“Could you please tell me where I am?”

After some awkwardness, Jayce found a chance to ask the most pressing question.

“Snowdrift village.” Stout, the father, answered. When he saw the confusion in Jayce’s eyes, he followed up. “We’re in a sort of no-man’s land between the jotun kingdom and the northern province, but we’re technically a territory under the Federation.”

“Um, more broadly?”

“More broadly? The northern province is owned by the Ascia clan of the Sky-Blue Federation.”

“Even more broadly, please.”

Seeing Stout at a loss for words, Marin cut in. “Snowdrift village, technically a territory of the Ascia clan’s northern province, a part of the Sky-Blue Federation, on the Sky-Blue planet, Caelum…of the Upper Bound.”

“Thanks, I understand now.”

In response to his gratitude, Marin merely shrugged.

“Did that jog your memory at all?” Plume, the youngest daughter, asked.

“Not yet, I guess. Haha…”

The adults were looking at him curiously. They had more or less caught on that Jayce wasn’t really an amnesiac but after hearing his questions, they had to wonder if they’d misunderstood something. Jayce didn’t want to give them conflicting signals, so he kept speaking.

“Like I said before, I feel that I was from a very faraway place. To be honest, I don’t remember seeing people who look quite like you do.”

Marin, Lyra and Stout all stifled exclamations of shock. Jayce had guessed as much, but it seemed interplanetary travel was a rare thing, at least for commoners. He didn’t care about revealing his extraterrestrial origins because it wasn’t a secret he could keep. Unless he really wanted to pretend to have amnesia, his lack of common sense would out him eventually.

“Hmm.” Stout put a hand to his chin, but he eventually shook his head. “Whatever. As for us, we’re all members of the blue-furred race. Ha, did you think we weren’t related?”

“I did question it for a moment.” Jayce nodded, before adding honestly. “But I don’t think it matters if you’re blood related or not. I never doubted that you were family.”

Stout and the two younger kids grinned widely while Lyra’s face blossomed into a warm smile. Marin, on the other hand, looked a bit wary now that she knew Jayce was a decent speaker.

“Haha, your eyes aren’t for show, then.” Stout laughed. “But these kids are mine. The blue-furred race is a bit special because we’re all descendants of a very powerful being. That being could transform into several creatures, and we only inherited a fraction of his power. Which part we take after is more or less random.”

“A powerful god?”

Stout opened his mouth and the kids groaned. Apparently, they had heard this story many times.

“Our ancestor’s name was Behemoth and his title was Sky-Swallower. He was a unique lifeform that completely dominated this planet and even fought to become his era’s supreme being. However, he failed and was gravely injured. Retreating in defeat, he returned to this planet and felt very lonely. After all, lord Sky-Swallower was a unique lifeform with no peers or kin. Eventually, he created a special technique that allowed him to cast off parts of his body and turn them into new living beings. Erm, perhaps because he had been lonely for too long, he overcompensated and divided up his body too much. Lord Sky-Swallower eventually ceased to exist and his children, the blue-furred race, quickly became the most populous race on Caelum. However, we inherited too little of his strength and our natural life order is only B-Rank. You can find us everywhere on this planet, but we don’t have a country or powerful clan of our own.”

“But our life order is still higher than yours.” Plume added haughtily.

“What? How did you know that?”

‘Did they know my race this whole time?’

“I used an ability to sense it.” Marin answered, calming him down.

“Fine, whatever. You’re all better off than me, at least. By the way, what is a unique lifeform?”

Jayce wasn’t going to bother asking about the fight to become a supreme being. That was too far away for someone like him. These people likely didn’t know much about it, either.

“It’s hard to say.” Lucas, the son, answered. “We only know that they’re unique and have terrifyingly high life orders. Even the stories we pass down about lord Sky-Swallower don’t say anything about his birth.”

“Well, let’s leave the history lesson at that.” Lyra cut in and Jayce shuddered involuntarily as he saw her give him an appraising look. Even though it wasn’t nearly as cold as the glare that Erilin would use, he had lost his tolerance for being scrutinized like that. “Jayce, do you remember how old you are?”

“I’m 19.”

Everyone else at the table paused a bit in their movements, and Jayce mentally nodded his head in sympathy. He didn’t know how 19 Earth years was being translated, but the system was likely trying to fit several definitions in at once.

‘If I listed out the right words, could I create some kind of mental attack? Well, even if I could, it would only work on a target once.’

After getting over the miniscule disturbance, Lyra’s smile grew wider.

“Hmm~. Then you and Marin are the same age. The two of you should try to be friends.”

Jayce stifled a hesitant expression and simply smiled politely. Just after waking up, he had seen how the rest of the family had subconsciously stood behind Marin. Immediately, he guessed that she was the most powerful person in this room, and as he observed her, other subtle clues supported his guess. He could tell that Marin felt very protective of her family, and the fact that she put herself in that protector position meant that she had some strength to back it up. On top of that, something about her bearing reminded him of Mize, which only made him raise his guard even higher.

He glanced at Marin and his smile grew stiff. Even though he wanted to keep this potentially dangerous person at arm’s length, he was still annoyed when he saw a look of condescension in her eyes.

While he was analyzing her, Marin had done the same. Her first instinct was to be cautious, as an otherworlder shouldn’t be underestimated. From his clothes, Marin could see that he was or at least was affiliated with someone very wealthy. His eloquence suggested that he was well-educated, even if he was ignorant of her planet’s situation. However, that was where her praise ended. Not only was Jayce’s life order abysmal for a sentient being but his level was as well. Different races were deemed ‘mature’ by the system at different ages, but for races as similar as theirs, there wouldn’t be much of a gap. Being weak was one thing, but Marin had never seen such an untalented person in her life.

The two glared at each other for a brief moment before simultaneously turning away, causing Lyra to sigh. Ignorant to the tension in the room, Stout butt in with a strange chuckle.

“Heh, heh, Jayce, try to guess what this old man does for a living.”

“What do you do?”

Stout patted his chest haughtily. “I’m a dungeon master.”

Jayce’s jaw dropped as he gawked at the man. His previous evaluations were crumbling as he frantically wondered if he’d misjudged this family. Were they actually super-rich on this planet? Mize had told him that artificial dungeons existed, but he hadn’t expected to be so close to one.

Plume and Lucas looked proud while Lyra and Marin rolled their eyes.

“We’re a family of .” Lyra explained. “Around here, some people make their living by turning plots of land into artificial dungeons and harvesting the monsters. Obviously, the dungeon is tuned to create very specific monsters with lots of valuable meat. We then butcher those monsters and sell them to the rest of the village.”

Jayce’s ears twitched as his translator stalled. He wanted to shout a retort at the system, but ‘farmer’ was a strangely appropriate term. After all, no matter how they did it, they ‘raised’ animals and supplied food to the village.

“Is that dangerous?” He asked, recollecting himself.

“No. The mana around here is too thin to create anything threatening. Plus, these monsters are designed to be harmless. Even a kid without a class could kill them.” Lyra answered, glancing at Lucas.

Noticing Lucas looking proud of himself, Jayce asked, “When does your race mature?”

“Sixteen.” Lucas answered. “I’ll be getting my class in less than a year.”

“Congratulations.” Jayce smiled. He wanted to ask what class the boy would get, but he didn’t want to pry. Mize had information about his classes and levels because she owned his life. From everything he had seen in the Upper Bound, Jayce was pretty sure that asking about someone’s class was taboo. Still, he could at least test the waters. “What do you specialize in?”

Lucas raised his fist. “Extreme close combat.”

“You’ve already been cutting up meat your whole life, just learn to use a blade.” Stout grumbled. “You only chose that combat style because of the word extreme.”

‘Martial artist?’ Jayce pondered. ‘Does that mean he’ll become a Warrior? If they’re talking about switching classes so casually then it definitely isn’t a special class.’

Marin looked at Jayce and frowned a bit as she saw the gears turning in his head. She didn’t like that he was probing their personal information without revealing anything about himself. That frown grew deeper after her mother spoke up.

“Oh, I said we were a family of farmers, but Marin has already gone her own way. Hehe, she’s a genius. No one in this village can beat her at her area of expertise.”

“Really? What does she do?”

“Yes, talk about me like I’m not here. I’m a rune technician.”

Jayce blinked. “A what?”

“Maybe your planet has a different name for it.” Marin shrugged. “I engrave runes into raw materials and artifact vessels.”

Feeling like he was getting a chance to learn something important, Jayce quickly followed up. He also did his best to hide his complete ignorance of the subject.

“Can you tell me more about your planet’s understanding of runes.”

Seeing Lyra looking at her expectantly, Marin couldn’t decline. She thought for a minute and then asked, “How much do you know about objective laws and subjective laws? Laws as in the laws that govern reality?”

“I feel like I know what you’re talking about, but my homeland phrased things differently. Could you give me a broad explanation?” Jayce continued to bullshit.

“Objective laws are constant. When expressed through these laws, change can be predicted and described in detail as long as one understands the forces at play. Physics, chemistry, and most other scientific fields operate under these laws.”

‘Huh? We were just talking about magical runes, weren’t we? Why am I getting a science lesson?’ Jayce had known that this world’s technological achievements were at least on par with Earth’s and likely far beyond it, but when he saw his guns and other artifacts, he had assumed they operated outside of physics. At the same time, he had assumed people in the Upper Bound weren’t well-versed in Earth’s natural sciences. This wasn’t entirely unreasonable, since he had never seen anything that ran on electricity or any power source he was familiar with while in the Upper Bound. Even Marin’s family used glowing stones to light their home, albeit much less impressive ones than what he saw in Mize’s world.

“Ok, like I thought, I’m familiar with objective laws. What about subjective laws?”

“Subjective laws deal with mana and aspects. Mana is generated within all living things as well as from world cores. The mana in our body is a resource for many abilities and artifacts, but it also fuels important bodily functions that differ between races. The mana generated from a world core makes up the ambient mana in a planet’s air. Naturally, there are places where mana is thick or thin and they can change due to various factors.”

Jayce listened very carefully as she spoke. He was familiar with using mana to fuel his Keen Eyes ability as well as his Seeker and Tiny Hammers. However, the notion that mana was necessary to survive confused him. He could clearly feel the mana in his own body, and it wasn’t doing anything important at the moment.

Still, he was able to follow her up until the next segment of her lecture.

“Mana is a conductor of the world’s emotions. It has just as much of a hold on reality as any objective law, but it only follows a set of vague principles and is anything but rigid. Still, it is very powerful. For example, within dungeons, mana will naturally form together to create life.”

This idea of conducting emotions was something Jayce couldn’t really wrap his head around. He figured it was similar to life orders in that he would have to gain experience to understand it.

“What about your view of aspects?” He took the initiative to ask, if only to prevent himself from looking too ignorant.

Now that Marin had started her lecture, she had forgotten Jayce’s situation and was purely focused on reciting her knowledge.

“If mana is a conductor of emotions, then aspects are emotions themselves. For a practical example, this room is lit by glow stones. These stones are a material that contain moderately pure aspects of brightness. When mana flows into them, it is naturally expressed as light. When creating artifacts, one of the most important steps is finding materials with aspects that support its function. Another important step is to guide the flow of mana through runes.”

Marin picked up her fork while the middle and index fingers on her other hand began to glow white. As if it were natural, she used her two fingers to draw in the air. The characters she drew were something that the system didn’t translate. Just looking at them hurt Jayce’s head a little, and when he tried to memorize them, he felt the knowledge fly right out of his brain. It was like trying to catch water in a sieve. Marin’s hand moved quickly, and a short string of characters was finished in less than a minute. She flicked them and they flew into the fork, shrinking and embedding themselves on its surface. Then, the fork began to glow like the ceiling lights.

“Even without a properly forged vessel, you can still create artifacts. The downside is that they’re extremely inefficient and unstable. Well, in any case, my job is different than a standard artifact refiner’s. If every artifact is a combination of software and hardware, I only specialize in software.”

It was only after she finished that she noticed everyone's wide-eyed stares. Jayce didn’t bother hiding his shock, and the rest of her family was also looking at her with similar expressions. Silently, Stout stood up and carefully retrieved the fork from Marin’s hands. He held it reverently.

“This is our new family heirloom.”

“I want to hold it!” Plume declared.

“Then I’ll hold it after you.” Lyra chimed in.

Marin sighed helplessly. “I didn’t physically carve the runes, so they’ll dissipate in less than an hour.”

Lucas raised his hand. “Then carve them. I want a glowing set of utensils even if they drain all my mana.”

Things didn’t settle down for a while after that.

While Marin’s family was fussing about glowing utensils, Jayce quietly digested what he’d just learned. Materials contained aspects and could be processed into vessels for artifacts. Then, runes were carved into the vessel to determine its function. When mana flowed through those runes, it would conduct the aspects in the vessel and create magical effects that ranged from lighting a room to firing energy bullets.

Compared to his previous state of total ignorance, his understanding of this world’s technology had undergone an important change. Even though his knowledge of artifacts might have only gone from 0% to 1%, Jayce was very pleased to have learned something for free.

Though, when he saw Marin glance at him and smile in a way that didn’t reach her eyes, Jayce worried it might not have been free after all.

“So, Jayce. I’ve told you about our planet’s understanding of mana and runes. Do you have any knowledge that could broaden my horizons?”

‘What did I say about talking with smart people? I’m sure I said that it was exhausting.’

Jayce realized that Marin had seen through his attempts to conceal his ignorance. He opened his mouth and then closed it, feeling helpless.

Seeing him flounder, Marin turned her attention back to her family’s conversation. She was only trying to needle him a bit and didn’t have any greater objective.

“If you have artifact refining materials that you’re willing to part with, I might be able to show you something interesting.”

Turning back, Marin raised one eyebrow. There was an anticipatory look on Jayce’s face that lacked confidence but carried a strange enthusiasm—like a boy holding a sword for the first time. Marin’s eyes drifted over to the kitchen.

“I do have something you could use.”