Year 1, Winter, First Month, First Week

Diana woke up late, but she didn’t hurry to get up. It was Winter and the villagers didn't have many tasks. Some kids would even sleep through most of the day, but not because they were lazy.

In Winter, the villagers couldn’t plant anything and the food wasn’t enough for everyone, hence they would sleep more and conserve energy. Unfortunately, even doing so wouldn't prevent deaths from the cold or sickness.

Diana and Chief Omero could sleep more, but they would have to get up eventually to check on the village’s condition. This was also true for several other villagers, they would need to fix decaying huts, build and repair tools.

The first month of Winter was the time when the working capable villagers could construct, repair, and do other odd jobs. Once Winter advanced and the second month came, it would be too cold to do anything.

A couple of hours late, Diana finally got up and joined her grandpa for breakfast. He was enjoying his time thinking more than properly eating. She gave him a warm smile and said:

“Grandpa, Winter is already here but we still don’t have villagers dying from cold. Do you think is because of the meat?”

She was happy because it was the first time they did something effective to lower the villagers’ death rate.

“Oh, Diana... Sadly the deaths will still come. Winter just started and the villagers are stronger because of the meat. But, they don’t have proper clothing and constant nutrition. I’m afraid that by the second month of Winter will see the deaths increasing again...”

Diana’s mood dived after she remembered the horrors of Winter.

Chief Omero was also happy with the results of the year but he needed for her to understand that they were just starting the changes. They couldn’t stop with only these changes, the villagers’ lives were still very bad.

So, he was trying to keep the fire of change burning as bright as possible. Hope was a powerful fuel, but hate, indignation, and desire for revolution were even more powerful.

Diana liked the feeling of hunting and bringing home helpful things. For the first time in her life, she stopped being powerless against the problems that made the villagers’ lives miserable.

While growing up, her grandfather taught her many subversive things. Although he always talked about their limitations and how they were unsupervised slaves of the nobles, he also taught her how to think, fight, and always dream and plan for true freedom.

Therefore, she was always frustrated for not doing something against the hateful nobles.

Fortunately, her life was changing. In her opinion, the turning point was when she joined boys and formed the hunting team. At that time, she kept her hopes low, she thought they were crazy, irresponsible, and utterly naive.

But when Karl started to craft more magic tools, she felt that the chance which her grandpa always talked about was here.

From that moment, she started to truly believe that change was possible. A lot of feelings she buried deep inside started to surface. She want to be part of the change, she want to lead them to change, she want to be the sword that would make the Kingdom bleed.

But for now, she was only Diana, and after she listened to her grandpa talking about the upcoming deaths, she decided to look for Karl and see what they could do.

She swallowed the soup in one gulp and left eating the bread, only saying ‘later’ to the Chief. Omero looked at her leaving back and thought to himself:

‘I raised her right, Sony would be proud... She’s like wildfire, If you try to extinguish it, it will only grow stronger...’

.........

“You’re sure that they'll meet us here? It looks like we're about to get ambushed.”

“Stop talking and keep your guard up...”

Before the Fighter could complain about the unfair treatment, a spear flew straight at them. The leading Fighter reacted by using his sword to deflect the spear, which just scratched the complaining Fighter.

If wasn't for the leading Fighter’s reflexes it would have skewered him.

Several spears followed and rained down on the group. The wind Mage reacted by extracting a large amount of wind energy from his ring and forming a rushed Wind Shield. The weak wind spiral flowed from his hands and circled the Mages, barely deflecting the spears.

The other Fighters either dodged or blocked the attacks. Unfortunately, one Fighter misjudged the spear strength and failed to block it. It went through his chest, ending his life instantly.

Lew concentrated on finding the attackers. He directed the magic energy to his eyes and tried tracing the trajectory of a spear.

They were circled by trees, plants, and stones, which made it difficult to find the origin of the attacks. Any harsh movement would also mark them a target for multiple attacks.

With the sight improvement, he saw something moving on the branches of a tree. He turned to Mage’s group and asked them for cover. They agreed and he didn't hesitate to move forward.

Lew moved energy to his legs and sprinted towards the tree. The wind Mage circled the wind currents around his body and directed it to Lew’s sides, forming a Wind Tunnel around him.

Multiple spears appeared from the trees targeting him, but the Wind Tunnel deflected them, allowing Lew to proceed in safety. The Tunnel was aimed to cover his sides but ended up affecting him. Fortunately, it pushed him forward, increasing his speed.

Lew prepared for the contact with the target tree. But instead of colliding with it, he used the energy concentrated in his calves to make a jump.

Already in the air, he kicked another tree for further impulse went towards an upper branch.

The scared Beastman attacker didn't expect to be located by Lew and could only try to flee by jumping between branches. But Lew wouldn't allow it, instead of slowing down he kicked another branch and slashed at the Beastman.

The sword made a deep cut on the back of the Beastman, who fell to the ground. Lew only jumped to one lower branch before going down, the magic energy on his legs softened the impact.

The other Beastmen tried to save their screaming comrade but were blocked by an earth wall that formed around Lew and his enemy. Lew didn't waste time and used his energy powered arms to throw the Beastman towards his group before following him in a sprint.

The hurt Beastman was a Squirrel Beastman. His face resembled both a human and squirrel face, his body was small like a human child but look stronger. His body was covered in more hair than a usual human and his fingers seemed longer and more flexible.

He screamed and cursed:

“Damm humans... Kill them... Kill all of them...”

At this time, Lew was back and the fire Mage was ready. She circled a small Fire Ray around the group.

Her eyes shined red and she made the Flames grow stronger, burning the trees surrounding them.

The other Squirrel Beastmen that were ready to increase their attacks, could only flee for the ground or further trees, some even got burned. They were enraged but couldn't do a thing.

They lost their advantage and couldn't attack from this distance. Either they flee or attack the group in the open.

The Mages, especially the fire Mage, were ready to press the attack. But the leading Fighter asked them to stop while walking forward to meet a newly arrive Beastmen group.

“Hello, friend... Can you let the Squirrel Tribe go? They’re unpleasant and used to stealing, but they do an important service keeping scouts out of the Tribal Lands... We apologize for this inconvenience... “

The leading Fighter looked at the fire Mage to see if they would agree to stand down.

“Humph...”

She made a contempt snort before extinguishing the fire around them.

.........

Diana made her away running until Karl’s hut. In Winter, if one took much time to walk in the open, they would freeze. But she only found Karl’s parents. Surprisingly, they told her that he went earlier to grandma Marlen’s hut.

She quickly left in the direction of Marlen’s hut. While running she couldn’t help but think:

‘How is it that he is always up to something? How doesn’t he stop? After Carion’s death, I thought he was too depressed to continue his projects, at least for now... But I was wrong, he’s already doing something else... He should have looked for me earlier.’

While thinking this, Diana blushed a little.

Arriving at Marlen’s place, she noticed that Karl and grandma Marlen were in the shaft built for dealing with the beasts’ meat. Karl was talking excitedly while drawing something on the ground.

Even in Winter, Karl didn’t change his studying schedule. He would wake and sleep at the same time but he mostly stayed in his hut studying and training under the supervision of Master Al.

Previously, when Marlen told him about the existence of chefs specialized in cooking elemental meat, he was curious about it. Master Al explained that starting from the MQ meat it would become increasingly difficult to extract all possible benefits from it. So, the nobles would pay a lot to guarantee the right processing and preparation.

For the LQ meat that the villagers previously consumed there wasn’t much to be done besides using the right cooking methods.

However, from MQ to better quality meats it became complicated to extract all the magic nutrients of the meat and prepare it to be properly absorbed by who ate it. Of course, one would also have to consider if the person could handle eating a certain quantity of magic-infused food.

The first point was that each elemental energy had specific characteristics and thus it would infuse different nutrients in the meat. Similarly, to successfully extract different types of elemental nutrients one would need to take different approaches.

The wind nutrients would help improve reflexes, thinking and hearing. The earth’s nutrients would improve body constitution, muscles and body development. While fire nutrients would help with disposition, overall energy and stamina. Finally, water nutrients would improve body flexibility, elasticity and eyesight.

Even though the approach should fit the quality and origin of the meat, there were general rules that could be followed to make better use of each type.

For fire meat, it was better to only barbecue it directly on the fire, while the water meat would be better boiled in low temperatures or eat it raw. The wind meat should be roasted in hot air, and the earth meat should be cooked in contact with a stone or a mineral.

However, the truly difficult part was to control the heat and other cooking elements during the preparation. For example, when barbecuing the fire meat, if the fire was too strong the meat would be burnt, while if the fire was too weak the magic properties wouldn’t be stimulated properly.

This was also true for water temperature, quantity, and time of cooking. In wind cooking, one had to take notice of the quantity and temperature of circulating air. And for the earth cooking, the temperature and width of the stone.

To make matters more complicated, while serving one should tailor the quantity and side dishes to help who ate it absorb the nutrients. But, since the village didn’t have a variety of vegetables available, they could only focus on the plants that would fit each type of meat.

“We should cook half the salamander now and keep the rest for next month. The MQ meat shouldn't be eaten in excess...” Seeing Marlen's complicated expression, Karl added:

“I know you're concerned about the cold... I'm working on something to make the village square warm. It can take a month to finish it, but let's not wait and cook half of the salamander’s meat now...”

Karl said it almost jumping from excitement.

When he talked about his ideas, Diana was always amused by it, how could a simple village boy have so many ingenious ideas.

However, she wouldn’t get surprised anymore, Karl inventing something new had become a normal daily event for her.

.........

‘Master AI, the MQ fire crystal should be enough... But how can I draw something big enough to cover the whole square? Should I draw it over the ground? Can I draw it on the ground?... Once the snow starts to fall, how will I draw it?’

‘-- You can imprint the Arrays anywhere, but drawing on the ground would be impractical. You are not the first to encounter proportion or application problems. These challenges might be overcome by using Alchemy modules. --’

‘-- Alchemy modules are Arrays that can be separated or united to execute a task. You can draw them separately and join them later, the only requirement is that they need to be connected perfectly otherwise the magic energy will not flow through them. You might even go as far as using different materials to draw the Arrays. --’

Karl started to consider several situations. He would often smile or express surprise like he was enlightened. After half an hour of talking to himself, he asked:

‘Can I draw one Array in separate modules? I want to separate one Array into several small parts...’

‘-- Yes. However, you need to draw it entirely in one go. You can not imprint half a concept. But once you have drawn the Array you might separate it into different modules. --’

Karl smiled and started to work on his biggest creation.