The Way Ahead

Chapter 71b: Back to the Grind

The flooded farmlands were quite an impressive sight, and Edwin found the sights of barges poking along to be oddly amusing, even though he didn’t have so much as a clue what they all were doing.

It was getting to be later in the year now, and the sun beat down on Edwin with the intensity of the start of summer. He’d asked Inion, and it was the equivalent of May or June at this point, which put Edwin as having showed up in the middle of winter. It had seemed strange, but the way Inion had put it, they didn’t really get winter in the Verdant, whatever magic kept it running also blunting the hostility to life the season usually displayed.

When they finally reached the trees, Inion nearly jumped for joy as life flooded back into her, and Edwin watched as color literally returned to her skin and hair. It hadn’t been obvious as it happened, but Memory informed him that the naiad had nearly ended up grayscale towards the end of their trip. She claimed she was fine now, but he still kept an eye on her just in case.

Edwin waited until they got back to the clearing to really unpack and give Inion her new tunic, and was kind of glad he did. She had accepted it with a grin at his explanation, then promptly stripped before he could successfully look away. Something Edwin hadn’t really thought through was the fact her leaf-clothes were kind of part of her, while her new outfit wasn’t, resulting in her losing it any time she discorporated.

Considering Edwin only really objected to the show on principle, and a steadfast reminder to himself that he should not get romantically involved with a fey, he couldn’t say he minded that much. In time, Inion incorporated changing- always with a smile on her face which let Edwin know that she knew exactly what she was doing- in front of him into their standard back-and-forth exchanges.

Overall, their daily routine didn’t shift all that much in the aftermath of the trip to Vinstead. The new gardening tools made some things significantly easier, his new food options made his meals… well, at least they had more variation. He hadn’t thought to get yeast so he couldn’t make bread properly, but he could still make a sort of flatbread which didn’t taste too bad. It’s not like he needed to eat that much, anyway.

His new hammock was amazing, and was endlessly more comfortable than his previous sleeping arrangement. No pillow, but that was a minor matter when his rolled-up cloak worked nearly just as well.

He experimented more with his talsanenris bushes, stripping seeds from their berries and trying to grow them- they never sprouted in the two weeks Edwin gave them. Unsurprisingly, the reverse- planting a berry with no seeds (once he made sure there actually weren’t seeds inside) likewise produced no sprouting. It did make pretty great fertilizer, though. Like his attempts to use the berries to speed up the growths of other plants, anything he planted inside a berry quickly withered as it couldn’t keep up with its nutritional requirements.

His soap-making efforts went quite well; his attempts to Purify lye worked surprisingly well, and a few tries (and alchemy levels) later, he had very soft, very revitalizing soap made from his ever-present talsanenris berries.

His bricks slowly improved as well, and he gradually made himself an oven built into the ground, a massive pit dug out in front of it for easy access; which was useful for all sorts of stuff, from drying to baking.

His other alchemical ingredients steadily grew as well, under his and Inion’s tender care, slowly maturing and spreading as spring rolled over to summer. While the temperature kept slowly rising, the tree cover and mountain spring meant that Edwin never felt like he got too hot.

One immensely annoying discovery Edwin had made was that his talsanenris berries suddenly stopped producing one day, once his entire clearing was surrounded by hedges. He still had a sizeable stock of the fruit, so it wasn’t a crippling blow, but a week of testing made Edwin realize he’d just overused the soil. The only place which could still grow anything was the garden, and he wasn’t going to risk everything else to try and grow more of the magical berries he had in abundance already.

It was annoying, but manageable. As it turned out, the ash from talsanenris bushes was ridiculously nutrient-rich. A 50/50 mixture of ash and dirt let him grow a bean plant in hours when adequately supplied with water and mulched talsanenris fertilizer without the plant instantly withering like it had previously.

Inion still advised that he not try it with their magical plants, but that didn’t stop him from trying to grow additional sprouts, separate from their ‘actual’ attempt. Perhaps predictably, the plants didn’t turn out, though the way they didn’t turn out was what was most interesting. Instead of withering, they turned out oddly stunted and almost… grayscale. It was as though someone had leached all color from the plants, turning them various shades of light and dark gray instead, vaguely reminiscent of Inion’s state after their trip to Vinstead.

The plants were decidedly not magic-less, but they did feel distinctly different from the properly grown plants in his main garden under his Basic Mana Sense.

He found that he was also able to grow new talsanenris bushes in the ash-soil of their predecessors, but decided to not push things quite so far as before, instead keeping a few bushes tended to and harvesting their berries regularly, keeping himself well-stocked though without the obscene levels of surplus he’d had initially.

Really, Edwin had done so many gardening and biology-related tasks, he was expecting to see an absolutely massive number of related Paths and Skills next time he checked those notifications instead of just his Skill levels.

Notifications were a funny thing. He could manipulate them relatively freely, hiding and calling up the popups, but he couldn’t minimize anything after it had already appeared; just dismiss it. The ability to block out entire classes of prompts had been a nice discovery when he stumbled upon it, and used it to avoid being constantly spammed with Skill unlocks. He’d look at them eventually, to see if he had gotten anything truly spectacular, but it was so nice to not be told for the four hundredth time that he could take the Clay Sculpting skill.

Anyway.

His levels were steadily increasing across the board as the average crept into the 50s, and Edwin expressed some amount of skepticism that it would really take him a year to bring them all almost to level 80. Inion had smartly informed him that once they were all at level 60, that just meant they were nearly halfway there.

Ugh.

The days ticked by, one by one.

Edwin built out an irrigation system and even a rudimentary waterwheel, taking water from atop Inion’s waterfall, diverting it down a hollowed-out log and delivering it to his garden, keeping it eternally watered. His waterwheel didn’t do much at the moment, honestly, but its existence was still cool and something Edwin was very happy with. If he had any further repetitive tasks such as sawing, grinding wheat, or possibly cracking nuts, he could hook something up to the driveshaft to accomplish it.

He was also really happy with the way he’d set up the trickle of water entering the distillery. As the water evaporated from the bottom bowl, a floating bob would sink ever so slightly, lowering a stopper between the heating bowl and the waiting water. As it lowered, the stopper would come out and let in a few drops of fresh water until the bowl refilled and the stopper was replaced. It was awesome and janky and Edwin always felt like just looking at it made his Construction skill happy.

The rest of Edwin’s new distillery setup utilized a cooling stone he’d bought in Vinstead in place of cold water, providing a constant supply of fresh, clean water as he used his heating stones in place of a fire he’d have to tend to. It was slower, yes, but that didn’t matter when it ran constantly, eternally dripping out water for him to use in his experiments. He was even able to measure an increase in its speed as his Purify and Alchemy leveled. Though it was drinkable, he usually got Inion to refill his canteen when he needed it, as the water processed by her Skill tasted fantastic.

Not much of an increase, admittedly, but an increase nonetheless. Sadly, he lacked the precision instruments needed to determine exactly how much faster distillation each level brought with it. Sure, Outsider’s Almanac may have an exponential increase in character limit- each level brought with it a 5% increase to how many it could store- but Survival seemed to linearly decrease how much food and water he needed to survive, so it wasn’t necessarily consistent between Skills.

The fact that he had once accidentally gone a week without eating or drinking was quite interesting, though. It hadn’t been comfortable and he swore that he’d pay more attention to his bodily needs in the future. As it turned out, a tendency to go an entire day without eating or drinking didn’t leave when food and water became even less important. He maintained it was important, though.

He had managed to copy all the text from the Grimoire into his filing system as a result of the one-week grinding session, and had figured out an even bigger use of his Almanac as part of it.

As most grand discoveries did, it started off mundane. He had made it through the introduction and first chapter of the Grimoire, tucking hundreds of words into every Almanac entry before he’d need to start the next one.

(Prev- Zosiman102)

In this production whilst the Soul fashions unto itself a body, there is thus a third thing by which the Soul is now inwardly joined to the body and unto the Spirit of the World, and by which the operation of all natural things are dispensed, and this is called the Vital Spirit.

The operations of natural things are dispensed from this Spirit by the organs according to the attunement of the organ and its manifestation within the Spirit of the World.

The organ of Intellect, set within the crown, produces Mana. Secondly upon the organ of Life itself according to the reasons of things produces Health from its place within the chest. Thirdly, unto the organs that motivates things in such a disposition as is within the limbs and thusly produces Stamina.

It is thus truly the production of blood from within the heart which is the origin of Health. As seen by the creation of the bile humor in all its endless colors in accordance with the infinity of mana which demonstrates their production within the brain. When exposed unto the muscle and skin, the Vital produces Stamina in its immediate form, namely the phlegm, as evidenced by the manifestation of it upon the skin when Stamina is utilized.

No bodily thing hath any energy or operation in itself saving so far for as it is an instrument of the same Spirit, or informed by its creations, for that which is merely corporeal is merely passive. It is exclusively Health, Mana, and Stamina which does inform the Spirit of the World to connect with an individual.

He that will work great things, must (as much as possible) take away corporeity from things, or else he must endeavor awaken the sleeping Attributes within himself, connecting wholly unto the Spirit of the World, now labouring and undertaking an exchange, he will never do any great works.

It is impossible to take all this Spirit from anything whatsoever for by this bond a thing is held from falling back into its first matter and kept in place by the Spirit of the World itself.

(Next- Zosiman104)

(Prev- Zosiman103)

This Spirit is somewhere or rather everywhere found as it were free from the body, and he that knows how to join it with a body agreeably, possesses a treasure better than all the riches of the world and even the grandest Skill of the Spirit of the World…..

Edwin stifled a yawn, then mentally cursed as it broke his concentration. Well, at least he had just started a new page, so it wouldn’t be too awful to restart and try again. Still annoying. He’d take a quick break first, and he rose from where he was sitting, stretching to get the crick in his neck out. Supernatural flexibility may let him bend so far back around he could nearly touch his nose against his heel, but it didn’t keep his muscles from locking up if he stayed too long in the wrong position.

Inion noticed his shift, “Another break?”

He wordlessly nodded, unable to talk past a giant yawn, and the two of them went for another quick run. It was getting harder and harder for Edwin to properly push himself in relative safety, making levels scarcer and scarcer as time went on. It didn’t keep him from trying to get levels in Walking or Athletics by going for regular runs, though.

He always brought Inion with him in case he ran into another panther or other dangerous situation. He was still skeptical of her alleged fantastic combat prowess, but she was, if nothing else, strong enough to carry him back to Obairlann if needed.

“How does Almanac even work, anyway?”

“Was that towards me?”

“Eh. Kind of. You’d know more than I would. Like, where is the information stored? Is it the System itself? Is it with me? How can other people access the information? Can they?”

“You’re just now wondering all that?”

“No,” Edwin paused in thought, “I’ve always wondered about it, it’s just becoming more and more prevalent as I translate page upon page of dry alchemy text into a seemingly limitless database.”

“Aren’t you even now still dropping random phrases onto any odd leaf or pebble that catches your eye?”

“Sure… but those feel different because they’re a word or sentence at most, then it goes to the next object. Now that I’m uploading an entire book into semi-nonsense words? It’s really sinking in.”

“I can’t really answer that, you know.”

“Yeah, yeah,” they ran in silence for a few moments before Edwin had a thought cross his mind, “So how does the System handle different languages anyway?”

“What?”

“Well, I know for a fact that not all languages use the same alphabet, let alone the Latin alphabet from Earth. But whenever I see a System prompt, even in a different language, it seems like it gets converted to English characters. Is that by phonetics? If so, what happens when there’s a phenotype that doesn’t appear in English, that it just can’t replicate?”

“You’re not actually asking this, right?”

“You have to ask?”

“Fair.”

“But, why then is the character limit also in English? What about something like kanji instead? Would they be able to store more information in the same space, like with a tweet?”

“I’m not supposed to even be able to follow this, right?”

“I know I can input all letters in both uppercase and lowercase, as well as punctuation, numbers, and even some symbols. I don’t think I ever really thought about that last fact much, though it’s pretty significant. It makes no sense for Joriah’s System to run on unicode, so then is it just running based on what I think of as a letter or character, then?”

“I’m going to assume you don’t actually care about my understanding.”

“Huh? Oh, sorry Inion. Do you need me to explain more?”

“Nah. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, if you insist. Turn around here, say? There’s something I want to test when we get back.”

So. If Almanac was limited based on characters, then what counted as a character? As Edwin experimented, he never quite hit the limit. Even as he pushed it more and more, starting off with just the more unusual characters he knew of that were still essentially part of the English alphabet.

Then, he found that capital and lowercase delta showed up alongside the other greek letters. Then, letters with accents and modifications. A 7 with a cross along the middle. 0 with a line through the center. Delta but with an equilateral triangle. The single kanji he knew and remembered- 火- also worked and only took up a single character slot. It was getting extremely tedious to actually count out his character limits, but he didn’t really see any alternative.

From there, he just kept pushing things farther and farther. So long as he was able to conceptualize something as a single ‘character’ he could insert it. That quickly included countless symbols of various kinds, random squiggles, and letters written in cursive. Thanks to Visualization, he could imagine very detailed single characters, and by the end of the day he had managed to upload a pseudo-sketch of a firevine ivy leaf. Only a single color, and mostly a single line, but it was still an absolutely massive proof of concept.

Further experimentation with Almanac’s formatting let him figure out how to change the display of what he wrote. Large letters, small letters, letters in different colors… once he figured out how to overlap ‘characters’ everything really went great.

He could do vector art! Triangles, squares, pentagons, circles and more. Basic geometric shapes were really easy to maintain. Another day of work and he had figured out gradients and distortions. Two days after that, he had started figuring out more general pictures. It was absolutely murder on his Almanac space, meaning he could only have relatively low-resolution pictures stored, though he jumped up a few levels in the Skill just from this discovery, so said quality kept marginally increasing.

Well, so far, anyway. He could take pictures! This was so cool!

It didn’t help all that much with his text-copying endeavors, but it did mean he could sort-of embed images once he got to the herbology sections. He was only limited by his imagination!

...Literally. It worked based off of Visualization.

Level Up!

Skill Points 899→1065

Progress to Tier 2: 1191/1770 (Avg level: 56/77)

Alchemy 65 → 69

Athletics 62 → 64

Basic Mana Sense 53 → 57

Bomb Throwing 14 → 17

Breathing 57 → 61

Construction 44 → 61

Firestarting 64 →68

First Aid 50 → 52