It takes me a good hour to walk all the village after my conversation ends and I look over all the industries around. As is my custom, advice flows whenever I have an idea. And sometimes, it’s exactly what people need.

The town’s growth was even greater than I expected. There was ten times more paper being produced, triple the metal, several times the wood and coal, and several other things I had not even thought of.

Commerce with the other villages was a big part of the reason we were growing as well. As I find out, our map encompassed most of the villages in a 300-mile radius, and we had agreements with about a dozen of them. We not going so far as making proper alliances, just trade. At least for now, maybe more in the future.

It doesn’t take me long to come back to the forge. I purposefully left it for last. I enter it already having an idea of what to make. There were some developments with regards to making items, as Merli and a few others started to experiment. I was going to try implementing a few of those ideas.

As I take in the heat and fumes of the forge everybody looks over at me and a smile slowly creeps up on my face. Mr. Blackwood stares at me and speaks in his baritone voice almost trembling my chest.

“So boy, you have taken another step. You have brought me more surprises in a month than I’ve ever experienced in a decade.”

With a light grim I reply:

“Does that mean I well on my way to becoming a proper apprentice of you?”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, let’s see what the future holds. You still have a long way to go.”

I pay complete attention to his response. Not even the smallest detail escapes me. Listening to my head, my heart, and my gut, I slowly come to a realization. I may not be there yet, but in a year, maybe. Just imagine the myriad of ways in which we would improve if he could teach us all he knew. There was no firm definition of what an apprentice would learn. But my gut told me someone like Mr. Blackwood would teach absolutely everything he knew.

After only a few moments everybody is back at work, and I join in. Not doing the same as them, but starting on creations of my own. With three ingots in hand, two steel, and one copper, I begin to work. The first sword takes me over an hour.

Fusing the copper to the sides of the blade was troublesome, but Merlin’s notes were extremely helpful, and the smith corrected me whenever he saw something going wrong. Each of the strikes of my hammer is better than the last, and soon I have finessed the rough work.

There is quite a bit of the copper not used, but I don’t mind it. I just needed a thin sheath, and as the indenture marks slowly leave my blade on the grinding stones, the diamond underneath begins to show up. Steel and copper fillings fill the grinding table, but it is only a small portion of the overall waste considering the forge’s output. Just as every time before, by magic, the fillings slowly stream out and behind the table. No metal is left anywhere within a coupe foot of the table.

This setup is in many ways superior to what you would find in a modern workshop. It is no wonder we could produce in less than an hour what could have taken days before. The system with its increased skill development and extra stats were a boom for sure, but there is a genius in the simplicity of this workshop. Some of it we could easily achieve with technology, but not all. This is was not just the product of magic. This was the product of magic after billions of years of development. Millennia after millennia of refining these tools, making them simpler, cheaper, and more convenient to use.

As my hands finish the last trace engraved on the copper, I get up to inspect my work.

Impact sword +2 Atk A well-made sword that has an impact enchantment on it. User inputs 1-3 mana and the next strike impacts target with greater force. Has a chance to disarm opponent if used on a weapon.

I go to look over my last message from the system and am amazed at how high is my Exp reward.

You have created an impact sword. Reward: 935 Exp

This was amazing Exp. If I need o farm some Exp, I could try mass-producing these. This first one took me over an hour and a half, But I could probably make a pair every hour after I got the hang of it.

I spend the next couple hours making more of these swords and by the end, I’m making than in less than half the time of the first. It is then I have an Idea. I send for two mages, so they can make the forge run hotter for a little while and start on something quite different.

The main body takes 3 steel ingots. Two silver coins are melted along with a little copper. I go back and forth between forging, grinding, engraving, and something new, inlaying.

This is by far the most intensive work I have done in the forge, and I make full use of not only the new experience but my higher soul stat and a little mana occasionally. The work flows smoothly as never before and there is absolutely nothing on my mind besides the next step.

The whole process takes me over two hours, and this time not even Mr. Blackwood says anything, knowing that anything getting in the way could ruin the final product.

I’m left with a long cylinder inlaid with a copper and silver alloy in the exact shape of the engraving I wanted to make. I without realizing used more steel than I expected, but the final work was even lighter as most of it was ground away.

I now had something approaching a proper staff. A single point of mana goes into it and I extend my arm touching the mana input plate beside the forge. Almost instantly, the mana gets to the end of the staff entering the plate with no losses. After feeling how sturdy the staff is, and how good it was at extending my range, I’m satisfied.

As I inspect it words fail me.

Well-made Mana Staff. Atk +3 A well-made staff made by a promising blacksmith novice. It can transmit the mana of the owner with no losses almost instantly, allowing to cast magic at a further range. Mana storage: 0/5 mana.

It seems as if the secondary goal was also successful. It’s not a lot, but every point can make a difference. If I was already carrying this weight, this is free mana. I swig my new weapon around a couple of times but stop myself given where I’m.

After another moment of admiring it, I open my system log and look over the last message.

You have created a well-made staff EXP: 3542 You are amongst the first of your race to surpass the work of the Basic Blacksmiths. Reward: All your metal creations have: Skill Level x Skill rarity x 0.01% chance to trigger an additional special effect. Current bonus: 35*1*0,01=0,35%

This sounded like the good stuff. I just wondered what these special effects were, and how they came into play. For all, I knew they could be entirely random from the ability to squirt a few drops of water to a spinning ball of death. It required further testing, but that was not for now. I had other pressing business. From the corner of my eye, I see Mr. Blackwood looking over.

“So, did you like my creation?” I speak with a grin plastered over my face. It’s a beautiful piece. He turns to keep working as his voice reverberates in the small shop:

“I already expected of you to do so after unlocking your soul.”

Hearing those words I freeze, though I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. There may be some special analyze skill that he is allowed to use, or this is just from perception and experience. It shouldn’t have surprised me and I put it out of my mind.

------------------------------------

As the sun starts to go down, I’m finishing most of what I wanted to make in the village. I sold the swords and old staff to the guild, and my new staff is firmly strapped to my back. There is another mana plate to be delivered to my house. With everything is already engraved by your truly.

After already having talked to Merlin in the morning and having read a few of the notes, I have a good idea of the magical development of the town. But I till read the rest f the notes. I try to make any more sense of the observations, but nothing stands out. The small accumulations are however quite significant, and it is exactly then I remember about my book.

I rush through the final notes and read my book. Even after so long without opening it, there are only 6 more pages on it. The contents are, however, quite significant. Every single word seems as if was written for me. The scattered and disjointed thoughts from before, in a way, become even more so. But the way the book ties in with my own hypotheses and preconceptions of magic is so seamless, that each of these pages transmits more information to me than a half dozen from before.

I read about Aether, mana, magic, runes, and a whole range of general system information. Connections and inferences are easier than ever to make and it takes me less than 3 minutes to read the whole thing.

Afterward, it takes more than half an hour goes by for me to notice I’m still standing around. The myriad of thoughts and lines of experimentation that have opened up is enormous, as my knowledge is ever increasing. Let alone my ability to put it into practice.

Coming to myself, only a brief moment passes, and certainty of what my next action should be follows. I grab a pen and a few pages of paper from the scribe and start writing. I only loosely follow the treads from my book, expanding on certain topics and nearly omitting others. Now it is more important than ever to organize it and add to it, given the direction in which the book has developed. About 10 pages later, as the sun goes down, I get up and deliver the pages to the scribe.

---

“There is quite a bit of new stuff in your book. This will be very good in our development.”

“I would expect it so, I’m only grateful we got it so soon. If we had to wait for the mayor, we would croak before getting the information.” Hearing those words he gives a sad smile. He is probably even more aware than me of this given that he lives here. “By the way, I will be sending some people over for a special project, so I’m authorizing that you transfer 10 contribution points a day each for as long as they are working for me.”

“How many people are you talking about? And for how long?”

“For starters, 10 people for about 3 to 5 days. By the way, did you guys paid everybody already?”

“Prety much, though a few people are using the contribution as basically a bank to accrue interest.”

“And given how much trade we have, I assume, any small interest is well below the profits from having a larger fund to draw from.”

“Exactly. We need to manage everything well, and we keep a small war chest of actual coins, but most of it is tied up generating more income.”

“If you guys can pay for any contributions, I should increase it to 15 copper and they can withdraw as much as they need. Contribution is almost as good as actual currency. Just like a bank.”

“That is how most everyone is treating us. You especially. I haven’t looked for a while, but you should be getting close to half a gold.”

The amount doesn’t phase me, but I was not counting the running interest on my account. It was not quite the best if I took it all out doubling or tripling it in a month would be a piece of cake, but my own development is quite a bit more significant. Just making +3 enchanted weapons would be more money this early in the game.

So I would let most of the money sit there for a little while. I had ideas on what to develop, and everything going my way, I would not need to go after mana or money, it all would come to me in buckets.

The concept of money has changed a little as my head cleared up. I don’t care about money itself, but because other people care, I realized what a powerful tool it is. I always knew that, but the concept never clicked in this way. Now as I strive to improve myself, this will be another tool to master paving the way forward not only for me but for millions, billions, maybe even trillions of people.

After all, humans were not the only beings under the system, and change was coming. Whenever the people in power liked it or not, and I will the fulcrum. I will be the catalyst of change.