Chapter 18 - Back again

Day 19

Mike's POV:

Mike took his way back in a relaxed manner. It took him two days until he reached the entrance of his village. He immediately went home to see his little sister Anna. She and Gunthar were just sitting in the kitchen and enjoying their lunch break.

"About time you come back little bro. We were almost worried you wanted to become some kind of hermit, living in the woods."

"I love you too Gunthar. No I was hunting, both of you surprised me when you announced your engagement. I was broke after I bought my bow. What kind of brother would I be if I would not have a gift for my little sister."

"I would still love you Mikey."

"Anna, I told you to not to call me that."

He couldn't get angry at his sister who started to hug him.

"We were worried about you. You never went hunting as long as in the last weeks. Even when you came back, it was just for two days."

"I'm sorry, but it was worth it. Look what I've got."

Mike started putting silver coins on the table. His smile grew wider at the same rate at which their eye grew bigger.

"Damn boy, did you rob some merchants? Even if most of them are a greedy bunch, that's not right!"

"Sometimes you sound like an old man Gunthar. No, I did not rob anybody. I haven't shown you the best yet. Look at this!"

Mike removed the tome from his bag and put it on the table.

"What's that Mike? I didn't know you were into old books."

"This isn't just any old book Anna. This is a cultivation manual. It's at least C rank I think. In addition there are guidelines for training, spells and warrior techniques in it!"

For a few moments, nobody said anything. Gunthar was the first to get his focus back.

"Damn boy, are you aware that there a people out there who would slaughter our whole village, without to blink an eye, to get a book like this? You can't tell anybody about this Mike!"

"I wasn't, I just wanted to show it to the villagers so they could cultivate mana."

"You don't understand! I mean you can't tell anybody about this! I mean, maybe, just maybe, you could tell the chief, he was a former adventurer after all. Under no circumstances mention it to the rest of the villagers. People talk, even nice people. If one word of this reached the wrong ears, we'd be done for. Trust me I know. While I was living in Geldern to become a journeyman, I learned more about the lowlifes there than I've ever wanted to know. The count is the worst of them all!"

Gunthar spat on the floor. Mike was a little surprised about his strong reaction. He'd only been to the city a few times for trade. He did not know much about it.

"Gunthar's right Mike. As much as I love the people in our village, they're just farmers and they like their stories. You finding such a treasure would spread like wildfire. By the way, how did you get all of this?"

"I've found a rich business partner. I think he was a little bit crazy. He wanted me to hunt animals and bring them to him. For the first ones I got ten silver each. While carrying back a panther to our meeting point, I was attacked by a large group of goblins. I had to run for my life and he was my only chance, so I ran to him with the goblins on my heel."

"I assume he was angry that you endangered him?"

"No, he just laughed and slaughtered them all. Then he thanked me for bringing him so much creatures and then he gave me the book and 200 extra silver."

"Wow, that really sounds crazy. I hope the book is not cursed or stolen and he just looked for a fool to give it to."

"No, it's not cursed. But just to calm your nerves, I will bring it to the chief now. In the meantime you can think about what present I can get you. After all I can afford it now. Oh, and Gunthar, we have enough money for the tools, you were so badly looking to get, now."

"I don't know Mike. It's your money. You've earned it and from what I've understood you risked your life to get it. I don't think it's right for me to spend it."

"Come on, don't be to prideful to take some money from me. We're family after all. Fine, if you are too proud to take the money, I can lend it to you. Trust me when I say, business for a smith will skyrocket in the near future."

"What do you mean by that Mike?"

"I can't talk about it right now. You'll know in a month."

With a smile on his face, Mike packed his stuff and went to the mayors house. His name was Gunnar, but everyone just called him chief.

"Chief are you there?" Mike shouted

"I'm in the barn chopping some wood Mike. Come over."

Mike went to the barn next to the mayor's house. He found the chief bare-chested with a big axe in his hand. It brought back the fact to Mike's mind that the chief was, even with his crippled leg, by far the strongest man in the village.

"What can I do for you boy. About time you came back from the woods. I've even thought about going after you."

"I stumbled over something and found a real treasure trove. Look at this."

When Mike took out the tome from his backpack, the chief signaled him to put it back and to follow him. They went to the chiefs archery range where they would be safe from prying eyes and ears.

"Damn boy, a book like that is pretty valuable. Even if there are no important information in it, collectors would spend at least five gold for it. But I know you good enough, you wouldn't be here if this was just an antiquity."

Mike told him about the book. After this, they went to the mayors kitchen, sat down and the chief started to browse through the book. He didn't speak one word for almost three hours.

"Did you steal it?"

"No of course not."

"I had to ask. If you've stolen it and it could be tracked back here, you would've signed the death warrant of the whole village."

"So its valuable you say?"

"No not valuable, priceless. I mean the spells are basic, but extremely useful. The cultivation technique is probably in the high end of the C rank, a lot better than the one I use. What's special about this book is the additional information. You would not know, but most of the adventurers run into a bottle neck sooner or later. This mostly happens because of faults in their earlier cultivation. This books contains information that would prevent you from making these kinds of faults. There is information what to avoid in the early steps of cultivation, so it doesn't come to bite you in the ass, up until the S rank. For example this:

"Do not under any circumstances get affinities. Each kind of strengthening of one element will mean a weakening of the opposed one. The more out of balance your affinities get, the harder it will be to fix it later on. If you use an element, always balance it out with using the opposite one. Focusing on one element and increasing its affinity is the fastest way to die for a high ranking adventurer. Starting at the S rank, increasing one's resistance to all elements is a central part of the cultivation. Any kind of unbalanced affinity will leave a glaring opening in the resistances. A high affinity SS rank fire mage can be easily killed by surprising water magic attacks from even an A rank warrior. In contrast, an A rank warrior would not be able to hurt a SS rank person with balanced affinities."

I've never even heard of hit concept. Almost all of the adventurers I knew where trying to focus on one element and to get as much affinity as they could. A higher affinity would increase the cultivation speed after all. Any decent adventurer would give one arm for this kind of information. With them he could escape these pitfalls. I mean, I can't verify if all of this information is correct, but from what I can tell it looks pretty legit. With my limited knowledge I can only validate some of the entry level information."

"So in your opinion, how much is it worth, maybe 100 gold?"

"More like 10,000 gold coins. If the it is not a forgery."

Mike's jaw dropped. From what he knew there would barely be 10,000 gold coins in the whole county of Geldern.

"Like I said, you would not know, but the level of the author should be at least SS rank. In our whole kingdom, there is in addition to the king and his brother only one other SS rank: The archduke of the iron border. But I don't think they would have the theoretical knowledge to write something like this. Even if, knowledge is power, they would keep it in the family just to ensure that their children will be standing above the other nobles like themselves."

The chief closed the book and pushed it in Mike's direction. Mike grabbed it and pushed it back.

"No, keep it for now. I've already read it. Maybe it can help you your cultivation. In exchange you have to help me with convincing Gunthar and Anna to start cultivating. I've read in the book that one rank increase means at least a 50 percent increase in life expectancy."

Mike saw tears in the eyes of the chief.

"Thank you Mike, I'd already given up on increasing my rank. I only have the standard army cultivation technique and it was losing efficiency with every breakthrough. With this, I think I might manage to become a B-rank in the future."

"Hehe, since when did you become so sentimental? Jokes aside, it's the least I could do. You raised us, Anna and me. After our parents died we could always depend on you. I will never forget that. With that said, I think I will start training now. According to the book I should try to get to rank F12 before attacking the E rank. I wish you good luck with your own progress."

When Mike arrived at home, he went straight to the backyard. He moved through the information of the book in his mind. According to it, a higher rank in the F area, didn't necessary mean more strength or more power. One had to follow one strengths. A F10 rank natural born runner had no chance against a rank F8 person with natural strength if they both focused on training by lifting weights. In addition one had to balance the training. Otherwise progress in one direction often meant regress in the other. Rank did not mean the same for everyone. F12 just meant one reached his personal limit and could not improve in one direction any further without regressing in another one.

In addition was it very important to settle on one path early on. He would waste a lot of time and potential if he'd decided in the C rank to switch from an agility based rogue type of specialization to a front line fighter in full plate armor. The most astonishing thing in the book was following information: "It would be very detrimental for one's future to start mana cultivating and breaking through to the E rank before one was a grown up." This was funny, because he knew that most nobles bragged about the progress of their children. They could not start ranking up soon enough. According to the information in the book, their future would be severely limited.

After going through the information, he thought about his strengths and weaknesses. He wasn't good at riddles, sitting around for weeks or month at a time, developing new spells or doing research would drive him nuts. A big reason for him becoming a hunter was to prevent sitting and working at home all day. This excluded him from choosing a mage's path in the future.

To use his skills with a bow and to become an archer wasn't an option either. A warrior could only use his mana in a weapon he touched. As soon as an arrow would leave his bow, it would lose all of its mana reinforcement. In addition a bow was nothing compared to the large area effect spells mages could use later on.

In his own opinion, his strongest traits were his strength and his endurance. When he was wounded by the goblins, he managed to stay level headed and he was able to suppress the pain from the arrow wound. His most suitable role would probably be a tank. He could use his strength and endurance to carry heavy armor and shield. In addition he could use a spear, a sword or a mace.

Thinking about it one last time, he settled on this plan. After this he created, with some help of the knowledge he got from the book, a training schedule. His plan was to further improve on his strength and endurance, while keeping his reflexes, agility and dexterity at his current level.