Bjorn looked over to where the midwife held his son, now wrapped in cloth. “We talked about it and decided to name him Alaric. After a great man who saved both of our lives on numerous occasions.” He held out his arms and the woman made her way over and placed Alaric in Bjorn's arms.
He sat down on the bed sitting next to Meira, her bodily fluids soaking into his pants as he sat. Their son was tiny, at least by his human standards. He had their combined fair completion. His hair, a wispy platinum blond color, the same as Meira's hair color. His facial features were a nice mix of Meira's and Bjorn's. His body had an oddity to it though, one of his ears was rounded just like a humans, the other was long and pointy exactly like an elf's ears.
He looked so peaceful sleeping in Bjorn's arms. Meira had passed out from exhaustion, so instead of waking her up he let her sleep. She needed it, she earned it. Instead he motioned to Adriana who had been standing in the corner of the room with a look of shock on her face. Hesitantly and slowly she made her way over to where Bjorn sat next to Meira on the bed.
She stood next to Bjorn looking down at his sleeping son and smiled at him. Bjorn let her watch for a moment before he spoke to her. “Do you want to hold him?”
A look of panic crossed her face. “But I don't know how to. He is your son, I don't want anything to happen to him.” she said hastily.
“Calm down.” Bjorn said in a gentle voice. “Everything will be alright. You can hold him if you want to.”
Adriana hesitantly put her arms out and Bjorn set Alaric in her arms. At first her body was tense, rigid, as if she was holding a bomb in her arms. As she looked down at Alaric her body began to slowly relax, realizing that it was totally fine. As the tension left her body a smile began to worm its way onto her face.
“Shall we introduce him to your brother and father?” At first Adriana looked up at Bjorn panic in her eyes. “It will be alright, I know you don't trust your father, but it will be alright, I promise. You once were the same size as Alaric and you ended up just fine.”
Adriana nodded. “You're right, it will be fine.” She said it as if she was trying to convince herself.
The pair opened the door and walked into the main room. Caiden sat there with his hands in his head, Aiden paced back and forth. When they heard the door open their heads snapped towards the noise. When they saw that it was Adriana and Bjorn they quickly made their way over excitedly.
“Look at him, he is so precious.” Aiden said, a smile on his face. It was the first time Bjorn had seen the man smile. “Is it alright if I hold him?” His hands snaked forward briefly and hesitated right before he touched Alaric.
Adriana stiffened up and halfway pulled the baby away from her father. She looked at Bjorn for his reaction. When he nodded she reluctantly brought Alaric back over in front of her father. But she didn't relinquish Alaric to Aiden. Finally Bjorn put his hand on her shoulder reassuring her that it would be alright.
She handed him over to Aiden but he could see the reluctance as she did so. Aiden took Alaric with the skilled hands of a father who has handled babies for years. As he held the baby Caiden and Adriana crowded around their father trying to get a better look at the baby.
Bjorn left them as they were for a moment to check on Meira. She was sleeping mostly peacefully. Her breathing was a little ragged but she didn't seem to be struggling. He turned to the midwife who was cleaning up the placenta. “Is this normal for elves?”
“huh?”
“Sleeping after childbirth. Where I am from most human women have their bodies flooded with adrenaline after childbirth, to the point where they can't sleep.”
“I have no idea what adrenaline is, but yeah that is pretty normal for elves, dwarves, and gnomes too actually.”
“Okay, thank you. When you are done you can pack up and go home. I will worry about cleaning up later.”
Bjorn turned to leave, but was stopped by the midwives' voice. “I know things got a little tense there for a bit. I just want you to know, I am impressed by how well you handled that.” There was a tone of respect in her voice that wasn't there before.
Bjorn mulled over how he wanted to reply for a moment before he decided to go with the truth. “Honestly. I am not impressed with how you acted and treated me. I understand you might have a good reason for wanting to bar men from being present during childbirth, but I am both the husband and father of the child. I have considerably more right to be present than you do. You shouldn't try to separate the father from what is happening, things might go just a little bit smoother if they are present. If we are being perfectly frank, if I had listened to you it the moment, my wife would be dead right now, and it would purely be your fault.” He spoke to her with his back turned towards her.
Bjorn turned to face the woman. “Your sexism almost killed someone today. You should determine where that is coming from and get rid of it. Sexism has no place in childbirth and doesn't belong anywhere in your profession. I will still pay you the agreed upon sum, but other than that I want nothing to do with you.”
“I just see-” She started to say.
Bjorn held up his hand. The action and the steel on Bjorn's face cut her off. “I do not care where it is coming from. Nore do I care for your excuses. You are no longer welcome here, pack up your things and leave.” he turned away from the midwife and made his way back to where his neighbors were fussing over his son.
Several hours later the sound of Meira stirring could be heard from the room. The group stood up and made their way into the room. Meira sat up from where she had been laying in bed and was looking around, her eyes panicked. When her eyes landed on Bjorn carrying Alaric she relaxed and smiled. “Can I hold my child?”
Bjorn made his way to her side and handed over Alaric. She took him in her arms and held him close to her bosom. He was still sleeping peacefully. Before the midwife left she dropped a blanket over Meira’s body, giving her a hint of modesty again. Aiden and Caiden stood hesitantly at the door, their eyes averted from where Meira lay.
“It's okay, she is modest.” Bjorn said. They finally looked at her and where she lay. She looked both exhausted and glowed at the same time. Her normally pale complexion was somehow even paler. Her skin the same color as a sheet of printer paper.
Meira pulled back the small blanket that Alaric was wrapped in. She looked down and then back up at Bjorn. “He's a boy. Did you name him what we decided on?”
“Yes, his name is Alaric, Alaric Ward.”
Her gaze drifted down towards their son. “Good, it's a good name.” Just then Alaric woke up and started crying. “I bet he is hungry.” She moved to move the blanket that covered her.
Just then Aiden spoke up. “Alright kids, I think we should go home for the day. I'm sure the Wards will have a lot that they need to get done. Let's leave them to it.” He then expertly corralled his two children out of the room. The sound of footsteps on planks soon disappeared and the sound of boots on stone soon took their place. The sound soon faded as they made their way home.
Meira pulled the blanket back and exposed her breast. She put Alaric up to her teat and let him suckle. “How are you feeling love?” Bjorn asked cautiously as she lay there looking exhausted.
“Tired. Dead tired.”
“You did a good job today. That really took it out of you. Are you able to cast magic?”
“No, I am too tired to focus and concentrate enough to accomplish any magic whatsoever.”
“That's fine, I was just thinking about your health bar. You have around 10% left. I almost lost you.” His voice broke a little with that last statement.
Meira put her hand over Bjorn’s and rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand. “But you didn't love. I am fine now, you kept your promise, you kept me alive.” Her voice full of emotion.
“I did.” Bjorn whispered. He cleared his throat. “I had to give you two health potions to keep you alive… Did it affect your maximum health at all?”
Meira’s eyes got the distant look that meant that she was looking at prompts and digging through menu’s. She was quiet for a long nerve racking minute. Finally she spoke. “No, it didn’t seem to, I think I am fine. Actually I am totally fine, my maximum health didn’t decrease at all.”
Bjorn relaxed. “That is great.” He said lamely.
They spent the next few hours talking amongst themselves quietly. Eventually Bjorn picked Meira up and took her down to the river. He proceeded to bathe her, removing all of the blood, and caked on placenta that dried on her skin. He then carried both her and their new son back up the hill and back to home. Where he stripped all of the linens that covered the bed off and set them aside to wash. The straw that they had been using for the bed was soaked through so Bjorn removed that as well. That he burned.
Luckily one of their neighbors grew alfalfa so they were able to buy some of the hay from her. Bjorn replaced the straw with new fresh hay. He then replaced the bedsheets that they had been using to separate the straw from their bodies. He packed up the dirty cloth and let Meira settle down into their new bed. While she did that Bjorn set to making dinner for the both of them.
Several hours later Meira was sleeping peacefully with Alaric and Bjorn took the blankets and linens down to the river to attempt to wash everything and remove all of the grim and dried bodily fluids off. It took a long while but he still wasn’t able to fully remove the grossest parts of the soiled cloth. Finally Bjorn gave up, and decided to just burn the cloth, it wasn’t worth it, and it still smelt of blood and viscera. He knew that childbirth was a dirty affair, he just didn’t know how large of a mess it would make.
Eventually life returned to normal for Bjorn. He spent his time working on the various projects around the house, while Meira helped where she could, but most of her time was spent taking care of Alaric. Even though they got her health back to full she still hadn’t fully recovered from the ordeal of childbirth. Right at the 10 hour mark Bjorn used his connection with Meira and transferred 50% of his health over to her, helping her recover. After a night's rest Meira felt well enough to cast magic again where she topped the pair of them off again.
Bjorn spent some of his time picking up the tasks and chores that Meira had been doing. This made it so that his nightly runs and teaching sessions became more and more infrequent. He spent more time working on getting everything that needed to be done, done.
2 weeks after Alaric was born the crops were ready. And so Bjorn began harvesting the crops. It was slower going that it used to be due to Meira not being able to help much, but Bjorn didn’t mind. He still plodded through and spent long hours working to get everything harvested that needed to be. Even though they had more crops to harvest this year he was able to get more done. Although he was no professed farmer he had learned quite a bit from last year and was considerably more efficient.
Even though he worked faster he still didn’t finish their crops. Soon the neighbors came over and helped Bjorn. It was long, but a week and a half later he managed to bring in all of the crops with the help of both of his neighbors. They moved on to help everyone on the way to town, not Bjorn. He decided to stay and harvest the herbs and keep work on the alchemy hut. No one blamed him for that, he and Meira just had a baby after all, there was tons of work that needed to be done because of it.
At first Bjorn wanted to finish with the insulation on the house but he ultimately decided against it. He wanted to finish working on the alchemy hut. He still had tons of work that needed to be done before winter set in. So that was what he started work on after he harvested the herbs that needed to be taken out of the garden, which took several days.
Even though he got back to working he got nowhere near as much done each day than he used to. A Lot of his time got taken up by having to help Meira with Alaric and preparing food, as well as taking care of Alaric, giving Meira a break. Before he scoffed at how much time being a parent took, he very quickly learned, it was easily a full time job.
Still a month later Bjorn finally finished the roof on the long side of the alchemy hut and began work on the short side. He deduced that with the rate of his work he wasn’t going to get finished before winter hit again. The limiting factor was the rate at which he could produce the stone blocks that he used for the walls. So he decided to change up how he made that section of the building. Instead of just working on the walls until they were finished and then making the roof he decided to make the roof first. He would be able to make the walls all winter long, but he couldn’t work on the roof all winter long, specifically the clay tiles that made up the roof.
So what he did was build the corners of the walls up first stacking them in the same alternating pattern that he had throughout the rest of the construction. This made the walls of the building partially finished as he never left a block partially hovering. But this had the added benefit of letting him build the support structure for the roof. Which he did. From there he began putting the tiles in place again.
Soon winter came once again and outside work slowed once again. Bjorn managed to finish the roof of the alchemy hut but he still had to finish the walls, but for now he abandoned that project. Even though Bjorn and Meira could handle the colder room of their house, Alaric really struggled with it. So Bjorn diverted his attention to finishing insulating the walls. They had more than enough straw to get that accomplished, and with the premade wooden planks they very quickly made progress on that project.
Only a few weeks after winter finally set in they finished insulating the house. With that they officially finished building the house. Until then every time Bjorn identified their house it always just said “incomplete structure, cannot identify.” Not this time.
The problem they were having with keeping the interior of their home warm was no longer a problem. The insulated walls did their job perfectly, retaining the heat just fine. On top of that the several fireplaces inside the house did wonders to keep it nice and warm throughout the winter. The only place that ended up being chilly ever was the kitchen, but with the stone blocks it didn't take long for it to heat up once they started preparing meals.
With the winter set in they finally had more time and desire to work on the interior of the house. What Bjorn wanted to do was work on finishing the exterior of the alchemy hut. What he actually did was finally work on building the stairs. Meira was very adamant that Bjorn had to finally make the stairs before he started working on anything else. Instead of arguing he acquiesced and gave her what she wanted.
He ultimately had been putting off building the stairs for no reason. In his eyes there was no reason for them to need to build the stairs. They both could make their way up from the basement just fine, so there was no real logical reason for it. It wasn't like they needed to make it easier to haul goods in and out of the basement. They had her portable pocket and his bag of holding for that. It didn't inhibit them at all, but it was more of a convenience thing. Which was why Meira wanted the stairs.
As Bjorn worked on the house he and Meira got to spend more time together. It wasn't that they didn't take the time for each other during the summer, it was more that there was so much to be done, separating and conquering was the better option by far. It helped with their relationship.
It wasn't that they were drifting apart. It was more along the lines that Meira had been more terse and short tempered lately. For the most part she was the one to take care of Alaric's needs. Anyone who has taken care of a newborn knows that they can be fussy. Alaric was one such baby. He cried a lot, and when he wasn't crying he whined about all sorts of things. He had an incessant need to be held, and while he was being held you couldn't sit down with him, he had to feel like he was moving somewhere. It got to the point where Alaric was wearing down on Meira's nerves and she was so sleep deprived that Bjorn gave her his belt of sustenance.
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They alternated between whose job it was to take care of Alaric. While it was Meira's turn she took the belt. During Bjorn's turn he took the belt. It very quickly became the most important item that they owned for taking care of Alaric. So much so there were arguments that broke out about who got the belt. The need for less food was nice but by no means a game changer. The real value came from the belt's ability to reduce the amount of sleep needed.
Even though there were plenty of fights to be had as there often is between a newly married couple, it wasn't constant. They ultimately were soul partners and loved each other dearly, so that played a large role throughout the relationship. For as many days they argued and bickered there were just as many where they were in love and spent the time together.
At first when Alaric had first been born Meira was almost bitter at how much time Bjorn spent working and not with them. At first she claimed mentally that those feelings were because Bjorn was shirking in his fatherly and husbandry duties. As the winter first set in and then continued to rage she realized that she had been misleading herself. The real reason for her hurt feelings was a sense of jealousy. She would never admit to it but she was jealous of Bjorn's freedom. He never had to give up what they were working on to take care of Alaric, that was Meira's job. That job was because she was the only one who could feed Alaric, he needed to be fed 8 sometimes 10 times a day.
Some small part of her understood that her feelings weren't fair, and as time went on the small part grew. When she finally accepted that Bjorn was in fact a good father and husband, those feelings truly started to die. She accepted that she was jealous of Bjorn’s freedom through her point of view. During the months they spent together that winter the feelings of jealousy fully faded away.
She would never tell Bjorn that was why she had been distant. But eventually her self love made her realize her mistake. Their relationship started to heal again, even though Bjorn never knew that it was hurting. He just knew that something in Meira changed for the better and he was happy with it.
For the rest of that winter there were many milestones that they saw. Alaric was a fast learner, or so it felt to them. 3 months after his birth he rolled over for the first time. At 4 he had started to crawl. It wasn’t anything major yet, but enough that they needed to take note of and celebrated as a family.
By the end of Alaric’s 4th month he had undergone a personality shift. Gone were the days where he always needed to be held by someone. Instead now he only wanted or needed to be held sporadically. He was still a very affectionate child, but he didn’t need it constantly. Instead his need to be touched was replaced by a watchful gaze.
His eye color was a mix between Bjorn’s and Meira’s. There was a large green outer circle, the same forest green that Meira’s eyes were, that took up most of his eye. In the center it was the same pale blue color of Bjorn’s eyes. In Between the two rings there were shards of color that traveled between the two invading each other's territory. This made Alaric’s gaze a little bit disconcerting. It wasn’t that it was unusual or unnatural. But his gaze made people feel as if Alaric were staring into their souls as he watched them.
Alaric would want to be put in a place where he could watch both Bjorn and Meira, then he would watch them work. His gaze would shift between his parents and watch intently what they were doing. Oftentimes Bjorn felt like Alaric was drinking in every small detail of what Bjorn was doing. It was a weird feeling to get from a child. But ultimately nothing major about their son, they accepted that he would probably be unusual. Not that they expected anything different giving who his parents were.
Once Bjorn finally finished working on the stone stairs that he built leading up from the basement to the main house he changed projects once again. This time he moved on to finishing up with the work he had been doing on the alchemy hut. There was still tons of work that needed to be done on the inside to get it ready for alchemy, but at least he could finish the skeleton of the building.
A month after he started work on the alchemy hut again he finally finished with the exterior of the building. It was exactly what he wanted out of it. The building was fully built out of stone, all except for the clay roofing tiles. He actually grew a little creative this time with the floor of the building. He tried his hand with tile this time around. He first made the floor out of large 2 by 2 square stones that he cut. Then over the top he tried to make something of a mosaic, which didn’t really work.
Bjorn spent a full day exploring around their farm trying to find different colored stones. All in the hopes of producing some sort of mosaic. He then spent the next several days taking those different colored stones and cutting them down to sizes that he could fit into the groove he made in the stone. He then tried to make art out of his pile of stones.
He didn’t want to do anything really difficult, so he tried to make one of the suns. Although the color was off as the most common colors he had was the light off pink that the rest of the granite was. So he made the sun out of pink, even though they didn’t have a pink sun. The hard part was getting the sun circular, as he had never been overly artsy, he had a hard time seeing if it was circular when he was making it. He eventually settled on a string cut to length and held it in place in the middle and used that for the circle.
Next he tried to make rays of light shooting off the sun as the sun was depicted by anyone over the age of 7. Which didn’t look terrible, but the wavy nature was hard to get with the materials on hand. Next he wanted to make the night sky behind the sun. This decision was due to him having a ton of black stone. He filled in most of the remaining space with black stone and he sprinkled in some white here and there to try and make it look like the night sky.
What the mosaic actually looked like was a boob with streamers of pink flowing off of it. The black and white background honestly further detracted from the art. As it turned out Bjorn’s first and largest mistake was trying to do this without really color coordinating his stone beforehand. What he didn’t realize was that not all shades of black were created equal and all shades of pink were the same. It was entirely unintentional but the very first piece that he put in place was a darker shade of pink than the rest of the sun.
He hadn’t realized that he would get different colors, even from the same stone. He thought that all of the stones color would be uniform. So instead of leaving the boob in the middle of his alchemy lab he tore the floor out in that spot. He had foolishly made the decision to fuse the stone together even as he placed the mosaic in. Making it so that the only way he could remove his eye sore was to fully remove the stone in that section.
The entire failed project took up 2 weeks of his time. At first he was proud of what he was doing and wouldn’t let Meira see what he was working on. As he drew nearer and nearer to completing his art he continued to get sucked into the project and didn’t actually see what he was making. Eventually he let Meira see what he was making. He brought her into the hut and stood there proudly watching Meira for her reaction. Her reaction was to laugh at Bjorn, and his failed attempt. The jokes that she made were merciless.
Sullenly Bjorn tore out the floor as he didn’t want to keep it. Once Meira pointed out what his mosaic really looked like he wanted nothing to do with it. So when he tore it out he didn’t just simply leave it somewhere for someone to find later Bjorn took the stone and smashed it down as far as he possibly could. Fully removing any trace of the abomination he created.
Meira tried to console him, telling him it wasn’t that bad, and after she thought on it she could see what Bjorn had been going for. But Bjorn could tell that she was just being nice and trying not to hurt his feelings. Not falling for her lies he continued to work.
Before he finished up with the stone walls for the exterior he spent his time filling in the hole in the flooring that was a constant reminder of his failure. After he finished filling in his hole of shame he returned to working on the walls of the building. That task was actually slightly annoying to complete. Once they found out from Chrome that the snow and weather came from mostly the south they had made sure that anything that they built had southern walls finished first.
With the smaller section of the alchemy hut being on the south side of the uppercase L shape he constantly had to fight the weather. The roof helped protect from the snow that slowly and lazily came down, but it did nothing to protect from the elevated wind that they experienced up on the hill. So as he worked he had to constantly remove the snow from the interior of the building to keep working. For some reason the winter had more wind than normal, meaning he had to clear the snow several times, sometimes several times each day.
The snow wasn’t a massive deal as the section of building wasn’t anywhere near finished yet, The fact that the building was full of snow didn’t matter. What did matter though was that the snow that filled the building over and over made it so his work space was constantly covered in snow, which needed to be removed before he could continue working. Unfortunately the recipe that they had for the mortar needed it to be dry to properly bind. Which to no one's surprise made working during winter shity and slow.
One cold windy night Bjorn was awoken by a creaking sound. It was common if not natural for the house to creak in the cold. As the cold on the outside and the heat on the inside battled against one another to heat and cool the wooden boards the house naturally creaked. This sound wasn’t like the normal groaning of the house. It sounded as if the fight was cranked up to 11.
At first as he lay there he thought that the sound was from an especially cold night, but for some reason he couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t quite right. So instead of waking Meira he lay there trying to determine what the source of the sound was. After a long minute he figured it was nothing and closed his eyes to go back to sleep.
That was when the location of the creaking noise changed. As he lay there he hadn’t noticed that the sound originated from one particular area of the outer wall. The source of the creaking slowly began moving around the exterior of the house. Bjorn finally accepted that this was some sort of supernatural source of the creaking.
He leaned over and grasped ahold of Meira’s shoulder and gave her a gentle shake. He took his other hand and clasped it over her mouth as he did so. Her eyes shot wide open and her breath quickened. Her eyes searched around the room frantically for a moment before they settled on Bjorn and her breathing slowed.
Bjorn leaned close to her ear and whispered. “I think something is outside, let’s get ready.” She nodded from where she lay and sat up. They quickly got dressed and armed themselves. Bjorn pulled his sword that had been laying in the corner of the room from its sheath and held it in one hand. He took his new enchanted dagger from his bag of holding and attached it to his thigh. He tied it in such a way that it would be easy to grip and draw the dagger from where it lay attached to his leg. He would have put on armor but they didn’t have time.
Meira went to the opposite wall that Bjorn did and grabbed her magical staff. She pulled on her thick coat and then buttoned her cloak on. She too would have put on her leathers but didn’t want to dedicate the time to it. She also put a belt knife attached to her hip.
Now armed Bjorn picked up Alaric where he lay sleeping soundly and wrapped him in his blanket, they then moved out of their room and into the main room. As they were leaving they heard the sound of a soft footfall crunching on the snow right outside their window. They were on alert before, but now they had confirmation that something was out there.
Bjorn placed Alaric in his crib that they had built to contain the child when they were working on something in the main room of the house. He worried that Alaric would wake up and cry as he had often done, but not this time. He slept right through being moved.
As they stood there at attention the creaking sound slowly made its way around the house heading to the north side. It was the creaking and groaning sound of wood shrinking and relaxing against the materials holding it in place. As the sound slowly traveled around the outside of the building a thin sheet of ice began to form on the windows. Normally there was frost on them, but only really around the edges. As they watched, the frost quickly spread over the window making it impossible to see out of.
The frost first covered 1 window, and then the next, then the next. The movement of whatever was outside was heading towards the kitchen. So did Bjorn and Meira. They made their way over to that corner of the house with weapons at the ready. They stood in the doorway leading to the kitchen, Bjorn right in front of Meira. He was down in the kitchen, the floor being a foot and a half below the floor of the main building coming in handy. Meira had a clear sight of the door leading into the kitchen, while remaining in the building and could also keep an eye on the front door. In preparation Bjorn cast bark skin on himself. His skin took on a rough scaly appearance.
They stood there in silence as the groaning sound started to fade. It was a long tense moment before there came the sound of something grasping the handle on the door they had made and began slowly lifting it. The sound of the latch slowly slipping free of the door frame came echoing through the room. It was the sound of wood scraping on wood, a sound that sounded normal, if not harmless. Now however it sounded sinister and the sound sent chills down Bjorn’s spin.
It caught briefly at the top of the latching mechanism before clearing that last little bit and the door slowly started to open. 4 unnaturally long pale blue fingers tipped with long black claw looking fingernails wrapped around the door and began to slowly push it open. It swung open to reveal a hunched womanly figure standing in the doorway, shrouded by darkness.
Bjorn immediately cast his simple light spell illuminating both the interior of the room and the creature beyond. What was illuminated was a woman with unnaturally long slender blue arms. The arms were long enough to be down by her shins if the arms were fully extended. The unnaturally long arms had her elbows start right at the bottom of her ribcage. She was shrouded in gray and black cloth. A belt of skulls hung from her hip, from the eye sockets of the skulls a soft blue light glowed. The most unnerving part of her visage though was her mouth. There were no lips, and it looked like the flesh around her lips were also removed. Showing entirely way too much of her gums and teeth. Her teeth were more like fangs as the ran every which way in her mouth. Her eyes were sunken and dark, in the center there was pitch black to further give her a sunken look. The skin on her body was taut and thin.
In her other hand she held a staff which she raised to try and blot out the light that had blinded her briefly.
(If you don’t care about advancement you may skip over this part. This is his total skill growth over two years of his life.)
Level up!
Level up!
Due to certain attributes falling behind Bjorn put 4 of his free points into con. 3 into int, and 1 into str
He also gained a few attribute points due to him just living his life how he wanted to. 1 str. 1 end. 1 dex. 1 agil. 1 wisdom. 1 int. 2 cha. The strength and endurance came from his constant manual labor. The dex and agility came from his nightly runs. The wisdom and intelligence came from constantly draining his mana pool. Lastly the charisma came from him actually taking care of himself and cleaning himself.
You have advanced your skill level in bowyering, reaching skill level 4. The arrows and bows you create have an increase of 4% in quality.
You have advanced your skill level in carpentry. reaching skill level 23. Durability of wooden items you build will be increased by 57.5%.
You have advanced your skill level in climbing. reaching skill level 4. Scaling objects with handholds has become 24% easier.
Congratulations you have advanced in the skill: Cooking, you are now skill level 19. Your attempts to make an edible meal have increased by 19%.
You have advanced your skill level in construction, reaching skill level 24. Buildings you build will have 48% increased durability.
You have advanced your skill level in road building, reaching skill level 11. Roads and path that you build will increase movement speed along them by 11% and increase the durability of the road by 22%
Congratulations you have advanced from a beginner roadbuilder to a novice roadbuilder. You have gained a perk. Paths and roads you have built will have an additional movement speed increase of 25%.
Congratulations you have advanced your skill level in farming, reaching skill level 23. Crops and herbs that you cultivate from a sprout have 46% increased yields.
Congratulations you have advanced from a beginner farmer to a novice farmer. You have gained a perk. You will lose 25% less stamina while doing farming related actions.
Congratulations, you have advanced in your skill: Gardening. You have reached level 10. Plants under your care are 40% less likely to be affected by diseases.
Congratulations you have advanced from a beginner gardener to a novice gardener. You have gained a perk. Plants you care for are now 10% more likely to take and thrive.
You have advanced your skill level in herb-lore. reaching skill level 21. The efficacy of plants and herbs you collect will increase by 63%.
You have advanced your skill level in Leatherworking, reaching skill level 8. Durability of items that you make will be increased by 8%
Congratulations, you have advanced in your skill: Masonry. You have reached level 31. Stone structures you build with the stone you work with will have their durability increased by 62%. You also have 62% increased working speed while making stone products.
Congratulations you have advanced from a beginner mason to a novice mason. You have gained a perk. Objects made of stone feel 25% lighter to you.
Congratulations you have advanced from a novice mason to an apprentice mason. You have gained a perk. Objects made of stone feel an additional 25% lighter to you.
You have advanced your skill level in stealth, reaching skill level 11. You will now be 44% harder to spot while stealthing.
Congratulations you have advanced from a beginner stealther to a novice stealther. You have gained a perk. You have gained an activatable skill.
Now you see me: You may expend 50 stamina to enter stealth as long as you are not in a direct line of sight of someone you will gain a 200% increase to your stealthing capabilities until spotted.
Congratulations you have advanced in the skill: Survival, you are now skill level 10. You are now more likely to see dangerous situations before you are in them.
Congratulations you have advanced from a beginner survivalist to a novice survivalist. You have gained a perk. You have gained an activatable skill.
Who needs warmth: You may expend 10 mana to instantly dry any clothes you or someone within 5 feet of you. This skill will also provide a minor buff that lasts 1 minute, making their bodies feel like it is in an 80 degree room.
You have advanced your skill level in tracking, reaching skill level 9. The tracks that creatures leave as they travel through the world make just a little more sense to you.
You have advanced your skill level in trade, reaching skill level 12. Items you buy and sell prices will be 6% more in your favor, this also includes bartering.
You have advanced your skill level in woodcutting, reaching skill level 15. You will do 37.5% more damage to trees and wooden objects.
Congratulations you have advanced from a beginner woodcutter to a novice woodcutter. You have gained a perk. You lose 10% less stamina from cutting down and preparing trees.
You have advanced your skill level in light magic. reaching skill level 12. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.
You have advanced your skill level in water magic. reaching skill level 22. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.
You have advanced your skill level in earth magic. reaching skill level 16. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.
You have advanced your skill level in sonic magic. reaching skill level 4. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.
