Careful… careful…
As Lucas stood over the mold he asked his father to make, he was now regretting not asking for help with this particular step.
In the young boy's hands was a big bowl filled with a fresh batch of his homemade Bathing Cream. It wasn't very heavy, but the mixture was quite thick and the mold was long and narrow, rather than wide and flat, so it was quite awkward to try to pour the viscous liquid into it without spilling.
Eventually, though, after a few attempts and a bit of spillage, Lucas finished scraping out the last remnants of Bathing Cream.
It was now the last month of autumn, and the weather was getting noticeably colder, but that didn't stop the boy from wiping the sweat which had formed on his forehead.
Looking at the pale beige block nearly 2 hands long, 1 hand wide, and 1 palm deep, Lucas smiled widely and nodded in approval.
Instead of individual molds, like his original wooden bowls, Lucas felt that using one big container, then cutting the block of Bathing Cream into smaller bars, was more efficient.
Taking a deep breath in, Lucas smelt a faint hint of flowers. This fragrant addition to his Bathing Cream was thanks to a burst of inspiration he had when he noticed one of his earlier test products had come out smelling like the spices his mother had used to season dinner one day.
If the lingering smell of dinner could be absorbed by the drying Bathing Cream, then why couldn't something more pleasant, like herbs or flowers, also be used? It was already a common thing to use certain herbs when scrubbing oneself to give a fresh scent, so Lucas didn't see a problem with adding a little something extra to his Bathing Cream to make it smell nice.
As for how he achieved this, the boy picked a bunch of common wildflowers, boiled their petals down continuously until he obtained a potent smelling liquid, then added a bit of that to his Bathing Cream mixture.
The reason Lucas used this roundabout method instead of just using the flower petal water to make his Ash-Water, was because he found the Ash-Water made this way didn't work anymore.
Lucas didn't know why this was, just that it was, so he had to find an alternative.
Picking up the mold, Lucas carefully trotted out towards Drake's smithy.
This was another small trick he had picked up though his various experiments, placing the still liquidy Bathing Cream in a hot, dry environment to speed up its hardening.
Each of these innovations might seem small and insignificant, but Lucas still carefully noted them down as he figured they would come in handy when he moved from making a dozen pieces of solid Bathing Cream, to hundreds of them, something he very much intended to do as soon as he perfected his methodology.
His first large batch of solid Bathing Cream turned out quite well, even from Lucas' picky perspective, yielding a total of 10 big bars, half of which he kept, while the others he gave to his Aunt Sasha.
Unexpectedly, after using up the first bar, when Lucas went to start using the second, he discovered that it held its shape better and produced more bubbles when he was lathering it. This prompted him to wonder if, like wine or cheese, his new product improved with age.
Fortunately, all Lucas had to do to test this theory was keep using his Bathing Cream. If the fifth bar he used from the batch was significantly better than the first, he would have his answer.
The continued discoveries, both intentional and accidental, only strengthened Lucas' enthusiasm for this little project of his, and he gradually began to dream of bigger and better things that would follow in its wake.
After many discussions with his parents and his Aunt Sasha about what steps to take next, Lucas set an initial goal of having his solid Bathing Cream appear in every home in Redwood Town.
Lucas wanted to share his happiness with everyone around him, and he wasn't fussed about making a big profit with it despite how easy that would be. To that end, he kept looking for ways to improve efficiency and bring down costs, hoping to one day make his new solid Bathing Cream affordable even to the poorest of farmers and labourers.
There were days when his experiments yielded success, and other where he was met with total failure, but Lucas was never discouraged and kept forging ahead, not letting anything stand between him and his dreams.
…..
Autumn came to an end and winter arrived in Redwood Town.
In many places around the Blue Sky Continent, winter was a season of hardship with its harsh weather and unstable food supplies, but in the South-West Province of the Rockwell Kingdom, where Redwood Town was located, things weren't nearly so dire.
Under Baron Charles Newton's supervision, the fall harvest was completed with time to spare and the granaries were fully stocked with wheat, flour, root vegetables, and other hardy produce.
Many beasts had also been hunted or slaughtered before being smoked and salted for preservation.
Additionally, this year, a massive underground cold storage unit had been built at the Town Lord's Manor, where large quantities of meats, fruits, and other perishable fare were frozen and stocked.
With Redwood Town's food supplies more ample than ever before, and abundant firewood and charcoal having been prepared from the limitless trees of the Great Western Forest, it looked like this winter would be a relaxed one, with none of the townsfolk having to worry about going cold or hungry.
As the fieldwork ended, many of the residents of Redwood Town turned their attention to home maintenance such as fixing up furniture or patching holes in roofs, getting ready for the winter cold. This also kept Drake busy fixing tools and producing nails while Anna had to increase the number of patrols as more people staying inside the town limits inevitably led to more disturbances and arguments.
Very rarely did real fights break out in this small town, but Anna's philosophy was that by having the Town Guard be extra visible during these times, it would deter any would-be troublemakers.
Being proactive rather than reactive was also in-line with Anna's personality.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly, with no major incidents or accidents occurring, but just a few days before the end of the year, something completely unexpected happened to Lucas.
Although much of his focus for the past few months had been on improving his solid Bathing Cream, Lucas had never neglected his training, undergoing strenuous exercise for no less than an hour every day.
In fact, Lucas felt that even this much exercise was insufficient and he would have preferred training for 2 or 3 hours a day if he could, but when he had tried pushing himself harder, he found his little body couldn't handle it.
He was, after all, just 9-years-old, a growing boy in ever sense, so too much physical strain was definitely not ideal.
Even with this 'limited' amount of training, though, Lucas could feel himself gradually growing stronger.
One particular day, as he gently breathed in the crisp morning air and completed a set of Forms from the Unarmed Foundations Martial Art, Lucas felt something pop inside of him, and all of a sudden, he felt calmer and more refreshed than ever before.
It was like something that was misaligned had just clicked into place.
At the same moment, a fog lifted from Lucas' mind, clearing up many of the inherited memories which he had previously been unable to make sense of.
Opening his eyes, one particular thought surged to the forefront as he unconsciously blurted out, "Soap… It's called soap!"
After uttering those words, however, Lucas' brow furrowed as his natural follow-up reaction was to wonder 'why' the product he had so far been calling 'solid Bathing Cream' was called 'soap'. He knew there was a particular reason for this name, something to do with the process used to create soap, but he couldn't quite grasp the details.
Shaking his head, Lucas chalked it up to his newly acquired knowledge still being incomplete.
It was only after setting this very important and critical matter aside that Lucas suddenly began wondering what exactly had just happened to him.
Clenching his fists, stretching his muscles, jumping in place, punching and kicking the air; Lucas tested himself in various ways and after careful examination felt like his strength had increased. He also noticed that his thoughts were clearer and his senses seemed sharper, but the improvement wasn't so great that it was immediately noticeable or felt awkward in any way.
If he had to describe it, the difference in his condition now compared to an hour ago was only akin to the difference between his exhausted state at the end of a hard day compared to his condition first thing in the morning after a restful sleep.
The next thing Lucas checked was the newly accessible knowledge in his head.
Unlike the subtle improvement to his physique, there was a noticeable difference in the breadth and depth of information he now possessed.
Lucas was now fluent in a foreign language called English, and could roughly speak and understand a couple others called Japanese, Chinese, and French; he also understood a lot more about math and something called science than before.
Before, the sun was just a giant light in the sky that rose in the west every day, but now Lucas knew it was actually the planet he was standing on that rotated on its axis which caused the sunrise.
The air he breathed was made up of many different gases and gravity kept his feet on the ground.
There were 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute.
1 metre was roughly 2 paces long, and there were 100 centimetres in 1 metre.
The ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter was pi, equal to 3.14159, and so much more...
Lucas also recalled much more advanced information, like the theory of evolution, genetics, fluid dynamics, and warp theory, but for most of these things, he only knew their names and what they were generally about, rather than anything in-depth.
It was like he had once studied and understood these complex subjects, but had now forgotten much of it.
In addition to what Lucas classified as academic knowledge, there was a mountain of information about sports, exercise, combat techniques, cooking, and other random activities; some of it was vague, some of it very clear.
Unfamiliar names, faces, places, objects, all of it was now at Lucas' fingertips.
The only thing which was frustratingly absent was the name of the person whose memories he had inherited. It was almost like all personal information had been deliberately erased or kept from him somehow.
By now, Lucas was certain that something had changed in him. He still felt like himself in terms of personality, with these new memories all being like words in a book rather than personal experiences, but the massive dump of data filling his head naturally had an impact on his own thoughts and common sense.
"It's like I've broken through some kind of barrier and gained access to this new knowledge," Lucas thought aloud before abruptly halting as a certain possibility came to him.
Could he have achieved an actual breakthrough, rising from the First Step Body Tempering Realm to the Second Step? It seemed like a real possibility and would certainly explain the improvement in his physical condition, but how had his mental abilities also been boosted?
What's more, every time he heard of Eris or one of the older kids in town achieve a breakthrough, their strength would undergo a sudden and significant increase, to the point where most of them had trouble controlling it for a couple of days.
Maybe I had a breakthrough, but didn't gain much strength? Lucas guessed.
It would be a little sad for him if he couldn't strengthen himself as much as other children when breaking through, but it wouldn't be too much of a problem in his everyday life.
Eager to confirm his theory, Lucas swept his eyes around until they landed on the little shed where he kept his barrels of Ash-Water.
Dashing over, Lucas quickly grabbed one of the full barrels, bent his knees to brace himself, and lifted with all his strength.
Before today, if Lucas had tried this, he would have struggled to hoist such a barrel because despite being small, they were still heavy. Now however, while it wasn't exactly like lifting a feather, Lucas did feel this task was noticeably easier, so much so that he almost fell on his butt when the barrel lifted much faster than he was expecting it to.
After stumbling a bit, Lucas regained his balance and set the barrel down gently, breathing out a sigh of relief at not having dropped it on himself, which would certainly have hurt.
Contrary to his original theory, it seemed he had indeed gained quite a bit of strength, but his control over it was remarkable which led him to not experiencing the same awkwardness as others his age.
This brought a grin to Lucas' face, as no matter what, growing stronger and taking one step closer to becoming a powerful Cultivator was every young boy's dream.