Around me are most people in the village. Everyone in the central square awaits for Charlie to start. I hear a few boos and jeers directed at the Mayor. While I don’t join in, the sentiment is mutual. He should finish faster.

It’s frustrating hearing him going on and on about things we already know or useless things. And each time he glances my way, the smirk in the corners of his mouth clearly tells a story. He enjoys this. I can’t let myself get riled up, I need a cool mind. Without my cool, I would risk missing what he may be hiding behind his smirk.

For now, I doubted there was anything to learn. But eventually, something would happen, and I would keep my eyes wide open. He leaves and the occasional noise around me is gone. Everyone pays attention to Charlie’s words. Usually, people hear at least one topic they are interested in. That is why we keep coming back.

Charlie starts his speech.

Today we have a few important things to tell everyone.

The first topic is the road we are building. We have started the project only yesterday. At our current pace, it will take a while. We hope to speed up as more people unlock classes suited to it or after we learn a good skill. We expect it to finish by next month's end. It will connect us with our oldest contact. We are now officially calling it Sarah's village.

We have also established contact with every single one of the villages within 100 miles. There are tentative agreements with all of them. Trade has started to pick-for our village. It will still take time for the volume to increase, but that will take a little while given the distance involved.

The next topic is about something everyone was quite curious about. A couple of hours ago another person gained access to the map room. There may be easier ways. But we know that you run at least 1000 kilometers without sleeping you gain access to it. You don’t even need to ave the city to manage that.

Few people have the needed mental mindset to run for so long let alone the stats, but after a couple of months, a few stat points anyone could do it.

For those who asked, the scouts that were in the bigger track, to pass near all the villages in a 200 miles radius have begun to make their way back. They should be here tonight. As expected we now have a map of everything in a two hundred miles radius.

Last something for everyone to take note of. Today is the 25th day of the month. So if you haven't saved up any money, you should endeavor to do so. Everyone is well aware of your budget and the silver coin needed to remain here beyond this first month. There a few people talking about coming back to Earth now. While we believe that is not the right choice, it's still your choice and everybody should respect that.

About the contributions, as were as so often reminded, while significant in the whole of the village divided for everyone it’s actually little money.

Most people have a contribution of about 40 coppers. Most of this money has been used in making things cheaper for everyone, and opening up new industries.

We understand everyone’s concerns. That is the reason we are reminding you all about the end of the month.

From our inquiries. If everyone that doesn't have enough money works hard we will be able to return enough coin for everyone. If too many people slack off, we will not have enough money. Our priority will be to give the money to someone with more contribution and the amount of coin they do have is closer to the 1 silver needed.

For now, that is all. We will have another three meetings in the afternoon. If you want to attend and don’t know the schedule, just ask in the guild.

A few people ignore his last words and grumble about their contribution. I carefully note the words from Charlie. It is a delicate business. He cannot simply skip the subject, but saying too much could cause a riot for the people that haven’t save up any money.

Even what he said could cause a crash in our economy. If nobody spends a single coin contribution to the guild would plummet. We had increased our reliance on our foodstuffs and other items, but every coin that came to their hands was spent. I doubted they had more than 5 silver coins save up.

Still, there were probably people with enough money to buy the items I was making and have the silver needed. If I spend longer in the forge, I could make enough items for 20 or 30 silver by day end of the month.

Most of that would end up back in the hands of my fellow villagers. Unless I gave it all to the shopkeeper, this would be a big help.

The crowd disperses and I approach Charlie. After only a few moments nobody is close enough to hear our conversation.

“So, do you have a crazy new scheme, Nash?”

“No, I just came to talk about the map room.”

“Ohh, yes. You don’t need to keep going there every couple of hours. We have two people. For now, that is enough.”

“Good, did you saw anything interesting on the map.”

“Ohh yes, there were two changes. When the first group returned we only increased the area we could see a little. This time however the are we can now observe is about triple the previous one. Not only that, now we can see more details and a few smaller markers have popped up.”

“Smaller markers?”

“Yeah. A few places with a smaller footprint have been marked. Mines, areas that grow a type of herb or fields of grain and vegetables. I think all of them have a certain value attributed to it. Depending on the size of the map, we can know where the ‘less important’ places are.”

“That sounds logical. Did you found anything close to us?”

“Nothing too significant. We got lucky with both a limestone and iron mines very close. But if we need to expand to their mines we now have the option to not go too far away. Within 30 miles there are 3 new mines. We also send a scout to get samples from the herbs not too far away.”

“Did you find any food close by?”

“No. The closest one was a barley field 60 miles away. We are going to collect it regularly. A dozen people could bring half the food we need. In a single trip.”

“Good better than trying to compete with Sarah’s village in the places they found first. How is the situation with the money? Dod you think we will face problems?”

Giving a quick look around he says:

“No, we have a little money than we let on. Selling and loaning Items and a few of our endeavors have been slightly more profitable than expected. I need to address everyone about it, so I gave everyone a kick in the back while letting the know we can take a little of the slack.”

“I’m not sure, but it does sound a good choice. Saying we had enough funds to help everyone could have made people sink their coins in the village. We need it to stay in circulation.”

“Yes, although I do have something to talk to you about. I heard about the inscriptions for lighting. You sent a few to the guild. They are very useful and would make a fantastic export.”

I can clearly hear the enthusiasm in his voice and doubtfully ask:

“Are they all that? I get they can be useful in a few scenarios but would there be demand?”

“Yes, absolutely. For people in their rooms, in caves and mines or places in the shadow of the moon they are extremely useful. Do you have any idea how much money we are spending on oil? And oil is in most ways inferior to the ‘flashlight’ you have made. You probably have enough perception you didn’t notice too much of a hindrance, but most people are not so fortunate.”

“I still don’t get it, but nevermind. Do you want me to make a few light inscriptions?”

“No, I want you to make a lot of light inscriptions. As many as you can. How many do you estimate you could do?”

“Depend on how many people I rope into it. I would guess around 100 per day.”

“That is wonderful. If we sold them at 10 coppers to the other villages we would be set. There is something else I wanted to talk with about. Just letting you know we found a few scouts we haven’t run into before snooping around. There were 4 encounters with our hunters on the last day.”

“Do you have any idea why?”

“No, not yet and I don’t want to speculate too much just yet. Let’s wait for a little, but I thought you should know about a potential enemy.” Charlie stretches his legs a little and shakes my hand. “I have to leave now. I trust you can handle this?”

“Yes, don’t worry about it.”

I go on my way not sure about what to do about the scouts. On other businesses, I can’t grasp why would people focus so much on lights. Sure, it’s a nice luxury, but we had enough for hunting at night.

The inn and the workshops had illumination at night and only a few other places needed the extra light. The guildhall needs light for the scribe, maybe another room for other scribes copying stuff over. Miners that were working a deeper cave as well. But that was it, it was a quite finite market.

I doubted we would sell to many. That is until I saw someone holding a plate the size of a credit card illuminating a dark corner in the side a building looking for something. And then I got it.

How blind was I? This is just like the people buying silk. Not for industrial purposes, but to make bed sheets and comfortable items. My own experience was collared in light of my normal. But my normal was very different from other people’s normal.

Few nights went by that I had more than the moonlight to illuminate my path. My eyesight was not better than anyone else’s before coming here, but I was much more used to use it to the full extent. Most people don’t wait a few seconds in a dark corridor, they pull their cellphone to illuminate the path. I couldn’t do that if I wanted half a chance to remain undetected at night.

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

I head to the classroom and find a couple of the people there. They should jump at the chance of earning a cut of the profits. Especially as they will be getting a significant cut of the sales value.

“Hey, are you guys up to stop your work and inscribe?”

“What do you want us to do?”

“Flashlights. I was talking with Charlie and he though it was a good idea.” Pulling out a hundred sheets, I put it on the table before continuing. “You guys get half the sales value. A quarter in coin and another quarter as a contribution. Is everyone ok with that?”

Most everyone nods their heads, but a teenager says: “Come on man. We will be making most of the work. Why would we keep just 25% of the money?”

“Do you want to do it on your own? To source and make the copper sheets on your own, to travel and sell it without any help. And you are getting half the money, just not all of it will come in now. If you tried it on your own, there is the investment needed, and how long it would take to pay it off.”

An older man volunteers:

“Even with a quarter, we would be fine. These inscriptions should sell for at least 8 or 10 copper. If you make 10 per day you would be getting a silver before the end of the month just from this.”

Jumping in on the line of thought, I continue:

“Exactly. Though not only that. The guild can’t function without money. This will benefit all of us. How do you think we have enough water to take baths in the village? In the first few days, we had to take baths in the river. Each of these small projects is not very expensive on heir own. If we add them all together with a silver coin for everyone we will go bankrupt.”

He grumbles, but I continue:

“If you really want, you can go do it on your own. I wish more people in our village had the kind of drive to start doing things on their own, but that is not what happened. Only a few outliers are taking the lead and everyone else just follows. But I can’t have you enjoying from quite a bit of my help without paying back a little. If you think about it, all you would be doing is sharing with me, and contributing to the village. The rest are the costs.”

Now, that was a long-winded lecture. I see most of what I said did not enter his mind, but if he listened to a little he will be better for it.

After setting on a course regarding the copper lanterns, I deliver ten metal sheets to the ten I chose. The other three, I take to the side so we can talk. If I don’t miss my guess they are the most experienced of the bunch.

"So, I was thinking and my experiments have yielded promising results. Have you guys looked at the finished product for your work?"

"You are talking about the gauntlet of fire you made?"

"If that is what you calling it, yes. It is situational, but imagine how much faster an attack by the goblins would go now."

"I think I get it," says another of them. "We would have been able to kill them by the dozen if we rotated everyone through. I saw the gauntlet and the damage it caused. I doubt many goblins would be able to keep fighting after a single square hit. If we add everyone's mana in the village there is enough to shoot the gauntlet over a thousand times. As our stats increase we will be able to shoot it several thousand times."

The conversation heats up and I say something else.

"Not only that, but each mana point will be better spent. The efficiency is based on the skill of the engraver, not the level of the wielder."

The older man in the group volunteers:

"It seems strange to me this. The system doesn't give free lunches. What will be the cost?"

I reply in a tired tone. "We are likely missing something. Perhaps higher levels are different or skills have some hidden advantage we are missing."

"Either way. What do you want? For us to make a few of them?"

"No, I want you to make a lot of them. If each of you three could make four of them I would be happy. Before the end of the Month, we could have over fifty of these."

"Here I was thinking you were some kind of pacifist." Says the youngest of the group. With a wry smile, I speak.

"I don't identify as anything. Humans are too complex of being to reduce someone to their label. Though I do admit, it pains my heart to spend so long focussing on the military aspects of our village. But we need it if we are to face the threats the system sends our way."

The somber looks in everyone's faces showed my words reached them. They probably hadn't thought about it too much.

After another few minutes we al part ways. This should greatly increase our defensive capabilities. Should the scouts coming this way not be friendly, we would have proper defenses set up. At least that was my hope.

Now was the time to turn to my own endeavors. I have far too much to do.