Solo Learning

"I think we're all pretty worn out. I say we call it for the day. Any objections?"

There was a scattering of tired grunts that John took as agreement. He wasn't surprised – they had been doing lower level dungeons most of the day so that he could maximize his completion bonuses, and the endeavor was more tiring than challenging. Even Lerianna and Sophia looked exhausted after hours and hours of constant walking, running, and fighting.

'That... body of yours... is bullshit," Lerianna complained as she stumbled past. She was putting in a lot of effort to get enough air to eke out the words, and John noticed the way her nose crinkled when she saw he wasn’t even breathing hard.

"Duly noted, "John replied dryly. Lerianna still had enough energy to flip him off as she stomped off toward the house, followed closely by Maera and Mithra.

"Did we make good progress today, Father?" Sophia asked, managing to hold her posture as strictly as ever, though even she couldn’t hide the rise and fall of her chest with each deep breath.

“Fantastic progress,” John affirmed. He already had his menu open to check exactly how far they’d come – and his stat sheet was looking pretty good, considering the fact that he had Reincarnated a little over twelve hours ago.

“Unfortunately the early levels are easier to get, but don’t mean as much… and we were more limited by time than by ability. It’ll take me a few days yet to get back where I was before, and with my new max level being 91, I might not hit it before the war. For now, I probably shouldn’t go wandering around Springfield for a while, in case Bella or anyone else decides to make a move.”

“Will you train tomorrow instead of visiting the others, then?”

“No, no, I actually think this is fine.” John waved away the menus with a flick of his wrist, turning his head to meet Sophia’s gaze again as they spoke. “I’ve been thinking about visiting the Order’s library for a while, and this seems like a good time. With everything that happened with Vallya, I’ve been wanting to see what information I can get on Shards and Fragments, and if I have the time, I want to learn what the Order’s history has been like with other necromancers.”

“And if their theories that Xanthia might have a Shard herself are true, the two subjects might overlap...” John didn’t voice the thought, but it stuck around in the back of his mind all the same.

“A wise decision. But are you sure we will have enough time to finish training on our current schedule?”

“Actually, yeah. Leveling back up is getting easier and easier every time I Reincarnate, and as long as I get back up to where I was before, it was at least worth the reset. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to max it out, but…”

John re-opened his menu and was so engrossed in his thoughts and ramblings about grinding rates that he didn’t notice they were back home until he heard the sound of Sophia clicking the door shut behind them. John’s eyes darted back and forth, rapidly taking in the familiar sights, and a slight blush colored his cheeks as he realized how long he’d been running numbers and mumbling to himself.

“S-sorry, I was…” John cleared his throat and looked toward Sophia apologetically, but he found only a patient – if slightly amused – grin waiting for him there.

“I am glad to know that you are taking matters so seriously,” Sophia said, though John wasn’t entirely convinced that she was returning the favor, considering the way her lips trembled with barely restrained amusement. “I will rest for the night soon. Will you require our presence at the manor tomorrow?”

“No, I don’t plan on doing any training. If I need anything, I can always warp back or call someone. Actually, I should probably tell Maera-”

There was an abrupt, almost startled snort when John said Maera’s name, accompanied quickly by the sound of friction against fabric. John glanced over to the lounge area and noticed that Maera and Mithra were already both completely **** – they were sprawled all the way across the couch, their feet hanging off either end, and the kittens had been more than happy to clamber atop them and join in the nap pile.

“...They must really be out of it if they didn’t even wake up for me.” John fought back a snorting laugh at the adorable sight of so many bodies crammed on top of each other, all snoozing happily. “Tell Maera when she wakes up that if she wants to train with Glenna or any of the others, I’ll happily warp her over. I’ll swap out one of my other communication rings for hers before I leave, and I’ll leave the channel open, so all she’ll need to do is think it at me.”

“Understood, Father. I will inform her as soon as she awakens. I wish you luck in your hunt for knowledge.”

With that Sophia gave a soft bow and turned for the stairs. John waited until the door to her room was shut, then glanced one more time back at the kittens. He’d been planning on speaking with his children before he left, maybe even spending some time playing with them, but the scene was simply too adorable to disturb, even for a quick goodbye.

“I should remember moments like these more often. It’s nice to remember how things can be when they’re peaceful. Now, if only we didn’t have a war hanging over our heads...”

Ignoring the sour note at the end of that thought, John pulled out his phone and snapped one quick picture of the tangle of limbs and tails in front of him, and immediately set it as his phone’s new wallpaper.

“Perfect. I want to remember this every time I open my phone. I doubt I’d ever forget how important home is, even if I’m out on the battlefield for months, but… well, a reminder is still nice.”

John let his gaze linger an instant longer before he turned and made his way outside. The door had barely clicked into place behind him before World Shift distorted reality around him and sent him hurtling back to the old world.

Aside from it being relatively dark, the manor grounds weren’t much different at night, as it turned out. Even the groundskeepers were still hard at work, and many of them still looked his way as he emerged from the shed seemingly out of the blue. John did note that it seemed rather strange for so many groundskeepers to be working in the middle of the night, but as he was closing the protective shed behind him, he noticed a slight difference in their behavior. He got plenty of surprised looks, but once their eyes had caught sight of his face, they turned back to their duties without any fuss at all. Some even gave him a curt, knowing nod.

“Moira must have the more experienced Knights working their fake grounds-keeping shifts at night. Not surprising with everything that’s going on. Maybe I should visit at night more often… between the shed and the veterans, I can actually show up and walk the grounds without feeling like an alien. It almost feels cozy here.”

Though, admittedly, the manor itself did nothing to help with the cozy feeling. John had rarely visited the manor at night, certainly never at this late hour, and the sight of the old English estate cast in the pale moonlight caught him somewhat off-guard.

Long shadows covered large parts of the yard in an even darker embrace than the night itself, while pale moonlight painted an eerie pallor across the normally vibrant greenery and the clear waters of the fountains. Even the closed curtains seemed more likely to hide mystery and malice than mere modesty. The Order's manor almost seemed to arise in front of John with a shadowy menace that reminded him of the undead-filled Barrier he'd cleared with Kim and Moira not long ago. The memory brought a slight smile to his face, and he found himself smiling despite the foreboding sight and the grim décor.

"This place is actually pretty creepy at night. I wonder if they decorate this place for Halloween? I should sneak some decorations on the roof when I get a chance..."

Ghouls and gags went to the back of John's mind as he approached the manor's front door. Two guards stood at attention, offering him a quick salute before pulling the door open as he was still climbing the stairs, and rapidly shutting it again once he had passed.

"It's nice to be recognized around here again. Better than dealing with that intercom every time too."

When the massive doors were firmly closed behind him, John allowed his eyes to wander over the empty foyer for only a moment before turning toward the library. Thankfully, its proximity to Tricia’s lab setup kept it vaguely in his mind, enough that he didn’t feel the need to ask any of the Order Knights for directions. There were still a few of them around, even at this hour. John only passed by one on patrol, but there were several stationed around most rooms of the manor, nearly twice as many as during the day.

The library had two guards posted as well, though John wasn’t entirely certain if the one behind the desk was normal or not. The guards outside masqueraded as groundskeepers, but perhaps they didn’t see a need for the façade once inside the manor and away from prying eyes. The one by the door cast a cursory glance over John and offered him a quick nod once he passed by, while the other actually came out from behind the desk and quickly paced over, looking surprised – and perhaps a bit nervous.

“Knight Newman! I must admit, I was not expecting visitors at such a late hour – most certainly not one as important as you. I’m Squire Killian. Is there anything I can do to assist you with whatever task has brought you here?”

“Knight?” John mumbled reflexively, caught off-guard by the title.

“Ah, forgive me, Sir. I’m aware you are unused to being addressed by title since you so often deal with the higher ranking members of our Order. Yet I fear that if Lady Glenna were to hear me speak to a Knight without the proper honorific, I’d be facing kitchen duty for weeks until she found another poor soul to consign there.”

“It’s… not a big deal, don’t worry about it. I’m trying to do some research on the Northern Ashes and the upcoming war.”

“I fear we have little information on the group themselves, and none in written format save the notes that Lord Brighton and the Warden keep as news comes in. Would you be interested in other texts about necromancers? The Order has fought many in their long history.”

“That will do nicely, thank you. Oh, and anything you have on alchemical recipes and brewing methods would be appreciated.”

“Right away, Sir. I’ll-”

“Actually, one other thing… it’s somewhat unrelated, but how many books do you have on the gods and goddesses of this world? Other than the ones devoted purely to the Lady, I mean.”

The light that had started to grow in the Knight’s eyes dimmed, albeit only slightly. “Ah, in that case, we’re rather limited. Knowledge on such matters is not as common as you might think… and it’s even rarer to be properly verified. I will sort through what we have, though it may take some time to fully search our catalogue for anything that may be relevant to such a broad field.”

“No rush. I’ll be here all night, and it’s not something you need to prioritize if you have other pressing matters. Just lead me to whatever information you have on the Order’s past conflicts with necromancers and I’m sure I can find plenty to read through until more arrives.”

“Right away, Sir. Please, follow me – I’ll show you to the books chronicling the Order’s past battles.”

“You’d think this would be less formal than being called Master… but somehow, it doesn’t feel that way.” John gave a shake of his head as he followed the squire across the room to a bookshelf filled with historical tomes. The man walked along the long rows, eyes scanning the tags on each book until he seemed to find what he was searching for. Squire Killian plucked three of them from two different shelves before turning to face John and holding them out dutifully.

“I believe these will be an excellent starting point – these are historical recordings of the Order’s campaigns against similar necromantic threats. You are free to browse and select any others you believe will be useful from this section, of course. I will go and fetch some of our writings on alchemy for you, then begin searching through our index for anything relevant to your inquiries about the divine.”

“Wonderful. Thank you, Killian.” John gave the man a grateful smile, after which the man promptly turned on his heel and marched off to another section of the library. John adjusted the tomes to a more comfortable position, then traipsed off himself, searching for somewhere to nestle in for the long night.

“I wonder if they have any alchemy supplies I could ask for… but they’re probably going to be using them during the war, aren’t they? I don’t really want to waste time grinding in dungeons for something as mundane as glassware and a Bunsen burner, but I said I wasn’t going to leave the manor while I’m this weak… I wonder if they’d be willing to do a shopping run for me?”

After three hours’ work and two and a half books later, John’s brain was starting to feel deep-fried, in large part due to a lack of interest – and a similar lack of results. The Order’s books were written even more dryly and with even less grandeur than a high school history textbook, and all the archaic English in the first book had driven him to Ye Olde Insanity.

Most of the information within both books focused more on discussions of the Order’s information gathering, logistics, and the actions they took to subdue the threat – everything they did to eradicate the threat when it arose. There was only a modest discussion of how those groups had arisen or come together in the first place, a very minimal amount of detail on their goals and motivations outside of whatever place they were currently infesting, and virtually no discussion of any attempts at diplomacy.

Not that he’d expected the Order to sit down at the negotiation table, especially the British Order at its supposed full might. Still, there wasn’t even particularly good information on what measures they took to try to stop those groups from sprouting up again in the future, if they took any at all. It was clinical, and despite several books claiming to be a historical documentation of events, they read more like a textbook for teaching tactics at best, or an indoctrination script at worst.

“I wish I could just use Observe and learn the gist of it all, but that would erase the whole book, and I don’t think Moira would appreciate that...” John groaned, resting his face in his hands. Once he relaxed, his eye strain and actual fatigue were gone almost immediately, but the mental toll was not so easy to rid himself of.

He was beginning to consider taking a stroll around the manor for a reprieve when the guard from earlier hurried up to his table, a set of books under one arm and accompanied by a man with a flat cart full of large glass panels.

“Ah, there you are, Knight Newman. I’m still searching the second half of the index, but I believe some of these may be relevant to your studies – and Squire Perth has returned with the items you requested.”

“Greetings and my apologies, Knight Newman! There were few mundane stores open at this hour, but I bought as much glass as I could. I can make a second run in a few hours if you require more.” The Squire gave a firm salute and held it as if frozen in place, his eyes never meeting John’s, always staring directly ahead.

“No, that will be more than enough. Thank you.” John glanced at the two large piles of products behind the man. He could also see another cart just outside the room, with an equally sized bounty of boxes. There were many products from many different stores; just at a glance he saw glass panels, replacement window panes, vials, flasks, test tubes, beakers, and even a few decorative glass sculptures from a gift shop somewhere.

“The honor is mine, Sir!”

“Uh... dismissed?” John murmured. Despite lacking any confidence in the words, the squire broke his salute, gave a quick turn, and marched right out the door. The other man let a small chuckle slip before immediately ironing out his expression again.

“I believe there are three carts in total; are you sure you don’t require assistance with moving these?”

“No, I’ll be fine. I haven’t hit any weight limit yet, and I’m already carrying around a small hardware store’s supply of basic materials. I’m assuming there is none… just let me start Salvaging all of this.”

“Salvaging, Sir?”

John didn’t answer verbally; instead, he stood from his chair and took a moment to stretch before walking over and tapping on the boxes one after another, activating his Salvage ability on each in turn. Dozens of notifications popped up as he speedily darted around the cart, the original items seeming to disappear in a flash of light.

He was pleased to find that some of the larger panels and replacement window panes didn’t lose any materials when they were Salvaged - the weight of the amount of glass that appeared in his inventory was the same as the listing on the box, or at least close enough. Most of them were small enough that the process was virtually instant as well, though a few of the larger pieces did pop a timer as they slowly broke down into basic material.

“My word. Quite impressive. If I might be so bold – I assume by the name of this ability that it’s breaking them down into a form you can use more easily?”

“Yes, exactly. I would have used the Abyssal Auction, but everything on there is so highly priced for convenience and how much money people like the Deities can flood the market with… I would have had to spend every mana gem I have to get this much,” John admitted. “Was there any trouble during the trip to get all this?”

“I do not believe so.”

“Of course not, I’m the only one who gets ambushed and kidnapped in Springfield,” John grumbled bitterly. The squire didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, so instead he merely cleared his throat and moved on.

“Did you require anything else, Sir? Or shall I return to searching through the catalogue?”

“No, that will be fine. I’ll take care of all these materials and free up your carts again, then I’ll go back to reading what you’ve already brought me.”

“Very good, Sir!”

The squire darted off toward his desk once again, leaving John in a comfortable silence as he worked his way through the piles, slowly Salvaging the lot of it. Once the last item had vanished into his inventory and the last timer had finished, he pushed the carts together against the wall outside the library and took a quick glance at his bounty.

“Not bad, almost 600,” John said, voice warbling only slightly as he closed the menu and returned to his table. Instead of cracking open the books again, John started to sift through his Crafting menus and reached for one of the alchemy texts, deciding his mind could use a break from the history lessons.

One of the books that had been brought to him was a beginner’s introduction to alchemy, which was especially useful to John. In particular, the opening chapter alone was worth reading every word of. Alongside explaining the precise differences between potions, elixirs, oils, serums, and other substances, the opening chapter also listed out the most common methods and equipment used to produce each one. By using the passage as a handy reference sheet against his Crafting menu, John was able to get a rough estimate of how extensive he could make his efforts.

“Well, if I focus on mixing particularly powerful concoctions together, I would be able to get more effectiveness out of each item… but that would increase the farming time dramatically, and I don’t think all of these are going to increase their duration no matter how much more powerful they become,” John mused to himself as he worked. His eyes darted between the text and his menus repeatedly, while his right hand alternated between scribbling furiously into a notebook and scrolling through his Crafting menu.

“And even if they do, anything over eight or twelve hours is probably a waste. Hopefully the battles won’t even last that long – not everyone has Gamer’s Body to make stamina a non-factor. Either way, it’s not worth focusing on duration. It would be a waste to drink a potion that lasts twenty-four hours if the others are going to spend sixteen of them preparing for battle, tending their wounds, and sleeping. No, better to focus on efficiency and effectiveness. If I’m understanding this correctly, you can alter the recipe to increase the intensity or the duration separately on a lot of different brews, I think. If that’s true, maybe I could create some that are a few hours long for when we know we’re going into big battles, and another supply of them that only last a few minutes each, but are great for decisive blows, or just getting out of a pinch.”

John’s nose found itself venturing closer and closer to the book and his menus as his thoughts intensified, until he could scarcely see anything but the text in front of him. That intense focus evaporated with what he hoped was a very manly “eep!” when a hand firmly landed on his shoulder, followed quickly by a commendable attempt to break the Olympic high-jump record from a sitting position.

“Fuc- ow!” John nearly shouted, the entire table bouncing loudly as his thighs slammed into it. It hadn’t actually hurt, the exclamation was as much one of surprise as anything, but he still found himself rubbing his thighs absently as he turned to see who had snuck up on him.

“You must be really into that. Didn’t take you for an alchemist… then again, I can count the number of times I’ve seen you in the last year on one hand. Been picking up some new skills?” Etriyya asked, a smirk on her face as she stared down at him. John had to collect himself before he could respond, expecting neither Etriyya nor a pleasant expression from her if she did show.

“Uh, no, not yet,” John admitted, glancing back at the page he was on to try to collect his thoughts and remember his place. “Trying to do what I can to be prepared. Can I have one second? I’m trying to do some basic calculations for materials here, and I want to make sure I write these formulas down right…”

“Go right ahead. I’ve got an hour ‘til morning training.”

John gave a grateful nod and turned his attention back to the book for a moment. He scribbled and scrawled as quickly as he could, working almost frantically in comparison to the leisurely pace that Etriyya took as she strolled around the table and seated herself across from him. Once John finished the table of ingredients he wanted to check on back at home, he pulled out his phone, taking a quick picture of a diagram that seemed to show the general concepts of when it was better to use an ingredient that matched the magical properties of something you were fortifying against, and when it was better to use something diametrically opposed to it.

“A lot easier than trying to sketch that whole thing down. Probably would’ve screwed it up and ended up losing my eyebrows,” John said, chuckling as he stowed his phone again. “Sorry about that. I wasn’t expecting company.”

“Should have. I mean, sure, you didn’t invite us over or anything, but word of mouth spreads quickly.”

“Are people really gossiping that I’m in the library?” John gave a soft snort. “Good that your guards are doing their jobs and reporting, though. I take it you need something from me?”

“Not really. But we do need to talk.”

John quirked an eyebrow at Etriyya, waiting for an elaboration that never came. Etriyya just leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms and staring at him – and yet still she smiled the whole time. John’s lips tightened for a moment, then he let a long sigh escape him.