[Chapter 19: Work and play]

The day began like any other and yet I knew that from now on things would be very different. Just a cursory glance at the books I’ve obtained tells me that I can do a lot with them. Carpentry, a bit of masonry, and even a bit of medical alchemy are some some of things that can be found in these the books. Though three of books are stories and have no real knowledge that would be useful. Even still, I can use the rest to progress beyond this primitive lifestyle.

But this progress would not come for free, a great amount of work would have to be done beyond anything I’ve ever had to experience. And for that reason is why I’m out in the forest with my axe ready to chop down some trees. I have made sure to go further down the river so as to not disturb the area around my cave. While I would like to avoid deforesting this place, my immediate needs take higher priority. Besides, I can always replant them down the line and even if I can’t speed up their growth I can just wait for them to grow naturally as I have no intentions of dying. This is a world of magic after all, immortality has to be somewhere down the line.

So without further ado, I began swinging my axe at a oak tree I chose. But as I am very weak, I barely made a nick in the bark. While this is not unexpected, it is disheartening to realize just how long this is going to take. But it’s either this, or having to interact with other humans. And with that I kept going just hacking at the tree till it falls.

It ended up taking longer than I could have expected to fell the tree, three whole days just for it in fact. Not all of that time was spent on the tree as I realized less than a day in that I had nothing to turn the tree into planks. And so I spent a bit over a small hand saw out of stone. And while it was probably the hardest thing I’ve had to do since getting here, the skills alone made up for it.

[Skill level increased]

[Basic axe proficiency| lv: 2]

[When using an axe damage is increased by 8%]

[Skill level increased]

[Basic axe proficiency| lv: 3]

[When using an axe damage is increased by 12%]

[Skill level increased]

[Basic sword proficiency| lv: 8]

[When using a sword damage is increased by 24% and crit chance by 8%]

[Skill level increased]

[Basic sword proficiency| lv: 9]

[When using a sword damage is increased by 27% and crit chance by 9%]

[Obtained skill]

[Woodcutting| lv.1]

[Woodcutting speed increased by 20%]

[Skill obtained]

[Knapping| lv.1]

[Knapping speed increased by 20%]

[Obtained skill]

[Strong arms| lv: 1]

[+1 str]

[Obtained skill]

[Tough body| lv: 1]

[+1 end]

A literal cornucopia of skill gains from the work done over the past three days. The axe proficiency was from repeatedly swinging at the tree, sword was from daily training, woodcutting is from cutting the wood, strong arms and tough body are from the constant exercise, and knapping was from finally getting good enough at making stone tools. But I haven’t gotten that far in my plans all things considered. I still have so much left to do to reach any sort of achievement in technology at all.

But everything I’ve done has left me drained both physically and mentally so I’m going to spend today just playing with my magic. The tree will be fine if I leave it for a day or two. But really a day just to practice what I can do with my magic could only be a good thing. I just figured out how to manipulate mana outside my body and yet I never really tried just seeing what I could do.

And I found that there really was quite a lot I can do with it with a little bit of experimenting. For example, I found that I can control the movement of an element I created after firing it out by keeping a tendril  The hard part was moving it in the first place and now I can work on the finesse.  It’s very strange controlling mana outside yourself, like growing an arm that constantly shifts into different shapes and sizes. It doesn’t feel wrong however, and I guess that make sense, it’s part of me after all, even if I wasn’t born with the ability to do it. It’s the little things like this that make magic the best part of coming to this world.

[Skill level increased]

[Mana manipulation | lv 2]

[20% control over one’s own mana when outside the body]

But all good things must end, for now at least, and after a day of magical fun I have to return to crafting tomorrow. Well, I could just avoid it, but that would be irresponsible, and I really don’t think giving in to bad habits like that would let me survive like this. There’s nobody else but me to do it after all. Huh, apparently living by oneself gives you better sense of responsibility, who knew? So after my regular sword training I went straight to bed.

[Skill level increased]

[Basic sword proficiency| lv: 10]

[When using a sword damage is increased by 30% and crit chance by 10%]

So the next day I woke up with the goal of cutting the log into usable planks. I left the log just outside my cave on the lakebed, just waiting to be made useful. I take my stone saw, an extremely thin piece of stone with semi-decent teeth on it that looks like it could break at any moment, and begin sawing. I have to be careful because this could very easily break on me if I’m not careful. Back and forth, back and forth, back and… the saw cracked in half lengthwise leaving me with an useless tool.

Oops.