“That is fantastic news. Now I have a couple of quick questions for you. What do I need to do to arrange a bath here, and what are you cooking for dinner?” Arthur said with a smile.
He looked at Arthur and grinned, “For the bath, we have a small room on the bottom floor below the stairs. It has a large wooden washtub. I can prepare some hot water for you to bathe in if you give me twenty or so minutes. As for dinner, I am cooking some of the pork that you so graciously handed over for us. Not much that I can do about something to go with it, but it should be good either way.”
Arthur looked at the man and asked: “Can we walk to the kitchen and talk real quick, out of the way of prying eyes?”
He gave Arthur an odd look and beckoned him back around the counter. They walked back into the kitchen. The place was much cleaner than Arthur would have thought. Most of the surfaces were wooden and polished to a subtle glow. Hardly any dust was to be seen anywhere. A large kettle hung over a fire pit in the corner of the room. Arthur walked to the empty table in the center of the room and eyed Daniel.
“I found some things while in the forest that will help, but I need you to determine what would be the best course to take with them. You are more familiar with the struggles of the town and would know what is best.” Arthur said.
Arthur reached into his bag and started emptying the vegetables he had found onto the counter. The more he stacked up there, the bigger the innkeeper’s eyes got. When finished unpacking all of the pieces, Arthur turned and looked at the innkeeper. The man had tears in his eyes as he looked at the food in front of him. His gaze drifted from one vegetable to another until finally returning to Arthur.
“How?” Was the only word he could manage to get out.
“I was in the forest trying to fix the problem that Dalia needed help with. While out there, I stumbled on an old, run-down, mansion home and it had an overgrown garden near it. Luckily for me, these plants had been growing wild when I found them.” Arthur intoned.
“It appears this Goddess of yours truly is a miracle worker. While this isn’t an overly large amount of food, it is a great start. As I mentioned before, the lord’s men have taken almost everything, and unfortunately, that also means they have taken almost everything we could use to replant more food. I know this is the food you found, but I would like to suggest a couple of things.” He said quickly.
Arthur nodded at the man to continue.
“I would suggest we use most of the potatoes for replanting. These potatoes are big enough, with some eyes still on them, to cut into three pieces and use as seed potatoes. As long as there are enough eyes left on each one, we can plant them when the skin hardens over the cut part. This will allow us to grow many more potatoes.” The innkeeper said happily. He noticed Arthur’s downcast look pretty quick, though.
“Is there a problem with that, Arthur?” he asked.
Arthur looked at him and said, “No, I agree with your assessment, and it would probably be best that they were used for that purpose. I was merely upset because they are one of my most favorite foods, and I was looking forward to eating some.”
The innkeeper laughed boisterously and said, “No fear, Arthur. Some of these smaller potatoes can be used for us to eat the next couple of days. You would be lucky to even get two seed potatoes out of each, so we might as well eat them instead. As for the jalapeños, I would like to get about half of them immediately cut to be dried out. This allows me to get a large number of seeds that can be used for planting and also can help me preserve some to use for cooking spices. The rest I can use fresh, as needed, for now. If you can keep bringing little snippets of food, then it will go a long way.”
“I will see what I can do to keep the place supplied,” Arthur said.
“The carrots themselves can also be used beneficially. If I left the top of the carrot intact and lay them in a small basin of shallow water, they will start to sprout more greens from the top. The greens themselves are rather edible and nutritious. They cannot regrow the carrots, unfortunately, but I can let some of the carrot plants completely go to bloom and harvest seeds from them.” Daniel told him.
“That sounds great. My main concern now would be the lord’s men. I know you said they didn’t come by very often, but I assume it isn’t a long enough span for these things to grow before them arriving? On top of that, if you start dishing out food in the inn in abundance, you will draw the attention of every villager here, and I imagine they would fight over the scraps rather than play the long game and try and solve this problem.” Arthur retorted.
“Those are both valid concerns. As for the inn itself, I will still keep up outward appearances as usual. I have been known to sneak a small bowl of food to the truly needy. Mainly those that have children relying on them, but I do that in the evenings and try and keep it quiet so as not to start a rush. I won’t stop doing that.” He said with a steely glare.
“I would never ask that of an honest man like yourself. Maybe my Goddess truly wanted us to meet.” Arthur mused.
“As for the lord’s men, they usually don’t show up but four times a year. Since they were just here, it’s probably a little over 100 days until they arrive again. That should give the plants enough time for at least one round of harvest. I know a private farm toward the edge of town who has a man living there I can trust with the task. Can’t plant them anywhere near town for fear of the people trying to steal and eat the plants before they have had time to mature.” He said casually.
Did he just say over one hundred days, Arthur thought. If they came by four times a year, then that should be much less than every one hundred days. Then it clicked with him. That is why he was younger on his age than he thought he should have been. He looked at Daniel and asked. “How many days are in a year here?”
Daniel looked at him and said, “Four hundred and fifty, like everywhere else on this land.”
Arthur laughed and said, “Just making sure.”
Yep, that explained it. Arthur bet that if he took the number of days he had lived on earth and divided them by four hundred and fifty instead of three hundred and sixty-five, he would end up with his current age.
“Well Daniel, I am going to head up to the room for a bit to give you a chance to get some water ready and then head down to bathe. Once I get a bath and some food, I need to make an important house call on a certain lady.” Arthur said with a mischievous grin.
Daniel gave him a wink, and he took off up the stairs. He opened his door and sat down on the edge of the bed. Now it was time to explore his new book.
Chapter 9
Just Rewards
Arthur pulled the tome out of his bag with a bit of nervous excitement. Sitting on the edge of the bed was pretty comfortable after being on his feet most of the day. It was good to take a deep breath and relax for a bit, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to put this off. Not only was the anticipation of using the book killing him, but also his nervousness. It was never a good idea to casually carry around super rare items of unknown value. The faster he could use the tome, the less he would have to worry about the chance it would be stolen.
He opened the tome and was greeted by the message he was expecting.
You have opened Tome of Elemental Earth Control. Do you wish to consume this book to learn this ability? Yes/No.
He selected Yes and was again assaulted by a fantastic light show. This time, after the vortex appeared and started absorbing the letters, sparks of lighting could be seen flashing around the storm. It looked like a tiny thunderstorm contained inside of a tornado that was eating words out of a book. When the tome reached the end, it slammed shut. This book also shimmered and turned to dust, but the powder itself even swirled into the vortex.
Bracing himself, Arthur waited for the assault of knowledge and didn’t have to wait long. The storm released a gout of words directly into his face that seeped into his mouth, eyes, and nose. Flashes of experiences went through his head. He watched as multiple people performed diffe
rent feats of earth magic, from raising walls to smoothing and breaking soil for cultivation. He only caught brief flashes of each, but it showed him the true scope of earth magic and what it could be used for.
All of a sudden, the images vanished, and he was sitting in his room again in the inn. He looked around and didn’t see anything out of place. The sun was almost completely gone, and only a dull bit of orange lit the horizon, so it couldn’t have been very long since he opened the book. He looked at his hands and was amazed that he just understood. He couldn’t explain how, but he now knew how to control earth with magic. He also instinctively knew the method would not work for the other elements, though. He couldn’t explain that either, but he was happy to understand one if nothing else. Hopefully, he would be able to unlock some of the other schools in the future.
The odd thing was that although he knew how to control the earth, he didn’t receive any information about spells, nor had he learned any. Usually, learning magic in an RPG was heralded by learning a spell of some type first. That, or when magic was awakened, it might grant the knowledge of some elemental spells. Now that he had magical skills, he did have one thing he needed to do immediately. He quickly threw three of his points into Intellect and two into Wisdom to assist with his new skill. Looking at his character sheet, he was pleased.
Name: Arthur
Level: 6
Age: 26
Race: Human
HP: 230/230
MP: 120/120
Stamina: 230/230
Strength: 8
Agility: 8
Intellect: 5
Wisdom: 3
Endurance: 8
Charisma: 5
Luck: 5
Experience: 1800/2500 (5 stat points available)
Skills (125% boost to any skill for level up)
Combat Skills:
Archery: 3 (975/1000)
Block: 1 (130/500)
Identify: 1 (75/500)
Parry: 1 (100/500)
Scan: 1 (50/500)
Small Blades: 2 (500/750)
Stealth: 1 (150/500)
- Detect Hidden: 1 (50/500)
Swords: 1 (50/500)
Unarmed: 1 (25/500)
Professions:
Barter: 3 (50/1000)
Cooking: 2 (400/750)
Farming: 4 (200/1400)
Firemaking: 2 (700/750)
Herbalism: 3 (200/1000)
Skinning: 3 (400/1000)
His next level might prove troublesome for him to decide on how to allocate points, though. He would need to see the actual benefits of his earth magic to determine how he would need to assign them in the future. Now that he could go either way, it would need to be carefully thought out. Before now, he was working under the assumption he wouldn’t need those stats since he had no magic that could use them.
It was time for him to get downstairs and get cleaned up, though. One day in a real town wasn’t going to provide him with all of the answers he needed. Now he had a business partner, though, so he hoped he could have him help with some of his lack of knowledge in the future. He left his bow in the room and unloaded the arrows to lighten his bag. It was considerably lighter without those veggies and bolts in it. He noticed a bit of dirt collecting in the bottom and resolved to clean the bag out later. He wasn’t able to get all of the vegetables he had brought back completely clean since there was no water close to the house that he had passed.
He opened his door and walked downstairs. He looked at Daniel standing by the bar, and the innkeeper waved him over.
“I thought I was going to have to go check on you for a moment there. I thought you would be down closer to fifteen minutes, not over half an hour later.”
Had it taken that long to absorb the information from the book? Arthur guessed it must have. He was relieved he had waited until he got here for it. That could have turned out bad if he sat in a forest clearing, defenseless, for half an hour.
“Was just trying to organize my stuff and do a bit of cleaning on some of the items. Bath ready?” Arthur asked.
“Yeah, I finished getting the water dumped in about ten minutes ago. It probably cooled off a bit by now but should still be warm. Dinner probably has another half hour until it is done, so take your time and relax.”
“Thank you, Daniel. I’ll see to that bath now.” Arthur said as he walked toward the room below the stairs that contained the tub.
Entering the room, he still saw a bit of steam coming off of the water and felt immense satisfaction. The room was small enough that it radiated heat, similar to a sauna. He took off the sword belt and placed it and his dagger on a low stool in the corner of the room. Once those two items were down, he dropped the bag next to him and then couldn’t get out of his clothes fast enough.
The clothes were nothing special, and he wished he had the time to wash and dry them out before going to see Dalia, but there was no way they would dry in time. He also didn’t have another set of clothes to wear while they were drying. His current clothing had splashes of rat blood on different places and some dust and decay from the old mansion that needed to be removed. The idea of walking around in the early evening with soggy clothes did not appeal to him, though.
He lowered himself into the tub and let out a long sigh. The water was still pretty warm, and the heat felt terrific. He hadn’t realized how tired and sore he was until settling down in the tub. He lay back and rest his head on the side of the wooden tub. It was short enough for the back of his head to rest almost entirely on the top of the rim.
He laid there and enjoyed his time soaking in the tub. He couldn’t tell how long he relaxed there, but he also gave up caring. After an undetermined amount of time, he found a small bar of, what he guessed was soap, next to the tub. It had a slightly rough and sandy texture to it, but it did the job perfectly fine. There wasn’t any scent to it or anything, but it did the job well. He lathered up some of the soap in his hands and used it to get his hair clean and rinsed off.
He hopped out of the bath, feeling renewed and refreshed. He dried himself off with a large piece of rough cloth that was hanging on the wall. He dusted his clothes off and rinsed off some of the filthy spots on his clothes and put them back on. He picked up his stuff and wandered back into the main room. The cooler air hit him like a brick wall as soon as he exited the steamy washroom and took his breath away. The feeling passed quickly as he adjusted to the new temperature.
He walked over to the bar and took a seat. He waved at Daniel, and he approached.
“Ready for dinner? Everything is done and ready to eat.” Daniel informed me.
“Sounds great. I’ll eat here at the bar if you don’t mind.”
He shook his head and told him, “No problem at all. I’ll be back in a moment with your meal.” He walked into the back and returned with a plate of food. On it was a good portion of meat that looked to have been roasted and had a layer of gravy on it that made his mouth water. Next to it sat a small potato that had been smashed flat and toasted in a skillet. The sight of it made him want to cry tears of joy. Next to it was some slices of carrot that had been cooked to perfect tenderness.
“This looks amazing, Daniel!” Arthur told him.
“I am glad you approve. Since you just got here and were generous with your food, I wanted to make a good size meal for this. I would suggest we not have this large of a meal every evening though. The supplies won’t stretch very long used in that manner.” He told Arthur with a knowing nod.
“I won’t argue with that logic. I plan on doing some more hunting in the forest around here to try and gather some meat, but that is never a guarantee. To be honest, I would like to get some more Archery experience. Coming up pretty close to another level. If only I could find someone that could teach me some abilities or subskills in Archery that would be great.” Arthur remarked casually.
Daniel looked at Arthur with a face that made Arthur think he had said something profoundly stupid, so he asked. “What?”
“Well, I have heard you can learn some subskills from trainers and other people, but I would assume you would use your talent tree as most others do.” He stated offhandedly.
Arthur choked on a piece of the potato he was eating for a moment and then cleared his throat. “What do you mean, talent trees?”
“I know you are from rather far off, but I would have assumed growing up, you would have learned many of these things already. How can you have made it to your age without knowing these basic aspects?” He eyed Arthur suspiciously.
Arthur had to scramble to come up with a feasible excuse for this situation. He blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“I grew up as a bit of an orphan. I had some of the local adults help keep an eye on me from time to time but never had the chance to fully learn much about the ways of the world. I was mostly forgotten. It was part of the reason I was able to just pick up and leave. Most of what I learned all came from books.”
He adopted a sad look on his face while Arthur spoke.
“I am sorry to hear that, Arthur. No one should ever have to go without a family to help them, but I will do whatever I can to assist you in these things as they come up. Since you did not understand what I meant by talent trees, I will explain them. Any skills you can gain have a unique talent tree unto themselves. Each talent in these trees gives different bonuses to that skill. Some of the bonuses may be increased power, decrease mana requirements or stamina usage, or even teach new subskills.”
Arthur’s eyes grew, the more Daniel went on. This was on another level entirely to be able to customize his skills on top of leveling them.
“The talents also tend to vary from person to person. One person’s talent tree in Archery, for instance, may not have the same available talents in its tree as yours will. Due to this, it is hard to tell what will be available to you. The trees are also in a hierarchal format, so you cannot see some of the later talents in the branches until you have used talent points on the previous talent. For each level starting at level five of skill, you are granted one talent point to distribute in your skill for unique bonuses.”
Dravincia Page 10
