Winter saw the completion of several of my projects, including my full perimeter wall, now gated at the south, as well as my modest stone house which contained a beautiful large hearth and chimney that kept me toasty through the cold season. I also finished assembling two barns, and from each subwalls extended that blocked off two large forested pastures for the quadhorns and for the tarands.

The quadhorns could only jump about six feet, so I could relatively easily contain them, though it took quite a lot of stone to do so. The tarands were a bigger problem, as they could jump absurdly high. Ultimately, I realized that actually physically containing them was unlikely, and I had to keep them contained with magic or with mental manipulation.

Part of that was feeding. Both herds loved the grain, and once they learned I was going to bring them grain every day, especially when it was infused with some magic, they stopped panicking and running. They also had the barns to seek shelter in when the weather turned harsh, and otherwise had free access to a large area to browse for forage with no real predator stressors, so they had little reason to want to jump the walls, instead of just turning to walk the perimeter while picking at the scrub and grass surviving on the ground.

The other factor was finding the leader of each herd and keeping them tamed. If the most dominant beast of the herd was content and not running off, the submissive ones were not keen to either. Using shug meat, focused training, and some of the other legacy high-value meat in my inventory that I kept specifically for powerleveling beasts, I evolved both herd leaders, further empowering them with control of their herd. The shaggy white mountain quadhorn evolved into a crowned quadhorn, with the shaggy white coat turning into a gleaming, sleek coat that was almost silver, and the four horns each splitting into two points and shifting to point up, giving an impression of an eight point crown. The tarand evolved into a mystic tarand, his fur turning lighter, tufted and soft, almost like wispy clouds, with the antlers spiraling over themselves in huge curls extending outward.

Both were larger than the base animal, but not nearly as much larger as some of the smaller creatures got, and both were handsome, impressive beasts. I was unsurprised to see both gained some MP from evolution, where the base animals all had 0 MP like the Velgein people, a product of generations of life in the north as far as I could tell.

I wondered if the evolved beasts would sire children with MP at birth. In a way, that would be a shame, as the magic-starved beasts were easy to control given an almost obsessive love for magic-infused treats, which meant that on the rare chance of one escaping, I could easily get it to go back into containment. Even if I lost that benefit, I suspected that so long as I spent enough time with the children, they would lose their fear and be more manipulable as adults. Once the generations had changed over completely, all the animals born here would know humans, even when untamed, and though they would not be domesticated they would be somewhat tame in the mundane sense of the word.

Spending time with the babies was of no difficulty at all, as they were adorable. The quadhorn kids were playful, and nibbled at me as I fumbled my way through learning how to milk the mothers. They were fairly productive and I was able to collect a lot of milk, but I did hit a stumbling block in my quest for cheese when I realized that getting the right acids to make a simple cheese was significantly more difficult in this world than it would have been on Earth. I had no citrus, no white vinegar, no culture, and had no idea what rennet actually even was. Without the internet to do a deep dive on cheesemaking, I was stuck experimenting with natural fermentation, making my own vinegar for curdling, and just trying things and risking sickness, which I hoped I would be able to heal with magic. By spring, I had not made any cheese I would willingly eat again, but I would definitely be looking for some kind of citrus in Gurt and possibly Roko before the following winter.

The young tarands were cute as well, but the rockstalker kits were absolutely adorable. I spent a lot of time with the masked rockstalker parents re-tamed so I could play with the babies. The proud lubarg couple were going to be parents soon and I was wildly excited for that, too. Adorable baby animals would be a good way to attract potential tamers once the office in Freehold was finished.

Farming and business aside, I had finally buckled down to try and use oxidation magic to extract the aluminum from the tawing salts and make corundum. The problem, I assumed, was that it was bound to potassium already, and extracting a single element that was not already an oxide in order to oxidize it was simply not working.

As such, it was about time I tried something new and potentially risky. I was not willing to kill myself with new magic given how much I had in motion, but as with 4-point magic, what I wanted to try should be safe so long as I carefully managed the precise MP I intended to use, raising it bit by bit as I worked my magic until I succeeded. The first cast would no doubt be expensive, but subsequent casts would be easier, especially when I dumped 10 SP into the skill and advanced it.

Fortunately, I had prepared for this back in Teichar, and I had just the thing I wanted to try: a golden, 8-point magic circle. The particular one I was using was the {8/2} octagram, a compound star polygon that was two 4-point magic circles superimposed over one another, with the second being at a 45 degree angle, the same way that a 6-point magic circle was two 3-point magic circles superimposed. I was not sure how different this would be from using the regular {8/3} star polygon, and I believed they were, ultimately, interchangeable as the points were the same. Since what I wanted was an extension of 4-point magic, something more powerful than just oxidation but of true elemental control, I figured the 8-point circles were the natural language for this magic.

When I hit the point that I was pushing 100 MP into the magic circle trying to separate aluminum from the compound, I stopped, frowning. I was confident that the magic circles were a language, and that anything was technically possible so long as I was using the right vocabulary, so I reconsidered the two polygrams.

After meditating on my goals, I realized that while 4-point magic did let me control and thus separate oxides, it was actually a creation circle at its core. As such, {8/2} was probably the better circle for compounding elements, oxides as well as other, complex molecules, but {8/3}, with its regularity, was better for the isolation and control of individual elements.

I started over, pumping MP through the {8/3} circle, and again the MP cost grew and grew, and my head was starting to hurt.

After sleeping on it, I realized it was stupid for me to start off trying to pull aluminum out of a complex compound. Despite having a good feel for what aluminum was, I should have started with an element I was intimately familiar with already: oxygen.

I collected a bowl of water, sat before it, and started pouring MP into my spell, and almost immediately, the bowl of water dissolved into gas as I pulled the oxygen out of the water, a cloud of hydrogen diffusing into the air.

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New skill created: 8-Point Magic

Skill acquired: 8-Point Magic

“Woo!” I shouted, jumping up and dancing around the room, celebrating my success. I scooped up Treepo and hugged him, and he chittered along with my celebratory singing.

Once I calmed down, I pulled up my menus, assigned 10 SP from my previous level into the skill, and looked over my stats. I had also gained a skill from practicing carpentry, though the skill was called Woodworking, which I had also advanced. That new skill let me dismantle full logs into lengths and boards, which was a huge upgrade now that I was building structures and furnishings. I also elected to advance Ranged after learning to enjoy archery.

I had inadvertently lost a couple of points to 4-point magic and taming through regular growth because I had used both a lot building the walls and dealing with the animals, so before I could lose anymore I put those points into 5-point magic. My skill menu was getting lengthy.

SP: 0

+ 3-Point Magic (10/100)

+ 4-Point Magic (1/1000)

+ 5-Point Magic (52/100)

+ 6-Point Magic (0/1000)

+ 8-Point Magic (0/100)

+ Acrobatics (0/100)

+ Brewing (0/100)

+ Butchery (0/100)

+ Cooking (0/100)

+ Detect (0/100)

+ Enchanting (0/100)

+ Foraging (0/100)

+ Inkmaking (0/100)

+ Inventory (0/1000)

+ Knotting (1/10)

+ Literacy (0/100)

+ Needlework (0/10)

+ Negotiation (0/100)

+ One-Armed (50/100)

+ Ranged (0/100)

+ Smithing (0/100)

+ Stealth (0/100)

+ Strength (0/100)

+ Taming (1/1000)

+ Tanning (0/100)

+ Two-Armed (0/10)

+ Unarmed (1/10)

+ Woodworking (0/100)

While the section of my profile that named my familiars was a constantly shifting list through the winter, at the moment I looked over my stats with contentment.

Pilus Horgson (Lv 36)

HP: 286/286

MP: 152/401

Status: Absorption (major), Protection (major)

EXP: 429/3600

Skills: 3-Point Magic(+), 4-Point Magic(++), 5-Point Magic(+), 6-Point Magic(++), 8-Point Magic(+) Acrobatics(+), Brewing(+), Butchery(+), Cooking(+), Detect(+), Enchanting(+), Foraging(+), Inkmaking(+), Inventory(++), Knotting, Literacy(+), Needlework, Negotiation(+), One-Armed(+), Ranged(+), Smithing(+), Stealth(+), Strength(+), Taming(++), Tanning(+), Two-Armed, Unarmed, Woodworking(+)

Familiars: Crowned Quadhorn (Lv 1), High Treehopper (Lv 10), Masked Rockstalker (Lv 1), Masked Rockstalker (Lv 1), Mystic Tarand (Lv 1), Proud Lubarg (Lv 2), Proud Lubarg (Lv 3)

With my new 8-point magic skill, I sat back down and isolated aluminum from the compound. It was less MP draining than I expected, which was good because I was running low and would need to rest and recover. Before I did, I experimented between using my 4-point magic circle and the {8/2} 8-point magic circle, and tried both making and controlling oxides. First water, and then aluminum oxide powder.

The MP cost for compounding oxides was lower with 4-point magic, which made sense given that it was double advanced, but it was not as big of a difference as I expected. I believed that once advanced again to match, it would actually be cheaper in terms of MP to compound the elements with 8-point magic. However, controlling the oxides was much easier with 4-point magic. While I could make pure iron needles with the new 8-point magic, it was extremely taxing to actually move them. This was better for chemistry than combat, but that was fine, and my original intent.

I crystallized some of the white aluminum oxide powder into corundum, and grinned. With 8-point magic I should be able to more easily add the inclusions, once I acquired the right elements, and make higher value stones, which would help fund my life and my goals.

Once I sobered, I realized I would have to be careful with 8-point magic. The chances of making a toxic compound by being careless were far from zero, and I was worried about how much more power the magic could have. I was relatively confident I could not rip individual element atoms apart, but I cautioned myself not to try any alchemy, as in converting one element to another. When a part of my mind dreamed of turning lead into gold, I shut that thread of thought down hard. There be dragons, I thought. Better safe than sorry. I could make gold the old fashioned way with my merchant knowledge, and I had a bunch of new tricks to do so.

* * *

Spring approached, the ground began to thaw, and new walls were slowly put together north of Freehold. Soon the ground was dry enough to work, and the walls were erected. Additional logs had been prepped, and structures grew. A new building stood at the northmost edge of town, and the village’s second gate was born, which in retrospect I was glad for as much for my own use as for fire code reasons.

Buda and I cut a new path south of the tamer reserve towards the new gate, which I unabashedly paved with bricks most of the way, as anyone who actually went north would see the stone construction and learn that I was also, at the least, a stone mage. I let the bricks taper off within a few hours’ walk of the village, electing instead to use finer grit and sand over hidden stone, something dry and usable without being too over-the-top.

I drove the wagon back to town down the new path, glad to have a more obvious means of transporting goods between the farm and the village before people asked how I was disappearing through the trees. I pulled it in through the gate, parking it alongside the others.

A small fleet of new wagons were assembled, and the grand ambitions of a new year were plain to see. I grinned, unharnessed the tarands so they could graze, and stepped into the new building.