Thomas had only managed to read a few of the more interesting chapters within the Alchemy tome by the time the caravan pulled over to stop for the night. The caravan was about halfway through its journey and tomorrow Thomas would be leaving it around noon. Once he entered Utstad he would look for a ship that was crossing the ocean and heading for the country of Solvikia. Unfortunately, he had no idea exactly how long the journey would take by sea. He would only find out once he found a ship and could ask.

Once the caravan was stopped and everyone went about their preparations for the night, Thomas did the same. He set his tent out so that he was only slightly away from the majority of the non-combatants in the caravan. He was a paying customer and wasn't expected to defend the caravan at all. Of course, if a situation arose he would fight. If the situation grew out of hand, he would flee with Snowlily.

The fee he paid to ride with the caravan covered the space he and Snowlily took up along with protection from the hired guards. Everything else, food and shelter, he was expected to provide for himself. With the stock of food he'd just purchased, that proved to be of little issue to him. He set up a cooking fire and went about making dinner for himself and the ball of floof. He cooked some minotaur steaks, a leafy green salad with a simple oil and vinegar dressing, and some steamed vegetables for their dinner. Snowlily flat out refused to eat the salad. Eating steamed vegetables was one thing, but raw leaves? Forget it!

Their dinner was simple and eaten quickly. The two of them retired to their tent for the evening. Snowlily immediately lay down next to Thomas while he pulled the tome on Alchemy out of his inventory once more. He had no intention of reading the entire book. It was too massive and contained recipes on potions that he either had no use for or that were far too powerful for his current attributes. There were warnings on several that he had glanced at that indicated injury or death if they were consumed while being too weak. This especially applied to higher tier mana potions. He had recipes for mana potions that could completely refill the mana pool of someone with a Magic attribute of five hundred but if he drank it he would immediately explode. In essence, his 'vessel' was just too small for such potions.

No, he wasn't reading the book. He was merely browsing through it to get a better understanding of what potions were possible and what their effects could be. There were easily hundreds of potions listed in the tome. He found many potions with various buffing effects. Elixers that could increase attributes temporarily. Flasks that could be used as explosives. Even mixtures that could be applied to weapons to cause poisoning or wounds that wouldn't stop bleeding. Alchemy was a complex and refined art that could save or kill. He had a silly image in his head of creating a gun that fired tranquilizer darts filled with various concoctions.

There was one thing that did catch his attention and interest him. A common trope of alchemy. Sometimes considered the peak of alchemy or othertimes just a tool of alchemy. The Philosophers Stone. Within AoG the Philosophers Stone wasn't some ungodly powerful artifact or the peak of alchemy. Rather, it was a tool that most high-level alchemists required to continue their work. The Philosophers Stone was used as a catalyst for the transmutations required by almost all higher tier recipes and was a sign that an Alchemist was a true professional. It only interested him because he couldn't help but wonder if getting his hands on one, or making one himself, would have any effect on his own Transmutation ability. If he could strengthen the effects of his ability... Well, the benefits need not be mentioned.

Thomas closed the tome and put it back into his inventory. He'd gone two days without sleep and was feeling rather tired at this point. He regretted nothing though. His understanding of the crafting within this world had reached a new level. Until he arrived in the country of Solvikia, he swore off crafting anything new. He was going to spend however long it took to get there with his nose inside of books to expand on his growing understanding. The next time he made something he was going to make a truly awe-inspiring item.

In the middle of the night, there was a small commotion that woke the two of them up. It didn't last long and once silence reigned again they returned to their slumber. The rest of the night passed in peace and morning arrived. With morning came breakfast and the discovery that some 'brave' orcs had attempted to attack the well-guarded caravan with only a dozen in their ranks. It was a one-sided slaughter. The guards didn't even receive a scratch while the orcs generously provided experience and breakfast to the guards. This was the second time that orcs had attacked a caravan with Thomas in it and he couldn't help but wonder if there was something going on. It was none of his business though and he intended to leave the continent shortly anyway. If not, then perhaps he would have investigated it and gained another nice chunk of experience.

Once breakfast was over the caravan returned to the road and continued on its journey. Thomas found himself sitting in the back of a wagon with Snowlily's head resting on his lap while he read a book on leatherworking. His interest in leatherworking stemmed from his dislike of wearing heavy plate mail armor. He much preferred leather armor as it allowed him to move easily and didn't feel like he was a walking tin can. He was much more comfortable wearing a combination of leather and metal armors. Besides, he'd yet to play a game where leather armor made of dragonhide ever lost out to plate mail of any metal when it came to defense.

When he did wear metal armor it was usually only for his greaves and vambraces. Though, he did like layering smaller pieces of metal armor between layers of leather to protect his vitals without losing his mobility. What would be the point in increasing his Agility attribute if the tin can armor he wore made him slow and clumsy? In most games with class systems, he would stick with wizards, rogues, hunters, archers, and so on. Basically all the light armor classes to maximize his comfort.

The leatherworking book wasn't very large and contained information mostly related to the various treatment options of different hides from different animals and monsters throughout the world. Most monsters could be skinned and have their skin treated to become leather for making armor and other items. Really, aside from specific monsters needing specific treatment processes, it was a pretty simple profession. Once you got past the special procurement process of getting the materials, assembling them was a lot like tailoring. Though with the use of a bit more glue and rivets. Armor made of leather came down to patterns and there were no really specific patterns. Well, there were but they didn't matter.

The big bonus that he received from reading the book on leatherworking was detailed descriptions on which monsters were best used for leather and how to properly skin and treat them. In the future, he could use the book as a reference when he wanted to treat some skin and turn it into leather. Of course, he would then use the Alchemy book to get the proper treatment formula recipes. All-in-all, leatherworking was a rather simplistic skill by itself. True mastery would come down to the personalized design patterns of the leatherworker as well as the materials available in their given location. Not something he would have to worry about!

By the time he'd gotten almost everything he could out of the leatherworking book it was time for the caravan to stop for their lunch. Thomas cooked for himself and Snowlily and once everyone had eaten, they were back on the road and traveling. This time Thomas didn't pull out a book and instead paid close attention to their movement along the road. He was keeping an eye out for the turnoff that would lead to Utstad. Utstad was located in a gulf that was protected by a peninsula sticking out into the ocean. This gave the city calm water most of the time and made it easy for large ships to dock safely in the deep waters so goods could be transferred back and forth. Utstad was one of only two ports in the gulf controlled by the Kjersia kingdom.

Given the location and importance of Utstad he was expecting it to be a massive city. He was hoping to get his hands on some interesting materials and copies of the other Transmutation circles so he could practice with them. Only about an hour after the lunch break he was at the fork in the road. If he continued to head north he would arrive at Feldera, the capitol. If he took the fork heading east, he would arrive at Utstad. Thomas quickly made sure he had all of his belonging and hopped off of the cargo wagon he'd been riding on. He waved at the cargo master leading the caravan, "Thanks for the lift!"

The cargo master only waved back and the caravan continued its journey north. Thomas hadn't even bothered to learn the name of the cargo master or anyone else in the caravan. He was just a plain passenger too interested in reading his books to use his own feet to get to his destination. He turned from the caravan and began to jog down the road with Snowlilly loping along at his side. The distance from the main road to Utstad was barely fifteen kilometers so it took hardly any time at all for the two of them to jog up to the city gates. Thomas was not disappointed by the sight of them.

Utstad had to be the single most well-defended city he had come across, even more well-defended than the capital city of Reykhoten where the academy was. The walls towered an impressive, nearly impossible, one hundred meters into the air like artificial sheer cliffs. When he got closer to the gates he could see that the walls were also a good fifty meters thick. The gate system of the city consisted of five massive gates twenty meters in height and close to two meters thick banded in steel. There were five such gates positioned at ten-meter intervals to provide a layered defense against ground invasion. To get inside of the city you would need to break through five massive gates or collapse a section of the massive wall. It was very impressive.

Once he paid a small tax to enter the city he was not disappointed by what he saw beyond the gates. The city was jampacked with crowds of people all going about their lives. The air practically vibrated with the sounds of lives being lived, deals being made, and fortunes being won and lost. Buildings stood anywhere from two to five stories tall and acted as homes and businesses of every variety imaginable. The diameter of the city had to be approaching fifty kilometers and likely contained millions of souls. Seeing the packed streets he couldn't help being reminded of Tokyo, Japan or New York City, New York and the times he'd visited those two bustling metropolises. This was a true city bustling with the everyday life of the people visiting and living here.

His first step was to find the nearest guard and get directions to the bank. It had been some time since he last visited a bank and his personal stash of funds was running a bit low. He'd spent quite a bit of money on various things during his journey and quickly drained a majority of the gold he'd been carrying on his person. If he was going to go on yet another shopping spree, then he was going to need a small pile of gold coins in order to do it!

It had been a while since he last visited the bank and Rock was still under contract to provide him gold from the sale of the pseudo-magical weapons. At this point in the game, Thomas was certain that the pseudo-magical weapons had lost all of their appeal. Still, he should have made a hefty amount of gold from the sales over the last few weeks. It wasn't too hard to find the bank thanks to the directions from the guard and after a lengthy wait in line, it was finally his turn. Thomas set his bank card on the counter and smiled at the goblin serving as the teller, "I'd like to check my balance, please."

The goblin took the card and left for a bit. When it returned it placed his card down along with a folded piece of paper. Thomas opened the paper and his eyes widened into saucers. As best as he could remember his previous balance had been somewhere around thirty thousand gold coins. He couldn't recall specifically because he hadn't paid very close attention at the time. However, right now, there were 522,740 gold coins sitting inside of his bank account. Thomas swallowed loudly and looked up at the goblin. He couldn't help speaking in a shaky voice, "Not that I would ever complain about having more money but are you sure you checked the right account?"

The goblin looked displeased at the question and countered with, "I am a professional. I would never mix up an account!"

The goblin sounded rather upset and indignant at Thomas's question so he decided to let it slide. Still, that amount of gold was impossible. Rock had only made enough for Thomas to get a little over ten to twelve thousand gold per week from the sales of the weapons. How the hell had his account ballooned up to such a mind-numbing number? Right now he wished for nothing more than to be able to teleport right back to Ulstad and shake Rock like a baby while demanding to know where such a huge sum of money had come from. Sadly, that would have to wait until he returned from getting his U.L.T.R.A. and visiting Hekrin.

Thomas folded the piece of paper back up and buried it deep inside of his inventory, "I'd like to withdraw one hundred thousand gold, please."