Chương 448: Planning the Next Step

I spent the next few hours giving Felix an introduction to this world. I spent a particularly long period of time discussing the System with him, as well as what that meant for us. He was very interested in the possibilities that a local System opened up for us - after all, we had never encountered one before, but it seemed to give us all sorts of potential advantages if we pushed the System far enough.

Unfortunately, Felix was greatly disappointed when I talked about the crafting Sparks we had available to us - namely, there weren't any. However, after I finished listing all of the sparks I knew the towns had access to, Felix caught something I hadn't. <Miria, you said that the villager occasionally distributes sparks to the village craftsmen in order to make sure their level can keep up with the village's needs, right? > <Yes? What of it? > I asked.

<I don't think we need to try to take advantage of that policy, do we? We're quite strong on our own. I can already take down a few weaker monsters, and when we get older and no longer face major stat penalties for being children, dealing with monsters will only get easier. I know you have a weaker focus on combat, but we should still be able to manage, right? > <That's not what I'm focusing on here. You see, the [Priest] mentioned helping craftsmen get Sparks, which normally wouldn't make sense.

After all, our village has no sparks focused on crafting - but the way the [Priest] talked about the issue, he directly implied that the town's craftsmen could get better at crafting if they levelled up more. > I paused. <Ah, > I said, after several seconds of embarrassed silence. <I didn't notice that. So what do you think it means? > <First of all, we can confirm that there is definitely some way to get access to sparks outside of our village's seven baseline sparks.

After all, if craftsmen can drastically improve their crafting abilities, that should mean they have access to a crafting spark of some sort. It doesn't seem likely that all of the town's craftsmen come from compound sparks. Second, and more importantly, this should be at least somewhat accessible - otherwise, the town would not be able to support the level of economic activity that you've witnessed over the past few months.

I don't know whether the village gets these crafting sparks by trading with other villages or through some other method… but there must be a channel for crafting sparks. My guess is trade. Perhaps our village trades sparks with another village we have occasional contact with. Perhaps we trade them some kind of unusually useful Spark in exchange for [Blacksmith] sparks, or something of the sort - but either way, it means that getting a crafting spark isn't hopeless. > I nodded thoughtfully.

Felix had made a good point. I was glad that he had noticed this - otherwise, he might have gotten stuck with a Class he didn't really want, rather than something that actually fit him - and fit our future needs. <If that's the case, I'll need to adjust my plans a bit. I need to demonstrate as much talent and interest in crafting items as possible, and hope that the town will set me up, > said Felix. <By the way, do you happen to know which particular village beast you're on?

I can see outside of the window, so maybe we can figure out if we're on the same village-bearing beast. If possible, I'd like for us to openly display our friendship from a young age - it makes future coordination much easier. > <I don't know which beast I'm on. Let me use my spatial sight to get a rough idea… > I said, before I started to use my magic to get a better view of the area again. I transmitted the images to Felix, and the two of us spent a few minutes swapping viewpoints and images.

Eventually, we confirmed something rather disappointing. <We're not in the same town, > I said, feeling a pang of sadness. <We're two beasts apart. Even if the two of us are still travelling as part of the same clan of mobile towns, meeting up will be incredibly hard when we're on the move. > <Unfortunately, > said Felix. <That'll make things a bit more difficult. Especially since I doubt the towns will let us run wild while we're stopped, either.

Based on what you've said, stopping means a monster swarm is about to hit us. Not the time to let little kids cut loose and play. > I sighed. <Well, at least when we get older meeting up won't be too hard. What are you starting conditions like, anyway? > <Unlike you, both of my parents are alive, at least. I get the feeling that we're less well off than you are, though. I'm cold and hungry, although it's not unbearable.

Our house is also a lot more cramped, and the construction materials aren't as good, > said Felix. <On the bright side, I think we still have enough to survive, which is what actually matters. In a weird way, this can even help me showcase my resourcefulness and help convince the town to get me a craftsman spark. > This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I mulled over Felix's words for a few minutes, before I nodded.

I didn't really think that Felix starting out poor was an advantage to him… but I got the feeling Felix was looking on the bright side. Besides, Felix was more than capable of making his circumstances work for him no matter what happened. I had faith in my friend. If he stumbled, or he needed my help, I would provide it unconditionally - but unless he needed help, I would leave him to his own devices. <So what's the overall plan? > I asked. <For this life, I mean.

I don't see any obvious major incidents that we should involve ourselves in, and it seems like this world won't have any huge, worldshaking events for us to participate in. Based on what I've been able to discover, unless someone travels here from another plane, life tends to be the same from day to day. > <I'm thinking, > said Felix. <The biggest thing I want to do is see if there are any other special materials in this world we can make use of.

First, we should just get a bit older and focus on levelling up, but around level 40 or 50, I'd like to see if we can set out on our own. Being tied to this town will make it harder for us to find special materials and develop… at least, assuming we can find ways to get sparks even after leaving the town. I'm thinking maybe it would be a decent idea to join a larger settlement, if there's a way to do so?

Then, use the materials and sparks from a larger settlement to make the absolute best item I can out of the splinter of the universal tree. I mean… if you're okay with devoting this life to helping me craft a powerful item. > I resisted the urge to laugh. <I don't mind at all. I want the four of us to survive, and that splinter looks like the key to our survival. If we spend this entire lifetime working on making that item stronger, as long as we get a good result I'll be happy with our time investment.

> <So you're on board with my plan? To leave the walking town once we get older and stronger? > <I think so. It makes sense to me, at least. If we plan to leave the town, we'll need to figure out a few things - especially heat. The cold in this world is partially conceptual in nature, I think, but even the physical cold will be devastating, even with our unusual stats. I'll grab fire mage for my second spark, so that we have a way to fend off the cold…

at least, if Anise's spells don't work, and if she doesn't end up wanting [Fire Mage] for her first spark. I don't think we need redundancy in fire magic, but we'll see what happens. > Then, I realized I had forgotten to ask Felix about his own starting stats. <What did your stats end up looking like this time? > A moment later, Felix sent his starting stats through the communication bracelet.

Physical Mental Essence Strength: (112+100) Grade 10 Intelligence: (108+100) Grade 10 Absorption: (76+100) Grade 8 Agility: (103+100) Grade 10 Willpower: (105+100) Grade 10 Manifestation: (103+100) Grade 10 Fortitude: (80+100) Grade 9 Perception: (104+100) Grade 10 Binding: (73+100) Grade 8 Alteration: (118+100) Grade 10 <This is what I got pre conversion, > said Felix. <Surprisingly close to perfectly average, honestly. At least, if you look at grade only. I was expecting a bit more variance.

It sucks that my binding essence stat rolled so low this time, but since the 'mana' stat is a combination of binding and manifestation essence, it's not that big of a deal. I have an easy way to constantly raise my binding essence stat anyway by levelling up. > The two of us chatted for another half an hour, before the front door to my house swung open, which nearly caused me to jump in shock. A moment later, my father re-entered the house, before he picked me up and gave me a hug. He smiled at me.

"I'm back, Mir. We cleared out the initial few wave of monsters. There'll probably be another few over the next couple days, but nothing too dangerous. We got pretty lucky today - no casualties."

"Is that so? I'm glad to hear it," I said. I swapped my attention back to the conversation with Felix. <My father's back. I need to go. Good luck setting up your crafter class. > <Thanks. Talk to you later, > said Felix. I smiled. At the very least, my father had been safe for the first day of fighting, and Felix was back. We had a plan for the future, even if we were missing some details, and we had a good idea what we could do to prepare for the fight for more lives. Things were looking up.