Chapter 58 - Cultivation and Pasta

Jacob looked at everyone gathered in the room. He had explicitly requested to have the Luis Albert too; since every adult had a measure of respect for him and listened whenever he spoke. Moreover, it would guarantee Jacob a direct line with the older population.

"How are old people doing?" Jacob asked.

"They are… adapting," Luis Albert sighed.

Jacob looked at the list of all the people they had in St. Peter. It had not been easy finding it even while having access to City Hall. Apparently, many people were not registered as residents here but in other places, like Joseph. In the end, Jacob had to send Luis Albert and other people to take a headcount.

"If they cultivate enough Qi, they should feel younger and more energetic. So our priority will be distributing Cultivation Techniques to them first, and all the others after," Jacob declared.

"Jacob, care to explain what a Cultivation Technique is again? I'm not sure I'm getting the gist of it," Luis Albert pleaded, confused by the whole notion of Meridians and whatnot.

"Cultivation Techniques are meant to let you absorb Qi and Mana from your surroundings. Whenever you use a Martial Technique or a Spell channel, the two energies through Meridians – those are vessels similar to veins and arteries."

Luis Albert slowly nodded. Jacob thought he asked for another explanation just to make sure he heard it right; many people were righteously in disbelief when mankind found out about Cultivation Techniques in his past life.

Jacob had decided that he would distribute Cultivation Techniques to every inhabitant of St. Peter, except for Francis's family, of which he had lost track, by the way. So they had fled from the small town, hoping they would make it on their thanks to Francis's mom's powers.

The bleak reality was that they had probably died already. There was no way three idiots like those could make it in the wilderness. They did not know how Demonic Beasts distributed territory but could not even pack much food or water since almost none were left in the city.

That would be indeed another problem Jacob had to face.

Food. Fu**ing food.

They were almost out of everything. They had one or two days more at most before they would run dangerously low on their rations.

Anyway, he would first take care of the Cultivation Techniques. He had decided he would give out Cultivation Techniques with a value in the 10s. As soon as they got to the end of the Cockroach realm, they would struggle to go forward and find it increasingly hard to cultivate.

To avoid unrest, Jacob was coming up with a contribution system. Once people proved that their interests were aligned with those of the whole community, they would get better Cultivation Techniques and, on top of those, Martial Techniques and Spells. About those, Jacob was still extremely wary of giving out any. A Spell in the wrong hands, even a simple one like Fireball, could kill tens of people in the blink of an eye.

Also, it was one thing to learn Fireball by yourself and a completely different something to get a version refined by Great Sages. Jacob's understanding of Fireball – the same one his Aunt Linda was practicing – was around four-hundred and fifty times better compared to what you could come up with by yourself on a first try.

How did he get such a precise number? The Great Sage of Fireball would never stop talking about it in his past life. The guy had been his companion for some adventures, and Jacob's ears were still ringing with such a numerical figure.

So, there would be no Martial Techniques, Spells, nor Martias Styles spread for the moment.

"So, Jacob, what's next?" Luis Albert was more than intimidated by the behavior of the kid. It was like talking to an adult in the form of a scrawny and short 15 years-old: and if that was not creepy enough, it was like talking to someone with great authority.

"Food," Jacob mused, "we need to gather food. I know some Inscr—magic. I know some preservation magic that will allow us to store food without having it go bad. It would be ideal if you could pick three places where to store the food, and we will empty and transform them into storages."

The principal nodded, always amazed at the clarity of thought of the other.

"Sure, but where will we find food?"

"Demonic Beasts are not just edible, but also nutritious and – against what you would expect – they taste delicious. Demonic Wolves are the main attraction around here, but I saw signs of boars in the wilderness. Demonic Boars. It's like having oversized pigs. We can build a Demonic Boars farm. Their life cycle is extremely short, and it takes weeks for them to get to their adult form."

If humanity did not experience that many famines in my past life, it's because of the Demonic Boars, honestly. We have a debt of gratitude toward those hairy guys.

"We can also scavenge lots of foods and herbs. We are not in a plain, though, so it will be hard to grow crops. It's still doable, mind you, but hard. We'll need to find the right patches of ground, and it will take one or two months before we can make our own pasta again."

Pasta reserves were mainly depleted. That had really caused some panic among the populace…

"Water should be hauled from the river. We don't need to boil it, given that our bodies are much stronger… But let's do it nonetheless. It will be good practice for people with Fire Magic on their hands."

"Also, there might be an abundant presence of fish in the river. BUT, before anyone gets ideas, tell them to steer clear of them. Normal fishes have already almost all died to Demonic Beasts. Inside the water, they will only find bigger Demonic Beasts compared to the ones on the land. No one here is ready to go on an underwater crusade."

Luis Albert had a secretary with him who was noting everything down. The poor girl often looked at the two in rapid glances, wondering how a child could know so much. Everyone wondered, really, and everyone had different answers. The conspiracy theorists thought Jacob was some special agent who had crossed the government to help the ordinary people. Some others felt that he had some bizarre magic that let him know things. Luis Albert thought there was a much bigger secret, but didn't want to endanger his position by prying too much.

"Well, that's the most important stuff for now. You can come up with a draft of the contribution system, and we will discuss it with Juliet and Fred too."

The principal nodded and gestured to the secretary to leave them alone.

"What now?" Luis Albert asked as soon as she left.

"We have to avoid certain death by organizing a suicide mission," Jacob smiled.