Homesteading in a fantasy world

After I got dressed, I started to bring the leaves back home. I also needed to check my achievement page because I had leveled up my basic swimming enough that I was able to rank it up. Now, I had a choice of three abilities: Current Detection, Sustained Breath, and something called Hydrodynamic Flow.

The first one seemed weak, at least in this world. Perhaps in a more technologically advanced world, it would be of more use. But the more I thought about it, perhaps it could also better detect energy or mana currents that are natural for this world. There might be something to this ability.

Sustained Breath could be useful for some things, but it wasn't really calling to me. The last one, Hydrodynamic Flow, was intriguing and a bit confusing. What would it do? Would it make me a better swimmer, allowing me to move smoother through the water? I was kind of interested in what this ability could do, so I picked that one.

Testing it out, it seemed that it also worked on air, and I could basically make myself more aerodynamic. This didn't help at all with my current walking speed, but I'm guessing if I were to run, it could make some difference. While I wanted to go back into the water, I didn’t think there was too much of a hurry to test it out. Winter was approaching, so I assumed less was going to be happening.

When I got back home, I started to examine the plant. It was incredibly tough, like leather, even the more decayed ones from the bottom. I really didn’t know how exactly to test them, but one thing I tried was to squeeze water through them.

They were malleable enough that I could use them like bags. So, I filled one with water and then sealed the top, which prevented any water from getting out. I began to squeeze it tighter, but no water seemed to come out, and the leaf itself was still intact, even while I was putting considerable pressure on it.

This isn't a half-bad material, but then all of a sudden, water started to drip out as I continued to squeeze. I thought it had finally broken, but it hadn’t. It seems that when I reach a certain pressure, the water gets through the plant and starts dripping out.

I exerted more pressure and the flow increased. Even when I squeezed as hard as possible, the leaf didn’t actually break, but almost all of the water did come out. It did look a little bit damaged, like it lost some of its colour, kind of similar to the ones from the bottom when I compared them side by side.

What an interesting plant. The leaf itself was only one to seven millimetres thick, and it got thicker the closer it got to the stem. The stem itself seemed hollow from the inside and seemed to make a perfect tube. There was a lot of evolution on the plant but understanding them more was difficult as the majority of the markers were foreign to me.

I examined it with my abilities but other than being tough and water resistant I didn’t identify more specialties, but I have not worked or examined many plants. After I tried to burn it without much success, I didn’t know what else to do with it and sat down to think.

Now I understand why there was a lake. The plant was incredibly watertight, but there were limits. Otherwise, this plant was quite miraculous. It was as strong as leather, but even more bendable, and completely watertight if it wasn’t under too much water pressure.

If this thing could be cultivated, I could see plenty of uses for this kind of material. But it would also depend on how long it would last. I could leave that for other people to find out. It seems a trip to the capital is in order tomorrow, or maybe today since it's well past midnight.

I couldn’t go immediately in the morning as I wanted to spend some time with my new apprentices. It was nice to see that all of them were eager to learn, and I did my best to pass on my knowledge to them. Time flew by faster, and before I knew it, it was close to evening.

I excused myself and made a quick trip to the capital and the job building to post a job listing. I was searching for someone who was well-versed with water plants and the materials you could make from them.

Since I hadn’t eaten dinner, I decided to step into one of the newly built taverns and order myself a lot of food. "If you are having company, then I think this table is a bit small for everyone. We should have a few bigger tables open towards the other side of the room," the waiter said to me after I put in my food order. That made me chuckle. "No, it's all for me, so this table is good enough." There was an eyebrow lift, and she quickly apologized for assuming and left.

That made me feel better. I kind of liked these interactions. It reminded me that I hadn’t checked up on and tested the legionaries in a while. I wondered if the guard rotation had already happened. It shouldn’t have, but I wasn’t going to rush out now as there was still a lot to eat. Sneaking up on fresh guards wasn’t as fun. I wasn’t going to need to sleep this night, so perhaps I would stay here a bit longer than expected. Yes, the night was going to be exciting.

It didn't take long for the food to start arriving, but they couldn't bring it all at the same time since I was sitting at a small table meant for only two people. The place was quite lively, and when I was about halfway done with my food, I noticed two people coming in who I hadn’t expected to be together. Fortunately, I quickly learned that Mirhit and Omar were only together because Omar was visiting and Mirhit was assigned to show him around.

The last time I saw him was at the alliance signing, but he didn't play a big role there. I remembered Omar better from the dragon incident as I had a bit more contact with him then. He was a politician through and through, but he seemed decent.

It was quite funny that they decided to eat just one table across from me. Fortunately, they didn’t recognize me because most of the time my face was looking at the plates, and I guess I made myself a bit harder to see as I didn’t want the attention.

I wasn't purposely listening in; that weak magic item they used to disrupt their voices didn't work very well because I was so close, and my hearing was quite excellent. We should really invest in better devices, at least for people as high-ranking as our spymaster.

From what I know, Mirhit has been doing an excellent job and learning his occupation quite well. I didn't pay much attention to their normal conversation until they started whispering, and that's when I started to listen more closely.

"Have you been able to find out anything about the nation that doesn't want to be contacted?" Mirhit asked, but Omar shook his head before speaking. "It's so weird, honestly, but I'm getting closer. My contacts just seem to get unlucky and miss the representatives of that nation when they appear. Like, three times we have missed them simply because someone wrote down the wrong tavern name by accident."

"That is truly unfortunate. As you know, I have my own ways of finding things out, but the further I send them, the higher the chance that some predator eats them. I've been so unlucky when I send them towards that territory; not even one has gotten close enough to get any idea of what's happening there," Mirhit said. They soon switched topics when a drunk patron got too close and could overhear their conversation by accident.

Now, I had been quite worried about that territory. A nation so intent on staying isolated was likely up to no good. But when I was informed that they did send out diplomats to connect with the World Council, I thought that perhaps we were just unlucky and hadn't been able to connect with them. One incident I can understand, but something weird was going on, and I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck rising up as my imagination started to run wild.

I left my food half-eaten as I walked over to their table. "Do we know what kind of power the diplomats use?" I asked Omar, who clutched his heart in surprise at my sudden appearance, as did Mirhit. After seeing their response, I realized I must have unconsciously made myself even more inconspicuous.

"Speak, its important," I urged. Omar recovered and replied, "One was definitely a mage. Another, I think, was an energy-based spear user. There isn't much information out there. However, there was a damaged piece of paper with some more details. It wasn't very readable, but one of my abilities helped decipher it. I'm fairly certain one of them uses holy power, but it's not confirmed."

Shit, I had hoped that wasn't the case. I tried to control my emotions, but I was genuinely concerned. "Have you heard of any nation run by religious figures? Like those who lead churches?" I clarified. Omar pondered for a moment before responding, "Not that I'm aware of. And even if there was, I don't think they need to report it to the World Council. Though, that might be a good idea."

This was worse than I expected. I just hoped I was overthinking. "How long would it take to raise this concern and make it a requirement?" I asked, hoping that the answer would be in less than a week. The answer I received was a minimum of three months.

It could have been worse, but it was still bad news. "Finish your food quickly, both of you. We're going to have a late-night meeting that might turn into an all-nighter. Eat all you can," I instructed. I truly hoped I was wrong in my suspicions, but why else would they remain isolationist unless they were plotting something?