TBE Chapter 88

TBE Chapter 88

“Most families, when they traveled, every member would need to complete a chore so their journey would be smooth, and I think that sort of thing builds character. You guys were doing nothing and just kept playing all day. It’s my fault since I do everything myself using magic, but I think I should stop doing that so we can all learn how to do chores manually,” Ezekiel told Robert, Luke, and Simon.

“We study every night!” Robert exclaimed.

“That is not a chore but a privilege given to very few people! Chores are like washing dishes, washing clothes, cleaning the cart, and cleaning Prince Charming,” Ezekiel told his brother.

“Do you want us to clean Prince Charming?” Luke innocently asked.

“No. What I mean is, starting tomorrow we will have to do some of the things that I’ve been doing using magic, manually. The first is, we have to clean the dishes that we will be using by hand, and that chore will mostly fall into both of your hands,” Ezekiel said while pointing at Robert and Luke, and he was gratified to see that his brothers simply nodded and did not complain.

“We will also wash our clothes, the cart, and Prince Charming manually, and we’ll all take turns doing that, okay?” Ezekiel said, and everyone nodded.

After that discussion, he allowed the boys to go upstairs to play, and Simon joined them. Ezekiel continued crafting the chair that he was doing and was able to complete a complex one. He then cast Fabricate to check if he could copy the latest chair that he did and was successful in doing so but he wasn’t satisfied since he wanted a much more aesthetically pleasing chair so it would be easier to sell.

Ezekiel then went to the third floor to bathe and then joined his brothers and Simon playing their board games. After a few minutes, he told everyone that it was time to sleep. He did finish the fairy tale story that he was telling them for the past few nights that night and soon everyone was asleep.

The next day, after breakfast, Simon left to begin hunting for game that day, followed by Yuki Onna and several of the Butcher Knives awakened by Ezekiel’s Tiny Servant spell. As promised, he didn’t clean the bento boxes that contained their breakfast and taught the boys how to clean them using the dishwashing liquid and sponge that he purchased for a total of 3 copper coins from the system store.

Cleaning the dishes was easy enough and Ezekiel thought the boys might have even enjoyed the process. Probably because it was the first time and it was a novelty. They had no other chores to do since Ezekiel had cleaned the cart and Prince Charming yesterday when they stored it in the stables, and Simon had already fed their donkey.

That meant that the boys were now free to do whatever they wanted, so they ran off outside to play in the forest with several awakened butcher knives following them. Ezekiel had to ask for their promise again that they wouldn’t go too far from the houses.

After the boys left, Ezekiel spent a few minutes reviewing his spells to check if there were any that he could use that would allow him to summon a permanent guardian for the boys, like a second familiar, but didn’t find any.

For now, he would have to settle for the Butcher Knives tiny servants and him checking the map on the first tab to guard his brothers. He did cast the Mage Armor spell on them, so they were protected and knew that he was just being a worrywart.

Ezekiel was thankful that the world was not some grim, dark fantasy wherein there was a monster in every corner. He was even beginning to doubt that this world was a high fantasy world since the only magic that he saw was his and that haunted mansion that they passed through.

Most of the enemies that he had fought with were just regular bandits and some animals in the forest. He was even glad that those were enough for him to reach level 4 as a wizard but he had an inkling that from then, it would be quite difficult for him to level up since he didn’t want to massacre people just for power.

He remembered reading a web novel once wherein the protagonist also leveled up by killing, so he apprenticed himself to a butcher. He probably could do the same thing but he instinctively knew that there would come a time that pigs and chickens wouldn’t even allow him to earn even the tiniest experience points.

To be honest, Ezekiel felt that his current power was enough for their situation, and if they encountered more dangerous things, those possible situations would allow him to level up.

He could even become a bounty hunter, killing bandits, but again, he didn’t want to become a human butcher for the sake of experience even if those humans were evil. If the situation arise, Ezekiel would be willing to use his power to defend himself and his family but that was it and in the meantime, he wouldn’t stress himself over wanting to increase his power the soonest time possible.

Ezekiel reviewed the list of the best chairs that he could craft. The chair that he was planning to make was still smaller than the standard ones, almost small enough to be called children’s furniture, but that was because he still couldn’t handle large wooden projects.

For a moment, he thought that it might have been a mistake for him choosing a set of children’s table and chair for the project that he wanted master next and should have chosen the wooden knick knacks that he had been buying from the system store and selling to the villagers but he wanted to learn how to create something practical and he thought that learning the chair and table would be a good foundation.

Ezekiel suddenly remembered his plan of creating wooden bowls with tight lids that he would use to store the food that he would cook so he set aside the pictures of chairs first and started watching videos of how to create them. After watching them, he went back to making the chair and felt that with just a few more he would achieve mastery in learning how to craft the most aesthetically pleasing but sturdy chairs, and that meant that he would be able to copy it using the Fabricate spell.

To be honest, Ezekiel was learning how wonderful the Fabricate spell was. Every time he cast the spell, he was learning instinctively what he could and could not make. He could even use the spell to create basic things that a family needed like a set of chairs and table, beds, and more, but those would just be the most basic. If he wanted to create something that he could sell, he would still need to master wood crafting and was a little glad that he had started learning woodworking.

In Ezekiel’s opinion, woodworking was a good cover for their family to explain where their gold came from. He didn’t even need to become a master, just good enough that he could create some knickknacks since he could rely on his system store to purchase the things that he could sell, but he was truly becoming enamored with the idea of becoming a woodworking master.

The thought of spending his time creating works of art in his own shop during a rainy afternoon brought him a sense of calm satisfaction, and he thought that that kind of life was good. Ultimately, he would probably become something like that once he was old enough, but he knew that for now, there was still a lifetime of possibly unexpected adventure waiting for him due to the fact that he could wield magic.

Anton completed the chair that he was working on, and when he checked the time, it was almost eleven in the morning. Soon, Yuki Onna notified him that Simon was arriving. He then commanded his Snowy Owl familiar to retrieve Robert and Luke as well.

Soon, his brothers barged inside the house, screaming that Simon hunted several birds and when their guardian entered the house, he brought with him an impressive number of fowls. There were four pheasants, two wild turkeys, and three quails.

Ezekiel stored the game in his 4th tab then asked the three boys to go to the washroom to wash themselves since they were all dirty for the time they spent on the forest.

In the meantime, Ezekiel cleaned the dining room and after that retrieve the bento boxes filled with food to be eaten as their lunch and when the boys arrived looking clean enough, they all started devouring the food that he prepared.

After that, Ezekiel asked Simon to hitch the cart to Prince Charming outside, and then he dispelled the Galder’s Towers. Soon, they were ready to leave and so their journey started again.

Their traveling speed was still slow, and since they usually stopped at around five in the afternoon, they only traveled for a short amount of time. That meant that the distance they were covering was very short.

It didn’t matter to any of them. Simon was just there driving the cart, obeying what Ezekiel told him, and the family didn’t have a specific goal to where they needed to be with so it didn’t matter if they spent an ungodly amount of time on the road. They didn’t even need to mind the weather since the Galder’s Tower houses that Ezekiel had been conjuring were extremely comfortable.