As soon as Rovandel was out of sight I returned to my seat. Unlike Cassia’s carriage, this one was far less luxurious. A rough wooden floor with benches covered with a blanket was all we had. Everyone placed their individual luggage under the benches. Mine contained the hammer I got from Fjorn, a second set of clothing and unlike any other kid in this caravan, well excluding Cassia probably, I had some money! Finally, money!

  The money came from Fjorn too, he went and talked with chief Aldric to give me a few silvers, ten in total, as pay for my work over the last few years. With this occasion I learned about the currency in this world. The metals used were copper, silver, gold. I know, standard fantasy… Really disappointing… But there was a tier above and those were crystal coins.

  A normal wage for a day worker was about one large copper to a half silver depending on where one worked and what they did. Of course, proper jobs paid more, but even this was enough for a person to live. If one was paid a half silver a day then he could even support a family, so it could be seen from this about how much money this was. With ten silvers to my name, I basically had enough money to live for three months without working.

  Considering that the academy covered most of the expenses by offering housing and food to its students this money however could hold on for much longer. So, I was worry free for now.

  I shut my eyes and meditated. For now, we were still in the regions I knew and visited, there was no need for me to waste time looking around. Progress was hard on even just the five yin organs or the so called Zang organs. There were still the Fu organs that I had to explore to truly begin the process, for a total of ten organs. Unfortunately, I was unwilling to start moving my Jing to kickstart a cycle. If I would allow the body to regulate the excess in one of the Zang organs, then I could more easily identify the meridians as energy would flow through more obviously. The pain of having an early start and too much understanding… I had the knowledge but could only take the slowest and hardest path…

  After an hour we reached the next village, so I decided to get off and stretch my legs. I was not the only one and this time I noticed a lot more kids than just those from Rovandel. ‘Strange… Why did none of these kids get off back home? I don’t think they would normally just wait patiently for the two hours it took to leave again…’ I went to find Garrick to ask about it.

  I noticed that this village was a far cry from Rovandel, its buildings dilapidated and the road was made of simple dirt. Most probably a nightmare after a storm or several rainy days. I couldn’t see anything that would signify specialized buildings like a forge or a bakery… It felt sloppy compared to what I was used to, with many of the houses even leaning to one side ready to fall over…

  Garrick was once again dutifully overseeing the preparations while, under his instructions two instructors went and helped with some jobs in the village, like making the houses straight again and bringing wood from the surroundings and drying it rapidly using aether. I went up to Garrick.

  “Instructor Garrick, could you tell me why no one other than the instructors and lady Cassia got out back in Rovandel?”

  “That… Well… Do you see this village?” He said, seemingly troubled by how to answer me.

  “Yes, I do, why?”

  “The thing is, all the villages, look like this… Your Rovandel is… Well, simply put unusual. Few people come back after they leave, this is under several conditions and problems. Which lead to the current situation were most villages are mostly populated with simple, common people. Also, this particular region of the Whisperwood is not exactly famous for being hospitable… As such people hardly make money and most aren’t well fed enough… It’s a situation called negative cycle…”

  “I see… Well then, I’m going to help too… Call me when you’re ready…”

  I ran off to do my part too. I started digging outside the village, deeper into the forest, but not too far. I made a big hole about six meters in diameter and three in depth. It took me about an hour and Garrick came to call me back as the caravan was ready to leave.

  “What the… are you doing here?”

  “Digging a pit.” I said feeling perplexed… I overestimated myself thinking I could finish this in time… “But I’m not done…”

  “Why are you digging in the first place?” He asked his tone sounding very incredulous.

  “It’s a charcoal pit… They could use it to prepare for winter… Charcoal is easier to burn to heat up the houses… Also, it sells at a higher price and to make it they won’t have to do much more than they already do… More money, means better conditions so they will be able to produce more too, no?”

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  “Well… What is it that you still need to do? If it’s not much I’ll help.” Garrick asked me. He gave me the feeling that he was interested in my idea.

  “I need to fill this pit with wood. And if you could call those two to make a little shack for drying wood, while the two of us fill the pit then it would be perfect.”

  “Sure, let’s give it a try. Fjorn said you’re an expert in this.”

  “That old guy made me watch the pits and make charcoal for years… Good thing he doesn’t complain about me… It’s the least he can do.” I said feeling a bit bitter inside…

  We got to work. As I dictated, we did not take from the trees near the pit, as those would be left for the villagers to chop down and use afterwards. With Garrick and me at Core Formation and the other two instructors at the Gathering stage things progressed rapidly. I had to dig the pit using my aether by condensing a semi material shovel that I kept shattering… While a good exercise to improve my control of aether, it was a method that slowed me down by a lot…

  Luckily, unlike me Garrick could use his head and also inspired the needed trust to get two hatchets, and saws while the other two already had the tools they used in the rest of the village. So, the tree cutting and wood chopping went smoothly. In half an hour we were done. A feat impossible if I hadn’t broken through or back on Earth. It took me ten more minutes to explain to the villagers how the process works and especially, what they had to do. During this time, I also ignited the wood in the pit. For two or three weeks they would have to patiently wait, afterwards they could empty this and fill it back up.

  Once again, we had left the village behind. This time I spent more time looking outside. I did not involve myself with the others… Not because I wouldn’t want to, or because they didn’t want to include me, but because we lacked common topics to talk about… I spent all my time working or rushing from one place to another to learn trades, while these guys fooled around and had fun. In other words, we lacked common ground for communication. So, I mainly watched the scenery and listened.

  Since we were traversing woods however, the scenery was not all that impressive, so I was left with only listening to the others. From time to time, I caught myself smiling faintly, hearing all the stories of the stupidities they did… I guess it’s right to say that kids are unrestrained. The atmosphere was lively to a contagious degree.

  In another two hours we reached the next village. This would be the final stop for today. The same scene as earlier repeated itself, with me busily digging, only this time Garrick made sure to get a shovel for me. As such I managed to finish digging faster… However, since this time I worked by myself it still took me longer to finish… It was evening and the sun was setting by the time I was done.

  Returning to the caravan I received a bowl of salty broth. Finally salt! Too bad it was just that… salty… No other flavor. It had pieces of dried meat inside and some bits of vegetables… There was no way this could be considered food capable of sustaining someone, but it was made from the food the villagers offered, and the rations brought by the caravan… So, I couldn’t complain… At most, during the ride tomorrow I could jump off to pick some fruits if I saw any… With my Core Formation strength and the relaxed pace, the caravan kept it wouldn’t be a problem to jump in and out…

  Once again, I went to see Garrick.

  “This broth… It’s quite terrible…” I said with a bit of bitterness in my voice.

  “Well, we can’t really bring a chef with us and the girls we pick up are always quite… adamant about not cooking… So, there’s nothing we can do…”

  “Haa… I expected that… Say, it wouldn’t be a problem to let the carriage I’m on to be last in line, right?”

  “It wouldn’t, but what do you want to do?”

  “Jump out and pick fruit…”

  “Pffff… Well, I guess that could be expected of you… Sure you can, but we won’t be slowing down for you…”

  “No problem, no problem, I didn’t plan to rely on that either way. At most… get me a rope that way I won’t fall too far behind and I can hop and pull myself forward to catch up.”

  “It sounds like you’d be dragged behind like a sack to me…”

  “Eh, don’t worry… We can try it out first. But as long as we maintain this pace I won’t have to worry.”

  “If you say so…”

  We had sunk into silence and ate our food. Then Garrick broke the silence.

  “Cato, how comes it doesn’t feel like I’m talking to a kid barely past eight when I’m talking to you?”

  “How should I know? But you’re not the first to mention that…” This was a question that I’d have liked to avoid… And so, I quickly switched subjects. “So how many more villages like this will we stop in?”

  “We’ve been to two more before Rovandel, the kids there took up one carriage, after all more than ten kids won’t fit and with ten it would be crowded so we stop at eight usually. Then there’s you guys that took a whole carriage and then two more after. So, with one carriage for us six instructors, one for supplies and one belonging to the lady Aurelian… you do the math”

  “With nine carriages… Six seven more villages?” I quickly calculated.

  “Yea about that. It could turn into eight or nine easily.”

  “Alright.”

  Soon we finished eating and we went to our carriages to sleep. The next day the cycle of meditation and work repeated itself, the same the day after too. The kids from Rovandel already lost their liveliness and were boredly hanging by, waiting for time to pass.

  The only fun they had was watching me jump in and out of the carriage and enjoying the fruits I picked. To give them more to do, I had them pull me back in, while I just hopped around so that I wouldn’t get dragged on the ground.

  In total we stopped in eleven villages before the maximum capacity was reached. Cassia even allowed some kids in her carriage. I was unsure if it was out of kindness or out of boredom, but it was help she willingly offered, nonetheless. It changed the way I saw her.

  After we ended our stops the caravan accelerated. Luckily, I had stocked up on fruits and did not need to jump out again. In half a day we had left the Whisperwood and entered the Aethelgard plains. Finally, the scenery turned more dynamic, and we started seeing more than just woods. At some point we approached a branch of the Ironspine Peaks, and the terrain turned into a plateau.

  However, this brought about an exciting event… We were being attacked by bandits! Bandits of another world! The bandits of a world of magic!

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