Have Horse, Will Travel I

Two Weeks, One day

Selene woke up and stretched a little later in the morning than she was expecting, with dawn already breaking. Blue and Ash were ready to go hunting, but the dev wanted to test a few things before she headed out. The sheep were fed and watered with the pen cleared; the chicken seemed to have already laid an egg surprisingly, but it was just one. If she wanted to have an American breakfast of two eggs and some bacon, she'd probably need to buy a second chicken… and go hunt a boar every day. The latter didn't seem like a great idea, as there was no telling when she'd hunt them out of the valley. To mix it up, she'd have to start reworking her diet.

She was eating a lot of meats and fruits, but now it was time to add in other forms from the healthy eating pyramid. She had no access to dairy unless she could buy some from the farms at Gold Pine, there were no beans yet but she had nuts from the travel pack she bought, fish was easy enough to get along with an egg from "Penny" the new chicken, Vegetables and fruit would wait a little bit until they were fully grown, grains was going to be what she would check now. As she opened the grain sack to check the quality of it, she winced and backed off. "That's not edible." Her eyes dropped onto Penny who was stubbornly ignoring the grain she had spread last night. "Of course, you don't want it little one, that stuff will kill you."

Ok, how the hell do I feed this chicken? The sheep will eat hay, but this little thing needs grain or corn meal or whatever. That stuff is not edible and moldy… I have a vegetable garden that isn't fully grown yet… is there a way to speed that up?

The dev opened her inventory and used her writing desk and alchemy station attached to the research station. As she opened her spell list she could learn, she started using the search function to find any spells that worked on food. "Nutrient replenisher, that will be amazing… put that in craft immediately… summon campfire, already made those… aha! Growth Spurt! X Minor ho!" she placed that into craft as well with some paper. She hadn't reached the capability to get to tier thirteen yet for tech, Early Middle Ages, so she could hold onto what resources she had right now. If she could get Growth Spurt upgrade a few times, that would cover vegetables and herbs without any issue, at least she hoped it would. Now that she had the tools to speed the process up, getting the spells written would only take six hours, which meant that she could technically learn four spells every day.

"The next two… um… X minor Firebolt, I need at least some magic spell that I can use offensively… and… damn it! I need a queue system here." She checked her second inventory and focused on getting a queue attachment on the bottom of each station, which worked. It took opening each one up and then modifying it to get each one to have that capability, which was a little annoying and took some time. Once it was all set up, she now could set multiple things going at the same time with new orders right after. Her entire work list could be finished assuming she just mined or gathered now, without spending time checking to see if the ingots were finished to push more ore in. The final spell was an upgrade for Light Orb to Very Minor. At least she'd be able to see in the dark instead of just reading a book by candle light soon.

While she couldn't yet make any more potions due to the herb garden not growing enough yet, she already knew what she was going to start making. The first trip to Gold Pine needed more anti-fatigue potions, with potentially some speed potions added on. The speed potions she wanted to test to see just how effective they were, but anything in decent numbers might make the next trip very quick.

As long as I don't just blur into the middle of the village talking like I'm high and buzzing from coffee, I'll be fine.

"Ok, breakfast time. Hold on Penny, I'll see if I can't get you something." She opened her inventory and looked at what was available. There were nuts she could crush up, that would work. Once the nuts were crushed and dropped in, Penny spent no time pecking them up. Now that she was fed, the dev and the wolves needed their bellies full. There was still some salted pork available, along with some jam and "one" slice of cheese. She worried the cheese wasn't edible either, and sure enough, it wasn't. There was some dried fruit too though, which was nice. It curbed the hunger, but they didn't eat the salted pork as she was worried it was too much sodium for the wolves. It was definitely too much for her. The dev would have to boil it in chunks to make sure she didn't die from dehydration.

As she got prepared to head out with the wolves, she mulched one of the logs she used to block the gate the day before and sent it into the pulp box for some paper, now with a queue system. Once it was finished, she'd have a tome, and finally, a decent perk. She knew exactly what it was gonna be. Fifty percent accuracy while using a bow. A computer would give one hundred percent. The tome was going to take six hours to complete, which was fine right now. If she got one for accuracy with bows and one for Tracking Small Game at least today, it was going to be a win.

"Oh, wait, hang on… can I add that here…" she checked her Hud and noticed she didn't have a targeting reticle. It was probably because there was no way to know where she was going to be aiming each time. It was real life after all. She soon found out she couldn't add it. "Well that's a shame. Huh. I wonder if I can make a perk for that." As the pack left the fort, her mind started wandering about what she needed to upgrade. She had seventy Attribute Points, one hundred eighty Skill Points, seventeen Perk Points. At least two of those perks were now claimed or will be claimed, followed by a third if she could manage it. She pushed another thirty Skill Points into Prospecting to help find more ore if she ever ran out. That was a really big if. That was a drastic upgrade, as now she was no longer getting the "gut feeling" and realized there were markers telling her which direction to go while mining, including what she might find.

Two special abilities were now always on, passives now. The first one, "Support Walls and Canaries" seemed to both drastically lower hazards from happening as well as warn her if something was going to happen while in a mine. If the floor was about to crumble under her, that passive would somehow strengthen it via some unknown aura, while the Canary effect would tell her if she was about to break into a nest of evil, or spiders, maybe evil spiders even. The second ability was "There's More Where That Came From." It added an automatic increase in size to all veins by twenty percent that she was mining, which seemed to confuse her. She'd much rather just get twenty percent more ore, not make the vein bigger or harder to mine. She didn't even know how that worked, as that might cause structural integrity issues with the walls and make stone collapse if it grew. It had to be "condensed" veins, with more gotten out of the vein before it dried up. Combined with Metallurgy and Gathering, that might be far more than sixty percent gains each time though. If the vein was "condensed," and she got forty percent just from Gathering and Metallurgy, that might mean it was a lot more now.

Selene then added thirty more points to Tracking, allowing her to find prints almost everywhere, just not always know if they were fresh. Combined with the new special ability "Not Small Enough for My Eye" which gave her a twenty-five percent increased chance to find small game for one minute within one hundred meters, and she just knew they were getting food. That made her think that the perk she was going to make might need to be changed to large game instead of small. She now had one hundred Skill Points left. She'd come back to those once she finished hunting.

One Hour Later

Breakfast. Was. Served. Once she had a chance to use "Not Small Enough for My Eye" out in the forest, between Ash and Selene finding them and Blue nabbing animals before they could scurry away, there was no chance of anything small escaping. It was over before they even started, cutting down on hunting time by a massive amount. Once they got back, there were fifteen voles and six rabbits. There was no need to hunt for the next two or three days. Also, along the way, the dev had found multiple bird's nests with some small eggs. They weren't chicken eggs, but they'd do for an omelet. "I need a rooster" she casually said to herself as she thought back to the old man at Gold Pine while chewing on some cooked meat. She didn't have an alarm clock yet, and if it fertilized the chicken eggs, she'd have more chickens without having to buy them. They'd obviously have to grow up before they could make more eggs, but it was an investment. She had made a skillet now and a grill to put over the campfire, along with a few pots and pans.

Her view of cooking over the campfire was that it didn't need to be in her inventory despite it being possible. She liked the cooking, the warmth, and the smell of the food. The wolves liked sitting around with her while she did it as well, not because they were hungry, but because it was just the main spot to hang out together. It was the center of their home, their hearth. If she ever got a chance to upgrade to a nice house with a fireplace, that would probably be the next new spot for all of them, with some comfy padded chairs and a good book. The wolves would each have their own beds and blankets, while she had a night stand next to her with a glass of whatever strong liquor she could find out there that tasted good, a "night cap" before bed.

That was a far-off dream right now, but it was getting closer by the day.

Five Hours Later

Nutrient Replenisher was now a spell, which would greatly help the gardens stay functioning. She'd never need fertilizer, but if she doubled down on both, it might make some really large vegetables. X Minor Growth Spurt was now a spell as well, along with a tome ready for writing a perk. Her accuracy with the perk and using a bow quickly rose now to one hundred percent. Selene tested one arrow on the training dummy, launching an arrow right into the chest, center mass. A second arrow hit close by. Each arrow she fired was hitting no matter what, but it wasn't doing any "special attacks" to the dummy. There were no arrows splitting each other, there were occasional head shots, but nothing incredible. That must have been what critical chance was for.

Wait, hang on… I have one hundred percent chance with a target standing still. Does that go down on a target moving?

She thought hard on that, then decided not to take the chance. She set a new tome into crafting for another fifty percent, just to make sure she would hit no matter what. She could always replace it later. It would be a while before she could make a computer, so using tomes to fill up the perks slots was beneficial right now. The writing desk was now open for another tome, but it wasn't finished yet. "Damn it… maybe… maybe I should…" she looked at Crafting Time in her stats list and narrowed her eyes. She bit the bullet, so to speak, and added twenty-five points in. That would increase speed in any station, regardless of tools, by twenty-five percent. Her Molecular Reformation power had a separate craft speed at twenty percent, which was only really useful if she was trying to build up the fort or move something emplaced. She could easily move the campfire without picking up a single stone, making anything "slide" across the ground as she shifted the terrain around below it. It was a little difficult, even with the upgrades she put into it, due to having to play one of those sliding puzzles to sift the materials below whatever she was moving around. It worked regardless, it just took some time to do it. That option was far better than tearing anything down and building it back up where she needed to place that piece of furniture or wall. She had forty-five Attribute Points left right now, so she saved that for "a rainy day."

Selene's view on constantly saving the points seemed to stem from dungeon crawlers she used to play, as some of them required a certain stat to be at a certain number to allow armor to be worn. If you didn't have that stat to the level required, the armor was red. This tended to make lots of players keep a hefty amount of points in reserve for when they needed to wear a new upgrade they found. There were also the gamer achievements they set for themselves, like speed runs or "how far can you get with just this." How far can a player get with starter equipment? How far can a player get just by being a pacifist and not attacking anything? The list kept going. Those gamers were the ones who started the creation of achievements, and in her eyes, were damned impressive, every single one of them. She still didn't know if there was an achievement every ten levels for doing things without a high amount of points used.

Time to test this X Minor Growth Spurt.

As she focused on the plants in the herb garden, the spell started casting. It took a good ten seconds to finally get fired off. She figured she'd need to add some points into casting time later. It could also just be the tier of the spell. The plants grew a little bit, not much. Her mana went down by twenty-five points from one hundred. "That's expensive for what it just did."

It's the bottom of the barrel tier. It probably increased growth by ten percent or something.

She cast it again, and again, with a final cast of Nutrient Replenisher. Her mana had completely drained, but from what she knew right now, her regen was one mp per minute. She'd have a full bar in an hour and forty minutes. Despite the wait, she had increased the growth of the plants by thirty percent, and they were almost grown now. A few more casts and they'd be flowering and harvestable. During that time, X Minor Firebolt and Very Minor Light Orb were being crafted on a scroll, now at four hours. She added Very Minor Growth Spurt into the queue, but it showed a red X over it. She was running out of herbs, and the garden hadn't fully grown yet. If she could keep casting the bottom tier Growth Spurt every two hours, she'd have enough to get the next step no problem by the time it was ready to be made.

While she was waiting, she figured it was best to go down into the mine, use Molecular Reformation, and gather materials she could use to finish upgrading to Common tier equipment. She'd need exotic materials after that, but at least she'd have decent "mid-tier items" compared to Yggdrasil. As she pulled chunks of ore from the veins in the cavern and tunnels, her mind slowly slipped to the walls and stone, along with the gold veins. She didn't want to mine up much more stone, as in her eyes there were ideas popping up of what to do with it later. If she could hold off on it, she hoped she'd get the full design on how to craft a castle. Her little fort would drastically expand to have bed rooms, living rooms, dining hall and armory along with some stone walls. If she could bore long holes into the stone and shove some wooden logs with Roman Cement, it would be like poor man's reinforced concrete.

That Night

With Very Minor Growth Spurt now gained, as well as Very Minor Light Orb, things were easier in the fort. She could put one large orb in the middle of the fort where she was, and it lit up a good size of the area. The Very Minor Growth Spurt now provided a twenty-five percent boost to the growth of a plant. It was taking large amounts of nutrients from the soil each time, but that was what Nutrient Replenisher was for. It might be possible to do it on an animal, but she was worried it would cause defects or abnormalities in a larger creature; plus, she didn't want to do that to the pups. They needed to grow up, and young animals or people needed that time to learn and enjoy playing. Screwing that up for them would be mean.

Everyone wants to be an adult, until they are. Then they want to be a kid again, so they don't have to do everything an adult has to do like taxes, and jobs, and grocery shopping, etc.

She was now breaking even with casting Growth Spurt and trying to use the herbs for upgrading her spells. If she could get Minor Growth Spurt developed, it might give a fifty percent boost. It always seemed to take twenty-five mana points from her bar though, which was fine right now. It wasn't as if she was slinging spells left and right to fend off a siege. There was a stat that lowered casting cost as well, which would come in handy later. Her X Minor Firebolt spell was… interesting. It took on the look of a small fiery bullet in size and didn't seem to do much beyond set a small fire at the target location. Her training dummy had already been riddled with holes, so setting him on a pyrrhic ride to the afterlife seemed like a good send off, before replacing him with a new one. At the moment, it was more like a stronger Spark Finger than anything else.

She already had some more spell scrolls in the works for the crafting queue, along with her second tome of accuracy now finished. Her accuracy with a bow would always be one hundred percent, even if it was moving. It only worked on bows, however, not crossbows. This could change in the future once she was able to make at least a Common tier crossbow that repeated, which was very soon. She was five hammers away from reaching that tier.

"Come on… I'm patient… I can wait…" they slowly ticked into her inventory one at a time until she finally had one hundred of them. Immediately she sacrificed them and got Common, then used the remainder of materials she had to try and speed up the process of making some Damascus Steel. If she was careful, given her crafting time was now twenty-five percent faster and with improvements to tools, she could make it in as little as a few days now. It would slow her tech progression, which she wanted. She had just barely gotten to two thirds past tier 12, Post-Classical Era, as the amount of actions required were going up. If she could just get to tier 13, Early Middle Ages, it might be a good spot to stop temporarily so she could get all steel equipment, and finally make some Common Steel chain mail. Having steel parts on her crossbow would be nice as well. Steel tipped bolts would be heavy hitters, her first armor piercing ammo. All she'd need to do is replace her two bow perks with crossbow perks or have two crossbow perks next to them. She had the points to spare for that.

It was decided then, at that very moment, she'd work hard to at least get to Early Middle Ages while spells kept being learned, then craft her steel, so she stopped any use of resources for making steel right now. Once that was done, second trip to Gold Pine. As she got ready for bed after spending so much mana that day, she looked at her stats, specifically Crafting Time. Her level was now just over eighteen, which was making her wonder just how much it would take to get to nineteen. Crafting didn't give her experience, doing things gave her experience, and she wasn't doing the crafting; the stations were doing all the work for her. "But if I shove another twenty-five more points into Crafting Time… fifty percent speed boost… some steel earlier… make it easier to move on up…" She looked at her fifty-five free points.

That would help speed everything up. Compared to other stats, that would make things easier to gain, new potions, new spells, new research, new gear.

She focused on throwing the points into Crafting Time, getting it up to fifty percent. Thirty Attribute Points left. Those she was going to hold off on. If she could reach level twenty, she wondered if there was some special effect she'd get for surviving that long, some new ability to help her out. That might be worth shoving fifty points into all in one go. Until then, the steel crafting would drop to two days. Tomorrow, Early Middle Ages. Immediately after, steel.

While she was going to be sleeping, the writing desk was going to be making an X Minor Lesser Heal, which seemed like an oxymoron in a way. There was also placed into the queue X Minor Lesser Resistance, X Minor Armored Skin, X Minor Trip which seemed to be a way to knock an enemy over if they were coming for her with the stronger tiers causing more enemies to do it, and what she could only figure was a Fus Ro Dah type spell aptly named "X Minor Concussive Blast." With these, she could keep things at bay, trip an enemy to give her an opening to attack or run away, heal, protect against both elemental damage and be more resistant to scrapes and cuts. If she could start upgrading those tomorrow while working on steel, they would be far more effective.

Wait, so… Extremely Greater Lesser Heal?... whatever, if it heals it heals. I'll change the name later if I feel like it. Not nearly as bad as Japanese Engrish.

The interesting thing she noticed was the spells at least seemed to give a general idea of what they did once learned. Lesser Heal probably would just be a small heal regardless of strength, but it might be fast. There was an instant heal spell as well, but that automatically showed a cooldown just in the creation alone. There was a Greater Heal, which had a really long cast time but probably healed a massive amount of health, a Halo Heal which seemed to heal everyone around the person casting it, a Chain Heal that probably cast around corners for a group that was out of line of sight, and many others. There was even a Heal Shield that seemed to heal each time someone got hit, ignoring some of the damage. The sheer amount of healing spells was just mind boggling. "Heals twice as much when it's night and half as much when it's day" she read from one, Shadow Heal. There was a reverse of that as well, The Sun Heals All Wounds. There were ailment cleansers as well, Cleanse Less Poison, Cleanse Lesser Curse, Cleanse Lesser Infection, Cleanse Lesser Evil. That last one made her wonder if she'd ever see a real-life version of The Exorcism, just faster due to the spell.

You're Exorcised! Now fuck off demon! I got stuff to do!

Unfortunately, most of the healing spells were "locked" until she could get Lesser Heal to maximum quality tier. The interesting thing about the heals wasn't that it healed more health the stronger it was, but that it healed more wounds in the same cast, depending on how bad the wounds were. A Lesser Heal wasn't going to stop a sucking chest wound, but it would close it up with enough casts, or multiple stab wounds, if the caster was willing to drain their mana to do it. The stronger heals would just work more efficiently, on worse ailments. Magical Power, the stat that governed spells, would increase the effect of even the smaller magics. That wasn't including Flasks, Elixirs or potions either, or modifications to equipment.

She could make some Lesser Elixirs, but they were hideously expensive in materials right now, which would ease up once Growth Spurt was a little stronger. Elixirs were long term potions that lasted for twenty-four hours, she already knew that feature. Flasks seemed to last a whole week. There were Kegs, but that didn't seem like something to be drank by one person. The effects would last the whole month, as they should due to the long brewing of whatever effect it would give.

Selene already knew about interruption of spells that could be caused by interrupt spells as well as a certain amount of damage inflicted to the caster. She hazarded a guess that pain and light headedness from blood loss would also cause issues with channeling any spell. Suddenly, the firebolt looked like it might be effective against another wizard, if she met one, and he didn't have resistances to fire or a protective shield around him or herself.

As she fell asleep, her spells kept ticking along.

Two Weeks, Four Days, Second Trip

The dev had finished her Damascus steel for her sword, as well as steel for her new crossbow and reached Early Middle Ages. There were two new perks to add accuracy for the new projectile weapon, as well as chainmail armor for most of her body. Her shield was now fully steel which didn't add much weight, as well as steel tipped crossbow bolts. It wasn't a repeating crossbow yet, but her knowledge had increased drastically in the design compared to when she could first craft one. They had existed since before AD times, just not in a very impressive way.

During the two days, she had been casting Growth Spurt, now upgraded to X Greater, causing her herb garden to almost explode in materials each time. The X Greater form allowed a one hundred fifty percent speed increase, with the extra fifty percent apparently adding an abundance of extra flora. Each time she used it, the garden looked like a miniature jungle, but at the cost of the dirt becoming nutrient starved. To counter this, she always casted Nutrient Replenisher right after. Her Lesser Heal spell was upgraded to X Greater as well, which seemed to be able to make all wounds on a body heal to a certain degree. Again, it wouldn't stop a near fatal wound, unless cast multiple times, but if it was a lot of scratches cuts and bruises, all of them would be gone.

Her Lesser Resistance was also X Greater, allowing twenty-five percent resistance to all elemental spell effects. It wasn't a huge boost, but at the same time it gave those boosts to all elemental resistances. She wanted to increase Armored Skin, but there wasn't enough time, given she also decided to get Very Minor Cleanse Lesser Infection and Very Minor Lesser Cleanse Poison for if she ever ate anything that didn't agree with her.

During the past two days, she had also attempted to craft coins. Unfortunately, this was going to be a problem. Of the ninety-five copper coins she had, there were at least eight different symbols stamped on the front, and thirteen on the back. The Silver coins were similar. While she had access to copper, she really didn't want a bag full of copper coins with different stamped symbols, and she hadn't yet found a silver vein. She needed gold coins to figure out what would mint symbols look legitimate when she bought things. To do that, she'd need to make another trip to Gold Pine. Once there, she would get her hands on a gold coin, bring it back, and copy the stamped symbols. Given that any coins she had wouldn't disappear if she teched up, Selene had already mined a gold vein and smelted it into five gold ingots. These she was bringing with her to Gold Pine. Any other veins would be minted with the new gold coin she would get, or many gold coins if she could get them.

Not only would she bring five gold ingots to potentially buy a huge amount of materials if she could or trade to the mayor for gold coins if possible, but also twenty iron ingots, twenty bronze ingots, five copper ingots just in case Giles had something special he wanted to make, some Linen Clothing she had made, some ale she had crafted with her brand new still that was a far cry better than the stuff the inn was selling, some pint glasses, tableware, the pot she forgot to trade last time with some new designs and glazing on the inside, some more soap and finally some poultices with extra bandages and two Very Minor Mana Potions if she resorted to using healing magic. There were even some homeopathic remedies she was able to cook up in the alchemy station when a campfire was connected to it, like an old-fashioned cough syrup or fever reducer and some basic, bad tasting vitamins. The poultices were now at least Minor quality, and the bandages were tier 1. With the healing items she was hoping she might be able to run a medical shop as a limited healer. People couldn't afford healing potions, even the X Minor versions, so this might get her just enough to combine to get a gold coin in one day, if not more with everything selling. There was no guarantee all of this would be wanted.

How was she going to carry all of this? With her brand-new wagon cart. She'd wheel it around the hills while drinking Very Minor Stamina Potions and Very Minor Speed Potions. When she got tired, a Very Minor Anti-Fatigue Potion. The problem she now faced with any alchemical drinks was… each one had to be upgraded separately for the best mixture. She had crafted one hundred of each X Minor, then sacrificed those to get the Very Minors. This took more time than she expected, as it had to be done to all the potions she thought she'd need, even a Lesser Stamina Elixir she was going to use to increase her stamina by twenty percent and a Lesser Speed Elixir. It appears that the Greater Stamina Elixir would only unlock after she had reached maximum quality on the Lesser, which would be Extremely Greater at seventy percent. The Greater Stamina would start at one hundred percent, being a full thirty percent better than the strongest Lesser Stamina Elixir.

Combining the Very Minor Lesser Speed Elixir, which was a hell of a mouthful for her, as well as a Very Minor Speed Potion for small spurts, allowed a thirty percent boost to her movement speed, at least temporarily with the potion. She could keep running straight to the village and probably not get tired. She had only made ten of the V Minor Stamina Potions and ten V Minor Anti-Fatigue Potions, which was plenty to get where she needed to go and back again. The trip last time took half the day. This time it was going to take only a few hours, allowing her to get to know the people there and set up the little healing station. Once she got her gold coin, she was pretty much done with what she wanted to do and could putter around for the rest of her trip. To allow herself to pick up the cart with all her trade goods, she had made a Very Minor Lesser Strength Elixir, adding a twenty percent boost to her strength stat. Surprisingly, due to all her hard work the past weeks, she was able to move the loaded cart without much issue. It would be a problem going up hills, but she wasn't going over. The path easily weaved between them towards Gold Pine.

"Alright guys, let's go!" She drank a speed potion and picked up the cart handles, charging ahead with the wolves following. Luna sat on the cart, acting as if she was riding a carriage. Selene had chosen to only wear Common Leather Armor instead of the chain mail to appear less threatening to them, as well as cut down on weight. As she made her way to the village, she was downing a speed potion and a stamina potion every time she felt the need to or slowed down. By the time she reached the village and rolled up to the main entrance, she had only gone through three stamina potions and three speed potions, with one anti-fatigue potion thrown into the mix. She had forgotten that all the labor she was still doing hunting and running and fishing had bulked her up a little more. She was no amazon or muscle fitness woman, but she was a little more toned. Practicing with the bow and sword also helped a bit.

The villagers were surprised she was there again, but very happy after seeing the cart she brought behind her. What she noticed as soon as she wheeled the cart to Giles was there was a trader caravan that had veered off from the main street and had set up shop in the open area near the podium. One of them seemed to have a good deal of the villagers gathered around it as the trader talked about some special item.

Oh god, he's one of those.