It wasn't until a cold wind blew through, causing Lucas to shiver, that he snapped back to his senses and wiped the silly grin off his face.
If he wasn't mistaken, he had indeed achieved a breakthrough to the Secon Step Body Tempering Realm. As for why this had happened, Lucas suspected that it had something to do with his regular practice of the Unarmed Foundations Art.
Pairing a Cultivation Technique with the Unarmed Foundations Art enhances the former's efficiency, so perhaps just training with the Unarmed Foundations Art could have a similar effect. I'll need to investigate this more, Lucas thought to himself.
Lucas wasn't using a Cultivation Technique while he was training, but he did follow the Unarmed Foundation Art's strict breathing patterns to further increase the internal stress on his muscles. Upon thinking about it now, practicing like this probably had the same effect as using the Focused Breathing Art, only better.
The Focused Breathing Art was the simplest Cultivation Technique, with no Mantra to it at all. All one needed to do to practice it was sit in a relaxed position, clear their mind, breathe in deeply for a 10 count, hold their breath for another 10 count, then breath out for a final 10 count.
That was it.
Most ordinary people used the Focused Breathing Art because all the better Cultivation Techniques were horded by nobles, kingdoms, of various other organizations with money and power.
As a result, it was generally the poor and weak who had no choice but to use this simplistic Art. Even so, despite often leading extremely hard and busy lives, most people would dedicate at least some time each day to cultivating, like spending half an hour before going to bed in meditation.
The reason for this was simple, a higher cultivation meant greater strength, better health, longer lifespan, and if one was lucky enough to rise above the Body Tempering Realm, there was even a chance to change their destiny and the fortunes of their family.
Redwood Town was situated at the south-western edge of the Rockwell Kingdom, making it a literal frontier town despite having been founded over 100 years ago by Charles' great grandfather. Despite its remote location, the environment here was quite good, so it was fair to say that the living conditions in town were a good representation of the average in the kingdom.
In Redwood Town, about 1 in 10 people could reach the Vein Opening Realm in their lifetime. Most people would barely manage to break through and would remain at the First Step until they died, limited by both resources and Innate Talent; but even so, that one additional step was often life-changing, opening up a much wider variety of job opportunities with far better pay.
Even if a First Step Vein Opening Realm Practitioner couldn't get one of these good paying jobs, the increase in strength along could allow them to hunt stronger beasts, plow more farmland, or do more labour, leading to a dramatic improvement to their life and lives of their loved ones.
It was for this reason that while those with better options looked down on and disdained the Focused Breathing Art, to the ordinary citizens of the continent, it was a priceless treasure.
Now, Lucas had taken his first step on the path of cultivation. He hadn't meant to start cultivating yet, and in fact was told repeatedly by all the adults around him to not even try, but he had already broken through. If he wasn't mistaken about the process, he had also been 'cultivating' for over half-a-year now, ever since he began regularly using the Unarmed Foundations Martial Art.
At this point, Lucas figured there was nothing he could do about it except try to explain himself in a way that avoided him being scolded too much.
Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any negative side-effects from this slight head-start in life. There was no awkwardness in his movements, no pain in his muscles, and certain no visible injuries; however, Lucas felt he shouldn't take any chances and decided to immediately consult with his parents.
Turning back to the house, though, the young boy recalled that his father had gone into town earlier to purchase metals for his smithy, and his mother had dashed out some time ago in her armour, probably to deal with some kind of disturbance like a brawl or theft.
Currently, Lucas was home alone with no one to ask for help.
Well… nothing bad happened for the last 5 or 10 minutes, so it should be fine, right? Lucas convinced himself, now using this more precise method of telling time rather than dividing things into quarter-hours, half-hours, and hours. Having a clock would make telling time even easier, but he would have to make do with using the sun and guessing for now.
Lucas really was feeling better than ever before, so he didn't think there was a problem putting off this bit of trouble until later.
It wasn't that he was trying to avoid explaining himself… honestly!
Having settled the issue, Lucas quickly ran into the house, started boiling himself a small pot of water, then got out his usual washbasin and bar of solid Bathing Cream, or rather, his bar of soap.
Taking the washbasin outside, Lucas proceeded to draw up a big bucket of cold water from the well. While he was doing so though, he couldn't help thinking, Having running water in the house would be nice.
One of the things that stood out the most from his newly cleared up memories was just how convenient day-to-day life seemed to be in the other world.
Unlimited running hot and cold water, an infinite variety of foods at one's fingertips, homes that were cool in the summer and warm in the winter, devices which could access any kind of information one wanted to know whenever they wanted to know it.
It was like a heavenly paradise where no pain or suffering existed.
Of course, Lucas knew that wasn't true in the slightest, as he had also seen visions of war, hardship, death, and destruction on a scale he could barely even comprehend in that other world. But in general, it seemed that the quality of life the man he inherited his new memories from was still significantly higher than his current situation.
Take for instance the pulley and bucket he was using to fetch water from the well with. Thanks to some basic physics knowledge, Lucas had a few ideas about how to create a running water system, but he also understood that trying to build such a thing was essentially impossible… for the moment.
Perhaps if he could gain enough money and hire enough craftsmen it would be doable, but right now, it was pure fantasy.
Making a simple hand-pump shouldn't be too hard, though.
Lucas was fairly certain he could now explain the concept of a hand-pump. Even if he didn't know all the various details about it, he was confident he could work them out with a little effort. His father, Drake, was also a skilled blacksmith, so he could certainly forge the necessary parts.
The only question was whether it was actually worth it to make a hand-pump.
It would save time and effort, and many people would surely love the convenience of this simple invention, but the cost to produce watertight pipes and other critical parts would not be cheap
If only there was something like bamboo around here, Lucas sighed. The hollow, natural pipes would surely have made this project far more feasible. It was something the boy made a note of to look into.
After scrubbing himself down and rinsing off the soap, Lucas shivered slightly in the cold as he hurriedly dried himself off. He then put on a fresh set of clothes and trotted back over to his Ash-Water shed.
"Lye, this stuff is called lye," Lucas thought aloud as he stared at the barrel of wood-ash and water. Many other such trivial pieces of information now seemed like common knowledge to him, which Lucas soon realized would be both a blessing and a curse.
On the one hand, he seemed less ignorant of the world around him, but on the other hand, he would have to be even more cautious about not inadvertently exposing his extensive new knowledge. Slipping up once or twice wouldn't be an issue, but if he continuously came up with explanations for previously unexplained phenomena and repeatedly developed innovative inventions no one had ever seen before, people were bound to start taking notice, both those with good, and those with ill intentions.
At first, Lucas anticipated he would struggle with this problem for a short time before adapting, but it wasn't even a few minutes later that he realized it would be much harder than he originally thought.
Everywhere he looked, Lucas had ideas for how to improve things.
The barrels he was using to make lye could be replaced with wine-barrels which were bigger and easier to drain. The waste below the outhouse at the far side of the yard could be turned into fertilizer for the fields instead of just carted away and dumped downriver. Waterwheels could be built not just to grind flour, but also for irrigation or to power a hammer to help his father with his blacksmithing work.
It was honestly quite difficult for Lucas to contain his thoughts right now. He knew most of the ideas floating through his head were impractical, but the ones that seemed doable were basically screaming out for him to try.
As for ideas about new foods to cook, those were practically endless, like pizza, burgers, pasta, barbeque, cakes, cookies…
Lucas was all but drooling when he thought about all the new recipes he now had in mind, but he quickly slapped his cheeks to snap himself out of this trance and get back to work.
Loading 6 small barrels of lye solution into his cart, which was now much easier than before thanks to his greater strength, Lucas made his way out of the yard and towards the Central Square. He had to deliver 2 barrels to Jerry, the owner of the biggest bakery in town, and then 4 barrels to Farah. Both shops dealt with food, so cleanliness was very important to them and they were among Lucas' best customers.
Thinking about the various townsfolk who had supported his initial business, despite him just being an ignorant boy, Lucas made a mental note to give them big discounts on his future products. As for everyone else, especially the peddlers from out of town; well, Lucas wasn't planning on being a black-hearted merchant, but he certainly wasn't against making a healthy profit margin
Originally, making money hadn't been a priority for Lucas, but he now realized that if he wanted to implement any of the hundreds of new ideas he had in mind now, having a sufficient amount of funds available would be critical.
Lucas would admit that some of these projects were purely for his own benefit; after all, who wouldn't want to eat better food and live a more comfortable life? However, his motives weren't entirely selfish. In fact, many of the things he wanted to work on would be of great benefit to everyone in Redwood Town, such as improving the dirt road he was currently dragging his cart along.
All the roads in Redwood Town were made from compacted dirt, with a few important places having some loose gravel mixed in to make them a bit sturdier.
Paving these roads with the shock-absorbing crystal composite used in the other world was naturally impossible, and even something more 'primitive' like asphalt wasn't immediately doable, but creating some kind of simple cement might not be out of reach.
Lucas knew that cement was a mixture of a couple different times of rock, with limestone being the key component, but that was about it. Where to find limestone, what the other components were, what kind of ratio to mix them together at, or if there was any further processing required all remained hazy to him.
It was possible that if he broke through again, he would remember more details about cement's production process, but given it had taken him over 6 months just to reach the Second Step Body Tempering Realm, another breakthrough wouldn't happen any time soon even if his parents didn't stop him from cultivating further.
Lucas wasn't sure if 6 months to achieve a breakthrough was slow or average, but he knew it wasn't fast, which made him slightly lament his poor Innate Talent. Even so, he could probably do something about his lack of natural aptitude if he had enough resources.
Of course, Lucas wasn't planning on just sitting around and waiting for a breakthrough. Cement was an important material for many construction projects, like building better homes and walls. He could start running some experiments right away, but expecting results in the short-term would be foolish.
Again, more money would make things go faster, but making money couldn't be done overnight either.
Regardless what he wanted to do from now on, it seemed the first thing Lucas needed to prioritize was building up some initial capital.
Chuckling wryly at this thought, which seemed wholly out of place for a boy his age, Lucas pulled his cart up to Jerry's Bakery, his first stop of the day.