Magic_Smithing
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Ch: 66
🕑 Added 2020-11-25 02:29:07 +0000 UTC“And right there, I’ll put a tree. A happy tree,” I try and give my best Bob Ross impression.
Waving my hands around, I manipulate the experience around me to form an oak tree. It's hard to create one based only on my memories entirely, but oak trees were pretty common in my past life, and I only need to get the outward appearance to match the shape in my head.
I hold my fingers up like I'm looking through a camera and marvel at my handiwork. This is my biggest project to date since I received my second tier 5 skill, Soul Manipulation.
I look around my soul, at the clearing I usually appear in, and marvel at all the changes I made.
Since my jump in levels, it's been harder to fall asleep at night, and I've frequently resorted to retreating into my soul. What was once a chore of having to sit still and meditate for hours on end while my body rested in the real world has turned into a sim building game.
Soul Manipulation is the only skill I can use and practice inside my soul. In the past few days, I’ve started by figuring out how to widen the small clearing I appear in, and from there, I started crafting a whole garden around me.
I've only been able to replicate stone pathways and plants, but I'm hoping to eventually mold inanimate objects from my previous life and maybe build a small building in the future.
I reach out and touch the rough surface of the oak tree’s trunk. The surface of the tree looks a little too uniform to the eye. No matter how good I am or how much time I spend working on it, I can't match nature's beauty. I consider starting over; with only a single wave of my hand, I could destroy hours of work in a single moment.
Like everything else, destroying is easy; it's creating that takes the most time.
This isn't the first tree I've tried to make; heck, it isn't even the twentieth. But this is the first tree from Earth I’ve managed to craft without it looking like a half-melted sculpture.
Though I consider the tree a benchmark for my skills rising strength, it’s the first plant that I crafted that brings the biggest smile to my face. I walk over to the center of the clearing and look down at the six-foot by six-foot patch of grass I have meticulously grown from the surrounding experience.
Not to be confused with the wild grasses I can find around the village, or even the sprouts from the seed the keepers grow in the animal pens. No, this patch of grass is unique in this world; it's grass from Earth. It took me forever to figure out how to form a single blade of grass, let alone group them closely together and make them flexible to the touch.
My first try at recreating the grass that I remembered from parks back on Earth resembled a bed of nails rather than groundcover.
But all my hard work finally paid off, and now every time I enter my soul, I appear atop a soft carpet of grass under the moonlight sky.
I let myself fall over and sprawl out on the lush green carpet, remembering the times I played in the park or just in my backyard as a child in my previous life.
Slowly, I sit up and glance at the mess surrounding me. All my projects are scattered across the clearing, with most being unfinished works in progress. Random flat stones and bricks of different colors are embedded everywhere in the ground next to plants I've tried to replicate.
On one side of the clearing, I have copies of the common plants around the village, while on the other side are all plants I’ve tried to recreate from my memories of Earth. There's an apple tree that looks closer to a kid's drawing than the real thing, and flowers of different shapes and sizes surround it. I'm not even sure if some plants are ones I encountered or if they're fictional foliage I remember from movies. I’m pretty sure that glowing fern is from James Cameron’s Avatar.
The funniest of all has to be a rose bush I made that’s covered in flowers of every color I could imagine. It looks like a rainbow fell out of the sky and landed on a bush. The colorful plant always brings a smile to my face.
I look up at the stars and moons hanging overhead and raise my hands in a grabbing motion. "The very heavens move to my will!” I call out in an exaggerated manner.
I hold that ridiculous pose for a minute before I drop my arms in defeat. It would be cool if that worked, and I could arrange the stars into my own constellations, but I can't fly before I've learned to walk.
After meeting the goddesses' avatars, I now know that the stary sky I see is actually the outer barrier of my soul and the moons are the representations of the links to the pantheon of gods. What makes me curious is there are supposed to be six gods, yet there are seven moons, I ponder to myself.
Gods, actual gods. Beings of immense power.
I wish I could talk to mom or someone about meeting the goddesses, but a voice in the back of my head keeps telling me that's a bad idea every time I try to bring it up. And considering that Mental Resistance doesn't stop the voice, I'm inclined to believe it.
My world view has changed a lot recently.
There are things out there I couldn’t imagine.
“And gods help me; I want to see them all.” I stare up at the moons looking for any minute changes.
"Nothing," even though I call out to them, nothing changes. I'm sure my first impressions of them were correct, and they don't care enough to interfere with my life. Knowing I won't accidentally summon a wrathful goddess every time I swear was a massive load off my mind, but I still wish I could've asked them some more questions.
No, I don't think I could handle meeting them again; the first time was mentally taxing enough.
It was only thanks to breaking down in my mother's and father's arms; I was able to let out all my pent-up feelings after meeting the deities. Though as the days passed and after some self-reflecting, I realized I might not want to meet the goddesses again, but the thought of encountering another creature like the soul eater intrigues me. I want to see more of the world, and that includes the monsters roaming through it. I don't have a death wish, though, and I'd never want to fight such beasts, but the thought of seeing them with my own eyes makes my blood boil in a way I never thought possible.
A big part of me wants to expand my horizons.
Thinking about expanding my horizons, that reminds me, I should check if it’s morning yet. I don’t bother to stand up and start walking towards my sea of memories; instead, I choose to stay seated on my patch of grass.
Using Sense Soul and Soul Manipulation, I look inside myself. This body represents my consciousness, and with my new skill combined with the skill levels I gained after the Soul eater incident, I can now feel the connection my consciousness has with the real world.
I bring my right hand up to my chest and slowly push. My fingers pass through the surface of my clothes and skin as if they weren’t solid.
“There it is,” I mumble to myself. In the center of my consciousness is a thread that connects me to my physical body. As soon as my fingers touch the connection, I feel my consciousness being inverted on itself as it’s snapped back into my body.
I slowly open my eyes to see the familiar ceiling of my room.
I smile to myself as I sit up without feeling the strain of being forced from my soul by the moons. I still sometimes go to my sea of memories to train Mental Resistance but exiting my soul of my own volition is much less taxing on my mind and lets me be more productive during the day.
It's still dark outside, but I can tell by the faintest of glows in the distance that the sun will soon be rising.
Today will be the fifth day since I woke up after meeting the goddesses. I was out for a long time; I wonder where Kervin is at right now? I'd guess he's either in Teeburn or already left it.
I wonder if the general liked the arrow or not?
I wish I could start the next arrow, but I'm stuck crafting the weaker arrows without the supplies I need.
Whether the general liked the arrow or not, I'm excited for my delivery of kaglese anyway. I need to forge a new sword, and I plan on making it out of a steel and kaglese alloy. And this time, I'll be adding mithril to the mixture as well. I want to enchant my next sword after I figure out that damn engraving ink recipe.
I started practicing synthesizing the ink and even gained the Alchemy skill, but I've burned through a tenth of my materials so far, and I've only figured out how to do the first few steps correctly. Too bad the ink wasn't as easy to figure out as my katana.
I miss my flaming sword, but my last few fights have proven the flames were mostly a novelty. Though highly effective against chameleon spiders, I've found myself using my mana to strengthen Mana Skin or using other forms of magic rather than use it to engulf my sword in flames.
In both my fight with the bandits and the soul eater, the flames my katana could produce were utterly pointless.
With my rising Strength stat, it's more practical to have a stronger and heavier sword. In fact, it makes sense for me to go back to using an axe, but I can't get over how fun it is to practice swinging a sword. I guess I'll always dream of having an epic sword fight like in the anime I used to watch.
I get out of bed and start my morning stretching routine as the sun slowly makes its presence known to the village.
As I move to brush out my hair and tie it up, I hear mother and father shifting around their room.
While I'm getting ready, something obscures the rising sun from shining through my window for a brief second. I know it isn't something close by because I don't pick up anything with Sense Mana. Peering out my window, I see a great bird diving towards the headman's house.
The large brown bird moves through the air at lightning speeds, so much so it’s hard for my eyes to follow it. That has to be a messenger hawk.
Maybe it’s another letter from Kervin like last time?
When mother and I go for our morning run, we'll swing by Camden's house to check.
"Aaliyah, are you up, sweety?" Speak of the devil; I hear mother through my bedroom door.
I’m already dressed and ready for the day, so I move over and open my door rather than call out through it. “Morning, mom,” I greet mother with a big smile.
“Did you sleep well? How are you feeling today?” Mother asks me while leaning in and wrapping me up in a hug.
“I’m fiiiiiiine,” I draw out the fine, exasperated from her asking me every morning.
“Are you sure?” She asks, leaning back and staring me directly in the eyes.
"I'm sure," I give her a crooked smile. Thanks to my mother's and father's support, I was able to recover so quickly after the soul eater attack, but while dad still asks me every so often how I'm doing, it's mother who sees fit to ask me the same question multiple times a day.
I’m all for sharing, but she asks me so frequently, I don’t have anything else to talk about!
“We need to stop by Camden’s house before we start our run,” I tell mother, breaking out of her death-grip.
Mom gives me a curious look when I hear dad call out from their bedroom, "You're heading to the headman's house; what for?"
“I think I saw a large bird flying over to his house. I might have gotten a response from Kervin regarding the general’s arrow,” I explain to the two of them.
“My group is working that way as well. We can walk together.” Dad offers, walking over to mother and kissing her on the cheek.
"That sounds like a lovely idea," she gushes and returns dad's kiss with one of her own. I turn away from the sweet atmosphere before my teeth start to rot.
Mother and father eventually separate, and the three of us move into the living room together. Mother moves to put on her shoes while father and I grab our axes. It's annoying having to carry such a big weapon on my back, but we still live in a remote village, and I need something to defend myself with if something happens. Mother doesn't advertise it, but I know she always has a dagger on her person, and every so often, I catch a glimpse of her practice swinging it.
I guess the good news is that everything has been relatively tranquil around the village after the soul eater event. The hunters have reported smaller game returning to the woods, and hopefully, the bigger animals will soon follow now that the spiders are all but gone.
When I accompanied my mother to have tea with Sarette the other day, I was told thanks to all the tree felling around the village, the fields will be expanded more than ever this year, and we'll have more crops than we know what to do with.
Our village has suffered many trials and tribulations this year, but things are finally looking up.
*Knock**Knock**Knock*
We all jump at the sound of someone knocking on our front door. “Hello, this is Nicolas. May I come in?”
The three of us share confused looks before mother, who’s standing next to the door, flips open the latch we use to seal the house at night and pushes the door open to let our early morning guest in.
Nicolas moves into our doorway and scans the room, meeting each of our gazes. "I'm lucky, you're all still here," he sighs in relief.
"Is something the matter?" Mother asks, concerned, noticing the strained look on the young man’s face.
"Father received a messenger hawk from Drey and told my brother and me to gather the senior members of the village immediately," Nicolas tells us while trying to catch his breath. He must have run straight here.
“What was the message?” Father curiously asks.
"I don't know, father wouldn't say. Please head to our house; I still have to go and inform a few others of the meeting." Nicolas turns around and takes off towards his next destination.
Really. I know my luck isn’t the best, but I tempted fate only five minutes ago! Shouldn’t there be a grace period before fate reacts to a flag?
"So much for it being a message from Kervin," I joke darkly.
“Now sweety, we don’t know what the message is about. No use worrying until we meet with Camden. Let’s hurry over and see what the fuss is all about.” Mother rushes father and me out the door and over to the headman’s house.
On our way over, Ronald silently joins our group.
We pass by many villagers starting their day, and many notice we’re walking towards the headman’s house as a group. A few of the braver ones call out to us and ask us what's going on, to which we have no answer.
By the time we reach Camden's house, I can see master walking over in the distance just as Salus rounds a nearby house to join our little party. "Morning Silvia, Darrius, Aaliyah. Oh, and to you, Ronald, I didn't see you there." Salus politely greets all of us. "I don't suppose any of you know why we're here?"
“I would like to know the same thing?” Our group turns around to see Anastasia walking over, followed by Nicolas. I don't understand why she was summoned; Anastasia's healing is important to the village, but she doesn't usually concern herself with its affairs.
Master walks over and stands next to me.
"As I said, Ms. Anastasia, my father didn't say." Nicolas is trying to keep a straight face, but judging by his twitching eyelid, she's asked him more than a few times already. Nicolas looks like he's about to say something else to Anastasia but turns towards us instead, looking past our group, and smiles in relief.
Turning around, I see Nicolas’s brother Braddon leading Markus and Ezekiel over to our growing group. The two men look just as reluctant as Anastasia does at being summoned on such short notice.
Braddon walks next to his brother. “Everybody here?”
“Yeah,” Nicolas responds. “Was it difficult convincing them to come?”
The two brothers share a meaningful look between the two of them that speaks volumes of their troubles.
Nicolas clears his throat and turns to everyone gathered. “Alright, everyone is here; follow me to the drawing-room."
We’re led into the headman’s house to the familiar room the family uses for entertaining guests.
"Silvia, Aaliyah, come sit next to me," Sarette calls out to us as soon as we enter the room. Mother, Anastasia, and myself each take a seat while the men stand around the room. Camden watches everyone file into the room while sitting in a chair with his hands folded and one of his legs nervously bouncing.
Usually, Sarette would try to start with some friendly conversation with my mother, but Camden's heavy atmosphere keeps anyone from trying to talk to one another. Even Anastasia, who's known for being impatient, stays quiet until Camden decides to speak.
“I’m sure my boys told you I got a letter from Drey… it isn’t good news." Camden reaches to his side and reveals a wrapped piece of parchment with a fancy broken seal; he leans over and places it on the coffee table. “The message was sent from the city’s lord; I’ll summarize the contents for you.”
Camden takes a deep breath to steady his nerves. "Fort North Ridge has fallen, and Scholl is likely to move in our direction."
The room becomes ominously silent after Camden drops that bombshell on us before everyone erupts with questions.
“What are we to do?”
“Are we in danger?”
“What does this mean for the village?”
“What happened to the general?” I find myself caught up in the heat of the moment and call out my own question.
Camden holds his hand out in a stopping motion until everyone stops talking. “I didn’t receive any news about the fort itself, only a message from Drey's lord on behalf of the Earl,” Camden answers my question first.
“What was in the message?” Mother asks the million gold coin question.
"The message informed me that effective immediately, all villages, towns, and cities are placed on high alert and that we're to support any official sent to combat Scholl's forces in any way they deem necessary," Camden explains.
“What does that mean?” Markus asks.
“It means if a soldier under the Earls command shows up in a village, they’re allowed free reign of the place,” mother snaps at Markus before turning back to Camden. “Is that all?” She hesitantly asks.
“No,” Camden lowers his head. “Each village and town are required to send supplies to their nearest cities, in our case Drey. Food, weapons, people, the message was purposely vague, but the wording suggested we would receive little compensation."
“People!?” Mother exclaims.
Camden slowly nods his head. "The lord of Drey is scraping together as many people as he can to repel Scholl's advance. The message said if there were not enough volunteers, the city lords and commandeers under the Earl hold the right to conscript people to fill out their numbers." Camden says everything with a strained expression.
News of a draft infuriates everyone in the room. Markus and Ezekiel are red in the face from yelling, while mother is tightly gripping fathers' hand that's resting on her shoulder. If anyone were drafted from the village, it would be mostly the men.
Our village is remote, but even we heard about the army taking in anyone willing to defend the fort. What happened to everyone there? Did Scholl kill everyone?
“That’s not all,” Camden interjects between Markus’ and Ezekiel’s protesting. “The last part of the message said every person level 50 and above is required to report to their nearest cities, lord."
The room goes deathly quiet as everyone turns to look at master, Ronald, and me.
Oh shit!
“They’re also calling on any healers to report in as well,” Camden continues with the bad news. “You can see why I’ve called you all here today.”
“My daughter isn’t going anywhere!” Mother stands up with fire in her eyes.
“I’m not leaving the village either!” Anastasia slams her hand on the coffee table in front of us.
“We can’t send our best people off to war!”
“That’s right,” Ezekiel agrees with Markus.
Camden carefully studies everyone in the room. “You’re all talking about defying the Earl’s call to arms. What you’re saying could be considered treason.”
Ezekiel and Markus shut up as soon as they hear the word treason, but they still have the same displeased looks as everybody else. Everyone shares tense looks.
According to that piece of paper on the table, almost half of the people in this room are officially drafted already.
"I summoned everyone here because I can't decide how to proceed by myself," Camden laminates. "Whether we follow the orders of the summons or pretend it never arrived, the people in this room have to be in agreement."
“Are we?” Ezekiel hesitantly asks.
“Talking about going against the Earl, yes.” Camden nods his head. “Master Del, myself, Ronald, Anastasia, and Aaliyah will all have to leave for Drey if we decide to follow the summons.”
“You, why? Who will lead the village?” Markus asks.
“It's been a busy year, and I recently reached level 50 myself. I’d leave the village in Nicolas's care. His brother and mother will help him, but once I leave the village, Nicolas will be the new headman." Camden gives his eldest son a half-smile in acknowledgment. Hearing that someone reached level 50 would typically warrant a celebration; too bad under these circumstances, it only makes things worse.
“And if we disregard the summons?” Anastasia gives the headman a pointed glare.
“Then things become tricky," Camden folds his hands in front of himself. "We're quite remote, and other than sending our taxes to Drey every year, only a handful of people know that miss Anastasia is living here and even fewer know the levels of our residents.”
“Then we should be fine then if we don’t send anyone,” Markus exclaims.
“Yes, but we could still be found out should the army or nobles send a representative to the village. We would most surely be labeled as traitors and executed.” Everyone in the room pales upon hearing the consequences from Camden.
It’s moments like these that I’m reminded I’m living in a feudal system. I’ve been spared having to deal with this world’s hierarchy, having being born in such a remote village. It’s quite disheartening seeing how the local nobility is reacting to an invasion.
They demand supplies for free and declare every strong person part of their fighting force.
I wonder how Scholl would manage things if they were in charge?
No, I shouldn’t think about that. Those bastards might have killed the general and ruined my future business plans.
Though that does mean there’s one less person who’s aware of me, silver linings and all that.
“How long until we have to decide?” Ezekiel whines.
Gods, those two are annoying; they can't even think for themselves. But he does have a good point; how long until shit hits the fan?
I turn towards Camden, “do you have a map?”
Everyone looks at me, curious. "I have one of the village,” Camden offers.
“No,” I shake my head. “A map of the region. Like where Drey, Teeburn, and the other major cities are,” I ask.
"I think my father had an old one, but it's probably outdated," Camden warns me.
“That should be fine. Can I see it, please?”
“Give me a moment,” Camden stands up and heads out of the room.
"What do you need a map for?" Markus asks me. He isn't outright rude to me because he knows how strong I am, but I can tell he still thinks of me as a child. And he and Ezekiel are both looking at me like I'm wasting everybody's time.
I’ve never been more compelled to try out my tier 6 skill than right now.
“I have it right here,” Camden calls out as he rushes back into the room. The two assholes none the wiser to how close I was to snapping at them.
Camden carefully lays the map out on the table. The parchment looks like it will crumble under the slightest touch.
“Where are we?” I ask.
"We're down here in the middle of the forest" Camden points to a blank spot on the map that has a crude circle drawn with the name of our village scribbled illegibly nearby.
“Then that’s Drey,” I point to the closest city on the map.
“That’s right, and that’s Teeburn, Blaiton, and Yleles,” Camden points to each of the cities on the map.
There’s none of the smaller towns or villages are marked anywhere on the old map.
“There’s a mountain over there?” I point to the center of the map.
“That’s Red Dust Mountain, it isn't very tall, but the land is hard to traverse. It once supplied all the cities around it with iron ore, but it was mined out during my grandfather's generation." Camden informs me.
"And this city up at the top of the map? Couldn't Scholl consider moving in that direction," I point out? The city's name has faded too much to read it, and only the R at the beginning is legible.
"I don't remember the name of the city, but that's the shortest route leading towards the capitol. I'm no expert, but Olebert's forces should be marching down that path as we speak."
Damn, so once they take Teeburn, they can hold of Olebert there and move this way. No wonder the local nobility is freaking out.
Studying the map, I notice a small circle under the city of Yleles. Does that say Earl Yleles? “Hey Camden, the city is named after the Earl’s family?” I ask.
"Not anymore; the Yleles suffered from a string of bad decisions when my father was a boy and was replaced by the current lord, Earl Rodrick Vagan. Though the Yleles were stripped of their rank, a side branch of the family still governs the city." The more Camden explains to me, the more a small smile grows across my face.
“Is this really necessary?”
“Yeah, can’t we get back on topic?”
The peanut gallery strikes again; only this time, everyone in the room gives them a dirty look causing the two men to flinch back.
"I think we're in luck," I say to the room, gathering everyone's attention.
"What do you mean?" Camden leans over the map, trying to see what I see.
“They’re coming from here, right?” I lead everyone with my finger. “We know where they're coming from, and we can guess how long they're going to take to reach Drey."
“And how do you know that?” Sarette asks me.
“Kervin told me he takes around five days to reach Teeburn from Drey. If we factor in how fast an army can move, we can guess how long it will take them to reach the city,” I explain.
I turn towards our resident healer. "You were in the army, Miss Anastasia. Do you know how long it takes for an army to march from city to city?”
Anastasia seems surprised by my question. “I was only trained for a little while and never on logistics.”
“That’s ok,” I tell her before she becomes too discouraged to answer my questions. “I’m sure you must have seen them send out troops on exorcises. How fast did they seem compared to a cart?”
Anastasia frowns at my question but looks like she’s thinking of an answer. “Maybe a third of the speed of a cart,” she hesitantly offers.
"Thanks, that helps a lot," I smile at the woman. "That would mean we have roughly two weeks before Scholl's men near Drey. "And that isn't factoring in skills, so they might even be here sooner," I point out to everyone.
“That still doesn’t tell us much?” Markus again points out to me.
I smugly smile at his question. "Look at where the Earl's residence is. They sent out word to every village because they're hurrying to gather people. If we could guess how long it will take Scholl to reach Drey, I'm sure the Earl has already done the same. Two weeks is not enough time for them to mount a sizable defense of Drey."
"I've been to the city, and I don't see that many guards on the walls. Unless they have a secret army hidden somewhere or plan on forcing every citizen to fight, they won't hold the city. If the Earl tries to keep the city, he’ll lose men and spread his forces too thin.” I explain my thinking to everyone.
“I think I see what you mean,” Camden nods his head at the map. “When you look at it like that, it makes sense for the Earl to abandon Drey. The city isn't as wealthy as Blaiton or Yleles, and it will take Scholl days to get a whole city of people under control. Now that I think about it, the army may take longer to reach us if we factor in Scholl securing Teeburn,” Camden gives his opinion.
“And you forgot about the good part,” I say out loud for those who aren’t following our train of thought. "As long as we send some supplies to Drey and make a token appearance of helping, we can just wait for Drey to fall. If Olebert later retakes the land, we can always say we were too late in sending off our villagers." I cross my arms in front of me, feeling proud of my evil villain insight.
"That sounds good in theory, but what if Scholl can't take Drey?" Sarette asks me with a worried look.
"Scholl managed to take a fort with someone over level 100 guarding it. If by some miracle they can't take the city, we revisit our plan. The main thing is we should wait to see how things further develop," I smile at my mom's friend.
A lot of people looked relieved after hearing my plan. It may not be patriotic to the kingdom of Olebert, but I care more about Ezekiel and Markus than I do a lord who couldn't spare us help when the Chameleon Spiders first showed up.
The only thing that matters to me is keeping my family safe and staying out of a war…
"OH, SHIT!" I curse out loud, scaring everyone at the table.
“What?” Mother asks me.
“Richard and Sarah, aren’t they still in Drey!?” I shout.
A cold realization dawns on mine and Camden’s family.
Isn’t Sarah close to being a mage? Would they try and draft her? I panic to myself.
“Honey, our little girl!” Sarette brings a hand to her mouth and looks at her husband with tears in her eyes.
“I’ll take care of it,” Camden reassures his wife before turning on Markus and Ezekiel. “Do we have any produce ready to be harvested?”
The two men share a look before Markus answers. “The wortel could be harvested early; why?"
“We’ll take an emergency cart of food and some of the spears Aaliyah made for the village and bring it to Drey. We can say we brought everything because of the summons and use that as an excuse to bring Sarah and Richard back to the village.” Camden hastily explains.
“But our food stores are running low,” Ezekiel says the right thing as one of the head farmers, but he isn’t talking to Village leader Camden; he's arguing with worried parent Camden.
"Losing a few crops won't hurt us that much," Camden looks ready to bite Ezekiel's head off and eat it. "Our fields are larger than ever; we can spare a few crates of wortel.”
Ezekiel wisely steps back and keeps his mouth shut under the heavy gaze of Camden.
I dislike Ezekiel and Markus as much as anyone else, and I’m just as worried about brother and Sandra, but now isn't the time to fly off the rails. "Camden," I call out to him to grab his attention.
Not only the desperate-looking headman, but everyone turns their attention back to me. "Ezekiel may be an insensitive ass, but he's right about the food. We only have two to three weeks to prepare for the coming army. I lost my composure just like you did, but we need to be extra careful right now.” I tell Camden with a serious look.
The rage slowly fades from his face as he collects himself. “What is it that you propose, then?” He asks with a raised eyebrow.
It isn’t like I have any great ideas rattling around inside my head, so I tell him the best thing I can come up with. “I’ll run to Drey and find them.”
"Absolutely not!" Half the room shouts at me. Careful master, I send him a side-long glance reminding him to stay calm, or more people will find out you don’t have a speech impediment.
"You know what happened last time you left the village!" Mother looks ready to shake me in frustration. I'm not sure if she's talking about the soul eater or bandits; either way, I technically won both those fights.
"I do, but I'm a lot stronger now," I plead my case in an even tone as to project a calm atmosphere. "I'm faster than I ever was, and a journey to and from Drey should only take me four days by myself. I can find Richard and Sandra and talk to them. If we need to, we can send a messenger hawk to the village. I also need to meet up with Mr. Grey and discuss where our business deals go from here.”
Though I made a fair argument, mother still looks reluctant to let me leave.
I don't want to tell her, but I will if I have to. Running to Drey isn't just for business reasons or meeting up with Richard; no, I want to run to Drey to prove that I'm not afraid to leave the village!
I've noticed it every time I've walked to master's clearing; I get antsy when I'm alone in the forest now. I don't outright panic, but I can feel my body tense, and I feel like I'm being watched even after I've scanned the area a dozen times.
The longer I wait to leave the village; the more my sense of paranoia will likely grow until I mentally limit myself and never leave the village again, giving up on my dreams.
I stand up to see a three-way divided room. Ezekiel, Markus, Salus, quiet Ronald, and Anastasia don’t care whether I go or not. Mother, Father, and master look ready to hold me down while Camden and his family look torn between asking me to go and agreeing that I should stay.
“I’m making the run,” I say, activating Shout of Valor without raising my voice. I can see how my skill brushes up against each of the souls in the room. The skill’s low level probably wouldn't affect most of the people in this room, but with a gentle nudge from Soul Manipulation, the skill manages to take hold of the entire room.
Everyone looks at me with wonder in their eyes, feeling the uplifting effects of my skill… for a few seconds.
My skill combination can't overcome everything, and mothers scowl returns even deeper when the effects quickly wear off. “Did you just!?” Mother dragon once again awakens.
Damn, I missed my chance to exit like a hero.
“I’mdoingtherun, seeyouinfrontofthevillage!" (I'm doing the run, see you in front of the village!) I quickly blurt everything out and escape the drawing-room as fast as my stats will let me.
I know I'm going to regret that later, as I burst through the headman's front door, but I put all those negative thoughts aside for now and head home to gather my supplies quickly.
I need to leave as soon as possible.
I wonder how fast I can run with my improved stats? A manic grin forms on my face at the idea. I'd try to make the full run in only three days, but I learned my lesson after encountering the bandits last time. I can’t push myself that hard when I’m running alone.
I wonder if this is considered an adventure, I ponder to myself as I reach my house.
Knowing my luck, it will be.
No matter, this adventure will be different. I’ll kick ass and take as many names as I have to, proving to my parents and myself that I can handle life outside the village!
**********
Author’s Notes:
6,300 words.
I know, I know; it's late. All I can say is, I need this break. I think I feel a cold coming on just to spite my Thanksgiving plans. I pretty much haven't left my house other than groceries and errands since I started writing full time, so I doubt it's anything serious. But a can of soup, and I manage to finish editing everything.
That’s it for my grumbling.
An update regarding chapter 62 and a shout-out to SteveC, he double-checked my math from Aaliyah's massive level up and found an inconsistency with the numbers. Rather than change Aaliyah's level and stats, I just made her earn more experience from killing the soul eater.
Nothing too major, but I felt like giving out credit where it’s due.
How do you like the village's reaction to the war? I forget which chapter; it was a while ago, but I wrote that small villages usually flip flop allegiances during territorial disputes because of how insignificant they are. Though Aaliyah's village is anything but insignificant, only a few people outside the village see it that way.
Was the map helpful in visualizing everything? I don't know if I've said it yet, but I'm a horrible artist, like always drawing stick figures bad. So think of the map as a rough outline.
Tell me what you think below.
I hope everyone will have a great Thanksgiving and if you aren't in the U.S.A, have a happy November 26.
As always, stay safe.
Comments
Leigh Ganschow
moonlight -----> moonlit (just a matter of common usage I think); laminates -----> laments; hold of Olebert -----> hold off Olebert
Trevor
Spelling ”send out troops on exorcises (exercises)”
TaylorTot
Am I the only one that starts worring that their current favorite author has died anytime they are even a little late?
D
Didnt he say he'd post a new chapter on the 2th? So he is already late. Lets see how much of a break he needs...
Toni Pampliega
Anytime now author? XD
Loyal Patreon follower
I havent read the last few chapters because i was occupied and now im waiting for the whole arc to end. I really hope after this we get her having her own smithy and making cool stuff in a big city :D
Fifi138
im reloadng the page regularly the last 8h xD
Abdullah
Who else waiting for that update
Blackmoon11
Don't know why, just picturing Kosnik playing a fiddle while watching the comment section
TaylorTot
Is there a reason she can't change how she exits her own soul?
TaylorTot
I agree. I like the idea of the soul eater, but it felt kind of spur of the moment. At first I just thought it was a Halloween, non-cannon extra.
TaylorTot
I like the idea of the bobble shield. But she doesn't know enough runes to make it. Unless she starts making her own runes.
Dikfor
I keep hoping for an early release. lol
Philip Pleiss
Since the General isn't dead yet, and she has the name of the village, I suspect the General will escape at some point and go to the village to get armed and armored.
Philip Pleiss
Del had mentioned that the Dwarves revere the god of earth, so my personal guess is that the third eye is that entity.
TaylorTot
Could she use soul manipulation to rip apart some else's soul? What about giving Del magic? And who was the third eye watching Del?
Schlofi
Argh, I need my fix
akira sendo
Muy buena historia
Senjo
If crafting is boring why are you reading this story? I'd assume people are fans of this story, because it has such a focus on crafting. We have a million stories of MCs exploring fantasy worlds and fighting monsters, if this story becomes one of them there will be nothing setting this one apart from others...
ZCochraine!%
Maybe “ask” the skills what is required to level them up, or at least get a better sense of it.
Alteron
Thinking about soul manipulation, why not optimize the data, i am guessing that sorting the skills building bridges between them will make them work better.
Pyrefiend
Aaliyah should try to use soul manipulation to hide her level from appraisal skills.
Felipe Andrade
New chapters on RR and none here get me really anxious lol
ShadeByTheSea
I don't mind more action honestly, even if I prefer just more crafting(at least till she learns to enchant). I just want it all to happen away from the village so her family is seperated from it. Tragedy is not needed for a good story and there's way too much of it nowadays. One of the main draws of this story for me is it was on the happier side of things, bad stuff happen and people die but it's not too much. So if the story makes the MC take a darker path much of the draw of it will be gone.
Alteron
Speculations about coming plots: Giovanni orders Kervin and Reel to make sure that Anastasia is safe. Maybe with help from the receptionist. Grey sells out Aaliyah to Scholl. The Pitz family comes to “Save” Aaliyah. Pacore finds the makers mark on the arrow, and on the magic weapons captured, wants to find the maker.
Carl Mason
Except she just decided to run to Drey to handle a little business while there is still time, which is foolish and likely to get her caught.
Bookman
Nooooooo You were the chose one, You were suposed to defeat the boredom not join it. Joke aside good chapter and love were the story is heading. Ignore all the nay sayers that want a simple booring pure crafting story. If they want one, they can write it themself. Get a good rest and yes its cold season so keep some good hot tea closeby at all times and stay in some warm place. But dont make the mistake of heating your place to dryness 1000. The Human lung is not meant to live in a place with low moister % Around 40 - 55% is good. 70% and above are too high and bad for health, same with below 40%. A dry lung can easy get you a cold. You can get % clocks for 10 bucks on Amazon. https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/product/B07D5QL9BK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Have a nice vacation and keep healthy. on a site note: Do we know when the next chapter is coming? :D
Imp
I want to see the world!! I'm getting paranoid about leaving my house! - the MC paradox
Melting Sky
It's definitely a desperation move. My guess is the best they can hope for is to throw together a rag tag sacrificial peasant army to throw behind some fortifications and slow down the enemy advance so that either reinforcements can arrive or the VIPs can flee successfully. There is supposed to be a large reinforcement force that's on its way already so they might just be trying to stall any way they can to buy a little more time for them to get to where they need to be.
Melting Sky
Good chapter. It's interesting to see just how far the ripples from the fort falling have spread. Aaliyah is in a precarious spot in that she is just well known enough that there are some people in high places that could rat her out for draft dodging. It looks like she is willing to take the gamble. The local lords are going to have their hands way too full to deal with draft dodgers for the most part.
Chymor
So I started thinking a bit more about this summons... And I wonder if they're really expecting anything useful at all from it. After all, the real call to war should have been sent when the war started, not now. In time to gather with the other reinforcements. And maybe it excluded this village because of goblins and monster problems. Regardless, skills make low level conscripts a lot less useful in this world than our world. Having some decently leveled t1 and t2 or maybe even a t3/t4 skills should be enough to make up for lacking a bunch of levels. Only hunters or other fighting classes can be expected to contribute anything worthwhile, beyond help with logistics. So maybe the lord have done them much greater favors than they acknowledge. This is just the last panic summons to gather whomever they can, not expecting much. Of cause, that makes it worse to answer this than the normal draft.
Endoria
Just as an idea, delete all the chapter since the first PoV switch to her mother. Scrap every single alternate PoV chapter, scrap the soul skill, scrap the puppet monster and the new T6 skill, scrap the stupid school invasion. I think the story started out good and went to basically unreadable. In the last 10 chapters there were 2 that had interesting content that feels like it belongs in the story this started out to be. The rest is just meh. I hope the story comes back some day, but I highly doubt the possibility.
tibbish
Yeah. With her skills Aaliyah can always get another sponsor and Pacore sounds like he miiiiight be reasonable to her. And its not like the previous lords were really all that good to her or her village. Or competent in general. Look at how they maintained the fort that Pitz was trying to save. They certainly didn't have any men ready for her when needed either. They sounded like typical corrupt and incompetent feudal lords really. And they didn't do anything to earn her loyalty. At most they could threaten her or her village and family to force her to fight. Or perhaps some sort've skill. Even if they couldn't command her with it they still could've (and would've) held her family hostage if need be to get her compliance.
Miritar
I think we all are forgetting that Pitz was waiting on reinforcements and that Scholl had to attack immediately to beat the Olebert reinforcements. So an army SHOULD be on the way to tie up Scholl at Teeburn, making Drey a good tactical rally point.
Miritar
Commission an artist on one of those websites. Author could pay say 100 bucks and get a kick ass picture for the gang to goggle over
Miritar
My guess is a banished God or a forgotten/suppressed god. Like the Oliberts hate one that Scholl worships or something and have removed it from common knowledge.
ZaA
Honestly, im hoping they eventually defect to scholl and pacore replaces Emily. Older and seems to have a huge reliance on gear to deal damage. Has tons of enchants, so he might have connections to get her a teacher or something
Brell
Back when the village was threatened by Wind Spiders, Camden used a skill to muster the village. He also used a skill to determine Aaliyah's level. I suspect the Earl would also have these skills. Is the "call to arms" that Camden used simply too short-ranged to apply from his city?
Jewbear
https://www.humblebundle.com/software/maps-extravaganza-encore-software?linkID=&mcID=102:5fbd8b4bf2bea66ac9056665:ot:56d8dd5e733462ca89575462:1&utm_source=Humble+Bundle+Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2020_11_25_mapsextravaganzaencore_softwarebundle&linkID=&utm_content=cta_button Here is a bundle of map makers
Hayden Lux
1. I really like that he points out that she doesn't really know anything about either country and that maybe Scholl would be a better nation to live under. Also, it will be really interesting to see if her region does get conquered and join Scholl and how that will work. Will the people fight the takeover, welcome it, or will Scholl get pushed back? The fact that she is not a central figure in this war and the enemy isn't some boogeyman leaves an air of unknown as to how the conflict will turn out. Unlike something like Star Wars where there is a clear good bad and the good will inevitably win this conflict could have surprising and untraditional outcomes. 2. Am I the only one who thought the whole six gods and seven moons was interesting. After all, that is implying either there is a missing god or an open slot or something, or there is some sort of focal point or power that governs the gods.
Space Cadet
Kosnik, could you include a description of Aaliyah sometime. I keep thinking 15 yr old girl, similar to my slight daughter, but someone mentioned she is a large girl. The I realised she is a blacksmith, so big shoulders. The I remembered she has a str of 150... how tall is she? Is she a glam? How heavy is she, or do the magic stat increases not change her size? Any details appreciated
Sondadir
The conscription does not take place in Drey but in the fortress of Yleles. That's why she says the Earl decided to abandon Drey. There is no risk in going there. If the orders are followed to the letter, the Town of Drey no longer welcomes high-level characters who can force her to engage. At worst she would be told to go to the fortress, but I would be surprised if a town on the verge of siege could have the manpower available to escort her there.
Alex C
But can actually happen in real life.
Rui Lourenço
She's a Smith and a talented Mage. They'd be dumb to waste her talent on the front lines. She also has connections with important people. She'd need to massively fuck up or be really unlucky to end up on the front lines. Anyone that matters that meets Aliyah acts extremely carefully and respectfully because they see that at the very least, if nothing goes wrong, she'll grow up to become someone on General Pitz level. However, I do think she eventually needs to have some sort of apprenticeship under a big shot.
Loipers
She hasn't gotten particularly stronger since the last two times she nearly died leaving the village, and she blew up her sword. I get her motivations, but this seems a little foolish considering the potential to get dragged into the war on top of standard dangers. Still, I'm ok with this development. You've got to love flawed characters!
Cerber
I bet she os going tp screw uå one way or another. Lack of weapon, being careless aka not watching her words or being naive , being spotted by a high lvl scout or being spotted by a noble skill. Some few things i thought up right now, but i can see it coming miles away. No way the rescue mission ends without a single major issue
Chymor
I really really hope we can avoid them running past each other. Those are just annoying coincidences, and bad plots.
Talespinner Lore
I mean compared to our world, they *are* functionally superhuman to some degree. Also, isn't a week in this world 10 days? A standard medieval army of mostly foot soldiers could move about 25~ish miles a day, on a Roman Road. If there are semi-decent roads, the army would need to be about 3.2 times faster over land than standard humans due to stats, or more if it's just dirt paths. Really, what we need to decide if this is believable is to know how effective commander-type skills are in improving morale or giving boosts to an army, as well as a stat comparison of ye olde' Earth human compared to this world. ps. If the weeks are 7 days the math works out to about 4.6 times the speed or higher, but if the question is how fast our MC can run to Drey, we've been shown she's *much* faster than a marching footman, and can keep that speed for hours at a time. She could easily make it there and back within a 2-week timespan, no sweat.
Chemnerd263
I liked the bit of insight into how soul manipulation is growing and being used inside and outside Aaliyah's soul. The idea of the small village just.... not showing up.... I like that. Alot. I dont know how to express just how little I as a random civilian would care about a foreign country going to war with my lord, especially when you factor in the Schole seems to be trying to have a military only campaign. Keep the peasants happy and you only have to fight the army. Make the peasants mad and scorched earth becomes the only option. Have a happy Thanksgiving, enjoy your time with family, be safe.
Blackmoon11
Great chapter, I had some guesses to what soul manipulation could do and I am glad to see it was all that and more. I remember that she wanted to try modifying her body while in the soul space when she first got soul sense, I hope that didn't happen of screen. I can see her decision to run to Drey going south in a lot of ways. There is a non zero chance she will miss her brother on the road, and even if she dose not, Drey is is just the grand central station of trouble. Even ignoring the draft and general paranoia, it seems very likely that Grey is going to sell her out to save his own skin, either to scholl or their own kingdom. Also the Bob ross bit at the beginning was hilariously random , I can already picture her channeling Mr Rogers to try and mediate the fight between the two kingdoms, cant wait for the next chapter
Jon Oliphant
Well I certainly like their reaction to the Earl. The whole kingdom of Olebert seems to have a real bad case of rectal cranial inversion. Start with the lord who does nothing to help his territory, to the national command authority that can't be arsed to defend the borders from invasion. But after that why in heaven RUN TO DREY ? send a bird it will be their in less than a day. It just doesn't make sense. The other big problem is the distances . It was supposedly 800 miles between the village and Drey ? Unless that army is all supermen it's going to take more than 2 weeks to cover the distance, and when you consider the scale this world has a population density that makes the moon look over populated. There's something on the order 500-600 between pop centers ? I am also guessing they are medieval sized city states ? The world is just empty.
Mormeg
Thanks for the map.
Scyfe
Thanks for the chapter, if you feel you need a break to not burn out you should absolutely take one. I'm of the opinion of being patient for higher quality chapters is better than frequent lower quality chapters. Enjoyed this chapter a lot better than the prior few, the soulscaping was very interesting and it was nice to see the conversation between all the high-level villagers. A bit concerned the run to Drey will just lead to MC getting conscripted and pulling the story more towards generic isekai and away from the slice of life/smithing sections which I find preferable but there are numerous ways for the run to turn out so looking forward to seeing how it's handled.
Zerith
They might draft her, but she would be boring as draftee. She forges Really good weapon. They see how good it is, ask how old she even is, realize what/who they have in their hands, shanghai her away to the capital and keep her under lock and key until the end of Magic Smith. That said she might stay mum on the "I am a blacksmith and only fools send blacksmiths to the front during a war!" bit, but she dos not like killing and fighting seems like somthing she would avoid, meanwhile as a higher level smith she can hold herself hostage to make sure her loved ones Aren't used as cannon fodder. That said we're also assuming someone would use a Skill to see how high of a level a large farm girl is. She is simply too young to bother drafting without either desperation or an unlikely skill use. mind, I say unlikely, she might just happen to be in the area or it's an everyone gets scanned thing. Basicly, after the front gate, she is basicly home free. How we watch her zip past the two she is going to to meet! or we see her bump into them and render this whole thing moot :D
Lesley Douglas
Thanks for the chapter. I think at this point of 2020 we could all use a break from the trials and tribulations of the year. Remember since writing is your full time job, make sure you get into a routine, for writing, staying health, and getting out and living; balance in all things and hopefully no burn out. On to the chapter, while I think Aaliyah's insight is not so common as she think, she sees this war through modern lenses and might see things that others won't. Because basically the Earl if he was smart would never send supplies, healers, mages or people level 50 or higher to Drey /Teeburn that would be feeding the Scholl Army specialized conscripts and draining valuable resources he will come to regret. Plus they are failing to factor in, if the king is coming to fight, the enemy should not be looking to partake in widespread and far reaching battles as it would leave themselves thin on troops and open to defeat by the king. So if the enemy was smart it would consolidate its power at the fort, create real obstacles to the King in the west. Sending spies to access that situation, then sending troops to take Teeburn. Then stop until their country sets up proper supply chains and more troops. So that two week time frame is stretched out and Drey has a chance to evacuate. The Earl can actually think logically think of what is to happen. Like incoming refugees, securing supplies, coordinating with the King, sending spies to monitor situation. War is never a quick business unless there is a goal and a short time to meet it. An Army marches on its stomach so if the Earl abandon Teeburn and hopes the people are smart enough to abandon the city on their own, he could focus on Drey as to weaken and slow them from getting to Blaiton. But if he leaves Drey as is, then the enemy will pick up conscript, food and supplies to keep moving to Blaiton. Can wait to see how you deal with a war. Take your time.
Lesley Douglas
That makes so much sense. If attempting the ink gave her the skill then the more she levels it, the better and more potent her ink will be. And maybe they more intuitive the recipe will become. Since Drey is all but lost, if she runs to The city then she could make a lot of bargains collecting books, alchemy recipes, supplies and basic/intermediate knowledge on the subject. Also if she shares her thoughts with Mr Grey, I am sure she can get free supplies.
lenkite
Nothing wrong with a sword - actually as a Blacksmith crafting a sword takes far more talent than an Axe. She can make a [Heavy Sword] with T3 metal for herself. If one is talking about skill consolidation then a Warhammer+Shield is a better weapon for her.
lenkite
So she is running to get Drafted in Drey ? I mean she is over level 50 right ? I don't get this crazy, stupid decision at all. She should be STAYING AWAY from Drey. What suddenly blew her bug ? She can go running in the forest. Anywhere EXCEPT Drey!! One Feudal Lord is mostly the same as another anyways. Their current Lord is useless and only collects taxes without any support. A militaristic nation might actually be better - they are more likely to actually send soldiers in case of a crisis.
Markus
I'm reminded I'm living in a feudal system. They demand supplies for free and declare every strong person part of their fighting force. Yeah, this opinion is bullshit. (But not unrealistic that she thinks so. It's just wrong.) The form of government does not matter, the same thing could happen everywhere else. It's war and the government uses conscription, or is it procuring necessary goods? Sounds like any other country in the world. That said, people in a feudal state usually don't really care who rules the country. So the overall reaction is - what do I care about this war? - quite correct. The idea of nation-states and patriotism is a fairly new concept. Before that, the actual community was much more important. Our city, our town, our village, etc
Rip Woodham
I hope you don't intend for the village to join Scholl. The way you've built them up as fops with feathers in their hats, being all about strength, dogmatic and militaristic is not endearing. Of course, Olebert hasn't engendered any loyalty either. It's just more palatable. Going into Drey is incredibly stupid. The city may be under lockdown. They're definitely going to take note of anyone *entering.* She could become trapped for a number of reasons. I hope she runs into her brother on the road and returns, but that doesn't seem to be where this is going.... Grey isn't her friend, and he's losing a lot of power. Otherwise the chapter was good. Reactions and discussion were fine. The art is appreciated. I don't know if you even read the comments, but wish you a happy thanksgiving and hope it finds your family well. :)
Ninetails
When preparing for RPGs I noticed that there are some quite nice tools for map making, that can make them look much nicer even if you are at a low skill level. An example would be inkarnate, though there are others that might fit you better.
Loki-L
They are different skills and I guess mastering one skill makes you more effective than trying to be good at several weapon skills. As a blacksmith a warhammer would be a weapon that would synergize with her crafting best, but the axe gets some experience from mining with a puckaxe. The only time she uses a sword is to fight or train with a sword.
S T
While the map is basic i believe something about it should be changed. Going by the distances described in this an previous chapters a single flat mountain does not work. It should be a "mountain range" with mutliple peaks or probably more like hills. It being mined out also does seem implausible but since that is common opinion maybe they just havent found any more.
Obsidianking
I think having Aaliyah questioning her allegiance. Is great. She's biased against monarchies because their pretty much a bygone concept on earth. So maybe she would visit or want to explore schole, where it feels more primal, more survival od the fittest
Rallaster
Thanks for the chapter. Writer's fatigue is the worst. Even more so than writer's block. Do what you need to stay in love with the story and the story telling and us readers will love the story all the more.
PaperMache7
She should have probably practiced some more basic alchemy before trying to make the ink, herbology would also have been useful.
Todd Kloos
Running to Drey seems like a terrible idea. There isn't anything she plans to do in Drey that couldn't be accomplished just by sending letters to Mr. Grey, and when she gets to Drey it is likely that she would be conscripted immediately. When it comes to supporting Olebert or not, the village should just follow whatever the Silver Herd decides to do. The Silver Herd wants to survive just as much as they do, and it has access to better and more up to date information.
SpaceGoddess76
She mentioned that she might switch from a sword to an axe. Why can’t she just use both? It would make her even more versatile.
StKneeSocks
For "I can now feel the connection my conciseness has with the real world." and "In the center of my conciseness is a thread" did you mean consciousness instead of conciseness? Also, Thanks for the chapter!
PloofDoodle
I kinda hope that the whole run will be meh and that she finds both of them on the road, returning without going to the city.
Sondadir
The general gives her the opportunity to work with premium materials. Just for the opportunity it was a good thing. A blacksmith can hardly progress by forging stoves and nails all year.
It'sATap
I don't understand her loyalty to the General, if anything she has lots of reason to dislike her and the army.
Erriballon
Hope you feel better, don't worry about the chapter . happy Thanksgiving
BAMA BOI
The general should’ve been a lancer that had a throw lance skill or something so she would be a good close and long range fighter Ps don’t mean she should have won
Russell Todd
Glad to see that Aaliyah still has some optimism and childish excitement when thinking about making her own magical gear, but I'm not sure I like that she's choosing to make a sword because it looked cool in some anime shows she watched like 15 years ago in another life. Everyone she loves depends on her ability to protect herself and them. If an axe makes more sense then it's a bit flippant for her to disregard her responsibility to herself and those she protects to pick a sword because she thinks it'd be really cool looking.
Russell Todd
Agreed, the auto-conscripted people in their village are the ones that make the village work. The headman, the smith, the prodigy mc, the ranger, the healer. The village's offense, defense, support, scouting, and crafting would be gone. Absolutely worth it for the village to give the kingdom the finger when it's failed at the one service (that I'm aware of) it provides to the village: defense against other countries & powerful magical beasts. Without the conscripted characters, the village would already wiped out.
Loki-L
Nice chapter, but I feel like we are never going to see our heroine do proper magic smithing every time she come close to actually start enchanting things something higher priority comes up. She started her research into how magical artefacts work so long ago that we should be grateful for any progress even if it happens off screen, but come on.... For the events in the chapter, I have to say that her messing around with her own soul like that seems careless. The villagers seem awfully willing to commit treason to keep a bunch of high level people around. Having level 50+ people around must be quite important to the villagers if they risk capital punishment to keep them. The fact that a monster has recently been killing high level people in the surrounding villages probably means that the number of people who will respond to the summons will be low all over and that our village not responding may be lost in the see of others not having anyone left to send. It also means that these other nearby villages are screwed, if having high level people is important enough to commit treason over. Our running girl should run into her brother and his girlfriend halfway to the city. The smart thing for her to do at that point would be to accompany them to the village. She probably won't do the smart thing and instead continue on.
Kale Daley
This feels like a return to form. Also glad she is being proactive about her situation rather reactive. Still loving the story so I hope you can come back from the break rested and rested and re-energized ^^b
Edy
Thanks for the chapter, a great chapter in all. And hope you will enjoy the break
J3_Haustkottr
Have a good break Kosnik. Hope you get better soon.
Blacktide
I admit I was rather hoping for a soul door to wake up, rather then touch the heart.
Ungrave
Good chapter. I hope she scores some nice materials from her city trip for her cool new swords. Thanks for the chapter!
Ungrave
I think it'll probably maintain a similar blend between crafting and adventure that the story has always had.
Ungrave
It's an older map so some of the other villages in the area aren't shows. But that does mean at one point it was the only village out there, so I'm guessing the village has some interesting history to it.
Alteron
Thanks for the chapter, have a nice holiday.
D
From the chapter i get the feeling this is going away from crafting to adventure. Wish kosnik would just say where its going so one could better decide if he wants to continue with the story as long as you still feel good reading it.
Emma Carlin
I definitely feel like this chapter was more in line with the overall story than the last few. Things just felt more natural.
Simon Casey
The map is pretty simple, but simple isn’t bad. It’s nice to see where the places we know about are situated. That said, it brings up a couple questions about the village. Why is the village so deep in the ‘endless’ forest? Is it actually the only village out there like the map shows, or are there lots of tiny villages scattered around but spotted creek village is the only one listed due to being important to the plot? It would also be nice to know more about the overall scale. We know that this isn’t a map of the whole country because the capital isn’t shown, but is this a large part of the country, or just a small border area of a much larger country?
Viva01
There certainly seems like a lot of potential routes she could take going forwards. Will she just encounter her brother and sister-in-law on the road? Or will she overshoot them and get drawn into the fighting? Lots of ways this can play out. Nice call backs to her mentioning older world bits of trivia to link her past life. There might be a subtext of her 'recalling' those memories by organising and developing items from her world with her growing more able to recall wisdom and other facts. Her break down of their position with the village and the town are interesting with how it was worked out. So, lots to like! Great chapter.
The other DB
Thanks for the chapter.
Andrew
Thank you!
ZCochraine!%
Chapters good, peoples reactions feel natural/correct, plus her experimentation and use of Soul Manipulation as a combo shows it has a lot of growth. Im completely expecting her to build a bubble shield generator based on Mana Skin for the village if the army decided to come their way, and if Reel also coms along she could integrate or revers engineer some of his stealth enchantments to hide the village. But things are now very interesting. Have a good break!
Patrick Schuldt
Plottwist: MC is conscripted as a runner when she arrives in the city 😅👌
Randall C
Enjoy your break and I hope you feel better. Also the maps very nice; it doesn't need an artistic flourish to convey it's meaning nicely :)
your_sweetpea
this definitely couldn't, I don't know, affect one's personality in unanticipated ways or anything, right?
your_sweetpea
Ah yes, landscaping your soul with a soul manipulation spell sounds like a great idea
Solopath
Conciseness -> Consciousness
Nick
Thanks for the chapter
Toni Pampliega
Reading!
Prial
Yay finally. Was waiting and happy to read in bed.
Kosnik4
Corrections
