In the afternoon, Arthur smiled brightly as he walked from the dense forest behind him. While it took him a few hours to locate and talk to Mei, he was pleasantly surprised by the progress she had made.
“Damn that girl. It's exhausting to try to interact with her, but I’ll have to say it’s worth it.” Arthur muttered with a quiet voice as he enjoyed the calm winds of progress. The job of beastmaster seemed to be a match made in heaven for the raven haired woman, as she had mostly made the pack of beroxes familiar with her and some even listened to her.
The image of a carefree Mei dangling her bare feet on the back of a massive berox and asking it to headbutt a large tree for fruits came to Arthur’s mind and his lips unintentionally rose into a relieved smile. ‘I should ask a competent leatherworker to make a harness for a couple beroxes. How easy our mining will be when those things start to pull the carts.’
With light steps, Arthur felt like the thorny and root covered terrain in the forest was somehow always easier to exit than enter. As the village grew, some of the forest could be cut down to make room for fertile farmland and diversify the food production. With these thoughts in mind, he came to the edge of the forest and direct sunlight glared right into his eyes. Raising his arm to block the glare, he gazed towards the village.
Arthur opened his mouth slightly and then saw small goosebumps rising on his arms. “How come the mage tower is already so high?” With an astonished muttering, he saw the tower that was still in construction being completed in a record time. The light, carefree steps started to resemble a sprint more and more as he closed in the village.
Just as he arrived at the construction site, Arthur scratched his head in confusion. Previously, when the mage tower construction was announced, there had been only a few willing to contribute their time to building, but now it was swarmed with people.
“What’s going on with the amount of people here?” Arthur pulled one of the workers from his sleeve and asked with curiosity.
“Oh hey chief. The hunting parties returned early when they found a large lake to the north of here. Nick informed them about the new policy about the usage of the mage tower and other military buildings, so they were enthusiastic about the construction.” The stout man in ragged clothes replied while wiping his forehead from sweat.
Arthur looked at the stout man with narrowed eyes and followed up. “I see. What about you? I think I saw you a few days ago cutting trees with gusto.”
“Heheh. Well I haven’t gotten a job yet and from what I have seen; this mage tower might bring me a better lifestyle than cutting trees all day long in the future.” Slightly embarrassed, he replied.
Arthur nodded his head and left the man in his own devices. Looking around, he saw familiar faces from the hunting teams carrying large wooden boards, stones and iron accessories inside the tower. It seemed that the allure of magic, personal strength and prestige was universally sought and appreciated, no matter where humans came from. Even after hearing about the preliminary restrictions of the usage, there were people willing to sacrifice some of their autonomy for a chance for a better life.
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A few hours had passed quickly since Arthur joined the construction effort. With the help of the hunters and volunteers, the tower was built swiftly. Only finishing touches were still missing.
Arthur stood on the first floor of the tower with a few question marks floating above his head. Why did the construction require weird looking pedestals made of iron? While carrying the pedestals to the first and second floors, they seemed to have no practical purpose. Without questioning it further, he saw Heidi’s muscular figure walking from the doorway with two final pedestals before the completion of the tower.
“Let me help you out, I know they are heavy.” Arthur offered his help.
“No need, it’s good exercise. Besides, how much help your scrawny arms can help me.” Heidi smiled in return.
A look of helplessness flashed in Arthur’s face and he gave a stern warning look to the onlookers at the tower. ‘I’m not so weak, okay? But I’ll let it slide on the account of your abnormal biceps…’ He thought quietly and looked at Heidi’s arms that bulged with explosive strength and were the same diameter as a tree trunk. It was quite baffling to him to see a feminine face attached to a body that seemed to be trained to an extreme. Especially when she had the gall to call out his above average physique as scrawny.
“Alrighty then, suit yourself. With those last ones, we should be finished with the construction.”
A wave of cheers resounded inside the mage tower as Heidi placed the final pedestal in its place. A small blinding light flashed enveloped the mage tower and at the same time Arthur saw notification flashing in his eyes.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Apprentice mage tower (Tier 1) Constructed
- Magic research enabled - Apprentice mage (0/25)
The crowd saw the light fading from their field of vision. “Look! There’s something written on the pedestals!” Someone quickly noticed the change that happened after finishing the construction and called out.
“Firebolt?” Heidi looked at the writing and read the emboldened word at the top of the pedestal.
In the past, the buildings that had been built had not displayed any sort of phenomena. Now that the mage tower had been constructed; there was a clue on what to expect when building special structures. When one thought about it, it made some sense. What made a mage tower a mage tower? The possibility to become apprentice mage, which indirectly pointed towards learning spells. The iron pedestals each had different spell names written in them.
Arthur and some of the members of the newly formed security force took a curious look at the different pedestals available, but were a bit puzzled. The previous notification ran through Arthur’s mind and an ominous thought popped up in his head.
“Uhh.. I am afraid we might need to become apprentices and research on the magic ourselves before the spells are recorded in its entirety.” Facepalming himself, Arthur spoke his theory out to the crowd.
“How come it is so complicated? What a waste.” Heidi grunted with displeasure.
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Time passed on slowly as the sun started to recede behind the mountains, leaving only flickering light and faint sounds resembling cursing echoing from the first floor. With trial and error on the magic research system, Arthur figured out how to add apprentice mages and how the research was going to be conducted. At first it was painful to wander in the dark without a clue on how everything worked, but eventually a curious young man stumbled on the “correct” way.
The pedestals themselves worked as a terminal to conduct the research in a virtual screen, which then recorded the current progress on the spells. After fiddling with the research for quite some time, Arthur figured that while basic education, common sense and laws of thermodynamics brought massive advantages to the research on firebolt spell, he was still missing a key of sorts when the progress stagnated at 90% from completion.
“I say, Arthur. I don’t think we need to make it so complicated? It cannot be so hard since I have a faint feeling we don’t have to have a perfect understanding of these “Laws of thermodynamics and physics.” Russell argued with a red face and sunken eyes as the last patient person who remained in the mage tower to research magic after finishing the construction.
“You don’t get it Russell! How can you cast spells if you don’t even understand the principles on why fire is hot and ice is cold? I really have to build a school here to educate the importance of basic shit here, just so that I don’t have to explain this over and over again.” Arthur spat out while holding his temples with his hands.
The duo had been back and forth for many hours on how to go about the research without eating and drinking. With the accumulated fatigue and ever increasing headache, the mood started to become a bit combative on both sides. Just as Russell opened his mouth, an additional voice resounded from the door. “Yooh, whatsup guys? I was just about to gather every hunter for a meeting about the use of military buildings. Russell, are you busy?”
“Nick, back me up here since Russell here insists that we can just wing it. How can magic be so simple that you don’t have to even understand it?”
“Why can’t you just use it like I do my skills? Think of it hard, focus, tighten the muscles and bam.” Nick cocked his head and asked like he heard the most stupid question of his life.
‘So simple? The answer can’t be so stupid?’ Furrowing his brows, Arthur sank into silence as he watched Russell walking wide-eyed to the pedestal and closing his eyes. Within moments, the text of Firebolt changed color from dull gray to a crimson red.
‘Goddammit.’ Arthur swore in his mind to avoid expressing his stance too strongly regarding new things and left the mage tower in absolute silence for a meal and a good night’s sleep to take away his headache.