Gearing Up

Eating and packing were the only things Zero remembered doing for the last few days. He didn't know that travelling required so many preparations and Hua Tuo explained that logistic planning was an important skill.

"Not everybody has an endless dimensional space to store things and the ability to warp a thousand miles to grab a forgotten item so planning in advance is very important."

Zero nodded and went through their inventory list once again. Hua Tuo forbade his apprentice to store anything in his endless storage. Zero had to learn to 'carry his weight' when travelling. To make matters worse, they weren't travelling by teleporting or on Hua Tuo's cloud mount. They were walking.

"It takes exactly two weeks to get to that village on foot so you must be well prepared. Furthermore, we have to bring enough medicine for treatment. The villagers do not know a lot of magic so try to refrain from using magic other than healing."

The young boy nodded. "I think we have everything we need for tomorrow. Will we be waking up early to do the exercise?"

Hua Tuo shook his head. "No exercise and no farming."

"Won't the herbs die if we do not water them?"

At that, Hua Tuo grinned. "If it wasn't on Endow Hill, they would wither away. However, we have very reliable gardeners so leave the plants to them, alright?"

Zero wondered who they were and why he never saw them. However, he had an inkling that they were the invisible guests Hua Tuo always told him to offer food to. Every two weeks, Hua Tuo would make many honeycakes and ask Zero to deliver them to a certain place in the forest. Zero had to leave it on a particular rock and come back the next day to collect the empty basket. He didn't see anyone taking the cakes even though he tried to spy on them. The cakes simply disappeared and Zero stopped trying to catch the invisible guests in action. Not even Mii could provide him with an answer as nobody appeared on their map.

With the identity of the invisible guests still shrouded in mystery, Zero didn't know if he could trust that person to care for the plants. However, he decided to place his trust in his teacher. After all, Hua Tuo treated them with more care than Zero and the old doctor would hunt anyone to the ends of the world if they tried to harm them.

"Don't worry so much," Hua Tuo ruffled Zero's hair teasingly. "We should sleep early, it's going to be a long journey."

***

"How's the progress?"

Truen sighed. Merlin popped by in the dream dimension every few hours to check on his understanding and progress. The wood elf wished he didn't do it so often. The time difference was killing him and every few hours was really ten minutes on Earth time. The wood elf was slowly finding himself driven up a wall by Merlin's constant need for attention. He very much preferred the isolation he experienced in the first few weeks.

"I haven't made much progress," Truen admitted through gritted teeth.

Merlin took no notice of Truen's tension and peered over his shoulder. He hummed and snatched the pencil before scribbling on Truen's paper.

"You did the formula wrong in here and here. If we tweaked it a little more, the mud you're creating would be more solid."

The wood elf sighed. "I did that earlier but the mud simply cracked when it moved."

The wizard shook his head. "Did you add in gravity reinforcement?"

Truen paused. "What's gravity reinforcement?"

Merlin sighed in frustration, feeling irritated at Truen's lack of progress. "Didn't you read the tome about vortex analogy?"

Truen wanted very much to yell at Merlin but swallowed that irritation. Instead, he replied curtly, "It's only been ten minutes since you last checked on me. I'm still reading the five books you recommended."

Merlin blinked. Has it only been ten minutes? Funny how it felt like months since he last saw his student.

"I'm sorry, you should finish those five first. And then read up about vortex analogy. While you're at it, I'll recommend cosmetic magic because it would help perfect your mud dolls. If you can add one just one more book, I'll like you to read up on shadow manipulation because you could use a Parallel Mind to control them remotely. Or if you wanted to do a transfer of Parallel Minds into that particular body, you should read up on vessel souls. Actually, I recommend reading both so that you have more options. Oh wait, you don't know what vessels are yet. Why not read the entire basics about magic hosting? I'm sure it can provide a stable foundation..."

Having enough of it, Freya stepped in and smacked Merlin over the head with the handle of her whip.

"Stop it! You're suffocating the poor child!"

Merlin winced even though he felt no pain. Freya's voice was as sharp as the whip and the wizard backed off.

"Okay, I'll be back in another few hours..."

At that, the goddess' patience snapped. "You're banned from coming here until a few days are over!"

Without warning, Merlin was thrown out of the dimension, giving Truen some space to finally breathe.

"Seriously," Freya muttered and Truen silently agreed. Merlin was a passionate teacher. However, he could be an overly passionate teacher at times and Freya had to step in after Gaia noticed a huge fluctuation in Truen's state of mind from their bond.

Truen thanked Freya and quickly got back to his reading. Truen did his best to live up to Merlin's expectations. He truly did. However, even after utilising the time cheat, Truen couldn't cope with Merlin's expectations. The old magician seemed to think that everything was instantaneous and forgot how normal it was for others to need time to learn. He seemed to expect Truen to have the same amount of knowledge he had accumulated over the centuries in within a few minutes and grew frustrated when Truen didn't. Freya called it unrealistic but that didn't stop Merlin from interrupting Truen's learning process. It took getting banned for Merlin to realise his mistake but Freya doubted the old wizard would learn the meaning of patience anytime soon.

"Now that the pest is taken care of, what do you have difficulties with?" Freya asked.

Truen mentally cringed at the goddess' preferred term of endearment for his teacher. Merlin could be annoying at times but to call the greatest magician a pest, he felt slightly sorry for Merlin.

"I don't understand this fusion catalyst. How can I make the mud doll unaffected by the environment? I did everything as stated in the books. Merlin did mention something about gravity reinforcement but I haven't gotten to that part yet. I'm still creating the body."

Freya smiled. "Gravity reinforcement is an enchantment type of magic, not related to the creation of your mud doll. Merlin was jumping a step when he told you all that. I suggest you focus on the nature of your doll. I see that you've already decided on the base materials and the formula. Have you considered how to counter the opposing elements? Your mud doll is useless in contact with water and fire. Perhaps you would like to consider adding wood to strengthen water resistance. That way, your mud dolls can also regenerate given nature and light magic stones for the core."

Truen nodded and went back to the drawing board, sketching another design. The goddess was pleased. Under the right guidance, Truen was progressing smoothly. If it weren't for Merlin's interruption, Truen would have been done with the prototype design by now. Truly a pity.