NOVEL WEB B3—Chapter 32: To Stare at a Tree or Not to Stare at a Tree: That Is the Question
After we left the dungeon, I opened my house again, and once more, I got the spooky cabin on stilts. On the first day, we just rested. I barbecued steaks and vegetables on the porch and smoked snake steaks for Rue. He couldn’t stop eating them and let out sounds of happiness every few minutes. It was hilarious—he chewed with his mouth but spoke telepathically. Still, for some unknown reason, his telepathic exclamations sounded like he was talking with his mouth full and chewing. It greatly amused the three of us. We laughed the whole time, and Rue didn’t mind being laughed at. On the contrary, he wagged his tail whenever we laughed and muttered, “Thhooo gooff!” It took me a few seconds to realize he was trying to say, “So good.”
Except for the first snake I “peeled” and cut into steaks, we had over fifty fresh, unprocessed snakes. I debated between processing them the usual way or building a loot spell. I had an idea of how to go about it, but it only applied to snakes, and I wanted something more encompassing. My problem was that my knowledge of creatures was quite limited. There were the quills-bears and scorpi-dogs from Tuonela, the mini bison and goats from Shimoor, and snakes. I was sure there were many more creatures I could harvest and process, and I wanted my loot spell to encompass them all.
After a day of wavering in indecision, I facepalmed again and sighed heavily.
When will I stop doing this and feeling like an idiot?
I had the Spell Weaver ability, so I could create various loot spells and then combine them—maybe.
My frustration was growing increasingly because of the system’s lack of guidance. I had the Spell Weaver ability, which I still didn’t know how to use. I tried to poke it several times, but the system offered no explanation. The ability notification I received was very pretty, with the gold background and calligraphy, but it provided little guidance on what to do with it or how to do it.
I no longer had the strength to complain about the system. I looked at the sky, sighed, shook my head, and took out a magic script book to learn more symbols, deciding to start by building the first spell to harvest snakes. In the future—someday—I intended to solve the mystery of how to ‘weave’ all the different spells together.
At least with the increase in my intelligence, I could learn more and more symbols, one after the other, almost without breaks. At least the system was good for something. Of course, the new magic script cost me another ability point, but for now, I was fine. When I finished the first book, I paid another point and learned another. Both took me three days to finish. Like I said, at least the system was good for something.
From the first snake, I knew these snakes didn’t have a venom sac; they were probably constrictors or something. If the venom sac and fangs were big enough, I wanted to create a loot spell incorporating them. I remembered Mahya saying the big ones were good for daggers.
I found Mahya in the spell room still disassembling the Jeep and asked her, “Besides meat, skin, beast core, venom sac, and fangs, what else can be collected from a snake?”
Mahya looked up from her work. “You can also collect the scales. They’re tough; you can use them to strengthen armor or make fancy decorations—bones for crafting wands, especially for Dark or Mystical arts. If you’re careful when extracting the eyes, they can be valuable in alchemy, along with the gallbladder, liver, and blood. I’m not sure which potions specifically, but Al would know. The venom glands, too, but I’m not certain—ask him about that. There’s also a small market for snake hearts. In some worlds, they’re used in rituals to symbolize strength and vitality, but it’s a niche thing, so I’m not sure if you’d want to collect them unless you end up in a world where that’s valuable. That’s about it, I think.” She paused for a couple of minutes, then nodded. “Yeah, that’s it.”
It was a significant list, much longer than I thought. I went to ask Al about what Mahya said was suitable for alchemy.
I found him in his greenhouse. “Al, I asked Mahya what is harvested from snakes, and she said that the eyes, liver, blood, gallbladder, and venom glands are used for alchemy. Is that true? And is there anything else she didn’t mention?”
“Yes, she is right,” Al nodded, wiping his hands on a cloth. “The things you listed are primary ingredients for potions, specifically ones that boost perception, vitality, and toxin resistance. Venom glands are essential for creating both antidotes and highly toxic substances. Alchemists use the heart to create rare elixirs that boost physical strength or stamina. When adequately prepared, it is possible to pulverize the bones and use them as a foundational element in potions that need a stabilizing agent, particularly in intricate mixtures. Basically, every part of a snake holds alchemical value, depending on your brewing goals.”
Hmm, this was even more complex than I had initially thought. Besides everything they mentioned, I also wanted to ensure the spell cleaned and purified everything and cut the meat into steaks. I began planning the magic circle and quickly realized it was much, much more intricate and complicated than I anticipated.
Lis mentioned that our Storage was unique to Travelers and that the storage abilities of other classes were very different and far more limited. Initially, I considered designing the spell so everything would automatically go into Storage, but that wasn’t possible. I needed to find solutions, but I had no idea where to start. Blood would need vials or bottles, meat would need wrapping, and so on.
As I worked on building the magic circle, I realized it would need “cause-effect” components. If there was no venom sac, the spell shouldn’t try to harvest it to save on mana. If the venom sac got damaged, the spell should neutralize the venom instead. The magic circle kept growing more extensive and complicated, and I felt lost at some point. While it was a lot of fun working with magic scripts, calculating all the parameters, permutations, dependencies, and everything else felt like trying to program an AI, not just a spell to harvest one measly snake.
After a week, I gave up. I didn’t intend to abandon the loot spell entirely, but realized I needed more knowledge. And in this case, it wasn’t just magical knowledge—or at least, not wholly magical knowledge. I concluded I needed to learn a programming book or two at the beginner-plus level before searching through Lis’s books and diving deeper into creating materials with magic. I had no chance of completing the spell without those foundations.
This entire operation with the spell took me a week, so I thought it was time to check how the dungeon was doing. A check revealed that the dungeon had not yet regenerated.
Oh, well.
When I returned home, Al roped me into another herb-gathering operation. This time, he didn’t want to pick them but to collect samples for his greenhouse. Before we went to collect the herbs, I had to create the right conditions for plants of this kind. Ultimately, we decided on large bathtubs filled with wet mud and stagnant water. I hoped it wouldn’t stink, and I decided that if it did, they’d have a little “accident” that I wouldn’t know anything about.
For the next two weeks, I hovered above Al, playing the violin and humming to calm the creatures. After the first day, this routine led to a change in our living conditions. When I opened the house, several creatures tried to approach, but as soon as they came into contact with the mana-absorbing force field, they retreated and lost interest. After Al and I returned from our first collection day, creatures surrounded the house. They didn’t try to pass through the force field or breach the house; they just sat around it and stared.
Mahya laughed at me, saying, “You shouldn’t keep your fan club waiting too long. They’ll eventually want a refund for the ticket.”
I stuck my tongue out at her, making her laugh harder. To be safe, I activated the shutters at night, just in case.
I kept going back and forth about what to do with the affinity stone. One moment, I thought I should learn the affinity on my own—that’s how I’d done it before. But then, I’d remind myself how long it took to gain those affinities, how each one was anything but a quick process. Maybe I should use the stone and be done with it? But then again, the double benefit things was alarming. And in the case of Nature, I didn’t even know where to start.
Was I supposed to sit and stare at a tree or something?
I was stuck and couldn’t make up my mind. The indecision was driving me crazy, so I went to consult with Mahya. When I found her, she was finishing up the Jeep’s disassembly and had already drawn the initial blueprint. Now, she meticulously worked on the big blueprint, carefully placing rune names in the right spots.
As she completed sketching a bent pipe and meticulously labeling the runes on it, I said, “Mahya, I want to consult with you about something.”
She didn’t look up from her work but responded, “What’s up?”
“The affinity stone. I’m not sure what to do with it. Lis explained the problem with double benefit from the Guidance, so I’m worried that if I gain the affinity from the stone, it might cripple my ability to control or develop it. But on the other hand, I don’t even know where to start learning this affinity, so this stone feels like a gift from heaven.”
Mahya paused, finally looking up at me with a thoughtful expression. “You don’t have to worry about double benefit. It won’t happen in this case.”
“Why not?” I asked, frowning.
“Because you got the stone as a reward from a dungeon. You conquered the dungeon and earned the reward. The Guidance won’t punish you by blocking your progress. It wouldn’t be fair. It’s not like you bought it on a scroll or from the spell list. You earned it honestly, and not from the Guidance. Only you can decide, but even if you get the affinity from the stone, it’s not like you’ll automatically master it. You’ll still need to develop it.”
She gave me a sideways glance, her eyes sharp with understanding. “Actually, who am I saying that to? Of course, you know affinity is something you have to work on. I see you working on yours. It’ll be the same as with the wind affinity. You’ll have to develop it, stone or no stone.”
“Then why did you tell me to develop it myself and not use the stone?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Because you can sell it for a lot of money,” she replied with a shrug.
I should have guessed that was the issue. We were already stinking rich, but Mahya was still very interested in money.
“How do I learn the affinity, then?”
“Channel mana into the stone,” she said, turning back to her blueprint as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
I poured mana into the stone, and it became liquid-like, seeping into my palm. It was a little freaky.
I opened my profile, and I now had Nature under Wizard Abilities. As always, nothing was next to it in brackets—just Nature. Mahya had been right; the Wind and Lightning were indeed affinities. She didn’t even know about Mist. The entire list looked the same and was in the same place, just with Nature added.
Intrigued, I asked, “How does an affinity show in your personal information?”
She glanced up with a slight smile. “You can look. I already told you that I have no secrets from you.”
I waited, expecting something to happen, but nothing did.
“Um, you said I could look, but you’re not showing me anything,” I said, a bit confused.
She started laughing and shook her head. “I’m guessing Lis told you Travelers don’t identify other Travelers, right?”
“Yes…” I replied, still unsure where this was going.
“Did he explain why?”
“No…”
“Use Identify on me,” she instructed, her smile widening.
I activated Identify, and her personal information appeared in front of me. All of her personal information!
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Name: Maya Salis (Mahya Num) Display Class: Bladesinger level 33 • Swordsmanship - 13 • Acrobatics - 17 • Slow - 4 • Jump - 25 • Dual wield - 13 • Dash - 21 • Entangle - 3 • Detect Weak Spot - 25 • Confuse - 6 • Wall Dash - 25 • Sink - 9 • Blind - 11 Hidden Class: Gate Traveler Level 9 Class Abilities: • Conversion • Travelers’ Archive • Identify - 12 • Storage - x12 (110,592m3) • Local Adaptation: • Map • One of the Crowd Profession: Wood Artisan Level 17 • Precision Carving - 19 • Wooden Alchemy - 12 • Runic Inlay - 22 • Channeling Focus - 14 • Mystic Integration - 12 • Collaborative Imprint - 2 Sub-Class 2: Magicaneer Level 5 • Mana Circuitry - 7 • Magitech Retrofit - 12 • Mana Calibration - 6 • Engraving - 14 • Arcane Schematics - 4 General Spells: • Invisibility - 25 • Adaptable Light Ball - 2 • Telepathy - 6 • Wind Funnel - 2 • Absorb Mana - 2 • Copy Magical Text - 3 • Copy Text - 3 • Harvest Mana Crystal - 2 General Skills: • Stealth - 20 • Antimatter Containment Field Engineering - 3 • Energy Conversion Reactor Design - 5 • Crystalline AI Matrix Development - 8 • Quantum Energy Harnessing Systems - 6 • Plasma Conduit Optimization - 2 • Interstellar Propulsion Drive Engineering - 6 • Nano-Crystal Circuitry Fabrication - 9 • Self-Repairing Neural Interface Development - 10 • Advanced Thermal Management Systems - 11 • Gravitational Field Stabilization Engineering - 5 • Adaptive Quantum Algorithm Engineering - 7 • Subspace Communication Array Design - 5 • Exotic Matter Integration Engineering - 2 • Hydrogen Combustion Containment Fields - 3 • Multi-Phase Energy Transfer Engineering - 3 • Mosaic - 9 • Soldering - 3 • Sailing - 8 • LTA Flight - 3 • Riding - 1 • Motorcycle Mechanics - 5 • Car Mechanics - 2 Affinities: • Nature Health: 9,350/9,350 Strength: 77 Stat points: 0 |
“How is that even possible?” I asked, shocked.
“That’s how it’s with Travelers,” she explained calmly. “Just like we can always see through glamor what a person really looks like, Identify works the same way and gives full information. That’s why it’s considered taboo to use Identify on another Traveler without permission.”
“How can you even tell if someone’s doing it?”
“Can I use Identify on you?” she asked, a hint of mischief in her tone.
“Yeah, sure,” I replied, feeling curious.
As soon as she did, I suddenly felt naked and exposed, like I was standing in the middle of a crowd without clothes. I almost instinctively covered myself, feeling a strange urge to protect my privacy. It was so weird.
“Spirits, I hate you so much for your crazy mana levels. It’s just not fair,” she said with a teasing grin, giving me a playful push.
“Look who’s talking. You have this crazy list of engineering skills that I don’t even know what half of them mean.”
“You know I bought them; I didn’t learn them.”
“It doesn’t matter. That list is still intimidating. It makes me feel stupid compared to you.”
“Well, I keep telling you I’m a genius. Now you’ll believe me,” she said with a wink.
“Yeah, yeah, keep dreaming,” I retorted, rolling my eyes. “By the way, why do you rarely use most of your class spells except the dashing and jumping?”
“Because they cost a shit ton of mana,” she replied with a shrug. “If I cast all of them once in a fight and some of them twice, I’d be out of mana,” she added, her tone matter-of-fact as she leaned back against the workbench.
“I need to figure out how to create Wizard spirals.”
“Yes, you do. Yesterday,” she quipped, giving me a pointed look.
“Yeah, yeah, OK. I’ll work on it.”
At this point, she kicked me out and told me to stop distracting her. It was as good a time as any to check on the dungeon to see if it had regenerated. And it had!
When I informed Mahya and Al, they were thrilled, and we decided to run it tomorrow. Dungeon run number two, here we come.