After he finished lunch, John logged back in and took a trip to town. He was almost certainly going to need more cores at some point, so he figured it’d be best to get a head start on that. The main thoroughfare wasn’t quite as lively as his last thrip, though that might have something to do with the soldiers stationed around the area. The liveried men and women mostly appeared to be ignoring the players and towns folk, but both were wary of them none the less.

A quick stop at the general store and a minute of writing saw his new request for cores pinned to the bulletin board. He was offering to purchase them at the same rate he had previously and once more left directions to his farm. While there he checked his other postings, to be sure they were still present and legible, and found that they were. It had been a while since he’d gotten any herb slime goo, and he suspected most people had simply leveled out of that part of the dungeon. Maybe he should try to have someone capture live specimens that he could breed? Duplicate? Split via asexual-fission? How did slimes multiply when not being created by a dungeon?

Retreating from the square, John headed back down the road. He paused several times to observe the buildings that ha been put up by the Titans and nobles alike. It was obvious who’d built what. The housing erected by players had a severe, functional air to it, usually consisting of little more than boxes with windows. The nobles, on the other hand, had larger buildings with ostentatious decorations, multiple stories, and planned layouts. Some even had raised garden beds out front, although those contained nothing more than dirt at the moment.

It said something, John thought, about those who’d designed their temporary housing as if it were going to be more permanent. What kind of arrogance did it require to believe you’d be chosen over all others vying for a position? Further, how long did they expect to live in a small house out here, when no doubt there’d be construction of a baronial seat at some point. John couldn’t imagine most nobles putting off the construction of a larger, even more elaborate building for long. Lady Oswald might, but she seemed fairly reserved, nothing at all like that elven lord he’d had to deal with that first day.

While he mused, his feat had returned him to the farm, where he paused to think about what he needed to do next. It’d be about four more days before he needed to deal with the first of his fully grown plants, there wasn’t anything to compost, and aside from feeding the chookers later he didn’t have much else to do at this point. He had the time to do some experiments, but that would be easier later, once he had the ley line tap.

Thinking of the tap gave him a little anxiety, he only had the single core after all and that’d be all but impossible to replace if it broke too soon. Still, it’d probably be fine so long as he didn’t use too much mana too fast. He wasn’t entirely sure if you could pull mana from a ley tap or mana well directly, but he decided it’d be best not to try; while enchantments could be carefully metered and calibrated it’d be all too easy to run the tap dry in just a few moments with an actual spell. Maybe he should have used only half the cores, just in case.

Thinking of mana cores made John wonder if it was possible to create them the same way he made mana stones. They did have a similar function, however one was reusable while the other was decidedly not.

“Help,” he said out loud, “is it possible to create mana cores?”

[Answer: Yes.]

Helpful, John groused internally. Although, to be fair, it did answer his question, and if he wanted to know more he’d have to purchase the tutoring module, which he wasn’t ready to do. So it was possible, but the question was how. Once more he wished he hadn’t combined all the cores at once, having one to study would have been useful right now, and he couldn’t test anything with the large core, that might break it. He could, of course, play twenty questions with the help module, but he figured there’d be safeguards in place to stop him from just asking questions until he got the right answers; the tutoring module had to be worth buying, after all, and that wouldn’t be the case if anyone with the help module could get around it by asking dozens of questions and narrowing down on the answers.

Right, think about this logically, John thought to himself as he wandered back into his house. Mana stones are solidified mana, held in a crystalline pattern. It’s not hard to make one in the shape of a sphere, but that doesn’t make it a core. So what’s the difference? A core doesn’t dissolve immediately when emptied, and it can be refilled. Obviously it’s made of a mana conductive material. Maybe some kind of imbued stone? That doesn’t really make sense, imbued stone lets mana pass through more easily, but is resistant to change by it. Maybe if you coated it with a non-imbued material afterward? But how would you get the mana into it in the first place? John gave a grunt of annoyance as he considered the problem; maybe he’d ask BR about it once the gnome was finished with his current project.

He sighed and laid back on his bedroll, then sat back up after being reminded how uncomfortable the stone slab actually was; maybe he should invest in a bed, that might even get him better sleep bonuses.

Looking out the northern facing window, he started at the newly constructed building at the far edge of his property. It appeared to be some kind of grandiose hall or other meeting area. The outside was decorated in lifelike three-dimensional renditions of growing plants and trees, and it seemed to be missing a roof entirely. The fact that it had gone up in so little time but had such detailed workmanship was impressive, but this was a world of magic, so perhaps less than he might be thinking.

Returning his mind to the problem of what to do with himself, he considered his options once more. He could make more mana stones, those sold well for now and had been an invaluable source of income. Making stones had the benefit of training both Mana Manipulation and Mana Imprinting as well, so it was a good overall choice. His other options were mostly just training spells an skills; he was feeling a bit light on Leveling Points ever since he’d made the sacrifice of fifteen hundred at the shrine.

Thinking of the shrine reminded him that he needed to have altars made for it. He was honestly surprised he hadn’t received a mandatory quest for such, given how grumpy the two goddesses seemed to be with him.

[Deific Quest: An Altar or Three]

[Description: Given the recent uptick in interest around the Gateway of Worlds, Ledos, Thuana, and Ira have decided it’s time that their shrine was properly outfitted with an Altar (or three). You may choose to produce only a single altar, or provide one for each individual deity. Or (if you’re really ambitious) you can provide a minor altar for each god, and a major altar dedicated to all three of them. This quest does not have a time limit, however certain benefits of your tithes cannot be accessed without appropriate altars.]

[Rewards: 100 leveling points per alter, per quality ranking, in addition, a priest of each god will migrate to Runic Rock to tend the shrines.]

[Failure: None.]

John looked at the new quest with a skeptical eye. Why hadn’t this come up before? This wasn’t even the first time he’d thought about altars. Also, what was the difference between a minor altar, and a major altar? Size?

“Help, what are the different types of altars?” he asked aloud.

[Answer: There are three different rankings of altar: minor, major, and grand. Minor altars are usually found in smaller shrines, or in buildings dedicated to multiple deities and have only the requirement of being consecrated to the deity in question; they are also usually smaller in size.

A major altar is usually the main altar of a church or other moderately sized building; in order to be considered a major altar it must not only be consecrated but also requires an appropriate sacrifice for each deity to which it is being attuned.

Grand altars are rarely seen outside of temples in well-established cities as they have more stringent construction requirements. Grand altars require not only an appropriate sacrifice at their consecration, but must also be constructed of materials that align with whichever deity (or deities) it is to be dedicated to. No part of a grand altar may be conjured with magic.]

John ran his fingers through his beard as he spent a long moment pondering his options. Now that he knew there was a third, and higher, ranking of altar his immediate thought was to leverage that into his quest. However, the stringent requirement of no magically conjured materials made it a difficult task. Further, what materials would be used for the construction of such an altar? Nebula marble was right out, it literally didn’t exist out of magical conjuration, void stone would appease Thuana, but was much too expensive to build even a third of an altar out of, and what would he use for Ira and Ledos? He simply didn’t know what materials to even consider. No, a grand altar was too ambitious, better to stick with three minor and a major.

That left the question of what to make them out of, and what to sacrifice for the major altar. Nebula marble would match the current aesthetic of the shrine, and would definitely be his go-to for the minor altars, but would it be appropriate for the major? After a few moments of consideration, he decided he didn’t have a much better option.

Standing up, John made his way out of the house, across the farm, and out through the gate. A short jaunt down the road saw him roaming the interior of the Gateway of Worlds as he considered the best possible places to put the altars.

It was pretty easy to decide where to put the major altar; it would go right in front of the tree and across from the entrance. Deciding where the minor altars would go was much more problematic, he didn’t want to slight any of the gods by making their altar seem less important. However, as he neared the back of the shrine, he realized the answer was obvious. Three of the arches at the very back had been taken up by the trial gateways and as he passed them, he realized the best places for the altars would be right in front of their respective trials. This would put all three altars at the back of the shrine, which might be seen as a slight, however given that the trials were one of the most important aspects of the area It’d probably balance out.

Now, the final problem was the floor of the henge. When he’d built it, he hadn’t really been thinking about logistics and thus hadn’t given a thought to how the lack of solid footing might affect things. In essence, the shrine was a bunch of giant rocks around a tree growing in a barren patch of mud. While the ground might become compact at some point, he couldn’t imagine that this was a good look for a shrine. The problem was that he couldn’t dig up the area and lay foundations and stone slabs without disturbing the tree and possibly toppling part (or all) of the henge. He gave an annoyed grunt as he considered the problem; why couldn’t he have thought of this before he built the henge?

Maybe what he needed was to pass this on to someone with more experience? The Knights Magi might have a way to floor or tile the shrine without too much disruption of its existing balance. With that thought in mind he headed for the Knights’ compound, looking to have a conversation with Tet.

to John’s surprise, tet had not been too busy to see him. In truth John had asked to schedule a meeting with the Knight First Class, however it appeared the man didn’t have an aide of his own, and thus did his own scheduling. When interrupted he’d indicated there was time for a meeting right then.

“What is it you wished to speak to me about?” The Knight Magi asked even as he flipped through several documents on his desk.

“A couple of things. I’d like to outfit the shrine with altars and a floor, or a walkway at the very least,” John explained. “The problem is, I don’t want to just put the altars in the mud, and I’m not sure how to go about installing any kind of foundation or road at this late date.”

Tet grunted, seemingly lost in thought as he picked up a quill, inked it, and then signed something. A quick finger movement saw the ink dried and then he placed the document in a new pile. “A not insurmountable problem, although it will require that we not only forcefully disperse the ritual in progress, but also have it carved anew once the construction is done. This is going to require moving the henge piece by piece so that appropriate foundations can be laid. To be honest, it’s a bit of a miracle the entire thing hasn’t fallen over as is,” the half-orc said.

John frowned as he considered that, fingers of his left hand combing his beard thoughtfully. “Would it be easier to just destroy the henge and start over? I can create a higher quality of nebula marble now, we could just replace it pillar by pillar,” he suggested.

“Hmmm, that would necessitate either the repurposing or destruction of the existing pillars. How would you go about that?” Tet asked.

“Uh… I don’t really know? Maybe invert the Dirt to Stone spell and try turning it into Stone to Dirt? But I guess I’d have a lot of dirt then…”

“Indeed you would,” the knight said as he picked up another document and glanced at it. “At this juncture, however, I think replacing the pillars would be a poor use of your time. You are still on a deadline, and you’ve got a crop coming in shortly. You should focus on your farm. It’ll cost a few golds for the labor. Some of that can come out of the funds set aside for the shrine, however there’s only about eighty-seven silvers available in that. Given the effort involved in this, call it three gold, assuming you don’t want to import actual stone from somewhere else.”

John shook his head. “I don’t think I can afford the portal fees for stone delivery.”

“Probably not. I will discuss this with Commander First Class Helen, as all modifications to the shrine are, according to the contract, her purview, however I cannot imagine her finding any fault in this plan. Should she agree, we can start construction tomorrow or the day after.”

“That should work,” John agreed.

“If there’s nothing else, I’ll give you your pay from the shrine and you can be on your way,” the half-orc rumbled as he pulled open a drawer and retrieved a small pouch. He placed it on the desk in front of John. “We have collected one thousand, seven hundred, and twenty-five silvers in tolls so far, eighty-six silvers and twenty-five coppers is your pay out of that.”

Scooping up the bag, John willed it into his inventory. “Thanks.”

“Until next time Groundskeeper,” Tet said with what was clearly a dismissive gesture.

“Until next time,” John echoed after a moment of hesitation; that seemed more appropriate than a less formal farewell. He then left the office and headed back out of the compound.

Returning to his farm, John settled in to spend the evening making life stones.