I quickly leave the store closing the door on my way out. I go towards the general store and read through my messages.

You have increased your skill in Blacksmithing: Blacksmithing Lv.4 You have increased your skill in Kinetic Meditation: Kinetic Meditation Lv. 17 You have increased your Strength by +1 You have increased your Willpower by +1 You have made a Basic Pen. – Based on the quality of your work you have gained 6 Exp

Checking my stat page, I see a new field:

Experience: 6/1000

I will need to make one hell of a lot of forging if that is what I can expect from each. At least the reward probably scales with quality, so in a few days, I might be gaining much more. I just have to stick with it.

Getting to the general store I enter and see about a dozen people. Looking around inspecting the shop and its wares nothing calls my attention. In time I will probably need half of the stuff I see, but not just yet. Impatiently the people in front of me complain about the line. Though it’s not too bad, just 15 minutes until it’s my turn.

A pudgy man with a silver tongue. I try not to be too judgmental, but the smarmy feeling of a used car salesman wafts of him.

“Hello, you are back. Are you perhaps interested in camping supplies, or maybe some shoes?”

“No, not at the moment. I like my feet just the way they are.”

“Your loss, I like my feet all warm, cozy, and comfortable. Do you have something in mind?”

I try to downplay my needs as much as possible though I know I’m no merchant.

“Paper, the cheapest one, just something to write notes on. Also, ink, show me what you have available.”

“Ohh, yes sir.” He goes in the back and comes back with a stack of papers.

“I have these coarse basic papers. They are solid work-horses and cost only 20 copper per 100 pages stack and I also have this ink bottle. It is a good quality ink that will last you a while. This bottle costs 5 copper. How many do you want?”

“One bottle is enough for now, I just got to the village without a penny to my name. So one bottle and 3 coppers worth of pages is what I can afford.”

“Hum, enticing me with the promise of future sales. Smart of you, tell you what, I will sell to you the paper at wholesale price. That amounts to 15 pages. Your part of the bargain is to spread the word about my amazing shop to other people.”

I agree, but I feel like he just robbed me blind and I would be singing his praises for it. Looking at the moon I guess the time to be 6:30 pm, assuming the starting zone has normal-length days.

I walk and arrive at the inn. Though it seems wrong to call it that, nobody is using it as an inn given houses are free. It’s the place most people have their meals.

Inside I see a large salon. Big enough to fit 200 people, but there is only about half that around. Seeing someone getting food on the bar counter, I head there. After a few minutes or so the innkeeper is back and informs me:

“Basic meal costs 1 copper, 2 if you want to seat at the salon.”

Before I answer, the young man I talked with earlier in the day shows up and says.

“Get a double portion Nash and come eat at the guildhall.” Then he turns to the innkeeper asks. “And get one for me too, I’m famished.”

At his inquisitive look, I nod signaling that I want a double portion as he suggested. When the innkeeper leaves I turn to the young man and ask.

“Guildhall?”

“Yeah, we decided it was best we just stick with this name after someone suggested. We got the biggest empty house and we set it up as our center of command. The temporary leaders were there all day trying to scrounge together a working system. They managed to get some chairs at least. Eating there will save us some time and money.”

“Sounds like a good idea.”

The innkeeper comes back with a bowl of soup and a big piece of bread for each of us.

“Rabbit Stew, and bread. Return the bowl today or you will be fined 10 copper coins per day, and you won’t be getting any food from here until you pay the fine.”

“Yes, mam.” We both said at the same time.

We leave with our food in hand, carefully walking not to spill any, and head towards the guildhall.

The young man strikes up a conversation with me.

“So, what is your name mister?”

“Nash, and you?”

“Alex. You have a cool name. I wanted to have a name like Nash, It just rolls off the tongue. No, Dash, even better. Dash’s dashing dashness. Ash is also a cool name. Ash’s ashing ashness. Nope, that doesn’t work.

“You have a lot of energy for someone starving.”

“Well, I may have exaggerated a little, and unlike some people, I ate earlier. “

I laugh and continue:

“So, how has been your progress, Dash?”

“Very fruitful. I hit level 1. Eleven rabbits got me over the threshold. Too bad is such a gruesome business. I was so covered in blood I had to take a bath on the river.”

“Let me guess, each rabbit netted you one copper coin.

“How did you know?”

“A guess. Things around here tend to fit in neatly.”

“Tell me about it. It’s weary how similar everything is to what I used to read about the system.”

“I think it’s by design. I’m not sure why, or if those stories were somehow influenced by the system, but it’s like the council adapted the starting village to fit in with our system fiction.”

“We need information. There is so much to learn. That is why your book is so important. I see you got a few pages. If you need more we also managed to get a few pages as well and we are using a bit of charcoal wrapped in paper and glued together.”

“I didn’t think about making charcoal pencils. I thought about buying pencils, but I end up making this pen.” I pull the pen from my pocket and show him “It seemed a good option for a more durable option. Charcoal fades quickly as you handle the paper.”

“Yeah. We are using charcoal to save money. A pen in the shop run upwards of silver and even pencils cost like 50 coppers or something.”

“He is gauging us. I didn’t even ask about the prices for pens, I just made this pen. It might not be perfect, but it will do for now.”

We arrive at the guildhall and enter it, I hear a heated argument.

“But this is the way things have always worked.”

“Doesn't mean we can’t change, a voluntary tax or donation structure has several benefits.”

“That is too loose, we need...” Says a third voice.

I chuckle and tune out the argument before finding a corner to eat. After finishing, Alex brings me an empty table and I take out my book. I read a couple of new entries but nothing too important.

As I settle to copy the book, I skip a couple of miscellaneous phrases and focus on what would be useful. With each phrase, I notice more and more the information seems more disjointed. I take some creative decisions and modify them to make more sense. After a moment I take notice of the fact the book provides information based on what I want to know. It just skips what I assume I know.

If I copy everything verbatim the first two pages people would understand just fine. But as they get further ahead, the whole thing begins to run into a convoluted mess.

Judiciously choosing what to copy and writing the context to understand everything, I write four pages. Less than half of what is on my book, which I manage by writing small and without gaps. Not wasting a square inch of the paper seems to have become important again all of the sudden.

Too bad the pen is not very good, it bleeds too much, so I can only use one side of the paper. I see the ink being consumed at a fast pace. I used almost a third of the bottle just for these pages.

I’m happy to see Alex’s proactive stance on reading everything. He hovers as closely as possible during the whole process trying not to get in the way. With each turn to the next page and he pays close attention until he finishes reading it. He even helps to dry the pages.

I remember about Free-form magic and I include a note at the end. I really should have remembered about this when I was speaking to everyone.

After finishing the first copy, I check and the first 3 pages are already dry, but the last one is not. The whole thing must have taken me half an hour. Maybe 45 minutes. I get up and a message pops up:

You have created a condensed and organized account from information acquired along with the right measure of context to make the information understandable. – You have gained 4 EXP

The ink on the last page is still wet, so I draw with my mana and form a rune. Carefully measuring the mana input and my metal image I attempt to create a warming spell. After a dozen attempts, I manage to create one that works. As I dry the ink in the paper, I hear Alex.

“Man, that is so cool. Nobody figured out how to cast spells yet. Most people can only draw their mana out. How did you do it?”

I ignore his chattering concentrating on the spell.

“Oh, sorry you are probably too new at this to talk while casting. Not another word from now.” A few seconds go by. “Did ever see magic on the grove, you probably saw it, that is how you are so good at magic. I mean I saw it too but, sorry… I will shut up now.”

A minute goes by, I spend over 150 Mana and the ink dries. I sigh as I look at my mana gauge, just one-third left. Turning around, I notice everyone in the guild stopped their discussion and have formed a semicircle around me.

“You have to teach us that.”

“Yes, this would be a real boon for us. Magic would speed a few things a great deal along.”

“Is this what you learned from the book?”

Nobody talks over each other, but they also don’t leave any time for me to answer, but they soon stop.

“Yes, I learned it from the book and everyone will have access to the information.” I present them with the pages, my pen, and the bottle of ink. “This should stay at the guild and more copies of it be made. Maybe have reading periods where everyone can hear and allow as many people as possible access to the information. Not sure the best way, but you can figure that out. Just keep in mind there could be stuff that’s wrong here.”

“We know that, and we are grateful for whatever you may provide. Each piece of information is another piece of the puzzle. Do you have anything to add? I mean you spend much longer than any of us with this information.” One of them takes the initiative

In the background a few people take the pages I left and begin to make other copies. With only one pen, a single person uses ink. The others are forced to use charcoal, but it will have to do.

“Yes, a few things to note. The first that comes to mind is what we just discussed. Information. We need to keep a tally of stuff that has relevance. Like do we know if the days last 24 hours with half being day and the other half being night? When someone else says a second, minute, hour do they mean the same thing as us?”

“We have begun to look for information like that. If we keep making assumptions, it could get some of us killed. We are starting a tally of information. Everything that seems import regardless we write and whatever is from back at Earth we also write, even if it seems inconsequential. We can cut what doesn’t seem too important afterward.”

“Sounds like you have this handled. Now just wait until we find those other villages. Getting everyone to cooperate and come up with a system of free commerce and citizen travel would be very helpful for our growth.”

Some else offers: “We also need to figure out how long we will stay here. And what criteria are used to determine that.”

So I continue: “Exactly. We also need to figure out the economics of our village. It may be that we could keep selling millions of rabbits to the village’s cooks and tanners and we would have money flowing in. But I doubt it is gonna be that simple.”

“We already started to look into a few things like that. Someone mentioned game hyper-inflation, and just the sound of that made me shiver.”

“Good, good…. WE need to look at sources of food, in a month we may be swamped in rabbit stew, without bread or maybe even salt if we are not careful. We need to make sure we don’t solely depend on the town for their services. Someone with a good head on their shoulders could do hundreds of pages of paper a day with an initial investment of 2 or 3 silver. And as we level this could turn into over a thousand. And if we include magic who knows?”

Gesturing around everyone's attention is glued to me and pensive. After a brief pause, I continue speaking: “We also have to think about if we even should bother with paper. Could we change the way we do things? Do we need that much paper? Is it worth to take a volunteer from another job, and dedicate then to make only paper?”

Other people start to volunteer.

“Do we make a surplus and export?”

“We could import.”

“Yes, exactly,” I say and continue.

“There is something else. On stuff we do depend on the village for, there might not be enough for everyone, but we could remedy the situation. Like the blacksmith. There is no chance he will be able to make weapons and armor for a thousand people in any reasonable time frame. We also have to consider the price and if he will even make what we need.”

Finishing my argument I present a possible solution to not only the blacksmith but other places. “Something I noticed is that the more people working for him, the faster he worked. I guess that is the same for all the professions in the village. The line on the first day in the general store was 15 minutes long. If we could cut that in half, we would be saving over a hundred hours a day. Assuming everyone had to go the shop once a day. We also have to consider our own commerce, stuff we might sell each other. In most cases, we can open a shop and cut out the middleman.”

Another person contributes:

“We probably need to buy a couple of books from the bookstore.”

Not having gotten that part yet, I nod in agreement and hear Charlie saying:

“To do that we will need money. We are looking into collecting some taxes or donations from everyone. We mostly manage to take care of stuff because there were a couple of people like you.”

“Perhaps donations would be best. Just make everything transparent and people won’t be wondering where the money went to.”

“That’s our plan. By the way, the larger meetings, with everyone in town, will all happen after the mayor finishes his morning speech. He always starts a 7 AM.”

“Ok, I will be there.”

As if a load was lifted from my mind I leave the guildhall. I could have contributed more, and I’m not washing my hands of the matter. But I’m not looking to become any sort of leader or to spend all my time organizing and administering the myriad of things we are gonna have to figure out.

I will contribute, but most of my focus will be on my growth. After all who doesn’t want to be a flying wizard with all of the elements at their fingertips? Thinking over it, stuff like that is probably the most significant contribution I can make. To craft the best gear, to provide the secret knowledge, or to wield the forces of the universe to smite our enemies.

I head towards the forest and let my mind decompress getting ready to explore the forest. I will need a focused and sharp mind or I might get killed.