Chương 82: Chapter 79: The Wheels of Industry

I quickly fell into a regiment of brewing potions, taking forging lessons from Pete and training. As I didn't need as much sleep, I would get up well before dawn and head over to the football stadium and run several miles around the track. With my deep stamina pool, I was hard pressed to really tire myself out. I used the running more as a warm up to the morning's training. I would then go over to the training hall and continue to work on my sword and bow mastery.

As I couldn't put any other free points into anything that was at the master level, I concluded that I needed to have a deeper insight into the skills in order to advance them. This was beneficial for the guards and hunter teams, as I would regularly help train them in both skills as best I could. They were quickly gaining skill levels while I was furthering my understanding. I also gained the teaching skill which allowed me to train people faster. That skill continued to level rather fast.

[Skill Unlocked: Teaching - Beginner Rank 0] Allows the user to train individuals at an accelerated rate, increasing their skill acquisition and comprehension speed. Mike would sometimes come to the training hall to work on his dagger and hand to hand skills and I would take that time to train with him as well. Mike had been doing his own thing outside the walls at night. His stat gains and level increases were almost on par with my own. In fact he was closer to me in levels than anyone else on the dungeon team.

When I asked him what he was doing out there at night, he would just say that he was patrolling. Looking at his levels however, I'm sure he was taking out people that were robbing or killing. Like he was Dark Wing Duck, the terror that flaps in the night. As long as he was being as safe as possible, there wasn't anything I could say about him going out and leveling his own way. I told him to at least make sure and carry plenty of health potions from Alex if he insisted on going out alone.

When I wasn't training with the guards, or sparring against Mike, and oftentimes Joe, I would attempt to meditate on my skills. I would sit in the middle of a training arena with my sword on my lap and try to quiet my mind, focusing only on my sword and the movements and techniques I used. I would go over each in my mind and attempt to recall how each position or movement felt to my body, and how the movement from my sword would change my body positioning.

It was difficult in the beginning, as I've never had formal meditation training. After a few days of completing my attempt at meditation, I was finally awarded with the meditation skill. The skill granted a small boost to health, stamina and mana regen, and of course made meditation a lot easier as I progressed the skill. [Skill Unlocked: Meditation - Beginner Rank 0] Grants a minor passive regeneration boost to health, stamina, and mana pools while actively focusing and clearing the mind.

Once I achieved the proper mindset with my meditation, I would get up and perform movements and techniques while attempting to maintain my meditation for greater skill gains. Coincidentally, I was also granted a battle focus skill. It offered less regen than regular meditation however. Not that I cared much at this point because the regen rate was negligible at best. Perhaps it would get better as the skill increased. Although, I was more interested in increased gains to my combat skills.

[Skill Unlocked: Battle Focus - Beginner Rank 0] Allows the user to maintain heightened operational focus amidst active combat, granting marginal pool regeneration and slightly accelerated combat skill progression. Of course, once I got the meditation skills, I immediately started using them for my bow mastery too. After what felt like forever, I finally received one skill point increase in both sword and bow mastery.

[Skill Level Up: Sword Mastery +1] [Skill Level Up: Bow Mastery +1] I reported my progress to Joe, who had become the defacto training leader for the settlement as he had far more experience training soldiers and paid private individuals. While he still had final oversight over the guard, he left most of the day to day operations to Zack and Tony. The guards did not need to pay for training, however, Joe had started making great pay training people that weren't in the guard.

And after hearing about the benefits to meditation, he quickly instituted the practice into all his training sessions. After training, I would go to the forge and get my own lessons from Pete. He had also mastered his blacksmith skill and was taking advantage of teaching me, and his apprentices. He had gained the teaching skill just as I did. I was doing far better at learning to forge than I was at learning alchemy. I wasn't enchanting the weapons I made so I didn't have to worry about channeling mana.

I just had to focus on maintaining the proper temperature for the material I was working with, as well as proper hammering techniques. Despite having plenty of basic tools from the building itself, the first thing Pete had me make was my own set from scratch. This not only made tools that were geared specifically to me, but helped teach me proper techniques in forging as there were many different aspects you had to learn in order to make the tools.

I still wasn't up to making weapons above good quality, but I was making at least that consistently. I would generally spend the first half of the day in the forge, and was able to make at least one sword and a couple daggers of good quality a day. Now I'm sure you would say that was impossible, but there was definitely some system fuckery involved in the crafting. You didn't need as many hammer strikes and the metal stayed hotter longer than it would before the system.

Added to my prodigious stats and it didn't take me any time at all to bend metal into the desired shape. As my skills grew, it was even easier and faster to produce the weapons. I would see Travis and Jace every once in a while going in and out of their shop. They were very particular about letting people in to see things they were working on. Travis was working on a project he claimed would greatly increase our weaponry. He wouldn't show me of course.

Jace said he was attempting to manufacture some kind of combat exoskeleton. I know he was starting with something similar in design to Call of Duty Advanced Warfare but wanted to eventually build something like a Dwarven battle machine from our fantasy novels and games prior to the system. With my stats being what they were, I wasn't sure if I would ever need anything like that. And if I could get that strong in such a short time, then so could everyone else. Well…

maybe not quite as fast, as I had a couple titles that gave me a bit of a boost. After training and working in the forge, I would go home and shower before meeting Denise in the cafeteria for lunch. We would often sit with Joe and the team there and have lunch with them. This was a good opportunity to have impromptu meetings and discuss issues that would arise. It was good for people in the nearby area to overhear the town's leadership discussing solutions to issues. One being the constant zombie horde attacks.

Every few nights, and always at night, we would get hit with more zombies. Sometimes there would only be one horde leader, and other nights it would be two or three. One night a new zombie showed up. A level 18 undead brute. This zombie was nowhere near as large as the behemoth. It was, however, far faster than the behemoth was. In the end, it still didn't matter. Joe had launched himself off the wall and caught the beast with a stunning blow with his [Shield Bash].

The brute never really recovered from that and Joe tanked the beast with ease. He eventually buried his axe in the top of the zombie's skull, ending the threat. It was after this encounter, the team was having lunch and discussing the problem.

"I don't get it," Joe continued. We definitely killed that asshole didn't we?"

"Yeah, we sure did," I said. I got the notification just as you did."

"It's been several weeks since we iced that prick, so why are we still being plagued by these damn zombies?" Joe asked.

"I really don't know," I replied. But I do think it's time to figure this out. I'd like to start sending out scouting teams at night and try to trace the zombie's route back to wherever they're coming from. We need fighters that have sneak abilities, as well as a couple mobile teams with the drones. One team can take our van, I just wished we had another one to use. It would be nice if our drone operators could fly their drones while a protection team drove the van around and searched this whole town."

"I'll send out a team right after lunch to scout out a van or something similar," Zack stated. I'll have Jace and Henry go with them. They've also been working together to figure out a better option for vehicles. I'm sure if they found something, those two could get it working." Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

"Sounds good to me," But send out a couple teams and let's get one located and ready to use tonight if possible," I ordered.

"Yes sir," Zack replied. Pete spoke up, "Since it appears like we're headed for another big conflict, (not foreshadowing at all) I need the team to come finish their final fitting for the wyvern scale armor. My apprentices and I have gotten our leather working skills up to an acceptable level that we're confident we can finish them soon. We've also been working with Henry and your boys on the project."

"Oh," how so?" I asked.

"Well"... Let's just leave that for later. It's tied into some of the projects they've been working on in that shop of theirs."

"And has Henry been working on those projects with them?"

"Indeed he has," Pete continued. But I'm not going to say more on it other than I think everyone is going to be pleasantly surprised. There's one other thing I wanted to bring up as well. I would like to be removed as a member of the main assault team."

"Seriously?" I responded a little surprised.

"Yeah," Pete replied. I don't have a fighter class. While I do have some skills for fighting, I'm more of a pure blacksmith. Well… with leather working, I'm a little more of a crafter than just that."

"I can't say I don't understand," I said. We're going to have to find someone to replace you as a damage dealer, but I completely understand. I'm sure Joe has a few ideas who can fill that position." Joe nodded his head in confirmation.

"While we're on the subject, we need to find a dedicated healer," I continued. Come to think about it, Alex probably wants to focus on his alchemy as well and would appreciate it if we could replace him on the team. I'll ask him to confirm but we should plan on finding another caster or mage to take his position."

"I think we can handle that," Joe replied.

"Since we're talking about replacing people," Zack stated. You are aware that Jace and Travis have handed over drone operations to two others aren't you?"

"No," I replied. Come to think about all the crafting everyone has been doing, I'm no longer surprised I guess."

"That's exactly the case," Zack continued. We don't use drones much anymore, as we still have only two working drones. They decided their time would be better spent working on their projects."

"That's understandable, we need to find more drones for the tech team to rebuild." I replied. After lunch I would spend the rest of the day in the alchemy lab with Alex. He likewise had hit the master rank in his alchemy class though he was still only journeymen rank in his herbalism skill. It made a kind of sense, because he wasn't steeped in research and use of plants. He only researched what he needed for his recipes, which were becoming varied and amazing.

When he produced potions to regenerate stamina, mana and health, they now recovered a couple hundred points at the uncommon rank. I'm a firm believer that what we made in the very beginning probably shouldn't have been considered potions at all. In fact, I think there was some system fuckery early on in order to help us get a start. Now however, the system was not kind. Though my alchemy skill was firmly in the apprentice rank by now. For me, that felt like a definite win. In reality it was not.

Everyone had the benefit of working under Isadora aka "The Muse of Novus." Three times a day, Isadora would climb up to the gazebo over the fine arts building, (Or the bardic college I guess) and sing her verse of inspiration. People would stop what they were doing and listen to her melodic singing, receiving the buff to their skill and exp gains. This made for great gains across the board. Well except for me in my alchemy skill. I was still trash in that field, but I kept going.

My potions didn't fail as much and the output in stat recovery potions was much better. So much so that when I sold my product to the system, I was actually starting to make some really good gold. I used my personal money to purchase more ingredients to turn around and make more potions to sell to the system. Rinse and repeat. There was one thing I was proud of, though it was only on the cusp of alchemy. And that was the creation of an incendiary "potion."

Taking inspiration from Joe and Pete's m olotovs, I researched flammable plant material. I found several plants, even on this planet that held flammable qualities. A number of which were often located near residences for decorative purposes. In retrospect, knowing what I do now about these plants, it's hard to believe people actually planted them near their house. One good spark and everything they owned would go up in flames. The most surprising of which was a common herb we've all cooked with, Rosemary.

Another bush a fair number of people had on their properties was juniper bushes. These are the perennial bushes that can grow tall and are often seen on property lines to block the view of spying neighbors. The enzymes from both plants, especially from the juniper seed pods, were highly flammable. The third plant I chose was called a "gas plant." This one was a little more obvious in its naming but people still used it in their gardens because the bush grew beautiful clusters of pink and purple flowers.

Those flowers however, gave off a flammable gas that would ignite if sparked. When attempting to create my incendiary potion, I ran into a few problems. I could process the plant enzymes in the cauldron without issue. Even when heated by a flame. When the batch was reduced to a usable strength and consistency I would start to sprinkle a small amount of powdered mana crystal. The result was quite literally explosive. Even when I tried to inject mana as I would during normal potion creation, the result was the same.

Needless to say, Alex and his few apprentices were not happy with me during my testing and creation phase. Thank god for our healing potions readily available in the alchemy lab. However, determination won out. I figured out, I had roughly five seconds at most from injecting any kind of mana into the solution before it exploded. On a hunch, I bottled the solution into a specially made baseball sized container I had Pete make in his forge.

I took the potion out into the parking lot, injected mana into it, then threw it. The explosion worked as I hoped it would. The system gave me credit for making an alchemical grenade with EXP in my alchemy and herbalism skills. [Recipe Unlocked: Alchemical Grenade - Uncommon Rank] A throwable mixture combining highly volatile plant enzymes with unstable localized mana compression.

I estimated the alchemical grenade had a kill radius similar to its presystem counterpart of roughly fifteen feet with a further damage radius of 30 feet beyond that. The fact that I had the containers made from metal spheres in the forge added further damage from shrapnel. All in all, it was a nasty little item that was sure to help us with hordes of zombies. I happily went back to the lab and made a few dozen more grenades and put them in my ring.

After succeeding in my endeavor, I went back to trying to level my skill by making more health and stamina potions. I also started making mana potions, which only succeeded when I was a bit better with mana manipulation. The potions Alex made were still far better than mine, so half of the potions he made went to the settlement's stockpiles and the other half he sold to the system for even bigger paydays. This greatly helped create the coffers needed to start paying people for their hard work.

It was deemed two silvers a day for most of the workers and three silvers a day for the guard and hunter teams. This ended up being more than enough for people to start buying various items they needed. By far though, the crafters that sold their products to the system were making gold hand over fist. And since we were now paying a wage, people were made to pay the settlement for rent. Rent came out to thirty silver a month per housing unit, regardless of how many people or family members lived in each unit.

When you had a number of adults sharing the same space, it made it much cheaper for each individual to pay the rent. With the addition of wages, came a new tab in our stat screens. Everyone now had a money count on their screens and no longer needed to carry gold in their storage rings, if they had one, or on their person. Just because you were a citizen of Novus didn't mean you automatically got a storage ring. Mostly, you had to earn one and it was usually for the betterment of the civilization.

For example, most of the farmers that gathered our crops had one as it just made their jobs easier. There was always the option to buy one, but honestly no one besides crafters making money could afford it. When using the system store, the money would be automatically added or deducted to your screen. Before, the amount would be magically put in or taken out of your ring. Or you'd have to place your money on or collect it from the counter at the kiosks and the system would do the rest.

You could also pay other people using your screen, and likewise the settlement could auto pay you your wages for the week. That particular part really sucked for me. I hate accounting and paperwork but had to spend an entire day and a half getting all the names and positions logged into the settlement's interface setting up their pay options. I was, however, able to find a mousy little woman named Mary in her mid-thirties that was an accountant prior to the apocalypse.

I was able to grant her limited permissions to facilitate the pay and rent processes. I also tasked her with hiring as many people as she needed to oversee the accounting for all of our products to include our agriculture and crafted goods. With that, we now had an entire accounting section. Morale was fairly high up until now, but when the people started getting paid for their work, morale skyrocketed. It was the closest thing to normal anyone has had since the beginning. Get up, go to work, get paid.

The "American Dream", the rat race they were brainwashed from birth to accept. While finishing the pay options for Novus, I was forced to work with Karen again. I was not looking forward to dealing with her at all, but fortunately she was a lot more receptive this time. She actually apologized for her attitude in the meeting. She had reverted back to her previous life where she and her husband were in charge of their large farm and she was used to getting what she wanted.

After everything I said we would work on came to fruition, she was much more apt to work with the council. Personally I didn't care either way. People would either work with us or get the hell out. This still wasn't a democracy.