“A sound man is good at salvage, at seeing nothing is lost.”
Laozi
We had uncovered a lot when it was all unpacked and spread around. We even had some money to do some shopping with.
“Were you expecting to find so much?” Namir asked.
“Honestly, no,” I replied. “But I hoped for a little, and look what we found,” I said, pulling forth a cloak that had once been discarded or lost. “Plenty to trade with or repurpose,” I said as I started stacking it onto shelves within my vault. My skill opened up small portals in the correct place to place them into.
“This will take me a while. Do you think you could go and make a price list for everything we will need to head off while I put everything away?” I asked Namir.
“Sure, it gives me something to do.” He replied. Happy to leave the logistics of scavenging and salvaging to me.
I carried on practising using the skill and rearranging our new items within my vault.
Spatial Vault (Lv5 ->6)
The Tier 5 skill was increasing rapidly. Is that due to how much stuff I was filling it up with or how I manipulated the openings and their placements regarding the vault? Either way, I had to move those corner trees again. Growing them with mana and shifting them back into the new corners of the cube vault that now stood at 16 feet by 16 feet. My vault was now equivalent to two car parking spaces—space enough to get started on my special project once I had the time to grow it.
Once everything was squared away, Namir was still not back, so I settled in for some internal reflection. It had only been a day, but it was enough with the reclassification of my metiers to move me up in the world. The lower levels always came the quickest.
Even though we had not hunted animals, it seemed that several of my skills had levelled up.
Draw (Lv58 ->59)
Hunting (Lv10->11)
Skiing (Lv7->8)
Treasure Sense (Lv17->18)
Sense Mana (Lv77->78)
Echolocation(Lv72->73)
Seismic Sense (Lv15->16)
I had even gained a new skill, Tracking (Lv1), probably for finding or instead tracking down so many wayward items. It seemed to be enough to trigger a level or two for my new Hunter Metier.
I added the free points into Luck along with the 2 extra from last time to appease the Goddess Fortuna. There was no point in a mortal fighting with a god. I would need to be a lot stronger before I could even consider contending her commands. The surprise, though, was that the second level was not from Hunter at all. But it was actually Sage that had also levelled up. Looking closer at my status, it was due to specific skills like increasing despite my lack of tutoring.
Teaching (Lv10 ->15)
Polymath (Lv14 ->15)
If that wasn’t a surprise enough, I also had several new skills. That made no sense at all, considering the day I had hunting or, rather, patrolling the Thorpe.
Brewing (Lv1)
Glassmithing (Lv1)
Alchemy (Lv1)
Tailoring (Lv1)
Pottery(Lv1)
Rather than indulge in internal conversations with my other selves, this was worth a soul call home to discover precisely what was happening on Wester Ponente and where the skill levels and experience came from.
Status
Level: 63 -> 65
Title: Lord
Name: Callen Kai Caelus Kasai Silversea
Age: 10 Years 0 months 1 day
Métier: Singer Lv 12 -> Hunter (Lv0 ->1)
Métier: Sailor Lv 13 -> Healer (Lv0)
Métier: Merchant Lv 11 -> Psion (Lv0)
Métier: Mage Lv 8 -> Lv10 -> Sage (Lv0 ->1)
General Experience: 1,357,000 /3,276,800
Health: 2000 Stamina: 2000 Mana: 2000 Psi: 2000
Trait: Long-lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky
Vitality: 200
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Endurance: 200
Strength: 200
Dexterity: 200
Senses: 200
Mind: 200
Clarity: 180
Magic: 200
Charisma: 180
Luck: 180 -> 202
Free Points: 0
Resistances: Cold (Lv5 ->6), Ice (Lv3->4), Pain (Lv39), Poison (Lv11)
Skills Tier 1:
Dance (Lv100) Sailing (Lv100) Singing (Lv84) Trading (Lv83) Meditation (Lv85) Time Sense (Lv84) Balance (Lv75) Fishing (Lv60) Sneak (Lv57) Acting (Lv56) Drumming (Lv55) Whistling (Lv50) Farming (Lv59) Knots (Lv55) Draw (Lv58 ->59)Listening (Lv50) Stitching (Lv50) Humming (Lv50) Insight (Lv51) Glide (Lv45) Poise (Lv43) Grace (Lv43) Charm (Lv42) Composure (Lv41) Ambidextrous (Lv40) Silent Step (Lv32) Inspect (LV42) Sketching (Lv35) Drafting (Lv34) Lie (Lv26) Deft touch (Lv24) Posture (Lv22)Riding (Lv20) Cook (Lv26) Etiquette (Lv20) Appeal (Lv20) Sight (Lv20) Scent (Lv20) Detect (Lv20) Taste (Lv20) Measurement (Lv28) Carpentry (Lv20) Blacksmithing (Lv11) Mining (Lv10) Teaching (Lv10 ->15) Underwater breathing (Lv6) Hunting (Lv10->11) Skinning (Lv7) Skiing (Lv7-8) Tracking (Lv1) Brewing (Lv1) Glassmithing (Lv1) Alchemy (Lv1) Tailoring (Lv1) Pottery(Lv1)
Tier 2:
Quick reflexes (Lv80) Sense Mana (Lv77->78) Spellcraft (Lv65) Spellsong (Lv65) Eavesdrop (Lv63) Order (Lv49) Linguistics (Lv41) Memorisation (Lv40) Recall (Lv40) Composition (Lv40) Stealth (Lv40) Mind Sense (Lv38) Knife Arts (Lv33) Misdirection (Lv26) Haggling (Lv25) Observe (Lv32) Martial Arts (Lv25) Transplant (LV20) Cruising (Lv49) Dart (Lv26) Heal (Lv21)Treasure Sense (Lv17->18) Intimidation (Lv12) Stone Carving (Lv1)
Tier 3:
Echolocation(Lv72->73) Expel Mana (Lv71) Mana Manipulation (Lv70) Gale (LV70) Boil (Lv59) Ignite (Lv44) Melt (Lv44) Absorb Mana (Lv42) Command (Lv40) Deception (Lv26) Bargain (Lv23)Freeze (LV20) Racing (Lv34) Analyse (Lv19) Flash Step (Lv16) Seismic Sense (Lv15->16) Danger Sense (Lv13) Smuggling (LV6)Telepathy (Lv8)
Tier 4:
Block Status (Lv100) Iron Man (Lv70) Parallel Processing (Lv50) Material Manipulation (Lv40) Stone shaping (Lv35 ->36)Mana Drain (Lv30) Flight (Lv22) Sonar (Lv25) Seafaring (Lv22) Air stepping (Lv8) Contract (Lv5) Magic Carving (Lv5) Rune Carving (Lv3)
Tier 5:
Mind fortress (Lv26) Omniglot (Lv26) Weapon Prodigy (Lv23) Music Prodigy (Lv31) Polymath (Lv14 ->15) Astral Projection (Lv5) Spatial Vault (Lv5->6) Multiple minds (Lv5) Enigma (Lv2)
Tier 6:
Sense Soul (Lv2)
[Ring, ring. Ring, ring. Calling Lady Aleera Silversea]
[What is it, Kai? It’s lovely to hear from you, but I’m very busy.]
[Aleera, sister, dear. Why do I have several new skills?]
[Ah, right. Well, we’ve cracked the chemistry. Did I pronounce that right?]
[Yes, but what do you mean you’ve cracked the chemistry?]
[The books and plans you had, we’ve been working on deciphering them and putting them into practice. We now have rice wine, shochu, vodka, and whiskey on the go. The first attempts were tasted today. They could do some work, but Uncle Barric and our cousins Ashby, Busby, Kelby, Rigby, Selby and Welby have all unlocked the Brewing skill. Is that what you are talking about?]
[That explains the level in Brewing, but I also have a level in Glasssmithing, Alchemy, Tailoring, and Pottery]
[Well, they probably all come from the chemistry we have helped add to their professions. Romeo and his children, Rand, Rolf, and Raina, have all been experimenting with creating vases alongside their tiles now. Your guidebook discusses different glazes they are experimenting to try to recreate. That probably accounts for the Pottery.]
[Go on.] I grumbled.
[Auntie Sharina is adding the chemicals we have managed to produce to glass to create different colours. It is all very exciting. Obviously, the Alchemy is from our experimentation to produce the individual chemicals. Lady Acacia is quite vexed with you for holding out on so much esoteric but essential information for building business. Apparently, half of what you have revealed in your guidebooks are secrets guilds restrict to their members. With a large influx of slaves, we can claim this knowledge came from elsewhere should we ever be questioned. But we will focus on uplifting our own little barony before we look to export too much to others.]
[Carry on]
[Tailoring, though, will be from Mother. She loves creating lace. Obviously, she is cheating compared to your description of how time-consuming it can be to make by using magic. Still, she is enjoying adding it to her pieces, and Lady Acacia thinks it will be all the rage for when I debut if we time the release of it correctly.]
[Wondeful.]
[With the population explosion here, we will use most of our products internally, but at the same time, we will have many new products. When Mercurio and Kashif return, we will make a fortune carefully introducing new products in limited amounts to the world. Everyone has a lot of questions, of course, but you really should have done this sooner.]
[I did not want to introduce too much too soon.]
[Well, we have plenty of manpower and a wide range of new industries to employ them in now.]
[I’m glad I could be of service even in my absence]
[No reason to sound so sour. The system rewards you with experience and skills for the progress made, even though you are not even here. Honestly, what do you have to complain about.]
[It would have been nice to have been consulted before the changes were rolled out.]
[Well, in that case, I am warning you that next time you call, you might also have a level in stonemasonry and tinkering as Uncle Cephas is currently contemplating creating an aqueduct to provide running water for the town based on your designs. In addition, Uncle Aaron and Uncle Cal are looking at recreating a Windmill and a Waterwheel again based on the designs you wrote.]
Giving up on putting the genie back in the bottle, I asked [How are the family?]
[Happy you are alive, proud of your ideas, vexed you did not share them sooner in person, wishing you were here. I wish you were here.]
[I’m working on it. I think we will be here a month to build up some supplies but I am working on it.]
[Love you, Kai, but I really need to go. I’m meeting with Des and Sinis about the Lakeshore road and former slave abodes with Mother any minute now. Be safe and come home soon.]
[Give mother and father a big hug from me. I will get to work on getting those supplies]
Questions answered, I ended our conversation and returned to my vessel. A pang of homesickness rolled through my body, or maybe it was just anxiety at them moving on with my ideas without my control and without me to witness them. I did not know, but it was time to get to work.
Healing, anyone?