"Hoi, there," Dylan greets me as he approaches with his son in his arms, a small frown on his face and curiosity in his mind. "Is that a new bracelet?"
In addition to my old stasis pocket bracelet, I'm wearing my new one on my right wrist. He saw the warp bracelet with his last visit, which is why he's only asking about the one. My dusk-sight bracelet, the two new storage bracelets, and the storage cuff are stored in one of my brother bracelets.
There's no issue with storing items with spatial pockets inside of others – it's not as if a pocket dimension takes up any real space. It's a concept which I've seen even townsfolk and cityfolk get confused by so I'm definitely not going to try and explain it to someone around here if they ask outside of "it's magic".
If there's one thing I've learned about the common folk over the last seven years, it's that the simplest explanation can sometimes be the best when it comes to magic.
"Another stasis pocket bracelet," I confirm as I give both him and his son a quick examination.
After nearly a month of eating a relatively decent diet, they've both put on a little weight. Neither of them are scrawny anymore, just a little on the skinny side. Even with that, I can tell that Dylan is toning up as well – the work he's doing helping me around the property has helped his muscles build a little.
That's good. I'm not feeling responsible for him or anything, but I am coming to see him as a friend. Seeing a friend of mine and his son improving makes me feel good knowing that I'm part of the reason for it. It was a bad hand they were dealt and Dylan finally has a little bit of a way out of it.
Though I'm not going to let him rely on me for that forever. I'm willing to give him food or even supplies in return for his help with stuff, and I'm willing to watch Nolan a little if he needs it as a friend, but he's still his own person. It's better if he's able to stand on his own.
As a friend, I want to give him a little boost on that. It won't be free, of course, but I'm sure he'll appreciate the help.
"I want to talk with you about something regarding our arrangement," I tell him. "But it'll have to wait. Thomas is on his way over for some reason."
"Thomas is?" Dylan frowns. "Why?"
"Don't know," I answer. "Could be because of the waystone, but I'm not sure. Figured he'd activate this one when he comes for his lesson tomorrow."
I did teach him how to use them yesterday – realized after I got home from town that I hadn't done that. He knew how to activate them so he could use them, but not how to actually use them. That was an important piece of instruction I left out when setting up the one in the village.
We wait for Thomas to arrive and when he does, he activates my waystone before approaching us.
"Hoi, there," I can feel a question in his mind. He came here with a mission. "Had a request to make, if that's alright with ya, Rowan."
So he didn't come here to activate the waystone, even if he did activate it. Why skip doing so when it only takes a moment and was on the way, after all.
"It's barely time to start making breakfast," I tell him. "You're here rather early."
Dylan and Nolan are, too, but I told them they could come up for breakfasts, too. It helps if they have enough fuel to make it through the morning work. Eating just potatoes and maybe some berries or a piece of fruit doesn't provide that.
"Yeah," he says. "I could've come later, but we figured it'd take some time to get the stuff to the village if you agree. The docks down at the beach need replacing, we noticed it during the festival. They ain't in the best of conditions. We normally use trees nearer the edge of the forest when replacing 'em, 'cept figured some sturdier ones might do better. And, well, you've got quite a lot of 'em you ain't using. So I figured I'd come ask you."
That's why he wanted to arrive so early – because he'd need to clear a path between here and the village so they could pull a wagon through to bring the trees back. The undergrowth is too dense for that once they get within a few miles of my place. That will take them several hours to do, so it's better to start earlier in the day than later.
Otherwise, they might not have enough time to start working on the docks today.
"I don't mind so long as there's a trade," I say. "But that does mean increased Strength is needed. The slimmer trees around here need around 30 Strength to cut effectively, and I had to enhance my own with magic when I was first cutting them, before I switched to using magic."
The way I did it wasn't a proper structured spell, so it didn't grant any Skill EXP. There is a related spell that feeds into [Arcane Magic] and [Casting], but it's less efficient than doing it with raw mana manipulation. Even with the boosts I'd given myself, it still took a lot of extra effort – I wasn't chopping them as efficiently as if they were a normal tree and I had 10 Strength. Each chop was about a third as effective as that.
"If you're wanting one of the thicker trees," I say. "They're a lot more durable, but take a lot more effort. At least 75 Strength if you want to do it quickly. I do also have some that are already cut into boards and such and treated with alchemy to resist rot, so they're able to last a lot longer. Given the salt and magic in the water, and other factors, they'll last about thirty years."
They probably need to replace the docks every five to seven years, due to those factors. Weaker trees without additional strengthening wouldn't be able to resist the weathering very long, not when magical properties mix in.
"That said," I add. "I'm not giving it away free. It did take effort to cut down those trees, cut them into boards, posts, and planks, and then treat them with alchemy. If you do use those, you'll need to borrow special tools I have which have sharp enough blades that they can cut through with less force and special nails that can actually pierce them instead of just bending at the resistance of the wood."
"We ain't expecting it for free," Thomas tells me. "We had a village meeting 'bout it yesterday," aggravation fills Dylan's mind, which informs me that he wasn't invited. "And everyone put a little together to pay you for it, if you were willin'. We all use the docks, so we want them replaced. Just food stuffs."
And now I know why my instincts were telling me to hold off on buying certain things: because I would be receiving some today. I really don't have a problem trading away some of my wood, even if I have enough of it to just give some away for free.
"I take it the plan was to bring the payment when the wagon for the wood arrives?" I ask.
"Yeah," he answers. "I'll need to clear a path back to the village first so we can bring it through, but should be back in the afternoon, 'less it takes longer than I'm estimating. Whether it's just a tree or two or cut wood, either works for us. I take it you ain't gonna accept just the food if I ask for the tougher wood and need to borrow some tools?"
"Depends on how much food there is and what it is," I hold out my right hand, and one of the spatial pocket bracelets appears on my palm. That startles both Thomas and Dylan, both of whom have confusion in their minds now. "This is a plain storage bracelet, one without the stasis enchantment. You can borrow this to bring me the payment now, and to bring the wood to the docks. That should make things faster."
"You're letting me borrow something like this?" He asks. "Ain't it expensive?"
"Considering it's a seventy-five cube," I say. "Or seventy-five feet on each side? Yeah, it's fairly expensive. The materials alone are over 500,000,000 ciirvrios. That's five platinum coins, by the way. And the enchantment cost is another plat per foot along the side, and that's before factoring in the cost to have it forged. Total? It's about 90 plat."
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There's shock and fear filling his mind. Even Dylan – who isn't borrowing it – feels fear and hesitation. Why they're afraid, I have zero clue. This is the first time I've offered to let someone from an area like this borrow an item like this, so I don't exactly have the experience to know. If it was just Thomas, I could guess at the reason, but Dylan? Nope, not a chance of me guessing that.
"I trust you have enough sense to keep track of it and make sure it's returned when you're done transporting the wood," I tell him. "And I do actually have something I would like your help with, if you're willing. The plan was to ask you for it when you came for your lessons tomorrow, and hash out what my payment to you would be then."
"What?" He asks.
It doesn't seem like he's accepting the bracelet just yet, so I send it back into storage.
"First," I say. "Would there be an issue if I cut down trees at the edge of the forest? I need a lot of slimmer ones to build myself a new house – I want round logs, not square. I know I'm a bit away from the village, but wanted to check just in case."
While I did already do that a bit for the original expansion to the existing cabin, I'll need a lot more for the newer cabin. And I really should have asked first, just in case of a problem. No one's said anything to me about it, but that could also be out of fear of retaliation.
"No," he answers, and it feels like an honest answer to me. "Ain't a problem if you do that. Forest used to be a lot further from the village and it was easier to keep it back, but our population's too small now to maintain a border. Ain't really been a problem for us, except for beasts and monsters coming out more."
"Alright," I say. "One of the things I wanted help with was cutting them down, removing their branches, and storing them in spatial pockets. Then, in constructing my new home."
I look at Dylan.
"That's what I wanted to talk with you about as well," I tell him. "I'm strong enough I can just knock all of the trees down in large batches, and I've obtained at least three or four of each useful plant within the yard range that we'll find here. That means that using [Flamethrower] on the undergrowth after taking down the trees won't affect anything. You're getting more than just reading lessons from the help you give me, and helping me build the house is my requirement for further additional assistance."
The additional stuff which Dylan receives is the food he eats here and the meat I send back with him when he leaves, which is still plenty.
"Ain't got a problem with that," Dylan rubs his son's back a little as nervousness enters his mind. "I wanted to talk with you about that, actually."
"You did?" I raise an eyebrow.
"Yeah," the nervousness he's feeling increases. "Wanted to ask if you'd be fine if we moved up here."
"Up here?" I ask.
"Not in with you," he hastily says, though I can tell there's some hope for that based on the feel of his mind. "I meant, like, across the stream. My own place. The reason for living down close to the Wi-down near Magus Robin's place isn't really important anymore, and it'd make coming here for lessons and work easier if I just need to cross a few hundred feet instead of a mile."
He's not being fully honest, but I can understand why. I'm the first person in a long while who hasn't treated him like he's a fool for raising a cursed son. The first person who's treated him like a proper person. The first person who's treated his son like a normal kid. Someone he's beginning to see as a friend as well and is hoping for something more with, even though I've made it clear to him there won't be.
Most importantly, I'm actually socializing with him. Being able to talk with others and just hang out is something he craves, and which requires a decent trip with his current home.
"And I don't mind building it myself," Dylan adds. "Just ain't sure if you'd mind me moving in nearby. Or how close would be too close if so, since it seems you're taking up quite a bit of space."
The amount of space I'm claiming is quite a bit larger than the properties in the village.
Most of them have around half an acre to maybe an acre and a half of land. Possibly more if they have animals that need to graze around.
Just from my house to the stream is 300 feet, and that much to the eastern cliffs as well. I've decided that – at least for now – my property's southern edge is about 100 feet from the cabin, and it stretches all the way back to the cliffs 500 feet north of it. That full square of space will be useful to me so I want it all as my property. In other words, I've claimed about 8 acres of land.
And that's just for what I've already been working on clearing out.
"I don't mind if you do," I tell Dylan. "One of my projects was actually building a structure across the stream after the cabin was done. Though thinking about it now, building it before might be better."
"A structure?" Thomas asks.
"Yeah," I hold out my hand again, a slimeball appearing on it. "I want to build a slime farm. I can turn these into new slimes, which will produce goo, which I can use in a variety of things. Potions, salves, food, construction… it's pretty versatile."
"Ain't that monster goo?" Dylan asks as Nolan looks at it. "You can eat it?"
"Yeah," I answer. "Can use it to make a few different sweets. The idea was to build a barn just for them. Thinking about it now, might be better to get that built first. They don't take much effort and they'll just keep producing their slime, so I can get that going before building my own house. Using their goo between windowpanes reduces heat transfer. This means it'll keep things cooler in summer and warmer in winter."
Slime goo doesn't conduct heat very well and if treated and applied right, it's as clear as air. That means I can use it to stick the panes together and see through just as well as if it was a single pane I was looking through.
"Silvia passed away," Thomas states, and I raise an eyebrow. "The day Chief and I returned. We went to deliver some of her requests and found her in her chair. So she won't be able to make glass for you, you'll have to go into town to commission the windows."
Judging by the feel of Dylan's mind, he wasn't informed of this either. I'm not bothered by the lack of information coming to me as I still haven't been accepted as a part of the village yet. Dylan, however, is.
Hopefully, they can all get over themselves and start treating Nolan like a normal kid soon. Though prejudices do take time to get over, even when there's evidence proving it wrong, I can still hope.
"I can make glass myself," I state, and Thomas blinks a few times as he processes that. "Conjure it via magic, I mean."
"Then why ask about having some made?"
"You offered," I remind him. "And I figured, if it meant someone in the village got some help, then I'd be willing to do that."
"You can really make glass with magic?" Dylan asks.
"Once you're strong enough," I put the slimeball away and conjure a small blob of glass, which quickly reshapes itself into a dragon, its crystal-clear body becoming tinted with greens, its eyes and horns shifting to a golden color. "Takes about 25 Magic to shape glass with magic, but about twice that to conjure it."
A lot of glass workers who use magic to do it are skilled mages, but also often lower on the power level and so still need to make it the old way. Since I'm pretty far beyond both of those levels of magical power, conjuring and shaping it isn't too difficult for me.
Though I can also cheat a little when doing the manipulation part. When I made the arrowheads for Thomas, I technically wasn't strong enough to. That's the real reason I heated them up while crafting. Once I was at the level of being able to manipulate the metal directly, I could even manipulate it so that it would be as if it had been forged with heat.
"What kind of magic is that?" Thomas asks.
"Earth magic," I answer. "Glass is just another type of earth, when it comes to magic."
"Huh," he says. "Never knew magic could do that."
"Magic can do quite a lot," I tell him. "Ever seen a meteor streak across the sky?"
"One crashed down when we were kids," he says. "I was four, I think? Maybe five. It's still there, actually. Landed near the beach."
If the villagers don't have an issue with someone harvesting the meteor, I might look into it at some point. Meteors sometimes carry with them rare minerals not normally found in the world. Or easily found.
Some of which can be quite useful in magic.
"There's a spell which can manifest an entire swarm of them," I tell him. "Enough to wipe out an entire city. Fortunately, it's a pretty expensive spell, and a pretty complex one. You also need to be good at both fire and earth magics and have an extremely high amount of magical power for it to really be effective."
"I take it that means the Goldelm Kingdom ain't got anyone who can?" Thomas asks. "Since they ain't wiped us out?"
"They do," I say. "A couple of their strongest archmages know how to summon a swarm of meteors. The problem is that they aren't the only ones with archmages – and we can defend against it. We also have archmages of our own who can cast it. Some of them on an even greater level than what they have. Some of our mages are even so far above theirs in power, it's an uneven match-up and can't be considered fair. In all honesty, the reason the war isn't over is because we aren't trying to invade them, we're just holding the border while trying to let them exhaust themselves."
Most of our strongest archmages are nearing magus status, so they're not as interested in doing more than holding our border. However, it means that the Goldelm Kingdom is struggling in their war. They will eventually give up.
Then we can demand reparations.
"Okay," he says. "Well, at least it ain't affecting us out here. And regarding things out here, I don't mind helping you with the house," he looks at Dylan. "Nor you, if you do move up here. An extra set of muscles should make it easier, and I've done plenty of hunting lately."
That comes off as just "I've got nothing else to do" by the words alone, but judging by the slight relaxing of Dylan's mind and slight skepticism, he's realized what it really is. Thomas wants to help make up for how he's treated him in the past with his offer.
"Then it's settled," I send the glass dragon back into my storage and summon the stasis bracelet I'd pulled out before. "Why don't you go get the payment for the lumber and while you do that, Dylan and I can discuss where his new house will be."