Me bowing to my uncle's grave did not go unnoticed. The very gesture seemed to cause the statue to move. Looking up, I saw the statue no longer kneeling but standing with its right hand stretched forth. In his palm was a ring and a note. Reading the note it said, "Bear the seal of Markov with honor." After reading, I gently placed the ring on my right ring finger as a message appeared,
"Congratulations! You have unlocked a hidden achievement; Honor thy father, thy mother and thy… other(?)! This is unlocked by worshipping your ancestor's tomb after passing the inheritance trial before coming of age! You have unlocked the inventory function of ~System Menu~. Please note, the item "Markov Family Seal" will now act as your inventory. However, ~System Menu~ Will remain read-only."
Inventory option? That's helpful. The message also included instructions on placing and retrieving items. After a few attempts, I was able to use the "storage ring" well enough for now. Even better, it is now connected to the system. In case the ring is stolen, the thief will not be able to take anything from my inventory. I bowed once more to the now kneeling statue and made my way to the glade's lake.
Once there, I beheld a lake the size of 10 Olympic pools and 10 times as deep with a small island in the direct center of the lake. Despite the depth, I could clearly see the bottom as if no water was there, the water's crystal clear. Seeing no big creature or guardian of the lake, I first placed everything except my sword in the storage ring, and jumped in.
It took me about 5 minutes to reach the island which had a log cabin with a stone smelter, blacksmith bench next to it, a tanning rack on the side, and even a few other workstations outside the cabin. When I went inside, I saw an alchemy table, kitchen, and stairs leading to a loft-style bedroom. Seeing all this, I got to work cleaning and sorting everything, which took me 3 to 4 hours. Finished with my work, I took a quick bath and readied my materials.
I had decided to make use of the crafting facilities here and focus on my progress with the mana manipulation meditation technique for a while. Afterwards, I would go hunting to get my body acclimated with the increased power and perfectly internalize the knowledge I gained in the inheritance realm. Despite all I did and suffered, my physical body had not experienced the 100 Earth years' worth of training and suffering.
Instead, my soul and consciousness were being tempered as I trained. This helped increase my pain tolerance and also allowed me to better manipulate my body. I still was not going to use magic or even attempt to. Unlike inside the inheritance realm, I need to have mage cores to cast even the most simplest of spells. Instead, I will focus on training my body into a natural magoi conduit… for now…
With this in mind, I headed to the tanning rack and started working on the hides and leathers I was given by the Elder. Additionally, I grabbed all the resources from mom's golems who retrieved everything useful as we travelled to the settlement. Mom and dad never said I couldn't use the stuff they collected on the way here. So I'm gonna milk them for all they've collected, hehe.
After 3 days of trial and error, I created somewhat descent leather armor and started working on a decent enough bow and disposable weapons like throwing knives, darts, arrows and the like. It would take me another 5 days to craft a bow out of Emerald oak wood strong enough to not break when applying 50lbs and up of pressure when bending and shaping the bow. As for the throwing knives and arrowheads, I used simple sharpened stones and carefully breaded Emerald oak thatch.
The Oak thatch wove around a thin, straight, but firm stick as the shaft of each arrow. I didn't bother making handles for the throwing knives since they're disposable. I did however, shape stones so I could safely grasp them before throwing. With everything in order, I was ready to try out my combat skills and equipment on some easy monsters. Storing everything into the inventory, I proceeded to leave the Ancestral Glade.
Walking for about 10 to 15 minutes, I found a target safe and easy to fight. Approaching as quietly as I could, I notice the cat was lounging on a giant deposit of orichalcum… great… Of all the eerily weird magic beasts, this one happens to freak me out the most. The giant feline looking magic beast was in fact a Cheshire Panther but looked nothing like a panther. (I truly question the naming sense of this world.)
The creature had the appearance of a calico cat the size of a massive St. Bernard. Meanwhile, it was covered in shaggy black and white splotches with grey and brown spots on its fur all over. The feline uses illusions to lure its prey into deathtraps either of its own creation, or into the monster cradle of more dangerous monsters.
Other than that, the cat was not worthy of being a life-threatening beast. Looking towards the resting cat, an unnerving giant grin was plastered on the feline's face. The bastard just sat there as it cleaned itself after nibbling its most recent meal, a giant Emerald Deer.
Taking out the bow, I knock an arrow and aim for the Cheshire Panther. The magic beast has extraordinarily little defensive capabilities outside of illusions, so it shouldn't be an issue, or so I thought. Letting the arrow fly forth, the cat seemed to become hazy then disappeared as the arrow reached it. Looks like it knew I was here (so much for leveling sneak to 100).
Losing my target, I went up to the orichalcum deposit and gathered everything I could. I then looked at the Emerald Deer corpse and began to dismantle it. I might not have gotten the cat, but this will do. Next I continued to roam the forest for training material.
After 3 hours of moderately fruitful hunting, I returned to the glade. Upon arrival, I took a relaxing bath, then finished dismantling monster corpses, tanned the new hides, and stored the chaos cores for later. Afterwards, I sat in a comfortable spot outside and began using mana manipulation.
As I expected, training here is more grueling than in the inheritance realm. Inside the realm, I could train tirelessly, use magic even though I didn't have mage cores and develop my knowledge base at lightning pace. Here however, I can't work too hard, or I risk suffering from serious backlash. I guess I am gonna have to take it slow before I can move forward in my training.
-End of Chapter