Morning of the day after the patrol, I went to check on the amber coating of the houses. It is strange when you look at the wooden houses covered in hardened resin, but I think we could paint them. Maybe put some mortar and then paint. If the mortar breaks and sheds, we just cover it again. The willow amber would remain strong. The wood inside would be preserved because the amber poison would halt any biological process inside. Except physical force, these houses would last an eternity.

I used wind magic to check the walls for holes, drafts or leaks. none found. The goblins' work was marvelous. I would commend them, but they are scared of me. The only place they stay near me is the weapon workshop. The amber is almost dry. I think tonight it will be possible to sleep inside. Let's hope for a sunny day to fully cure the amber.

I don't need to hope for weather. I can get Helen to make weather. "Shraaizar, Kochurearc, do any of you know where Helen is?"

Kochurearc was the one to answer, "Lady Helen is playing with the children."

Minutes later, I find Helen playing with the flame gorilla youngsters. They throw low powered firebolts at her and she attempts to deflect them with a fast barrier like a shield block. I guess she got a new barrier spell.

Helen notices me and waves, "Hey, Grendel. Check this out, I got a new spell last fight with the chimera. {Shield}!" And she blocks one more firebolt.

"Awesome. And you are training the kids too. Say, I had a request to make. Could you make sure the weather today remains sunny?"

"It will be tiresome, but I can. Maybe it can become a practice for MP recovery. The spell's cost depends on the changes you make. To warm up in the middle of winter..."

"No. There is no need to warm the area. Just keep the clouds from covering the sun over the hill."

"Just the hill? No problem. But I demand payment!" And just like that she puckers her lips and close the eyes. I reach closer and get on a knee. I'm twice as tall, it is complicated to kiss her mouth. I kiss her avoiding the fangs. A bolder Helen is not a bad thing.

"There, paid. Now take care of those firebolts. Don't burn anything," I tell the gorilla kids.

Next stop the logging. I brought around a hundred and fifty trees yesterday. They look like pine and are around 50 feet tall. We will clear the forest around and build some houses for the monkeys and goblins. The flame gorillas will have to wait. They must live in stone buildings. Work is ahead of schedule. I wonder what are we going to do with this much branches. They are almost straight. If we weave them we could maybe use that as a support for the roof. Then cut wood tiles, thatch it and cover in amber.

I'll have to check with the goblins if we have enough amber. "Kochurearc, when you are free, go to the weapons workshop and check on our stock of death willow syrup. Report to me when you are there."

This telepathy thing is really convenient. I need to check on Marcy. "Shraaizar, do you know where is Marcy?"

She responded right away, "Marcy is with me. We are talking."

I followed the tamer sense to bring me where Shraaizar is. They were at the foot of the hill on the side of the willow meadow. It is strange, but the willow meadow keeps warm even during the winter.

When I arrived they were already expecting me. "What brings my lord to this place, if I may ask?" Marcy goes with her usual teasing tone. I can see she is in a good mood.

"I came to check on your job. Your receptionist job went over twenty yesterday. Wanna know if something else unlocked?"

"Sure. What should I do?"

"Just stand there. Job List: Marcy."

Job History Info [1] Villager: 35 [2] Apprentice Merchant: 10 [2] Apprentice Scout: 10 [2] Apprentice Warrior: 10 [3] Super Villager: 1 [2] Apprentice Chirurgeon: 10 [3] Guild Receptionist: 24 [4] Sniper: 1 [3] Warrior: 1 [4] Ranger: 1 [4] Mystic Archer: 34 [4] Assassin: 1 [3] Scout: 25 [5] Guild Master [2] Apprentice Magician: 1 [2] Apprentice Acolyte

"So, what happened?"

"You got two new entries. Apprentice acolyte and Guild master. But it says the guild master job is locked. Heck, it is a tier 5 job! There should be some other kind of requirement that needs to be met. Job Change: Marcy to Guild Master!

Requirements not met: missing "Attunement".

 It says 'missing attunement' on the System's message." The only tier-skipping job chain is the super villager. But if you think, it makes sense to give the guild master a tier 5 job. He is supposed to be a guy that will pull his weight among adventurers and heroes.

"Probably we need a job crystal. The rite to activate a job crystal indeed has an 'attunement' step."

"Anyway, it is nice that we almost unlocked the job. There is no need to remain as a receptionist. What would you like to do?"

"We are not going to the field today, right? Make me a apprentice magician. Maybe I'll go with Shraaizar grind the level 10 of the job and practice magic. Nothing too far, nothing too dangerous."

"Your will is an order, m'lady." I bow and change her job to apprentice acolyte.

She is startled. "Eeep? Wrong job?"

"No. Just take the healing magic skill. It will surely be useful for minor bruises. Job Change: Marcy to apprentice magician. There you go miss. Make me proud. You too Shraaizar, thank you for your hard work."

"What will you be doing now, Grendel?"

"I want to craft some things, do some enchanting and update my status. There are a lot of pemadras rotting in my item box, I will put them to use."

"If it isss so, maybe it isss time to give the lord its tribute, as our rulesss. The cores of what we hunt belong to Grendel."

Shraaizer leads us to the clearing in the meadow, and into one of the half-buried hovels. Inside there are several woven baskets filled with pemadras. Probably thousands of them. Mostly of G or F rank, but treasure sense can tell me there are even C or B ones mixed in.

"I didn't know the monkeys hunted so diligently."

"We did run into ssseveral bugsss from the dungeon in our way back."

"Bug pemadra tastes awful. But I won't refuse the tribute. Thank you Shraaizar." But this stunts the growth of the monsters. "New rule change. The pemadras of ranks F and below are not to be made tribute. They are to be half consumed by those that hunted, and half shared with the weak, sick or infirm. For the strength of the tribe is that of its weakest member."

Kochureark answers on the spot, "I hear and obey, master!" Shraaizar is next to me and just nods.

And this got me an idea. "I'll go to my workspace. Please continue what you were doing, I took too much of your time already. If you want, get Zahariel and Helen and grind some slimes."

They leave and I also leave after a while to go to the weapons workshop. I had an idea on how to use my two monster taming slots left. When I enter, the senior goblins come to talk to me.

"Great master, how can this useless one serve you?" Goblins are too much of a yes-man to the powerful.

"Yes. Would you serve me? I want you to work for me. Are you willing to work?"

"Master Grendel is too kind. He kicks us not, he feeds us, he clothes us, he shelters us from danger. Command, master!" They are indeed slightly overweight.

"Monster taming!" The low-rank goblins were a piece of cake to tame. They are so weak they only use up one slot, just like Helen's bee squad also uses only one. I can currently tame four of them.

Skill Taming (monster) level 8

Make that eight. There are only six that qualify though.

I'll name them 'Uppa, Downna, Strangga, Charmma, Toppa, Botta'. The subatomic crew. While naming I found out two of them, Charmma and Downna, are girl goblins. Goblina? Goblette? Dunno.

I took the subatomic crew to the mini-quartz mountain and picked up some quartz chips. First order of the day, learn gemcutting. Now I understand what Helen said about becoming noisy.

Commanding them to organize the pemadras, the workspace and some of my gear, they were happily working and grunting over the telepathic link.

Shraaizar yells in the 'Grendel' telepathic channel, "Grendel, ssshut up those goblins or I'll eat them alive!" Yes, the goblins were using our heads, including Shraaizar's as their private chatroom just as Helen said. It was getting on my nerves too. If I hear them talk about the marvelous lord's shinies I'm going to treat them like goblin minions. Kick them straight into the slime crevice from here.

Their leader is uppa, his status:

Name: Uppa Race: Goblin (tier: 1 Rank: G) Level: 10 Prowess: 16+6 (HP: 44) Agility: 30+6 (Stamina: 36) Magic: 5+3 Crude Weaponcraft: 5 Stealth: 4 Short Spear: 4 Alertness: 3 Athletics: 3  

It would take 5 villagers level 1 to defeat Uppa. with the boost from the monster tamer job. That +X at the stat page.

"Alright subatomics, listen up. I forbid you to use the telepathy to talk among you. Only if there is a real emergency or danger are you to talk to me over it. I'm going to give you something good to eat. I also forbid you to spend your skill points."

As an experiment, I'll hand 20 rank G pemadras to each one of them. The green artisans were wary of eating the master's food but I ordered them to do so. The sounds of pemadras being crushed made me hungry and I also chewed some handfuls. As I thought their levels rose when they consumed the cores. I'll keep feeding them until they were all level 25 across the board. Around 500 rank G and 280 rank F pemadras were used but this amounts to only 500 ~ 550 points, and this late in the game I'm burning pemadra points by the thousands when I do use them. Rank G pemadras are so weak there are some not even worth a point. Maybe the system keeps the decimal values but doesn't show. Anyway, they are not worth the trouble of saving for me.

I spent one hour teaching them how to do gemcutting on the clear quartz chips. I didn't have tools for all of them, but they were quick to pick up the skill. Charmma was the first one to learn it, she was marveled with the shininess of the cut and polished stones. I made them burn some skill points on the skill up to level 3 and after that I let them work on their own. I promised they would be able to keep the shiniest stone they cut today if they worked hard to get the level 5 of the skill today without using more SP. I'll use some silver necklace chain I have here and make them a quartz necklace as proof of their proficiency. I know I will create another crazy custom among the goblins, but the ship has sailed already.

Now that the goblins are cutting quartz on their own, I need to dismantle the chimera. They indeed had three pemadras each, and two of lower B-rank and one C-rank. The leather from the wings can be used, the lion pelt can be used too. Dragon fangs are too short to make daggers but maybe arrowheads for Marcy. The goat horns are curved but very solid. Maybe they can be used for something else.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Back at the workshop, I'll gather all the pemadras I have so far. Everything below D-rank I'll consumes on the spot but before that, I'll turn off system messages. I don't need hundreds of +1 messages popping up in my head.

I'll set aside for enchanting 400 E-rank pemadras, 5x D, 10x C, 5x B, 1x A. The only A-rank pemadra is from the ice widow boss. There are two B-rank from the dungeon left, twelve B-rank from the guild heist and four from the chimera. C-rank there are twenty. D-rank some two dozens. Time to consume all the leftovers.

68,732 Points added! Points added. Points available: 116,212 - [390,057 / 1,000,000] 

Before spending these points, I'll look at the new magical skills.

Acolyte has a ton of spell schools, four in total. All of them were the ones Zahariel has been spamming so far. I'll raise all of them to level 5.

The Celestial School controls the firmament, or so it says on the tin. The ultimate is that meteor-comet Zahariel calls down and is a quirky spell to use in real combat. I got {Moonbeam} and {Twilight Eyes}. Moonbeam is a fixed-area damage over time spell that can be used for terrain control, but twilight eyes are useless to me with my elven heritage.

Light School is the control of the light element. Good against demons, I guess. {Sparkle Burst} is good against invisible or hidden enemies, as the sparkles will cling to living or animated beings. {Daylight} illuminates a large area, calls a lot of attention to the spot and a big penalty to beings that are vulnerable to light, like demons.

Holy School is the ability of mortals to use divine energy. {Sacred Ground} can simulate the consecration skill but faster and for a short time. Again beings of evil or unholy disposition will have a penalty in that area. {Banishment} shears the magic power of evil or unholy beings and attempts to reduce them to nothing. Scary, and the scariest part is that this is an intermediate spell, not an advanced.

Barrier School is the one Helen uses since forever. It is strange that she can use acolyte magic, but she can use several even more strange magics. {Wall} can create a translucent vertical plane of force that only soft light can pass through. Not light magic. {Defensive Coating} is a thin film of barrier that covers the body and reduces damage.

Now that I got my new spells, It is time to address the pemadras.

Should I get a box? The king-type hurt me last time I used it. But now there is a cost reduction from the new skill. "Shraaizar, Kochurearc are Marcy or Helen near you? I need to talk to them. Send them to my workshop if you can."

"Affirmative, lord." "Marcy isss here with me. We are coming."

The decision is not mine alone to take. I'll organize my item box while they don't arrive. There are some things here I don't even remember anymore. Like the several types of eggs including the queen bee egg-larva. I should hatch it and make Helen tame her.

"Grendel, we are here. What is the matter?" Helen enters followed by Marcy and Shraaizar. the gorilla excuses himself and goes to oversee the work. Diligent. I like it.

"Hello. I just finished organizing my pemadras, and I was thinking of getting another crate. But it is not a decision I can make without you two. I think it could be fine this time, but there is always a risk."

"Couldn't you just get several of the lower, safer grades?" Marcy asks.

"I don't want you to hurt yourself. We haven't even found a way to heal you."

"So, is it a no-go? I got a 60% reduction in the cost. If the threshold was at 100k points, it would be safe. But it is unknown."

"No. I won't allow you to deliberately take such risks. Get the lower, safe crates. The odds are almost the same. We are already holding ourselves back and not making you turn to Beowulf because of that slim risk."

"What Helen is trying to say is that you are too important. Look what you are doing here! Once we find a way to cure this soul damage, you can play with those crates until you get tired of it. We will clear that dungeon for you. But now, please don't hurt yourself."

Those pleading eyes and their heartfelt care made my eyes blur. I think it is the quartz dust. The goblins are looking at me with big smiles. "Back to work!" I order them.

"You are right, let's play safe. I am getting fifteen lord tier boxes for 6,000 points each."

I trigger the skill and the magic circles appear all around me. I feel a little tingle each time the points are spent, but no harm is done. Maybe the girls were right. I can't be greedy at the cost of my health. A man wouldn't cut his own arm for power if the arm is not growing back. Unless he is crazy. I am not there yet. Ever.

"Waaaaa, shiny!" The goblins are looking at the gilded and silvery hardwood chests that are popping one after the other.

The chests had 29 skills, and dozens of rough crystals that were opaque and gray. After a few moments they started to vanish. I turned on the messages:

Daily draws over the limit. Remaining 10 crates converted back to 149,999 points added to skill progression.  [540,056 / 1,000,000] Available: 26,212

And to prove how bugged this thing is, it did not factor the cost reduction and had rounding errors.

As the skills, they were Possession (SS), Weaponsmith King (S), Super Regeneration (S), Psychic Aegis (S), Gravity Magic (S), Dragon Wings (S), Air Mastery (S), Acid Breath (S), Sword Master (A), Steel Bones (A), Summon Spirit (A), Shadow Stealth (A), Psychometry (A), Necromantic Magic (A),  Lord Prospector (A), Mini map (A), Tracking Beacon (A), Iai Master (A), Energy Conversion (A), Cursebreaker (A), Clairvoyance (A), Appraisal Resistance (A), Animal Form (A), Water Movement (B), Pyroclasm Magic (B), MP Cost Reduction (B), Curse Resistance (B), Appraise (people) (B), Dowsing (D).

It seems the system processed the top tier, then reached the limit and stopped. I got more than a top-tier chest worth. Time to activate them before some other bug takes them away.

"How did it go? Are you fine?" Marcy asks with concern in her voice. Helen is next to her holding hands.

"Everything went just fine. I got more than what I bargained from and suffered none. Don't worry. Let me just make a test... Lord crate!" The summoning magic circles appear, do their dance in the air up and down and then descend revealing the chests over them. More rough opaque gray crystals. They vanish and the message I expected appeared.

18,000 points spent. Daily draws over the limit. 3 crates converted back to 45,001 points and added to skill progression.  [585,057 / 1,000,000] Available: 8,212

It seems I can now burn pemadra points to grind the progression of this skill and see if there is some light at the end of the tunnel, or only more abyss.

Freaking Exploits.

 Chapter end.

----------------------------------------

 LitRPG porn. The skills descriptions.

Skill Info:

Possession (SS)

Base Cost: 100 stamina and 100 MP. Requires physical skin-to-skin contact

Attempts to possess a corporeal creature, merging own body with the creature. Resisted by Magic Stat. Base cost increases based on target's tier and magic stat. Drains Base Cost per 2 minutes of possession. Base Cost reduced by x 6%. Possessed body receives a boost to prowess and agility stats equal to x2. User's own skills are added to target's during the possession at user's discretion.

If the target is killed during the possession, the user is ejected without harm. When user leaves the possessed body for any reason, its current Stamina and MP are set to zero.

Weaponsmith King (S)

Allow to craft weapons of high quality. High chance of imbuing magic powers during the crafting process.

Super Regeneration (innate) (S)

Allows regrowth of any damaged or lost body part. Time to regrow body part is divided by ( x + 5). Divides HP recovery tick by ( +5). Works at half strength versus innate weaknesses.

Psychic Aegis (S)

Grants 80% chance per level to resist any mental attack. Reduces mental damage taken by 25% per level.

Gravity Magic (S)

Allows the casting of gravity magic. Basic Spell: Control Weight.

Dragon Wings (S)

Allows user to grow dragon wings at will and fly. Grants level 1 of the [Flight (innate)] skill. Strength of wings, durability of wings, flying speed, and turning rate increases with level. Above level 6, wings can be used to attack.

Air Mastery (S)

Absorbs 10% of all wind-based attacks and convert to healing. User is unaffected by gas-based attacks and cannot be pushed by winds. Reduces falling damage by x 10%. Increases potency of wind-based and gas attacks by x 10%.

Acid Breath (S)

Allows user to breathe out a cone of acid droplets. Costs x 50 stamina per use. Cooldown 11 minutes. Cooldown reduced by 1 minute per level. Damage and range increases with level.

Sword Master (A)

Mastery of all kinds of swords, including daggers. Greatly increases damage, parry rate and hit rate with level. Increases chance of learning techniques.

Steel Bones (A)

User's bones are hardened. Resists 50% of damage dealt to user's bones per level.

Summon Spirit (A)

Allows user to summon the psychic remains of the deceased as ghosts (souls are unaffected). Drains MP continuously while ghost is summoned. Strength of ghost and duration of summoning increases with level, up to the same strength the deceased had in life. MP cost reduced by level.

Shadow Stealth (A)

Superior stealth. Greatly increases stealth when near or in the area of shadows.

Psychometry (A)

Ability to read psychic impressions of the past moments the object was used by a living creature. More distant and precise impressions are gained with higher levels.

Necromantic Magic (A)

Allows the use of necromancy spells. Basic Spell: Animate Skeleton

Lord Prospector (A)

After analysis area for an entire day, grants a sense of mineral deposits location and quantity. Maximum size of x 2,000 feet.

Mini map (B)

Adds an overland map to UI. Compatible with other map mods. Shows only explored areas when underground or indoors. Map range is x100 feet.

Tracking Beacon (A)

Allows user to set a tracking marker on a target in view or detected and identified. User can sense direction and distance to markers. Marker lasts x hours. Skill can be reused to extend duration if target is within range. Range is miles. Maximum number of trackers equal to x. Compatible with other map mods.

Iai Master (A)

Greatly increases attack speed and damage on attacks using sheathed Katana. Requires ability to unsheath the weapon during the attack.

Energy Conversion (A)

Casting time: 5 seconds.

Allows the user to convert the energy type of either an incoming or outgoing attack paying 75% of the cost of the attack. Does not work on attacks the user is not aware of.

Cursebreaker (S)

Channeled.

Allows the user to break curses ranked S or lower. Magic stat of the curse must be lower than the Magic stat of the user. Increases magic stat of the user by x 50% for purposes of breaking curses.

Clairvoyance (A)

Cast time: 5 minute. Channeled.

Allows user to perceive visual input from a distant location. Range and precision of input increases with level. Initial cost and cost per minute decrease with level.

Animal Form (A)

Cast time: 5 minutes. Channeled.

Allows the user to assume the form of an animal. Stamina cost depends on size differences and offensive capacity of animal mimicked.

Apprisal Resistance (A)

Increases user Magic stat by x 50% for resisting appraisal attempts. Degrades appraisal information based on level. Displays system message when appraisal attempts are successfully resisted.

Water Movement (B)

Allows user to freely move in water in any direction. Movement speed is x 25% of land speed.

Pyroclasm Magic (S)

Allows the use of advanced lava magic. Basic spell: Volcanic Bomb.

Lava Magic absorbed into Pyroclasm Magic

MP Cost Reduction (B)

Reduces cost of spells and skills that consume MP by x 5% + 10%.

MP Cost Reduction absorbed by Reduce Costs.

Curse Resistance (B)

Resists 25% of curse damage and reduces effects of curses by 25% per level. Divides duration of curses by a factor of (+1). Considers permanent curses as having a duration of 100 years and a day.

Appraise (people) (B)

Allows the viewing of status of people races. Quality of information and chance of success increases with level. Chance to resist based on target's magic stat. Chance to resist increases based on job tier and level.

Dowsing (D)

Requires tool: Dowsing rods.

Allows the user to craft and use dowsing rods. After 1 hour of search in an area, senses general quantity and direction to nearest water sources in miles.

Psychic Assault (A)

Cost: 400 MP. Casting Time: 8 seconds. Cooldown: 1 hour.

Allows the user to assault the mind of another creature with an intellect. Can cause prolonged unconsciousness or stun the target. Resisted by Magic.