He stood in line with three other young men also holding spears, all of them metal tipped and rather worn down as used for training with real weapons. Unlike a wooden spear, he immediately felt the difference in weight but supported it with ease.

What he didn’t realise in the slightest was how hard merely stabbing straight was. Amazing strength did not translate to perfect accuracy.

In front of him stood a large wooden figure, a model used for testing one’s weapon precision, in which only one mark perfectly hit the model’s eyes and the rest littered its body and missed the vitals. If he wanted to kill a zombie, striking its heart and brain are the two parts which mattered most.

Joey stabbed out dozens of times, each time taking a lowered posture and gripping the spear at two different points before finally thrusting with just his arms. By keeping his body steady, he could control his centre of mass, and therefore pull back the spear with ease before repeating the process.

It’d been an hour? Maybe two, but just like the others he saw little improvement. Their trainer, Gyrren, didn’t let that stop him from criticising them though.

“You’ve really got no experience. The only advice I can give is that you practice like this for at least two hours a night. Hopefully, in a week you can hit what you want when standing still. Don’t even think about slashes or swings for now.” While his face still appeared somewhat awkward, there was a certain diligence in his words that led to a strong nod in reply. “Kretton, tuck your chest in! Are you trying to get yourself knocked out in battle?”

He remembered that advice specifically. With the sheer power they stabbed out with, if they tried to breath at the same time it’d be near impossible to stay conscious.

To be more specific, most of the trainers here recommended holding your breath and tensioning their chests whilst striking, then breathe in between attacks.

Even as harsh the advice was, it oozed with so much kindness that he wasn’t surprised that many of the new recruits saw Gyrren as an older brother figure.

“How long did it take to reach your level of skill?” As he rhythmically thrusted out with great inaccuracy, he asked a simple question.

“About 6 years, but don’t use me as a standard. I’m part of the elite warriors,” it was almost adorable how he humble he behaved even whilst bragging, but he held off from saying anything about it.

Mainly out of empathy, of course, there was a time in his life he spoke like that regarding his own interests in making weapons.

“What makes the elite warriors different? Is it the runes?” It was the only difference he’d seen between these normal spears and the ones used by warriors like Gyrren and Kalgon.

“Yes. Elder Diavolo imbues a rune of the jaguar into every elite warrior’s spear. It allows us to fight the more ferocious beasts alone, although, the power behind such a spear requires a lot of training to use. Not to mention a strengthened body.”

He made sure to never stop training whilst in the village after that question. The whole group kept practising for a few hours, and the aroma of cooked meat and fresh bread begun to waft throughout every corner of the place.

Gyrren clapped his hands a few times for attention and had the whole group stop.

“Okay everyone, cool down for a few minutes and use one of the loan fragments to wash up. It’s almost mealtime.” On that command, all the youths, Joey included, finally stood up straight and performed some light exercise to lower their heart rate.

Running for 15 minutes certainly didn’t raise it the slightest, but focused practise with a weapon was something else entirely. He felt every change in his body to an unbelievable degree. The rushing of blood through his head, and a resounded pound as his heart worked on overdrive to meet his physical and mental requirements. The brush of wood in his hand and how it tried to fly forward due to momentum but remained completely restrained by his hands. How the blade vibrated when stabbed into the wood, shaking his hands slightly before he pulled it out violent and started over.

He didn’t need to be told twice, and left the village immediately.

On the way, he absolutely saw a few guys who wanted to pick fights, but knew well enough that every one of them would deck the floors with him. And so, once back inside, none of them dared give him a dirty gaze.

He expected this in advance all things considered. The fact none punched him off the bat was good enough, and eventually, dinner began.

Besides the massive pots of stew that’d been made. The village cooks prepared dozens of loaves of bread as well as an assortment of vegetables both steamed and roasted. Food was very simply handed out in a queue fashion, in which he found himself around the middle. At the front, everyone received a wooden bowl of the stew, along with a third of a loaf and as many vegetables an individual pleased.

After the meal, there was little for Joey to do besides more training and talking about specifics with other villagers willing to discuss things with him.

At the blacksmiths, he asked a woman more casually sharpening some blades, “What do you use to keep your furnace intact? I noticed that its lined in a sort of white brick?”

“That’s just some fire brick, you gotta find some fire clay for it. Hmm… You got a coal deposit near where you are?” He never knew a type of clay like that existed, and wondered if it was a unique produce of this world whilst nodding. “Well, try mining around there, we generally find all of ours in that place.”

He thanked the blacksmith for her time and made a note of that item. If the coal mine truly had fire clay, then it’d be invaluable for making copper in the future as his oven remained at a high enough temperature!

Besides that, he spent some time around the hospital to learn some things from the nurses. Namely about how his body healed severe wounds different from minor cuts and grazes, and it led to him taking the resurrections a lot more seriously.

The female nurse told him, “Restoring limbs takes a lot of time energy. And energy either means medicines or food. But just to clarify, make sure you eat daily, it isn’t needed to survive, but you will stop healing if you go without it too long.”

So, whilst regeneration was no special feature amongst the natives of this world, he absolutely remembered to start eating a meal every day from then on. A benefit of not being special is that others generally have an answer to your questions.

And soon, night came along, with zombies and other noises making a ruckus outside much to his dismay. However, as many realised entry impossible, they gave up and the village returned to a quieter state. Furthermore, the lights which grew off the roots above dimmed greatly, now only barely allowing one to see their way around the village.

In fact, the various candles and torches lit the main hall far more.

He soon found a place to sleep and wrapped the cube tightly in his arms. Whilst he knew few would dare steal it due to repercussions, it did not restrict the possibility of some idiotic teen doing so as a hazing by others.

And then there’d be a huge issue for him and the chief.

After a bit of anxiety due to the situation, he eventually calmed down and slept for the night. He was awoken some time later by the dozens of others who began to prepare for work in the early morning. These were mainly the forgers, healers, and some farmers who took grabbed some of the loan fragments to begin work on the fields today.

It brought up one interesting part as well, and he decided it was time to leave the village. From what he knew about the magical regions, as long as he passed that gravel maker tree he’d be fine.

However, rather than leave straight away, he followed the villagers who went to work in the fields, and he suddenly understood the scale of the farms here. No different to the endless fields of cereals one saw beyond the city, but it was more than this.

Endless rows of greenery resided right beside it! The shoots of carrots, vines of cucumbers and tomatoes, bushels of cabbage and lettuce, radishes, potatoes, corn, and even peppers. It was no surprise that no one in the village starved.

A few of the villagers noticed him following though, and their appearances were mixed. A couple were annoyed by him, perhaps a bit petty about him not wanting to literally take on the expectations of a hundred shackled individuals… But the others didn’t seem to particularly care. The discussion between him and the chief spread freely, a natural thing in such a small space, but most seemed to realise how ridiculous it was to place all their hopes onto a single man whose only specialities was an artifact and being unrestricted.

So, instead, everyone was merely jealous. But not desperate enough to do anything rash, as Joey at least promised to find and trade more tablet shards with them.

“What do you want? We don’t have much time, so get it over with?” One of the less reasonable folk spoke up first, clearly annoyed by him standing by the fields and staring.

“I just want to understand some more about farming. For example, how should I till the ground, how many seeds do I plant per plot, how deep should they be planted? How long do different plants need to grow?” The man frowned for a second, not expecting a sincere reply about learning of all things, but realised it made sense from Joey’s staring.

Unfortunately, he still internally cursed the outsider who received such excessive treatment for nothing but an empty promise. And that was after refusing their chief point-blank.

“Stop giving the kid trouble, how about you save us all if you’re so sure of yourself.” Another farmer nearby heard the discussion and decided to intervene as the other man only worsened things for everyone. He then answered all of the questions at once, “Till the ground, place a few seeds every step about a finger deep into the ground, then water and let them grow. Most the plants take about four days to grow, but some of the slower ones might take a week. Corn over there is eight days, also, keep wild animals away.”

Did he say…

Joey clarified things with the farmer, “Sorry, but you said four days? Surely you mean weeks?”

“No, four days. Pretty much the norm for most the ones we got here. The herbs are a bit finnicky though, can take anywhere from a day to a couple weeks. They’re also picky as hell about the soil.” He needed a few days to come to terms with the information he just received, realising that food should never be an issue here.

And from how the farmer spoke, soil degradation didn’t really seem to be an issue for those normal crops. If not for the power trapping these people, this world was best off being called a paradise!

“That’s a lot easier than I realised… One thing, you wouldn’t happen to know where I could find barley or flax? I kind of need them.”

Unfortunately, the farmer simply shook his head. If that stuff did grow, it was a fair distance away. Although, he did point out that the place Joey stayed had had a fair chance of it appearing, so a deeper search wasn’t out of reason.

But as he thanked the man, it was time to set off. He first ensured that the surroundings were completely clear, and then…

He walked off into the forest.

When he reached the gravel maker tree, about twenty minutes later, he’d entered a significantly safer region but continued on his way, nonetheless.

Sometimes he looked back at the people, wondering if they truly expected him to turn up again.

Overwhelming. That was his thought of the past day.

From meeting the two warriors Kalgon and Gyrren, to entering the village and meetings its inhabitants, discovering the frightening reality of this place… And then openly rejecting their request.

Had he made the right choice by going his own way? With their resources he might have rapidly completed dozens of recipes every day, not to mention, unlock more magic and even real technology. But…

“God, I’m such a selfish prick.” He had to laugh to shave off the awkwardness, but it was the truth.

He wanted to do all that stuff himself. Or most of it, at least.