Chapter 5: [CORE] C005 – Lemon trees of iron and mercury.

Spending 8 days, or two weeks in their calendar working helped give me enough time to recover some of my ability. Finding that proper meals and the outside work allowing me to recharge helped.

I glance lazily at my new diagnostics after reporting the change in my condition.

Current conditions: Exhaustion Grade 1.

Physical operational capacity: 82.1%

Bionics power storage: 8.4% (-0.5%/day - light activity, -2%/d = heavy. Passive sun recharge = +0.1%/2h)

Baseline stat: 10

─ Physical Strength: 75% (18/24)

─ Constitution: 83% (15/18)

─ Stamina: 90% (18/20)

─ Dexterity: 80% (16/20)

─ Willpower: 84% (22/26)

─ Mental Resistance: 87% (20/23)

I'm finally almost back to my peak, the glaring concern now is my power. If I wasn't doing heavy labour I would be in the positive, with the days around here having about 13-14 proper hours of sunlight. It seems we are still close to the equator for what seems to be summertime. I've saved enough money from the work, even though they only pay about 8 copper an hour of work, I can usually manage to go on for a full 12-14 hours, averaging me just over 1 silver coin per day. At 100-1 for each type of coin that means over the last week I've earnt a total of 840 copper, or 8 silver and 40 copper before counting food and rest. My final total after staying here for the 8 days is 6 silver and 56 copper.

Using my savings I look around town to outfit myself with some proper weapons and gear.

Buying a proper sword for about 180 copper, a bag for 95 copper, 6 rations at 28 and a set of clothes for 136 copper leaves me at 77 copper. I hear that registering at a guild tends to cost about a silver for the most basic guilds which means I'm under the amount. Not to mention supplies should I take any sort of commission related to travel.

Talking around the city there still seems to be a major focus on dwarf made items, so I can't abuse my bionics to forge some items. I might have to follow through as a ruins researcher and fabricate a few artefacts. While I shouldn't be using the self repair and printing function so haphazardly, I could technically print out some small electronics, given any form of raw material. That could possibly give me a way to produce rarer artefacts. If I make them I could probably also interface some of them if any satellites are still active, that would give me a good way to gain additional information.

Catching a merchant cart which apparently plans to head north, shipping iron ore from a place called Karste up to a dwarven trade city called Houndcairn. I convince them to give me a chunk of iron ore in exchange for most of my money, leaving me with only enough to stay overnight at the inn before I have to start moving.

It will take a lot of power to produce something but hopefully just travelling on the road will be a positive energy gain from the solar power. So I can afford the large hit of energy as long as I can keep safe. To create something small like a wristwatch it will take about 3% of my power and according to the traders, it is about a 2 day walk to the capital.

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Setting off first thing after having visited the worksite one last time to say goodbye to some of the people I became friends with. Standing at the gate leading out of town, I feel butterflies in my stomach, an invisible wall that makes me pause for a moment.

If I managed my power a bit more and used magic a bit more, I could have reduced my power cost in exchange for less savings but that would possibly end up with me remaining here for a long time, slowly working my days away instead of discovering what happened to my people.

If I want to keep my peoples legacy going, I need to find out what exactly happened after I was put under ice, and correct this new world on the history of the past. People seem happy enough, but there is no telling if anyone after my people managed to deal with the darkest nights.

I push through my doubts and hesitation to set off north. The final bit of reluctance dying as I set my goal for Kilport the capital on the lake.

Impatience boiling my blood I call upon a basic support spell to increase my speed, gathering the energy and channelling it into the right structures and concepts, focusing on balance and acceleration, as well as supporting the structure with wind. A three pointed construct base, surrounded by a forming circle before I fill it with a chant.

> "Petals fall lightly,"

> "Brewing storms and cry from afar,"

You are reading story Meidu. The NEUTRAL triversal series [CORE SIDE] at novel35.com

> "Boats drift disturbed."

Putting me at about 8mph/12.8kph as I run down the road in a half sprint. The open space of the path making it easier to manage the high speed for an extended time which allows me to trade stability for duration with minimal extra cost.

Dashing past a few patrols and merchants who seem to be taking the route at a normal pace, some of the horse drawn carts going at a quarter of my speed, I end up at the first town halfway to the capital in about 2 and a half hours. Making sure to come to a jog as I reach the city I'm waved on through with a guard keeping an eye on me as I run straight through the town. It seems they have specific expectations for mages in this country; possibly an after effect of knowledge being valued making spellcasters deemed as a higher class by default.

After a total of about 5 hours, I finally finish the run, nearly 40 miles I ran to save money on rations, cutting down a 2 day journey into half a days travel.

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I arrive at the east gates of the city, the guards inspecting people as they pass by but not stopping to check each person individually. They are quick but efficient, waving me through after seeing me disable my magic as I was advised by Vartas the boss I worked under.

The buildings are all made from wood with stone accents on a grid pattern that follows the roads. I don't know how old it is but everything looks like its been recently renovated as well as repaired, giving off an air of prosperity compared to the other towns I knew. There doesn't appear to be many poor people living here either, but from the looks of it they likely have a slums type area outside the wall almost out of sight to allow people to live cheaper than inside.

A huge wall sits atop one of the hills overlooking the entire city, easily visible from anywhere within the city walls. From here I can tell there must be thousands of people living here based purely on size alone. The city itself stretches out beyond the hilltop fortifications for quite some distance, reaching further west and south than I can see clearly from here. The streets extend in both directions until it reaches the river where it stops abruptly, turning into a canal.

The entire city seems quite crowded when walking around, although there is plenty of room to move between buildings and shops. The main roads kept clear for carts which seem to be moving around every few minutes, some kind of taxi service maybe?

Glancing around I notice a few common symbols, looking like some kind of crest and the different variants I expect they are linked to different nobles or families that happen to be in power. I spot a sign reading "Ruxwen Estate" and I see signs for what seems to be chain stores for the "Whispering Tower Library". It seems for the most part, the most important aspects are controlled by a few groups judging on the house crests dotted about the place.

Walking towards the library, I find that unlike most places, it is guarded. There are several armed guards standing near the entrance to the building, watching everyone coming and going. Looking closely I realise they are wearing black armour with red trimming around their chests and a crest on their breastplate. From the looks of it they expect a specific dress code as shown on a sign near the entry point.

As I lack that type of clothing currently I go back to exploring the city. Wandering around I quickly discover that this city has very little in terms of magical defence. Even the watchtower built on top of the hill isn't really equipped for anything aside from monitoring the surrounding lands. The city while it has walls don't seem to expect a need to defend them, possibly some relic of ages past then.

I visited one other store type, for relics. To see the expected condition and state of some of the items I need to replicate. From the looks of it many of them are almost just chunks of metal, corroded into vaguely familiar shapes. The type of extreme wear that you would need a professional in restoration to even get back something of the shape; and even then might need to replace it in the end.

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Moving to a side alley after having explored a bit more, I pop open the casing of one of my arms. The inner workings whir softly as I flex my fingers. I keep an eye out because I expect people would treat this as unnatural based on their culture so far.

Bringing up the menus in my head I set my arm to diagnostic mode, allowing me to manually trigger features like self repair and its printing components. Originally designed to allow for quick replacement parts or printing replacements for other small electronics; it has the ability to turn pure materials in the vicinity into parts.

Pulling out the chunk of iron ore which is probably some kind of magnetite or hematite based on its purity readout of about 70% I cast a small spell to suspend the material with a type of telekinesis before superheating it in a method of purification, creating a barrier to protect the metal from the air.

Not the most efficient way to make components but it should get me enough money to do something. I focus on some old watch designs from memory, planning them out before sending a signal to my arms printer. Since I'm only using iron it would be difficult to make a functioning item and I doubt they will be happy if it looks brand new so I have to add some imperfections and cast a type of decay spell to add to its age.

Finished with casting the spells I send another command to activate the device, causing the machine to begin printing out the parts, a localised low gravity field using some mana allowing the printer to maintain its work without using a surface.

The result ends up being a high quality watch made entirely out of iron with a small addition of carbon making some parts steel. Following my plans I cast a third ring decay spell with an aspect of time on the item while compressing the water in the air around the item to add more effect to the casting.

The result? A pretty rusty and worn iron watch that has more excuses to not work than just being iron. The finely crafted gears rusted together and the inner mechanisms snapped and broken with 'age'. I suppose a note for the future is that I don't need to be as precise when I print out the next item, it might save a bit of time and each more money overall.

With that, I check my area around me, finding no one watching; so I pack away, including spending a minute disabling my arm override, solidifying the rest of the metal into a small ingot while letting all the dirt drop to the ground. Time to make profits as a special relic hunter I suppose. I wonder how they would react to functioning tech.

 

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