After the Coachman helped the bishop into the coach, he led me a little ways away and spoke in a smooth and refined British accent.
“It was not wise to anger the bishop so strongly on your first meeting. It will be difficult to re-forge your retionship. But, you have done a good thing here today, and the neighboring homesteads will hear about it and approve.”
He looked me in the eye and said, “The bishop is not an evil man, but he is a System Traditionalist. He believes in following a strict interpretation of the letter of the w. If you follow the rules, he will not go out of his way to come after you. But, if you give him a reason to come down on you, he most certainly will after today. Do not dey in forging your employment contracts, and find somewhere other than the cabin to sleep.”
He paused and then looked out at my homestead. “I know you will be anxious to pnt your wheat. It would be best if you ordered anything you need today. The Guild’s Coachman does not have my levels. It will take three days for the materials to arrive if you order by tonight. Best of luck, Mr Jacobson.”
I thanked him for the information.
He also gave me the rundown of exactly what my Homestead Package should entail. There were three pairs of pants, three shirts, three pairs of long underwear, a heavy coat, several pairs of gloves and socks, and an extra pair of boots for clothing. Luckily, there was also a magical straight razor that would keep its edge without sharpening for an entire year.
There was a whole variety of garden seeds I would give to Emily to take care of. I also got a magically reinforced shovel, rake, hoe, axe, and both a hand saw and a rge, twelve-foot-long, two-person saw bde. The Coachman assured me that all the tools would remain pristine for an entire year before the magic faded.
I also still got my pot, two frying pans, a couple of spatus, and a dle. Four cups, ptes, bowls, and finally four spork-like eating utensils. Aside from the cast-iron pot and pans, the rest were all made of tin.
I also received a surprisingly modern-looking fishing pole. The reel was wooden, but it had a reel with a tch to let line in and out. The package also contained a spool of line that resembled silk, along with a bunch of barbed hooks.
The most important item I received was my almanac. Mine looked exactly like Emily’s. The Coachman told me that the System regurly updated it and to hold it dear.
I thanked him and told him I would do my best to avoid trouble.
“That is for the best,” he said. “Luckily, the bishop spends most of the year in Riverton. He will be leaving Weston in a few days to continue his tour of the territory. He shouldn’t be back until the harvest festival at the earliest.”
With that, he turned around and got back on his coach, and made haste back towards Weston.
The three of us watched the coach fade into the distance with incredible speed for several minutes before anyone spoke.
“Well, that went well,” I said to Emily and Colin.
She burst out ughing while Colin, who had returned only a few minutes ago, looked shocked.
“Sir,” he said, but I cut him off with a hand gesture.
“That’s a joke. I know it was a disaster. But I don’t see how it was going to go any other way if I was going to keep you two here.”
“I didn’t know how much XP I was going to have to give out. I would like to ask you both to let us make the contract heavier on the XP though, and loan me the gold back. We need the gold to buy things for the farm.” I sighed.
Emily nodded and said, “That shall work for us. You will also have to put together a provisional contract for Colin. He cannot accept a full contract until he gets his css when he turns sixteen in a few months.”
I frowned and asked, “the bishop won’t stop him from getting a css?”
Emily and Colin were both shaking their heads as I asked the question.
Colin answered first. “No sir, he can’t. Plus, even if he could, the Coachman was right that he would never go against the tenets. The System itself says that on your sixteenth birthday, your Css Selection tab will activate on your UI when you visit a System temple. I should get Homesteader, sons of the original Homesteaders are supposed to be given the css as well. Even if they don’t allow that, Farmhand and maybe even Hunter are possibilities.”
That gave me a genuine sense of relief. I’d been worried there would be a way the bishop could intervene.
Emily was looking at me strangely, though. Again, she pursed her lips. I probably should have known about that. I think I was going to have to talk to her soon.
Colin, being in the talkative mood he seemed to be in now, said, “I’m sure sorry about your support css though.”
“Why,” I asked? In most System books I’d ever read, Alchemy was amazing.
Colin kicked at the ground and then looked at me like I was an idiot once again. “Haven’t you heard about the level 1 skills? It’s a pain in the backside to level, and it usually just ruins stuff. Don't choose transmutation, the cost is higher than what you can buy something for until after level 20.”
Emily then added her own thoughts. “Same thing with the apothecary path. It does give you good insight into various herbs. But you cannot make true healing potions until level 20. Before that, you are just making stomach ache, or fever-reducing potions that barely work better than ground willow bark.”
“I guess that is better than the Alchemical Purification path though. It will let you purify basically anything. But once again that is problematic. It removes all of the fvor and scent from anything you purify. That can be dangerous. Pure alcohol with no fvor or scent has killed more than a few people."
“Huh. Well, I’ll take both csses real quick, then let’s order everything before it’s too te in the evening. That work?”
They both nodded, and I looked at my Alchemist scroll first.
Congratutions. You have been given a css scroll for the Alchemy css. Would you like to accept this css?
Warning: You can have only three csses active at a time. A Profession, Support, and Combat css. Each css will contain a subcss skill tree.
I clicked accept and, as, I was only a Level 1 Alchemist. Apparently, my minor in chemical engineering in college didn't count. Maybe it needed to be practical experience?
Congratutions. You are now a level 1 Alchemist. You now have the following perks.
Any potion you brew gains 10% volume when the crafting process is complete (pn accordingly).
Any potion you brew is 10% more effective when you consume it yourself.
I saw 3 subcsses for Alchemist:
Transmutation – This path allows an Alchemist to use alchemical processes to chemically change one substance into another. i.e. lead to gold.
Apothecary – This path allows an Alchemist to identify and prepare basic ingredients to brew complex potions, elixirs, and remedies.
Alchemical Purification – This path allows you to remove impurities from any substance you brew yourself. With the proper tools, you may also break items down into their chemical components.
Even in whatever pce I was in while reading these scrolls, my heart was beating fast. The bishop might have delivered to me the key to a successful life. I already knew how to make biodiesel. It didn't require any items I wouldn't have access to in this world. The issue had been getting it pure enough that it wouldn't ruin all kinds of components on my tractor in just a few hours.
With bad biodiesel, if I were lucky, my fuel filters would clog up before the internal seals and gaskets on my fuel pump were ruined. My fuel injectors would foul, and I cked the tools to fix them, just as I couldn't repce the fuel pump seals.
Even if I were somehow lucky enough to get biodiesel that wouldn’t ruin my fuel system, it would ruin my emissions system. That was a one-way trip to limp mode. I guess I could still pull a wagon or something, at a very slow pace. The thought made me chuckle to myself.
The Alchemical Purification subcss would take care of these problems. With some work, I figured I could probably do the same with DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid). One of the reasons my dad had chosen a New Holnd T9 was that it was designed to be able to run on high-quality pure biodiesel. A lot of other brands of rge tractors required traditional diesel.
I chose Alchemical Purification and saw two skills pop up:
Purify – Allows you to remove impurities from any potion that you distill.
Extract Ingredient – This skill allows you to extract a specific ingredient from a liquid.
The second skill would actually be helpful in making DEF. I could extract urea from urine and get it to a much higher concentration. Diesel Exhaust Fluid was designed to help diesel engines run cleaner. DEF works by being injected into a diesel engine's exhaust, where it chemically decomposes into ammonia. This ammonia then reacts with harmful emissions in a catalytic converter, breaking them down into harmless nitrogen and water vapor before the exhaust is released. Or so the tractor companies cimed. I’d always wondered if it actually helped or not. If it was working well, then it actually helped with fuel economy. When it wasn’t, it gummed the system up.
I remembered when my dad bought an early Dodge Ram EcoDiesel and then drove it slowly around the farm on ditch banks. It took about three days of slow driving before the exhaust system plugged up and put his pickup into limp mode. It had forty-seven total miles on it when it had to be hauled back to the dealership.
A lot of people had simir problems early on. They figured things out, and from then on every few days, he had to take the pickup out on the highway and get up to highway speeds to really blow that exhaust system out.
My tractor could have simir problems if it were run at low RPMs. My CVT transmission was also designed to run at higher RPMs, so I didn’t experience many problems.
After way too much reminiscing, I chose Purify. I was going to get my biodiesel!
Once I chose that, I briefly went back to real time. I immediately chose my Militiaman scroll.
Congratutions. You have the Militiaman Scroll. Would you like to accept this css?
Warning. You can have only three csses active at a time. A Profession, Support, and Combat css. Each css will contain a subcss skill tree.
I clicked accept and got my now familiar message:
Congratutions. You are now a Militiaman Level 1. Every 5 levels you will gain access to an extra perk, or upgrade to your existing perks. You have the following perks.
Homestead Defense – When defending your own property from attacks, you will receive a 10% bonus to accuracy with ranged weapons and a 10% speed bonus to movement.
Territory Defense – When defending your home territory from attacks, you will receive a 10% speed bonus.
Just like with my st two csses, I saw three subcss choices.
Melee Focus – When using a melee weapon such as a sword or a pike in a combat situation, you will receive a 10% strength bonus. (This bonus can stack with other bonuses)
Ranged Focus – When using any ranged weapon, you will receive a 10% accuracy bonus. (This bonus can stack with other bonuses)
Leadership Focus – When serving as a militia officer, you impart a morale bonus to your troops. This bonus will make your troops less likely to rout and will impart a movement speed bonus.
I was unlikely to be appointed to a leadership role after my encounter with the bishop. I had never swung a sword before, and we were all supposed to have a musket, so I chose Ranged Focus.
Last, I had two skills to choose from.
Faster Reload – This skill makes reloading a weapon 25% faster.
Quicker Aim – This skill allows you to locate and sight in on an enemy 25% faster.
This was an obvious choice. One of my uncles only hunted with a bck powder rifle, and I'd gone shooting with him quite a few times. It had been fun shooting something different from my modern 30-06 rifle that I usually hunted with. It took me close to thirty seconds to load my uncle's gun, but my uncle could load it in under fifteen seconds. A 25% faster reload speed would be huge.
It seemed like Quicker Aim was designed for archers. These different skills made it look like the System might be dynamic and could change with technology. That definitely gave me hope for my own future. I hadn’t asked Emily or Colin when guns were first invented, but unless they’d been around for fifteen hundred years, then the System had adapted to their introduction.
With that done, I came out of what I was now calling scroll time.
As soon as I twitched, Colin said, “sorry about Alchemist, but at least Militiaman is cool.”
I responded with a grin that nearly split my face.
My response confused him. “Why do you look so happy?”
I put my arm on his back. He didn’t even flinch. Then I said, “Colin, my boy, the good bishop gave me the key to keeping us thriving.”
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This isn't a book about stats, so I won't be putting up a status screen very often. That being said, our MC just got all the csses he will have for now, so I'm going to put his status screen here now. Feel free to skip if you don't care.
Name: John Jacobson
Age: 35
Main Css: Homesteader Level 20 - At Level 20, you may farm up to 500 acres per year and have access to Tier 2 crops in the Albion Shop Interface.
Perks:
Bartering II - 20% off any goods determined necessary to improve your homestead in the Albion Merchant Shop. (Upgraded once)
Gardener - Your garden crops will yield 10% more produce.
Easier Tilge III - Your ground will require 30% less energy to prepare for crops.
Subcss: Farmer Level 20 XP: --/--
Skills:
Row Cropping - Your row crops will require less water and weeding, and have a 10% better yield (stacks with any other growth perks).
Crop loss - you will lose 10% less material to wastage during harvest.
Crop Specialist - You can choose 1 crop that will gain an extra 25% yield once every four years.
Ground Specialist - You instinctively know which crops will grow best in any given field each year.
Soil Expert - Your soil will degrade at half the rate it otherwise would. If you choose complementary crops, it may become possible to avoid ever leaving a field fallow.
Supporting Css: Alchemist Level 1
Perks:
Any potion you brew gains 10% volume when the crafting process is complete (pn accordingly).
Any potion you brew is 10% more effective when you consume it yourself.
Subcss: Alchemical Purification Level 1 – This path allows you to remove impurities from any substance you brew yourself.
Skills:
Purify – Allows you to remove impurities from any potion that you distill.
Combat Css: Militiaman Level 1
Perks:
Homestead Defense – When defending your own property from attacks, you will receive a 10% bonus to accuracy with ranged weapons and a 10% speed bonus to movement.
Territory Defense – When defending your home territory from attacks, you will receive a 10% speed bonus.
Subcss: Ranged Focus Level 1 – When using any ranged weapon, you will receive a 10% accuracy bonus. (This bonus can stack with other bonuses)
Skills:
Faster Reload – This skill makes reloading a weapon 25% faster.
