Chapter 42: Work

  After inspecting the large construction hologram for a while, more blueprints were placed. A row of blue, ghostly houses was soon visible, skirting the town’s edge between the forest and the lake as well as a lumberyard.

  These holographic projections, or ‘builder’s projections’ as Aera’s people called them, was often an effect gained when construction, the most typical of builder’s skills, reached level two or three. As Theo had just gained an effect of his own, he could see that this particular one was a great thing to have, not just to plan out several buildings and their layout, but they also provided the builders themselves bonuses when working on them, especially at level three. One such bonus was an automatic adaptation of the raw material to fit within its projection. Explained another way: A too-long plank was automatically cut shorter to fit the plans.

  Theo was once again baffled. How these people didn’t think that was magic, he could honestly not even begin to understand, but yet again, it was him against them. He might one day stop arguing about this with them, but today was not that day. How many times could he explain that without skills, bonuses and effects, things worked how things were supposed to work? Even then, like how they invited new villagers, they weren’t supposed to just know that happened.

  If they weren’t all so different and so… normal, Theo might’ve thought everyone else were just part of the system, automatons that roamed the world, just cogs in the machinery. But they were really people, just far too used to how things worked here. Maybe, one day far in the future, Theo would think like they did. For now, these projections reeked of world magic.

  What surprised Theo even after all of this, though it probably shouldn’t have now that he was more used to these magical things, was that Brook Town hadn’t been built by builders at all, or at least not skilled ones. Usually, towns and cities had a whole bunch of buildings cut from the same cloth, or rather, placed by the same construction plan. Of course, several different plans were used in a variety of buildings, but if the plans were good, why change them?

  Certain restrictions would still apply, though, for instance if the creator of the plans were to die, the city couldn’t use those plans anymore unless purchased in the estate or given the rights to the plans through a contract or the like. While Theo wasn’t all that into law work and other legal mumbo jumbo, what he gathered from this was that usually, builders were paid for this work, even if it was just their plans being used. Theo’s world called it ‘intellectual property’, something he was kind of surprised this world enforced. He’d have to truly thank the Hankerssons. And he’d have to hope they weren’t about to charge Sigil Lake for this down the line.

  Nighttime was quickly approaching the town, causing Phoebe Phoebs to return to town with today’s gathered foodstuffs. Fischer was nowhere to be seen, though he had mentioned to Hunter that that might be the case. He was getting closer to a herd… a flock?... of deer, so he would likely sleep away from town a night or two. With Grace and Theo’s haul from the dungeon along with Phoebe’s mix of mushrooms, herbs and fruit, Hunter’s catches of the day tasted truly excellent. It was remarkable how little was needed for a good, healthy and tasty meal for nearly a dozen people.

  When morning came, filled with early birdsong and bright sunlight, Theo and Willam got back to work watering the crops and plants. Weeding followed, along with some exuberant celebration of the success of the experiments they had done regarding Theo’s seeds.

  Sprouts were already growing from the plots with magically created resources, be it water, earth or both. Actually, the more, the better. The plots with both Theo’s created water and dirt looked to have the strongest, tallest and healthiest sprouts. In comparison, plot 1, the only all-natural plot there was, seemed to be severely lagging behind plot 3, the same violetberry plot thought with all-magical nourishment.

  Needless to say, Theo and Willam both tried getting as much ground soil back up from the plots they could without harming the seeds, then mixed in fresh soil from the factory, re-watering those that needed it. It was a bit of a risk, but if the end product reflected the sprouts and the speed of growth remained as high… They’d technically still gain from completely resowing the seeds in these plots. That would cost them precious seeds, though, so they strove to keep them all safe. They thought it went well.

  There was one particular weakness with their current process; they needed Theo around to create new water every morning. If they could instead create a well that he could empty all of his mana into with a massive loop of ‘Create’ ‘Water’, this risk would severely diminish. Theo didn’t have any plans to go anywhere, but one never knew. Arcana’s thinly veiled warning was certainly part of his paranoia, though he’d always wanted to be on the safe side of things anyway. For now, they could start digging a hole close to the farm and Theo’s plots to one day get up and running as a proper water storage.

  Or was there some other way to do this?

  It had been quite a while since Theo tried it, but he did have that ‘Destroy’, or rather, ‘Remove’ sigil. With the town’s mana regeneration boost on his side, he could spend the rest of the morning doing another experiment. One where he removed the ground.

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  He checked his book just in case, finding the familiar sigil to weave next to the one for ‘Create’. He remembered he’d only attempted it with fire before, not wanting to choke himself with no air or remove the very ground he had sat upon. Now, though, he had a bit more experience with this magic. It certainly didn’t create or remove all of a thing. It actually seemed to work on a very specific amount. If it was an equal amount created and removed, he couldn’t be sure, at least not until he tried, but he was positive that was it.

  With his ears aglow with magic, Theo weaved. It was just a basic instruction this time; ‘Destroy’ ‘Earth’. Ten mana vanished from his body the moment he finished the short combination. They flashed together, a chiming symphony sounded. Directly below, mere toe-lengths worth of space away from Theo’s own feet, the ground blinked away in a perfect circle. The hole was a couple of fingers deep and a forearm’s length wide.

  ‘Create’ ‘Earth’.

  Another ten mana spent. A pile of dirt fell from the sigils and down into the newly created hole. The soft, sandy dirt piled upon itself, though much of it was soft and smooth enough to spread out wide. The hole was nearly entirely filled, though there was a mound that peaked just a bit higher. Theo flattened it with his hand, finding the hole entirely flat. Equal amounts for sure. Now, test number two.

  He once more weaved the arcane symbols for ‘Remove’ ‘Earth’, this time a bit to the side so the previous hole wouldn’t interfere in any way. This time, he added a triple loop of the instruction set, wanting to see how that went. He was worried he’d have to mark a target area, though that would also need to be redone in every iteration. Hopefully, the basic routine would just take the earth directly below it several times, never mind how far down it was. If not, maybe it took the closest batch? In that case it would likely form a crater rather than a hole. Only one way to find out.

  He activated the loop and the first acted exactly as expected. Theo wiped his brow, the morning sun starting to grow hot, his face wet with sweat already. The hole widened, burrowing a little deeper, but mostly wider. Third iteration; same thing.

  The conclusion wasn’t entirely ideal, unless he wanted to create a bunch of craters. It certainly took the closest match around and removed a certain amount of it. Still, it was workable. Before filling the hole back up with more dirt, he kneeled down on the edge of the small hole, weaving another triple loop much closer to the ground, about as close to the centremost, deepest part of it that he could.

  Luckily, sigils were much easier to weave than entire spell glyphs. The awkward position only proved an obstacle, not a barrier. He managed the entire series of sigils on the first try. Seventeen mana was gone.

  The ‘Remove’ glyph seemed to generally work in a sphere, removing up to a certain amount of the specific element he followed it with. His theories were all but confirmed when the hole grew bigger, first deeper, then the walls on the new depth were taken, then an all around removal of everything it could, growing ever more spherical. Though, this seemed to work fine for a well. It was wide enough for Theo’s shoulders to fit inside very tightly, though not deep enough yet for his entire body to be submerged. Far from it, actually. It was barely deeper than his knees.

  He could work with this. He got something to drink from the remaining liquid from a bucket, splashing his face as well as wetting his throat. He grew somewhat confused as he wasn’t entirely sure if summer was coming or leaving at this point, but this morning was certainly a lot warmer than it had been earlier. He’d never experienced almost two weeks without rain, he figured. He lived in a very temperate part of his world before, one prone to near-constant wetness.

  So, he knew he could weave a new triple loop close to the centre of the bottom of the hole to continue expanding it down whilst maintaining a circular shape of the shaft. That much was clear. But what if there was more he could do? His thoughts went to the ‘Target’ sigil first. He was pretty happy just theorising first, going through the various kinds of sigils Arcana had slipped him through her message.

  Could he remove earth in a vector? That didn’t seem right. Range? Likely, though then he’d have to find the fitting parameters. Doing it in a specific range didn’t necessarily change how the actual spherical removal worked, either. Theo had what he needed to try it at a target, though. He extended the looping function, adding a target. Four sigils, this time. He expected it to draw twenty-two mana from him if it worked. He decided to keep it a triple loop, finding the width rather perfect.

  The last thing he added to the sigil combination was the mana thread. He flicked it from his finger and the thread hit almost dead centre of the pit he’d already removed quite a bit of dirt from. Exactly as planned. He fastened the thread to the targeting reticule before underlining the spell. He confirmed the success of the cast by seeing his mana drop quickly; 22 points gone.

  Placing the ‘Target’ sigil outside of the loop was a very conscious decision. Theo suspected that a new parameter would have to be set for any sigils within a loop for each new iteration; else it would effectively halt, or worse, fail. With the target parameter outside, the loop should function each time as it should inherit everything that came before it. In theory.

  The sigils flashed happily, humming calmly as they did. Dirt disappeared in a sudden reaction. More dirt appeared just like before, not digging much deeper but enlarging the hole made from the first disappearance. The circular walls firmed after the third iteration, removing the excess dirt.

  “Perfect,” Theo said, congratulating himself in a whispered silence. He’d have to rest a bit to regain his mana, but he could make a pretty deep hole like this, he figured. Perfect for a well, or at least a similar water storage option. They’d need to line the walls with rock, possibly clay, but it was a working prototype, nonetheless. Even though they could probably just hollow out a large log to use, this specific experiment allowed Theo to do some good, old-fashioned science! He was becoming much more familiar with the sigils and what they could do when combined. Things were looking up.