Chapter 8

As he walked back with the archer, Mat was getting a bit tired of carrying the two corpses so he Shaped some rope to lash the two bodies together and made some straps so he could just wear it on his back. That was immediately an improvement, and he believed he could do even better.

Grabbing branches from trees as he passed by, he made a wooden rectangle frame two feet long and one foot wide, with struts going across the width every half foot. He made another rectangle, this one was a foot wide and half a foot long, with a grid of wood frames covering all of the inside area and attached it to the bottom of his first frame at an angle so it made an ‘L’ shape when looked from the side.

He also attached a beam from the end of the lower frame to the middle of the long frame for good measure. Taking some rope and fusing it side by side to make a strap twice as wide, he fuses one end directly into the bottom corners of the large frame on the other side away from the ‘L,’ and instead of fusing the top of the strap into the wood frame he looped it around the frame bear the center.

Now, instead of strapping his corpses to his back directly, he could wear the new frame backpack and just strap the corpses to that, which again felt way better. Since he couldn’t wear the pack and his bat on his back at the same time, he made some straps attached to the side of the frame that he could Shape and grab his bat. When not in use it would hang on the side, in easy reach. He also attached his helmet to the bottom side since it looked like he didn’t need it for now.

Watching Matt from the side of his eye with interest, Bishop was impressed with the Shapers skill and ingenuity. He has seen beginner Shapers before and they usually struggled more with complex and quick changes.

“How long you been Shaping? Most shapers who can do stuff at your level usually have been practicing their whole life and have a few more material revelations under their belt.” Shoot, a question about his backstory. Okay, think quickly. What would be a good way to make Bishop think he was a native?

“It’s a bit embarrassing to say but it is a recent thing. I wasn’t able to really figure it out for most of my life until I found a teacher, but after I did I was able to pick it up pretty quickly.” Not one bit of that was a lie, if misleading. The system could be considered a teacher since it has taught him things. And all of his life save for today is in fact most of his life.

“Hmm, prodigies.” Bishop said with a bit of a snort and shake of his head, but he was smiling so it was probably just how people thought about the different types of energy users. Guess that would mean that Matt will need to make being a prodigy as his backstory. But that will bring attention to him, which could be dangerous! He’ll need to be careful, best change the subject.

“What about you? I couldn’t get a good look at how you killed that tree stalker, just a blue blur and then it was dead. I haven’t seen anything like that.”

“Oh? Guess you must have been very sheltered then. That was Aura, I am a fourth Circle Ranger Knight.” At the mention of Aura, he held up his hand and blue energy that looked like flames burst from his hand in a large puff that startled Matt before calming down to a constant burn. Matt was transfixed a bit on how mesmerizing the energy was before Bishop stopped exuding Aura and it faded away,

“Oh wow, I didn’t know that Knights could also use bows.” Matt asked, fishing for a bit more while still trying to sound reasonably naive.

“Yup. I can pull a heavier bow, enhance my senses to see targets better and make my arrow deal more damage by extending my Aura onto it. Of course melee is still the majority but don’t count us Rangers out.” Matt nodded in understanding and it looked like Bishop appreciates having a young person be impressed and acknowledge his skills.

“Are there a lot of Knights in Jylen?” Getting a good idea on what the town was like would be important, and getting an idea on what type of people he would need to look out around for is crucial.

“Yeah, there are plenty of Knights. Plenty of all Energized actually, even Shapers,” Bishop said while pointing at Matt. “There is a pretty big adventurers guild in Jylen, it's basically a city but falls a little short, but we are located pretty close to a lot of Wilds full of monsters so a lot of Energized find either home or lodging there.”

Okay, so Knights, Mages and Shapers are called ‘Energized’ and the adventurers guild is a thing in this world, that’s good. Getting to become an adventurer will let him both grow as a Shaper and really get that fantasy world experience. Otherwise, he might have had to become a carpenter or some other kind of craftsman with his power.

New Quest! Join the Guild!

The thrill seeking energized of this world have formed the Adventurers guild to hunt monsters and explore the Wilds, finding both treasure, adventure and fame in equal measure! Join this guild to become one of these heroes!

Objective: Register and become an adventurer.

Reward: 1 point, medium level progress.

“Will I be able to join the guild? I don’t really have anything besides what's on me and kind of need work.” a grin stretched across his lips as Matt asked his question, laughing out as he slapped the back of Matt's shoulder.

“I like ya lad. Shapers can get plenty of work as craftsmen, but choosing to be an adventurer is a good attitude. Not as many Shapers in the guild in my opinion, but there are less of them to go around in general. But I’ve never been sad to join a team with a Shaper on board.”

“Not a lot of Shapers? I get it’s rarer to be a Shaper, but how many are there compared to other types?” Bishops eyes narrowed as he thought over the question, trying to give a good answer.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“Well, I’d say that Knights make up the majority at maybe…” He rocked his head back and forth a few times “Maybe forty percent. Mages next at maybe thirty five percent? And then Shapers at twenty five.” That was interesting but made sense if the population of Energized matched.

“Makes sense, I could see how valuable a Shaper can be in a group. How would I join the guild, are there any requirements or anything?”

“There’s a small entry fee, but you probably have enough with those bodies there. And if you are short, most people will give Shapers discounts if you can fix some stuff. And you’re in luck with your specialization, big city and even big town Shapers usually don’t bother to try and awaken their understanding of wood, so you’re unique in that way.” specializing in wood wasn’t exactly what he thought would be his thing, but it could definitely work out. Especially if he could get his hand on more cores and cool magical wood.

“Oh, that is nice to know. Do a lot of adventurers hunt in these woods then? How far is the forest from the actual village?”

“Aye. This is one of the more popular Wilds near Jylen, although you probably won’t find many groups that delve into the deeper parts unless they are specialized to do so, like me. Honestly, I don’t spend much time in the outer ring here, I was just passing through when I heard your fight. Lucky I did, not to say you were doing bad but that last stalker had ya.” As embarrassing as it was, Bishop was right. Matt had done his best but he still needed to do more work.

“Yeah, two of those were more than I could handle at once. Especially since I didn’t know how to kill them yet. If I had to, I could probably kill one of them by myself head on. And I can definitely kill them while they are still hiding, it’s pretty easy to trap them in the bushes they are hiding in.” Bishop laughed a bit at Matt's statement, shaking his head with a smile.

“I tell ya, not enough Shapers in the guild. Not enough Shapers.” Matt wasn’t sure what Bishop found so funny but he supposes the people of this world must just have different responses to things. Seeing the conversation fall off, Matt decided to focus on his plan while they walked. Thinking with intent, he called for his status.

Matthias Harding

Level 2

1st Bond Shaper

Purchase Points: 1

MATERIALS:

Wood

PROPERTIES:

Durability

Weight

Scale Level 1

Blueprint Level 0

Intent Level 0

QUESTS:

Find Civilization

Join the Guild

He leveled up after his fight, so he had a point to spend. He also had a few points that were coming up when he finished his quests. Would it be better to spend it now, or wait till he had more and level something more expensive? What did he even want to buy? He will have access to more material when he gets to the town, and probably get access to metal, but that requires him to somehow buy metal.

It would probably be a better idea to focus on wood until he could actually use more material. So what then? What could he make with wood? Well, quite a lot. Feeling the intent with the system, he prodded the purchase point he held and felt the possibility it could become, he just needed to solidify his intent.

Being careful to not do that, he made a suggestion on what wood could be and he felt that if he focused, he could unlock different things as a new material. Remembering what he has made so far, he prodded ‘Rope’ as an idea and was surprised to see it as a material option. That could be useful, getting more control over half of what he has using wood as.

He tried to be more specific and think about armor or his weapon, but it looked like they didn’t count as material. Interesting… He prodded around his other possessions and felt that ‘String’ and ‘Leather’ were also materials he could awaken, but clothes were not. Forever, ‘Fabric’ was an option, and if he just used the wood fiber the same way as his rope, he could make fabric. He would get to use Wood fabric, how great! He could also fix or modify his clothes which would be nice.

Okay, while he could make the fabric it would be quite stiff and not particularly useful without a lot of processing. What could he do? Well, after he got more points he could do properties. He already had the thought to unlock hardness for wood fabric, so combining the two ideas would be perfect. He wasn’t sure what he would do with the rest of his points but now he had a good plan.

Taking the rope from his belt, he made a new hook onto his frame pack and attached the rope to the hook. He also grabbed some more thick branches and strapped them into his pack. Since he could change their weight, it was easy to carry several thick branches. He also made more rope with the twigs he grabbed or detached from the branches he kept.

After another hour of walking and following Bishop, the archer seemed to pick up the pace as the trees began to thin and the forest moved into a hill. There have been various levels of elevation throughout their walk, but this was the most extreme. Looking back at Matt, the man smiled as he moved ahead. They kept walking up and as they crested the hill, Matt looked out and gasped a bit.

Ahead of them past the treeline was the town. It was still a good half hour away by foot, but he could see it and it was incredible. The first thing he saw were the giant walls. It was hard to get a sense of scale from this distance, but they had to be at least two stories tall. They were made of white wood, probably because of proximity to the forest, and were thick enough to have a walkway on the top with outpost towers along the perimeter.

Past all the walls he saw fields full of some kind of tall plant. It looked like wheat but if it was the size of cornstalks. And then there was the town. Sprawling townhouses made from cobblestones and white wood. He could see that there was the occasional house that was made of something else, but it was mostly uniform.

Matt could see why Bishop said it was almost a city. In the distance he could see the edge on the wall, but it was just a thin line past the rest of the houses. Getting a better look at the environment, he could see stony mountains begin to stretch up from the northeast, with white caps topping them like a hat.

To the northwest, the rolling hills and plains extended far into the distance. The sun was starting to set into the plains, but there was still a few hours of light left in the day. Matt felt his heart quicken as his excitement built.

Quest Complete! Find Civilization

You have located the town of Jylen, beginning your journey in earnest. Good job on escaping the forest with your life!

Reward: 2 points, large level progress