Starting from zero: growing up with knowledge from another world

Chapter 7

Fall arrived, but nothing much changed for me. I still continue to practice my combat and magic skills, though I now practice archery and throwing as well. I'm also studying almost every day, I've learned about history, geography, and the laws of the duchy and kingdom. I also tried making a map of the town, listing what is where rather than just having certain key places like the guard stations listed. That netted me the mapping skill, which I thought would be useful in the future.

I've kept practicing alchemy, compounding, magic tool crafting, and related skills. At some point, I gained Farming and Arboriculture, though I'm not sure why I didn't gain the farming skill sooner. I was able to find the pattern in magic circles, discovering that it is its own language, and thanks to my language comprehension skill, I was able to learn the language.

After quite a few experiments, I was finally able to find a combination of ingredients that will produce usable ink. I sold the rights to the ink immediately after that, hoping that some eccentric researcher or craftsperson out there would figure out colored ink on their own. I may have dropped a hint to Jay about colored ink, saying that creating black ink was more troublesome because most plants, shells, etc. are not black.

During the fall, I was able to find berries that can be used to produce yeast, which my parents were happy about, especially my dad, who just about cried tears of joy after thinking he would have to eat hard bread until next spring. My days went by rather peacefully, getting through the winter months easily, thanks to barrier magic and hot water baths. I even managed to make bath bombs since there wasn't much to do during the winter.

Spring came along, the temperature increased, migratory birds started to show up, and flowers started budding. During this time, I was utilizing rain barriers to tend to my garden and the spirit tree saplings that were already as tall as me. I didn't bother setting up a rain barrier when practicing swordsmanship though, thinking of it as training for combat in harsh weather.

On nice, sunny days, I would wander around town, I even managed to convince the guards to let me run around the town, staying close to the wall. It wasn't easy, but when I pulled out the sharpened dagger I made while practicing blacksmithing, using a combination of fire and earth magic to heat and mold the blade instead of a forge, since I didn't have one, and showed that I could use it, along with magic, the guards relented. I had to carry a note with me from the guard to show to other guards I passed by so they wouldn't stop me.

One day while I was wandering around town, slowly filling in my map, section by section, I heard a group of kids being loud. Thinking that they must be playing an interesting game, possibly using one of the products I sold to Jay, I changed course to find out. Upon passing through a small side street, I came out to a large empty lot that only had mud and a single tree in it. Under that tree was a catkin girl and at the edge of the lot was a group of boys being rowdy, yelling about how they don't want any girls in their area while throwing mud balls at her.

Fortunately, it seems that the boys didn't have good aim, because I only saw one muddy spot on the side of her dress. I could, however, see tears in her eyes, so I ran over to her, sliding to a stop and using magic to create a wall of mud to block their throws. Once I had successfully blocked any throws they might make, I gathered a large amount of mana and sent a large wave of mud toward them. The boys screamed when they saw the wave of mud and turned to run away, unfortunately for them, I wouldn't let them get away so easily and trapped their feet until the mud wave crashed into them.

Covered in mud from head to toe, the boys ran away crying and screaming while I used magic to clean up the mess I had made before turning to the girl, "Sorry for showing up all of a sudden like that. You're not injured anywhere, are you?" I asked, "Oh right, I'm Cero. What's your name?"