Either this is a stroke of brilliance or a catastrophic waste of money.”

After the hustle of getting ready to leave was over and Rak looked back at the Kalloway enormous city walls Rak couldn’t help but let his thoughts wander.

“All I need is people now. I have to assume Town planner Ung will help me with my plan. With his ambitions he should be tempted. Worst case I’ll handle it myself.”

Rak tightened the reins of the carriage a bit and his two joyful horses increased their speed.

“Sure enough. With just me moving out of the city my riding skill has already improved dramatically. This should be from reading riding books.”

Without a teacher or a job that involves riding horses or a horse drawn carriage, Rak’s next best option is to learn indirectly through books. It is only now that Chaos theory’s system is showing the effect.

“The question is how long will the effect last. If its a buff that expires over time it should only tick down as long as I’m horse riding or driving the carriage.”

With his hands tied, Rak can only learn to enjoy solitude. With so much time on his hands he’s begun directing his mind towards the Chaos theory world. In particular the skill system.

“It might be like a glass of water, once I drink in all the skill proficiency in the glass I’ll be back at a normal training pace.”

Every now and then Rak’s log is updated. This is his general log, one that contains the most miscellaneous information. His horse riding and carriage driving ability is rising steadily. With enough luck he should rise from unranked to a tier one within a few days.

Rak ties the reins to the carriage and summons a book from his inventory, an inventory that previously was filled to the brim. Now the carriage has taken on most of that weight. Making Rak feel lighter.

“Homrod’s words of wisdom.”

The wisdom books are something Rak forced himself to read. These books are both stories and sometimes rants. They are not easy to read but they do provide some unconventional information and wisdom.

“There isn’t much information on using the Chaos theory user interface but any clue I have found have all come from these wisdom books.”

Homrod lived over three hundred years ago. He was a hermit and rarely entered cities, opting to stay temporarily in small villages. He wouldn’t be worth talking about aside from the fact that he was at the peak of tier two. Meaning he was one of the strongest people in his era.

Homrod’s words of wisdom is a collective of his personal diary and notes. Homrod held heavy prejudices and was not at all a kind man. A man of his strength could have caused disasters wherever he went but he kept to himself. Most of his notes were him cursing people for one reason or another.

“At least its not another Mythos book.”

The real reason Rak was reading these strung together books was that he had been reading historical and mythos books for entertainment. Excluding informational books, which he studied for the purpose of learning about the world.

Rak’s father had taught him a few things in his life, one of which was to keep expanding his mind. Now expanding the mind is easier said than done. For some it's like trying to remember a forgotten memory, you know its there but you just can't seem to find it.

“Oof, the quality of this book is even worse than Wildon’s misclenious wisdom.”

Rak let his eyes rise, the long road only had a carriages few tens meters ahead and nothing else. He contemplated opening a different book instead but eventually opted to keep reading it.

“Worst case scenario I’ll drop by one of the cities along the way and stock up on a different type of book.”

He wasn’t willing to even think about it, but he was feeling that maybe he had been to narrow minded with his choice of books to read. He had bought a tremendous amount in the Kalloway library, enough to allow him to upgrade his status from an unranked guest to a tier one guest.

Soon Rak finished reading the book and another book was picked at random. The book should have been anything but immersive but he still read it in one sitting and it wasn’t even dark yet.

“According the sleeping merchant story, there exists an ability to sleep while driving a carriage.”

One of the cities along the way had a myth about a sleeping traveller that was something like a ghost story. Without going into the details, the traveller had a pair of ghostly mounts that pulled the carriage along.

“Even if I could learn the ability, my horses need to rest occasionally.”

Rak didn’t have much to carry, not compared to the capacity of a tier one carriage at least. So his speed was fast and maintainable. The largest factor is that his two horses trotted along without a care and their stamina is robust for unranked horses.

“If these two guys can reach tier one I might be able to shave off two weeks of travelling.”

Rak’s logs updated frequently with his attributes decreasing, fatigue ticked on like clockwork but the rest were less frequent. For the most part he ignored his attributes and focused on his abilities increasing. From time to time the two horses would gain slight experience, but he has no idea when they will reach tier two.

“Homrod’s words of wisdom mentioned something about seeing percentages of abilities but it didn’t talk about how its done. If I get the chance I should log out and check if there is any information on the internet about this.”

One of the most hindering factors in Chaos theory is the lack of information. Rak has been reading books almost without stopping for two months and yet this is the first time he hears about percentages of skill proficiency.

In Homrod’s worst of wisdom there was a small paragraph that mentioned that one of his abilities increased from forty six percent to forty seven. It doesn’t seem like much but the implications are that he could see the progression of his skill proficiency and perhaps other things as well.

On the road Rak began losing track of time and only slept when his horses need to sleep. Unlike Rak who slept in the carriage the horses slept by the side of the road. Sometimes other carriages would meet with them almost always being a small caravan. Very few would travel alone like Rak.

Previously Rak had travelled with Gou and the caravan staff took care of any troubles along the way, everything was planned but they had to stop in the middle of nowhere as well just like Rak has to now.

Any beasts have mostly been driven into different territories and those that won't leave are at the level of pests that any person with a weapon can deal with. Encountering such creatures Rak rebuffed them with his shields or directly killed them.

On one such occasion Rak had a thought.

“If I just rely on the job’s abilities I won’t learn any new abilities right?”

It seemed to come out of nowhere but looking back Rak had read multiple times about people developing their abilities. It never said how they did it. Myths about people with specialized abilities were in every city. At least in their books.

“If I wanted to learn Manipulator abilities without having the Manipulator job, how would I do it?”

Having read up on quite a few beginner books Rak knows that his little trinkets are almost like crutches. In a way they are like premium arrows, if the arrows helped you pull the bow back and aim.

“Featherfall didn’t use anything to cast her abilities. Actually none of them did. Did they?”

Thinking back to those chaotic fights Rak could only recall blurry memory but he couldn’t remember any of the Manipulators using the same stones as him.

“Maybe I just missed it or they are using something else. But if they weren’t, doesn’t that mean that I should be able to use all of my abilities without the help of these stones?”

Rak’s train of thought is not wrong but he’s wrong about them not using anything to cast their abilities. They simply used different things, not the rudimentary stones a novice alchemist refined while practicing.

Featherfall uses a type of ground up feathers that have a trace of wind element in them, using this to create the effect of near invisible wind. These of course are expensive and can be damaged in combat.

“When I use my energy to create a film of energy around myself, what am I using then?”

Rak held onto the rains of the carriage and his gaze went along the long seemingly never ending road, only his mind was somewhere else entirely.

“I should be using my body, right?”

Rak took the reins into one hand and opened his free hand.

“Can I let the energy just float away?”

A small bubble of energy formed at the tip of Rak’s finger. The energy slowly rises and breaks off from his hand.

“Huh. It works.”

A small ball of energy hovered in the air but the momentum of the carriage made bump into the carriage and disperse.

“I have so little control over it?”

It was just a sliver of energy and yet Rak couldn’t assert even the slightest control over it. It couldn’t even keep up with the carriage.

“If it's like this. Was my guess wrong?”

Soon Rak got lost in his thoughts and eventually he picked up another book, leaving the matter for a later date. In the end, it can be difficult to see the forest for the trees.

One week and three days passed when Rak leveled up his carriage driving.

Gained tier: 1 - novice horse rider

Gained tier: 1 - novice horse carriage driver

Character

Status

Abilities

Active

Passive

Basic stamina

Tier: 1 - novice horse rider

While riding horses, Maneuverability is increased by 95%

While riding horses, Movement speed is increased by 65%

While riding, horses Stamina generation is increased by 30%

While riding, horses are capable of carrying additional 10% weight.

While riding, weapon attack damage is increased by 25%

Tier: 1 - novice horse carriage driver

While driving a horse carriage, maneuverability is increased by 65%

While driving a horse carriage, movement speed is increased by 45%

While driving a horse carriage, carry weight is increased by 20%

Inventory

Tier one horse carriage driver and horse rider are still entirely passive abilities. Without guidance, deticated effort or dumb luck, Rak will not get an active ability for the two. Even Url doesn’t have active abilities for his carriage driving. Though Url’s is not exclusive to horses.

As this is jumping tiers there is a qualitative change, previously there had only been log updates but now the notification log was updated as well.

“Finally. The buff clearly declined two days ago but it still kept slowly climbing.”

Unlike Manipulator abilities, abilities like horse riding are highly dependant on two things to be capable of leveling. One is the horse in question, a low tier one horse will not give experience towards a tier two horse riding. And currently Rak only has unranked horses. Only because Rak’s carriage is tier one is he still slowly getting experience.

“I can ignore the log now, it will take years to level up again at this rate. And my item analyzing might be a complete waste of time.”

And indeed, this setup will take far too long but in some cases this is the only way to gain experience. In this case it isn’t impossible to fix but in higher tiers perhaps a similar case will the only option available.

As for the items Rak was analyzing, he is simply to impatient. Passive abilities can be considered hard and easy to attain but nothing is gained without dedication.

“Let’s see how fast these boys can go.”

A crack of the reins was accompanied by a sudden force. The two horses let out a surprised neigh, first they glanced at each other and then at Rak. They both felt a mysterious strength in their bodies as if the wind was at their backs.

“It’s alright! Just run! Run!”

Rak’s current speed is at about seventy some percentage of what the horses are capable but his novice status and frankly lacking talent throttles the speed. Being tier one doesn’t change that. Previously Rak had reached about nearly ninety percent of maximum speed he could achieve while carriage driving and only sixty some percent of maximum maneuverability.

After a few moments the carriage slowed down a bit but overall the pace had increased by at least thirty percent with no difference in stamina or fatigue consumption. The increase in speed is well over thirty percent but this is the limits of Rak’s current proficiency.

In simple terms it is a hard cap on abilities with a possibility to slowly train up the proficiency. Without dedication it’s impossible to reach high proficiency. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be slowly trained over time, as long as it is maintained the proficiency won't decay either.

One month into the journey Rak is sitting in a village center in the village Opalmea. A large meal is in front of him and the town’s most expensive alcohol, a type of brandy. The meal costs just about eighty coppers and yet that is considered an expensive meal. Hundred and twenty such means add up to a single gold coin.

“I can’t stand these information books.”

Over the past month Rak has been constantly reading a variety of books to the point he gained Basic reading. Making his reading even faster and giving him a more comprehensive understanding of what he reads. The downside is that the fast reading caused him to read more books, if that can be considered a downside.

“This is what I get for not stopping and refreshing my stock. Ah, I can’t be blamed for this, who expected the Basic reading passive?”

A very plain book lies on the table. This is a book copied from a library’s database. It can be generated with a more appealing look but Rak didn’t want to spend coin on something so frivolous despite his wealthy status.

“I guess it’s good to expand my viewpoint.”

Some lessons are learned through difficulty and some you’ll never even know were they came from.

“”To talk about tailoring you should begin at the roots. The twin and needle.” My god, I feel like I’ve read something like this a hundred times.”

A lot of the wisdom books have these types of random lines as they are trying to hit the crux of something. Such a line once in a while can be inspiring but when they are on every other page they can induce irritation rather than inspiration.

“With the speed i'm travelling it should only take me a week or two to get back to Alp. For my sanity’s sake I should find more entertaining reading material.”

Rak finally shook his head and put down the book. Instead he focused on the meal in front of him.

“I can’t get over how delicious food is.”

Rak isn’t the only one experiencing the heightened senses within Chaos theory. The whole world is being baffled by the delicacies that can be bought for a few coppers. Rak has also personally experienced the euphoric feeling of physical intimacy.

What people have also experienced is pain. Pain and pleasure haven’t been increased only people are sensing a more in depth feeling. Pain is not more painful but there certainly is more depth to it. This is an impossibly esoteric feeling.

On Rak’s map there is a small uncleared path on the way to Alp as Rak took a slight detour intentionally to cover more ground. In hindsight it might be somewhat useless if his ideas about the Endless mountain range are true.

After eating his meal Rak slept in a village hotel. The travelling continued the next day, Rak directly went past the town Yiels towards the city Borking. In the city Rak paid expensive entrance fee for his two horses and carriage.

In the city Rak stopped at two places, one a miscellaneous items store. In these sorts of stores Rak found most of his non library books. These sorts of stores do not depend on particular stock but rather buying items low and selling them high. They have variety and rarity.

In the end Rak parted with a small sum of approximately two gold before leaving the city and continuing his journey. With updated stock of books the time flew by. Even after getting sick of certain stories and their tropes, after he began reading he always got immersed. This partly due to the passive ability Basic reading.

“Alp town.”

Rak has arrived from the west side of Alp town, coming from the village Often, he had passed the town Yr and before that the city Long.

“First I should check on Olric. He must be confused by how long I’ve been away.”

For Rak approximately four months have passed since he left town but for the people in Alp it is somewhere around six months.

“It doesn’t seem very different but is definitely more lively than other towns.”

Having experienced quite a few towns by now Rak’s understanding is greater. Alp town can be considered a small town. In fact all the towns near the Endless mountain range can be considered small. The oddity is the villages on the edge of the mountain range who sometimes have greater population than nearby towns.

“After I’ve settled in I’ll go see Town planner Ung about buying up that land.”

Previously Rak had spoken to Ung about what sort of land and how much Rak could buy. Long story short, it depends on the location. Increasing his reputation with the Chaos theory government system in Alp town will allow him to purchase more land and open up other options.

With Rak’s speed he quickly made it to his brewery. The neighbourhood is as quiet as he remembered, it being located in the cheapest part of town. Cheaper still would be the land that is not actually within the town. Things like hunting lodges or farms are examples of this.

“Olric! You here?”

The sound of something falling to the ground responded to Rak’s call and shortly after a familiar man stumbled out of the brewery.

“Rak! You are finally back!”

“I just rode in.”

“It’s been more than six months since you left. I thought you’d only be a few weeks.”

“It’s a long story, why don’t I buy you launch?”

“Sure sure.”

These days Olric is living quite well, after six months of work he has more than enough coin to wantonly spend within Alp town to the point he has become a regular at Laughter’s medicine. He’s already begun rubbing shoulders with some of Town hall’s staff as well.

“Hop onto my carriage, I’ll drive us.”

Four to six months can be considered quite some time but the town’s folk haven't changed at all compared to Rak’s transformation. The biggest change is either other people from real life or Olric who has been dutifully honing his brewing skills.

Inside the Laughter’s medicine Rak has a small reunion with the owner, one Arlina Medin.

“How cruel. I haven’t seen you in half a year.”

“Ah. It's a long story.”

“I got time.”

Olric felt a bit awkward having the very demanding woman looking down on them. Even if she wasn’t scolding him, he still felt like he was complicit in some great crime.

“Fine, fine. Olric you don’t mind right?”

“By all means.”

“Have a seat Lina.”

Hearing Rak call her Lina, Arlina’s gaze softened by a tiny degree. She grabbed a seat and called her daughter over. After ordering drinks and food she gave Rak another intense stare.

“It started with my trip to Trove.”

“I already know all that. And you were only supposed to be a few weeks at most.”

Rak felt a bit dazed. He hadn’t informed everyone that he was leaving but now it seems she already knew.

Arlina saw Rak’s confusion and decided to clear things up.

“I spoke to Ung. Had to nearly pry it out of him.”

“Ah. I see.”

Rak’s disappearance had become quite the topic a few months back and Laughter’s medicine being a hot spot for Town hall Arlina was often on top of the town’s gossip.

Seeing as Arlina already knew the basics Rak jumped to the part where he met Gou and how he spontaneously decided to go an a journey with him.

“You eloped with some stranger?”

“Eloped?”

Rak rubbed his temple, he wasn’t used to this sort of situation. He felt anything he said was going to be scrutinized.

“Oh, right. You took your son to Trove around that time as well. How did it go?”

Arlina only now remembered that Rak didn’t visit her while he was in Trove. And after scolding him for it she went back on topic.

“That little boy has become a novice alchemist. Only fourteen this year and he’s already has this much ambition.”

Once Arlina began talking about her son she become like a sun and a brilliant smile warmed up the room. Eventually Arlina excused herself and Rak was left alone with Olric.

“So how have the past six months been?”

“It was a bit strange at first but after the first two weeks it all fell into place. The orders kept coming in and every month the quantity ordered increased slightly.”

“So it did increases after all?”

“That’s right. I was confused and eventually I spoke to Arlina about it. Turns out that my higher quality tier one beer is popular.”

Over time the beer’s low price and high quality has caused an increase in regular drinkers. With more regulars the taverns have been increasing the stocks slowly.

“So that’s how it is.”

“Seems I was paranoid thinking that maybe Olric increased the price. Luckily it seems he really is an honest person.”

“I created two new tier one alchol drinks. A red wine and another beer.”

“Hoh? We should sell them as well. I need to hire someone to market them for me.”

“Market?”

“Hmm? Oh. To advertise your two new drinks. I can’t be travelling everywhere myself. Actually I should go see Town planner Ung soon.”

“Ah.”

Olric felt he was losing track of where the conversation was going.

“We’ll make plans about your two new drinks later. For now I have to do some foundation work.”

Rak felt antsy to get to work so he quickly said his goodbyes to Olric after giving him a few books on brewing and some of the alcoholic drinks he bought on his travels. Similarly he gave Arlina books on herbalism and even alchemist books for her son.

“First things first I’ll go see Town planner Ung.”

With his own tier one carriage and trained horses Rak doesn’t take as long to travel through town. Even if his maneuverability needs some work with the qualitative upgrade to tier one horse carriage driver his standards are good enough to travel around town without any issues.

“Everything about Town hall seems the same. Even the smell is the same. The amount of people here seems a bit too much though.”

There are numerous things people need either Town management to help them with or give them access to Chaos theory government system. There is no issue in letting people free access to Chaos theory’s system as the system regulates itself.

One such regulation is by restricting options to people. Rak can for example buy land, though it is best done in tandem with Town hall, simply because the interface is hard to navigate unless they want to do something simpler than buying land.

“Hello sir. Oh? Aren’t you mister Abstinence?”

“Yes I am, hi.”

On the way here Rak hadn’t been greeted by a single person. Before he left for his trip Rak had some reputation within town but after six months it had diminished considerably. This a different kind of reputation than the one he has with the Chaos theory government system in Alp town.

“Hold on a minute. Town planner Ung wanted me to let him know if you came in.”

“I see. I came to see him anyway.”

Rak felt a bit guilty at this point. He hadn’t expected people would care if he left town but considering Orlic’s and Arlina’s reactions couldn’t help but feel strange about it.

“Town planner Ung will see you now.”

The woman had shot out of her seat towards Ung’s office and was back within a minute, true to her word. Rak walked down the familiar hallway towards Ung’s office. Upon entering he couldn’t help but note that the place has been furnished a bit.

“So you’re finally back from your trip? Six months. That’s one hell of a trip.”

“Ah. I’ll explain.”

Seeing Ung’s expression and his way of speaking he knew Ung was still on friendly terms with him. Rak immediately showed an unwilling expression and raised his hands in the air before sitting down. His tongue felt a bit dry just thinking he had to walk through this story once again.

“Kalloway, huh.”

“You wouldn’t believe the size of the city. I mean I’ve seen large cities but the walls alone make you shrink back.”

“Aie. I should really find the time to travel.”

“Travelling isn’t all it's made out to be. Believe me.”

“So why did you come in here today?”

“I can’t come see an old friend?”

Ung gave Rak a suspicious look before laughing.

“Spit it out. Did you finally settle on the land you want? Or did you think of something else?”

“Before we talk about that, let me ask you, what's your library policy? And what do you think about expanding it?”

“I wasn’t expected this question.”

Ung fiddled with a small pen in his hand, his eyes indicating he was trying to recall something.

“Well it's pretty straight forward. You pay for a guest pass or buy a permanent pass. If you want to buy the books you need to find a way to copy them. You should be familiar with tiered restrictions as well, right?”

“You need certain tiers of passes to access higher tier books.”

“That’s right. Of course we don't have too many tier two books and no tier three but that’s expected. So why do you ask?”

“I want to create an artisan school.”

“Hoh?”

“For now It won’t have teachers and for all intents and purposes it is a glorified library but later on I’ll try to hire teachers.”

“So this is you plan?”

Ung and Rak had already talked about their ambitions before and Ung understands Rak’s intent.

“You want to train your own workers. Using the town’s folk?”

“Exactly. I’ve already invested in books from all supportive occupations I could find. Some are a little short but quite a few have ten books on a single subject. Smithing, animal rearing, tailoring, various herbalism books and so on.”

“You want to create the materials as well?”

“Only what is feasible. Alp town has plenty of land to grow what is needed and everything else can be imported in. If I can I’ll purchase a mine.”

“You’ll purchase a mine.”

Ung couldn’t help but laugh. It is possible to buy fertile lands and even things like mines. Rak would have to have adequate reputation within Alp town to place the mine or give it to Ung to use. However buying a mine is easier said than done.

“Forget the mine. That’s in the future. Who knows, maybe you’ll upgrade Alp into a city before I get my hands on one.”

“I would think so. Only peak tier two people can delve deep into Strange zones to get something like it.”

Rak only smiled and nodded. Through these past months Rak had a far better understanding of the world. Otherwise he wouldn’t even know that a single person could buy a mine and even place it down.

“I’d like to set up a building with all my books and hire personnel to manage them. I want people to be able to enter it freely and learn. In the end I can hire talented people to work for me.”

“I can relocate the library to a different building. This isn’t too hard. As for entering freely, this a bit difficult. Even if I wanted to, I can’t bypass the price. Best I can do is set it to a single copper.”

“How about this then. You relocate the library, I’ll donate my books to it and I’ll pay all entrance fees that don’t exceed a single copper.”

At this point Ung finally understood Rak’s ambition wasn’t just talk. He couldn’t imagine other people paying for others to read books. His eyes widened at the realization.

“That could work! I can set up a simple contract, all people would have to do is accept letting you pay for their guest pass.”

Before Rak could continue Ung had already brought out a holographic screen in front of him.

“I have been wanting to do some upgrading. I had some plans but they other difficulties I can’t resolve for a period of time.”

Rak noticed Ung wasn’t really talking to him but to himself. He sat back in the chair and let Ung think out loud.

“With this I can finally remove that redundant building. All its been doing is acting as a storage space for the past two years. Yes, this’ll work.”

With a bright smile Ung twisted his hands about and pushed his hand toward Rak.

“How about here?”

Ung had and incredibly smug smile and it only became deeper when he saw Rak’s expression.

“This is perfect. Its near midtown, near a restaurant, the Laughter’s medicine and even on the main road. How can this building be free?”

“Its Alp town’s property and can’t be sold. It has been sitting there gathering dust. Finally I have something worthwhile to put there.”

With these things out of the way Rak and Ung began to settle the finer details, including the contract where Rak promises to pay all guest passes that cost less than one copper.

Ung took the lead on dealing with most things and Rak handed over his books. Unsurprisingly he got a sizeable chunk of reputation with the town. Enough to buy twice the land he had previously been able to.

“I’ve been meaning to ask, Ung. Is it possible to see percentage of skill proficiency or experience towards the next level?”

“Hmm. Not that I know of. I have heard that higher tier people have discovered fantastical things in Strange zones. It could be some rare item, after all you never know what comes from those places.”

Even though Ung is the highest on the political ladder in Alp town, that doesn’t mean he’s too worldly. Rak had only gleamed out some things from obscure wisdom books before discovering some clues.

In the end Rak and Ung chatted for a long while before Rak promised Ung to take him out for dinner tomorrow. At that point Rak finally left Town hall. He had purchased land on the eastern outskirts of Alp’s territory, the one closest to the village Inte.

There are still some things to be done before he commissions a building from Town hall. Until then Rak is preparing other matters, one in particular that includes the tamer Url.