It takes him a few minutes but he comes backhauling a few boulders. He places them against the cottage and walks off again. The two boulders are massive, and when I check there is now more than enough stone.

Stone 5236/600

The category is also glowing there must be something special about the stone that is making it glow. When he comes back the second time it is with what looks like a whole tree trunk. The trunk has a blackened gash and is extremely weathered but is intact. When I look at it, I can see that the trunk is glowing. Unlike the other plants, I have seen moving through the forest when I use Identify I get a new line.

Lighting Struck mana infused stump.

This tree was struck by lightning and killed. Some of the bolt that killed the tree was trapped in this trunk. It was then infused by sitting next to a mana well for hundreds of years. This wood gains bonuses when used as a crafting material.

After seeing that I used Identify on the boulder.

Mana Stone.

These stones sat in a pool infused by a man well for thousands of years. This stone gains bonuses when used as a crafting material.

Once the stump was touching the cottage the wood indicator changed.

Wood 3678/500

All requirements met. Additional benefits granted due to high-quality materials used

I did not see it but there must have been leaves added when he brought the stump. When I selected the changes, the door opened indicating that I probably should exit while the changes were made. I step outside and the door closes behind me. When I looked back at the door there was now a timer counting down.

I now had three hours free. I took the time to talk to the guardian. While he might not have had updated information. He did have a lot of good information. We talked more about the races. The thing I found interesting was that, unlike the beasts who would keep leveling and evolving most of the races had level caps. The Ossum the goblins of this world normally capped out in the forties. And had an average level in the twenties on average. There were always a few mutations that were way more powerful than average. But those cases were the outlier, not the norm.

We talked about the Brack who are similar to the Ossum. They capped out in the fifties and had an average level in the thirties. The Brack like the Ossum were more numerous. They even dared to make forays into the forest every few hundred years. They would manage to take down a beast or two and then leave. This was a surprise but he said hunting parties of a few hundred could easily take down beasts in the forest. He informed me that even high-level beasts could be swarmed.

I also found that was not uncommon for lower-level beings to kill higher-level ones. There were a number of factors including luck that contribute to the event that could cause it to swing one way or the other. I had thought it was a rare occurrence. It was in one sense, but my situation was different. Due to the fact of my weapons being both advanced and enhanced. I required less luck to survive encounters that should have killed me easily.

He explained the reasons for this. The higher level you went on the scale of beasts normally the higher their inherent armor class became. This required the inhabitants of this world to get lucky to harm them. Since this world lacked steel production and was still in the midst of the bronze age. My steel being rare enhanced it, but the trip through the void had enhanced it even more. To the point that it flat-out ignored the natural AC bonuses the creatures here had. To normally fight a beast or creature you had to overcome its normal AC. So, if someone were to fight him, they would have to do more than eighty-four hundred points of damage. He gained double his AC while in the grove. Only the damage done above his AC would transfer over to his HP. It was the same with my AC something would have to do more than thirty-eight hundred points and then the overage would carry over. I did not discuss my armor’s ability to normalize to a damage source.

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There were exceptions to the rule for AC of course. Magic is one of them. Magic damage could bypass AC in most cases. There were of course specific instances where that was not the case. A creature with a high connection to earth magic would be highly resistant to earth magic. A bird-type beast would laugh off a wind-based magic attack. I laughed at this because even though we did not have magic at home we had figured this out inherently.

It was more of here because all beings including non-mages had access to a slight amount of magic. Most only had access to one aspect, having two was rare. More than that was like winning the lottery. This was another unintended outcome of the curse. It was also the reason why his friend had died prematurely. The magic change had made him violently ill and had shortened his lifespan.

He had become somewhat melancholy after that, and I had changed the conversation. We started to discuss my status as a traveler and what it meant. I was not the first traveler he had met. I was the fourth! Two of the three previous travelers he had met had come to his glad seeking asylum. Both beings were so different from the native populations they had trouble fitting in.

One had been insectile from a world where there was a hivemind. The transition had been so shocking that he had suffered a penalty to his INT. This had been offset by a huge increase in his physical stats, and a near-epic level hardening to his carapace. The population had thought he was some new form of beast and attacked him immediately. He had killed a number of them before he had retreated. He had leveled substantially and increased his INT to the point that he could speak, just barely. He had wandered into the glade and formed a much-needed friendship with the guardian. He had lived out the rest of his short life in the glade. His species was not long-lived and his severance from the hive mind had shortened it even further.

The next traveler that he had met was similar but different. She had been from a species that even now he could not pronounce the name of. From his description, she sounded like an Ewok. She had been taken in by the demios while being somewhat like them. She had not been affected like the first and lived out her life happy around the demios. From what she had told him, she had been an outcast. There had been something about her appearance that had set her people off and caused them to banish her. From what he said she was much happier in this world.

The last one he had met had been a boisterous alvair. Though he had said that his people had not called themselves that on his world. He had been a powerful arcanist on his world, and that talent had traveled with him. He had single-handedly advanced the alvairian’s understanding of magic and its application. While he had been slightly different from the native alvair they had never treated him any differently. In fact, due to his knowledge, he is a revered figure in their history.

Those were the few that he had met there had been hundreds he had heard of. Including several other humans who had arrived the same way. This had all been before the cataclysm of course. He attributes the cataclysm to several human travelers who arrived hundreds of arcs prior. While the humans lacked true mages, they had several magic users. Some of those were crafters of quite some renown. They had learned from travelers’ applications of magic that no one here had thought of. They guarded that information zealously, as they should have. They refused to teach the secrets to the alvair who became jealous. And the demons had become fearful of the human’s development. The last straw for the demons had been the humans causing the death of some of their kind in an engagement.

The demons then prayed on the alvair’s jealousy and the demios’ naiveite. They used this to create the curse, what the others had not known was that the curse was also meant to slow or eliminate the arrival of travelers. Travelers represented a true threat to the demons. They knew there were worlds where they knew to destroy the demons. So, they had poisoned the minds of the others against the humans. Rogul had not known exactly what the humans had done, but he had felt the ramifications.

We had been so deep in conversation that I had not even noticed the time was up. I was excited to see what had been done with the interior. When I entered the cabin, I was met with a redesigned interior.

The great room had been filled with a plush couch and chairs. The eating area had a large table and chairs. The kitchen was the most drastically changed. It now had a large stone island with additional seating. The counters were all stone and the stove was a weird mix of modern and steampunk. It looked semi-modern but had a place to put the wood to burn. It also had a large vent hood to remove the smoke. I had created a large outdoor space as well. With space for Akurra and a large table and outdoor cooking space.

The bedrooms were all filled with beds and nightstands. The master bedroom was larger with a full bedroom set. Additional furniture was available if needed. The bathrooms were all the same mix of modern steampunk. From what I could tell my attempt to create a hot water system had been marginally successful. The water got decently warm, but not hot hot. It didn’t matter as it would do for now. No one was taking hot showers in the middle of a tropical rainforest anyway.

After the day’s long talks, I took a cool shower and went to bed.