Though calling it progress is a bit of an exaggeration. Jason only managed to punch a chip off. Which, admittedly is impressive if said chip wasn’t already intending to come off. Which it wasn’t.
This came right at the end of the day and so Jason took it as a sign to end things then. Though he took the chop with him. It has significance to him personally and so might be useful.
Then he repeated things. Going a few more days before managing to chip off another bit of stone. Though it doesn’t pick up from there. Half a day, every day. A new block to punch as the artificial cliff is slowly carved away one 3-meter square at a time.
Well, not one at a time. There are multiple teams working on things, so more like three to five blocks at a time. Except with stats and skills, that is more than enough. There is a reason they need all the volunteers they can get to clear blocks for them.
So Jason has a never-ending supply of new blocks to punch. Right now, Rosha and Courtney had their own long-term projects, so he could focus entirely on this one thing.
Chip after chip of stone. Though once he does chip a block, he never stays with it. If it is near enough the end of the day, he leaves early. Otherwise, he tosses the chip over the side and into the pile below before moving onto the next block.
Jason doesn’t expect that there will be a breakthrough in technique. Maybe a block or two would eventually split simply because he chose one already about to do so, but that isn’t the goal.
Rather, as his stats improve, there will come a breakpoint. Jason wasn’t sure where that point would be? Maybe his Toughness would grow enough to put proper stress on the stone to finally do some actual damage. Possibly his Strength would grow so great that despite his flesh giving up first, the block would also break. And least likely, but what would be the most interesting, maybe his Agility would get to a level where his precision would allow him to strike just right and shatter stone.
Of course, the reality is that any one of those outcomes would not end his training. Only when all three are in place will his training be successful. After all, he is trying to train every star, so a single stat winning would still be a failure. He wanted to be as strong as the ocean current, tough as the mountains, and as fast as the wind. Maybe a dash of the passion of fire to balance the elemental aspect out? Meh, it doesn’t matter to him right now, except the trio brings his mind back to something he has neglected a little.
Civilization
Ascendance
Substance
Because while the oceans, mountains, and the winds are nice and all. It doesn’t represent him. Sadly, those concepts don’t neatly map onto the three stats. Admittedly, Jason would have likely found such a “coincidence” suspicious.
Jason ponders on this a while as he lugs stone blocks around. Because the honest answer is that Ascendance covers this entire endeavor, maybe Substance. Civilization coming in a distant last and not even all that much since this isn’t even doing much for civilization. The whole thing is a giant make-work project to bring glory to some deity or another.
If this was an actual working quarry or mine where the resulting goods would be used for something? That would be one thing. And sure, this place was basically being used to train people to go out and do such things. Except Jason knew that such training would likely be better done either in a more specialized training area or on-site. Not at some vanity project for the divine.
Oh well, Jason sets that aside. Even just striving for Ascendance alone as a focus would be better than nothing at all. Which also meant now would be a good time to take a snapshot of his progress and the progress to come.
Wanting to get things recorded right away, Jason doesn’t bother finishing out the day and heads home where he has a rough record. “Guys, I’m back early. Going to record something and then meditate.”
Courtney looks up from some paperwork, “Will you want lunch?”
Jason shakes his head, “I’m good.”
She nods and goes back to the papers.
From the roof, Jason can hear Rosha practicing, but she doesn’t say anything. Maybe she didn’t hear? Not that it matters right now, so he simply takes a right and goes into his room.
There’s a small writing desk in the corner he had picked up. Mostly because it provided the minimum security to settle his mind, a locking cover. It wasn’t like some of the big old timey desks he knew of from irl, but it worked. Oh, and the key was half-magical.
Not as in it used magic. That would be inconvenient since Jason couldn’t. No, rather, there was Mana imprinted into the small metal key and the desk’s lock needed it there to unlock. A really simple thing, not even multiple types of Mana or a matter of placement. However, because Mana can be so many things, it worked.
If Jason had to compare it to something? This was like a two-digit pin that needed to be entered along with the key. Not secure, but providing a second layer of security that could fool someone if they didn’t know it was there.
And many wouldn’t. The key selling point of this model of desk is that they sell two versions. This one for a hundred gold and the exact same desk, sans magic, for a single gold. And not just here in this city, but across quite a wide geographical area.
Oh, sure, this means everyone knows that some people with this writing desk have a magical lock on them. Except, out of all the desks, how many of the magical ones are there? Hardly any at all! So people aren’t ready for it and that’s enough.
Anyway, Jason unlocks the desk cover and opens it up to the mess he had left there. Most of it is unimportant, well, the first chip is being used as a paperweight as he’s waiting on Courtney and Rosha to find the right use for it, but the reason he rushed back is right on top. A record of where his stats started and the general trends he saw in their growth.