Michael POV:
Watching this strange but weirdly enchanting phenomenon occur, I saw the elves drop to their knees and worship. What did they worship, I wasn’t entirely sure... Maybe it was the World Tree towering with its shadow over the newly growing saplings, or maybe it was the Chaos God that brought them here and gave them the opportunity to witness such a wondrous sight.
Even Alexa wasn’t an exception, as you could read the awe on her face. There were some other feelings in there and probably given that these trees were supposed to be her new home, she might’ve thought about her old one and the story I’ve fed them. I felt a bit guilty…
“Alexa, this is only the beginning…”
I couldn’t think of anything else to say, but I could see her eyes clearing up a bit, hinting at a conclusion she might’ve reached. She will be a strong person to count on in the future.
The trees kept growing and I saw Mia walk into a group of girls and began gossiping and giggling with them. I could feel cold sweat forming on my back when thinking about how this AI might become slightly troublesome the more humane she learned to be…
To my surprise however, she grabbed a girl that was slightly smaller than her by the hand and led her to me. Mia was smiling, while the new girl was proudly following suite but didn’t dare meet my eyes for some reason. I really wonder what type of person they see me as…
[Michael, this is Denise!](Mia)
“A pleasure meeting you Denise. To what do I owe the honor of both of you coming to see me?”
[Go ahead Denise! It's your achievement so you are supposed to be the one to announce it…](Mia)
[Yes big sister… Hello! My name is Denise… uhm, you already knew that… I, I… I was able to acquire a new skill and a new job after following your advice and creating the tools you instructed us to.](Denise)
“That’s amazing! May I see your Status Page?”
[Of course…](Denise)
Name
Denise Greenwood
Name
Value
Name
Value
Job Name
Level
Progress
Race
Elf
STR
12
Magic
10
Elf Craftsman
4
6%
Sex
Woman
DEX
19
Charm
35
Age
4 days
AGI
16
Luck
25
World
Midgard
END
10
Concentration 8
HP
305/305 (+9.2/sec)
INT
25
Free Attribute Points + 20
MP
275/275(+3.7/sec)
WIS
18
Skill List Name Level Proficiency Crafting(Basic) 1 0%
Blessings Blessing of the World Tree
I was a bit shocked when saw the change to a different job indeed, even more when I read the description of the skill.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Crafting(Basic LvL 1) – improves the success rate of crafting an object you already have knowledge of by 20% and increases the chance of inventing new things by 10%.
Not only was this a passive skill, but it was only level 1 and at the Basic mastery. With a higher level, she could create even more professional tools that will surely be in a better condition than what I can reproduce from memory. Not only that, but it says that she has a chance of inventing new tools as well.
Concentration
The ability to clear one's own mind of useless thoughts and focus solely on the task at hand.
The higher the Concentration attribute, the easier it becomes for someone to give more than 100% in the quality of what they're doing.
“Denise, you see that attribute saying Concentration in your Status Page?”
[Yes…](Denise)
“From now on, make sure you assign your free attribute points in it as well. I would advise three points in Concentration, one point in Intelligence and one point in Wisdom. We will need you to focus on creating new and better tools from now on. Is that alright with you?”
[Yes! I really don’t see myself fighting monsters, or even hunting for food. It’s quite embarrassing for me to say that, but when I went foraging in the first day and crushed a berry in my hands I almost fainted when thinking it might be blood…](D)
[Hihi!](Mia)
[Big sister! Stop laughing! You promised…](D)
“Alright, alright! Both of you should focus and do what you enjoy the most. A really smart person once said that, if you do what you love doing, you won’t have to work a single moment in your life. Do you understand what that means?”
[Yes!](Denise)
“Good! I’ll look forward to your new inventions!”
I wisely chose to ignore the fact that this elven lady was calling Mia big sister, due to the fact that the answer as for why that was happening might give me a headache. But all in all is good to see them getting along that well. I turned to the 'big sister' in question and confirmed my theory with her.
“However… a skill and a new job. Mia, do you think that it might be because of repeated actions?”
[It’s possible master. Given that all the elves are already Tier 1, they were supposed to already have a job, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. So I can only speculate that those with affinity towards a specific domain will develop a new job easier. However, given that this happened only after we researched Tools technology, I strongly believe that there’s a connection between research and the jobs that our civilization can promote to.](Mia)
“Well, it did say that new jobs will become available. A craftsman is already impressive, but I’m curious if other will pop up as well soon. Like miners, woodcutters and others. Probably we’ll have to wait for the next research in order for that to happen.”
[I think so as well master.](Mia)
“What about the elven huts? How long will these trees keep growing for? They should be about 5-6 meters tall already…”
[Acknowledged! Analyzing… After my estimation, their growth should be at 90%. Is probable that the next step will be the infusion with mana, which might take a couple more hours.](Mia)
“So waiting around for that to happen might not be the best idea. There’s so much to do, that I have no idea where to start…”
[Well, how about we start from having more people focusing on resources since we still need more houses?](A)
“Alexa… I think so too. It will be the best to create all the elven huts required as fast as possible. Sleeping in the open might be fun for a while, but people need to sleep indoors or there’s a chance of disease. That and the fact that we’re still vulnerable to animal attacks, even if those haven’t occurred yet. Alexa, have Denise repair and replace the axes that need such actions and increase the number of woodcutters to fifty. The farmland reclamation team will have their numbers decreased a bit but make sure they keep working hard. By the way Mia, what’s the situation with the seeds? Are we able to plant anything anytime soon?”
[Unfortunately I haven’t been successful in finding anything yet…](Mia)
“There’s no rush, so don't worry. Right now, the safety is priority number one, building the elven huts second, the wall third and then the granary, warehouse and the town hall last. So Alexa, your job will be to ensure sufficient guards for each group out there, as well as to make sure we have sufficient fresh meat, given that everyone will require as much energy as possible.”
[I will make sure that happens! What are we to do about the Murlocs?](Alexa)
“For now… leave them be. However, keep an eye on the hunters with promise and rotate them with the other elves that haven’t changed their job or got specific skills like Denise. We need about 50 strong elves and we can easily clean the first floor. I’ll think of some strategies to ensure that no one will die as well…”
[I will keep that in mind.](A)
The Murlocs… After almost dying again and this time such an ugly creature, I might’ve grown a bit hateful towards the little bastards. But that fucking boss was strong and only Alexandra might be able to face it properly. So what about the rest? After they respawn, there might be more than a hundred of them in that little village, so just counting on Alexandra was a bad call.
Then what else can I do? 'Elven Spartans troops' resurfaced in my mind due to the fact that a certain civilization reigned supreme in the cold-weapons era. Why? Due to their rigorous training and the tactics that they deployed, like for example, the shield wall.
Who doesn’t know the story of how 300 Spartans stood against thousands enemies? Did they do that because they were brave? Maybe… However, more than that was their training, equipment and tactics that allowed them to perform such actions.
So I need to make sure we have better equipment before going back in again and train them a bit in fighting tactics as well.
[Master… you zoned out again… The elven huts are finished. Let’s go take a look!](Mia)
“I still find it amazing how excited you can be about this, especially taking in consideration all the knowledge you possess…” - I said under my breath
[Hurry up master!!!](Mia)
“Coming, coming…”
I stood in front of one of these wooden giants and prepared to explore the new building, while everyone was curiously watching us. However, before I go in, let's give them a little push…
“Everyone! These first houses were awarded to the ones with extraordinary contributions to our camp, however if you help the woodcutting team to bring the wood back to our clocation faster, we’ll be able to create the remaining ones faster. Also, this is only the beginning! Soon, even better things will be available for us. The only thing we need is to work together and bring them into existence!”
There was a huge clamoring among them and an obvious flame burning in the eyes of all the girls. I couldn’t help but see the guys as puppies waiting to be adopted…
Shaking my head and chuckling at the unaware gazelles about to be devoured by the lionesses in this clearing, I walked inside the elven hut Mia picked as our own. There was an actual door we were able to open and a small room with an indoor flight of stairs leading upstairs. I truly wondered if there were hinges that automatically came with the houses, or if there was something else altogether...
“Let’s go Mia, Alexa. Weren’t you curious about what’s there to see inside?”
[[Yes!]]
They both run up the stairs and we were soon in a large room with windows. I blinked twice in confusion due to the fact that there were windows on a tree that's supposed to be a house, but given the fact that I was currently in a world I help creating from a primordial times, I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised.
The room was… pretty much a kitchen with a huge table and chairs in the middle. There were also drawers on the sides of the ‘walls’, where things could be deposited. Seeing another flight of stairs, I knew that there was going to be a bedroom… the problem was, how many beds will there be?
The answer to my question… one! Just one huge bed occupying half of the room and again, another huge drawer that was probably designed for clothes, sheets and other stuff like that.
“Sheets in the Stone Age… haha…”
Drily laughing because I was scared to actually think about how I can’t sleep at all and I’ll have to share the bed with both Mia and Alexa… I was seeing the color blue for some reason…
[Michael, I just realized what we’ll need…](Mia)
“Cond… what exactly do you have in mind?”
[Cond? I was thinking about sheets and bed covers. Also clothes and shoes… We can’t have our people keep walking barefooted in the forest…](Mia)
“Y..yeah… you’re right…”
Fuck that was close! While increasing the population sounds amazing, having children all of a sudden is not as fun as it might seem… So, yeah, I was thinking about condoms…
However, clothes and shoes. A tailor is needed for the camp and the sooner we can get someone with a similar skill, the faster we’ll be prepared for winter.
“Do you think I should try to create some bed covers or some rugs and have others work with furs as well in the hope that the same thing that happened with Denise, will occur again?”
[It’s worth trying. Plus that it might help us with future research…](Mia)
Seeing that nobody brought into discussion the issue of sleeping into one bed, I avoided it as well.
“I can’t exactly have the girls sleep on the wooden bed, so I should do something with the furs caught…”
I left the girls behind and headed towards a group of four girls and one guy tending to some furs near one of the roots of the World Tree. Why? Because the furs require air and other things like salt for example, which we don’t have. So I decided to make use of the World Tree as much as I could.
“Hello! How’s the work going?”
[Hello Mister Michael! Is going great! The furs are now clean and they smell just as good as the blades of grass in the morning.](Random Elf no 4)
This guy has a really good way with words. He will surely be popular with the ladies… Also, he's the dude that received the Dismembering skill book from Mia.
“That’s great to hear. Go and grab a group of 15 girls from the farm reclamation unit and bring them over. We’ll start using these furs and I’ll teach you what you can do with them.”
[Understood!](Random Elf no 4)
Looking at the available materials, there were just furs of deer, skins of boars and feathers of the pheasants. Apparently everyone caught those poor birds in excess due to their sweet and succulent meat. So the feathers… were even more in numbers than the furs.
“If I can find a way to sew them together, I can create some pillows with the excess of feathers and the furs can be used for some bed covers as well. As for the boar skin… I really don’t know how to create shoes from that, so I can only let it here for now.”
[Michael sir! I brought the people, what are we to do next?](Elf no 4)
“We’re going to start another Arts and Crafts class, of course!”