Chương 45: Chapter 44 The Measure of the Forest

While the older warriors struggled to learn tactics, the younger ones faced a different problem.

"You idiot! You drew it far too close!"

"You are the idiot! This distance is correct!"

"So that is why you carry your head around instead of displaying the monster you hunted as a trophy."

"Krahahaha! You cannot even count. Clearly, your skull is nothing more than decoration. I killed three today, while you caught only one!" They were offering condolences to the useless ornaments resting upon one another's shoulders. Karath approached the group.

"Are the maps coming along?"

"Karath! Look at the map this fool drew!"

"I should be the one saying that!" The disagreement had begun while they attempted to record the terrain.

"This is pointless. We should decide who is correct with our fists."

"Krahahaha! That is the first intelligent thing you have said today, idiot!" Thud! Unable to resolve the matter with their minds, the two orcs began negotiating with their fists. The stronger orc was correct. That was one of the settlement's absolute truths. They were not the only ones struggling to reach an agreement. Fights erupted across the clearing almost simultaneously. Everyone was clearly devoting themselves completely to the mapping work Karath had assigned. What a beautiful sight.

Such obedient and hardworking warriors.

"Everyone, stop for a moment." Karath had prepared a possible solution and needed to explain it.

"Krahahaha!" Thud!

"Your punch feels like dust, bastard!" Thud! The warriors had already begun embracing one another with their fists and seemed unable to hear him. Realizing words would not work, Karath entered the brawl.

"I told you idiots to stop!" Thud! He struck every orc involved, making no distinction between sides. The words of the strongest orc were correct. Therefore, Karath was always correct. It was time to remind them of that principle. The meeting that had begun with mapmaking transformed into a general melee. Around thirty minutes later, every warrior except Karath was sprawled across the ground. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Keh heh heh. Karath has not changed."

"Damn it. Karath will win next time!" Karath was not completely unharmed either. He released a deep breath. Although he was the strongest warrior in the settlement, these were all experienced fighters. Defeating the entire group had not been easy. Still, everyone had finally calmed down. Now he could explain what he had intended to discuss.

"The problem is that no one can agree on the distances shown on the map, correct?"

"Exactly, Karath! That idiot keeps talking nonsense!"

"You were the one talking nonsense!"

"Would you like to continue?"

"Krahahaha! If Karath had not interfered, you would already be dead."

"Please be quiet." Karath's first sentence nearly triggered a second round. He shouted while releasing another exhausted sigh.

"From now on, we will use this to measure distance." Once the warriors settled down, Karath showed them a long wooden rod reaching approximately to his hip.

"We will call the length of this rod one meter. Two rods placed end to end will be two meters. Three will be three meters. Do you understand?" The warriors had fought because the tribe possessed no standardized method of measuring length. Each orc judged distance according to personal instinct, so their estimates naturally differed. Karath had considered the problem when he first began creating the map. The difficulty was establishing standardized units.

He understood that the more consistent a system of measurement became, the less confusion it created. Using a body part would have been unreliable. If the tribe measured distance in feet, every orc's foot differed in size. For a brief period, Karath had even considered using his own height as a standard unit. The idea of measuring everything in Karaths was clearly insane. More importantly, even Karath found the calculations confusing.

During both of his lives, he had instinctively estimated length using the metric system. Whenever he observed something, his mind naturally translated it into meters. A troll, for example, appeared to be approximately two and a half meters tall. Converting that into Karaths would require dividing two and a half by roughly one point eight five every time. The thought of repeating that calculation for every object was unbearable.

Karath therefore decided to introduce the metric system simply because it was the one most familiar to him. One problem remained. How had the original meter been defined? Karath had never cared about the history of measurement in his former life, so he had no idea. He created an approximate version instead. His leg appeared to be around one meter long, so he cut the wooden rod according to that estimate. The exact length was less important than ensuring everyone used the same standard.

"This piece of wood is one hundred times smaller than the meter rod. We will call its length one centimeter." After deciding to use meters, Karath also prepared a tiny wooden piece approximately one centimeter long. He could have used only meters and represented ten centimeters as zero point one meters. That would require teaching the orcs decimals. Naturally, his innocent companions knew nothing about them. Producing a separate centimeter unit seemed far easier than teaching decimal notation.

Creating the small wooden standard had been simple in concept and painfully tedious in practice. Karath first cut another rod to match the one-meter standard. Then he estimated one tenth of its length and cut a shorter piece. Using that shorter piece as a guide, he repeated the process ten times and checked whether the combined pieces matched the meter rod. He continued adjusting them until he created a reasonably accurate ten-centimeter length.

Then he repeated the same division process to produce a piece close to one centimeter. The entire process required a week of maddeningly repetitive labor. Karath had searched for a more accurate method, but in their primitive environment, nothing better occurred to him. He knew the result contained some error. This was still the best he could achieve.

"When one thousand meter rods are placed together, that distance will be called one kilometer. Understood?" Since constructing a physical kilometer-long rod was obviously impossible, Karath completed that part verbally. After listening to the entire explanation, the warriors smiled innocently and shook their heads.

"What does one hundred times mean, Karath? What is one thousand times?" Karath had explained it incorrectly. They did not even understand multiplication, yet he had casually spoken in multiples.

"One hundred times means there are one hundred of something."

"Oh!" Karath lowered the explanation to what he considered an early elementary school level.

"What is one hundred? Is that a number?" Karath fell silent. Perhaps comparing them to American elementary school students was an insult to American children.

"You understand numbers up to ten, correct?"

"Of course, Karath! We can count with our fingers. One, two, three, four..." The warriors began folding their fingers as they counted.

"What about twenty?"

"We learned that before! After using the fingers, we use the toes. Eleven! Twelve!" They lifted their feet and began curling their toes as though performing some primitive form of yoga.

"What about thirty?"

"Thirty? What is that?"

"It is twenty plus another ten."

"Twenty plus ten?"

"We do not have enough toes!"

"Damn it! We do not have enough fingers either!"

"Then lend me your fingers!"

"They are my fingers, bastard!" The moment the number exceeded twenty, the warriors began shouting as though suffering a collective panic attack. Karath laughed helplessly at their innocent confusion.

"Hahaha." Perhaps he should simply abandon the map.