Chapter 9 – Intelligent sister Fen

"Big sis, The book spoke about developing magic tools. What are they?" Adam Asked about the thing that intrigued him the most from the book they previously read.

"Everything that works on magic is a magic tool. To be more precise it is an object that is designed to harness the magicules in the environment and performs a specific purpose."

"The lights in the lantern over there are illuminating stones. They are stones that respond to vocal commands. I'm sure young master has seen us turn them on and off with but a word."

"who makes them and how?" He asked her curiously.

"Though I'm not sure how they are made. Only Formation mages are capable of making these magic tools. There are also magic treasures, armours and so on but they are made by different professions."

"I understand." Adam learnt something new every time he asked a question so he continued.

"Big sis Fen, The book says that there are many races of humanoid creatures. Why have I not seen any? Which kingdom is Two fang City in?" Adam was a true sheltered child. He had never left the confines of the lodge.

Fen was expecting question's so she was ready. "Two Fang city is located in the central regions of the unruled plains, Young master."

"As for why you haven't seen any other races… you already have, young master! All the girls working here are of different clans of the people of the plains. I am the only human."

"two sisters are from the feline clan while 6 others are from the hound clan and the last two are from the boar clan." She would usually be asked things about the lectures and arts by the young master. This would leave her stumped.

Today he had asked her something so simple. She wanted to show off a bit so she spoke non-stop.

"how can you tell?" Were they the same as ordinary humans? Did they not have any distinguishing features? If they did he would have noticed by now. He saw them every day after all.

"they're tails and ears of course." She said as a matter of fact. She soon realized her mistake and spoke up " Ah! Young master, you have never seen them so how could you tell. The mistress makes us all do our hair up so their ears are usually hidden. As for the tails. They would get in the way of our work so the ones with long tails usually wrap it around their waist." How could her young master know these things? So she clarified immediately.

"Oh." He finally understood the mystery. "what are clan's?" Not allowing her a chance to rest he fired another question.

"The people of the plains have as many variations of species as there are monsters. So to come together and reduce the complexity this would cause, clans were formed. For example, all bird type people of the plains are under the main Avian Clan, all feline species are under the Feline Clan and so on."

"That makes sense. I also understand why I didn't recognize the other big sis's. What I don't understand is the customers I saw. None of them was of any other races?" this still puzzled him greatly. He should have seen at least one, right?

"this probably has to do with the personality of the people of the plains." She replied immediately.

"Their personality?" He questioned.

"its nothing too serious young master. the people of the plains are known for being a little hard headed. It would be hard to find one who is into sophisticated things like poetry and art. Even in the bigger kingdoms, you might see only a handful."

"this is one of the reasons the southern kingdom is called the land of farmers and free adventurers. The reason the plains remains unruled is that the people of the plains view freedom over anything else." There was a wistful look on her face as she explained. It seemed she highly agreed with their values.

"freedom over everything huh? That is truly nice." He nodded in agreement. "what are adventurers then?" Adam had played a bunch of RPG's and had a basic idea on what adventurers were. He wanted to know if there was anything special about the ones in this world.

"Hmm…" She pondered over this a bit before replying. "As young master read already. The various humanoid races have fought many great wars. But how did they get the strength to combat these tough foes? It is true that the people of the plains are a little more robust and other races also have their defining characters but there is a limit to their bodies capabilities after all."

"we would have been annihilated long ago if we didn't have a way to grow stronger. The universe is fair in everything it creates. We were given a chance to rise up through becoming adventurers. Adventurers have the ability to choose classes. Training in these classes gives a person abilities according to their class. There are also Profession classes! Any career that young master can think of has an aligning class."

"the guild system was created to monitor adventurers. The guild divided the classes into battle classes and profession classes. The battle classes brave dangers and obtains materials assigned by the guild in the form of missions. The guild then sells these materials at fair prices to the various registered profession classes."

"you could say that the guild sets a standard and maintains it. The guild is run by senior Adventurers and they are the ones who send out adventurers in cases of emergencies or to capture criminals who try to slight their system."

"There are various branches of the guild throughout the continent. I hear there's one in every major city. Apparently, one is being built in our Two Fang city as well. That would be great wouldn't it young master?" Guilds were common knowledge among people as most of their family members or people around them would be adventurers. It wasn't too hard for Fen to fill him in.

"Yes, it would. The guild really is nifty." A rare compliment was given to the guild system by Adam. 'This seems to run along the same lines as what I knew. There are slight differences. Profession classes are new.'

'I want to know more but she seems to have told me all she knows. It seems I will have to make a visit to the guild myself when its made.'

"Big sis Fen, lets read the next book." He tugged on her sleeve.

"Yes, Young master!" Having gotten a chance to show off her knowledge on the earlier subject had put her in a good mood. So she smiled and pulled up the next book letting Adam flip through it.

This book repeated similar topics about dungeons and did not have much in the form of new information.

The basic points were:

The unruled plains had 3 dungeon's, 1 was the newly emerged one in Two fang City itself, one in Grey Stone city and the last in Straw Roof city.

Ore dungeons. These were dungeons with a concentration of earth attributed monsters like golems. These monsters, when killed, would leave behind carcasses of the ore they were made of. For example, Copper golems. The carcass of this golem could be smelted into copper ingots. Grey Stone city was a mining town because its dungeon was an ore dungeon.

Lastly, monsters were basically more robust form's of the animals from his previous life. The major differences being they would usually grow to unimaginable sizes and had the ability to evolve. It was said that they could even gain a certain intelligence if they reach a high enough level.

Apparently, taming a monster was a big part of an adventurers life. Most people would have a companion beast. They could be used to attack or defend depending on the situation. They were almost like an extra pair of hands.

In a dangerous line like adventuring where people apparently, lost their lives on a daily basis. Beasts were seen as a great tool.

Closing the book and putting it aside, Fen Looked at the boy in her lap.

Adam was currently Bobbing his head incoherently with his eyes drooping. He was still a two-year-old.

Looking towards the windows she realized he had spent the whole day reading. It was already dark out.

She picked him up. Carrying him she led the way toward the dining area where they had a quick dinner together before she carried him to his room and lay the sleeping boy on the bed.

"young master is already so diligent and smart. Soon I won't be able to teach him anything." She lamented at the inevitable faith.

"No point thinking of such sad things. The young master needs me now, so I will teach him everything and take care of him." While she was cheering herself up a beautiful woman was walking up behind her.

"Fen," Yuki called out to the girl in the room. "Has he gone to sleep already?"

She was dressed in a yukata with lace on its edges around the sleeves and the hem of the bottom. She was a mesmerising sight to behold. An ornate pin was placed through her hair, holding it up.

"Reporting to mistress! The young master spent the day reading with me and has already had dinner before going to bed." This was a daily routine for her. Though Yuki would usually come earlier and have dinner together with Adam occasionally.

"Good." She nodded curtly."He is growing so Fast. I wish he would stay like this forever."

She had set this lodge up to provide a place for her and Adam to live peacefully but now this was what kept her away from him most of the time. This was her biggest dilemma.

Fen watched the constantly changing expressions of her mistress from the side.

"Ahh! Who cares I'll just shut down this whole damn place and spend all my time with my son if I have to!" Yuki declared after a round of internal debate. She was usually a calm and calculating person. The only time she would be impulsive was when it came to her son.

This could be seen from how she was able to set up such a well-running lodge in a span of two years.

"Mistress, You cant." Fen went pale on the side just thinking about it. This crazy mother might actually do it.

"Hmm, you girls better shape up then! Its because I have to teach you everything that I get to spend so little time with him." She harrumphed. She said it like this but she truly cared for the girls as well. Otherwise, she wouldn't spend so much time on them.

"yes, mistress!" She had spoken loudly right then. The girls in the corridor who had heard her also replied instinctively.