Year 1566, summer.
They wound up discussing late into the night and planning again for a few more days. Officially, it was announced that Luca had joined their parties. But they agreed that Luca wouldn’t have to adventure but would prepare for the expedition overseas. First, he would unlock his class and see what bonuses and specializations he could get. Then he would recruit civilians for the expedition and try to find the best people in every field as well as people who would be ready to start a new life.
As the continent was recovering from the war against the demons, talented people were a very sought-after commodity, but there were plenty of orphans to pick up from the streets and who would be willing to bet on another life overseas. The number of orphans was quite alarming as the fertility rate of women was extremely high and pregnancy, in this world of stats and numbers, barely stopped women from working for a few days. So the recruitment plan of Luca would have two sides: find high-level civilians, and recruit and form a number of orphans. After all, the expedition wouldn’t launch before three years and when 15 years old was the age of adulthood, he had plenty of time to prepare young adults.
His third task would be to prepare the expedition proper: arrange for ships, decide the location, plan the building of the town, scout information about the continent, and so on… For all this, the four other heroes would give him some of their earnings gained through adventuring. This had been a tough point to agree on but ultimately Luca convinced them that investing their money early on would prove greatly beneficial in the long run.
The days spent planning and thinking had been some of the best days in Luca’s recent life. These were people who came from his world, who found it odd that the loo weren’t automatic, that their strength or their concentration wasn’t determined by their effort but by some stats, that people found it more efficient to kill each other with swords than with long-ranged weapons… He had been so engrossed in his planning that he almost didn’t realize how the pressure he felt ever since he had been announced as a hero gradually lessened.
Now he was back at Dawnheart and he needed to get his class. And his class better be good or it would all be for naught.
During the ride back he had succeeded in drawing an uncommon rank blueprint of some woodworks and jewels. This gave him a trickle of experience, but he needed to do more if he wanted to level up at any decent pace. He had ideas for a couple of new skills which would benefit him.
The first one was to try and write a complex book. He started by writing dissertations, using his memories of social sciences and philosophy from back home. The first works produced nothing, but as he finished writing his own explanation of Weber’s theory on the origin of capitalism, in an adaptation to the new world he lived in, Luca was rewarded with the chime of the system’s acknowledgment.
[Congratulations! You have conceived and written an original masterpiece [The Spirit of Capitalism (epic)]book. You have been awarded 1000 exp.]
[Congratulations! For composing a book with new and original ideas as well as defending them with talent, you have been granted the [Composing (theory, rare)] skill. You have been awarded 1000 exp.]
[Congratulations! You have reached level 8. Experience to level 9: 1070/2560]
That felt good! And the experience bonus was amazing: Luca quickly checked the skill description.
[Composing (epic) lv1: Helps you organize ideas and better see the links between concepts and realities. Can be leveled up through recurrent writing of theories and intellectual innovations. +1 Int +1 Wis]
This would help him immensely for his class. It was also very valuable that the skill granted him direct stats, which then help all of his other skills. Luca knew from what he had read that the composing skill ranged from rare to legendary, but to have it above rare meant you wrote something deeply original. Thanks, Weber for the tip. He wondered what else he could plagiarize from his world, and also for how much he could sell it to the royal library…
----------------------------------------
As it turned out, political essays were not in fashion in this world where absolute monarchy reigned. This was both a good and a bad thing as the librarians had outright refused his works but he wrote a few other epic rank books plagiarizing political essays from Earth. Reaching epic rank was easier when there was no real concurrence on the topic. With the bonus experience he gained, he was on the verge of level 10. Luca had stopped writing as there was two more skills he wanted to gain before choosing his class and all the experience would be wasted if he trained them once he was level 10.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
The first of the two skills was [Tinkering]. He felt that if he wanted to help crafters classes he’d need, at some point, to understand what they worked with by himself. Of course, he couldn’t learn specific crafting skills as those were class restricted, and even if he could, he had taken an oath not to become a crafter.
That didn’t stop Acai from eyeing him suspiciously when he lead him to a public workshop where he practiced making some of the simplest designs he had drafted. It took him a few days to gain the skill and to make it reach level 10 but as far as he was concerned that was worth it. He now understood much better what crafters were working with and he felt more keenly the difference between materials.
By now, pretty much everyone in the crafters’ district had guessed that the hooded person was the Vomiting Hero, but the excitation around him had calmed down. Still, there was always a few orphans following him around, sometimes poking or making fun of him.
As he had finished leveling up the [Tinkering] skill, Luca went on the last part of his plans. He knew he was gonna hate it. He and Acai got out of the workshop and he rapidly spotted an orphan, around twelve years old, pointing at him. Luca sighed deeply and went to him. The orphan, seeing that, had a look of fear in his eyes but as he was surrounded by other orphans he had to save face.
“Hi there !” Luca said in a falsely joyous tone. “I’ve noticed you guys pointing at me a few times and I was wondering if we could get to know each other”. Huh, that was lame.
“Whad’you want? Ya can talk now? Sure ya not gonna pass out?”
“Ok let’s cut it. I have an offer for you.” Luca said. Acai snorted, the socializing part didn’t last long. “I want to teach you guys so as to level a [Teaching] skill, I’ll do it for free and you’ll get skills from it too. I’ll also feed you guys while at it. What do you say?”
“ Ya teaching? “ The orphans snorted at the absurdity, obviously they didn’t think much of him. “What ya gonna teach? Everyone knows ya ain’t got no class nor know nothing !”
“[Arithmetic] and [Geometry], in an advanced capacity. I can also teach you guys to read and write if you don’t know how to.” From what Acai had told him, the education of the people had greatly suffered from the Great Calamity. Whereas before [Reading] and [Writing] skills were extremely common, most orphans now lacked the barest education.
“Ya serious?!” The orphan exclaimed. Around him the other orphans were getting excited and shouting could be heard.
“Yes I’m serious, I can teach up to twenty of you at the same time. Now if you’re interested come to the palace at dawn tomorrow. You can bring however is interested. That’s all.”
On that, Luca and Acai left. He would need to wait to see if they bite.
The next morning, a crowd of more than two hundred orphans were waiting at the gate, to the obvious discontent of the guards. Luca would never be allowed to let them in. He was already on thin ice inside the castle, the king not being very happy to have what he now called the lazy hero.
Luca located the orphan he talked to the day before and signaled him to come closer.
“I thought I told you no more than twenty.”
“Yeah, but everyone wanted to get in.”
That felt good to Luca, he felt as if he could be useful to people. But there was no way he’ll teach all those people at the same time. Just seeing them all looking at him right now made him very uncomfortable.
“I’m sorry but I can’t take more than twenty people inside. So go and choose them. I’ll tell the guards to let you through.”
“Really dude?”
“Yes, really. And if I’m going to teach you, you’ll call me sir and not dude. Now what’s your name kid?”
“Yorru… sir.” And with that Luca felt really smug.
Eventually, Yorru picked nineteen other kids and they came inside the castle with two guards following them. Luca lead them to the library, which he knew had ample free space, and the librarian had agreed to let him teach in one of the empty rooms. There he took out papers with the local alphabet written and started to teach, thanking Techna for his [Universal translator] unique skill.
Yorru was the smartest of the kids but it still took a few days before he got a good grasp of the alphabet, which in turn resulted in Luca getting the [Teaching skill]. In fact, once he let go of his bad pronunciation and provocative attitude, Yorru proved an endearing kid. He was twelve years old and had lost both his parents at the end of the war. Ever since then, he lived off the streets, taking what he could when he could. But he was smart and once Luca gave him the opportunity to learn, he knew it was his chance to get out of his situation. For now, he learned with a rare eagerness and, along with the other orphans, ate what Luca could give them using the stipend he received from the kingdom.
A month passed before the [Teaching] skill reached level 10. Then, on the same day, Luca finished his rewriting of Rousseau’s Social Contract, effectively awarding him 1000 exp. point and unlocking the level 10 and his class options.
He was presented with a few options: some crafters class, a teacher class, and some researcher classes, but there was only one that appealed to him. He would be a [Legendary Scholar].