Chapter 4: Finding My Stride

I woke to a loud knocking on my door. Simba was on my chest, licking my face, which was clean of dried blood. I placed the little cat on the bed and walked downstairs to the door. My wounds had healed, so a fair amount of time had passed. I was still a little mentally tired. I opened the door, and the mother of the boy stood there; she leaped at me to hug me. I just waited till she was done. This did not feel like a computer game at this moment.

Her thanks took about 10 minutes to finish, and then she handed me a book. I said I had something for her as well. I went to get my backpack, and when I returned, I opened it and produced the dead plains cat. It was a bit of showmanship on my part, but oh well. She thanked me and started hauling it away. She said there would be a feast for the village tonight!

I closed my door and inspected the skill book.

Novice Skill Book: Cooking

Simba gave me the information on cooking. Agility stat and no subskills. +2% to better taste and effects. Well, agility was one of my weak stats. I sat at the kitchen table and began reading the book. It takes one hour to learn a novice book, and after that, it dissolves.

Cooking 1 Tier 1 unlocked, +1 Agility, +2% prepared food quality

The sun was setting, and I really didn’t feel like carving tonight. I walked outside to the sawmill and started making furniture. I zoned out as I worked and brought up my stat and skill screens since they were flashing. I had leveled: 12 available stat points, and 4 skill points. I dropped 10 stat points into magic because I wanted to utilize my meld woodspell more, so I wanted a larger magic pool. The other two points went into my speed stat to raise it to 4. I would have never caught the lion if the boy had been lighter. I was actually pretty lucky, all things considered. Now, the hard part was allocating skill points.

I dropped two points in woodcraft to raise it to 9 and two into woodcraft: carpentry to get it to 11. I realized my mistake after I had hit accept. I should have put all points into my primary skill since it leveled slower. I had zoned out and wasted two precious skill points. That will never happen again! Well, at least I would be able to build the town’s general store. I worked till morning, and when the first rays of light came through, I went to work.

There was a large meat pie on the stoop of my house. The note said lion meat pie. I took it with me to save the buff for when I needed it.

With a 315 magic pool, things really progressed well. It greatly increased the structure’s soundness and speed of the building process. I was surprised by how I was able to move massive beams by myself with a little leverage, which is the benefit of the virtual world! Townsfolk came by to thank me for my efforts in rebuilding the town and saving the boy. I spoke to each of them briefly and let them know I was grateful for the opportunity Gwen had given me.

After working most of the day in the general store, I built the oven that night. I figured since I had the cooking skill, I should make use of it. The oven ended up taking two nights to build. I

needed to haul unused bricks from the other side of town. It turned out great, and my first attempt at rosemary salt bread was edible if I soaked it in butter.

I spent the next few nights cooking everything I could think of from the real world. I ‘learned’ a bunch of simple recipes and got my cooking skill up to 3. My food did not taste as good as the food made by the village women, but I didn’t let it deter me, as I wanted to be self-sufficient and raise my agility as well. The store’s first floor was also almost completed during those two days. I calculated five days of focused effort to complete the entire building.

It ended up taking six days, but I was very happy with the building. The meld wood spell was ridiculously useful. Drop a floorboard, cast the spell, and run my hand along the seam. Repeat. My woodcraft and carpentry each gained two levels. My cooking skill reached level 5, and my food finally tasted somewhat edible to my virtual tastebuds. Also, I practiced for an hour each day with a guard to hone my axe skills. I gained a single level in axe and axe: two-handed.

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It was finished! The general store could open. Elice Teeraj was crying when I showed her around. The first floor had plenty of shelving and racks. The basement was good for cold storage, and the second floor had more storage and a small residence. It was perfect and more than she had asked for. She gifted me a small magic item.

Jeweled Trader’s Brooch, +5 Charisma, +3% better selling prices

Wow, +5 to a stat. I wondered how weak my character actually was in this world.

Quest Completed: Gwen’s Twenty Projects, rewards ownership of the lumber mill and carpenter’s house in Malcum, 500 experience

On my way to my house, I was intercepted by Gwen.

“So Tallis, you have completed all your tasks, and I have come to give you your reward.” She pulled out two parchments. One was a map of the mill and some of the surrounding property, and the other was the deed to my mill and house.

“Thank you, Gwen. I hope to continue to serve the village. However, I am thinking of traveling soon but promise to return. I need to gather some supplies and seek training.” I responded gratefully. After I read the papers, they dissolved into dust, and a notification lit up my interface. I glanced at it.

You have collected the deed of ownership for the lumber mill and carpenter’s house in Malcum. This ownership is recognized as legitimate by the current population of Malcum. If someone else attempts to seize your lands by force, you will have 14 days (56 game days) to repel them. Failure to do so will result in the loss of your claims.

Huh? I wondered if another player could just walk in and claim my property. “No,” Simba added to my thoughts, “This is only intended if the current residents are all killed, fled, or are imprisoned. As long as one remains, your ownership will be recognized. You can sell your property to another player or NPC if you wish, though.”

Good. I was worried my efforts would be lost if I left for an extended period. As I walked, I said my goodbyes to Gwen and opened my map on my holo display. The entire village was shown and my area was highlighted in bright green. It was quite large. The mill was 200 yards from the river and had a channel to float timber from the river into the mill. The entire area from the mill to the river’s edge was mine, and it was also about 250 yards wide.

The house was only about 50 yards further inland from the mill, but I owned about three acres of land around the house as well! I imagined building a small manner on the land closer to the center of town or perhaps building up my current house... Plans for another time. I walked inside and sat down at my table to think. Simba hopped up on the table and sat staring at me, waiting.

Ok, I needed to plan my character’s development. My goal was to get level 23 in both carpentry and foundations. It takes an NPC character about 25 years of constant practice to earn master rank, but I was not that patient. I needed to level up and utilize skill points from leveling. That meant adventuring.

Now that I had secured a base of operations, I was comfortable heading out, but maybe I could level a bit first on the plains. I also needed to gain access to new spells and equipment. For that, I would need money. I currently have three silver and 245 copper to my name. Not nearly enough to purchase anything. My carvings of Simba were worth about one silver, but it took about two hours to carve a single one. It was not a great source of income, but as my skill increased, so did the value of the carvings.

I had 15 skills now, meaning I could add another eight without a learning penalty. I needed to forecast those skills now so I wouldn’t be in trouble later. Magic would be the smart path. I opened the tab and looked at primary and secondary magic skills. I couldn’t see the possible spells, so I went in blind. Fire (Light, Heat), Water (Cold, Rain), Earth (Stone, Metal), Air (Lightning, Force), Spirit (Life, Death), Nature (Plant, Beast), Chaos (Destruction, Darkness), Order (Law, Command), Enchant (Imbue, Runes).

I had to admire the game setup. It allowed a lot of versatility but still forced you to focus on only a few areas or suffer slower advancement. A mage could not master all the magical talents without penalty, and the penalty would grow since the mage would also have other skills. Well, I knew I wanted Spirit and Life. It was the access to healing magic that I wanted. It also made sense to acquire Earth and Stone magic skills as well to help with my building. Four more skills.

I asked Simba what common skills I would need. He suggested I get a riding skill, either land or air, depending on my mount preference. That made sense, and I made a note on my interface, that perhaps I could borrow one of the few horses in town to learn the skill. He then suggested that water and rain magic match my nature theme.

Then, I could gain access to strong attack spells to go with either Fire/Heat or Air/Lightning. I thought about it and chose Air and Lightning. Simba mentioned that Air Magic: Force had flying spells, and I was sold. I noted it. No projected skill spots left. Ok, I had spent 3 hours making these decisions; Simba was on his back on the table stretching. I grabbed two blocks of wood and my carving knives and went upstairs to carve in my room.

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