Chapter 2: Preparations for party, skill god’s advice and old new retainers

I went inside cathedral and kneeled before statue of the Skill god.

In the next moment I was in the divine realm. Skill god in body of petite little girl was sipping tea at big empty table.

„You came sooner then I expected. Come drink some tea and tell me what you want to know. You do have questions about your mission as apostole and King of Greed correct?“ skill god smiled warmly and her long black hairs fell to her face from one side.

„Well to begin with, I want to know about the Saintess. You said that she is in danger, could you tell me more?“

„Yes... that thing… it’s complicated so listen carefully. Saintess have power to summon heroes from other worlds. Just to be clear, not just from your world but from many other worlds as well. As long as they have heroic soul inside them they will be summoned. Although the question if the soul remains heroic is another topic. The catch is that when she does this, she will give them her unique skills to make their life in our world easier. The problem with our current saintess is that she doesn’t have Skill extraction skill, so when she summons a hero, she will die.“

„So you want me to extract her skills with my King of greed to help her summon heroes?“

„Oh, hell no,“ Skill god refuted me instantly.

„Huh? So what do you want me to do?“

„I want you to take her skills for yourself. The only reason people of the theocracy are keeping her alive are her skills she have to give to the hero.“

„But if I do that then the theocracy will loose all reasons to keep her alive no?“ I got a little confused.

„That’s where my meddling came in play. I have given the girl oracle skill which allows her to speak with me when praying. I told her that her salvation lies in hands of my Apostole.“

„So she will come here, I will take her skills and then what?“

„We will have it publicaly announced that she lost her skills and by will of skill god she’s to marry you. That way the theocracy will have no right to go against you becouse it’s gods will.“

„Did you just added the saintess to my harem without asking?“

„Don’t worry she’s cute, you will like her. But make sure she befriends Kiira first okay?“

„Eh? Okay, I guess.“

„Great! Now what’s the other thing you wanted to speak about?“ the Skill god asked as cheerfuly as ever, completly ignoring my internal suffering.

„Yeah, I recieved grimoire from my ancestor. It’s filled with summoning magic spells and it mentions skill called Book of summoning. I got weird feeling about it so could you tell me, is it unique skill as well?“

„Oh, the [Origin skills] eh? Sure I can tell you about that.“

„O-origin skills? What is that?“

„Origin skills are first ever created skills and they are the most overpowered skills I ever made," Skill god said proudly puffing up it's flat chest, "The skills are King, Lord, Book and finaly Hand. They go in this order. King skills are as you know angelic and demonic, and have great power to manipulate other skills or people. Lord skills are mostly asociated with dragons, for example Gehenna lord, is necromancy type lord skill and King of death is it’s superior version. They are governing types and there are at least two for every King skill.“

„I think I get that…“

„Great, so next are the Book skills. Basicaly all book skills are magic releated. Book of Summoning is one of the more powerful alongside Book of Necromancy and Book of Holyness. Last type of skills are Hand skills. They are connected to techniques. You recieved a lot of techique skills recently so I think you should be able to get the [Hand of Sword] skill easily.“

„Eh, I, I will try… Oh, I actually had one more thing to ask.“

„Oh please go ahead! If you are wondering my bust size is actually—“

„—Not that!“

„Hihihii, don’t worry I’m just teasing you~“

„Urgh… anyway, I want to know why did we all reincarnate in same time. Me, Kiira, Taru. All of us died in accidents and all of us have been reincarnated here. Also, my powers seems to be way more compatible with those two then other people. Usually I can only lean one Supreme level skill to one person, but those two recently could use two at one time. Also we are leveling up at fast pace. I noticed that even most seasoned explorers have problem leveling up past level 35.“

„Sorry, but I can’t tell you what I don’t know. If you wonder why you were reincarnated like this together, then you should ask the reincarnation goddess. But she can be little odd at times,“ God of skills said with dark look in it’s face.

So you know something. Well I will not pry anymore.

„I understand. Then, goodbye for now.“

With single nod from Skill god I was enveloped by golden light and returned back to the cathedral.

I returned home while thinking about the skills, Hand for techniques, Book for magic, Lord for governing and king for absolute power… people with such skills exist in this world and I’m one of them. I have two King skills, but there is possibility I will met people with more king skills then me. The saintess probably have two or three king skills, I imagine.

„Leo! Look, Look!“ Kiira run up to me with half-burned cookies.

„Did you bake them Kiira?“ I gave her a stiff smile.

„Yep! They finally turned out how I wanted them!“

They are burned!

„I-I see, good work,“ I smiled knowing good well what was in store for me.

„Will you try them?“ she asked me with cute smile.

„I-I guess…“

I closed my eyes and took one of the cookies. I bring it to my mouth and bite into it.

Hard! Too hard! And salty too!

Nevertheless I started chewing on it. Probably thanks to Indomitable I was unaffected by the terrible taste that much, but it was still awfull.

Then all of the sudden I heard a ping in my head so I opened my Status. And there it was. A new Supreme skill.

[Iron stomach]

Holder of this skill can eat anything they want. Be it deadly poisonous plants or dragon egg shell! Holder of this skill can eat it all and not die!

The hell is this? I got it from eating her cooking? I’m sure you are laughing your lungs out right now Skill god!

„So how was it?“ Kiira asked.

„G-good, really good,“ I said while taking another cookie.

While I’m at it I will rise the Iron stomach skill as much as I can! Anyone else would probably die instantly anyway...

After full basket of Devil’s cookies, the Iron stomach skill was at level 4. Honestly, I thought it would jump to ten with second cookie.

I returned to my office, where I had small sakura tree I made with Nature manipulation skill from branch of Oak tree in a pot.

„Nature manipulation keeps the changes I made to the plant fixed. Maybe I will be able to improve the bread situation as well.“

Staple food for everyone be it commoner or noble is rye bread. Even though wheat exists in this world, the taste is too grassy. Mostly becouse they use something called Bread seeds, which is something that didn't existed on earth. I have already started making wheat and am currently experimenting with it with fathers help.

„I could try making potato bread… potatoes exist here already… well only the classical yellow kind, but I could also make sweet potatoes. Maybe it will be cheeper if I use them as a base for creation... heheheh...“

With that in mind I went to the hidden room No.1, where I had my alchemy lab, kitchen and other experiment equipment here. Also the dragon scales were here. I sold most of the materials to the kingdom but some of them stayed here, it was mostly bones, scales and meat. Lots of meat.

For last couple of days I spent here, I was expanding the place to west and north with earth magic and had these places work as a storage for failed and unfinished projects. Weirdly, when I tried making swords with combination of metalwork and alchemy, they all recieved [Cursed] status...

When I came down there, Ruri the Battle doll was sweeping the floor with three mops. One for one pair of hands.

„Good work Ruri,“ I said with a wave.

„Ruriri!“ Ruri saluted and returned to her work.

I walked into kitchen corner and took few potatoes from my item box.

For changing the potato into sweet potato I needed to perfectly imagine shape, texture, color, taste and how to cultivate it.

Good thing I was helping my grandparents with their farm when I was little... they thaught me so much I can use here...

„Good, with this many sweet potatoes I can start my own farm here. Good thing I have enough land around the mansion!“

Next thing I had to do was the potato bread. I knew the recipie from long ago, but I needed wheat flour and yeasts to make it. Although, the yeast was already prepared to some extent.

I went to west side of the underground facility, where I had separate room with a little secret farm. There was my personal pep project. Perfecting the wheat my father was helping me with.

The room was illuminated with Sun stones, magical stones, which produced light simmilar to that of the sun. Also it was a drop item from monster called Sunlight chimera, which I hunted in Area 35 of Grubera dungeon. It's only skill was [Light up] which made part of my body light up like firefly. No need to say that I stored the skill with Skill extraction in orb.

„It looks good, I belive that in few weeks we will be able to reap this wheat,“ I said after testing the fullness and humidity of the spikelet.

„So there you are,“ Alette said with tired expresion written all over her face.

„What happened to you?“ I said as hurriedly I checked her for symptoms of any illness.

„N-no, I’m not sick… it’s the two of them… I can’t teach them how to cook. They are lost cause…“

„I know, I already tried Kiira’s cookies,“ I confessed.

„So you know my phain,“ Alette started sobbing on my shoulder.

After few mintutes she calmed down and looked around the field.

„Wheat field? But it’s so gross, why are you planting it?“

„I’m cultivating new breed of wheat to improve it’s taste. I want to make new type of bread for the party. That’s why I made those red potatoes over there as well. I also plan to send this wheat to father after I finish more research on this. I already send some, but there were problems with uncontroled weather making it not as highly productive. But one day, this will be staple food around here.“

„They deffinitely smell good.“

After that we separated and I went to underground room No.2, where was the armory and library. I went through many books and stored them in my Item box, so the place got a little empty.

Many of the books were about magic and rituals of ancient people. I hope I won’t find demon summoning or angel summoning books, that would be pain to deal with… although familiar summoning seems interesting, aparently it summons fairy which is little different from spirit magic.

I browsed the library and had to praise the way the books were listed. I found some scrolls with maps of proposed mines and ruins from bygone era in the savage lands near one city I never heard of called Zairose. Well, the name could lead me to belive some of the Netrose founded it, but that's incorrect. The place was founded by Rosarius Rose and used to be capital city of earldom that was spread to the east from there. After some time I also found magic book. Not like in games, where you read a book and instantly learn a new spell, here you need weeks or months to learn how to properly use said spells. Not like it really matter 'cause I have Spell weaver which allows me to create spells and learn them quickly.

„Seems this ancient spell Thunder trapper is simmilar to Electric net I made… only difference is that this Thunder trapper have bigger reach… I should think about enhancing reach of my spells a little more. But that means extra circle around main one... hmm... how should I proceed...“

Soon after finding book with Thunder trapper spell, Kiira came with a letter.

„It’s from academy. Me and Taru also recieved one and we found out that entery exams will be held in two weeks.“

I opened my letter to find the exact same information Kiira gave me.

„So first is written exam, then physical tests and last is magic tests… well I did take the hybrid course,“ I smiled to myself. Kiira and Alette had the same type of studies, while Taru and Victina had purely magic studies.

We heard steps and Taru came down.

„Leo! Everyone came! I mean really all of them!“

„What? Who?“

„The Sea dragonfolk people! All two hundread and fifty of them!“

„Whaaat?!“

We quickly made our way out of the basement's hidden rooms and came to the enterance of the mansion. There, all Sea Dragonfolk who came to Netrose family lands were kneeling before me.

„Your lordship! We, of the proud Sea dragonfolk came to serve you! Use us any way you wish!“

„Lord Leo, I came with people you might find useful,“ Tina smiled at me and handed me a letter.

„I’m glad you made it Tina, and sorry for imposing on you.“

„No need to worry my lord! Taking care of you was always my job. And I can’t let everything on that little boy.“

„Just don’t overexert yourself old hag,“ Setto said with angry face.

„Oh? Seems like little boy needs to be reminded proper manners. But that’s to be expected he is after all LITTLE BOY,“ Tina answered to Setto.

Those two are still like cats and dogs even though they are barely seven years apart from each other…

„Master! I came from special training! Look! Look! I got stronger!“ Tifaana said energically, her tail wagging behind her.

„You really do, Tifa. I look forward to you guarding me.“

„Yes!“ Tifaana answered to me and returned back to the line, behind her was standing a boy of same beastman tribe as her. Those sparkly eyes... well, he got a long journey before him, heheh.

Next came up a group of gardeners, cooks and handimans Tina picked. After short greeting they all went to their places of work, while members of Dragonfolk went to servant living quarters to swich their attires. To be completly honest, the servants living quarters are, except for some individuals, in separate building.

„I didn’t thought there would be so many people coming…“ I said as I lay my back against my chair in my office.

Kiira and Taru were sitting here with me and were drinking tea.

„We should think about things that would be unique to Dragonrose family. We already have some ideas about food, but drinks are still problem. Most people who will be coming are adults, but more then half of them will be coming with children as well,“ Taru nodded as she put two sugar cubes to her herbal tea.

„Hey, what about making something carbonated? Like soda!“

„Hm… I can try making spell that would combine wind and water and then give it some taste aferwards…“

„Then why not use nature magic to blend herbs into water and then carbonate it?“ Kiira chimmed in with her own idea.

„Hmm… That seems easier, thanks Kiira.“

In next few hours two new spells, «Plant blending» and «Carbonating» were made and changed the course of history forever. But that's a story for another time.