Zach paused from a moment before dismissing the prompt, he focused on Grim for a moment and spoke, “Alright Grim, I am going to focus again on the Campsite. Can you make sure you stop before I use all my mana?” Grim simply nodded. Standing at the center of the campsite, Zach felt the energy leave him just dizzy before a blue prompt came up telling him that the campsite had been formed. Dismissing the prompt, Zach talked with Grim about his leveling up. First, it was relatively simple to have Grim put two points into Intelligence, one into Strength, and one into Luck. “Well Grim, what in the world is the new enhancement that I received?” Grim waved his hand and a blue prompt came up. Enhancement Name:Silent ShadowActivation Type:PassiveDescription:Your Shadow is now partially in the realm of Dark mana. As such you can passively cultivate Dark mana whenever you step into darkness. Additionally, if there is not enough light to display your shadow it will lower all noise you make. Zach dismissed the prompt with a confused look. “Grim, I thought I got a class Enhancement. How does this even help me?” Grim was quiet for a moment and then spoke, “The Enhancement came from you killing the shadow panther. When you kill a creature that has cultivated mana you receive some of its essence, thats why when you killed the rabbit and panther your mana pool grew. Well something extra came to your soul this time around.” Zach rotated the cooked rabbit meat, hoping that he could cut off some of the burnt edges and sides. “Wait, how in the world can you transfer an enhancement to someone? I mean, I guess I get the mana and experience, but how does an enhancement even work?” Grim shook his head a bit, before launching into a lesson, “How can you buy a physical enhancement from a store? It all comes down to your blood and soul. When a creature or person dies at the hands of another a large part of them is ushered to the next realm. The second largest part of them is given back to the land around them, and finally a small part of them is given to the one who took their life. That part usually contains some of their mana and experience.” “Hmmmmm, when I say experience you seem to think about game mechanics or doing a task again and again. Some of your experience that you receive is based on you learning where to hit someone or replaying the fight in your head to become better. Another part comes from that person or creature lending their view of the fight to you. Now this view normally isn’t part of the conscious mind, but your instincts become refined by the different view point.” “So back to physical enhancements, they are mystical energies that help connect your physical self to your soul.” Grim waved his hand and double helix of light appeared. “This is your blood.” Slowly lights of blue began to weave throughout the double helix, looking like some kind of complex fractal patter. “This in part is your soul, weaving its way through your being.” Red light began to form runes that were connected with a silver lines at a point in the helix and fractal pattern. “Finally a physical enhancement, the runes and lines represent a point where the physical and spiritual meet, allowing specific mana to flow into both structures.” “So what happened? When you received the max amount of mana from the panther one of its physical enhancement went through your being and finally caught itself at one of these meeting points. Its rare, but possible. What does it all mean?” Grim shrugged, “Sometimes shit happens…” Zach started laughing, it was slow at first but then it came to a point where he was laughing so hard that tears were coming out of his eyes. Wiping away the tears and looking at Grim he spoke, “So you can provide a lecture on the very nature of the world, but it all boils down to shit happens. Somehow, I am greatly disappointed and reassured that this world can be random just like my previous one.” Grim nodded, “I don’t think it’s random. I mean we can be creative and use the passive Dark Mana cultivation for golems or get new spells like low light or dark vision.” Taking off a piece of the rabbit meat, Zach used his copper dagger to slice some of the burnt edges. While trying to keep his fingers from burning on the hot juices the meat was dripping. Sawing at a burnt edge Zach spoke again. “Alright, so how about we actually come up with a plan. One, we have the partial map and even though it might be years out of date we can figure out where a village might be at. Two, I need to get a golem made, you said that some of the armor and broken weapons could be used. How about you explain what is needed while I eat.” Grim opened up a Blue Screen over the campfire for Zach to look at. “There are essentially three things needed to create a golem. One, is a mana core. A mana core acts as its brain or hard drive, to use one of your memoires; it also uses the mana core as a power source. Two is its physical body, though this can be made of anything, the Artificer must make mana channels like veins, muscles, or tendons through the material. Some materials are easier to make mana channels, while others have them already establish since they were enchanted or mana infused. Lastly, is the elemental spirit, once you are attuned to a mana source like Dark or Life mana, you can summon small spirits into this realm, they provide the body and brain a creative spirit that can learn and grow in power.” “So the mana core… in his world the mana core is one of the most fundamental magical items. You skill allows you to condense mana into a gem, dissipate a mana gem, or refill its mana. To condense mana into a gem you must sacrifice some of your mana pool permanently, the amount of mana that you sacrifice will give it a mana pool of its own. As you grow in skill you will be able to transfer instructions, memories, or cultivation techniques. Since we have imprint skill, we can also transfer your skill knowledge and a connection with mana to the core, which will give the spirit an idea on how to use its body in combat.” “It physical body can be made of anything. The real problem is that whatever the medium you choose needs to be infused with mana channels. Now we talked about the alignment of the channels, but the need for a physical body is so that the spirit and mana core can use their mana efficiently. The better the channels, the easier movement and more power it can bring in a fight.” “Lastly is the spirit. To summon a mana spirit you need only a few things. One, is to be attuned to an element. You can go to your mana pool and began the Call. The Call is focusing the attuned element and bridging the physical realm with that of the elemental realm. By bridging the two realms the elemental spirit uses your mana to manifest for a brief moment. The spirit now becomes an elemental, using mana to summon surrounding compatible elements until the connection to its realm is severed. The only time that an elemental can stay on this realm is with a contract. The contract acts as anchor to the world, usually a young spirit will ask for tithes of mana from the mage, infusion of raw materials into its spirit, or a favor to be granted by you or your blood. The older the spirit the stranger the requests, but it is able to bring more power to a fight.” Zach carved up the rabbit meat as he took a large bite from a semi-unburnt section. Chewing the hot meat, Zach went over the information in his head for a while. To him, it seemed that magic was all about attunement and cultivation. Something that he had done precious little of since arriving here. He suppose that was another reason why there were so little mana beasts or monsters around. Cultivation just took time and most mana beasts would die from natural predators before becoming a monster. Thanking Grim, Zach took a look at the auto-map that grim was making and the partial map they had found. Unlike the popular web novels that he had read, Grim’s map didn’t auto-update because Zach had found a map fragment. So instead he had to figure out a general direction to go in, and find a landmark to orientate himself on the paper map. Choosing a direction in his head that he would head towards in the morning Zach told Grim that they needed to head to a town, because being out in the wilderness without real training was going to get them killed. ***** It took Zach close to two weeks to find a landmark and walk to the nearest village marked on the map fragment. During that time he had cultivated The Seed Grows technique and was close to fifty percent mastery by the time he made it to the fields for the town. However, calling it a town was being generous. There were a total of fifteen sod huts and a couple of log cabins with finished roofs. Looking at the map fragment it told him that the hamlet was called Schoner’s Creek, which Zach assumed was also the name of the lazy creek that flowed next to the town perhaps a few hundred yards away. Large boundary stones with glowing runes seemed to ring the surround fields of grain, and as he approached he saw a few farmers out in the fields that look up at him. Zach waved at the farmers in greeting, forgetting how dirty his clothes were and the spear he carried. He saw some of the farmers dash off to their homes as he came close to the boundary stones. A flash of blue light occurred as Zach passed through the boundary and carried on towards the hamlets center. I couldn’t have been more than a few minutes walk from the boundary stones to the hard packed dirt of the hamlets center. No one was outside of their dwellings and the sense of fear seemed to be present in the air. Zach cried out a greeting and waited. Nothing happened for a little while as Zach stood looking at the mud brick dwellings or crude cut log cabins. Finally feeling like he was being ignored he walked up to one of the log cabins and knocked on the door. As Zach knocked a second time, he heard a voice call out behind him. “Oi! Drop the spear and turn around stranger!” Zach thought about holding on to his only weapon for a few moments, but sided on being polite as he leaned the spear against the wood wall next to him. Turning around Zach and saw that the majority of farmers out in the fields had come down with wood and copper farm tools to surround him. Though there were about six men and a few teenagers, one of the men had leather armor with glowing runes and a black recurve bow that seemed to hum with magic. It was his weather worn face and eyes that told Zach who the real leader and danger was. Looking down the shaft of an arrow at Zach, the hamlet elder spoke, “Now why don’t you tell us what was so important that you broke the boundary barrier before we could have a chat?” Zach looked confused for a moment, trying to think about what the elder was talking about. “Sorry, but I am not really sure what you are talking about?” Zach looked around at the other farmers hoping for some clue as to what the problem was. “I have been lost in the forest for about a month now and when I saw your village I decided to head in.” The village elder slowly lowered the drawn bow back down and then nodded. “Alright. You certainly have the look of someone that has been out in the forest for a while. I suppose if I was out in the forest for a month I would be rushing to get in a circle.” Whistling he told the other men to get back to their fields. Doors opened up and small children came out of the huts to stare at Zach. For some reason he had the feeling that not many people came to Schoner’s Creek. The village elder walked over to Zach breaking the ring of children that had surrounded him and said, “Names Andy, I am the headman here in Schoner’s Creek. Please forgive us, but we haven’t seen a stranger in fifteen years. Most of the time me and the boys have to travel a day down the creek to the next village to even hear a bard sing.” Andy and Zach shook hands. “Well Andy, I am sorry for the shock I caused, and I don’t suppose there is a tavern or inn that I can stay in for a couple of days before heading on?” Zach had been hoping that he was heading towards a town that he could get training, supplies, or at the very least a pint of ale. Schoner’s Creek was looking less like a place that he could settle down and cultivate and more like a place to get directions to somewhere else. “Nah. We don’t have a tavern yet, I am afraid that I brew a few small kegs for the hamlet during fall harvest, but your welcome to stay for a night or two at my home here.” Andy pointed to the log cabin that was behind Zach. Zach nodded and Andy reached past him to lift up the door handle that was nothing more than a piece of wood in a slot. Zach heard a wooden bar slide up against the door as Andy pushed inwards. Old tarnished copper hinges squeaked as the door opened. “Milly! We have got company.” The door opened into a small room set with wood furnishings. A wood table, chairs and boxes lined the walls of the log cabin in simple decoration. Andy stepped in and had Zach follow, finally seeing a large stone hearth and kitchen area that was off to the side of the room. An elven woman with long pointed ears coming out of blonde braided hair held a wand in her right hand. Next to her was a small stone elemental with moss growing on it. Waving the wand in her hand, the small elemental seemed to disappear into dust. “Andy, are you sure about this young man? We know absolutely nothing about him.” “Hah! Don’t fret none Milly, we will have the lad touch the city core and have him dump his mana into it.” Andy said to the elven lady. Zach was still surprise to see that Milly was an elf and perhaps a mage as well. As she left through the only other door in the log cabin, Andy turned to Zach and snorted. “Aye lad, Milly is an elf. Me and her worked dungeons for close to thirty years together before we found a city core and decided to come out here to start the hamlet.” Zach cleared his throat for a moment, “Sorry Andy, I just never met an elf before.” Questions raced through his mind at the thought. Andy and Milly were two adventurers that had worked together for thirty years? Though Andy looked old, he couldn’t be in his fifties. He had grey hairs and wrinkles, but his body was lean and strong. Certainly stronger then Zach was, besides Andy said he hadn’t seen a stranger in fifteen years. No matter how much Zach tried to figure out the math, Andy wasn’t old enough for everything to tie together. “Don’t worry about it lad. She’s probably the only elf within two hundred miles. So take a seat and why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself.” Andy said as he pulled two chairs out from around the table and pulled out a small pipe. Andy made a sign with his fingers and he reached into thin air to grab a leather pouch. Stuffing some dried herbs into the pipe, he muttered under his breath and a small wisp of smoke started coming from the pipe. Zach stared at the causal use of magic and the fact that Andy seemed to have an extra-dimensional space himself. Zach went ahead and started up with the story that Grim and him had come up with to explain why he out in the woods and had little to no knowledge of the area. “Well on my majority day, I decided to spend my points on becoming an Artificer and strike out on my own. I got turned around in the forest after finding a Horned Rabbit and ended up staying out there for a month. I haven’t even started cultivating yet, so my father and mother didn’t give me any spells or runescribe weapons to use. I just picked up my spear and headed out with camping gear.” Andy shook his head, “Well that was a damn foolish thing to try. Striking out on your own without spells or mana infused weapons. Your lucky you just found a Horned Rabbit, Shadow Panthers and Stone Dire Bears have been seen deep in the woods. If you wanted to be an Artificer, why didn’t you try to strike out for a dungeon town or head to a major city, they always need young golem crafters or mana infusers?” Zach licked his lips, this was part of the story that Grim and him went over and over. He had been convinced that if he told people that he was from another world then it was likely people would just think he was crazy. So they had made a story about him being a fifth son of a woodsmen and deciding to strike out on his own. “Well, my family didn’t know where the nearest dungeon town was located and I couldn’t just travel town to town with little funds. It seemed best to try and hunt a mana beast to see if I couldn’t get an ability.” Andy took a strong inhale off his pipe as he eyed Zach. Zach was getting a feeling that Andy wasn’t buying the lie. However, he was saved from answering further questions as Milly came in with an almost flawlessly clear colorless gem the size of his fist. Taking out a wood cup Milly placed the gem on top of the cup as a holder between Andy and Zach. Exhaling a cloud of smoke outward, the bluish smoke seemed to play with the light around the gem, small runes and sparks of light seemed to light up the air. As the smoke cleared Andy cleared his throat from a moment. “Well, certainly seems like you have a hard luck story young man. How about this, we have two young’uns that will get their majority in four years. Milly and me could use an Artificer around the town till then. If you are willing to work with Milly on the core, we will provide you a small hut, food, clothing, and even training with our team. After four years are done we can take you to a dungeon town and even spend a month working with you as a party member in the dungeon.” Andy paused for a moment taking a long pull off of his pipe as he studied Zach. Zach was unsure of what to say at this moment. After all, Grim and himself had discussed going to a large enough town and finding an Artificer work shop to build a golem or two and then moving on to a Dungeon Town. He had never considered staying at a small village, on top of that four years seemed like a huge waste of time. Grim guess that having a professional Artificer craft two small golem bodies out of the scraped dwarven weapons would cost almost all of the money he had found, but with the bodies built Zach could simply summon the golems and bind them. Still Grim had warned that they would be living on the ragged edge until he could get to a dungeon town and work his way through a few levels. “I don’t suppose you could tell me a little bit more about what you want and the training?” Zach asked Andy as he stared at the city core. Andy snorted for a moment and then spoke again, “Well that shows you have some thinking between your ears. Listen lad, Milly and me were party members for thirty years before getting a lucky break and receiving a city core for a drop. We lived in dungeon towns during most of that time, and the truth of it is that when you go down into a dungeon there ain’t no guards or rules. Dungeon Divers tend to be a grim lot, after all they kill dangerous mana beasts on a daily basis for pay. When you earn your keep killing, it doesn’t matter if you kill a mana beast or another person. Hell sometimes the rewards for killing your own kind are better than the level you are working on. So if you want to go on to a dungeon town by yourself you are welcome to leave. We will give you directions and let you purchase food and some supplies here.” Andy stopped for a pull on his pipe. “Or you can get a job working here with us.” Andy said after exhaling. “Milly has two hundred years of experience as an Elementalist. She is attuned to Life, Light, Earth, Fire, Water and Air, and has cultivated more than 2000 mana and without her daily infusions of mana and elements this City Core would be half the size. However, with all her knowledge some of the core functions still remained locked until we can setup some bound elementals and golems. So in four years time I ‘xcept that she can attune you to two possibly three elements and get you some spells of your own. We also have basic books on mana infusion and golem building. So you will be learning from those and helping to setup this hamlets defenses, paths, fields, and sewers. Additionally, she will be teaching you the complex rune system and kotan game to help in your work as a mage.” “As for your work with our city core here let me show you.” Andy reached over to the large gem and placed his hand on it. The gem began to slowly pulse with a blue glow when a large blue screen appeared in front of Zach. Thousands of what Zach could only describe as runes began to appear floating on the screen drifting about lazily. At the center of the screen Zach saw organized runes forming circles, lines, hexagons, and other shapes. Swirling energy seemed to flow between the rune structure and the floating void around it. “This is what Milly calls the mana engine of the city. Every mana engine is lot like a Grimoire, except instead of connecting to a person, it is connected to the land. Each one of these runes that are floating out in the void represent quests, mana beasts, or even items of power.” Andy made a hand gesture and a blue screen seemed to zoom in on one rune. As it did so, the rune grew in Zach’s screen until it filled up the entire screen at which point it faded and writing appeared. City Quest Name:Build a PalisadeThe quest can be completed by using one or all of the following methods: 1) Using a Life and Earth Golem, bind them to the city and have them focus on this quest for 200 days. (0/200 days) 2) Using materials from the surrounding forest and laborers dig a trench and place large trunks too form a wall. (0/1000 Trees Placed) 3) Summon Palisade Wall by donating 10,000 mana into city core. (150/10,000 mana) Reward: City Core will be able to self-repair Palisade, increase Life and Earth Mana Density within Palisade Wall, Unlock Guard Quest Chain, and bonus to range and accuracy of Archers on wall. Zach’s eyes seemed to raise at rewards, a self-repairing wall and a Quest Chain? Still he didn’t know if he should take the offer. He needed to talk with Grim and find out if this was even a good idea. “Andy, your offer is… overwhelming. Is it possible to take the night and give you an answer in the morning?” Andy nodded, “Aye, lad, I got no problem with you thinking about it.” Waving his hands the blue screen from the city core vanished. “Now how about we register you to the hamlet so you don’t trip our wards?” As Andy finished talking one more blue screen appeared. Would you like to register yourself with Schoner’s Creek? The following bonuses are being offered to you with your registration: You will gain increased cultivation of Life and Water attunement while mediating in Schoner’s Creek. You will gain the buff, “Rested”, increase in experience and mana gain by 0.1% (Buff bonus based on City Core Level) All Mana Beasts of levels 1-10 will be repelled by the boundary stones unless granted permission to enter. Increase in summoning an elemental by 1%.YesNo Zach pressed yes and saw a blue screen in front of Andy appear. Andy tapped the screen and it disappeared. “Well now that you have registered, feel free to walk around a bit and talk to folk or just rest.” Andy got up from his chair and picked up the crystal heading off into the other room. Unsure of what to do Zach decided to head outside and try and find a secluded spot to talk with Grim. Opening the door, flooded the small cabin with light making Zach blind for a moment. When his eyes finally adjusted he saw a few children playing in the street as women chatted to one another as they did errands. It seemed like Schoner’s Creek was mainly a farming village, and that the men went out into the fields every day and worked, while the women were kept close to the village to perform all the other chores that life took. Off in the distance Zach saw Milly and two other people mediating by a large willow tree near a creek. The large branches seemed to sway downward and provide shade for the trio as Zach walked around the village a bit. It was calm and peacefully in a way, watching families work the fields and go about their business. It felt different than any other time in his life, as Zach watch the world for an hour or two. He compared the village back to the giant apartment complex that he lived in on Earth. Sure, there were no showers, toilets, or refrigerators, but people smiled at one another when they saw each other. Children played, and worked alongside their parents, and as he sat down next to the creek to listen to water flow over the rock riverbed he felt safe for the first time in a long time. “It’s the city buff that makes you feel safe.” Grim said. Instead of his usual childlike glowing form, Grim had shrunk himself to a candle flame light that hovered close to the ground. “I mean don’t think that the only reason you are feeling warm and fuzzy is the buff. After all, you lived out in the woods for close to a month. You had several near death challenges and this is the first time you can rest without any worry. Additionally, people generally look happy here so just seeing other people smile is going to slant your thoughts to the ideal.” Zach frowned for a moment as he looked down at Grim. “So what it’s all an illusion or enchantment to make me stay? I mean shit Grim, this place doesn’t look half bad compared to the Mega Apartment Complex Section C South. Sure four years here would be boring, but I could at least get some of my skills up and a make a few golems. So I would have to be a golem maker and city manager for this postage stamp of a place, big deal.” “Oh I agree that you should take the deal. I just don’t want you to think that just because you feel safe and fuzzy that this isn’t going to be a tough gig. Since you were close to the city core I was able to look at some of the quests that it was offering, and we will need to attune ourselves to several elements and probably have go out and kill mana beasts.” Grim said as he danced around on blades of grass. “I don’t suppose you could tell me a little more about city cores now that I have seen one.” Zach said. “Oh sure, a City Core is basically a nuclear reactor, massive data center, and public works department wrapped up in one small crystal. Andy, told you that Milly called those runes a Mana Engine and that is mostly true. The Mana Engine ties into the land around us, establishing ley lines of power to sculpt and control everything within the boundary stones. Now, each City Core tires to become the ideal city it can with the land and people around it. Additionally, it generates quests for the citizens and helps with mana cultivation in plants and animals.” “Now you saw that once the people of a city perform a task, gather enough mana, or have golems do the work they get additional bonuses. However, what is hidden from view is that the method of completing the quest can changed the outcome of the bonuses or next quest. An example is the Palisade Wall quest, if they had the farmers dig a trench and place trees under the guidance of an architect or engineer they would not only gain bonuses listed, but also gain a boost in their max mana pools. On the other hand, having golems do the work by moving the elements will allow the golems to become stronger and more capable upon completion. Lastly, since Milly is just summoning the Wall then it will be ideally manufactured and can be altered with mana. Of course, finding mana cores and sacrificing them to City Core can unlock the dungeon feature within and a dungeon can form under the town, but that’s up to Milly and Andy.” Zach seemed surprised at the idea that the city core could eventually spawn a dungeon, but at this point he decided that this world was just one mind altering idea from the next. Getting up from the creek bank he decided to go tell Andy that at least for a while this was going to be his new home.