The first thing Josh did was not actually related to his new spell. Instead, he simply went back to the citystone and swapped out the stored blueprint. His palisade blueprint was useful for defense, but for utility, the [Wooden Wall] was far superior. Used properly, it could build an entire structure. Every wall, including the ceiling and floors, could be made using it. If the town needed to modify it after it was made, they could do it manually. He'd already had a few carpenters knock out doorways on his little wooden cubes.
Baara appreciated it, and Darius approved. Anna called it “boring,” and Mary seemed like she agreed but didn't want to say so. Ruth, on the other hand, asked the important question: Was he getting experience every time someone used the spell he had put in the citystone?
The answer, unfortunately, was no. He did get experience when he used it, and a slightly larger amount than when he cast the spell without it, but it seemed like he didn't get quite that big of an exploit. Baara promised to let him use the citystone as much as possible. When he wasn't available, she would have the [Crafter] kids do it for the experience.
Part of him was annoyed that she had slipped into the mayor role so fast, but it wasn't like he had ever wanted the job. The people seemed to like her better, too. As much as people had hated the old mayor, a violent—if bloodless—coup still rubbed them the wrong way. Having a quiet, earnest young girl slowly take the job seemed to sit better with them. Maybe they should hold an election soon.
Once all that busywork was done, Josh returned to the pit. Anna and Mary ran off to see if there were any monsters left around the broken dungeon, while Josh and Beor returned to the tunnels that he had dug. He wanted to check on the cars that he had found.
No one had done anything with it in the past day, which was to be expected. Most people in the village came down in the pit to hunt for mushrooms, not explore potentially dangerous side passages. Especially now that they had an Alchemist who needed materials for her experiments, and a lot of materials for her successful potions. People were practically stripping the pit bare. Josh was actually a little worried that they'd run out.
But just a little worried. It was hard to beat back the Jungle's ridiculous growth rate even when you were explicitly trying. Taking samples, spores, and whole mushrooms was not going to kill this little fungus forest unless they scraped it down to the bedrock.
The cars still looked the same as when he had left them. The windows were broken, the tires blown out, the seats ripped or rotted. And of course the chassis was so rusted that it was hard to get the hood up; last time, he hadn't even tried.
He started with the windows, as a test. He had some glass on him, and had previously confirmed that glass counted as stone for the purposes of his abilities. Obviously, he didn't have any piece big enough to replace one of the windows wholesale. However, all the pieces of the broken window were still here. In theory, his spell should be able to fix it.
A single casting drained his entire mana bar, even when it was boosted by a crushed runestone. That wasn't ideal, but the result was a perfectly clear glass window that looked fresh from the factory. It didn't even have any cracks. He would call that a success.
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He continued working on the car, focusing on one piece at a time, starting with the most damaged parts. He didn't try to fix the entire car, or even the entire engine, he tried to fix one valve. It cleaned itself of rust and aligned itself with the fan, even as his mana drained again. His power did nothing to the plastic parts, but thankfully they had replacements for most of those that were too far gone to salvage. Plastic tubes and hoses were easy enough to make or find, and they'd brought a few spares from up above.
That was how he continued his work, over and over. For hours, he would focus on a part, use his [Repair] spell, and then move on to the next one. He got so deep into the pattern, casting the spell and meditating or drinking a potion to recover his mana, receiving a tool from Beor and swapping in a belt or a hose, that he completely lost track of time. He only remembered where he was when he received a level-up notification.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 41 Metalcrafter! You have 1 free attribute point and 1 class attribute point to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.
Josh blinked himself out of his fugue. He allocated his points as usual, more out of habit than anything else. He was going to continue, when he looked down at the car's engine compartment that he was working on.
He was only halfway done.
He'd been working through every single part he could, one at a time, gaining experience every time. He hadn't been paying attention to how much, or bothered to make any predictions on how long it would take him to level. He had figured he'd fix the car, then check his progress.
There were a few empty mana potions scattered around him. He hadn't needed a potion after every casting, and he had dozens more. He had mostly used his [Meditation] skill while working with his hands to make up his losses.
He glanced at his watch and saw it had been a couple hours. That was pretty fast progression at his current level, and all just doing what should be absolutely basic for his class. Glancing at his experience log, it didn't seem like he had gained any unexpected windfalls. Repairing the car was, technically, no more profitable than repairing the table earlier had been. The difference was that there was a lot more to repair.
He put his tools down to think. Next to him, Beor paused, then started organizing their materials. Josh ignored him. He hadn't come down here for the experience. He had genuinely wanted to repair these cars, because he thought that they might be useful. He had a dream about making a flying car, even if that was a ways off. But now...
He had made quite a bit of progress on his levels in just a few hours. What if he went full speed, burning through as many mana potions as he could get his hands on in order to level as fast as possible? That was an acknowledged, though expensive, strategy in the old world. It ran into diminishing returns eventually, and it wasn't really an option these days, as there were no Alchemists to make the mana potions.
Except now they had an Alchemist.
Josh decided to finish the car in front of him for now, to give himself more time to think. Without using any more of his mana potions, it took him significantly longer. By the end of it, he was dirty, his hands were black with grease and oil, and he smelled like he had just rolled out of a tire fire. But the car started when he turned the key in the ignition, and the biodiesel they had brought down worked as well.
And he leveled again.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 42 Metalcrafter! You have 1 free attribute point and 1 class attribute point to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.
Josh smiled. Yes, he could work with this.