With Diane’s assurance, the three of us left Nuoda’s manor. Since Hammerhead would likely be coming to deal with the mimic remains, we decided not to sell those for now. Instead, we only sold the completed products that had dropped from the locked chests in the dungeons.
Because she had so many things to take care of offline with the new business, Diane decided to log out early after we got back to the house and I gave her the skill books. Since we’d need to wait at least one day for the first batch of items to sell before I could buy the resource dungeon, I decided to walk around the city, observing the residents.
What I found was… a rather tense atmosphere, though the cause of this was rather unfortunately beyond my control. None of the residents were strong enough to survive in this area on their own, whether they were Players or Fallen. At least half of the city’s twenty players needed to team up in order to hunt monsters in the nearby area.
The realization that their safety wasn’t guaranteed was naturally enough to affect the morale of the citizens. Some of them walked with their heads down, or their eyes darting at every random shadow. I could hear muffled whispers from passing groups, wondering if it was really a smart idea to come here.
As I was thinking about that, I saw a human girl with messy, brown hair, holding a woven basket filled with flowers. She held the flowers up at any passing residents, a bright smile on her face. At first, I thought that she was selling the flowers, but after one woman accepted the flower, the girl didn’t ask for any kind of payment. She just giggled happily and moved on to the next person.
When she saw me, she blinked, jogging over and holding out a red flower. “Hey, mister! I don’t recognize you! You must be one of the new players, right?” She asked in a surprisingly cheerful tone, considering the rest of the city’s atmosphere.
I hesitated at that, not wanting to scare her with my title. “You could say that.” I said with a small smile, accepting the flower. “Can I ask your name? What are you doing here all by yourself?”
The girl nodded her head quickly. “I’m Sana! I came with the rest of the Fallowton residents!”
My eyes widened slightly at that. “What? But aren’t you too young to be–” I began, before noticing that she didn’t have a brand on her forehead, indicating that she was an NPC. “Are you… an orphan?” I asked in as soft a tone as I could.
Sana blinked, before tilting her head. “Uhm… maybe? That’s… a difficult question, mister! Sana’s mother was Chosen.” My eyes widened even further when I heard that, understanding what she meant.
I had experienced it myself. When someone was chosen, the vast majority of their personal memories were removed. They could remember the general knowledge they were given growing up, but they couldn’t remember their original names, the faces of their families, or anything like that.
Sana seemed to understand my concerns by looking at my face, so she simply smiled wide. “Don’t worry about me, mister! Mama’s Player was super nice! When she saw Sana, and realized what happened, she apologized really hard! She adopted me, and has been taking care of me since then.”
I nodded my head, trying not to grip the flower in my hand too hard. I had thought about how the actions of the players might influence their Chosen, but I hadn’t thought about how their mere presence could destroy families. In my case, I knew that I wasn’t leaving behind any children. And, from what I could remember, I should have been a traveler before becoming Chosen.
But how many children like Sana would be left orphaned, all because their parents were Chosen? If it didn’t happen right in front of them, there was a high chance that they’d never even know what happened. The children wouldn’t recognize the new appearance of their parents, and the parents would have no memories of their children. Even if they saw each other on the street, they’d just walk by without a second glance.
“I see… but, Sana, where did you pick these flowers?” I asked, noticing the dirt on her fingers. She had definitely picked these herself, but I didn’t recall creating an area in the city for such a garden.
Sana blinked, before looking bashfully to the side. “Sana went outside the wall. But I stayed real close! Promise! All the scary monsters were already driven away, so it’s fine. And everyone looks so sad, so Sana just wanted to cheer them up.”
“That’s incredibly dangerous.” I said, my voice more firm now, causing Sana to squeak in surprise. “The monsters in this area are really strong. You can’t just go wandering around outside, okay? Your mom would be really worried if anything happened to you.”
“But…” Sana looked around at everyone passing by, and I nodded my head.
“How about this? I’ll make a garden for you, inside the walls. But, it’ll be up to you to take care of it, okay?” I offered, and it was her turn to widen her eyes.
“You can do that, mister?” She asked in surprise, before quickly nodding. “Sana promises to take good care of it!”
I smiled, gesturing for Sana to follow me. That said, I knew the girl wasn’t entirely telling the truth. There was a pretty big hole in her story. The landscape around the city was the rocky mountain biome, where no flowers or other greenery could grow. To get those flowers, she would have had to run all the way to Aetra’s village, and probably got a couple of the warriors to guard her as she picked flowers at the border of the forest.
Just the fact that she made that run by herself in secret was dangerous enough. I didn’t want to call her out on it, knowing that she just wanted to liven the atmosphere. To be on the safe side, I had even appraised both her and the flowers she was handing out, none of which had any special properties.
I led Sana to the center of the city, near the respawn point. Under Sana’s curious gaze, I crouched down, placing one hand on the ground. “Mister?” She asked, but I just shook my head, signalling for her to wait.
There were a few decorative options that I had created when I was preparing to build Fallcry. Among them was a fountain plaza, surrounded by a ring of flower gardens. However, given the situation with the local biome, I ultimately decided against implementing it. It would take extra work to create fertile soil for the gardens, and the water veins in this region were buried surprisingly deep.
Still, after seeing the atmosphere of the city, I couldn’t help but do something. So, I focused on my Martial Construction, channeling it to tap deep into the underwater reservoir. I made stone pipes that led up to the surface, as well as a drainage system. In front of me, the cobblestone path cracked and shifted, rolling aside to form a circular, marble fountain.
There was a string of surprised gasps from around the square as water began to gush out of the fountain. Then, along the edge of the plaza, the ground shifted again. The stones receded and softened. My brow furrowed in focus, bringing any arable soil within the range of my skill. There wasn’t much, but it was enough to form four long semi-circular gardens around the perimeter.
Naturally, there were no seeds for the soil. However, I stood up, walking over towards the nearest of the gardens, and carefully planted the flower that Sana had given me. It still had some of its roots attached from when she pulled it from the ground.
Taking a deep breath, I used Vitality of the Forest-X, channeling the skill into the garden. Just as it had done in Aetra’s village, this skill immediately began to spread a thick layer of grass where it touched. Additionally, the recovery effects seemed extra effective on the flower, allowing it to take root and grow even larger than before.
I looked back at Sana with a calm smile, seeing her shocked expression. “You’ll be in charge of tending these gardens in the future, okay? Go ahead and plant some of your other flowers, and I’ll help you get started. If you need any other help, be sure to get some adults to help you.”
Sana hesitated for a moment, before clenching her fists and nodding firmly. She ran over, grabbing one of the flowers with the most intact roots and carefully planting it. Under the curious gazes of the other residents, we spread her flowers through the four garden plots, covering them all in a layer of greenery that added some much-needed color to the city.
“Thank you, mister Advent!” Sana called out, poking her tongue out playfully when I noticed that she had called me by my proper name, despite not introducing myself. I supposed that using my construction skill must have given me away, and even Sana knew about me. “Sana’s going to go get Mama and let her know!”
After saying that, she turned and ran off, a far brighter smile on her face. I couldn’t help chuckling softly, shaking my head. However, as I turned to leave, I noticed a prompt in the corner of my vision.
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Martial Construction has reached level 50, and has met the qualifications to evolve! Do you wish to evolve this skill? |
I blinked, nodding my head to accept the question.
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Instant Fortifications-X (Martial – 10☆): Evolved from Martial Construction. Allows the user to rapidly construct various structures using natural materials. In addition, natural materials can be stored in the user’s inventory for quick access during processing and construction. Mana Burden: 0/sec. Level: 1(0%) |
My brow twitched slightly as I read this upgrade. Just looking at the name of the skill, I couldn’t help but question why I couldn’t have gotten it before the trial to establish Fallcry.
However, looking at its description, it seemed like this skill improved on Martial Construction in two ways. First, it generally increased the speed of construction. I’d need to perform a test to see just how much the speed had increased.
Secondly, it allowed me to store the materials that I could use to build in my inventory. Something else that I’d need to test…
That said, I had already created quite the scene here, so I used Glancing Steps-X to quickly leave the city. Only then did I let out a small sigh of relief. Taking the opportunity, I decided to activate Instant Fortification, testing out the feature of storing materials.
Immediately, a menu appeared in front of me, asking whether I wanted to store a resource or a ‘plot’. First, I selected ‘resource’, choosing to store the granite at my feet. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that a single inventory slot could store two thousand kilograms of whatever material I put in, though this was only about one cubic meter of granite. I didn’t know if this would increase with the skill’s level or not, but I decided to test ‘plot’ next.
As soon as I selected to store a ‘plot’, I saw the area before me seem to glow, waiting for me to select the plot. Testing the limits, I focused on selecting the biggest plot of land I could, highlighting a five meter radius in my field of vision.
As soon as the area was selected, it completely disappeared into my inventory, leaving a hollowed out crater. Like the previous option, this also used just a single inventory slot. Which led me to wonder, why would anyone choose to take just one resource, when they could fit far more in their inventory with an entire plot?
Pursing my lips, I wanted to test this further, but was worried that I might end up permanently damaging the landscape if I did so carelessly. Thus, I took advantage of another system that I had been wanting to test. Opening my menu, I navigated to the Sponsorship system, and found the ‘Query’ option.
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Please enter your query. |
Closing my eyes, I thought about how to phrase this for the most accurate results. How do I make proper use of the Instant Fortification-X skill, and what is the benefit of choosing resource storage over plot storage?
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Query accepted. Your answer will cost five Sponsorship Points. Proceed? |
I quickly nodded, noting that my sponsorship points had increased to just over eighty at some point. I could afford to sacrifice five for this test.
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Answer: The Instant Fortification-X skill is capable of directly altering the terrain where it is used. Over time, the entire biome may be changed. In addition, materials stored in the inventory may be used for immediate construction, as opposed to waiting for the normal process as materials are grown and reshaped from existing natural resources. Resource Storage: Stored resources begin at 2,000kg weight limit per slot, and increase at a rate of 500kg per skill level. Stored resources may be drawn from as needed. Plot Storage: Stored plots begin at a sphere of five cubic meters, and increase at a rate of fifty centimeters per skill level. Plots stored may be of any shape, as long as the total volume does not exceed the limit. However, the entire plot is consumed when using plot construction, regardless of excess materials. Be advised that this could lead to heavy waste. |
Reading this, my eyes widened. Without hesitation, I used the skill to return the landscape to how it was, removing the stored plot from my inventory. Technically speaking, I didn’t need to store any materials at all. My skill was able to proliferate what already existed. However, if there was something that didn’t exist in the area I wanted to build, I would need to withdraw from my inventory.
In addition, it mentioned the possibility of immediate construction if enough materials were gathered in my inventory. There were times that that could come in handy, such as quickly creating traps in combat, but when it came to proper construction work, there was no problem with waiting a few minutes for a building to be made.
That said, there was one last thing that I wanted to test. I didn’t want to spend any more points to ask the question to the system, so I just directly attempted it myself. First, I made a small structure, just a simple statue of Diane, Bella and I standing together. The statue was three meters tall, and took only a few seconds to complete.
After creating the statue, I selected ‘plot storage’, and highlighted the statue itself. A moment later, the statue disappeared, falling into my inventory. Eyes wide, I used that inventory slot as the component to build the statue again, watching as it blinked into existence.
This proved my theory, that structures created with this skill were still considered as natural materials that could be stored. It also meant that I could theoretically store a house in an inventory slot, as long as I had enough space, and carefully excluded the empty interior from the area to be taken.
Although it was a small comfort, it meant that I could keep a single house for our adventures, without needing to craft a new one relying on nearby materials each time.
