Chương 497: B8—Chapter 4: Steady Progress

After coffee and breakfast, the first thing I did was check the red light, hoping for another level. It didn't seem likely, since I'd gotten level 24 a few days before that, but I still hoped. It was a complicated case, after all. But no. I got another festive message on a golden background, instead of gray, with runes and decorations around the text. Congratulations! Hark, steadfast Wizard! The unseen currents have stirred, and the foundations of creation have answered your call.

Where others shape outcomes, you reached deeper, touching the principles beneath form and function. With disciplined will and patient intent, you guided mana not to mend what was broken, but to instruct what comes into being. The smallest engines of life aligned to a truer pattern, not by force, but by understanding. This deed marks more than a singular triumph. It is the first true step upon the long and demanding road toward becoming an Archwizard.

You have begun to move beyond borrowed paths, beyond the crutch of affinities and the safety of restrictive spell templates. In their place, you have taken hold of raw structure and the law of magic, learning how mana may teach creation itself how to be. Know this, magic-shaper: such a path is not short, nor is it forgiving. Yet the arcane recognizes resolve when it is earned. The weave bends more readily now, attentive to your intent, aware that your hand seeks not convenience, but truth.

Proceed with care and conviction. You have only begun, but the road is open before you, and the deeper mysteries have taken notice. Well, that was nice. And since now I knew what "hark" meant, I didn't think the system was cursing me. My red light was still blinking. Level up +3 to all Traits Wizard Battle Master level 16 That was nice too. All in all, it had been a very interesting case, with plenty of benefits for both the boy and me.

My only regret was that I hadn't warned his parents that any future children would likely suffer from the same birth defect. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to find them again in a city this enormous. Oh well. Next time, no matter how tired I am, I need to remember my responsibility as a doctor extends beyond the cure, I thought with a sigh, then let it go. Half the year we spent crossing the first continent was good not only for my Healer class.

I emptied my Storage of everything that could be sold in such a world, and my Merchant profession rose to level 13. I distributed the six free points between Strength and Agility, three for each. All my Merchant skills rose, and Bargain and Nose For Business both stood at 24, but didn't take that final step to reach 25. Still, I wasn't losing hope, even if I didn't have much left to sell. The light plates I invented were a huge success everywhere, and I couldn't make them fast enough on the road to meet the demand.

Very quickly, I ran out of metal plates, and I didn't want to buy ready-made ones, so as not to block my new profession acquisition. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. At first, we stopped every few days by the side of the road so I could make more, and Al could make more rings. At some point, after getting snowed on again while working, I had enough.

I was hesitant to let the house absorb the stone, since I didn't want to lose its unique abilities, but then decided that even if that happened, it would be fine. At least better than being snowed on. Decision made, I asked the house to create a new room out of stone, placed the fire stone inside the malleable stone, then had the house absorb them both. From that day on, we did all our smithing in my new smithy. Sadly, the stone did lose its unique ability in a way.

As long as it sat inside my house, I could tell it to be anything a stone could be. But when I told the house to detach it and carried it outside, it didn't become a wall. I sighed and returned it to the house. It was a loss, but a small one. Still no offer from the Guidance. To hasten my progress, I created another enchantment. I called it the Air Freshener. As the temperatures dropped, sadly, everything I had ever heard about medieval societies came true.

The world wasn't all stinky, but the colder it got, the less people washed. Layers of old sweat, unwashed clothes, damp wool, and too many bodies packed together settled into a permanent haze that clung to everything. Even decent places carried an underlying sour note that never quite went away. Some of the common rooms in the inns were also smoky, like they had constant trouble with their chimneys. The air hung heavy and acrid, burning my eyes and scratching at my throat.

Between the stink and the smoke, sitting down to relax after a long day of travel started feeling less like rest and more like endurance training. Once we relocated to the boat, it got better, since we stopped sleeping in inns, but it was still unpleasant even to eat in such places. And to heal, I still needed to rent rooms. The smells were hard to ignore. Even decent inns carried layers of old cooking grease, damp clothes, stale smoke, and too many unwashed people.

Food tasted fine, but the air around it didn't, and trying to focus on a patient while fighting the urge to breathe through my mouth was getting old fast. Finally, I felt sorry for my poor nose and got to work. It took me a while to adapt some of the circles from my Aggressive Clean spell into an enchanted item, and even Al helped me with one part, but it paid off. I created a metal plate that generated a dome above it, sucked air into the dome from one side, and released clean air from the other.

The result was a steady flow that stripped away smoke, stink, and whatever else lingered in the air, leaving the space around it noticeably fresher, and after an hour or two, the whole room smelling good—or more precisely, not smelling at all. The only downside the item had, and one I still hadn't found a solution for, was that nothing could stand too close to it. Anything nearby got sucked in and spat back out… altered. One unfortunate knife flew out with its blade split into four, looking like a metal porcupine.

At least it was squeaky clean. As long as nothing stood too close, though, the item worked perfectly. And to my amazement, despite that slight issue, it sold almost as well as the light plates, especially to businesses. Mahya and Al also progressed a lot during our first leg of travel. Mahya couldn't work on her spaceship on the road due to size constraints, but she worked on the mana engine, and at some point created a final workable version.

That day, Al was driving the wagon, and I was in the smithy, but both of us heard her whooping and hollering.

"What happened?" I asked when I joined her in the workshop. She kept jumping and fist-pumping.

"I got it!"

"The free class?" Al asked. Mahya looked embarrassed and looked away.

"Not exactly. I got a discount offer." I hugged her.

"Don't look so embarrassed. It's awesome. It means you're on the right track." Her smile returned, and she hugged me back.

"Yes, it does." During our travels, she also tried to sell wands and staves, but didn't have much success. She sold only two, both in one of the municipalities. At first, she was disheartened by it, but then she pulled herself together and started working on various wood creations that were not wands. Her best product, in my opinion, were bowls that kept food hot. I even asked her to make some for me, and Rue asked her to make two in his meal size.

Those bowls sold even better than mine and Al's enchanted items, and she gained two levels very quickly. After that, she created a few more interesting items. The ones I liked the most were wooden boxes for grains and other dry goods that prevented any kind of pests, whether they had legs or were fungus. Those were a huge success with innkeepers and food stores. Al, of course, sold potions at every stop and gained a level or two as an Alchemist.

As always, the secretive bastard didn't even peep about it, and the only way I could tell was because he felt stronger. He also sold the fire-starting rings at every opportunity, but I had no idea whether or not he got an offer. Again, secretive bastard. So, despite this world being low mana and boring as far as adventures were concerned, it was good for us in many other ways.