I started to test my construction sight. At first, it was just easier to notice things that weren't made by nature but continuing to play around with this sight, it also pointed out some mistakes that would have made the water wheel stronger and last longer, the same with the smithy building. It was a bit annoying that I could only now see these mistakes but there didn't seem to be any crucial design flaws, so it didn't matter too much.

The design mindscape was a lot more interesting. Simply using it required only a small amount of energy. I could even design buildings and everything else that I could dream about. The problem was that it wouldn't represent reality. If I wanted to design a huge tower using just blades of grass it would look like it could work but, it wouldn’t. It was just a simple design tool that would change if I started to supply it with more energy. The more I supply the more complex the simulation will be.

Things like gravity and wind were quite cheap to add but adding fire or perhaps explosive force would need a lot of core energy for every tiny simulation under extreme conditions. Using my material modification ability, I could also take a piece of wood and simulate it perfectly.

With this simulation I could, for example, make a bow completely virtually but that seems to require stupid amounts of energy even for me and with my experience making bows in reality it was a lot easier to just work like I used to. This might be, however, quite useful if I get my hands on some extremely exotic materials so I could test what the real capabilities of those materials are.

Unfortunately, my pause was over, and it was time to get back to work. With my apprentices, we built the water-catching system and then started to make the wooden aquaduct which was actually just a square wooden open pipe supported by wooden supports that took the water near the vegetable fields. Building the aquifer will take a while and free time I didn’t have. Luckily, I didn’t need to concentrate on this, it wasn’t hard work and was good practice for my new apprentices.

Inside the smithy, I worked to finish the power system that will make the blower work. I just needed to add a drive shaft and the gear system that will make the rotation motion off the water wheels shaft and transfer it to the gearbox shaft.

After I was done, I tested out the blower and it worked excellently. With this, it would be so much faster to forge or smelt metals. For that reason, I also built quite a large smelter and a few other things needed for this smithy that would be permanent fixtures. When the iron oak sheds its leaves and acorns, I will also make an even larger anvil for my future needs.

For the next week, I helped my old apprentices with their buildings. It was also an excellent chance to test my new abilities. I was able to fix some of the mistakes we were going to make before they happened. I was not a skilled architect, I just knew the basics, but with these abilities, it was easy enough to make the new building better. The one exception was George’s building where we asked one of the professional architects to help solve one of the problems that we were having.

Most of my time is still used to train and on occasion go out hunting. I didn’t need to go on a big hunting trip as I had plenty of time to level up before my birthday. It was almost a month ago when the trait giant amongst men started to act up and I was already over an inch taller.

Thanks to all the training my body was keeping up so there weren’t any problems with my flexibility. My body felt so powerful and on occasions, I have accidentally broken cups, forks and even an axe handle that broke from my grip when I cycled my energy a bit too fast.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

For that reason, I’ve also spent more time meditating so I would be able to keep up with my body’s advancement with my mind. I was quite exhausted from it all but I knew that this was important, so I kept pushing. Fortunately, I knew that there was an end to this madness and that was on my next birthday.

Arthur was almost finished with his building so tomorrow morning his friends and my apprentices are going to go there and celebrate. He only had a window cover to install and then he was done but currently, he was marking his territory with the border stones that he had worked on making for the past few days. I pushed tomorrow’s plans to the back of my head as I needed to focus on the current meeting.

This was quite an important one as the goblins were also in attendance. They had come here to buy some food but also offer a new deal to sell more copper, tin and tar for exchange of credits that they could use further down the line. This was quite good for everyone but currently, they were just discussing the prices while both sides tried to get the best deal. But that was about to end as we were getting close to an agreement. After that came a more important discussion.

“We are pleased about this trade deal, and we are happy about our continued relationship. Not long ago we received some important information that we want to act upon, but we would not only want your cooperation but to be partners and work together to claim this resource.” One of our diplomats said, which instantly put the goblins on guard. They were getting a lot better at diplomatic negotiations.

What followed was the explanation of the dungeon found which the goblins already knew about but they didn’t know about the extent of the dungeon and its importance. It was agreed that going through the goblin-controlled land was the best choice so now we were trying to convince them to agree to this idea. We didn't have the delusion that they would accept instantly as this probably required every important member of United Freeholds and the Goblin council to meet.

The reception to the idea, however, was quite good. They didn't much like the idea of a road that they didn’t control going through their lands but the fact that we were going to need to push into the swamp and quite far in meant that area was going to be a lot safer. I couldn’t be certain but if I was the goblins, I would use this opportunity to expand along the road where it would be much safer as we would want to keep the road and its surroundings safe for our citizens.

It was a complex problem and a long-term project but if both sides agreed it would be beneficial for us all. The goblins will also be able to dive into the dungeon meaning they would be able to supplement their falling population with stronger fighters which should be able to guarantee their safety and food supply.

By the end of the meeting, everyone looked quite satisfied. I didn’t waste my time and as soon as the meeting ended, I headed back as I had quite a lot of training to do so I could enjoy tomorrow.

For some reason, my mentoring skill levelled up at the end of the meeting. For the last 30 minutes of running back, I have been trying to figure out why. There was no one there that was my student and the skill previously needed me to be teaching my apprentices to level up.

Was it just a little xp from my apprentices that happened to come in during the meeting making this just a coincidence or was it something more? Did my comments about working more closely with the goblins be considered mentoring even to people who weren’t directly my students?

I might never know this, but this level-up was important as it tiered up the skill giving me a choice of abilities. The choice was a simple one and brought a smile to my face. It was another sight ability. Although this one had a weird name, needs sight. If it gives me knowledge of what plants or animals need it might be redundant, but I felt it was more than that and it felt powerful, so I didn’t hesitate to pick it.

It does seem to indicate what plants or animals currently need. Mostly water, but there seemed to be more, but I felt too weak to figure it out. That was a weird feeling and something I hadn’t felt for a while now.