2 years ago.

Fred was 2 and a half years at this point and was getting familiar with walking around the castle, the castle had a bailey that extended around 2/3rds of the castle with a ring wall to separate it from the outside and was divided into two parts with a wall and gate, this allowed the family to have a front bailey for visitors and a back bailey, the back bailey housed an open workshop, missing 3 walls but still had a roof, supported by pillars. There was also a building with an outdoor oven, firewood shed, and general storage shed, as well as a small stable, they had a bigger stable for horses in the front bailey, used to house the knight’s horses this one was used for pregnant mares, or mares, with new-borns. He didn’t quite understand why they had this stable. The county had a horse pasture just south of the town, but George had said it was to safeguard prized breeds.

It was a sizable castle and was tasked with being the central hub and relief force for 3 border forts. There was a connected barracks to the castle, filling in the gap where the bailey stopped. It was enclosed with the ring wall that also enclosed the two baileys. The barracks had its bailey that was just outside the ring wall, this held the training fields for horseback riding, jousting, swordsmanship spear training, archery, and flat open ground for drills, this was enclosed by the walls for the town, but it was sectioned off with divider walls, and had its entrance to the outside, so soldiers wouldn’t have to rush out through the town in an emergency,

While at peacetime there were 300 men at arms and 40 cavalries were stationed, there was an additional 40-man garrison, the soldiers would do their training and drilling here. These soldiers would be rotated with the soldiers at the forts, this meant that, while the forts were not under the jurisdiction of Fred’s mother, they were filled with her men. Fred had started training with the apprentice kids, he had gained quite a bit of strength for his age, partly due to leveling up when he was a baby while other babies would just be trying to figure things out. However, he was probably only a year younger than them.

The town walls started at the port, went all around the castle and barracks, and then back to the other side of the port. But the port was separated from the town with a divider wall as well, the port was a commercial port but did house about 80 sailors, 30 marines, and 2 lightships for patrolling the nearby waters,

Fred had been given his first maid a few weeks ago, she was a pretty little girl about the age of 8, her name was Jessica, she was currently an apprentice maid going through her training. The castle had a lot of staff, about 40 professional staff, from maids, cooks, butlers, handymen groundskeepers, as well as 20 apprentices, it was unusual to have so many apprentices per staff, but his mother said it was to allow them to grow with him.

Fred noticed that someone was working in the workshop, he looked to be a bit old probably early 50s, but he seemed quite fit despite that as he was working around the shop and lifting heavy objects. Fred walked over to greet him.

“Hello,”

The worker looked over and was pleasantly surprised. “Ah, if it isn’t young master Frederick. What brings you back here”

“I was just bored and wanted to explore, sorry I didn’t catch your name,”

“Ah, don’t have to be so formal with me sir, I’m Steven, the castle’s handyman, and caretaker.”

“You can call me Fred as well, Steven,”, “what are you making”

“I’m making a replacement beam, as well the young lady’s dresser needs fixing.”

“Is something wrong with one of our beams,”

“Two beams actually, they have started rotting away and have come loose, once I’ve finished this one and replaced it, I’ll work on the next one.”

“Can I watch”

“Sure kid, I’ll show you how it’s done.”

Fred has always found it fascinating watching craftsmen work, maybe it was the process of creating something or the satisfaction of seeing it complete. Fred had got along with Steven, he seemed like a relaxed and happy-go-lucky guy. Fred had visited Steven every few days to hang out and chat, Steven also showed him how to do simple repairs on wooden and metal furniture, and over about 2 months Fred gained the handyman skill,

New skill acquired

Rank

Description/requirements

Exp

Level

Handyman

(Gain +10, int and wis for discovering a new skill.)

general

The ability to perform simple repairs.

Gain bonuses to repairing certain goods if you have the relevant crafting skill.

Increases your ability to problem solve

1/100

1/50

(Gain +1 to Pow, Dex, Int, and Wis per level)

___

Come December, Fred visited the kitchen and pantry to see what they had lying about, spending all of his time in the castle was getting boring but apparently, he was too young to go out.

The staff was getting used to him just wandering around the castle by now, so people didn’t bat an eye when he entered rooms ‘unbefitting of a noble’. Fred was surprised that his mother, especially George, wasn’t stricter in forcing a ‘noble air’ on Fred.

As he was rummaging through the cupboards trying to find something interesting, his eye was drawn to a particular object, it looked like raisins, but just to make sure he called over to the cook to make sure, “excuse me, Sally, what’s this,”

Sally looked over, “ah those are fruits, we have to dry them for storage over the winter. The ones you have picked up are grapes”

He knew it, “do we have glass jars with lids?”

“Yes, over in this cupboard, let me get them out for you, how many do you need?” she asked while walking over to a cupboard in a different direction,

“About 3 and can I take some of these dried grapes with me?”

“Sure, young master Fred,” she was on her way back with the jars, “Are you planning to make yeast?”

“How did you know?”

“We make yeast for bread, young master Fred, we even have some jars ourselves over on the window ledge.”

Fred looked over to see a few jars with dark brown liquid substances in them.

“Come to think of it I need to make some more myself do you want to work together?”

“Sure”

They added some raisins to each jar and filled them up with water and placed them on the window shelf with the rest while making a mark on Fred’s to not get confused.

“So, how come you decided to make yeast Fred?”

“The herblore book I’m reading has a guide on this to do for easy exp and yeast was one of them.”

He wasn’t going to tell her he was planning to make booze, she might have tried to stop him, or worse, tell his mother. Although the bit about the easy tips for herblore exp wasn’t a lie.

___

A few days later, Fred had discovered a cellar he was planning to go down it, but firsts had to reassure Jessica, she was scared to go down there but insisted she had to be with him to attend to his needs. It was quite stressful to learn to rely on maids as he didn’t have any in his previous world.

Once they got down there, he discovered it was a dungeon, with prison cells, but nobody was down here, he also noticed it wasn’t damp or dreary as he would have expected. As he walked past each cell, he noticed each cell had a barred window at the top of the walls, he shouted out in the cell hoping he would attract someone’s attention. And to his surprise, Steven responded, “what are you doing in the Dungeon? Fred.”

“I was exploring, is this place not in use”

“No need to, there is a separate prison in the town stationed by the garrison,”

“Where are you now Steven?”

“I’m currently in the back Bailey.”

“So, all of the windows in these cells lead to the back bailey?”

“Yes”

“And if it’s not in use, do you reckon, I’ll be able to use it?”

“Probably, it hasn’t been in use since well before your mother came here.”

‘This was perfect’ Fred thought; he would be able to do his experiments in here.

“Would you be able to help me modify the dungeons, Steven?”

“Of course, Fred, what do you want to do down there?”

“Well, I would like to convert one of them into a study and one into a workshop.”

“Is this for your Herblore? How are you getting along with that?”

“Yeah, I’ve maxed out on basic theories, but I’m capped out until I start doing practical experiments”

“Ah yes, that does make sense, how about coming up to the workshop and we can plan what you need.”

Fred ran over to the workshop with Jessica in tow.

Fred had 7 cells to work with down there so there was a lot he could do.

He and Steven worked on designing one room into an office and a second into a work area.

Isabella was thrilled with this person in the profession of the 4 fields of Alchemy was quite a soughtafter. These being, Herblore, Chemistry, bio-magic and magical imprinting, the last one a subject encompassing enchantment, runes, and scrolls, while bio-magic is the study of magical properties in animals.

It only took a month for steven to finish the room, at that time his yeast was ready, but he needed a few things to get ready first. And went off to find Steven,

“Hey, Steven,”

“Hi, Fred, what brings you over here?”

“Are you able to make a barrel?”

“A Barrel, what do you need that for?”

“To make wine”

“Wine, you know how to make wine?”

“It was in my herblore book, it had a step-by-step process for it.”

Luckily, Steven seemed convinced by that lie “alright I can get you a barrel, I know a friend down at the brewery, they only make lager down there, but they might have barrels suitable for wine as well.” He paused for a minute then looked at Fred, “does your mom know you are making wine?”

Fred nearly choked; however, he just so remembers that his mother’s birthday was around the corner. “It’s mothers’ birthday in March I was going to surprise her”

“Very well then give me a few days and I’ll get your barrel.”

Fred went off happily, now he just needed to find some grapes, he searched all through the kitchen and couldn’t find them, he completely forgot it was still winter so all of the fruit they had was dried fruit. However, he did find cherries, 50 of them, they felt quite warm in his hands strangely, and for some reason, they were in the doctor’s pantry and not the kitchen pantry, but he was focusing on the idea of making wine, that he overlooked it.

He got a servant to help him carry a large metal cauldron down to his Dungeon and placed it on the floor next to his desk it was a soup cauldron from the barracks, it was huge he also got a small bucket of water for the next bit as it was quite nasty, with the tools of the medieval world, the only thing he had available to crush the cherries was his feet. He squashed the cherries into a pulp but realized that he didn’t have enough liquid, so he decided he would add water to fill it up, luckily, he knew which servants to ask, as a lot of them would be vying to become his trusted aids in the future so they didn’t question what he was doing all too much, and they were certainly not going to rat him out to his mother.

“Should we be doing this Fred?”

“Relax Jessica, it’s not like we are putting anyone in danger,” ‘I think’

“But what about if Isabella or George finds out?”

“Relax, mother’s always visiting other nobles and going to parties, for ‘making connections’ and George follows her around like a lost puppy, we can clean up our tracks before they come back this time and only a few people have a clue while the rest aren’t paying attention.”

When George left with Isabella he would leave Jack in charge, Jack was a good leader and a veteran knight but didn’t care about the antics of the family as long as it wasn’t a safety concern. This gave Fred a lot of freedom, to complete his activities.

After Fred mixed the water with the cherries, adding the yeast and giving it a good stir, and letting it settle, he realized it was quite watery, this was going to be a problem, the yeast wouldn’t have enough sugar from the cherries to turn all of the water into alcohol. So, he went on a search for some sugar, he thought he wouldn’t find any as sugar was mainly found in north Africa, in his previous world and then shipped to the new world for better production and control by the European powers, but this world was already different, he had found spices before in the Doctor’s pantry, but hadn’t bothered to ask where they came from.

As he was looking in Johan’s pantry, he came across a red crystal-like powder, he dipped his finger in it and tasted it, he was in luck, this was sugar, only it had quite a nice spicy flavour, “this is perfect, I’ll use this there was 7 bags of this stuff, each about the size of an a5 piece of paper. He only took one with him.

When he got back he tried to just pour in a little bit but ended up pouring half a bag in, then about a few seconds after the wine solution started bubbling and boiling, and the solution was starting to grow red, Fred had thought he had fucked up for a minute, and he ended up breathing in the fumes, causing him to have a spout of drunkenness, but what surprised him more was he gained a new skill.

New skill acquired

Rank

Description/Requirements

Exp

Level

Mana Sensitivity

(Gain +10 int and Wis for finding a new skill.)

General

Allows the user to sense the mana more clearly in the air and objects.

Unlock requirements: a sudden exposure to a highly concentrated level of mana

1/100

1/50

(Gain +1 Int and wis per level up)

However, it didn’t just stop there, he kept gaining exp in it and at a fast rate too. He got to level 4 in just under 5 seconds when he received another notification

*Warning* your body is strained under the influence of a high concentration of mana combined with a sudden surge of exp that the body cannot handle, -5 health

-5 hp

-5 hp

He seemed to get -5hp every 2 seconds, he couldn’t get out of the room due to the drunkenness feeling and when he looked over to Jessica, she didn’t seem to be doing much better.

‘Come on Fred, think, think’

He was rapidly losing health points and didn’t know how long Jessica could last.