Chapter 22 - 022_Understand
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022_Understand
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This year's harvest was about 65 percent of last year's, a terribly poor crop. The reason was that typhoons made landfall three times this year, but the damage from the first one was especially severe.
Rodney reduced the tax, normally set at 50 percent, to 30 percent. As a result, the amount remaining with the farmers was almost the same as last year, but naturally tax revenue decreased significantly.
Rodney purchased the barley necessary for beer production from the farmers. Normally it would have come in as tax, but thanks to the Galim Syrup, he was able to buy it.
Furthermore, he asked Hacklehoff to purchase barley from regions where it was cheap.
A long, harsh winter arrived in the Dedel Territory. Snow began to fall, and in about half a month, the ground would be covered in snow.
Rodney planned to use this winter to train his root powers. Fortunately, Kiris handled most of the paperwork, so there were few matters that absolutely required Rodney's approval.
Rodney, who had been doing practice swings with an iron club since morning, was drenched in sweat even as snow flurried around him. Thanks to training every day, he could now swing the iron club without using root power. As a result, Rodney's body had become more muscular than before, with almost no visible body fat.
After the practice swings, he carefully traced through forms. He had his muscles memorize the movements, imprinting them into each and every cell. By doing so, his body would naturally begin to move.
After that, he exchanged blows with Yulin. When he received Yulin's powerful sword strikes, his hands went numb, so he parried to avoid that. However, Yulin also devised ways to avoid being parried, so it wasn't easy.
After Yulin, he also crossed swords with Emilia. This time, he tried to deflect Emilia's fast sword, but he was toyed with and couldn't do it well. Realizing he still had a long way to go, he resolved to train even harder.
After sword training, he did a little paperwork, and in the afternoon he trained his root powers.
He could use most of the root powers he had acquired to a reasonable extent, but only Mist Disperse was not in a state where he could use it in actual combat.
One of the features of Mist Disperse is that it cancels the effects of root powers. More specifically, even if a root power is activated, it can cancel it. However, to do that, he needs to activate Mist Disperse freely, but Rodney couldn't do that.
He did image training to activate Mist Disperse in an instant, and then actually activated it. He repeated this to the point of being called stubborn. That was all Rodney could do.
In books that compiled information on root powers, there were explanations of how to use them to some extent. However, there were no books that mentioned Mist Disperse. He had Hacklehoff obtain several books on root powers, but none of them contained anything about Mist Disperse.
Unlike Mist Disperse, there were also root powers that were very easy to use. That was Augment. Augment not only enhances other root powers but also enhances things unrelated to root powers.
For example, Rodney himself. Not only his body, but also his thinking is enhanced. However, it doesn't make him smarter, but rather makes his thinking speed faster. Even so, having faster thinking speed is a blessing.
Also, equipment. He can enhance the sharpness of weapons, and enhance the strength of weapons and armor. The degree of enhancement is not that high. In fact, the enhancement of the body is inferior to that of the lower-tier root power Arm Strength.
Compared to Augment, which enhances everything, Enhance enhances root powers, so its effect is greater than Augment.
Separately from Rodney, who continued his stubborn daily training of Mist Disperse, Emilia and Yulin were also improving their root powers. They were training on the coast, where snow fell and cold winds raged, to be able to rapid-fire Fireball and Windball toward the sea.
Their activation speed had become quite fast. However, the two felt that rapid-firing was still lacking. Fireball and Windball were not dangerous to mid-tier or high-tier Selvanui. The two also wanted to use them as a means of suppression rather than as a damage source.
To achieve that, they wanted to rapid-fire two or three shots instead of one. That was what they were training for.
Beside them, the elite territorial soldiers were training on the snow-covered sandy beach. Rodney had ordered them to obtain mid-tier root powers in preparation for clearing the 6th stratum, and so they had acquired root powers such as Steel Arm, Sturdy, and Strong Legs.
To get used to these new root powers, they were training under Rodmel's guidance even in the snow.
While Rodney and the others were immersed in training, the snow continued to pile up, and around the time it had accumulated to over a person's height, Manas arrived.
A Selvanui called an ox-deer was pulling a sled cart that could travel even in snow. This ox-deer was resistant to cold and had strong power, but was so weak to fire that it could be felled with a single Fireball, making it a Selvanui that wasn't too difficult to hunt.
Merchants in the northern part of the Kuodo Kingdom used these ox-deer to transport cargo even in the snow.
「Domeas-sama, it has been a while.」
「Manas-dono. With this snow, it must have been difficult.」
「No, no, last year there was a time with even deeper snow, so compared to that, this is still manageable.」
Manas's cart was larger than when he had seen it the previous time. Since he was also purchasing beer in addition to Galim Syrup, he had had a larger cart made to accommodate that.
「How is the beer turning out?」
「We got a good batch. Even Rodney-sama said it's the best one yet.」
「That's exciting. The beer is very popular in both Bassam and the royal capital.」
Manas had a pleasant conversation with Domeas about the quality and quantity of the beer, and it was decided that he would take five freshly made barrels.
After that, he went around the Galim Syrup workshop, picked up the Galim Syrup, and finally went to greet Rodney.
Rodney had been swinging his iron club in the backyard, so steam was rising from his entire body. There, Riti called out to him that Manas had arrived, so he wiped his sweat, changed clothes, and met with Manas.
「This time, I have brought two types of Life Light Stones from other countries.」
「Two types, huh. That's helpful.」
「However, I was unable to secure the quantity you requested.」
「That can't be helped. It's not easy to obtain Life Light Stones from other countries.」
Rodney had been asking Hacklehoff if he could obtain Life Light Stones for some time. Even domestic ones that were special were hard to get, and foreign Life Light Stones were even harder.
The Life Light Stones that Manas brought this time were rare ones produced in other countries.
Life Light Stones grant root powers and allow the summon of Selvanui, leading to an increase in military strength, so many countries prohibit taking anything but common ones out of the country. They are often designated as strategic materials, as they say.
Knowing that Hacklehoff was risking danger to obtain Life Light Stones, Rodney had no intention of complaining even if they couldn't be obtained, and he was grateful if even one could be acquired.
「Tell your grandfather that I am grateful.」
「Yes. I will convey that properly.」
When Manas left, Rodney immediately decided to orally ingest the Life Light Stones.
This time, there were three stones of two types. Two of them were dropped by the same type of Selvanui, and from that Selvanui, three types of root powers could be obtained.
Rodney wanted only one root power, so considering the possibility of obtaining the other two, he had wanted three stones. Since Life Light Stones were hard to obtain, he couldn't be greedy.
Grateful that he had even gotten two, he put one in his mouth and bit down.
「Guh」
No matter how many times he experienced it, he couldn't get used to this agony. Moreover, he ended up obtaining a root power he hadn't particularly wanted. Whether he could get the target root power with the next one depended on Rodney's luck.
「It's a one in two chance. Come on!」
He bit down on the Life Light Stone, his face contorting in pain. Oily sweat dripped from his forehead and fell from the bridge of his nose to the floor with a plop.
「Yes... I got Manipulate!」
Having obtained the target root power Manipulate, Rodney pumped his fist. This Manipulate was a special root power that made it easier to control root powers. For Rodney, who had been struggling with controlling Mist Disperse, it was a root power he had wanted desperately.
Three months had passed since winter began. During that time, he had been desperately training Mist Disperse, but it hadn't improved easily.
He had been thinking he wanted this Manipulate for a while, and had consulted Hacklehoff about whether he could obtain it. It was because a book said that with this, he could use newly acquired root powers like a veteran.
He tried activating Mist Disperse. He wasn't consciously activating Manipulate, but Mist Disperse activated smoothly, almost anticlimactically. Moreover, even though maintaining it had been difficult before, this time it continued without much effort in control.
「So this is the effect of Manipulate. Mist Disperse, which I struggled with so much, is this easy... If it has this much effect, it's only natural it's a strategic material.」
Controlling Mist Disperse, which hadn't improved at all despite long training, became surprisingly easy after obtaining Manipulate. As if savoring that joy, he bit down on the last Life Light Stone.
From that Life Light Stone, he obtained a root power called Understand. Understand was a root power that scholars and others desired, and there were several examples where stagnant research had made groundbreaking progress after acquiring it.
Rodney had wanted this Understand to better understand root powers.
Rodney's understanding of root powers deepened considerably after obtaining Manipulate and Understand. He realized that the knowledge gained from books was merely the entrance.
From this day onward, Rodney's use of root powers became more refined, and their power and effects also increased.
For example, Diamond not only greatly increases defensive power but can also be used for offense. When he punched a rock with a fist activated with Diamond, the rock caved in or shattered.
He had only considered its defensive power increase, but realizing it could also be applied to offense was an eye-opening experience.
Also, he was happy to understand that if one's fundamental strength became higher, differences would appear even in root powers.
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