Christopher was enjoying his much-needed break during the latest shift at the Lumen Constructors. He had found a nice grassy hill where he currently lay stretched out in contentment occasionally taking a sip from his waterskin. The sky was a beautiful blue, and he enjoyed the feeling of the sun bronzing his skin. A pleasant breeze blowing from the west kept him from overheating. Stretched out in contentment he looked at a couple of Red Beaks playing with a stick, trying to wrestle each other for control over the piece of sawed-off wood. His first three weeks working at the Lumen Constructors had passed in a hurry.

Christopher had developed a routine, and his days were filled with purpose, despite working himself to the bone. Time seemed to be moving incredibly quickly. Every morning he would have a hearty breakfast at the Butterbash Inn, after which he would make his way to the training fields to make himself stronger.

Some curious trainees had tracked down the financer of the Adeline daggers. Eventually, it was the blacksmith’s Apprentice who had given it all away after a night of drinking, he told the curious trainees that Sin had paid for the daggers with her own coin. The information made the reverence of his fellow trainees towards Sin absolute. He certainly felt a whole new appreciation for his somewhat unsociable teacher.

Thanks to Sin, he now also had some good theoretical knowledge on the creatures of the Blight, which meant that at least in theory he knew how to kill the unholy creatures. Still, descriptions would of course only get him so far.

His skill with the dagger and his combat skills overall seemed to have made further progress, although he found it hard to tell because his opponent was also getting stronger. He was still not Arlo’s match, but it was much easier to keep up with the curly-haired man. He wondered how he would fare against the Goblins with his current skill level.

[Daggers Flow] had also improved in every conceivable way. He could now summon the paths quicker, more easily, and was also able to summon the optimal number of paths. [Daggers Flow] did not really serve much of a purpose against human opponents anymore, he could probably spot the optimal paths and vital points while half asleep. He suspected that the skill would really show its worth when he faced the creatures of the Blight. It would offer valuable information regarding the location of weak points and the optimal way to fight. It really was a great training skill.

He had also made more progress with shooting the bow. He would certainly not dare to call himself a good bowman, but he was now able to hit the targets more often than he missed. All his targets were unmoving targets though, he had not yet graduated to more difficult exercises like a few of the others. He of course knew that the Blight would not be considerate enough to stay still. His accuracy also very much depended on the distances of his targets. Some more progress in his Strength attribute had been essential to improving in this regard.

His attributes were not increasing as quickly anymore, but over the last three weeks, he had still made significant gains. He willed up the interface to check on his status. Since he had been employed by the Lumen Constructors, he had gained three points in his Vitality, three points in his Endurance, four points in his Strength, four points in his Agility, and five points in his Soul Force. A very decent amount of progress. Not bad in such a relatively short amount of time. It certainly was a decent improvement from where he had started.

Vitality 16 (+3) Endurance 16 (+3) Strength 15 (+4) Agility 17 (+4) Soul force 13 (+5)

He had also carefully monitored the speed at which his attributes progressed. It was quite clear now that it was much harder to increase his attributes as they leveled up further. He wondered what the limit for his attributes would be. From what he had seen from the Arena, he knew that he could only gain superhuman strength by imbuing his muscles with Soul Force. Christopher thought it likely that he would need the increased attributes to make such a technique even possible.

In his opinion the real potential for power was with learning the different Soul Effects, he really wanted to develop those as far as he could take them. He was still only focused on the basic effects though. The two books at the inn agreed that you first had to master all the basic effects in order to combine them into something greater. They did not mention much beyond those basic effects.

He also managed to make a breakthrough in his Soul Frost effect, managing to find the problem after a lot of thinking and a few questions to other users. It turned out that he also had to still the Soul Frost itself once he had imbued it inside an object. He had not realized that the Soul Force kept actively moving once imbued. After realizing that, freezing water solid had become child’s play, at least in the smaller wooden bowls. He wondered what the effect would be of applying the Soul Heat and Soul Frost directly to the Blight. He knew that Soul Force techniques were very effective against the creatures due to the complete lack of Soul Force inside their bodies so it should be able to damage them.

He had trained with his squad another seven times since that first meeting. Sergeant Coley seemed to be a patient man and a good commander. Sergeant Coley took the time to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the squad members, and he tried to help with remedying the weaknesses. He learned that you needed the ability to perform Soul Force fighting techniques to gain the position of Sergeant. Higher ranks would possess even stronger abilities. A sergeant held command over a squad of ten members, while a Lieutenant would lead a platoon that would usually have around forty-five to fifty members. Then there were the captains that commanded multiple platoon’s, Commanding as many as 200 soldiers. The highest in command would be the Generals, they would be in command of overseeing the entire battlefield. Christopher would not want the responsibility; he was glad to be a common soldier at this point.

Christopher had the different strategies and tasks completely memorized by now. Hopefully, he would still remember what to do during an attack. Lieutenant Cerra was now aware of his abilities with Soul Heat, but he would remain in his current position since they already had five Soul Mages. Nevertheless, the lieutenant seemed pleased to have another Soul Mage available to her if there was ever a need. The Lumen Forces seemed competent and he gladly gave way to their expertise, he himself had no experience after all. He did not envy the Lieutenant and the Sergeants though, they had to form the unit in little time, having to cut corners everywhere. Hopefully, they had a lot more time to address those issues.

He was also glad to become more friendly with some of his fellow trainees and colleagues. Hito seemed to have taken a liking to him, and had even invited him to a local bar. The alcohol he had gotten was way too strong for him, but the man seemed to be greatly amused at his coughing fit. Luckily there were some drinks that had a lower level of alcohol, although they seemed to be a bit of an acquired taste. He also spoke a lot with Hozil. The man was a retired diplomat, which made him very knowledgeable in almost all he needed to learn about Lumen. In the last few days, Christopher had even tried to make some conversation with Arlo, but the lithe curly-haired man had so far rejected his overtures for friendship. Tinos, Tamas, Menos, and the Twins now almost felt like family to Christopher. He had never let his walls down that easily with others, but he felt a deep trust with the family.

He especially enjoyed his evenings chatting with Tamas, they had gotten quite close. Tamas was hoping to take another Semester at the Academy once they reached independence with their business. It was something she wanted to juggle with her work. Christopher had kind of formed a plan of enrolling at the same time as Tamas, allowing them to study Soul Force there together. In another two weeks, the beginner training class with Sin would conclude, which would provide him with some extra time. He could always scale down his work at the Lumen Constructors, leaning magic seemed to be the most valuable in reaching his long-term goals. Learning the magic of this world was also a lot of fun for him.

He had finally visited the family’s workshop, allowing him to watch them make some of their products. It was not very large, but he had enjoyed watching the techniques with which they worked. It was clear that they had honed their skills over many years. The family had also been diverted from making their usual creations and were now commissioned into making some simple defensive and offensive tools. He had been pleased with being able to identify some of the tools due to his work at the Lumen Constructors, they were kind of doing similar work after all.

They currently were working on a shipment of devices that reminded him of flashbangs. They were two-layered wooden balls with intricate layers of metal patterns. Tamas was infusing the metal with Soul Light, and when the ball was thrown hard enough, then apparently the metal lines would separate, releasing all the light held within in an instance. He had to admit that it was pretty ingenious. There might be almost no technological development, but the development of their magical knowledge had led them into some interesting directions. He had actually bought one of the devices with some of his wages, entirely crafted by the family. The device was sure to be useful in a pinch.

The Arena matches were held every week, and he had now attended two more events. It was not just for pleasure, since he knew that it would provide a great opportunity to earn money in the future by placing bets on the matches. He visited one of the matches with Hito and some other trainees, and he went to another with Menos who had been raring to go for some time by then. For Menos that was actually his first visit, so there was quite a lot of excitement on his end.

Earl Eugenius Swift had put a temporary hold on the Arena events a week ago so that everyone could focus more on their more serious duties.

He had watched Namir achieve an easy victory. This was only the fourth match of the spear wielder since he had come to Lumen, and clearly, he was not done with rising through the ranks. Luckily for the kids in the Arena, there were no more surprises, clearly, it was indeed very rare to have creatures of the Blight brought in to slaughter.

Working for the Lumen Constructors had certainly been backbreaking work in the last three weeks. He was often glad when they requested him for another Soul Heat infusion since it allowed him to take a short break from the grunt work. It did certainly help him with his attributes as well though. Some of the alerts informing him of increases had arrived during his time in the workshop.

Three weeks was a long way from becoming a master builder, but many of the tasks had become easier due to his efforts. He was able to operate many of the tools, now able to cut the wood into a plank of the right dimensions, and he was starting to understand some of the considerations that went into making Soul Force traps and constructs. The constructs were especially complicated, but they also provided some insights on how to use his Soul Heat in useful ways. He was still an absolute beginner though, he worked somewhat slowly and there was unfortunately little time for training.

Ultimately the best way to become more skillful was working hard at his tasks, and there were certainly plenty of those around. He did not know the pace at which the Lumen Constructors normally worked, but the current work pace was outright insane. He was lucky enough that a lot of the workers had taken a liking to him, and therefore did not mind taking some time showing him their tricks and techniques in performing the tasks from time to time. He would love to learn how to construct Soul Devices so he made himself an attentive student. Still, most of the work consisted of him hauling materials around and assisting with other grunt work.

His money troubles were now mostly over, being certified for Soul Heat had given him a pretty favorable wage. He could now easily pay for his meals and stay at the Butterbash Inn. The extra money had allowed him to visit the Lumen Arena. He was not really spending his money though, he preferred to save it for a potential crisis or something he really needed.

This had allowed him to save up enough of a Stash to potentially enroll for the Lumen Academy. The problem was that he was already so busy at the moment that he was not sure where he would find the time to add it to his schedule. Buying any Soul items still seemed an impossible goal. He had also thought up a way to carry all of his earnings with him at all times, which he had done with an eye to the future. It would require him to earn some more Soul Points though.

He had not been here all that long, but surprisingly he was starting to feel at home in Lumen. He had people that he was close to, plenty to keep himself busy, and a purpose that kept him moving forward. As he was laying on that grassy hill, he could not help but feel fortunate. That made it all the more frustrating when one of Lumen's giant Soul Alarm constructs started hissing its warning in the distance. The Blight was coming.