Finally comes the hour. I know the city has other projects, and right now they might even be more significant than this. A few copper coins may not be a priority. But if we take into consideration the costs, the results are clear. We could be saving of 2 silver coins, with 2 people's work and mana. We would also not be dependent on the firewood stores from Mr. Blackwood.

I count 50 copper coins after talking to the smith. The guild representative and I settle on a 12 to 38 split. He takes 26 of my coins as a contribution to the guild. I'm glad my pocket is a little heavier. I really have not let go of my own love of shiny things.

My precious. Hihihiiii.

The forge is hot in no time and we start working. Knowing the people here I know the pace today is not frantic, but someone, looking from the outside, might describe it as such. Mr. Blackwood taught us much yesterday. Our coordination is unparalleled. I have rarely watched group sports but I know you don't turn your head away from the ball and just trust your teammate to make a perfect pass.

With everyone fresh and rested the pace is even faster than when we closed last night. As the day goes we settle on a more manageable pace. With a mental count, I find we manage to make 36 items today. And that is not all we will be making today.

When Mr. Blackwood is about to leave, I use my share of the money from the sale of the wood. Everyone else pitches in and we manage to buy 10 ingots of metal. Even the new guy that got here today pitches in. During the day we discover he was a welder. And on occasion, he "forged" items with a propane torch. Mr. Blackwood almost had a fit when he heard this. You do not call what he did forging. You can't do that, not even in a joke.

For firewood, we use a couple extra wood logs we brought. While we work alone we talk. After some back and forth we set on a plan. We decide what should be done with the items and how.

About an hour in, when we were finishing the part we need the forge for, I notice the temperature. The forge is not hot enough, or at least not as hot as it should. I will need to take a look and check to see what the problem is later.

There could be so many reasons. The wood may only be dry instead of seasoned. The type of wood could different. My infusion process may not be as good. The transformation may introduce impurities on the mana. I try to figure out the most probable cause, but I'm not successful.

Everyone works hard to make the best possible weapons. I help a little, as I can, but most of the time I let them figure out on their own. They have enough theoretical knowledge. What they need is to learn how to put things into practice. I don't need factory drones standing beside me. I need thinking and breathing human beings. Beings that see a problem and solve it on their own.

We all close the forge together and head to the guild. Getting there I address the scribe:

"Hi, I would like to make a contribution to the guild, along with my fellow friends."

"Ok. Just tell me your name and give me the money or items."

"That is the thing, ours is a different case. We are looking to get paid for the materials we spend and leave the rest as a contribution."

"Those are the blacksmith apprentices?"

"Technically no, they are not. He said he would need 100 years to teach anyone if he were to take in an apprentice. That said, close enough."

"It doesn't sound too complicated. So, if I understand you correctly, I propose to you this. We are willing to pay 50% for the items, compared to what the smith charges. You get the price of the metal and wood in coin. The rest of the balance is awarded as a contribution to the guild. Sounds fair?"

I wonder for a moment how much he is aware of goes on. He has access to all the books for the finances and all kinds of information. People also come to him first, when they need to know something or to inform the guild. He seems to have wide latitude. He offers a fairly generous contract given our items have only half of the "stats". The terms don't surprise too much though. If everything goes according to plan, they will effectively be paying pennies on the dollar on these loans. They will only repay them after there is much more money circulating.

"Yes, it sounds fair."

I and everyone else take the items and put it all on a side table.

"Rose. Take all these items, appraise then and come back with it all written down. Don't mind the stats. Consider than all +2 attack and I will make the necessary adjustments."

"Yes sir."

I go with Rose to another table and she starts writing down the values. I look at her and she seems to be 12 years old. Could she be a new arrival?

"So what do you do here Rose?"

"Everything. I pass messages, appraise items, talk with people, send where they need to go. When there are too many people coming in at once, I go talking to people in line to see if I can hurry things along."

"How long do you work?"

"About six hours a day. I spend the day hunting rabbits with my friends."

Well, at least she isn't going out to hunt at night. Someone so young will not have properly developed a healthy appreciation of what to fear. This lack of fear is a very valuable tool, but if misused, it can also get you killed.

Everything went smoothly. The total came out to 1 silver 70 copper. We get 60 copper and decide on the split. In total, we now have 1 silver 10 copper more in contribution to the guild. I get 30 copper, given I brought the wood. I give the scribe two copper coins.

"This is because we used some of the wood it would be sold to the blacksmith tomorrow. The guild has helped in the manufacture so I thought it would be a fair split."

"For now this is fine. When you ramp up production, then we will talk about it."

Everyone in the guild thanks all profusely. Along with our own work we made 43 items today. That is a good pacing to keep for this early in the game.

Saying my goodbye's to everyone, I head to my room. As I get close I notice massive piles of wood. With each step closer more come into view and then, I see it all. Two big warehouses are being built. Three houses even had to be demolished to make space for the warehouses.

There are giant piles of dry wood. I also see a smaller pile of dry wood. Numb I get closer. Sending some of my mana a probe, I sense it has mana inside. It is not the final product, I will have to burn it and actually infuse it later. But it is a big help and it means mages have begun to work. With this, we will be able to greatly increase our rhythm with little concern for the cost of firewood.

Shock slowly leaves me and realization settles in. I look at the whole place for a moment. Like my life depends on it I run to the gate. People see me running faster than any of them could match. At the gate, I see a pair of men caring a big tree. It has all its breaches cut out. I notice the coloration at the bottom. It must have been cut in the last ten minutes.

Given the size, I wonder at their attributes for a second. It must weight around 500 pounds. They walk at an almost normal pace. They don't even seem to be straining. I ignore all that. The gate closes behind them but I don't let it slow me for a moment. I give my all and jump with all my strength. I manage to grab the top of the 4 meters high wall and in a single movement, I'm flying over it.

I stare at the devastation. I freeze and all seem to rush by me. I tuck myself and landing rolling. I hurt my back a little because I wasn't paying enough attention, but it is only in the back of my mind.

I see the end of the world before my eyes. Now I understand a fraction of how Oppenheimer felt. I truly have brought death to the world. I almost regret having started this whole thing. I let sorrow wash over me and don't spare any of the pain.

I have, in the past, cut down trees. I tend to look for trees that needed to be cut down but you can't always find them. Other times a healthy tree gets in your way. And it's ok. Be it construction, firewood, or whatever other reason it is a part of life I have grown used to.

Ever since I got here I have buried deep the hurt from so much harm I have caused. We needed these resources. Seeing the logical progression of the path I set out on staring me in the face wrenches my heart. I look over the destruction, the devastation, and cry.

My whole face is a mess. I ignore the few people starring at me and I let myself go. I watch as the world I know crumbles and falls by each swing of the ax. I stand there for over an hour. The world passes me by and I don't take notice of it.

"So what is happening? I mean last time we talked, I didn't know all this would be happening. At least not that it would be this fast"

"We neither. But we, in the guild council were talking,…" At my scrunched up face, he continues. "Yeah, some people have complained of us calling ourselves the council. The problem is that it is exactly what we are. That aside, we were talking and we have come to the conclusion that investing work and money now into increasing the infused wood production would be ideal. We can easily make more than we can use. There are several options this would open up, but that is for later. With the expected returns, the investment is minimal. We only need people and mana. If everything goes smoothly, most people in the village will have access to mana in days or weeks."

"The classes have been going well?"

"Oh, yeah, but wasn't only that. The class that Merlin taught had 12 people and 5 of them unlocked right then and there. The people that unlocked were the ones who spend the most time trying to unlock it. We think they just needed that last push. We also saw two dozen people unlock their magic skills after getting meditation today."

Maybe Dmitri got the skill and he told other people.

"So you guys are looking at using this wood to supply all the needs from Mr. Blackwood as soon as possible?"

"Yes and to increase production. We should be running the forge around the clock. If we reach an agreement with the smith we could have one or two of your guys there all night. With that and a few people to help we would be able to increase production a lot. Maybe to double it. What are you making during the day?"

"Today we made 36 items. Plus the 7 we made after hours."

"We could probably get 70 items a day. In a week, we might even be able to double the nightly production again. Making 100 items per day sounds really good. Does that sound possible?"

"Yes, as long as the people that come actually learn while they work. If we also risk a few ingots of metal, we could train then even faster by letting them try to forge quickly. Doing that, we risk letting the metal lose its properties, but there is no substitute for practice when it comes to learning. We can't smelt metal. That means anything that someone mucks with is wasted metal until we can get a smelter running."

"We are pushing everything we are doing as fast as we dare. We are not apprising you of every detail but what you have told us about the council seems to be spot on and we are seeing their effects on everyone around town. The guards that rotate around on the gates are increasing their warnings without saying anything specific."

"What do you think it is?"

"We are not sure. Our best guess is that there is a danger by us pushing so hard our incursions, especially at night. How we are trying to figure out how much danger we are in." We both think for a minute and he tactfully asks. "I don't mean to pry on what is not my business, but is something wrong? You have been crying. If you don't want to tell me it is absolutely fine, but I might be able to help."

"Don't worry about it. When I saw the destruction I helped create…I was not ready for it."

"Destruction?" He pauses with a wondering tone but after a moment he continues: "Ooh, you mean the construction and our deforesting. I had heard of the crazy old coot sleeping under a tree, but I didn't know you were an eco-friendly person"

"It is not exactly accurate to call me eco-friendly. I have probably put down more threes than half the village combined. But I have mostly done that to promote the growth of my grove and of other forests."

"How is that not being an eco-friendly person."

"I don't like most labels. They tend to do far more harm than good. But letting this aside, when you see what you call eco-friendly people, what you get are mostly people either used as political tools or tied in some brand loyalty thing or a perversion of the intent behind the environmentally minded person."

"For such a happy and upbeat guy, you do have dark views of the world."

"I try to see the world for what it is, not what I wish it to be. Also, my partial isolation on Earth may not have been the best for my mental state, but it gave me the perspective to see things other people didn't. You can't smell the house burning down around you when you live beside a coal plant. You are so used to the smell your brain ignores it."

"Well, I got to go. It was nice to have this conversation with you and we should finish as soon as possible. Can we count on you to work hard and make sure everything goes smoothly?"

"Yes. I have worked most of my life for someone else, now humanity needs me to contribute a little. I will rise to the challenge."

He chuckles and goes, leaving me to my thoughts. I will do my utmost and when we are back on earth; Pando will be a rallying point for humanity. I wonder at the bonuses he would be getting. Perhaps he will also get the ancient title or something similar. Does he even have a system similar to mine?

I settle in and start to infuse wood. I spend most of my mana and everyone else's. My mana handling skill is decent, so I manage to make about 180 logs in less than an hour. I am no longer limited by my own mana. At least when it comes to infusing wood.

I let my mind wander and the work goes by in a flash. I pay attention in an abstract way to all the mana I sense as infuse the wood and I wonder if there is something I will be unlocking soon. Afterward, I think of other methods regarding the whole process and think of a further few experiments to run.