Essence Wave Book 2 Chapter 2

They spent the next half hour planning more city improvements, but everything would take time. All of the buildings they needed to build next had to be researched, or the Village needed to be upgraded to open them up. Josiah left to organize the newcomers into work parties for the Farms, while Liz went to explore the Herbalist’s Hut after grabbing Summer and the other Druids. Michelle headed to the closest Log House to find Sarah and get a group for the Threadmaker’s Hut and the Weaver’s Hut.

“David, you need to rest some more,” Aly said softly. “Let’s go find our room in the Manor, and you take a nap.”

“I’ve been sleeping for two days already,” he protested.

“And how many injuries do you still have?”

“A few.”

“You need to recover fully,” she shook her head. “Now that you’re up, I’m going to take Dylan and scout out the Corruption at the fishery. You need to be ready when I get back, so we can crush it. Okay?”

“Yes dear,” he smiled at his wife. Together, they walked into the Mayor’s Manor entrance. The entry hall was twice as big as the one for the Chieftain’s Hut, and in the center floated the City Crystal. With the upgrade to Village, the crystal had increased in size. It was now almost two meters tall. There were two doors on the left wall, and only one on the right and the rear wall. A set of stairs lead up to a balcony overlooking the room, leading to another two doors on the right wall and one on the rear.

Aly helped David into a camp chair, then quickly rushed between the rooms. “This one’s our’s,” she said from the balcony at the rear of the building. “We’ve got a bathroom now, which is nice, and the room is twice as big as it used to be. The rooms on the left side are probably for offices, while the room below ours has a stage for presentations. The map room is on the right.”

“Bathroom? Nice!” David stood up and hobbled over to the stairs. In the last half hour, his Pain Resistance Skill had leveled up, just from ignoring the many tears to his muscles and broken bones he still had. Yeah, probably a bit too early to really be up and about. I’m not gonna nap though, just focus on improving my Health Regen skill.

Aly rushed over and helped him up the stairs, then they stumbled to their room. David started, since they now had an elevated platform to put their sleeping bags on. “Yup, pretty nice. I got us a blow up mattress too, so lay down and rest. Work on your healing skill if you really want, but stay here for at least a few more hours, okay?”

“I won’t get out of bed until my injuries are gone,” David said. “My Status says twenty six hours, but I can definitely drop that extensively with effort.”

“Good,” she leaned down and kissed his forehead. “I’ll get Liz to check up on you in an hour.”

“Stay safe, and keep Dylan safe. That kid has grown on me,” David said, then pulled her into a kiss.

“They won’t even know we were there,” she smirked, then turned and walked out.

He watched the door for a minute, then shook his head. “She’ll be fine. She’s done this several times. Yeah, I’m still going to worry,” he laughed softly to himself. “Best recourse, get healthy so I can help out.” He dove into his core cave, then focused on following his Energy as it flowed through his newly evolved Skill and into his body.

He quickly lost track of time as he guided the healing of his body, using the four times increase in time he got with Inscribing Scholar’s Focus. Finally, he couldn’t find any injuries and had refilled the metaphysical pool of his Hit Points, so he pulled out of his core cave to find that four hours had passed. He swung his legs off the moderately comfortable bed, and stretched his back upon standing. Loud pops echoed from his spine. “Ow, man. Even with superhuman capabilities, I still get all stiff after laying down,” he grumbled to himself, then headed out of the room.

He heard Michelle and Josiah arguing with Duke, so he followed the voices to the map room. Opening the door, he heard Michelle stating, “This isn’t a city advisory board election, or a political campaign. We’re here to prevent the extinction of the human race, and we’ll do that by becoming as powerful and self-sufficient as we can. Play political games again, and we’ll simply remove you from the city.”

“What’s going on?” David asked.

“Duke here was trying to undermine your authority,” Josiah said. “He wanted to call for elections to take over as mayor, without understanding that that position doesn’t exist.”

“We’ve got almost three hundred people here, and they all deserve some say in how their lives will be led,” Duke growled.

“And they will,” David shook his head. “Josiah, maybe we should formalize an advisory council for us. Get the farmers and crafters to elect someone to be their representative, let their voices be heard.”

“So we could elect advisors, but not our leader,” Duke shook his head sadly. “This is America, son. We will have democracy, or the people will rise up.”

“I don’t think I can give up control of the city, even if I wanted to, Duke,” David said, his voice tight and clipped. “Are you strong enough to stand against a Daemon Lord in single combat? Several parts of the City System, and our personal System, push for duels to decide large conflicts, so if the leader of the city isn’t strong enough, we would lose everything. When I beat the Daemon Lord, it broke their army and empowered ours. If it had defeated me, everyone else would have died. Can you deal with that pressure, knowing that this isn’t about power, but survival?”

David had started off in a reasonable, if angry, voice, but he finished his rant nearly shouting at the larger man. Duke had shrunk back, almost cowering away from him. David took a deep breath, straightening his back and stepping away from Duke. “I’m sorry, but the City Lord position is mine, and I will do my best. I have no plan to be a tyrannical dictator, but we cannot afford dithering and disunity.”

“I,” Duke started, then he shook his head. “I’ll help organize an advisory committee. I did sit on several for Buena Vista.” He scurried out of the room, an incongruous sight given his bulk.

“Good job, David,” Josiah clapped him on the shoulder. “What’s your plan for now?”

“Uh, no idea. Aly went to investigate one of our Quest targets. When she gets back, we will want to mobilize a couple of dozen people to take it out, or more if necessary. Until then, I thought of assisting with some research, but didn’t want to get stuck for another four hour session if she gets back before then. Any new buildings going up that need Mana and Energy?”

“Yes, actually,” Michelle said. “After building the Herbalist’s Hut, we found an option for an Herbalist Garden, which looks like it’ll get upgraded into a greenhouse. The Weaver’s Hut gives us the option to grow either cotton or flax at one of the Farms, so we chose flax. It gives us fibers and food from a single plant, though not as comfortable.”

“What about the Threadmaker’s Hut?” David asked.

“Opened up research into domesticating animals,” she answered. “We can research Chicken Coops, Rabbit Warrens, and a Barn that Alexander thinks covers all the larger animals.”

“I found listings in the Market for every type of animal I’d ever heard of,” Josiah snorted, “and quite a few I don’t know what they are. Might be interesting to try and raise El’elven Entrogals.”

“Only if we can get a manual for how to take care of them,” David laughed. “Last thing we need is to defeat the Daemons but destroy the ecosystem with invasive species.”

They laughed at that, then Michelle snorted, “I bet the larger than normal Daemon deaths are partially from Australian wildlife.”

“Oh, man, think about some of those spiders hopped up on Essence,” David got wide eyed.

“No, not even going to contemplate that,” Josiah stated with a shudder.

“And with that horrifying thought, I’m headed to the market,” David said.

“We’ll follow. I need to do more research into what is available,” Michelle said. “There are dozens of layers to all of the options, and I’m hoping to find somethings to help advance the city.”

They walked the short distance to the gleaming edifice that was the Market. Nothing had changed with either of the town level ups. “Do we know what level this is?” David asked, waving at the building.

“Higher than Village. Most likely higher than Town,” Josiah said. “We’ll find out eventually, whenever the option to upgrade it finally appears.”

David nodded, then they split up to hit three of the open pedestals. Only one was in use, Emily browsing through screens as she bit her lip. The woman was in her mid-thirties, slightly shorter than David’s six foot height, with dirty blonde hair, leather armor, and a massive sniper rifle hanging off her back. Hopefully everyone is using their reward credits well. Armor, weapons, anything else to help keep us alive and healthy. Entertainment stuff will keep us sane too. Like shopping! I’ve got a rather massive amount of credits to spend after our victory and with the upgrades.

Welcome to the Galactic Market! Please select which section you would like to peruse.

Weapons

Armor

Equipment

Vehicles

Buildings

Miscellaneous

Skills

“First things first, uh, search for manuals,” David said.

Which type of manuals would you like to browse?

Weapons

Armor

Equipment

Vehicle

Production

Cultivation

Skill

“Uh, Herbology or Alchemy?” David asked the computer. A list of hundreds of manuals appeared, with costs ranging from two thousand to fifty million credits. “Ooh, here we go. Beginner’s Guide to Alchemy, twenty five hundred credits. Apprentice’s Guide is twenty five thousand, ouch. Oh good, these are reusable. Let’s see, clicky clicky, there we go. Beginner Knowledge Stone of Alchemy is fifteen thousand! Yeah, let’s get the instruction book. Buy it with city funds, let anyone who wants to try out Alchemy learn. Beginner’s Guide to Herbology is the same price. Get both.” He clicked the interface twice, and a massive tome materialized in the pillar. He quickly pulled it out, and a second one appeared. Each book was at least a thousand pages that were at least twice as big as a typical hardback book.

“David,” Michelle said from beside him, making him jump.

He fumbled the expensive books for a second, trying not to drop them before catching them against his chest. He looked at her expectantly, only to see her grin. “Did you do that just to make me jump?”

“No,” she chuckled, “but it was great anyway. I searched for manuals too, then saw the Cultivation section. On a whim I checked it, expecting to find ways of better raising crops, but that was not what was in the section. It is about Essence cultivation, using Mana and Energy to form Essence!”

“You mean it’s cultivation like chinese web novels?” he asked her.

“Yes! You read them too?”

David looked at Michelle, her soccer mom looks combined with her no-nonsense attitude, and tried to contemplate her reading translated xianxia novels. “I think that broke my brain, but yeah, I read a few. Look over the manuals, get something to see how it works. Feel free to use city funds. Uh, is a library an option to build?”

“No, but we can put up a few bookshelves in the Manor’s foyer, let people read them there. There were three carpenters in the last batch from Buena Vista who have been using half the Workroom,” she said.

“Okay. I’m going to give these to Liz, let her get started. Can you get one of the carpenters to make a few chairs, a table, and a bookshelf to start with? Give a place to sit, read, and store the books.”

“I can do that. Tell Liz she’s doing great from me,” Michelle said, patting David’s arm.

He nodded, glanced over at Josiah who was engrossed in the Market’s interface, then turned and rushed out of the building. A glance over to his left showed him the Researcher’s Hut had a few glowing runes inside the building, and two people were writing on the slate boards the low level building had on the wall. Next to it was the Workroom, which now sported double doors. He could vaguely hear some banging and sawing noises from inside. Behind it sat the Threadmaker’s Hut, which was a small building with a single door and two windows that he could see. It was dark inside, no one having immediately jumped into using it.

Straight ahead of him was the Herbalist’s Hut. This building had a porch out front, where he saw Liz stringing up some lines between the posts. “Hey Liz,” he shouted as he jogged over. “Got you and the other Druids some presents.”

“Presents, for me?” she turned towards him with a smile. “Ooh, those are huge.”

“Yup, Beginner’s Guides to Alchemy and Herbology. I used city funds for these, so share them around, but keep track of them. Michelle’s getting someone to put together a mini-library in the Manor’s foyer, so return them to there when you’re done, please.”

“Got it,” she said absently, already flipping through the Herbology book. “I’ll be here. Ooh, I wonder where we can find that.”

David shook his head, then turned to the glowing hologram next to the building. “Huh, raised bed garden. Oh Steve, how many more planks do we need?” He walked over to where Steve, the massive bodybuilder who was going for a Strength Berserker build, was dropping off four pieces of wood that were vaguely four inches by twelve inches by fourteen feet. Stupid imperial units, David grumbled internally. Of course, Aly just laughs at my insistence on metric.

“Twenty two,” Steve answered me, turning to run to to the Woodcutter’s Hut. I ran after him, and together we hauled the requisite wood to the worksite. It took a few trips, though the storage pile of planks didn’t seem to get smaller. The woodcutters were moving rapidly, cutting through the stack of cut logs sitting outside the facility.

After moving the wood, David held the last plank to a highlighted spot, then tried to channel his Energy into the structure.

WARNING: Energy and Mana channels are overloaded. Attempts to transfer Energy or Mana externally have a risk of permanent damage to Energy or Mana channels. Time to condition removal: 4 hours 19 minutes

“Whelp, I guess I can’t help out beyond moving things,” David lamented. “Can’t channel either resource right now.”

“It’s okay boss man,” Steve laughed, holding two boards in place while a yellow-gold stream of Energy flowed out of his hands. “I’ve got this. Though if you want to rustle up some extra help, I wouldn’t mind.”

“Sure,” David shook his head, then jogged over to the closest Log House. A quick glance inside found a dozen people lounging. “Any of y’all want to help build an Herb Garden so we can grow the ingredients to healing potions?”

Everyone inside leapt to their feet at his yell. “Lord Black!” A young man David didn’t recognize yelled out, then all but two of them tried to do a formal flourish bow. Three of the bowing people fell down, not used to the salutation.

“Please, none of that,” David said, making himself not hide his face in his armor. Gotta be used to being a leader.

“Yes Lord Black!” That same young man yelled, straightening into an awkward attempt at the position of attention. After a second, he looked around and then at David. “I will answer your call for assistance, my lord!”

“Great!” David said, trying really hard not to grin at the youth’s enthusiasm. He stepped out of the way, and the youth led a stampede out the door. Every single person lounging in the Log House followed him out. David pointed the way, and they all rushed out to help Steve.

David shook his head when none of them were looking. “I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to being venerated like that. I don’t really like it, but if it helps them deal, I can deal with it,” he mumbled to himself, then moved over to the Manor. Inside, he found an older gentleman he didn’t know putting together a chair. It looked like planks from the Woodcutter’s Hut had been painstakingly carved into an older style rocking chair. “That looks amazing.”

“Thanks sonny,” the carpenter said, not looking over at him. “I’ll be done with this one in a jiffy. If you’ve got a free hand, put those books on the bookshelf.” He pointed at a small stack of books.

David walked over and picked up the books. He carefully slotted all of them onto the bookshelf while checking out the titles. He pulled one titled Novices guide to Essence Cultivation, of which there were three. “Huh, guess Michelle bought several of these. I wonder how much they cost?”

“Oh, I’m sorry Lord Black. I didn’t realize it was you,” the carpenter said, his eyes wide as he tried to bow with tools in his hand.

“Please, don’t,” David said. “I’m just David. Please, keep working, pretend I’m not here. I’m just gonna read this for a bit.”

“I’ll be done with the chair as quickly as I can. We can’t thank you enough for saving us,” the guy who could be David’s grandfather said hurriedly before diving back into his work. He moved almost supernaturally fast, screwing pieces together and carving the wood with quick motions.

Not one minute later, he declared, “A chair fit for a king. Please, Lord Black, here.”

David took the chair, sitting and leaning back. “This is excellent,” he told the carpenter.

“Should be, though according to the system I’m only a Beginner ten in carpentry,” the old man laughed.

“Well, to advance through the Beginner levels, you need to incorporate Energy or Mana into your movements and craft. I’m not really sure how to get beyond that yet.”

“Hmm, I can see that,” the old man said. He pulled out another piece of wood and started to carve at it. His motions started smooth, but after a few seconds they became sublime. Another minute passed, and a table took form in front of him, his arms blurring as he moved. A glow seemed to encompass the old man, and then he gasped. The table was fully formed, a meter square with a simple Celtic knot like carving across the central leg. “Huh, third to reach Apprentice in a Skill. Whatever System,” the carpenter groused. “I ain’t no apprentice.”

“Congratulations,” David said, trying not to stare open mouthed at the old man but failing. “That is amazing. How’d you do it?”

“I just used Energy to enhance my movements, while using Mana to guide my blade. I merged it all with my knowledge of carving and a lifetime of experience. You’ll get there someday, sonny. Probably sooner with this System thingy helping you,” the old man said.

“Lord Black!” Greg came rushing into the building.

“Greg, really, not you too,” David grumbled under his breath, then stood and looked over at Greg. “What do you need?”

“Come look at this!” He gestured out the door urgently.

David hurried out of the building following Greg, who immediately turned to the west and pointed. Massive storm clouds covered the horizon, with almost continuous flashes of lightning crashing between clouds and the ground. More worryingly, each lightning flash was a different color, spanning the whole rainbow and more colors beside. A few seemed to be impossible colors, blends of orange and blue or red and green that hurt his head to look at.