Char stretched herself out on the porch swing of the Guild House in Sunnybrook, enjoying the afternoon sun. She had spent the morning with the youngsters that had been brought into the Guild over the last few months, teaching them their basic schoolwork.
Not many people other than the aristocrats in the Valley put general education in high regard, viewing a very basic reading level, provided by the System as more than enough to get by, but Char saw the value in knowledge and worked hard to pass it down.
A well-trained tradesman was essential to running society, but one who knew more than just his trade could actually make things better. In her past life, she had seen what happened in cultures that focused on only essential skills, like trades and fighting. They stagnated for decades before either finding a natural genius and advancing or being taken over by a neighbor who had advanced past them.
Of course, the same thing happened with ones that taught the same set of basics for too long without updating them. They advanced at first, but eventually, the new knowledge became common knowledge, and the time in schools became worthless, as the students already knew most of what they were supposed to learn.
The leaders would take that as a sign that their children were brighter than ever, but after a decade or two, it would become clear that it was simply the schools lagging behind the people.
So, Char had taken it upon herself to reform the cities in the Beginner's Valley.
Not just the two that the Darklight Host had Houses in, she sent out emissaries who were like-minded to teach children everywhere. Even the Elven forest, where the Pixies spawned now had a teacher stationed in them.
The school was nothing more than a simple tree fort with one single teacher, but they quickly learned that those who reincarnated as Pixies were mostly children in their past life, so the appeal of a tree house full of safety and sweets was not lost on them.
That was the trick the teacher had used to draw them in. Pixies lived off sugar, but the honey in the Forest was guarded by vicious wasps. That meant that they had to scrounge for berries to survive, and made their lives very difficult, at least for those who weren't part of the Pixie gangs, who looted anyone else they saw.
The schoolhouse became known as the Lunchroom within the first week, and the Pixies didn't even mind that they had to do worksheets before they could get the sweets. Bribery will get you everywhere when dealing with Pixies after all.
Slowly the Pixies were learning more and more about the world, and many chose to leave the forest to join the group under Elmira in Sunnybrook.
The Guild's resident pocket Pixie had never been big on fighting, but she had excellent survival skills, both urban and wilderness.
"Living the Good Life, Pixie style" was the name of the course she chose to teach, and Char could hear her from the porch of the Guildhouse as she imparted her years of wisdom to the 'youngsters'.
"Alright, so you guys want to travel, but you need to do it safely. Today I will give you some basic pointers on how to get yourself into a secure traveling group. First up, play to your strengths. Pixies grant bonuses to magic power. That means both better healing and better spell damage for everyone around you.
No group doesn't want that, and you don't even have to officially be in their group for it to work, you can join a full group of five and still grant them the bonus if you view them as allies.
Secondly, your class. Most of you are either mages or healers. Healers, your advantage is obvious to anyone who looks at your interface, but Mages, it helps if you know some useful spells. Not for combat, but for utility.
Every casting class, no matter the spec, can use the F Ranked utility spells, like Campfire, Minor Create Water, and Warming Hug. I will teach those spells to every one of you in the second half of this lesson if you don't already know them.
But the most important spell that a Mage can use to get themselves into a group is [Create Honey]. This is a Pixie Specific spell that I learned early on. If you have access to sugar, which you should have stored in your inventory for snacks, you can make large amounts of honey-based treats for the group.
They are nutritious and tasty, and will get the group through a difficult time if they get trapped somewhere, or have boring trail rations.
If you want to go even further, many spell casters can use the A Ranked [Create Feast]. If you can use Mage, Shaman, or Cleric spell books, this one is the best you can find. It was dropped for a member of the Darklight Host in Long Fang Valley, which is known for its large food output, and I managed to obtain a copy.
I don't have any more copies to let you fast learn it, but in only one full day I can teach it."
The fact that the Pixies sat through that entire lecture by Elmira was a wonder to Char. They usually had an attention span best measured in fractions of a second, but she didn't hear any wings buzzing, so they had all remained in their spots while the teacher droned on about spells.
"Miss Elmira, you can really teach us to create a feast that will feed an entire party? With just mana, no need for storage space?" One of the younger Pixies asked.
"Indeed I can. Would you all like to skip today's lesson and start on the spell? If you can make it work, it will be an even better reward than the candies for the worksheets." Elmira suggested to exuberant applause by tiny hands.
"Alright, now let us begin."
Char tuned the Pixies lesson out from that point, as she already knew the spell. It was an incredible find for the Guild, and everyone was shocked that it was only A Ranked. Food creation spells were incredibly rare, almost as rare as Mythic Skills were these days.
Druids got a few of them, but they were mostly salads and berries, so most species didn't really count those. The Elves loved them, but even the humans found them boring after a while. [Create Feast] made a much wider variety of foods.
Instead of listening in on Elmira, Char gently rocked on the swing with a sleeping Gnome in her lap and thought about what to teach her next class.
Many subjects were viewed as boring, but she had convinced most of the students that trigonometry and basic physics were both important. Not for any obscure reason, but so that they could better understand thrown and fired projectiles, as well as the proper way to bounce things around corners.
The Barbarians got a bonus with Slings, if they wanted to use ranged weapons, and learning to use them without activating a skill wasn't an easy task. But once they understood the concept, it became easier, and they even learned to hurl the explosives that Warlocks could make down stairs and around corners by bouncing them off walls.
Of course, as she was teaching children, her applied mathematics lessons weren't often used in real combat, except in the Tower. Water balloons were the best way to show off their understanding of math. Over the top of a house to land on other students walking down the street, without hitting the other people in the road was both their favorite game, and the most common way that they got in trouble.
More than a few unsuspecting Elves had been doused with a water balloon thrown blindly.
The biggest change in the Valley lately had to be the Outreach Workers though. They had set up in almost every village and city inside the valley, even the Troll Capital had a branch, staffed by Trollish Volunteers.
No longer were goods hard to get outside of the area they were produced, the Darklight Host had a small trading post at every branch location, and the goods sold in the valley were made in the valley, so they were priced accordingly.
You could also get higher-level items, but that was pretty unaffordable to most. The Dark Dwarven city of Graska had been rapidly leveling up their smiths though, thanks to the influx of new materials and patterns, so being able to get a level 75 set of armor and a weapon was no longer a monumental task for the transfers here.
It was sad for Char to see them go, but she still felt a burst of motherly pride every time one of her trainees hit level one hundred and was forcefully transported to Montauk, where the local branch of the Guild would take them in and help them get settled outside the valley, or send them through the Guild House Transfer Circle if they were intending to stay in the valley.
Not many did. There was a whole wide world to see, and Char's students had all been well trained to see the Darklight Host and their Outreach Workers as noble allies in their endeavors.
But, Char was Spirit Folk now, and over level two hundred. Even in the worst-case scenario, she should have at least five hundred more years to raise these children and rock on her porch swing before old age got to her, and that was just fine by the former Empress.
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