"The productivity of a single individual post-system is incomparable to pre-system, even at lower levels. This is because the processes that used to have an absolute minimum amount of time, ie brick baking or metal cooling, can be done in an instant with the help of skills, often times to a better result than if the process was natural."
-Excerpt from 'Skills and You', by Norwin Boyd
----------------------------------------
On my way over to the other side of the settlement, I checked my system shop and found that there were three new skills available, with two of them coming from the [Bestial Constructor] class itself, and one that actually had both of my classes listed as requirements.
Name: Category: Description: Prerequisites: Cost: [Strengthened Constructs 1/5] Skill, Passive, Enhancement, Construct Constructs you make are stronger Constructor class 5 [Agile Constructs 1/5] Skill, Passive, Enhancement, Construct Constructs you make are faster Constructor class 5 [Construct Elementalization 1/10] Skill, Passive, Enhancement, Construct, Elemental Beast constructs made out of elementat energy can transform into and travel through that element Bestial Constructor class, Elementalist class 10
All of the new options were really good, and I could already imagine how the last one could be used to multiply my combat effectiveness, but with only one SP, they were all far out of reach. Even though I couldn't get any of them now, I still planned to get [Construct Elementalization] first, though the other two were pretty even in my opinion so I wasn't sure which to prioritize, but they were still 14 levels away at the soonest, so I had plenty of time to think it over before making a decision.
With daydreams of new skills occupying my mind, I continued my search for the others, managing to succeed after about thirty minutes of walking around and asking some other people that were clearing out or rebuilding buildings, only managing to find them after Jason called out to me. The building we had been given to rebuild was actually not too destroyed when compared to some of the others. While it was missing a corner of the walls and ceiling, it was two stories tall and had plenty of space for our needs, and the walls that were there only had a few cracks, and the stairs were still mostly intact, though only half of the second floors floor and a third of its ceiling remained. They hadn't managed to do too much in the two or three hours before I got there, but most of the rubble and plant life was gone so it was mostly actual structure work that needed to be done.
Since I was one of the people with the lowest STR stat in our group, my job was mostly using a chisel I had made earlier to cut stone into more rectangular shapes to fix the walls, deciding to focus on making it well the first time now that we weren't rushing to make it livable all at once. While me and the others with low physical stats were cutting stone, using debris from our building and loose debris from other ones as we weren't allowed to actually tear any down, the others focused on cutting and bringing wood from the forest to use for the floors and ceiling, since the skill that Leo's dad got at level five apparently let him merge wood together to turn it into one solid piece. By the time my tools started to dissipate, it was only an hour or two until sundown, and while we hadn't actually managed to do much building, we had gotten enough cut stone to fix the walls and brought over a good amount of wood from the forest, though apparently the trees were much tougher than they were expecting so they got less than anticipated, and since we were all fairly tired, we decided to call it a day. Leaving our materials inside the building, as there was too much to store in our houses and the chances of someone being able to take any of it without being caught immediately was low, we made our way back to our houses for dinner, all of us stretching and feeling the first hints of soreness from the hard work.
On our way back, we shared a few conversations with a few other people who were also rebuilding buildings for themselves, and it was really interesting to hear how some people were making use of their classes and skills to help them, even managing to get someone with the [Mason] class to help us with the walls, both rebuilding the destroyed parts and making sure the standing parts were reliable, in exchange for Leo's dad's help with some woodwork and my dad's help with an analysis skill he had that told him the structural weaknesses of a building. Throughout the day, I hadn't had to remake many tools, and had only demonstrated my new ability once, making a copy of Sir Lora that was noticeably stronger than the fox I had made earlier despite using the same amount of mana, so I actually was almost full on mana, but I was too tired to do any intense practices or tests, so instead I decided to try making a permanent crystal now that I had higher stats, though I would try just before bed to make sure I had as much mana as possible.
Once again eating dinner as a group, talking about what the best way to renovate the building and acquire crafting tools would be, we all retired to our houses with our families, though it was already pretty late by the time we finished eating, so I decided to make my attempt, having gotten back up to 390 mana throughout the day. I wanted to make something actually useful rather than just a random shape, and since Leo's dad and my father had talked about how much wood they would need, I decided to make an axe head, as I wanted to start small and apparently the full crystal axes I had made were uncomfortable to use since the handle didn't absorb any of the impact. Focusing on the shape of a woodsman's axe, making sure to include a hole for the handle, I shaped the energy to flow out and take the shape I imagined, focusing my intent on the idea of permanence. Feeling the mana rapidly convert to Crystal as it left my body and converge to bring my thoughts into reality, I felt the strain on my will as the energy started to change on a subtle level, suddenly massively increasing its energy draw and almost causing me to lose focus, but I managed to hold firm and I felt as the Crystal suddenly went from energy to solid, feeling the weight of my creation in my hand, and knowing that no amount of time would cause it to revert to energy.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
Taking a moment to marvel at the axe head that had turned out exactly as I pictured, the blade about the size of my hand with a wicked sharpness that would let it tear through trees, I took a look at my mana and barely held in a gasp as I saw that this one axe head took almost 300 mana, my status screen telling me that I only had 70 remaining. Considering that earlier that day I had made multiple axes, chisels, hammers, and pickaxes for 370, it was clearly not something I would be able to do on a large scale anytime soon, though now that I knew I could it would be worth testing to see if it was a lack of skill that caused such an inflated cost, or just how it worked. At least the axe head was actually tougher than the tools I had made earlier, which was surprising since I hadn't really been trying to make it hard, just permanent, but I suppose it made sense considering how much mana it used. I also learned that it was just as easy to form a connection to as all my other created crystals, making it much easier than truly natural ones and making me consider the viability of carrying some created crystal knives with me once I got better at mentally controlling them. Either way, with my testing concluded, and my mental fatigue catching up to my physical one, it didn't take long for me to fall asleep, where I dreamt of controlling hundreds of flying knives and summoning dragons made out of lightning to fight against numerous foes.
Waking up to much less soreness than I should have had thanks to my already superhuman endurance, I once again inspected the axe head that I had made, finding no faults or anything that would indicate something other than what I'd found the previous day, I was barely able to focus on my practice for the short time it took everyone to wake up before sharing my achievement with them.
"So, you made an axe head? You do remember you made like, three full axes yesterday right?"(Leo)
"Yes, but this one is permanent, the others barely lasted long enough to work with, but this one is essentially a normal axe head made out of crystals."(Mason)
"That could be useful, how many of these can you make?"(Jackson's dad)
"It took 320 mana for this, so I can only make one on a full tank, but it was my first successful attempt so I might be able to reduce it."(Mason)
"Jesus, that's as much as you would use against the centipede boss."(Jason)
"It's certainly a lot, and we can't really do much without tools, so at least for now it's better if you just make temporary stuff like yesterday."(Jason's dad)
Nodding at that, slightly disappointed that nobody seemed as excited about it as I was, we all headed to our building, which had all of our materials in it untouched, before I made another set of tools for the day, making use of my 100 additional mana compared to the previous day to make them a bit tougher. This time I didn't make any chisels, instead making saws and woodworking tools to turn some of the logs into planks, and all the axes I made were just axeheads that Leo's dad quickly made some handles for. Once again being assigned to menial labor, this time sawing wood instead of carving stone, I took the opportunity to let my mind wander and zone out while doing the repetitive motions. I mostly thought of the future, I still hadn't told my parents that I wanted to leave and explore, and while I knew that they wouldn't try to force me to stay or anything, it still wasn't something that I was looking forward to.
Unpleasant conversation or no, I was still determined to explore, as seeing all the magical stuff that the other people in our group, and in this settlement as a whole, were able to do just made me want to see more, and the beauty of that forest that filled my gaze a single step past the treeline, and never failed to make my eyes shine even after multiple visits, only made me more sure that this was what I wanted. Dreams aside however, I knew that I would need to prepare, while I could see how [Elementalist] could aid me in exploration, I currently wasn't attuned with any elements that would, as a crystal tent would only announce my presence to any nearby predators and bake me alive if the sun hit it wrong, so I would need to acquire some good, and preferably magical, camping gear before setting out. It would also be worthwhile to get some more levels and practice more with my current abilities so that I'd be ready for the inevitable fights. Trying to find some like minded people would also-
"MASON!"
Hearing someone call my name and feeling a shake on my shoulder snapped me out of my thoughts, and I turned towards my mother, who was holding a broken saw in one hand and had a vague look of concern on her face.
"I called you a few times and you didn't respond, you doing alright?"(My mom)
"Yeah, just zoned out for a bit there, sorry."(Mason)
"No need to apologize, just be careful when you're working with sharp tools, speaking of could you make me a new saw please?"(My mom)
Promising to focus and making a new saw for her, looking at the sun to determine how long to make it last, I got back to sawing wood, having amassed a sizable number of planks while lost in thought. Now that I was paying attention to my surroundings, I noticed that the walls had been repaired up to the first floor, as the second still lacked most of its floor, and there were glowing crystals embedded in the walls, looking more like they had been put in while they were still wet concrete rather than having been added afterwards. An hour or so later, I noticed that there was no longer anybody getting more wood, despite us clearly not having enough, and when I asked Leo about it as he passed me by holding a stack of planks, and he told me it was because while the stone and logs were heavy and pretty easy to get, the others were worried that cut planks would actually be stolen and they weren't sure that they could finish a door that locks by the end of the day, so they want to have as few unused planks as possible just in case.
That made sense, and so I stopped sawing more planks and instead helped the others fill the gaps in the first floor, managing to use up most of our planks and get a working door by the time the tools started to dissipate and we called it a day. Looking around afterwards, I was once again shocked by how much a small group could do with the help of the system. In just two days the building had gone from overgrown, covered in debris and missing a corner, to having walls with no cracks, partial wooden floors, and a sturdy door in just two days, and while there was still a good amount to be done on the first floor, not to mention the mostly untouched second floor, the fact that we did this in just two days without any machinery or prior knowledge, not counting the prototype that was our original residence, was something completely impossible just two months ago.