With all the new people working here, Yui was a bit overwhelmed remembering all the new names. Men, women, older and younger people, there seemed to be no clear distinction on who got the jobs other than their skill and perhaps their personality.

Ryoma seemed to be a good judge of character, as none of them felt out of place in the pavilion to her or had any disagreements when everyone met and groups were formed depending on where they would be working. They were all excited about their new task and did their best to follow the instructions that were provided in order to make a good first impression.

For some of these people, who were coming from a poor background, this job was as if they just found a treasure. Their salary was so much higher than they would have ever been able to make in a regular position and some of them were even in debt to their prior lords, not much more than slaves would have been in Yui's own world in the medieval times.

Now all of their lives seemed to have changed for the better and no one complained or had the slightest inclination to slack off during their working time.

"I feel bad not knowing any of them. Maybe I should keep an eye on one group each day to learn a little bit more? It will likely be easier to get to know the craftsmen, but these gatherers will be in the dimensional places most of the time and I won't see them a lot." Yui mumbled to herself.

Perhaps she could invite them out to lunch from time to time in smaller groups? She quickly shook her head, still not comfortable with the idea. Getting to know people was one thing, going out for lunch with people a totally different one.

It could also count as a mental training for her, to keep part of her focus on the shop, while she concentrated on what was going on inside one of their dimensions as well, whenever there were no customers.

Nearly all groups collecting resources consisted of five people. Yui took a look at the miners first and did her best to get an idea of what they were doing and the people themselves.

It was a rather odd mix. Four of them were males while one was female. Being unable to remember their names, she quickly assigned some nicknames to some of them after watching for a while. She would have to look up their real names at some point, but for now just getting an idea of what they would be like seemed enough.

There was 'Old Rock' who was the de facto leader of the group. He looked to be about fifty and in the late Qi Condensation stage. Obviously having the most experience and a rough but charming personality, he reminded Yui a little bit of an older version of Araki Hachiro, without the strange accent.

All of them started in the simple spirit mine with first tier ores to get a better feeling for the location and how things worked, but they quickly got the hang of the exceptional tools and easy pickings in the various caves. Old Rock and two others were experienced miners and had an easy time, while the girl and a boy were still trying to figure things out on their own.

"Hey you there, what's your name?" Old Rock asked one of the younger miners in front of him and Yui did her best not to let this chance pass to learn of their names again. She could look it up, but she would have to ask Ryoma and that was just embarassing somehow.

"Senji boss!" - "Good, good. Listen up lad, stop your shaking and stammering, we're all no fancypants or rich kids you have to be careful to be around with. You just swing that pickaxe and do your best and I will make sure none of you leaves here without a good share of the spoils right?"

"Yes boss, I'll do my best."

"Good, then keep an eye on the young lass and help her out a little. She's likely too stubborn to ask for help on her own." he mumbled, easy enough for Senji, and unknown to him Yui, to hear, but not the others.

Senji was, besides the girl in their group, who in Yui's estimation could not be much older than 13 or 14, by far the youngest. Maybe he was about her own age or a year younger?

Yui was slightly unhappy to have a young girl work in such a place, but for now she would just keep an eye on things. In a world where 10 to 12-year old kids were already working and due to the spiritual energies having stronger bodies, it was not too strange to see older children in such jobs.

She was at a loss of how to deal with this though. It's not as if she could just abolish child labor in this world. Well, she could force people with her power, but it might bring more harm than good. She decided to learn more about this world first, before she started anything drastic. At least if there was no immediate danger to the involved people.

The boy's pale blonde hair contrasted quite a bit with the girl's fiery red shoulder long mane. It was a deeper and more intense shade than any of the ginger colored hair Yui had ever seen in her own world, more like the color of a polished red garnet.

Was it the hair color that would often reflect a person's personality, or was its people's expectations that changed the way you would act?

No matter if there was any relation between her hair color and personality, or if it was just some fitting cliché, the girl was as energetic and fiery as her hair, stubbornly swinging that pickaxe with more motivation than actual skill or strength against the cave walls.

She was a little surprised to find Senji next to her holding out a leather water flask when she was in the middle of getting back her breath after a few minutes of swinging.

"Thank you." She said with a quiet voice and a slight blush shattering both Yui's as well as 'Old Rocks' expectations of the girl being stubborn with a fiery and tsundere attitude.

As motivated and energetic as the girl looked before, it was obvious she was even more of a wallflower than Yui, with an adorable shy voice and a sweet attitude of a soft-spoken lady.

Senji meanwhile, had no clue how to interact with girls and nervously started to chat with her, without worrying too much about proper manners and etiquette.

"Uh, no problem, I'm Senji. What's your name? How did you end up here?" he asked, curious how a little girl without much experience got this job.

"I'm Kirano." she mumbled, taking a sip of water before handing it back to him.

"I just came to take a look as I was curious and had a chance to sneak away from the fields. Master Coda caught and questioned me when he noticed me looking through the window, before he let me go again after he was sure I was just curious."

"I was really scared for a while to get punished, but nothing happened to me. The land I live on was bought and the serfs on it just go along with the land, basically changing lord I guess."

"I'm still not sure why I'm here though, but it seems obvious that it is somehow related to me sneaking to the window before. One day the Reeve just told me to come here. I guess he expected Master Coda to have taken a liking to me. I just hope he's not really interested. I'm not sure I want that kind of attention."

Yui was a bit taken aback by the lack of emotion in the girl's explanation, as if she did already accept whatever fate would fall on her. Kirano being slightly nervous was the only real sign that she was rather uncomfortable with it.

It was very different from modern people, who would be upset and angry if their freedom of choice was taken away, or perhaps be scared and afraid being confronted with such a situation.

Yui never got to listen to more of the conversation as another customer had just entered through the gate though and she had to focus on what was in front of her.

"Welcome to the Earthly Treasures Pavilion!" her voice sounded out as usual, making a few people who were standing around chatting grin. It was so typical Yui that by now people were making good natured jokes about it when she was not around.

Soon afterwards, yet another alchemist was excitedly looking through the plant descriptions on the leaflets he received from Yui and it did not take long for him to have conversations with the people who were standing around, as if he had known them for a long time.

Meeting in this shop felt similar in some ways to joining a group or a circle. With Yui's enthusiasm, her brightly optimistic attitude and the total lack of respect or obeisance when it came to rank and status, as well as her modern upbringing treating others with a certain amount of respect no matter their rank, it put a strong impression on the gathered people.

She had by far the highest rank of everyone here and seeing her treat everyone well was no different than forcing them all to do the same. While most did not know her exact status or titles, they were all aware that she was quite a formidable and powerful figure.

How could all these normal people or low ranked cultivators put up any airs when the lady herself did not? How could they look down on others, when the owner of this shop, who was even praised by people like Grandmaster Koda, did not?

It did not take long for this attitude to take hold and people would usually start to have conversations with others of quite different rank. Unexpectedly, they found to have more in common than they would have expected.

Especially when it came to Yui's strange dungeon, it was easy enough for people to discuss their experiences and show what they got without holding back, not caring about social norms. The dungeon treated all as equals.

In a way, the Earthly Treasures Pavilion had become a place where everyone would be 'just another customer, just another person who would try their luck in the dungeon'.

There were no other places like this, making it quite unique. Over time, more and more people gathered in the shop, not because they were here for materials, but just because they could talk to others and share opinions and thoughts freely.

-

After a few hours, the first gathered materials came into the shop and their craftsmen were starting to work on them.

Metalworkers and jewelers were busy making simple, but with the help of the wondrous tools still exceptional jewelry and Tora did her best to help her new 'students' with the basics of enchantment and alchemy.

While there were a lot of professional artisans, even some masters among the metal, wood and leatherworkers, they barely had any experienced enchanters or alchemists, but Tora was actually rather happy about that. This way she would have less work making them all forget the wrong things they were taught before and it was easier to teach them properly.

Unlike regular craft skills, alchemy and enchantment needed a certain cultivation base much earlier in order to achieve a decent result, making the entry point higher in terms of cultivation.

"You call this enchanting? What kind of moron taught you such a mess and gave you the idea that this would ever lead you down any path other than throwing stones on your head!"

Yui smirked at the shouting and yapping as the looks on these poor students' faces were all too similar to her own when she studied cultivation with Tora.

While Tora was rather expressive and had an imposing manner, below the outer layer of letting off some steam, she was actually a rather kind teacher, not to mention that her teachings were exceptional even in the divine realm, let alone such a simple lower cultivation realm as they were currently living in.