2 The Forest Cabin

I took a bite of the apple that the 4 Goons brought me, it wasn't sweet and the flesh was hard, as expected, fruits and produce of earth took thousands of years to become the way they are now but still decent.

There were 2 crates with wheat and rice and a barrel of assorted fruits.

"Good, this pleases me so I will not put a ghost to follow you all." They immediately let out a sigh of relief.

"By the way how much did this cost?" I pointed at the food and their faces turned green.

"T-Thirteen Copper Coins." considering the time, they probably buy things as a bargain and use coins to pay taxes and the like so this would mean it was very expensive for their standard.

"Hmmm." I stared at them and another idea popped into my head, midge as well make something interesting while we are here.

"Say have you ever thought about being rich?" I smiled wickedly once again, feeling like something was different with my voice I spoke.

"W-Well who hasn't right?" The other three shook their heads in agreement and that made my smile widen more.

"Did any of you saw a floating blue thing with letters on it?"

"H-How did you know?" One of them spoke in shock while the other 2 were also wide-eyed, they probably tested with each other to make sure that only they are able to see that themselves.

"That's because I'm a mage, and that blue thing is proof that the tree of you have talent!"

"Talent? For what?" goon number 4 asked skeptically.

"For everything, you can be a knight, craftsmen, a noble even a Mage like me!" I spoke proudly.

[You developed the Skill Liar (Social) Lv.1]

"We can?!" Their eyes immediately shined when I said that."

"Of course and I can teach you how to, after all, I'm not only a mage but also a wandering knight! I can teach you the ways of the sword the spear and the shield where you would be invincible! all you have to do is accept me as your master."

"I-I don't know about that..."

"Well, what a shame then it means that you will die in oblivion, forgotten a simple peasant penniless and working hard for the rest of your life..." I say faking sadness while looking at him, I don't know why but even I was feeling convinced by my lies.

"N-NO! I don't want to end like that Please take me in Master!"

"Good, as your first task is to build a cabin for me to live!"

"A- A cabin?" Goon Number 2 asked confusedly and I nodded my head.

"Won't you teach us the way of the sword?" Goon 1 asked.

"With your weak bodies? some har labor to increase your body's resilience is important you know." I got up from the barrel I was sitting on using as a stool, approaching a big rock of around 110 Kilograms, I picked up the rock lifting it off the ground, making them gasp in surprise and awe.

"When you are able to lift this rock by yourself then I will teach you the ways of the sword."

"Yes, Master!" All four of them bowed to me at the same time, reverence in their eyes, part one of the plan complete, it took them around 2 hours to get back to the ruins I was in originally with tools to build a house, most of them made out of wood but surprisingly they had a metal saw and ax.

"You guys are surprisingly well equipped here I spoke taking the ax in hands and doing a couple of swings, feeling the weight of what seemed to be rough iron."

[You developed Axemanship Lv.1 (Basic)] (+0.1 Constitution)

Feeling that cold sensation once again I was surprised, is there a different skill for every type of weapon?

"Well, of course, my father is the city's best blacksmith, he has tons of these tools lying around his workshop!" Goon 2 Spoke proudly as if he didn't just steal his father's tools, not that it matters that much tough.

"Good now let's begin then, as you can see there's already a great foundation here on the ground so we just need to build the cabin raising it a bit over the ground." I pointed at the stone ruins in the middle of the clearing.

"Why did I never notice these rocks here?" One of them asked himself.

"Because you are clearly stupid," I say as a matter of fact which seems to hit him right in the heart did I hit a landmine? I sat there 'overseeing' their work to make sure they did nothing wrong while nibbling on an apple.

"Hey stop that what are you trying?" I spoke looking at goon 1 who was near a tree with the ax in hands.

"Cutting the tree?"

"Are you stupid?!... why do I even ask..." I approached him taking the ax of his hands.

"You don't swing like that, you go from here to here an make sure to cut a triangular hole to control where the tree will fall," I spoke while lifting the ax and swinging it against the tree in a perfect ark, surprisingly I didn't gain a skill called lumberjack or something like that.

"Get it?" I spoke as I pushed the tree forward making it fall, he looked at the ax and the fallen tree and nodded his head in a daze, scratching his head, I heard a whisper.

"What's a triangle?" This is going to be harder than I thought... I barely held my hand from automatically facepalming myself.

After about an hour there was already a foundation laid on the floor made of wood, the 4 goons were surprisingly effective when receiving orders but whenever they tried to do something alone then they screwed up.

"Why are we doing this floor?" One of them asked me confusedly.

"Because I don't want to live on the dirt, wooden planks are a great material to make flooring off."

"This, why did nobody at the town thought of this? they mostly just put thatch on the ground to cover the dirt floor..."

"Don't ask me, ask the people who built their houses."

After 4 to 5 hours there was now a small wooden cabin standing in the middle of the woods, it was small the windows were not made yet and the roofing was still unfinished but it was definitely a house.

"Alright you all can go home now, I can finish the rest alone." they all nodded their heads and started to go home, covered in sweat.

"Remember to bring what I asked tomorrow I'm going to start training you all." I immediately noticed the excitement on their faces when I spoke that, I could let them stay and finish the work but I wanted to test somethings, while I was helping them build the room I got a new skill called woodworking, a pretty self-explanatory name but there was an interesting effect to it.

(Enhances slightly the quality of the material when you work on it.)

While I was doing some work I felt like something was seeping from within me whenever I worked on the wood, and this something was entering the wood itself, when I did a test with the wood plank made by a goon and the one made by me there was a clear difference in hardness and flexibility.

"This is so fun!" I looked at the rock that I used to brainwa...impress the four goons, I was already stronger than I was when I woke up by the start of the day, I may be immortal but that doesn't mean I was able to go beyond my body's limit, I was definitely physically and mentally the pinnacle of what a normal human can achieve.

"I wonder how strong can I become?" I took the twig I used before, it was too light so I decided to pick up the iron ax, swinging it like a sword, after 10 swings I felt that cool sensation once again.

[Swordsmanship (Basic) Lv.2 > Lv.3] +0.1 Constitution]

As I looked at the status screen I noticed that my dexterity was down by 1% what does that mean? feeling my body I noticed something that I hadn't before, I was already going beyond my strength the one I had for thousands of years witch means I wasn't used to that newfound strength thus decreasing the control over my body, the more strength my body has, the harder it will be to control.

"Good that I noticed this early..." I sat down in the ground, cross-legged, ignoring the fact that I was still using a skirt I took a deep breath, concentrating soon my mind was blank and I was able to entirely focus on my body, I got up with my eyes closed and punched forward, feeling the strength coursing through my muscles.

[Martial Arts Developed Shaolin Kungfu (Dragon Style) Lv.1 (+0.2 Constitution, permanent increase in body control.]

"And it's down by another percent..." I sight, well nothing I can do, for now, I looked at my status screen and noticed that my strength description had changed to (Class 0 Super Human.)

"Super Human? does it mean that I'm above the pinnacle of the human body already?" I looked at the rock on the ground and gave it a try, I was able to easily lift it off the ground without a problem, it was still a little hard to do it with only one hand but not impossible... I smiled.

"Good, I really want to fight someone..." I spoke as I entered my new cabin, there wasn't any furniture yet as I was planning to do them myself but first, I need some stuff, better tools, even though there are iron tools here they are made from a crude iron barely worked on and of course, I need a sword for practice, there are various types of blades I had mastered but the one I most liked to use was the Nodachi, a long curved blade, basically a longer Katana, it is used mostly in cavalry units.

"With my newfound superhuman strength, I will be able to use a blade like that much more effectively without a horse." And that along with a lot of other weapons that I wanted to test, like the pike, various ideas floated on my mind, and I finally noticed something.

"It's... good to think about myself sometimes..." I spend thousands of years fighting to make the world better, every single second of it dedicated to that and now without having to do that anymore I felt relived like a huge weight was removed from my chest, even though it was physically added...

"This life, I'm going to live for myself, not for others." soon the sky turned dark as the sunset and night came, the night was unusually comfortable even though I was sleeping on the hardwood floor without a blanket or pillow.

Soon night became day and everything was normal, the 4 goons appeared, bringing the stuff I wanted, and some for their training, they may be idiots but they helped me build this cabin so I wouldn't be unfair to them...

"Master we brought you the things you asked for." I looked at the 4 goons who were looking at me with puppy eyes.

"put everything inside and pick up the wooden blades." They excitedly nodded their heads as I took a stick nearby and sat on the front porch of my cabin.

"Start swinging, show me your form."

"Form?" They asked confusedly.

"yes show me the way you would use a sword." they nodded their heads slowly and started swinging, as expected they were all terrible, their hands trembled, the swing was inaccurate and they were making way too many unnecessary movements.

"Too many wrong things here," I spoke coldly as I approached hitting their legs with the stick.

"Left foot back, right foot in front, focus your swing in a single point, and don't try these fancy moves," I spoke ignoring their pained cries.

"More strength on the swings!" I spoke up and they started to swing the wooden sword faster.

"F-For how long do we need to keep going?" Goon 2 asked while panting covered in sweat.

"Until I say its enough." I hit his leg and he went back to the right position, looking at them swinging their wooden blades in sync made me remember my time in the dojos back in japan.

"Good old times..." I whispered as I sat on my porch, pulling a bottle from the crates they brought I took a swing, the taste of alcohol entering my mouth, it was very weak compared to modern ones and barely gave a hot sensation but it was better than the unfiltered pond water.

"I can't go on anymore." goon 1 fell down on the ground tired.

"Alright, you all can stop for now, how many swings did you all do?"

"Many?"

"120 that is the exact number that you all made, the one in the ground over there has the weakest constitution between yall so the ones that aren't in the same state keep swinging, you come here, I pointed at goon 1.

"Yes, Master!"

"What's your name?"

"Marcus."

"your constitution between the 4 is the weakest so you will have to train harder, I want you to every day before coming here in the morning to run a lap around the city."

"A whole lap? why?"

"To build up your constitution of course! do you think that I became good with a sword out of nowhere, I put a lot of hard work onto it."

"But you don't have a sword..."

"Details, now start running."

"R-Right now...?"

"Yes, or do you want me to beat you with a stick as more motivation?" He immediately started running, I got up from the porch, looking at the other 3 surprisingly the blacksmith son was the one with the better physical conditioning, able to swing the sword 210 times.

"Hey, blacksmith son? what's your name?"

"D-Daimos." He said between pants and deep breaths.

"Good, your physical condition is good and your form is better than them, did ya ever practice with a sword before?"

"No, I only occasionally mimicked the knights that came to take the swords father made." I stopped for a second, looking at the other 2 goons on the ground panting I went inside, draping over a cloak and a wooden mask I had carved before I went outside.

"You 2 can go home, for now, I want you 2 here at the same time tomorrow or there will be punishment, make sure to say that to Marcus. And you Daimos take me to your smithy."