The rain returned the next day, pouring down as if to make up for the previous day’s lack. John stood with his door open, looking out in to the steady downward stream as he combed fingers through his beard. His plans for today had involved creating stone pathways so that neither he nor his guests had to suffer the indignity of mud, however he was re-evaluating that idea. While he could create pathways, he didn’t want to have water trapped between the layers of stone he’d be placing down, which meant he’d have to juggle at least two spells to get the job done, probably more like three, as the mud was unlikely to stay in place while he worked.

With a sigh of annoyance, he sent a stream of mana into the umbrella medallion and stepped out into the rain. John was quite pleased to find that the rain parted around him like curtain, clearly being repulsed by the enchanted item. A quick test showed that the repulsion effect covered maybe a three-foot diameter, meaning his legs were unprotected from any water that might splash on them, and his arms would get wet if he extended them out too far. All together he was pleased with the device, even if the description was misleading about the mana cost. Apparently two and a half mana per minute rounded up to three, why the device didn’t just say three mana he didn’t know.

With a thought and a gesture a small ball of light appeared over John’s head, the result of spending a few minutes last night learning the Evoke Light spell, and he made a pleased noise. The quality and strength of the lighting was much greater than the tiny flame he’d been using all this time, and as he walked toward the Gateway of Worlds he wondered what other utility spells he might be missing from his kit.

The four hours of communing with the tree went by quickly, and John could feel that its roots were nearing their destinations and he wondered what their purpose was. Thinking of the roots drew John’s attention to the interior of the henge, which was currently a dirt ring surrounding the wall around the tree. As he stood he made a mental note to pave the interior area when he got the chance. Then he remembered that altars to the three divinities the shrine was dedicated to wouldn’t got amiss either; in fact, it was strangely gracious of the gods to not have demanded such already.

Shaking off his musings he returned to the farm and began dealing with the chookers. As he raided the nesting boxes for eggs (of which there were an astonishing 66) he considered that perhaps his guests might be interested in eggs for breakfast. Popping the last egg into his inventory he looked around the coop and the watching the chookers for a moment. They were a bit lethargic and their heads seemed to droop. Considering them for a moment John got the feeling that they weren’t enjoying their current confinement, self-imposed though it was. A few moments of thought brought to mind the images he’d seen of fenced off, covered areas around chicken coops. Perhaps the chookers would go outside if they could exit to an area without rain and mud? It was worth trying, so he added it to his growing list of things to do.

Heading out of the coop he schlepped his way across the farm to the newly built guest house. To his surprise, someone had rigged a sliding stone door for the place. He gave a thump on the door and waited. Hopefully it wasn’t too early in the morning, the sun was up after all, and even if it was there should be at least one person on guard. Sure enough, a few moments later the door slid ponderously open with a griding noise and an armed and armored dwarven man stared up at John.

“Good morning mister John, I’m afraid Lady Oswald isn’t up yet. Is there something I can help you with?” the man asked cordially.

John nodded. “Sorry for disturbing you, but I just picked up this morning’s eggs and it turns out I’ve got quite the surplus. I was wondering if you like some of them for breakfast?”

The dwarf hesitated a moment. “Those are chooker eggs, right? I’m afraid I can’t offer that much for them, not without the lady’s approval.”

Shaking his head John gave a smile. “My treat this morning, I’ve got plenty to share.”

“Then we’d be happy to accept your hospitality,” the man said, sounding considerably more cheered. He then paused and peered up at John once more. “You uh… don’t happen to have a frying pan, do you?”

John paused, he did not, in fact, have a frying pan, or any kind of kitchen utensils for that matter. It hadn’t occurred to him that he might need them in the near future, so he hadn’t purchased any. “Uh… No,” he said finally. “Though town isn’t more than twenty or so minutes away at a fast pace, so if you were to send someone now, you’d be able to have basic cookware in under an hour.”

The man nodded. “The others will be up soon, I’m sure we can manage without a couple of them for an hour.”

“Great, mind if I put these in the kitchen? It’d be less awkward than handing them to you a couple at a time,” John said.

“Oh, of course,” the guardsman replied, stepping aside so John could enter.

Entering the house, John headed to the kitchen and quickly created a stone bowl to hold forty of the gathered eggs. Then, not wanting to strain the guard’s good will, he headed back out of the house. “Tell Lady Oswald good morning for me, and sorry about the mud, I keep meaning to set up paths but I haven’t gotten there yet.”

The dwarf bobbed his head. “I’ll tell her.”

Heading away from the dwelling, John made his way to the greenhouses where he checked on the plants. The first thing he noticed as he drew closer was the far lower density of Mana in the air. John had grown used to peering through the mist like haze of free-floating mana, just as he’d learned to ignore the swirls and eddies that sometimes appeared in it. It was interesting in that, once he learned to ignore it, it was like it didn’t seem to actually impede his sense of sight at all. Despite that, he could still ‘see’ it around him, and as he got closer he was seeing less and less mana. Upon reaching the north-western greenhouses he found that there was almost none.

Frowning he checked his mana regeneration rate, finding that it was basically non-existent. Nervously he went and checked on the plants. They all looked fine, and he got the feeling they weren’t in danger of dying, but he also suspected they’d reached the limits of what this area could sustain. With a shake of his head, he started checking the plants for insect activity. There really was nothing he could do about the predicament right now, he just had to hope that the mana in the area would equalize over time.

Other than the dearth of mana, everything seemed fine. There were no new signs of insect activity, which suggested the clay was doing its job, and the moisture content of the dirt seemed adequate. The plants themselves were growing quite large, having developed into small bushes almost half a foot in diameter and height. Meanwhile, the mulch was doing a fine job of keeping the weeds at bay, and he only had to pull a few especially hardy specimens in each of the beds.

Finished with the gardens, John checked the time and found that he still had a couple hours before he had to break for lunch, making now the perfect time to start working on those walkways. The first thing he did was plot out where he wanted them. Obviously he was going to have a straight shot down the center of the greenhouses, with walkways branching off to each of the entrances. Then it’d run down to the south until it reached even with where the entry gate would be, where it would split into a T, heading west toward the gate, and east toward the new guest house. He’d then start a second set running from his house, down the backsides of the eastern greenhouses, and then around the south side of the twelfth greenhouse to hook up with the first walkway. Finally, he’d branch off from the pathway in front of the house to run a branch to the barn and creamery. Nodding to himself, he began the work.

Because of the ongoing rain, John had to do the walkways in parts. First he had to excavate a section, turning the resulting dirt into gravel and stone, then he had to use Control Water at each step to keep the water from building up between the layers. As with his road proposal so long ago he started with a foot of fine sand, followed by a foot of gravel, then a foot of larger stones, and finally topped it with foot thick slabs that curved upward ever so slightly in the middle. As the finishing touch he added small curbs to either side.

The task was grueling as he had to keep up three different spells almost constantly, and that didn’t include the stream of mana he was sending into his umbrella charm. By the end of the first hour he was feeling the strain, but he’d completed almost a third of the work, so he pushed on until he was forced to break for lunch. After he’d finished eating and was allowed to log back in it took only another hour or so to finish off the walkways… well, roads, really, given that they were ten feet wide.

Finished with that, John made his way over to the coop where he spent a good half-hour designing and creating a covered patio for the chookers. He had to remove the covered table he’d built nearby, but that was fine, he hardly needed the thing. When he was done, the chookers had an extra thirty-five or so feet of area to roam.

No sooner had he finished than the drake stuck its head out through the flap. Seeing that the ground was firm and there was no rain falling on its head, the little beast strutted out of the coop and chooked to the heavens. Soon the females had all joined it outside, and they were strutting around examining every inch of their new space.

Content with his work for the day, John retreated to his house, where he found SlipperyWhenWet putting the finishing touches on the Ritual of Imbuing, the final of the three rituals he’d purchased.

The man looked up as John entered and gave him a nod before he looked back to the circle he was working on.

“Pretty much done here, just a last touch or two and you should be good to go,” Slip said.

“Great, how much do I owe you? I know you mentioned it while we were getting you set up last night but I can’t seem to remember what it was,” John replied.

“Five silvers each for the oversized circles,” the ritualist informed him.

With a nod John produced the coin and handed it to Slip. “Thanks for the help.”

“No problem, just don’t do anything weird before I get out of the potential blast radius, okay?” Slip said.

“Heh, it’ll probably fine, empty mana cores are unlikely to explode,” John said.

“Yeah, right up until they do. Let me know if it works though, the results would be interesting,” Slippery responded. “Alright, I’m out, have fun!”

“You too,” John replied even as the man beat a hasty retreat out the door.

Turning back to the circles, John inspected them.

[Name: Ritual of Purification (Inactive)]

[Quality: Good]

[Description: Carefully constructed, this ritual is meant to remove impurities present in materials placed within it. Because it was designed and constructed by someone with the Ritual Master and Ritual Mastery abilities it is 50% more effective at it’s given task, which is the purification of materials placed within its confines.]

[Activation Cost: 99 Fire Mana, 99 Water Mana, 99 Light Mana, 99 Time Mana, Four items of Purity. Must be activated at or near Noon.]

[Name: Ritual of Fusion (Inactive)]

[Quality: Good]

[Description: Carefully constructed, this ritual is meant fuse together items placed within it. Because it was designed and constructed by someone with the Ritual Master and Ritual Mastery abilities it is 50% more effective at it’s given task, which is the fusion of materials placed within its confines.]

[Activation Cost: 66 Air Mana, 66 Earth Mana, 66 Fire Mana, 66 Water Mana, 66 Time Mana, 66 Space Mana, One item of each Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Time, and Space.]

[Name: Ritual of Imbuing (Inactive)]

[Quality: Good]

[Description: Carefully constructed, this ritual is meant to imbue mana into materials placed within it. Because it was designed and constructed by someone with the Ritual Master and Ritual Mastery abilities it is 50% more effective at it’s given task, which is the imbuement of materials placed within its confines.]

[Activation Cost: 396 Raw Mana, One item of each Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Light, Darkness, Life, Death, Time, and Space.]

John was pleased with the results. As Slippery had mentioned, none of the circles was more than Good quality, but as he’d also mentioned that meant the base quality was actually Great. With the right materials he might even be able to push that beyond great to Exceptional. Anything higher was probably out of his grasp simply because of the prices, but he hoped not by too much. He did, however, wonder what the 50 percent bonus was going to do for the fusion and imbuing rituals.

After a bit of careful thought, he decided to start with the fusion ritual. If his previous experience with the purification ritual was anything to go by, the cores would lose size as they purified. Each of the cores was currently the size of a ping pong ball (about an inch and a half in diameter) and Poor quality. Assuming a core would lose half its size per rank, then by the time it reached Great quality they’d be little bigger than marbles. It seemed best to him to start off with larger cores. Finally, he decided that he'd combine the cores in four batches of 203 each. With that in mind he opened the auction and started perusing the options.

From past experience John knew that items of space were expensive, and he assumed items of time would be similarly priced, so he started his search there as the quality of those goods would dictate the quality of the rest. To his annoyance the space items were just as expensive as he recalled, with Poor quality goods clocking in at a minimum of three gold.

John checked his funds and grimaced, he only had 51 gold at the moment, certainly not enough for the profligate spending he’d have to do for this project. He supposed that he could make some more mana stones and sell them… John paused and checked the description of the ritual again. Idly, he wondered if an earth mana stone counted as an ‘item of earth’, if it did… It couldn’t be that simple; could it?

“Help, does an earth mana crystal count as an ‘item of earth’ for the purposes of a ritual?” John asked hopefully.

[Answer: No.]

He gave a small, exasperated sigh and turned his attention back to the Auction. He spent several more minutes looking at things with a space attunement and eventually resigned himself to buying something of only good quality. His final decision was a chunk of void stone which clocked in at a whole ten gold. Wincing at the expenditure he moved on to the other items. Air, earth, fire, and water were easy to find items for as there were dozens of plants and minerals with elemental affinities. He ended up purchasing cumulous cattails for air, a chunk of good quality iron for earth, blazing peppers for fire, and spring water for water; in total the cost came to five gold. The final thing he needed was an ‘item of time’, which, as he’d guessed, was almost as rare and costly as the void stone. Eventually he settled on a plant called ‘ageless ivy’, which cost him another eight gold.

Finished with his shopping spree john went about setting up the ritual, placing the six items on the pedestals at the points of a hexagram drawn within the circle. Considering the cost of the materials, John had decided to revise his plan, and fuse all the cores into one single large core. He would simply have to hope that BambooRooster could come up with a way to prevent discharging too swiftly or completely emptying the core.

He quickly created a lip around the circle to keep the cores in, and then started piling them inside. After a few minutes he had a large mound of cores inside the ritual, and was prepared to start it.

Stepping back, John tried creating six different strands of mana and found that it was difficult, but possible. He then tried to infuse each of the strands with a different element. Holding them stable became much, much harder, and he could feel he was straining at the edge of what he could accomplish with his current level of mastery. Unsure that he could hold it for very long, he fed the strings of mana into the ritual, and watched as glowing lights began radiating along the lines and patterns carved into the floor. After a few moments he could tell the ritual was satiated and cut the flow of mana, feeling more than a little relief at no longer having to maintain the six different strands.

Taking a step back, he examined the ritual once more.

[Name: Ritual of Fusion (Active)]

[Quality: Great]

[Description: Carefully constructed, this ritual is meant fuse together items placed within it. Because it was designed and constructed by someone with the Ritual Master and Ritual Mastery abilities it is 50% more effective at it’s given task, which is the fusion of materials placed within its confines.]

[Active Duration: 6 Hours]

[Effect: Will fuse contained objects, condensing them down to a single object over the course of six hours.]

It was a little odd, he realized, that he could actually see the statistics of the rituals, given how low his Inspect skill was. However, after a few moments of thought he realized it was probably because someone had told him what their base ratings would be, and which ritual was which. The rest came down to materials used, all of which had been Good quality, which meant the ritual’s efficacy wouldn’t be raised or lowered, so the final result would have to be the same as the base quality; or one step higher in this case, thanks to Slippery’s bonuses.

Satisfied with his own reasoning, he turned to the next matter at hand; money. He’d forgotten how expensive it was to purchase items for rituals, which meant he was wholly unprepared for the cost. Twenty-five and a half gold was, ultimately, a small amount (representing little more than two and a half dollars), but it was still half of his current funds. Unfortunately, this meant he probably couldn’t afford to run both the other rituals just yet.

He paused in his musings as the message module pinged him. A quick look showed the sender as ‘Aurum Industries’ and it was simply labeled ‘Patch Notes’. John wrinkled his brow in confusion. Over the last two and a half months there’d been more than one patch to the game, after all, no game was perfect right out the doors. However, this was the first time John had been notified them directly in game. Curiously he opened the message.

To whom it may concern,

A new series of patches have just been implemented and we have determined that several of them will impact you directly. Because of this we strongly suggest you read the relevant notes immediately so as to ensure that you are not led astray by false expectations. You may view the patch notes online, or via the help module.

Sincerely,

Aurum Industries

John ran his fingers through his beard as he considered the message. There were no hyperlinks, odd spellings or phrases, or anything else that suggested it might be spam, so it was probably a legitimate note generated by the system because it associated one or more of his actions with something that was patched.

“Help, what are the most recent patch notes?” John asked

[V 3.1.102 Patch Notes:]

Certain chemical substances will now appropriately respond to physical effects such as heat, light, and sudden shocks. (Thank you to TheAlchemist35 for discovering the problem in the Physics Engine, your nitroglycerine has been automatically moved from your backpack to your inventory, you're welcome.) The ratio of Raw Mana to Aspected Mana has been adjusted from 5:1 to 10:1 for consistency's sake, spell costs have been adjusted accordingly. (Thank you to Elsa331 for pointing out the inconsistency, please enjoy a complementary five minutes with the tutoring module, we suggest you use that time to learn Mana Drawing.) Mana Sight will now appropriately interact with Mana Manipulation, further details can be found online or through the help and tutoring modules. (Thank you to eLdR1TcH4BoM1N4T1On for noticing the lack of interaction, please enjoy your complementary five minutes with the Tutoring Module, we suggest you use that time to learn Mana Drawing.) Mana Manipulation has been rebalanced; this affects many mana subskills and spells. Further details can be found online or through the help and tutoring modules. (Thank you to all our mana using players, the data gathered from you was invaluable, enjoy a complementary cookie.) A small error in the Create Mana Stone spell has been fixed, the spell now uses the correct formulas for determining mana consumption rate and stone quality as dictated by the new Mana Manipulation rules. In addition, it will now interact with feats correctly. (Thank you to SliverOfInfinity for bringing the incorrect mana cost to our attention, please enjoy a complementary five minutes with the tutoring module, we suggest you use that time to learn Mana Imprinting.) Eating the Golden Apples of Immortality will no longer ban players with the message "If you can't play, you can't die." (Sorry Ophanim113. If it's any consolation, that member of the team has been fired and your subscription for this year has been refunded.) The instancing capacity of dungeons has been quadrupled by popular demand. (You can thank the dungeon nuts among you. Also, we suggest you ask the NPCs about 'Dungeon Breaks', it may be relevant in your area.) A small error in the birth rate of cats has been amended. Pregnancies should once again take the appropriate length of three months, not the previous three hours. (Thank you ForgottenPrince for catching that before catmageddon occurred, please enjoy a complementary Pet Slot, we suggest you use it for your cat. In addition, if anyone would like a free kitten, please say 'I would like a free kitten' at any time [while supplies last].) Players will no longer resurrect at locations that cannot support life and will instead be shunted to the nearest safe respawn point. (For those who have spent the last three days in respawn hell, we are very sorry. The perpetrators have been banned and please accept a complementary fifteen-dollar voucher that can be put toward one module of your choice.) Adjusted the way the Plant Tender racial perk and the Green Thumb feat line affect plants. Plants will now be affected at the time of planting, instead of at the time of harvest, and will degrade if not shown appropriate care. In addition, seeds planted together will be affected simultaneously, instead of individually. Currently planted crops will not be affected by this change. (Thank you to GrassGrower for the suggestion, we agree that it makes more sense, please accept a complementary five minutes with the tutoring module, we suggest you learn a few simple spells such as Move Earth and Create Water.) Bags of Holding and other spatially expanded storage devices can no longer be placed inside of inventories. As usual, placing such devices inside each other will result in Bad Thingstm. (Thank you to BrightPinkLipstick for reporting the error, please enjoy a complementary five minutes with the tutoring module, we suggest you learn Mana Sight.)

John frowned as he read the notes. “Help, what’s changed with Mana Sight and Mana Manipulation?”

[Answer: Mana Manipulation now allows manipulating multiple strands of mana starting at Novice rank instead of Journeyman, and allowing for two strands per ranking to a total of twelve at Grandmaster. Mana Sight will require one strand to maintain. Mana Drawing will require one strand per rank to maintain. Spells will require one strand per spell past the first. Mana Imprinting may be applied to any strand but will double the strain, causing it to act as two strands instead. In addition, a new feat (Mana Manipulator) will grant an extra two strands per rank.]

John pondered the implications of that for a moment. From the sounds of it the biggest change was to how Mana Imprinting worked. Originally, he could just apply any aspect to any strand of mana he was using, as he’d just done not long ago while activating the Ritual of Fusion. Now, however, he’d be restricted to three aspects at a time, as each ‘strand’ would count as two. This didn’t really impact him beyond activating rituals, so it was probably fine. The cost of upkeep for Mana Sight was annoying, but he could count on one hand the number of times he’d needed to keep up six magical effects at once, which meant he likely could keep Mana Sight running most of the time anyway. As for Mana Drawing, he rarely used it at more than its lowest rank when doing other things, so this likely wouldn’t affect it too badly. Finished with that, he turned his thoughts to the other changes.

A quick check of his spells showed that the mana costs had been adjusted from multiples of five, to multiples of ten. In other words, spell costs had doubled. For instance, a spell that used to cost five mana (such as Earth to Stone) would now cost ten mana, where as a spell that once cost ten mana (such as Move Earth) now cost twenty. This didn’t really affect John, given that the cost for a spell using the correct mana type remained the same, so Earth to Stone would still cost one earth mana, while Move Earth would still cost two.

The change to the way Plant Tender and Green Thumb worked troubled him the most and prompted his next question. “Help, if I plant a crop and my perk and feat work to upgrade its quality, will that also increase the amount of time it takes to grow?”

[Answer: No, the quality increase from a feat or perk will not increase the growth time of a plant unless it specifically states otherwise.]

John gave a quiet sigh of relief and then turned his eyes to the next potential problem. “Help, how will the changes to Create Mana Stone affect me?”

[Answer: The maximum rate at which you can generate a mana stone is now dependent on the number of mana strands you dedicate to the project, your rank in the Create Mana Stone spell, and feats and effects that multiply spell volumes. Further, the quality of the stone will now be correctly dictated by the combined total of your ranks in Mana Manipulation and the Create Mana Stone Spell. For you specifically, this means that your base creation rate (using all six strands of mana) will be twelve mana per second, increasing to one hundred and twenty while within your domain, and the maximum quality of your stones will be Exceptional instead of Good.]

The change in speed was interesting, but not great, and if he used all his mana strands at once it’d be a raw mana stone instead of an aspected one. A little math showed him that it’d run at one hundred mana per second using only five strands, which meant it would take barely two seconds longer to empty his pool and would bae able to produce an aspected mana stone (because he could use Mana Imprinting at the same time). The big limit on this cycle was his mana regeneration rate which (when he was using mana drawing at its maximum and in his domain) was only five-point-three mana per second, meaning it took about three and a half minutes to fill his pool. No, the real gem with this change was that he could make Exceptional ranked stones now. People had been paying two and a half gold for Good ranked stones, so he could easily expect twice that for exceptional.

The rest of the notes didn’t really pertain to him (except the bit about the cookie, if the apples and berries were amazing, he couldn’t wait to see what sugar tasted like), although it was interesting to note that there were ‘Golden Apples of Immortality’. Apples indicated seeds, which indicated a plant. John briefly wondered if Ophanim113 had kept the seeds, but quickly realized that he probably couldn’t get his hands on them even if the player had. They were almost certainly being buried under an avalanche of emails and messages right now.

The final one that might be interesting was the bit about cats. For a long moment John debated saying ‘I would like a free kitten,’ however, sanity quickly prevailed. What would he feed a cat? Where would he keep it? How would he prevent the chookers from eating it? Also, the text didn’t say what kind of cat, and if he were a betting man either Thuana or Ira would intervene and give him something exotic and problematic like a displacer cat or a lion. No, he was best off not treading that road.

Content with his choice, John went and sat in his room. He had six hours before the ritual finished, and maybe ten minutes more than that before he was booted from the game, that meant he could make about one hundred thousand mana worth of stones in that time. Given that an Exceptional stone (by his math) should be able to hold six thousand two hundred and fifty mana per inch, that meant a little more than eight two-inch stones. Hopefully each stone would sell for three or four gold. By the time the Ritual of Fusion was finished, John had made all eight mana stones and gained another point each in wisdom and intelligence. Pleased he placed the life stones in a sixteen-hour auction with a starting bid of three gold, and a buyout of five.

Heading out to the main room, John examined the results of the Ritual of Fusion. It was a large, off-white sphere over a foot in diameter. Carefully he picked it up and inspected it.

[Named: Massive Mana Core]

[Quality: Poor]

[Description: These cores develop in particularly magical or powerful creatures and can be used in a variety of ways that make them useful to both magical practitioners and alchemists, in addition they can store some mana. This one was created from the fusion of hundreds of smaller cores.]

[Mana: 0/507,500]

With a thought, John disappeared the core into his inventory and retrieved the cookie that’d been inside it ever since he read the patch notes. For the next few minutes he slowly devoured the chocolate chip treat, savoring every last crumb. The cookie was just the right amount of bittersweet chocolate lodged in soft, indulgent vanilla laced baked goods. It was possibly the best he’d ever had and it sparked a thought. He’d been considering just buffs and utilitarian uses when he’d been looking at plants, but given the amazing flavors in game there was a whole market for luxury foods as well. With a sigh of pleasure, he put ‘obtain cacao and vanilla’ on his to do list, finished the last bite of his cookie, and logged off for the night.