“Alright, if you're going to stay here we still need to make sure that this crop gets out in time before winter so that thousands don't starve this winter.”
“I get that but why not allow my men to also help? It was my fault you're having such a difficult time now, let me fix it.”
“You still don't get it… I guess while I'm training you I should also knock you down a few pegs.”
He started from the very beginning. I thought we would just start planting seeds but he was having the children do that. First testing which seeds would most likely grow by placing them in water. The ones that would float on the surface of the water aren't usable. We begin plowing a field while the children plant behind us. He doesn't have any animal drawn plows so we have to do it manually… This would be great training at the same time as you prepare the field… Perhaps this is how my grandfather stays in such great shape. He is 1 of the only humans I would say is on my level of strength still. Halfway through the first field I take off my weights, suddenly plowing 2 times as fast as my grandfather… Perhaps he isn't on my level after all.
4 hours of plowing fields later and I have to go to the bathroom. I half expect to be pointed towards the woods but he sends me to a little cabin beside his house… Wouldn't having an outhouse this close cause smells to pollute the air around his house. It would always smell like shit… But it surprisingly doesn't. I enter the outhouse and inside is a wood seat with a hole cut in the middle. A rudimentary toilet but far better than the chamber pots the citizens were using until I installed toilets for them… Merideth still uses chamber pots as well, that city will need more than a few days of installing an actual sewer system in the future.
Curious as to why it doesn't stink, I lift up the seat and notice that inside is dirt mixed with poop… So using this is probably what he uses in place of fertilizer. Layering over the top of what I just pooped out with a layer of dirt quickly covers the smell… To be honest this is by far the best toilet I have ever seen that wasn't reliant on a water source to wash away the poop… Perhaps using this method of toilet would be better for cities not close to a water source. So not only would these toilets get rid of a huge problem with big cities (waste). It also cheapens the cost of farming by using this as fertilizer. Subtle things like this often get overlooked by those without knowledge.
I finish up my business and get back to work. We work for another 2 hours than eat lunch, we ate a very big breakfast consisting of plenty of the meat I had brought as well as a similar amount of vegetables. I ate the same amount as everyone else did put together. The same went with lunch, this body consumes more food than 5 average people. If I hadn't brought another similar amount of food plus food for myself I wouldn't have eaten with them. 1 of the little boys asked me where I keep getting all this food. I told him that I teleported to my fortress and picked up some… I could tell for some reason my grandfather didn't like that. He let the children play while we continued to work for another few hours. Most of them were worn out and I went to heal their hands that had begun forming calluses but Gray stopped me… Why!?
“What happens when you heal her? Does it magically make it so she'll never get calluses? No? So by healing her you're removing the protection her body is making from the pain. Unless you can heal her hands every single day she'll just have to rebuild up any calluses that she has.”
“Still, she is in pain right now. I can relieve that pain.”
“What happens when you aren't around to make it better? You're just taking progress away from her by healing her. I doubt you haven't put much thought into this yet… If you were to suddenly disappear, where would your men be? Would they be able to coup without you around? How much will your men be able to do without you?”
“I… They could still manage.”
“If you could teach someone to fish, or give them a machine that could catch fish for them. Which do you think is more helpful if you aren't around to fix the machine.”
… I guess he's right… Now that I think about it, most of my men have only scratched the surface of their potential… Anything involving 2 or more classes or jobs would become far more difficult if not impossible to do without collaboration between men with different jobs… Just thinking now, it would take a blacksmith, engineer, automaton creator, enchanter, woodworker and construction crews to make the dragon without my help… I doubt anyone besides me could ever make something that elaborate by themselves… That's the biggest problem too, I've shown them a world they could have. If I suddenly died they would strive for so many impossible things they couldn't do by themselves...
Truthfully, I've only been making problems for my army if I am no longer around they would quickly fall apart… Gobber might try to take over and handle the situation but many of my men don't look to him as a leader… Green as well as most of the elementalists, demon tribesmen and kobolds wouldn't stick around for very long… I doubt many generals would stick around for very long either if I were to disappear. I haven't really thought about it until now but I'm the only glue holding my army together… Gray noticed I had become lost in thought and speaks to snap me out of it.
“Sometimes solving a problem only makes the problem worse down the road. Making sustainable solutions is far harder than quickly fixing a problem with no thought on the future.”
...He's right. The way I have been going with my army they'll become too reliant on many of the conveniences I've given them. If any part of the army were to decide to move on we would be far weaker because of that… Even something as small as the chefs leaving would quickly become a huge problem.
“Sometimes it's just better doing things the hard way… Speaking of which, are you ready for some training?”
He takes up a defensive stance… From the looks he might know some type of martial art. What a basic stance, it is 1 of complete comfort though. Years of fighting bar brawls and competitions must have evolved this stance. I really thought we would just start with sword fighting but this is also fine. I might pick up a new style by fighting him… I take my aikido stance… Then switch to my circle walking stance… No, karate seems to be the best counter for this. The quick shifting of stances made him drop his own.
“I see you've already been trained… I would suggest taking your most defensive stance. Fighting me without properly guarding is going to end badly for you.”
Fine… I take up my stance, the 1 I made is the 1 I feel most comfortable in. Kite stance or the stance-less stance. I prepare for him to come. He waits to see if this is the stance I decided on for a few seconds… When I didn't move he decided to go. Rushing into almost range for me to strike, stopping just before he does. Not for very long, as if he waited there to see if I would swing at him thinking his momentum would keep going forwards. He was testing to see how green I am at fighting… A smile formed across his face that sent a chill through my spine.
He lunged forwards, I swung my right leg at him. He ignored it, moving forwards still even more, all of the momentum from my kick was lost as he stepped into it. He is only inches away from me. I go to jump backwards but he already has me grappled. Pulling me into a headbutt, FUCK! He doesn't stop there. Three quick knees to my stomach just before he throws me to the ground. I land flat on my stomach then he jumps on my back, knees digging in…
WHAT THE FUCK!? I'm an experienced fighter and he's completely embarrassing me. He starts throwing punches at my head. I couldn't control it, without realizing it I accidentally let Wrath out. In the next moment he was thrown off my back, the momentum he had used was now used against him as Wrath jumped into the air before he could land and proceeded to pummel him. No fancy stance, punches being thrown so quickly they would be extremely difficult to block against. Gray still managed to get his hands and knees close together up to soak most of the hits. Just as I think he is going to yell or say something we both hit the ground and he immediately attacks with the renewed aggression.
I've been forced out of my body, I can only watch as Gray and Wrath strike each other. Almost no defense is used in either of their styles. Both are taking significant damage but still continue to push the attack. Neither giving up. Even though I was pushed out of my body I can still feel every blow, each with even more force than the last. Wrath swinging so hard my knuckles start to hurt from the blows. If we weren't both super humans this would end in 1 of our deaths. Both back off at the same time to catch their breath. The only thing I can hear is Wrath laughing loudly in my head.
“HAHAHAHAHAHA! THIS OLD MAN! THIS OLD MAN IS NOTHING LIKE THE LAST! LOOK HOW HE FIGHTS!! HE'S NO COWARD LIKE THE LAST OLD FUCK!”
Gray also hasn't lost his smirk. Blood pours down his face in streams, to the point where he could easily pass out from loss of it. I am in no better shape, the moment Wrath retreats back to my memories the wave of pain hits me. Wrath was limiting the amount of pain I was feeling somehow. I've sort have become more tolerant to pain but this… FUCK! DAMN I HURT ALL OVER! He puts his hands down and can only laugh now.
“HAHAHAHAHA! That fighting spirit you got is sort of a family trait. Only we can get that mad. It's good to see it wasn't lost on you.”
The 3 children peak out of Gray's house. All watch on in amazement at the fight we just had. I start instinctively casting healing magic when I hear him yell.
“What did we just talk about!? You can't take this halfheartedly. The moment you heal yourself your body will stop learning from the pain. Embrace that pain boy, it is the fastest way to learn.”
“Alright… I guess if I'm going to take you on as a teacher I have to listen to you… We'll do it your way I guess.”
That night I dealt with some things I had never dealt with before. I didn't learn anything from my grandfather yet, it will probably take a few more training sessions to learn his style. Getting home Leaf noticed my injuries and asked why I wasn't healing them. After explaining she just said.
“Ah, makes sense.”
Am I the only 1 who doesn't understand why I'm not healing myself? I couldn't get much sleep, the pain was too much for me to sleep. I think I've become too accustomed to not feeling pain after the first jolt of intense pain. I've been able to heal myself my entire life so I sort of forgot what it was like to feel pain like this… It is honestly far more terrible than an intense pain I could cure. It messes with my day far more than taking an injury than healing it.
The next day I go to the farm and expect to need to work but he pulls me aside to tell me something.
“Listen… I can't do something since I have to work on the farm but I'm afraid the children might wander off into the house close by.”
“So? What's wrong with exploring.”
He rubs his face stubble as he tells me something most people wouldn't believe. It seems even he doesn't believe it but still doesn't want it to be true as it might hurt the children.
“Hmm… Well… Can you please check the old house close by anyways… A few years ago, 1 of the traveling merchants who came by selling goods said he tried to search the house but was attacked by.”
He takes in a deep breath and second guesses what he is about to say again.
“He said it had ghosts in it...”
...Hmm… Most people wouldn't believe in ghosts. Only religious zealots believe that their souls stay around after death. I know better than that but any number of monsters could be misconstrued as a ghost. My guess is that is what had happened. I'm not foolish enough to believe that souls can't stick around either… I've already dealt with someone becoming a lich, the chances of other methods to prolong your life at a cost might also be the cause.
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I separate from the farm and head in the direction of the old building. He said it is about an hours walk into the woods but I can cut that down to about a 10 minute run.
Yay for fighting! Sorry for the break been hitting the games pretty hard with all my free time lately. Should be back on schedule 3-4 day releases here soon. I've been really thinking about what is going to be happening in the future. Normally I have the big plot points mapped out while I had several smaller chapters where I think of things on the fly. I'll do research on bigger plot points like the construction of boats and the names of everything involved with that theme while just making things up on the spot like meeting the lizard men. Well I've had plenty of time to think up more of the story so the next 10 chapters should be alittle better constructed than the rest... Maybe, I'll really have to see how it feels compared to the rest of the book because this might be how I write from now on.