The eighth and ninth months were spent getting familiar with the various types of professions from smithing and tailoring to medicine and alchemy. alastair was thankful that in this world a village was only recognized if it had at least one of each profession even if the person holding the profession was mediocre. during the eighth month besides maintaining his body training alastair watched and learned from the various craftsmen in the village as most of them were happy to share their knowledge with the next generation with the exception of the alchemist who was a grouchy old man with heavy dislike of alastair for some reason.
Alastair ended up having to make a deal with the old man that he wouldn't bother him anymore if he got alastair started on the path of alchemy. the old man agreed with irritation before grabbing a dusty book from a shelf and forcing it into alastairs arms before slamming the door in alastairs face. after looking at the book titled an alchemist guide for beginners alastair didn't mind the old mans attitude and went to read it completely unaware of the old man staring at him from a window seemingly deep in thought.
The ninth month however alastairs started to practice his newly acquired knowledge and much to be expected he was terrible at literally everything. alastair struggled with even the most basic parts of the various professions leading to various funny situations like were he misidentified a type of mushroom and turning his entire body cobalt blue for a week earning laughs from the entire village including the old man. by the end of the month alastair was only capable of not royally screwing up at the most basic aspects of the professions like identifying materials safely.
The tenth month alastair only practiced his knowledge in order to strengthen his foundation since he knew that he was nowhere near skilled enough to take the next step. that month he learned about a huge amount of materials by heart as well as were they can be found. towards the end of the month alastair was confidant that he could create something useful and got to work with the bits and pieces he had managed to find around the village trying to make anything useful and only on the last day of the month succeeded in creating a small necklace from the tin scrap a couple flurry feathers and a small nugget of gold he found in the stream.
The eleventh and final months alastair mourned the death of his grandpa chalky who passed in his sleep hitting alastair and his mother amber hard for the next two months before they managed to recover enough to get back to their normal routines. alastair hit a growth spurt in this time growing almost six inches taller while losing a little baby fat giving him a leaner appearance.
Eight years have past and alastair has grown into a handsome young man with shoulder length smooth brown hair and a lean slightly muscular physique from all of his body training. in the time that has passed alastair had learned that something prevented him from learning beyond an apprentice level in anything he tried no matter how much effort he put into practicing them. alastair guessed it might have something to do with the orb of light the strange being sent into him before he was reborn but he wasn't sure so he chose to ignore it.
Thankfully it didn't seem like whatever was stopping him from advancing didn't apply to his body since he had the strength of someone trained from a young age but what he was unaware of was that the reason he couldn't tell that something was stopping his body as well was that it only applied to his ability to use the totality of his physique but because he had no reason to try to do so he never noticed. today was the adult ceremony for the village of cobblestone where the people becoming adults had to trek to the top of the cobblestone tor that towered next to the village.
Alastair and his childhood friend emma were the participants of the ceremony today so he wore his self-made necklace that increased his chance of landing a luck hit also known as a critical hit by a small margin of five percent. he also brought some healing herbs and antidote herbs in case of injuries and a short tin sword that the village blacksmith made for him along with a wooden shield that his mom liked to use as a pot lid for some reason that he refused to question.
One thing alastair was thankful for was that he had managed to learn the bottomless bag enchantment that let him turn a simple leather satchel into a limitless storage space that only weighed as much as the bag itself no matter what was put into it. the best part was that by injecting a small amount of mana into the bag instantly let you retrieve whatever you wanted. alastair was positively giddy playing with the bag once it was finished leading him to annoy the rest of the village with his childish excitement even though it made them smile at his antics.
Alastair walked out of his home at the top of a hill on the edge of the village and walked down the rough stone path to the center of the village where he saw a village with an upset expression so he asked what was wrong only to find out that the guy had a flurry feather fly up to the top of his home but he was afraid of heights. alastair decided to help and quickly climbed up the house and grabbed the blue feather stuck between two straws on the thatch roof before leaving the roof and handing it to the man who was thankful and gave him a bit of metal since he knew alastair was always on the look for some.