Well, my plan hasn't changed much; it's just increased in intensity. For now, I'm going to put aside some of my other construction plans and focus on making a space for a thousand Orcs to stay in.

The most important thing isn't their comfort, it's mine. And I don't want to see whatever happens after mates are chosen.

Thus, I plan to shove them all underground.

I have my earth magic and , and I have my holy magic . Making a livable cave system shouldn't be too difficult. I'm just worried about the amount of magic power this is going to consume.

Sure, it would take less magic power to just create a huge building for them all, but I don't want to raze the forest to make room. All that wood will just be sitting around until we find something to do with it. Not to mention, the village would get even hotter.

Now, let’s see. The entrance should be right around… there? I arbitrarily decided to put the stairs next to the East entrance. In order for lots of Orcs to pass side by side, I make it fifteen feet wide.

Using and over and over for each step is pretty annoying. Isn't there something more suited to making steps? Something so I could use to carve out a right angle instead of shaping the top and side of the step separately?

[[Conditions met. acquired.]]

Oh, so it’s . Great, let’s use it quick to embed it.

[[Conditions met. Set completion has caused first level spells , , , , and to unify into second level spell .]]

Ah! Perfect! One spell that can use any of the others in any combination! So, I can harden the stairs as I carve them, and dig away the earth overhead while hardening the ceiling. It uses more magic power than any of the first level spells individually, but being able to combine functions actually means I'm saving magic power. This is great!

I cast every couple of feet to keep the place illuminated once the stairs are fully underground.

I dig to the level where there will still be a few feet of earth between the cave ceiling and the village floor--even with a high ceiling. And that’s all the magic power I can spare.

I’d like to go hunting again to recover it, but it’s getting pretty late. When I return to the surface, I see that the women are already starting the fires for dinner.

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Fire! That reminds me! I still have to check on the effects of . My first skill set increased my stats, and my first second level spell gave me the ability to combine spell effects. I don't believe that unifying resistances won't give any kind of benefit. It consumed five percent of my magic power forever, after all. If it isn't better somehow, I think I'll cry.

So without hesitation, I shoved my hand into the fire.

… Well… I don't feel hot at all. I guess the effect is slightly more powerful than ? Ah, hmm…

Fuck?

I didn't want to ask anyone about this. If I ask questions about too many different skills, won't they find out that I have more than ten skill slots? But, I'm really not willing to leave it like this. Five percent of my total magic power was consumed! Forever!

At times like this, I go to the walking encyclopedia known as Fiara.

***

“Hey, Fiara, do you know anything about resistance skills?”

“Hm? Oh, hello chief. Yes. What are you wondering about?”

“It consumes magic power to unify resistance skills, right? Why would anyone do it then?”

“Why? Well…” Fiara put down the piece of leather she was drawing on. I could see a fairly detailed drawing of the War Monkey we fought earlier. Is she making a record of the Magic Beasts in the forest? She’ll be thrilled when I teach writing tomorrow. Ah, no. Focus!

“Resistance skills have different strengths depending on how much magic power is consumed when you acquire them. After that, there’s no way to raise the effectiveness without erasing the skill and learning it again, but resistance skills are dangerous to learn. By unifying skills, you get the chance to put more magic power into them, thereby increasing the effect.”

“It just makes them stronger?”

Please tell me there’s more to it than that!

“There’s more. Other skills can be “juggled.” Without embedding them, you can use them once and then switch to using a different skill. It's difficult, but you don't actually need to learn most skills to use them. On the other hand, resistance skills are useless if they aren't embedded. The first attack with magic or a weapon skill will do damage, but the first encounter with something that can be resisted… won't defend. They inevitably take up space, so being able to unify with even just two resistances is considered a huge blessing.”

“Oh, I see…”

Yeah, for normal people, those two reasons would be more than enough. But I don't seem to have a limit to how many skills I can embed, so it's not worth all that much to me. Man, I messed up this time. It’s pretty depressing.

“And there’s one more thing.”

Eh?

“Unified resistances are dual state.”

“Dual state? What is that?”

“They're both active and passive. Passively, they resist things that could damage you. Actively, you can use them to manipulate those things. It's similar to a magic spell. Within a certain range and intensity, you don't even need to consume additional magic power to use them. However, you can expand the range and effect by casting it like any normal active skill. I'm actually envious of people with unified resistances, but I need to save all of my skill slots for my magic. Juggling two elements is really difficult.”

… Ha… Ha ha ha! Yes! Then, if I'm to take this lesson at face value, I can cast like I would a spell. A spell for insulation? What I accidentally stumbled upon was the miracle of air conditioning! I don't have the air or ice attributes, so I had given up on finding luxury in this heat.

Ha! Five percent of my magic power wasted? No! Five percent of my magic power well spent! Now how well can I insulate without expending any magic power…?