Dinner was fairly standard fare, a stew with some basic bread rolls, but it was filling and tasty so I wouldn’t complain anytime soon. As everyone took a spot near the cooks area on logs or the grass Mircha stood to make some announcements.

“I will try to keep announcements that aren’t system based to each night, figure easier on everyone to keep things regular and at a time most of us gather anyway” Looking around Mircha seemed happy with what he could see “Everyone is here tonight, and I expect will be for a free feed every night” Mircha stopped to laugh a deep belly full laugh at his own joke for a very long minute “so we have a few things to cover. Firstly yes we think there is a low tier dungeon nearby, no you will not get any shiny system bonus for finding it, we will organise access once we find the entrance and conditions for entry. Please do not enter if you find it without talking to someone, at the least we want to make sure people aren’t unaccounted for so we don’t waste time searching for someone who isn’t actually missing. Secondly we are going to be placing our settlement core stone tonight, I only have a common grade air core, however with some decent upgrades we should be able to get some kind of defensive measures in place soon. Third and final, with that core placement the settlement will be named and the system will grant titles. Please remember titles should be verified by asking the other person to share their name and title portion of their status. I will also get a list, so if you need to find someone to help with something feel free to come to me, the guard will also get a copy to use if you find it easier to talk to them. Now let's eat, relax, and soon the core will be placed so we can all officially start” Having said his piece Mircha settled down on his log to dig into his food.

Devouring my way through I was more distracted with my reading on mana crystals, from what I read Bren was right, my mana should create a small healing effect. The usual problem was mana crystals slowly spent themselves over time, however if my thoughts on what the cave would become when my quest finished was right it might have enough healing-fire-phoenix stuff mana to sustain them or at least make them last a really long time. Hopefully it also clarified just what my mana type was.

As I was getting ready to put my bowl back in the pile to be cleaned, really glad healers didn’t have to pitch into kitchen duties seeing how big the pile was growing, one of the hunters stood on a log “Right, afore everyone runs off we are starting levelling hunts from tomorrow. If we find something best suited to you, or your level, we will come grab you to help out. You can reject a levelling hunt unless it's something we absolutely need to cull and require your skills for, but I wouldn’t recommend it as it is free levelling plus the more combat experience our little home gets the safer we will be in the long run of things” as he hopped down I made my way back off to my cave, wondering when if I would have a chance to get to level twenty soon, or if they would even want their healer doing hunts risky enough to level me quickly. Even when I was training with the guild rather than let me fight actually risky fights I was hand fed selected fights to push me to level 10. Healers so rarely saw proper combat, or had a full team supporting them and no desire to hunt, that it just wasn’t considered worth the risk. It also meant I had never gotten ‘true’ experience, only experience shared which just felt cheap honestly.

The following morning I started working on my first mana gem as Bren put up the initial walls, so far they were just going to be large walls of stone with sconces for my mana gems or torches if my gems don’t work out well for light sources.

The pattern in theory was simple, allow your mana to pool in your hand then as it follows its natural path loop it back to the start and add another layer, continue this until you reach a suitable density. The main issue I was having is that even a seed for a mana gem took 250 mana. With my whole 60 mana this meant I had to meditate to regenerate the mana as I poured it in which was a distraction in and of itself.

*Ding - Skill Passive Mana Regen unlocked from Class pool.

Unlocked due to restoring mana manually from the environment while actively creating a manual spell form.

Skill Passive Mana Regen unlocked from Class pool.

Unlocked due to restoring mana manually from the environment while actively creating a manual spell form.

Quickly pulling up the skill I was ecstatic, while I knew it was in theory possible to learn skills ahead of time it required knowing your class pool of skills to what you could get outside of generalist cards. With my class being one that didn’t seem to have been documented I was more working off hope then any real idea of what was possible.

Passive Mana Regen: Regenerate your full mana pool over one hour when at rest. When active, restore a quarter of your mana pool per hour.

At that rate currently it was one mana per minute, which wasn’t too bad, that meant a new mana gem seed would take me a bit over four hours. A basic mana gem then took a thousand mana, so another 750 minutes if all went perfectly.

And looking down I realised that might be a bit too hopeful, as in my excitement I had let go of the pattern for the mana gem releasing my mana out to the air creating a small warm breeze and not much else.

“The core of those walls are done, if you finish a mana gem or even a seed come let me know. One of the hunters is a mage with a skill to identify mana types that is fairly well levelled, so he might be able to help you with some insights into your mana to know how the gems will work” As he spoke Bren wiped dust and dirt on his trousers from his hands, before waving and wondering off no doubt to grab lunch.

Accepting that I should eat before diving into trying to finish off this seed, I quickly jogged to grab lunch, vegetable wraps today with a dark spicy sauce that was almost too much but tasted good regardless, before settling down in my spot to work on this seed.

Feeling my new skill kick in as I started putting mana out into its pattern I fell into almost a state of meditation just feeling how it flowed, and felt. A very slow and careful flow made its way around, which seemed wrong for something based in fire but felt right for this little flame of mine. It also seemed to desire to loop back into itself, which might be the Phoenix aspect of my class making itself known if the stories were remotely correct.

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Like this I slowly lost my afternoon, until suddenly enough that I almost fell over the pattern clicked into place and a seed was made.

Mana seed created - 15 Exp awarded for creation.

Additional reward: First time creating an uncommon or above gem. Mana pool increased by 10.

My first, truly, self earned bit of experience and system reward was for crafting something I didn’t even know anything about, beyond the fact that it made my modern conveniences work day to day, three months ago. Laughing to myself I realised just how much joy that simple pop up brought, it was a symbol of achievement just as much as the actual mana gem seed itself.

Looking at said gem I noticed it was much darker then the fire gems I had seen previously used for cooking in the fancier stoves. It had streaks of lighter red through it, and a soft glow currently from its centre. While before it was a mind consuming process to keep the pattern in place now I could feel the pattern settled and anchored to that centre, ready to just take any mana I could give it and infuse it itself.

As much as I wanted to rush off to bother Bren and his friend I realised it was almost time for dinner, and I should make my way over. Pocketing the gem to work on while I walked over and ate I got up and started the short trip that was already becoming routine.

Tonight was some fish some of the hunters had caught, wrapped in some leaves that smelt like mint but were much larger, almost like a palm leaf. As I was eating I kept my seed in my left hand so I could slowly feed it mana as it regened, hoping to get my first full gem made soon.

“Nice little seedling there, I’m Sven, the mage-bane. Bren said you had a mana type I might have not seen before and looks like his right, mind if I take a peak? I can share the inspection with you after if you like” As he spoke Sven held a hand towards my mana seed.

I had heard of mage-banes before, classes that specialise in investigating and fighting magical creatures, creations, and of course mages. “You're welcome to look, any help would be good, but do you see something different when you inspect it? I only see that it's a mana seed, and that its only uncommon tier”

“Ah, never met a mage-bane I took? That’s fair, we aren’t a common class, and usually stick to new settlements. To answer what I think you're going to ask plus your question now. Firstly new settlements because we get a huge chunk of experience anytime we find a new mana type that is uncommon or above, so none of the typical fire or aether stuff. By share inspection I mean once every week I can give someone else a copy of the information my skill gives me about one mana type, letting them identify it and work with it better. Unless you're a multi-chromatic mage that usually works for all of your own magic. Also no I don’t eat magic, I don’t hunt mages while they sleep, no I have never killed a person, and in fact my own class specialises in unweaving and understanding enchantments' ' As he spoke Sven looked like he was reading from a textbook.

I felt slightly guilty putting someone out who was trying to help, so I passed my mana seed over. “Sorry I had heard most of that during training, but I had expected to become a crafter so I have some gaps in my learning. I didn’t mean to be rude there, but I would love any help you can offer. I can’t trade much but hopefully my mana is different enough to get you some experience at least”

“Oh yeah it is, nice solid seed by the way if you can get it made into a gem and into a suitable environment it will take years to wear down fully. Must really align with your personality to mesh so easily when your so fresh to manually crafting with mana”

Sven wants to share insight into mana type ‘Origin: Styx - Mana seedling’. If you accept, you cannot accept another mana insight from Sven for thirty days. Y/N?

“Go ahead and accept that, it will give you a display with some breakdown on your mana, how the gems can be used. Even how it might work best with other mana types or if its one of those that don’t play well with others. I gotta go get some sleep, hunting early, but feel free to swing by after the morning hunt gets back in if you have any questions” As he walked off I realised he was wearing a normal tunic and trousers, which would be normal except every other hunter I could see was still armoured as they only recently got back. Wondering how he fought to allow him to either be armour free, or not comfortable keeping it on longer than required, I accepted the prompt.

Shared information from Sven:

Mana information: Phoenix fire aspect: A fire based mana grown from the concept of a phoenix's life cycle. Stronger in healing aspect over harm aspect. Suitable for short range combat and healing. High probability of creating mutations in bloodlines. Not compatible with any other known mana type.

Seedling information: Phoenix fire seedling: A seedling containing Phoenix fire mana. When built and ignited this will create a moderate amount of light which contains a small passive restorative effect. Uncommon grade.

While this information was limited by Sven’s own knowledge it was great to see just how lucky I had gotten with my class. Setting my mind to finish this gem as fast as possible, passive restorative effects would make my job as a town healer a lot easier, so I headed off to get some rest before another day at it.

As I got to my cave I got a notification that the town core had been placed, I realised in getting distracted talking to Sven I forgot I had wanted to see how that worked.

Village core seated. Village has been named and officially founded. Good luck in your trials and tribulations founders, may you flourish.

Village named: Horusum Village bonuses: Reduced spawn rate of creatures hostile to village in a small radius.