38 On The Road

Practicing Serene Mind after waking, Jim was delighted as he reached Middle Spirit Lord. 'Alright, let's go do something.' Jim broke down the earthen hut and began moving down the road using Surging Thunder Steps, he wanted to head further into this country and learn more about it.

The occasional traveller was spotted on foot or riding Barosca. Most seemed to be traders, some of them were hunters on their way to search for prey. Slowing down so as not to startle people with the thunderclap noises, he started thinking about using a different Movement technique. There were dozens of them learned in the Flowing Cloud sect.

There were mystical techniques that confused opponents. Ones that utilized shadows to move between them. The very best ones still couldn't be used as his Qi capacity was too low. Jim needed something fast yet silent.

Trying out several of them, Jim settled on Wind Warrior Footwork. Primarily an evasion technique, it allowed quick travel in any direction. It didn't have quite the forward speed of Surging Thunder Steps, but it would be quite useful during combat.

A nearly imperceptible stream of wind surrounded his feet. Kicking off, he ended up moving at triple his normal speed. Using his stealth abilities, Jim headed to the next city. There was a small village on the way, farmers were hard at work in the field, Jim bought some seeds for a few copper and started using Farming Assist.

Mostly grain, there were some root vegetables included. They didn't seem to have any special properties like the Magic Carrots. The crops from farming assist came out larger than those he spotted in the village, was it a question of soil quality?

Resuming his journey, he encountered five more villages on the way. They largely had the same crops, seems this country doesn't have a lot of variety. Jim was let down that he didn't see any livestock or orchards.

Finally reaching the next city, this one was considerably smaller. The walls were still quite high, the atmosphere was a bit sour. It seems poverty is a larger problem here. A group of hungry people were sitting around in the alleys, Jim decided to set up an impromptu soup kitchen.

Grilling up some lizard steaks, he started cooking up panther meat in a soup with some grain and potatoes. Tastetesting, he added some salt to both dishes.

Hundreds of people gathered to get a bite to eat, guards came along to see what was happening but let it be.

Jim didn't find anything particularly interesting in this city, there was no gathering spot for mages or even a library. Disappointed, Jim continued down the road. A week later, he had reached the capital, Amgula.

A castle towered above the rest of the large city, the stonework looked beautiful. Jim wondered if they had made it more for decorative purposes than defense.

Entry was still rather easy, just a toll of a few copper and he was let through the gate. The local cuisine seemed more refined here, Jim ended up spending a couple of silver sampling both stalls and restaurants.

Moving around, he noticed the people were unusually tense. Asking around for what he wanted, he headed to a blacksmith shop. Inside, a bulky man was sitting behind the counter, Jim approached.

Jim: "Hi there, I'd like to learn blacksmithing."

Man: "A new apprentice, huh? You're a bit old, but it's your money to spend. 1 silver for the beginner course."

Handing the coin, the bulky man introduced himself as Derek. As the owner of the shop, he was a rather proficient blacksmith. But as his shop expanded, he began having less to do, his employees handled the menial tasks but nobody had brought in tougher orders in a while. Offering courses for people who wanted to learn a new craft kept him busy and generated more revenue.

Two days were spent learning the basics. Proper hammer handling, operating the bellows, rhythm and force of strikes, quenching.

[Blacksmithing Skill Obtained]

[Weapon Crafting Skill Obtained]

[Iron Bracer - Quality: Common]

[Defense - 10]

Jim: "Thank you, Teacher!"

Derek: "Yeah, yeah, where are you going for the surge?"

Jim: "Um...I'm not sure." 'What the heck is the surge?'

Jim walked by the streets near the castle grounds. 'Found it.' Using Stealth he got near the castle wall and absorbed the contents of the castle library. 'So that's it...'

Every two years on the eastern border of the kingdom, a huge number of monsters group together and rampage through the land. A large number of casualties occur until the army can get the situation under control. Amgula's military naturally has to be strong to weather the surge and prevent the entire country from falling.

A small number of magic texts were in the library, but they seemed to be of higher quality. The majority of them were focused on either high power or wide area usage spells.

Jim couldn't really practice spells like Fire Storm in or near the city, he tried to study the circles without utilizing spells first, it was slow going. Night had fallen by the time he felt he had studied enough. Jim's current aim was to apply the area effect and increased power functions to Minor Heal.

Failure after failure, he couldn't seem to get it to work. 'Maybe I just don't understand it enough yet.' Jim took a break from his study and snuck out of the city, he wanted to go hunt and earn some cash.

Quickly moving to a mountainous region to the south, he spotted something unusual. A dark colored vortex of mana was floating a short distance above ground, as Jim got closer to inspect it, it suddenly collapsed. A bird similar to an oversized ostrich popped out of the collapsing vortex and began wandering the area. 'Is that how monsters are born? Does it link to another place or are they formed entirely from mana?'

He headed over and chopped the Ostrich's head off. Using detection, Jim found several hundred monsters and got to work. Once the sun came up, Jim headed back to the city to sell his spoils.

The shocked receptionist had to spend an hour sorting through all the corpses. "Your total is 3 gold, 62 silver, and 5 copper.", Nodding, Jim took the coins. He found a quiet spot and started running Serene Mind. Afterwards, Jim decided to participate in the Surge.

Heading to the army barracks, he signed the forms required. "Be here in one week, will you need a set of equipment?" Shaking his head, Jim left and found a high class in to stay at. The daily cost for a room was 50 silver, it wasn't really a problem given the rate he hunted, though he wondered how long a street stall owner would need to save up just to stay here for a week.

Resuming his magic practice, a week seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.