In the span of a mortal heartbeat, I went from being seated in my tower to standing in the room I sprang to life in. I took a look around and allowed my senses a moment to catch up with me. And that was when I received a quiet and understated notification.
| Alert: Your body has finally finished acclimating to the demands of your new and improved senses. Your body and mind are now equipped to handle the sensory overload of detecting any creature on which light is shining, and your senses are now capable of differentiating between things close to you and things far away. Preparing the initial burst of sensory information in 3... 2... 1... |
By the time another mortal heartbeat would have happened I began to hear my surroundings. And they were quite loud. I could hear the sounds of more patrons of the Silver Xana, something new as until yesterday morning I had been the only person here aside from Isadora and her family.
My new senses really came to life in the town of Comillas. I could hear all manner of noises, and they were all distinct and identifiable to me.
Some of them were the gentle noises of people turning over in their sleep, others were the sounds of people putting on their clothes as they got ready for a lively day in the field. Others were the muffled moans of people having sex as a way to start the day feeling satisfied.
I could smell not only everything in my room but everything for a full twenty-four kilometers. I smelled the scent of washed bodies, unwashed bodies, the scent of wild and domesticated animals alike, and the fetid odor of corpses becoming fertilizer. It was nauseating, but only for a second.
I willingly opened my mouth and inhaled, allowing my sense of taste an opportunity to be overwhelmed. And as quickly as my nostrils had adjusted my sense of taste adjusted.
"I guess I'll just have to allow each of my senses a chance to be overwhelmed and then adjust to this new, immense amount of information huh?" I rhetorically asked myself, as I went ahead and placed my hand on the bed behind me, casually stretching my arm out so that I could get my fourth sense over and done with.
I could feel each imperfection and crack in the wood my fingers were on top of. I could sense where the blades of man had cut and shorn into the wood to force it into its present shape. I feel where the blades had chipped and left minute scars.
I turned and looked at the bed, and felt tears begin to pour out of my eyes as I leered at the bed that I had only really used when I first awoke. I could see every centimeter of the bed's straw and I was able to count the number of straws that softened the bed to make it suitable to sleep on.
My discomfort lasted for only a second and after it, I was able to grin as I wiped tears from my eyes. Now that my discomfort had passed, I turned and went out of the door so that I could chat with Isadora once more.
Isadora was standing behind her usual desk and greeted me with a smile. I grinned back at her, as I approached her desk and began to speak.
"Hey Isadora, you're up bright and early." I told her. She nodded at me, her hair unusually messy.
"Yep! We got another set of guests this morning. They got here this morning so I had to be up early to help them check into their room." She explained, an easy-going grin on her face as she spoke.
"I was surprised to not see you come in last night. A bit worried even." She told me, her eyes brightening as she reaffirmed that I was here and okay.
"I was fine. I just had to spend a few hours in the forest, inspecting some trees." I told her, lying but doing so with enough confidence and casualness that after a few seconds considering my excuse she shrugged at me and accepted what I told her as true. And then she scooted closer to me and began to whisper.
"I'm pretty the other guests aren't humans. They seem like they might be something else. Something more." She gossiped, a look of conspiratorial concern on her face as she told me that.
I hadn't expected her to react that way to a non-human individual, so it caught me off-guard. That didn't keep me from seeing what she knew, while I checked out the pair of newcomers on my mini-map, mentally fiddling with the thing so that I could discover the species of the newcomers.
"What do you think they are?" I asked Isadora while I selected them on my mini-map. She gave me a careful glance as if sizing up my trust-worthiness.
"I think they are elves. But... I've only ever heard of elves in forests and living in communion with nature. These elves are oddly... cosmopolitan." Isadora told me, struggling with the pronunciation of the word "Cosmopolitan" for a second.
As she told me her speculation about the true nature of the Xana's newest residents, I quickly inspected the information given to me by my mini-map. I chuckled and noticed that she wasn't wrong. The two creatures were "High-elves". The system then whispered in my mind, chuckling as it did so.
[High elves are regal, city-dwelling and empire-building elves. Most humans know of elves as woodland-dwelling humanoids who live in forests, as most non-forest-elves live in a distant continent and have little to no contact with humans.] The system slyly revealed. I hadn't known what elves were until this point, so I felt a slight kinship to humans right now.
[Humans in this world tend to not know much or even anything about the other types of elves who aren't forest-elves. Dark-elves, winged-elves, high-elves, and aquatic-elves are largely unknown to humans.] The system told me, a smug grin audible in its voice. I could tell it enjoyed knowing what they didn't. I didn't begrudge it for that though, in fact, that endeared it to me a bit.
I grinned at Isadora and replied to her. "I'll keep an eye out for the two of us. If I can ascertain what they really are, I'll tell you." I whispered, conspiratorially. She smiled back at me and nodded appreciatively.
At that point I began to think. My mind turned to what I ought to do today, and I quickly came up with an idea that I liked that would endear me to the community.
"My mission today is to go out and check out the fields. I leveled up last night and I wanted to see if I could figure out what's going on that's lessening the harvest." I explained to Isadora, to explain why I wasn't taking on a quest today.
As I told her that her face positively lit up. Her eyes radiated excitement, and a part of me was glad that that was the choice I was going with for today.
"Oh that's just excellent! Mateo will be so excited to hear that you've leveled up and that you're hoping to really dig in and help." She exclaimed, sounding honestly relieved that someone was here to help out.
"Though I guess that means that you might not be around today to help out... You see the Xana's newest guests mentioned wanting to go into the woods today... Hmm, well maybe if you can solve the problems with our fields quickly then you could do both at once..." Isadora whispered her resolve audible in her words, quiet though they were.
I chuckled, drawing her attention back to me. She looked at me and then quickly grew flustered, color rushing to her cheeks in mild embarrassment. I looked at them, admiring their rosiness for a moment, before speaking to her.
"I suppose if you've come to rely on me I can't let you down huh?" I asked, teasing the girl. There was a light and playful smile on my lips as I playfully messed with her. She shook her head at me sheepishly and began to speak in her defense.
"No, that's not what I meant! I just meant that you're our only real adventurer and you've proven yourself as a trust-worthy healer. It makes the most sense that you'd be the person to guide these newcomers into and maybe even through the forest." Isadora told me, it obvious that she thought to convince both herself and me as opposed to just seeking to convince me of her words.
I teased her for a few more moments before biding her farewell and heading towards the fields outside of town. The quicker I got this over and done with the better overall it would be, both for the village and myself.
Reaching the fields took me not very long at all. And as soon as I did, I rechecked my agriculture subdomain scanning and checking out old and new abilities alike.
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Agriculture subdomain passive powers: Crop growth: This power allows you to cause crops to bloom instantly. If you would like you can even do this when crops aren't planted in soil, transforming seeds in someone's hand into the fruit, vegetable, or other plants they'd eventually bloom into, even out of season. Crops you grow this way are of incredible quality, restoring health, stamina, magical energy, and possessing incredible nutritional value. They are also fully living crops, not like the magical food you create when you use your legendary magic. Crop and soil devastation: Using this allows you to decimate crop and soil life alike. If you use it you can cause famines as you wish. Soil-life restoration: This synergistic power fusing the subdomain of healing and the subdomain of agriculture allows for the restoration of life and health to soil, causing soil that's been overly farmed or not taken care of to be fertile once more. Earth-transformation: Fusing the powers of the subdomains of earth and agriculture you gain the ability to make any solid, earthly surface suitable for crop life. Using this power someone could grow potatoes atop the rim of a volcano, or plant cucumbers in gold. This power is suitable for ensuring crops can grow entirely submerged underwater or in other classically difficult spots to farm in. Agriculture subdomain active powers: Abundance manipulation: This twice every twelve-hour-power allows you to increase or decrease the amount of a crop available at a whim. If you use it you can duplicate a crop up to one hundred and fifty times, allowing you to turn one apple into one and fifty hundred. You also infuse the crop you manipulated with your influence, causing those who eat it to fall under your influence. You can also use it to reduce the amount of a crop, either reducing the size of an individual crop or reducing the total amount in a group by up to half. This power's potency will increase as you gain more influence over the subdomain of agriculture. Fruit of life and fruit of knowledge: Twice every twelve hours you can grab a food item and bless it to contain either great knowledge or cause it to lower someone's physical age by a year, allowing you to grant someone effective immortality. If someone eats the item while it contains great knowledge, that knowledge includes the fact that you are real, and intended for them to eat that item so that they may know you. It also contains knowledge pertinent to their careers, allowing them to become more successful at their work. |
The new agricultural powers I possessed all brought smiles to my face. They were deeply significant and meaningful powers in general, but right now they were especially critical.
I stood outside and just in front of a great field, several dozen meters long and equally wide illuminated by the last rays of moonlight. The field was neatly organized and currently devoid of any non-plant or non-insect life. None of the laborers were visible just yet, though I could hear them finishing up their preparations for the work-day ahead.
Crops were already planted in the field I was in front of, and an inspection of the field gave me confidence that these crops, the ones of them that were growing and still alive anyway, were likely to reach the stage in their lives where they could be harvested without much difficulty.
That said, the number of crops planted here that were still maturing weren't many. The other fields had fewer crops than this one did, and this one didn't have all that many planted, to begin with. Even without my powers, I would have been able to sense that yield this small would have been problematic.
As I considered how to resolve the crop disaster, I knew that my first priority ought to be discovering the precise nature of whatever was causing the land to gradually go barren. I willed my knowledge-related abilities to the forefront of my mind so that I could once more inspect my updated powers list.
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Knowledge domain, passive powers: Appraisal: This power allows you to learn the properties and basic information about objects you see scattered throughout the world. To use it just select an object and focus on the power. This can also be used on people, where it identifies their species, class (if they possess any), level, and alignment. See condition: This synergistic power integrates the might of the domain of the mind, the domain of knowledge, the domain of civilization and of the subdomain of healing. It allows you to see someone's or something's holistic health, not just that of their physical form but also their mental health (if applicable). This power allows you to see the health of buildings and other non-living things and any conditions they are affected by, positively or negatively. When someone or something is suffering from or otherwise affected by a condition, the usage of this power allows you to ascertain the cause of the condition. Conditions include but aren't limited to diseases, charm spells, domination spells, petrification, fear (natural or otherwise), and exhaustion. Detect magic: This is a synergistic power that is the result of a fusion between the domains of magic and knowledge. It allows you to see the ambient power that magical creatures radiate, as well as the color of the magic that most resonates with their souls. Knowledge domain, active power: Peruse the past: This twice per three and a half days power allows you to learn key details of an object's past. This is a potent power that will be upgraded as you gain more power, and as you increase the amount of influence you can exert over the domain of knowledge you can increase the amount of knowledge you gain through this power. Light the way: This twice per twelve-hour period power is somewhat rare for a lower-tier power in that it affects mortals and not yourself. If you use it you can select a mortal or mortals and have them see a path towards their current goal. The path lasts the whole day, but it only guides them to one goal and will dissipate the second they reach it. |
Reminding myself of these powers, especially the ones I unlocked after I completed the tutorial, helped me visualize a clear and simple route forward.
I looked out at the field and grinned. I allowed my mind to wander for a moment, and for the commingled scents of growing crops, fertilizer, and the residual sweat of local laborers to fill my nostrils. The sky above me was clear, and the sun was beginning to peak out over the horizon, banishing the darkness of the night and replacing it with the loveliness of the dawn.
The sun's earliest rays of light were already faintly visible, brightly illuminating distant patches of grassland. I could feel them even though they were kilometers away, no doubt thanks to my potent ties to the domain of light. They felt tied to me, like far-off fingers.
I closed my eyes and targeted the field in front of me. And then without wasting another second I activated my new "See condition" power. It caused my mind to be split between a textbox scanning the field, and my familiar not-so-mini-map.
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Large field targeted. Initiating scan in 3... 2... 1... Large field scanned. Formatting information... Condition: Damaged. Cursed. Curse type: Famine. This curse causes the targeted area to be affected by a condition that makes it less valuable and usable each year until the affected area has been rendered completely unprofitable or otherwise uninhabitable. This curse lasts a century, gaining strength with each passing year and by the end of the century the curse can only be done away with by a god's direct intervention. This curse affects the entirety of Comillas, though its effects are limited to and focused on the production of food. It was also secretly cast and isn't something anyone else is aware of aside from you. Currently, it has been seventy-two years since the curse was first inflicted on these fields. Treatment: Usage of wild-trait 'Breaker of Curses'. Special note: Undoing this curse will cause the curse's caster, the ancient black dragon Qoirre to reawaken from his decades-long slumber and to gain an awareness of the curse's destroyer. |
This caused my eyes to go wide in surprise. And to quietly check something out, I willed away the notification and focused my mind on the not-so-mini-map.
My mind had taken the simple leap that since there was an ancient black dragon nearby it was likely that this dragon was Qoirre, a reasonable enough conclusion given that Qoirre was the curse's caster. I was wrong. A quick scan of my map revealed that.
The ancient black dragon that was closeby was named Ygaynth. It was located incredibly deeply underground and was not Qoirre. And then I began to make choices.
"I need to help alleviate the concerns of the townspeople. I can probably do that without activating my 'Breaker of Curses' trait. An 'ancient black dragon' that delivers devastating, slow-acting curses isn't something I know enough about to counteract or piss off at the moment." I told myself as I gazed out at a particularly tall corn stalk.
I was cautious and wasn't in a rush. Knowing that no one else knew about the curse gave me an odd sense of certainty and calmness that I had multiple choices in how to handle this. I could be subtle and work to research Qoirre and Ygaynth rather than doing something brash and overt. I had all the time in the world, or at least 27 years, to be safe, and to come up with a response that I felt confident about.
"I have enough agricultural powers to safely provide the people with food for the next few months, even once the harvesting season has passed. I just need the right allies and worshipers." I realized, as I began to scheme.
"If I can just convert a few laborers into my worshipers, into 'Cosecha's' worshipers, then I can work with them to ensure that no one panics and eventually deal with both the curse and the dragon responsible for it." I quietly said to myself, as the first of the laborers began to quietly walk out of the nearby houses in which they lived and stored the town's food.
The laborers immediately walked over to their respective fields, massive things that stretched on, and were largely empty. They took slow, deliberate, and almost moody steps towards where they'd begin their work.
My enhanced vision allowed me to easily study the laborers, and I did so curiously. They all had stoic expressions on their faces, grim ones that told me that they were every bit, if not more, aware of the frightening conditions of the fields as Mateo and I were. Or at least as Mateo was. I highly doubted that any of them were as aware of the conditions of the fields as I was.
I began searching for a leader, cognizant that if I tricked a leader into worshipping me my work here would be much easier to pull off than if I tricked a run-of-the-mill laborer.
Bit of a repeat with this and the next chapter I got really confused for a second