I really like that night-light rug. Belenay does great work.
Even though unnecessary, I turned on Dark Sight and Boost Armor to begin today’s gain of RP and XP. As part of that, I analyzed the rug as well. This time I expanded the ‘Night glow’ enchantment for more info:
Absorbs light above a sufficient brightness and slowly releases it when the ambient light level is low. Should stored light be fully used up, the glow will cease.
Cool. Sort of a magical fluorescence. Hell, maybe a natural fluorescence. But if that is the case, why is it an enchantment?
It is magical, not modifying light wave frequencies as natural fluorescence would, just intensity.
“But she could have braided in an actual fluorescent material if she had wanted, right?”
Yes, but the overall efficiency would be reduced, and the glow would not last as long. The report would no longer show ‘Night glow’, and the rug would be described as fluorescent.
“Could she have done both, magic and science?”
I know what you mean, and in that context, yes. However, Earth’s ignorance of the aetherial does not mean it is not science.
“Four Pillars of Reality, right.”
Yes.
Upstairs, Asiel and Orian were seated at a table, speaking. I wished them a good morning. They responded similarly, Asiel asked me if I would like an update on the academy. I responded yes, and he reported, “Construction at the academy is proceeding apace. We were lucky to get Merz Sholut. His skills extend beyond groundskeeping, as you will see when daylight comes. Of course, things need to grow, but you’ll see the promise. Also, the barracks for the guardsmen is complete, which allowed them to take down their tents. We hope you can attend a meeting with Ator Robins in the administration building at 8:25.”
“Alright, I’ll plan to be there. Do you know of anything else happening?”
Orian replied, “Word of the academy is spreading. We know of a number of prospective students. Two were clearly unqualified, and we politely let their families know that their children need not come for an interview.”
I interjected, “‘Politely.’ I can’t imagine how you worded that.”
He responded with a quick laugh, “You learn a few tricks during your first thousand years. We also have two candidates for the co-administrator position. Your Dad will remain as involved as he wishes to be, however. His role will become advisor, and we will continue to value his viewpoint.”
“Cool. My guess is he would like to be kept in the loop, if for nothing else than the academy’s relationship with the village.”
“That is my hope, that he stay involved,” Asiel said. “Assuming I correctly understand what ‘kept in the loop’ means.”
“Oh, sorry. It is an Earth expression for still being kept informed and having a voice in decisions.”
“He will have that. I know of one more thing of likely interest to you. The family of your friend Asha Yon will be arriving this evening for their permanent relocation.”
“Great! I’m sure he is excited about that. For now, I am headed to our apartment to base myself with some meditation before the gang gets up. Thank you for the information.”
Orian replied, “You are welcome. We’ll see you at 8:25 to begin final plans for the academy's layout.”
I entered our apartment as quietly as I could. My plan was to sit just inside the door and hopefully not disturb anyone. Arrjee must have sensed me somehow, and he entered the den from our bedroom. Whispering, “Hello, Forrest. I have missed you. Would you like some early morning ‘stretches’?”
I whispered my reply, “Not so much, sorry. You had six days to get horny again, but I’m still in the afterglow of my ceremony.”
He smiled, “A lot less than six days. What are you here for, then?”
“I thought I’d come here quietly and meditate until everyone started moving about. Then we could go to breakfast together.”
“I thought you weren’t hungry on leaving the void.”
“I’m hungry for comradeship, not food.”
“Oh, that’s cool. I’ll sit and meditate with you.” I was happy for the company, but I know his meditation is capped until he levels. But if he wanted to spend some quiet time with me, I was not going to argue.
----------------------------------------
There was a mild shake of my shoulder. “Hey, big boy, are you going to sit there all day?” asked Kossa jovially. I opened my eyes and looked around. Arrjee’s eyes were open as well, and the rest of my party were staring at us with smiles. They were all dressed except for Arrjee. He stood up and went to the bedroom to do so. I guess I was dressed pretty much the same as everyone else, in my loincloth, sandals, belt, and knife. I also had my armbands, a small bag attached to the belt, and the charmed belt buckle with its lucky coin. That had become my standard Tuesday garb.
Sun was excited because they were now a Level 2 Defensive Armsman and Guardian, having first leveled just yesterday. I asked them about their class skills.
“Amplified Blow, Parry Sense, Retaliate primary.” || My primary skills are Amplified Blow, Parry Sense, and Retaliate.
“Block, Taunt secondary.” || My secondary two are Block and Taunt.
Arrjee walked into the den. “The bastard is very hard to hit, even without a shield. And with a shield and their three arms, it is not even fair. When you do connect, some of your damage bounces back to harm you.” || congenial comradeship
“Things didn’t really change when both Arrjee and I attack at once,” Ferret added. “He will be a great tank for us.”
With a smile, “Passive Parry Sense. Active Retaliate, Block. Chance fuckers have.” || Only Parry Sense is passive. I have to activate Block and Retaliate. You fuckers do have a chance!
Onre said, “Can you imagine them at Level 10, armed with a shield, bo, and mace? Mid ranked skills. Minor gods, ‘great tank’ is understatement.”
“Sneaky stealth get. Everything I block not.” || Your stealth is getting pretty sneaky. I won’t be able to block well what I cannot see.
I asked Onre, “How good is your stealth now? It will eventually be invisibility, right?”
“It’s at Rank D now. When it is really dark, I am invisible. But when there is bright light, it barely has any effect at all. Ronkel tells me that at B, I’ll have a high degree of invisibility regardless of light level, and A will be full invisibility. If I ever make it to S, my odor and sounds get masked as well.”
Kossa said, “That’s the nice thing about my flute. It won’t need to see you. Or hear or smell you!”
“Kossa told everyone last Tuesday that her secondary was going to be Hydromancy,” said Arrjee. “A few days ago I decided also. Mine is going to be Telekinesis. It really impressed me when I saw Asiel use it against the bandits. We’ve since talked, and like Hydromancy, it is just as useful outside of battle as in it. I’ll have to learn to divide attention between my sword and another target during battle, but Asiel says I will be able to use both effectively at the same time.”
I told him, “That sounds awesome, brother. I can’t wait to see you using it, and Kossa’s hydromancy. Minor gods, everyone’s everything.” I looked at Ferret expectantly; as of last Tuesday he had not decided on a primary or a secondary.
He responded almost embarrassed, “I don’ know yet, Forrest. It going to be support or ranged damage, but probly support.”
He has probably been asked that too many times.
Yes.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
I replied, “That is okay, no rush. You still have about two months to decide, right?” He responded that it was just a month and a half. “Whatever you choose, I’m sure you will be a major asset to the team.” Everyone agreed.
Kossa encouraged us, “We better get moving, or Mols is going to eat all our breakfasts.”
Kenna had cooked porridge. There was also sliced fruit that reminded me of peaches. All I had was one slice of “peach”. The taste was pretty close, but with an earthy element, like black-eyed peas. I preferred Earth peaches, but it wasn’t bad. Their Mom Kella told me that peaches had just begun to ripen at the orchard.
Arrjee reminded me, “Today is Community Day. I bet the orchard is one of the places which has requested assistance. Does anyone else want to work there this afternoon?” I was the only one to say yes. It is apparently one of the jobs which really puts community volunteers to hard work in the sun, and no one else was excited for that. With plenty of tasks available, everyone would be busy, but only Arrjee and I would be accepting that task.
Our whole party but Onre headed for school after breakfast. Sun technically graduated yesterday, but they felt they still had a lot to learn about bipedal history and culture. Odd and Harron were waiting near the door to the school; I think Odd feels much like Sun in continuing his morning studies, and Harron was probably there to observe my First Aid lesson. Odd said Niscus was spending the morning working with her Dad on the academy grounds.
I had prepared another lesson plan while authoring and visualizing during sixdays. It’s really nice that we can get rank points from two skills while doing one thing. Just like last Tuesday, Dorra Marson gave me the second half hour of her class. I reviewed the direct pressure technique we covered last time, then covered splints in both discussion and demonstration. The majority of students were able to get hands-on practice, so that was good. Balancing review of previous techniques with new information was going to be key in getting these teens and pups actually qualified to perform first aid.
As I was closing my lesson:
Achievement: Teaching, F
“Another twofer. My sessions will be earning rank points in both Teaching and First Aid, right?”
Yes.
During recess, I got a pad and pencil from Dorra. Up until 8:10 I was sketching potential features and layouts for the academy. It is likely Ator already has a good idea of what he wants, but they invited me. I might as well attempt to be useful. I had ideas for how plumbing would affect everything, but I really needed to talk to Merz Sholut before presenting the idea to anyone else.
And honestly, I don’t know anything about planning the plumbing for a single institution, much less a whole village.
You have access to a huge library of books, as well as web-based content from udemy and other educational sites. If anyone has the information already available to do this, it is you.
“!! Dammit, you’re right. You know what? Slow down my sixdays to 15 seconds per second giving us 8 hours. I have been squandering resources.”
No, you have been adapting to a completely different life. If you hadn’t decided to begin using available resources now, then you would begin squandering.
Default sixdays time set to 15 seconds per second.
At 8:10, with two sketches of ideas for the campus, I excused myself and headed there. I noticed the progress that had been made, just as they had described. Dad and the two Windgarden’s were already inside the admin building when I got there. Orian asked me what I thought of the campus now. Honestly, right then it was mainly a lot of promise, but the word I used was ‘promising’. A second student apartment building looked like it was close to being finished, the barracks for the guards was done. That had been built with two stories, so they are probably storing equipment there as well as housing eight guardsmen. The admin building hadn’t changed in weeks, and there was order starting to appear among the brush and weeds. The uniquely styled privies were what really made it look like we were serious about this endeavor.
----------------------------------------
Waiting for Ator, I did not reveal my sketches yet. I wanted to get an understanding of the degree of planning that had already been accomplished before naively pulling them out. He arrived at 8:24 along with the carpenter I had met at the Crafting Guild, Perx Prost. He let me know that his function was to make the woodwork really stand out once the buildings were up; he was actually uncomfortable being at a planning meeting, but Ator assured him that he might catch something early that might help with total esthetics later. It turns out that Perx was the one who was responsible for the look of the privies, so I felt his presence could indeed prove useful.
My plan to wait and see failed immediately. We started, and Ator asked me if I had had any insights since my initial sketch all those weeks ago.
“To be honest, until this morning I haven’t given the campus itself a whole lot of thought. I’m very impressed by the multi-species privies that you got up quickly. I hope that helps all students feel like they are wanted and are equal. Those were beyond what I had ever considered. As I was thinking about things before I got here, knowing that more students and staff would begin arriving soon, my thought is that it would be useful to start construction on support structures, like a cafeteria and baths.”
That should be general enough so as not to contradict anything they already have planned.
“I note you said baths, plural,” noted Ator. “Why repeat the effort when one bath could be used in shifts?”
That was something which I was happy to have already considered. “To start with, we will have 40 students.”
Asiel interrupted me, “We asked Einvigi to allow 45 in this first semester, and she approved. There is a lot of interest from all over the kingdom.”
I smiled with a quick laugh, “45 then. The school might have up to 10 staff and guests staying here at any one time, and there is the permanent contingent of 8 guards.”
Ator clarified, “Their barracks house up to 12.”
“Well, add up all the numbers, and there could be 67 people wanting baths on any given day. 70,” looking at the Windgardens, “ if Skolturi enjoy an occasional soak. That is like one fifth of everyone in Cottages. Knowing that everyone’s schedules will be all over the place, it seems to me that planning for over-capacity will work out best in the long run. And I know for me, sometimes I enjoy the social aspects and would hate to always be in a hurry. Worst case, we end up not needing one, and potentially end up using the building as new classrooms or storage space instead. That is, if we are not money or resource limited.”
Ator looked at Dad. “You said he was smart, and I did not disagree.” With a smile, “Now, I agree, both that he is smart and in building two bathhouses. We probably should double the number of privies as well.” Everyone agreed.
That was easy.
Dad asked me, “What do you think about having two cafeterias?”
“That is a tougher one,” I replied. “Two cafeteries means two kitchens and two sets of kitchen staff.”
Dad probed, “Food could be bussed from the one with the kitchen to an auxiliary cafeteria.”
I thought for a minute. “Some of that is going to happen anyway. I can imagine working lunches taking place at this very table. But I don’t think we need to design for it. It might be actually better to design for just the opposite, one large cafeteria designed for overflow, up to 100 diners. Everyone might not usually eat at once, but if we have a lot of guests, either from surrounding villages or maybe the Duchess’ court, why not offer a communal experience? Offer everyone access to the same choices, meals scheduled three times a day, and have one or two staff supporting those who need to eat at odd hours? That is sort of what I experienced at Fifth Duchy Fort 3, and it made a lot of sense to me. Ours would be a little bigger, though.”
Perx seemed very surprised by something. “You would have the Duchess eat with we commoners?” He was an older gentleman, I suspected with older attitudes than I had seen others express. It hit me wrong, reminding me of the officers’ messes with their own stewards – the BS Jacques had experienced in the Navy. Our food was just as important as theirs!
“Absolutely, and Einvigi and Skawa too if they decide to get something to eat.” I was hoping he could see the absurdity of bothering with social class in an institution under the auspices of gods.
Someone seemed to get my point as the table began to vibrate with a deep rumble. From the center of the table, a Trichyan plushie started pulling himself up from a hole that wasn’t there. Skawa asked, “Was Forrest implying we would be expected to eat with royalty? Would he ask us to stoop so low?”
I could see Dad almost concealing his amused smile, but poor Perx was completely befuddled by this turn of events. His lifetime understanding of social conventions was being turned on its head. In the presence of a god, no less.
Skawa told me mentally, “Play along. We’ll help Perx understand that his dick is just as good as anyone else's.” I noted he was using telepathy for this, not group mind. He must not want Dad and the Skolturi to overhear.
‘Play along’, huh? Well, I’m not quite sure what Skawa wants, but it might be improvisation.
“Or so high, Sir Skawa. Gods, royalty, commoners – can any edifice be built so high as one with a base laid by the determined skills of all?”
“You dare say gods should eat with everyone?”
“I suggest that all are lifted by the presence of gods, as gods are uplifted by lifting others.”
Perx must have been worried that I would be smitten where I sat. “High and noble Skawa, please forgive young Forrest. He does not mean to be insolent; he is new here and does not understand the ways of our world.”
“Is that so, Perx Prost? He would eat with me, and you would not?”
One doesn’t often see someone with their tongue tied. He had no idea whether the right answer to the last question was ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Skawa was staring at him, awaiting an answer. After long moments, “I would do as you willed, Sir Skawa.”
“Then let us see will in action.” Skawa released his gaze on Perx, walking along the top of the round table to the empty chair next to the gentleman. He jumped down on it, sat, and modified his form from that of a Trichyan plushie to a Covargh male of approximately Perx’ age. Small plates and forks appeared before us all, with a small portion of what looked similar to egg-fried rice. “Forrest, express your will.”
What does he want me to do? Do I just demonstrate that I am fine with eating what is in front of us and start eating? No; Skawa has pretty much stated that given the option, I would eat.
“My will is for Perx to make the decision. Are we to eat the food provided, or ignore the gift because the provider is here?”
I think the choice is obvious, but will Perx understand the subtext of both Skawa’s and my words?
Skawa turned his head to look at the man next to him. “Perx?” Rarely is anyone so uncomfortable as was he at that moment. He had probably a full lifetime of limiting himself to his ‘station’, bound by rules no one ever decreed. He decided, very slowly lifting his fork, picking up a small portion of rice, and finally, at a more normal rate, bringing the fork to his mouth and eating what it carried. He may not have tasted it, being at that moment all nerves and no senses.
It wasn’t over yet. Skawa took a bite as well. I don’t know how often he eats, but he is doing it just like any member of a family would. He lowered the fork and held it near his plate. God-voice gone, “This is quite good, if I do say so myself.”
De-intimidate yourself, man, and eat. So what if a god is sitting right next to you?!
He experienced a short moment of indecision. Then, more confidently, Perx took a second bite. He took a moment to chew and swallow. “I agree, this tastes marvelous. Is no one else going to eat?” Everyone ate; I didn’t know Wraith’s could eat. We all agreed the food was very good. When we were done, the plates and forks disappeared.
“Now,” Skawa said, “I can tell you why I came here. I need Perx Prost to build me an exquisite set of double doors. Well, not me, but the school. This is an adventuring academy, and it follows that it needs adventure. That will be my gift to the academy.”
Puzzled, Ator asked, “Where would you like the doors to go, Sir Skawa? What should we build?”
He replied, You are building an adventuring academy. It has walls, right? Put the doors against a wall, open them, and I will provide the destination. Destinations, whatever. We can call it, well, no we cannot call it that. ‘Skawa’s Playground’ has a bad reputation. Not undeserved, but inappropriate for this academy. How do you-all like the name, ‘Skawa’s Adventure’?”
Asiel answered with puzzlement. “I do not understand. ‘Doors to Skawa’s Adventure’, the plain words are there. But what is that?”
“You build the doors, attach them to a wall, and find out. What kind of adventure would it be if you already knew what to expect? I need to go now.” At that, he morphed back to his small Trichyan plushie form. He began jumping on his chair, each time getting a little higher. After several jumps, he bumped his head against the ceiling. “Ouch! Let’s try that again.” The final jump sent him through the ceiling, but the ceiling had no trace of a hole. He sort of flowed through.
“So,” Orian asked, “where should we put the doors?”