“But you have the bowl back. Just because I wasn’t the one to bring it back, doesn’t mean it doesn’t still count.”

“Just be thankful I’m not going to charge you extra. People showing up here with fifty bowls at a time is messing up my workflow.”

“What workflow?”

She huffs and gets me a double portion of food. Its the same as yesterday, rabbit stew with a big piece of bread. I pay without saying anything else and leave looking over my messages.

You have increased your constitution by +1 You have increased your dexterity by +1 You have increased your Kinetic Meditation skill by 3 levels: Kinetic Meditation Lv. 20 You have increased your Blacksmith skill by 2 levels: Blacksmith Lv.6 You have increased your Mana Manipulation skill by 2 levels: Mana Manipulation Lv.3 You have gained 53 Exp by making a basic dagger.

I enter the guildhall and head to a corner to transcribe and give a summary of whatever is new in my book. As I look through it I’m glad to see a couple of possible avenues to infusing materials, for now, all I can do is to infuse my body. Even body infusion doesn’t actually do anything. There are also two new runes, but instead of simple concepts as before, like a fire rune, they seem to be connectors. I’m probably going to need them if I want to make more complex spells.

This time, less than a page is filled out. But I can clearly see the value in this information. With some experimentation, I can start infusing wood, and even if the time is not here yet, this is all ground I will have to cover. Might as well get a head start.

I deliver a neat page written, with a better charcoal stick than what I had seen yesterday, to the guild’s scribe. The guy was using my pen, but I didn’t begrudge him. We really needed to stick together. Letting it sit on my pocket the entire day would be a waste. He gives me the only copy of the book the guild bought. After I finish along with two other people reading from my sides I read the licence for the book.

The book goes into some more depth on stats but only at the start. After that, it becomes basically useless. On the license I look through the rules about showing the book to other people and reading the book. After some though, we could have classrooms with someone teaching the contents of the book without risking infringing the license terms. We just need to pay attention to students taking notes.

Something that is not covered, would be to use a camera to remotely show someone the book. That seems to be allowed, you just can’t record the stream or take pictures. It might be possible to get the magical equivalent of a camera.

I carefully look through the penalties. Most violations just make you lose the license and I’m glad for that. Penalties for continuing to use the book are quite vague but I doubt there is nothing to worry about. The council and interested parties would probably want the harshest possible penalties.

The scribe says to me:

“So, did you have a productive session.”

“I think so. I got another couple of ideas tumbling up here.” I say pointing at my head.

“Good, we need more of those”.

“One of my ideas might need a steady supply of wood.”

“Just let us know, also there is a new paper production place we are setting up. We have run into some problems. The guy in charge actually worked at a paper factory, but he was used to industrial equipment. You gave the idea, so I thought you might have some insight.”

“-I’m not sure how valuable my insight would be. I made 5 pages of paper in my life. And I was only happy with one of them.”

“Then you have more experience than anyone else in the village hand crafting paper. If you weren’t doing so much good in the smith, along with your contribution hunting, we might ask you to take over the paper production. For now, your day is full enough.”

“Where is this production?”

“East, out by the back of the Townhall. You can’t miss it. We set it up a couple of the houses there.”

I finish everything up and return the damned bowl to the innkeeper myself. Going to where I slept, I hear a couple people working. Going closer I realize it’s three people. Looking over the operation I’m impressed. A large cooking pot, a fire, big water tubs all filled. Wood stacked neatly and divided in their types and colors. Approaching I speak.

“Hey, the guild sent me, they say I might be of help getting things started.”

“Ooh, yess. We need all the help we can get. Do you have any experience?”

“I made a couple of sheets of paper years ago. That is why I gave paper as an example of an industry we could get started on. It wasn’t a perfect job and it would be more expensive to do it. But the way I know works.”

“Well, tell me how you did it. We have a good part of the process already figured out, but the industrial process of making the sheets is not something we can replicate.”

“I figure. What have you been using as a screen.”

He pulls a rough frame from behind him and shows me.

“We bought silk cloth and made a frame. It's expensive but if it makes good paper it will be worth it. Even if we have to make a dozen of these it will still be worth it. The problem is that it takes hours for the water to strain. Also, after it does, we haven’t been able to separate the paper without ruining it.”

“Have you thought of using cheaper cloth? Maybe what you might find in a floor cleaning cloth. The ones with thick string and a weave so loose you can see the other side.”

“Won’t the half the cellulose go right through and make getting the paper even harder without ruining it?”

“You just need to wait to dry. The paper is not perfect, but it is serviceable.”

“Ok, I’m gonna give it a try. And with this method we can just buy more frames, maybe even set up a hot box to dry then faster after straining. “

“Good idea. You got this in the bag.”

“Maybe I can also find some way to flatten the paper.”

“I know you can do it after you separate from the screen. You just have to do it before drying.”

“With smooth rollers. That part I’m quite familiar with. Are you going to be staying?”

“No, I’m leaving to explore the forest.”

“Thanks for stopping by then. Just be careful. You noggin is filled with good ideas, we can’t have you being wolve’s chow.”

“Don’t worry.”

I say my goodbye’s to both the former “paperman” and his helper. I laugh at how small my contribution was. He just needed a sounding board with a head on their shoulders. He has a better handle on making paper on his pinky finger than I have on my entire body. He just has never made any paper by hand and is overwhelmed.

His helper also doesn’t strike me as someone with too much initiative. Not a bad worker, just someone that doesn’t have too many original ideas. If they need to stop every time a small problem shows up, work never gets done. You need someone able to solve at least small problems on the fly. I have to keep an eye on the paper production. If everything goes well it will be a long term expense basically eliminated and we will be able to make copies of at least my books.

With care we might even include most of the information we learn from the books we buy. We will have to be very careful about what we write down, but it is a good avenue. If we make sure everything has a secondary source and experiments, the copyright rules will not cause us to lose the licenses to the books. New and independent knowledge will obviously be written down.

I realize I unwittingly helped to bring back the means to a bureaucratic society, but if it comes to that I just need to burn down the paper mill. Not really a paper mill but I don’t care. I’m my head and I can call it whatever I want. I laugh out loud almost like an evil cackle. I laugh and laugh and head outside the village.

The guard doesn’t stop me and just waves me through. There are two guild guards that open and close the gate as I pass without any fuss. I don’t even have to slow down. They are both armed, one with a short sword and the other with a spear. The weapons I saw being bought earlier must have been mostly guild affairs.

Seems, as they are posted there, they have taken to be as helpful as possible to the people going out. Only a few seconds behind me I see a group of four leaving and one of them is also carrying a weapon. Not just the guild them, people have gathered their money to start outfitting themselves. I slow my pace and let them catch up.

“Hey, are you going out alone?”

“Yeah, I’m used to it.”

“Come on man, we know you have magic but don’t risk yourself unnecessarily. You should at least get some shoes.”

“I might join a group, but I'm used to the woods. I probably spend more time in the forest than a good portion of the village combined. I lived in a small cot besides Pando. Also, don’t talk about shoes. I have gotten so used to going shoeless, by now I worry my feet might fall off if I try to put them on.”

“So you were some kind or mountain hermit.”

“Not so much. I just lived on Pando.” At two of their confused faces, the girl carrying the sword says.

“The magical forest. It's somewhere in the United States.”

“Utah.” says the teenager in the back.

“Ohh, didn’t know it had a name.”

“Of course it had a name.”

The boy asks curiously.

“Is it true there is magic there? I mean before this … but now…”

“Yes. One day I might tell you guys.” I say with a bit of mystery.

That ends conversation for a moment and we all increase the pace. I found a suitable tree to make another staff. This time it is still standing. It isn’t very dry, but it also is not green wood. I quickly cut it and cleaned the staff. In less than half an hour I find tracks from a wolf pack. Three wolves, I would guess.

“Do you guys want to follow the track?”

“Sure, better than wandering around waiting to be ambushed.” The biggest of the group who has been silent to this point says:

“I agree.”

We all follow the tracks carefully. I stop occasionally to make sure we are going the right way and to look for signs in places with several converging tracks. In twenty minutes, we run into the wolves. I see three, just like I expected. They are already turning around and preparing to attack us. Seeing the big group, they just headed straight in to attack.

“Ugly mufflers.” says the younger of the group.

I position myself in the forward position, waiting to flank the wolves as well as I can. They head straight at me. I position myself with a wide pose lowering my center of gravity. When they are almost at me I jump aside putting my staff in front of me to defend me from any of the wolf attacks.

The wolf to the right has sought time to turn to my new position and I brace myself as he hits my staff. I pull my staff to the side and back hitting him in the head with the but of it, as if I was wielding a spear. He tumbles but gets up immediately. I spare a moment to pay more attention to the other wolves and see if the group is having difficulty with them. They have good coordination and seem to be managing just fine. I slowly maneuver the fight. In a few exchanges, I’m turned in the direction the whole group is fighting. The wolf has his back to everybody but me. I focus on making him give up, I hit him in the head a few times but focus mostly on the body.

With only a single wolf, I don’t get a single scratch and in five minutes they manage to kill one of the wolves. Both of the remaining wolves then retreat without much fanfare.

“Holy shit. That was awesome, I was like, whann, and you like, wrowooh, and the wolf’s just like, run away. Man, that was like, so epic. Hunting rabbits doesn’t compare.”

The teenager says, all excited. The leader gets the corpse of the wolf and throws it in his back.

“Should we come back to the city? We need to figure it out if anyone wants the wolf. It looks ugly, but it might be worth something.”

The woman answers:

“They might want it for the bones and sinew. Maybe even the skin if the tanner knows some magic for making this into useful leather.”

“You guys go ahead, I will stay a little longer.” I say.

“Don’t you want your share?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

The woman says:

“You do like you can handle yourself.”

I grin without saying anything and set out at my normal pace. From their perspective, however, I’m doing a half-mile sprint. I think about our relative power. They may be in the 7 to 9 average stat points range. Their fighting experience however takes them to another level of danger. I settle at a comfortable pace I can maintain the rest of the time, but also push myself. I need those stat points. Looking at my messages, I am a bit surprised.

You have gained EXP +475: Exp 752/1000 You have gained +1 Agility You have gained +1 Dexterity You have increased your Staff Mastery by +2 – Staff Mastery Lv.2

Only a few minutes and my stats are going up like crazy. I’m gonna be superman in no time. Too bad there is a soft cap on stat increase through this method. And I already reached this soft cap with my endurance. No, I didn’t just reach it, I surpassed it. I’m over the soft cap by only a single point, but it hasn’t increased since my integration in the system. Out of all my physical stats Endurance was what I most focused over the years. Sometimes I spend hours or even days on tasks without a break. Tasks most would have given up in minutes.

I wonder how high I could push myself. I felt that getting a 25 in endurance without having to compromise on any of the other stats was within reasonable expectations.

About the mental stats, I knew they could be pushed higher but their progression was also slower. I wondered if what I learned from the book today was all it would be discussed tomorrow. After some thought, Ifile the whole line of thought away and concentrated on the hunt and exploration.

In that moment, I felt like the primitive man going out to gather food for his family more than ever before.