic butchering level 10 is upgraded to butchering level 1

Choose one of the following abilities

quick harvesting

safe cut

energy pattern preservation

Some meh abilities but the energy pattern one sounded interesting, but unfortunately, I did not know what it does. After a bit more contemplating, I still picked it. Hopefully, Bert can explain to me what energy patterns are. My animal handling also levelled up 5 times to level 7.

There wasn’t that much to bring back, but I still needed help. I rolled up the hide and tied it to Freya. The meat itself I brought back with my backpack and some wood sticks that I had to make after that we started to head back.

Some of the bones were in the mouths of the other wolves. The teeth and claws were also extracted and would hopefully be useful but the rest we left there for scavengers to eat. We made it back and I started to prepare the hide but for the meat, I didn’t smoke it just wrapped it in fabric and put it inside the snow for it to freeze.

It was quite late when my apprentices finally made it back and I got to hear everything interesting that happened in the village. I didn’t get any special power-ups from eating the heart nor did it seem I could get anything from the monster core that I was rolling between my fingers.

It has a silver sheen to it meaning the monster was a silver. The monster cores, sheen colour is where the adventurer classification's names come from. I wonder what I can do with this, hopefully this will be useful.

From my next meeting with Bert, I got some more general information that wasn't really that surprising about how the world worked. Basically, most of the land that you can live on was claimed by kingdoms but there are some exceptions like city-states or places that were controlled by different types of associations. And as I learned not every place is so strict with knowledge. Mostly kingdoms are the worst places with the strictest laws. They also have the highest population.

Thankfully Bert answered two of my questions. The first was about the monster cores and what they represent. The information was quite chilling. It turns out that these are the things that make monsters monsters. They are the thing that mutates any who has them.

Mostly the monster cores make the creature bigger, improving natural weapons that the creature already possesses and sometimes giving access to abilities, but the list is a lot bigger than that. But there is a price to pay and usually, the worst is the mind that is corrupted making the creature more aggressive as time goes by. Although as I understand some resist this effect. It also messes with other parts of your body sometimes to the detriment of it.

Obviously, this worried me quite a lot, but I had examined the monster's core a lot and there were a few differences between it and the one inside my real body. Mine didn't have the impurities that I found in the monster core and overall, it seemed to be less active. I guess that’s the best way to describe it.

Monster cores seemed to have a lot of uses from alchemy to high-level item-making. There are a lot of classes that can use them for various effects as well, so they are quite valuable.

My next question seemed to tie in with the monster cores as I asked about energy patterns. Those seem to be how the monster core changes different parts of the creature it is in to make them stronger. Like claws that can shred through metal.

But when the monster is killed slowly those effects fade away and need to be preserved. It seems that there are hundreds of different ways this is done, and my last ability is one of them. Energy cores also leave patterns behind meaning that people can take advantage of them as they do not fade as fast sometimes staying for hundreds of years before the monster core is truly wiped.

When I was back home examining the monster core with my new ability, I was able to see some of the patterns that were inside. For any of them I could not get a clear picture that I could try to replicate but perhaps someday I could use those to strengthen myself.

The patterns that were on the wolf monster’s claws and teeth were a lot clearer than the ones in the monster's core and a lot less complicated. I contemplated on if I should really experiment on myself, but I couldn’t stop myself.

With a contemplating look between the monster core, the claw and the core inside me I decided to proceed. I put the monster core aside because I wouldn’t need it and focused on the claw. I held a clear picture of the energy pattern and focused it into my core and through it to my nails trying to make them stronger.

To my surprise and horror, it actually worked and slowly I could feel my nails getting tougher. It seems that the intent was quite important and to my relief, my nails didn't turn into claws but I had to keep going for 4 hours before I felt I was finished.

I had removed a small piece of my nail before, so I had something to compare but now I need to use my ability to cut my nail. There was really no need to test any further, they truly were a lot harder.

I checked my energy core again but there was no corruption like in the monster core. Just in case I tried to remove the pattern from my nails, and I think I could do it and also change it but that kind of experimentation I was not willing to do no matter what.

This was a big risk that seemed to pay off. What I didn’t expect was the notification that I levelled up my body skill by 2 levels. Did I just find the best way to grind this particular skill fast? This was a nice surprise but there weren’t any other notifications.

It was a bit disappointing as I was hoping I would get some sort of a skill out of this but perhaps I needed to do a lot more before I would get something. This might be one of the best ways I have found to quickly strengthen myself, but my final test questioned my hopes a bit. When I tested my nails against the claw that I copied the pattern from, it was obvious that mine were a lot weaker.

Perhaps the problem was the starting material but no matter what it seems that I will not be able to get the full benefits with the method I have found. Still, this is extremely good news. It was now quite late so I had to wait until tomorrow to do the same thing with my teeth.

The next day started with a snowstorm, so I had quite a lot of free time to try to make my teeth stronger as well. Sitting in my room I spent over 10 hours copying the wolf monster’s teeth pattern over to myself. It seems that I was correct to be afraid of the monster’s bite as the pattern inside the teeth was a lot better than the one on the claws.

Now I couldn’t chew through metal, but my canine could leave a tiny mark on it. I wasn’t excited about my new weapon that my teeth might be, but more that I will probably never have to worry about going to the dentist.

That point was a lot more important as I didn’t even know how much teeth care was in this world. What this also gave me was another three levels in body meaning that I was only 5 levels from my goal of 35 before I could finally level up my adventuring class.

But after I was done, I was also left with a question. Was there anything else that I could use this technique on? The meat energy pattern didn't come from the meat itself but from the monster's core like any other fleshy part.

After a bit more investigating, I came to find that only hard substances like nails and teeth had patterns that were quite clear and usable. This needed some further investigation but if the patterns I could use came only from natural weapons that the monsters possessed this discovery might not be the game changer as I first thought.

This was quite disappointing news and I wanted to go out and scream a bit but then something occurred to me. And I took another look at the monster's core. The energy patterns there didn't control everything about the monster and I focused on the patterns to feel what they did.

I compared them to my mental image of the living wolf monster. This led to my biggest revelation. Why wouldn’t the monster core improve everything about the creature that it was in?

The answer was quite simple, it couldn’t. It could only affect some things correctly and I believe that something is the traits that the creature possessed. It seems that it did try to change the other parts but it just couldn't do them right that's why the fur of the creature was so messed up.

Its fur wasn't anything special it wasn't stronger than regular wolfs meaning there wasn’t a trait it could latch on to and use as a guide to make it better. Now, this might be a bit of a stretch, but I believed I was on the correct path.

Even with me improving my nails and teeth my core was still empty of any pattern and perhaps this was a good thing and means it won't corrupt but what if I could connect my traits with my energy core?

I stop myself for a moment. Was this a risk that I needed to take? What if I corrupt the core that's inside me? Was there a need for me to get any stronger with unconventional methods? Yet for some reason, I felt that this was a good thing. But why did I feel that way?

I tried to grab ahold of that feeling and see if there was any reason behind it. I started to meditate not letting go of this feeling and seeing what it could tell me. After a bit, I should have realized when I started to meditate where the feeling came from.

It was my true nature connection trait that was responsible for me feeling this way. But I didn’t want to trust it blindly. I have never trusted anything or anyone blindly at least since I learned some hard lessons.

I kept meditating but this time on the traits themselves and what they were. They weren’t a part of the system like abilities and skills were. This was the difference so I focused on that. I don’t know how long I was like this, but it was pitch dark outside when I finally came out.

It seems that the traits that were given are just sparks similar to anything else given by the system but the spark was all that was given, unlike skills and abilities. They will grow with you but with the right fuel and guidance they can grow faster and stronger or in more gaming terms there is a better way to farm XP for traits than just letting them slowly grow with you.

Most of this knowledge came thanks to the true nature connection which truly was a weird trait. I could understand why so many people were obsessed with it. It wasn’t that the trait itself was knowledgeable but it’s that it’s connected to something bigger and with enough time and willpower you could get some knowledge from the surrounding world. I didn’t stop or go to bed but started to connect my traits with the core inside me.

One at a time I connected them. I even had to take some breaks to get some food but after four days I was finally done with every trait and could finally fall asleep. When I woke up, I found out that it was Monday.

My apprentices seem to have been worried about me but it seems that they relaxed when they saw me back to normal. They were currently readying up for the visit to the village. But I didn’t go with them this time as well because the first notification I saw was me hitting body level 41.