Chương 510: B8—Chapter 17: Wooden Economy, in Every Sense

The city we were in was called Zereth Vhal, and in the local language, it meant "Forest Keepers," which made sense given everything we'd seen so far. It turned out to be much more advanced than I'd expected at first glance, especially judging by the log houses. They didn't have Magitech, at least not according to the Gate, but the enchantment industry was booming. They had strange contraptions that, in translation, were called Wanderboxes.

It was a wooden box on wheels, with two seats, storage space behind them, and a steering wheel. That's it. The person holding the wheel poured mana into it, and the box moved. The more mana you fed it, the faster it went. Cut the mana, and it stopped. It cost only twenty gold coins, and they even offered a model without the second seat for people who needed more storage space. And the best part was that it was theft-proof.

To use the box, you needed to drip some blood at a specific point, and from that day on, it was keyed only to you. Nobody else could drive it. I bought a Wanderbox with only one seat, collected Rue from the inn, and went exploring. The streets were full of those boxes, and at first, I was shocked. Even kids drove them. Not little kids, maybe twelve and up, but still kids. The reason became obvious quickly, much to Rue's great disappointment. No zoom. The fastest those things could go was about 25-30 km/h.

Once I overcame my shock about the driver's age, I got curious about how they could drive from a different perspective. As far as I knew, people in medium mana world got classes around the age of 15 or 16, at least based on what I saw in Lumis and Quassior. Maybe kids could get classes earlier, but the youngest I met with classes were about that age. Rue began sniffing the air in earnest, his tail wagging. I knew that look. He'd caught the scent of something delicious and felt compelled to sample it.

I didn't mind the idea, especially since it would allow me to ask a few questions. His nose led us straight to the local version of a fast-food joint. It was tucked inside a relatively small log house, the front wall replaced with a long wooden counter. Behind it, teenagers hurried back and forth, handing out food and drinks. The place had a strong echo of McDonald's. They didn't have name tags, and the bread was closer to pita than a bun, but everything else tracked.

Red aprons, meat patties or fried poultry served with a box of salads or a mix of fried vegetables, plus a big cup of fruit drink. The only thing missing was the bubbles. No fizz. The air smelled of hot fat, toasted bread, and a faint smokiness from the open grill behind them. Mana hummed faintly through the counter, probably to keep the food warm, and everything came in takeout boxes made of wood so thin it was almost paper, but not quite. They were light and surprisingly sturdy.

I bought Rue a triple portion of meat, hold the bread and veggies, and handed it over before he started drooling on the counter. The smell alone had him vibrating. Here I came across another surprise. Once I placed the order, the seller said, "Fifty-four shards." I offered him a gold coin, since I had no idea what a shard was. He made a face.

"Don't you have anything smaller?" I offered him a silver coin instead. He weighed it in his hand for half a second, then gave me change: four big coins and six small ones. The coins were wood. Actual wood. It was obvious they were coins, with carved images and lacquered surfaces. Still, wood. They were taking the forest theme to the extreme here. The big coins had a male face with a beard carved into one side, and a tree on the other, its branches spreading almost to the edge.

The small ones had a female face and a bird mid-flight. Shrugging, I put them in my Inventory and got another surprise. A new coin category appeared.

"Shards." Sadly, I couldn't investigate the mana question. They were too busy, and the line behind me was growing impatient, people shifting their weight and sighing in a very recognizable way. I solved the mystery a few hours later. Further into the city, we passed a school just as it was letting out. A steady stream of kids poured through the gates, laughing and shoving each other. Along the pavement stood a long row of Wanderboxes parked nose to curb for hundreds of meters in both directions.

I stopped and watched. The kids reached into their bags and pulled out black fingerless gloves. They slipped them onto their right hands. On the back of each glove sat a mana crystal, set into the fabric. One by one, they climbed into their boxes, wrapped their gloved hands around the steering wheels, and drove off in a slow, orderly crawl. Before reaching the school, I discovered the city had many bookstores. Naturally, I visited a few while Rue napped in the Wanderbox, digesting his mountain of meat.

The shops were crammed full of books. Shelves climbed all the way to the ceiling, ladders leaned against them, and the smell of paper, ink, and polished wood hung in the air. They offered a wide selection of professional literature on traditional practices such as blacksmithing, leatherworking, tanning, carpentry, and half a dozen other crafts. There was an immense collection of books on woodworking alone. Joint types, carving techniques, tool maintenance, wood properties, and forest management.

Zereth Vhal took its trees seriously. They also had plenty of fiction, thick adventure tales, slim romantic dramas, and a lot of books in a genre they called alternative reality. Alongside those were some basic books about magic and mana. Not wizard books, regular ones, at least judging by the quality of writing. There were also introductory books about enchanting. Those didn't have runes, detailed schematics, or deep theory. Just explanations of core concepts and how enchantments function in principle.

I leafed through several of the magic books. They were extremely basic. What is mana. How to feel it. How to circulate it safely. Simple explanations about classes and the system, which in this world was called the Spirit Guide. A few chapters about affinity, leveling, and common mistakes beginners make. Useful for someone just awakening. Not for me. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The enchantment books were about the same level.

So basic they didn't offer any real value at my level of knowledge. Still, I came out of each store with a respectable stack. Professional manuals, some fiction, and a few cultural texts. They also had a section on Alchemy. I didn't buy any of those. That was Al's territory. But I made a mental note to tell him. A pleasant surprise was that the stores accepted the coins I had from Earth and Zindor, so I didn't have to spend gold or silver.

In the first store, when I asked the seller if they accepted foreign coins, he gave me the famous look Travelers get and, in a flat tone, said, "Of course. Our blessed forest is a famous destination." Apparently, they were so used to tourists that my coins didn't elicit any reaction. I took it as a challenge and, in each store, paid with a varied selection of coins. So varied that I didn't use two identical coins. Every single one was different. Still, no reaction whatsoever.

In every store, the sellers glanced at the coins, identified them, and told me how much I needed to add to cover my purchases. That's it. Since the coins were such a success, it was a good opportunity to fill up my Storage with items to sell. Initially, I'd planned to wait until we found a tech world with a development level similar to Earth's to stock up on mass-produced items, but this was a great opportunity. For the rest of the day, and two days after, I traveled the length of the city and bought stock.

Naturally, they had an endless selection of wooden items: dishes, decorations, storage containers of every shape and size, furniture, tools, toys, musical instruments, kitchen utensils, farming implements, weapons, armor pieces, jewelry, writing supplies, barrels, and an endless variety of wooden statues and carvings. They also sold other forest-produced items that weren't wood, like resin beads and jewelry, sap-based adhesives and glues, and a variety of amber goods. They also had a big selection of paper.

I still had quite a lot of regular A4 paper from Earth, despite all my copying and giving it out, but again, this was a golden opportunity. I bought a thick sheet and tested it with runes. It worked. The runes didn't burn through it or ruin it in any other way. The lines held clean, and the mana settled into the fibers without warping the surface. Seeing that, I might have gone a bit overboard and emptied four large paper manufacturers of all their stock.

I visited a lot of enchanters' shops and browsed their various enchanted items, but didn't buy any. It was mostly for inspiration. A lot of the things they sold I'd already thought about, or even made back in Lumis when I sold the items from the Fox's Spire. Furniture enchanted for durability and fire resistance. Or things Mahya had crafted, like moving toys, wands, staves, and similar pieces. Still, the trip was very informative.

Seeing how they approached enchantments without Magitech gave me a better idea of what I could make. In one of the shops, I showed the seller the wooden aprons I had made to protect against explosions. He looked genuinely impressed, especially after his eyes lost focus a few times in a row. I already knew that crafters had the Analyze skill, but he used more than one while inspecting the apron.

"Excellent craftsmanship," he murmured.

"Very clean enchantment work. No mana bleed." He straightened and gave me an apologetic smile.

"But this specific item does not have a market in Zereth Vhal."

"Nobody blows things up here?"

"Open flame is illegal within the city and the forest. Explosions fall under the same category." I shrugged and stored my apron. Still, it was informative, and when a professional enchanter tells you "excellent craftsmanship," it's always nice to hear. The only enchanted items I did buy were more Wanderboxes. Appraisal said they were worth twenty gold, which matched the actual price I paid for the first one, and I doubted the price would be much higher in other worlds. But I wasn't paying with gold.

I was paying with coins I viewed as practically worthless. Yes, after all the shopping in Lumis and here, I knew they weren't truly worthless. Still, in my mind, they were worth far less than gold or silver, and I had hundreds of kilograms of those coins from Earth. I also still had several crates of Zindor coins left, even after that extensive shopping spree when I bought spells in Lumis. So from my perspective, I was turning spare metal into future gold and silver. Not a bad exchange.

The first day, Rue was still with me, but he grew bored quickly, and in the late afternoon, he hid behind a building, turned invisible, and flew back to the inn. The next two days, I shopped alone, while my lazy companion spent his days snoozing in the inn or making friends with the serving staff and cooks. On the evening of the first day, I told Al about the Alchemy books I saw, but he waved them off.

"I visited several Alchemy shops and saw the level of literature they offer. I have a much better selection."

"Did you find something interesting at least?"

"Yes. I purchased a wide variety of herbs and minerals."

"Use the coins from Earth and Zindor. They accept them here." He nodded.

"I am aware." The next two days, he also went shopping, but separately from me. Mahya, on the other hand, was unhappy with the selection. Actually, she was happy about the paper, since we were running low on parchment, but everything else just made her pull a face and huff.

"I'm a Wood Artisan. I'm not buying wood products made by somebody else. It would be like you paying a Healer." I saw her point and didn't press. On the second night, people from the inn again woke us around three or four in the morning to come see the magic. Even though I'd already seen it, I still watched with fascination, enjoying the strange display all over again. But two nights in a row were enough. On the third evening, I told them not to wake me.

On the evening of our fourth day in the city, over dinner, Mahya put down her fork and looked between us.

"I made some inquiries," she said.

"We can cut as many trees as we like. We just have to pay the section supervisor three silvers per tree."

"You want to pay for trees?" I asked.

"Yes." She leaned forward, eyes bright.

"They're better than anything I have. Even better than the trees we got from Tuonela." That got my attention.

"In that case, I'll join you. I still want to work on enchanted wood items." We both turned to Al.

"I do not need trees. I prefer to work with metal."

"Fair," I said.

"What about exploring the forest?" He straightened in his chair, eyes lighting up in a way they hadn't all evening.

"I will join you for that." Mahya drummed her fingers on the table and turned to me.

"In the morning, let's go cut some trees. In the afternoon, we'll go deeper into the forest."

"Shouldn't we start in the morning?" I asked. She waved a hand.

"You can always open the house inside, so it doesn't really matter when we go in. I suspect one day won't be enough anyway." After dinner, I turned invisible and flew out the window to take a look at the forest from above. If we planned to explore it the next day, I wanted to do a flyby to see if anything dangerous was lurking. Of course, I didn't expect to see much of the ground through the thick canopy, but I did expect to get some idea of the danger level.

The further I flew over it, the thicker the Nature Mana became. At some point, it was so dense, and the taste of leaves and bark in my mouth so strong, that I had to drink water to get rid of it. The further in I flew, the taller the trees became, and that was when I noticed something strange. There was some type of force field over the forest. I didn't feel it at the beginning, and it definitely wasn't over the outskirts, since people could chop down trees there. But it covered the rest of the forest.

It took me a while to notice it because I kept flying higher and higher to avoid getting tangled in the canopy. Then, at some point, I tried to descend and stand on a tree and couldn't. From that point on, I checked every fifty meters or so, and the force field was still there. The forest was so big that it took me over an hour of flight to reach the central trees that rose above the clouds, and they too were protected by the barrier. No matter what I tried, I couldn't approach the forest from above.

At first, it worried me, but then I waved it off. We'd handled tougher situations before. I was a Healer, Mahya was a strong fighter, and Al had some impressive spells. And if push came to shove, we could always turn invisible, turn tail, and run.