Finally!
He had breathing in order. Will quietly pushed a small barricade in front of his saving grace. A thick sturdy door with no lock. Woo! Score! It definitely wouldn't hold against his pursuer but it would let him come up with a plan for what he hoped to be a counterattack. William turned on his feet as he looked around for helpful materials. He found some untarnished linens under the bed and spotted what looked to be a high, roof rafter his plan formed. By the time he had himself in perfect position his plan was flawless. That is until he heard thumps on the door.
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Seven days ago.
As the hall had erupted in cheers. Will had to shush the gathered survivors back into silence after a minute.
"Alright you've had your moment. I'll keep that group as busy as I can. However, this does not mean you may sit idly. Kena told me your village was burned to the ground and ransacked of supplies. You will not survive the winter if you don't have the basics of survival."
Will held up a closed fist. The villagers looked at it still slightly unnerved by Wills power over vocal talents. As William listed things off a finger would be raised. "First of all living things need water and food in that order. A creature cannot live on one without the other especially water. I can fix your water problem easily enough, as a show of good faith. Food however, is something all of you must solve yourselves. I have ideas but I require payment for such aid. I respect the law of 'no one deserves a free lunch'. Secondly a creature needs shelter and protection. You have this large hall for now but I hardly call this living. It also won't serve as protection. I was told this building doesn't catch fire but I keenly remember it was still ransacked. I also have methods for these complications. But again I do not work for free. There are other things I may reveal if time permits. But that requires a contract to be made.”
After finishing his speech and the older villagers had started talking earnestly to each other. William turned to Kena and asked for a tour of the village. Kena obliged.
Kena painted a beautiful picture of a self sustaining village on the outskirts of civilization. The village had everything from a clothier, tannery, soap maker, even a potters workshop and a few other such small amenity buildings. Near the fields and pastures there was even a windmill. It would be positively breathtaking if it wasn't in absolute ruins. Kena hadn't been joking around when she said that the place had been put to the torch.
However, on this tour William was most interested in the Vun Blacksmith. A few pointed questions were given to Kena. Such as if there was iron nearby or her family bought from traders? What did they burn to reach workable temperature? Much to William's delight there was a mine and some sort of black rock that the Senior Vun kept a secret. Then came the 'but'. The mine was infested with goblins and the location where the black rock was, died with Vun Senior. When the two reached Kena’s family home William felt the brief tingle every adventurer gets, the possibility for looting. While Kena forbade Will from ransacking the house, nevertheless the workshop was fair game. Scrounging around Will found a few slagged remains of some sort of metal and it would do well enough for his purposes later. His other finds were a few other pieces of metal their shape now unrecognizable and a few pieces of slightly charred leather that were saved from the flames by what seemed to be the remnants of a thick shelving unit.
By the time the two of them were done scavenging it was nightfall. As the villagers gathered for the evening meal it seemed they had taken his words to heart. There seemed to be some scavenged bags of flour and gathered wild produce. Nothing to supply the remaining villagers for long but it would definitely supply the calories for the needed work ahead of them. William hoped he could be the driver of such efforts. But that was hopefully after he fixed their collective water problem. Which is exactly why he was excited to see several piles of various aggregate and clay.
He had to admit his seven minions did good work. Exactly as he asked, with enough for some other projects depending on how [ Create ] interacted with having actual materials. While food was prepared Will secretly experimented with his skills a bit. Using some grass he managed to [ Create ] a rudimentary rock sling.
The skill itself took the various grasses and expertly wove the individual blades together into a strong mesh for the pocket of the sling the actual chord seemed to involve fusing the blades into several long strands then twisting them together into rope. Will honestly was amazed at the skills ability to skip so many steps. Though he noticed that the cost increased if the spell completely took control and did all shaping and work. In theory the cost would exponentially increase thankfully he was working with grass even with the shaping and magical fusing it seemed the sling itself cost a whole whopping ten mana. Will was estatic it meant that his water purifier might be easier then he thought. He then received a light slap in the face.
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[ Congratulations!! You created a Grass Sling via [ Create ] the tier of this item is Junk!! ]
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
[ Would you like to add Grass Sling to your [ Design Library ] ?
[ Yes ] [ No ]
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William wasn’t exactly ecstatic to hear his creation was considered junk. So he tried using the sling and immediately found why it was junk. Not even through his first rotation the grass chords of the sling snapped. Thus sending the pouch and its ammo flying into the dirt behind Will. Will immediately pressed no. Then turned around to see several children staring at the grass pocket in front of them. One of them promptly picked it up and ran away with it. Will shrugged not like he was going to use it. He then realized his plan might fail. If shaping and fusing cost depended on material he had a problem. He then decided to do a quick test of what happens if his skill had to heat an object. He took some of the fine sand a tried to make a tiny glass bead the diameter of his thumbnail. Will brought his character page up before invoking [ Create ].
[ Name: William Willow
Age: ???
Deities of Worship: [ Lilith(Love/Lust/Law) ]
Class(es): Arcane Engineer Lvl: 1
Experience to Level: (150/300)
Health: (9/10) Health Regen: 1/hr
Mana: (200/200) Mana Regen: 2/min
Stats:
Strength: 11
Dexterity: 11
Constitution: 10
Will: 18
Intelligence: 16
Charisma: 16
Points Available: 0
Skill & Curse List:
Class Skills:
[ Create Lvl: 1 ]
[ Conceptualize Lvl: 1 ]
[ Contract Lvl: 1 (1/2) ]
[ Design Library [Passive] (Entries: 1) ]
Learned Skills:
[ Universal Translator [Passive] ]
Curses:
[ Curse of Thalassophobia ]
[ Curse of the Pacifist ]
]
Hey I finally know my regen numbers. Why is Lilith's name now bold, like a skill?
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Deities of Worship: [ Lilith(Love/Lust/Law)
Skills given by deity (Can be removed):
[ Immortal Lvl: 5
Description: You have ascended mortality. You now have eternity to ponder and pursue any fancy you please. You no longer have the need to sleep. You may also forgo food and drink but can incur negative mana regeneration if done for too long. While you are immune to death it is not so with pain. All spells, strikes or environmental factors will cause the real equivalent amount of pain. The feeling as well as the bodily reaction to said amount of pain will also not be lessened by this skill. If any of these cases prove fatal and cause you to expire. An incorporeal form will be ejected until your natural health regeneration brings your body back to basic function. If your body is reduced to pieces before this process is complete you will instead reform to the tangible form you created upon receiving the third level of this skill until natural regeneration restores all health. ]
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Note to self never piss Lilith off. It also means she chose my form… that… sounds… wonderful. I really hope it’s not weird. Anyways lets make a glass bead.
As Will invoked [ Create ] on his collected sand. The sand in his hand glowed without heat and fused together up until it hit a cost of a total of one-hundred and fifty mana. That was three quarters of his total on a tiny glass bead. He was a long way from waving a hand and creating something from nothing no wonder the suitcase of nuclear fire had cost millions of mana. Will tried a few more small things after he accepted the glass bead into his [ Design Library ] and was proud to find his minuscule glass bead to be a rare tier item. Looking at the [ Design Library ] it seemed to track mana cost in just straight mana or using various materials including showing that if he had actual clear glass and created the bead the cost went to near nothing depending how much glass he used. While these skill revelations dampened Wills mood slightly it meant that both growing his mana pool and leveling his skill could increase his efficiency. The more sour note in all of this is that he now more then ever really needed to create a contract with Kena or at least one of the villagers.
Since he more or less out of mana for the next few dozen minutes he worked through the many steps needed to make the water purifier by hand instead. All the steps were fairly easy and found everything could be attempted in the morning if he could heavily rely on his band of merry minions to split the work. With a plan formed he spent the rest of the time before the villagers bedded down experimenting with various materials to see the costs. Turns out all types of earth except for clay and fine sand had a universal cost to shaping and forming as long as he kept it simple. He tried making a baton of stone but ran into a problem of not enough mana. Fortunately he found out, that material being used to construct an object would retain its form and he could continue his shaping until it completed the only caveat was that the mana cost seemed to have a rising constant the more he tried on a incomplete object until the progress ground to a halt.
When the villagers eventually went to sleep he tried as well. He found that he could if he wanted but instead of actual rest it was just a way of relaxing nothing else. Unable to sleep and no one to talk to Will went back to experimenting outside and found [ Conceptualize ] was great at night. He could work in absolute darkness and form an item without seeing the material in front of him. He could get the object in [ Conceptualize ] perfect then flip on [ Create ] and either get the finished product after one or fewer tries or an incomplete hunk of junk to be recycled. After many hours of work and the first rays of sunlight coming over the hills the unwelcome slap in the face of a notification woke Will from his concentration.
[ Congratulations!! The skills [ Create ] and [ Conceptualize ] have both leveled up!! The efficiency and area that can be affected by both skills has increased. ]