TBE Chapter 84

TBE Chapter 84

Ezekiel asked Simon to find a campsite for them where he could conjure their “magic houses” even though it was only around four in the afternoon. He wanted their pretend guardian to have the time to practice the crossbow that he was lending the man.

Simon found a nice clearing for them near the road but still hidden among the trees. The moment Ezekiel cast the three-story Galder’s Tower and the one-story one that they were using as Prince Charming’s stable, Robert and Luke ran inside, probably going to the washroom to play in the water with their toy ship.

He would have asked his brothers to stop since it was too early but they were gone immediately as if they teleported.

Ezekiel helped Simon in cleaning Prince Charming and providing food for their donkey and when it was done their guardian looked at him expectantly.

He simply nodded, and Simon excitedly picked up the crossbow that was lying on top of the storage chest inside the cart. Ezekiel followed Simon, and when they reached one of the trees that the man chose as his target, he taught Simon what he needed to do to use the crossbow.

Ezekiel only purchased very few bolts, so he might need to purchase more, but for now, he asked Simon to take care of the bolts since they were expensive to buy.

Looking at how easy it was for the man to crank the crossbow, Ezekiel realized that Simon was strong, which he should be since he had been doing manual work on his previous master’s farm ever since he was a child.

He then wondered if he should purchase a bow for Simon, but in one of the fantasy novels that he had read before, it stated that learning a bow from scratch was extremely difficult, but he did ask the man if he knew how to use a bow, and Simon simply shook his head.

“We’re not allowed to own or borrow anything that could be considered as weapons.”

“That’s ridiculous. Any farm implement can be a weapon,” Ezekiel said and Simon just simply shrugged.

Simon started his crossbow practice and he did have to feel the crossbow for several minutes to check how he could use it. Ezekiel did show how to use it based on what little he knew from the videos that he had seen over the internet but advised Simon that he would have to learn by himself how to truly use the weapon.

Ezekiel was amazed at Simon’s accuracy in hitting his chosen tree target and the accuracy rate was still climbing. Based on what he saw, the man was probably going to be able to use the crossbow for hunting as soon as the next day.

In the meantime, since Ezekiel had nothing to do after observing Simon’s practice, he decided to go inside the tower to create a simple chest. To be honest, he was getting tired of creating so many chests, but he needed the practice. The piece that he was making was a small one, just the size of a jewelry box, and he was done after an hour. He then retrieved some more wood from his collection to use his spell Fabricate to create a jewelry box, and when he was done casting the spell, the resulting item was exactly the same as the one that he had just made.

Ezekiel then retrieved more wood since he was planning to do some experimentation regarding the spell Fabricate. First, he studied a picture of an extremely elaborate jewelry box made from wood over the internet. He was sure he couldn’t make it by himself, but he studied its details minutely. When he thought he was ready, he cast the Fabricate spell again, thinking of the picture of the elaborate jewelry box, and unsurprisingly, the spell failed.

He was glad that there wasn’t any sort of backlash like him experiencing some sort of injury or headache. The only thing that happened was the spell slot that contained the spell Fabricate went into cooldown and Ezekiel saw the mana gathered then dispersed. He was a little glad that the materials remained though.

Ezekiel then chose another picture of a wooden jewelry box, but this time, even though it was still a little elaborate, he knew by studying the minute details that he could make the jewelry box with effort, and after a few minutes of study, he cast the Fabricate spell and the wooden jewelry box that was on the picture was now on the table and the wooden materials were gone.

He knew, looking at the wooden jewelry box that he had just made using a spell, that he could sell it just like the others that he had purchased from the system store. The result of his experiment was a success.

That meant that to be able to fully utilize the spell so he could use it for business, he couldn’t stop learning about wood crafting. Ezekiel then planned to create a list of wooden art pieces that he would memorize and recreate using his hands, and when his expertise became high enough, he could use the spell Fabricate to create his inventory of items that he could sell. That would lessen the amount of gold coins that he needed to spend as his capital since once he was a master wood crafter, the items that he would sell would just appear as if by…magic.

That thought made him laugh a bit. He then thought of which item he needed to master next aside from a wooden box, but then he realized that his wood collection was almost gone. He blamed the dwindling of the wood materials on him creating Simon’s bed using Fabricate since after dispelling the Galder’s Towers every morning, they just left the bed in the place where they camped.

Ezekiel then thought what the reaction of the finders of the bed would be but then again, with the lack of people in this area, there was a chance that weather and the season would just corrode those beds into nothing.

He decided that he would just let Simon use one of the sleeping bags that he had purchased before since it was comfortable enough.

Ezekiel then went outside into the forest and used his spell Tenser’s Floating Disk to collect wood. He didn’t need to chop any trees or anything like that since there were a lot of fallen branches and logs that were big enough for his crafting purposes.

When he returned to the camp ground where the towers were erected, Simon was still busy practicing with the crossbow. He would shoot the bolts into the tree then when all the bolts were spent, he would go collect every one of them and start over.

Based on Simon’s expression, he was enjoying the process so Ezekiel let him be and returned inside the tower and stored the wood that he had collected. He would clean and smoothen them by hand when he had the chance. He could use the spell Tiny Servants, and it would be easier and would save his hands from any injury, but he needed to master wood, and the only thing that would allow him to do so was to keep using his hands crafting items and the simple process of sanding them was part of that.

Ezekiel knew that there were better and faster ways for him to earn gold coins, especially once Simon learned to pretend to be a dangerous and skilled guardian for them, but wood crafting was something that he unexpectedly fell in love with.

Feeling the wood grains with his hands while cutting and sanding them and creating pieces of art from wood soothes his soul.

After he had stored the wood in one of the storage chests inside the cart, Ezekiel went to the washroom on the third floor to take a bath. Robert and Luke were already done bathing and were playing on the second floor in the bedroom.

Soon, it was too dark for Simon to continue with his playing aka crossbow practice. Ezekiel asked the man to take a bath and bring his clothes to him so he could clean them using the Prestidigitation spell, just like what he did on his and his brothers’ clothes. When Simon was done bathing and wearing the second set of clothes that Ezekiel purchased for him, as he said to the man, he cleaned his clothes and Simon kept them to one of the chests in the cart.

Ezekiel purchased four pieces of Donuts that he displayed on the table. Of course, he chose the most elaborate and delicious-looking ones.

“That’s your incentive. They’re called donuts, and they’re one of the most delicious pastries ever invented. After dinner, we can eat them, but only if I feel like you made an effort learning the letters that I’m going to teach you tonight,” Ezekiel told everyone.

Robert pouted, but Luke and Simon just stared at the donuts, and Luke actually drooled, which made him laugh.

Then the lesson started, and Ezekiel thought that his experiment of motivating his brothers and Simon was a success, especially when he threatened Robert that he might not be able to get a donut that night since it appeared that he was not motivated enough. That threat also brought fear into Luke and Simon, and for the rest of the lesson, the three of them were very attentive.