A Morning of Work
Liora woke up the next day. She blinked a couple of times, trying to shake off the drowsiness clinging to her mind, while she felt the soothing warmth of Lua's arms gently wrapped around her. She stayed there a little longer, enjoying the coziness and the silence filling the room, until her curiosity got the better of her.
With slow, cautious movements, she sat up, making sure the mattress barely creaked under her weight. After confirming that Lua wasn't waking up, she climbed down from the bed and walked barefoot to the nearby well. The crisp morning air gave her goosebumps as she leaned over to wash her face and brush her teeth with a small twig she had prepared the day before.
While she rinsed her mouth, she saw some players materializing, their bodies outlined by a blue glow until the connection stabilized completely. The first to appear was Ganfall, who, upon seeing her, smiled with that gentle expression that always made her feel reassured.
"Hello, little one. You're up early," he commented in a calm voice as he brushed some imaginary dust off his tunic.
"Yes. Grandma used to say that waking up early is beating time," Liora replied, smiling proudly as she remembered the phrase she had heard so many times.
"Then your grandmother was very wise," Ganfall replied with a slight nod before walking off with a determined step toward the plot of land he had been preparing for days. He seemed to take his trade very seriously… or maybe he simply enjoyed working the earth too much.
Liora walked over to the shop Lua had set up to organize the merchandise. It was no longer just an improvised corner: there was now a well-polished wooden table and a small stool she herself had carefully cleaned. On the table, all the pieces she crafted every day were neatly arranged, along with some that Lua had entrusted her to sell. She handled the sales herself, except for items related to enchantments, which Lua preferred to manage personally.
In truth, Liora had been insisting for a long time that she wanted a job. She didn't like going out hunting—she'd rather accompany Lua if it was necessary—and she felt much more useful helping with production and organizing resources. Besides, Lua had been teaching her how to make the casings for the daylight lamps, which made her feel like an important part of the group.
She sat down on her stool, swinging her feet back and forth, while she sorted the materials she would use that morning. Making lamps had become almost automatic work. She only needed to really focus when engraving the runes and following each trace precisely.
A while later, her attention shifted when she saw Bert, Sig, and Loli rushing in, their arms full of materials that looked like they'd borrowed them from the common reserve. She watched them running back and forth as they built a wooden frame and a woven mesh out of the baskets Grandpa Ganfall made. However, Liora decided to ignore them and went back to focusing on her work.
From all the noise Joe and the builders under Steve's supervision were making, it was obvious that Lua wouldn't be waking up early. Between the hammer blows and shouted instructions, it had become impossible to keep the place quiet. Liora peeked into the room for a moment. She saw Lua turn over sleepily and pull the blanket over her head, clearly determined to ignore the entire morning.
Not wanting to disturb her further, Liora carefully closed the door and returned to her shop, just in time to see that Loli and the other two had made quite a bit of progress on their improvised project. They were pounding plant fibers and leaves with a huge stone mortar while water boiled in a pot nearby. The whole thing looked like a complicated process, but Liora had no idea what they were trying to make.
"Hello," said a voice beside her all of a sudden, making her jump a little.
She turned and saw Sally, who had just logged in and was walking over with curiosity, her eyes fixed on the lamp Liora held in her hands.
"Hi," Liora answered softly.
"What are you doing?" Sally asked, leaning in a bit to get a better look.
"Lamps for hunting at night. Lua said monsters get grumpy when there's no sun and can be very dangerous. That's why Uncle Joe and Uncle Dean buy so many. They're not afraid of them," she explained in a proud tone.
"And how do you make them?" Sally asked again, looking even more interested.
"I follow the white lines that appear. Lua says it's thanks to a profession called Mana Engineer. I also learned sewing, but Uncle Joe needs more lamps right now, so I'm making these first. There aren't many players who need clothes yet. Sig says that when more people arrive here, everyone will need lots of things, so I should get everything ready ahead of time," Liora said with a smile.
"You can only make them if you have that profession? Doesn't knowing how to craft by hand work?" Sally asked with a discouraged sigh.
"Crafting by hand?" Liora repeated, tilting her head in curiosity.
"Well… I learned to make some wooden objects, some necklaces and earrings. I thought I could craft something to sell, but then I saw you using that shiny thread and drawing those strange letters," Sally explained in a small voice.
"Can you make a lot of things?" Liora asked, stepping a bit closer with interest.
"Well… yes, a bit. This summer, I made a dollhouse," Sally admitted, lowering her gaze shyly. She had gathered all her courage to come over and talk to a stranger. After all, when she arrived, the only reason she managed to fit in a little was because others had approached her first. Since then, she hadn't had the confidence to start conversations on her own.
Liora rummaged through her bag until she pulled out a lamp casing made of stems woven into a sphere.
"Can you make this?" she asked as she held it out to her.
Sally looked at it for a moment, a bit confused, before focusing on the object. Once she realized it was the base for the lamps, she nodded cautiously.
"Yes. It looks easy," she said, her voice slightly trembling.
Then Liora handed her a bunch of fine, soft stems and branches with an expectant expression.
"Show me," she asked, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
Sally hesitated for a moment, but she couldn't resist that eager little face. So she started weaving the material with precise movements. When Liora took the finished sphere, she immediately knew it was perfect.
Sally looked at her, waiting for some criticism, but instead she saw Liora take out a mana stone fragment that vanished in a blink.
"Miss SIA, are you there?" Liora asked, lifting her gaze toward the air.
"There's no need to ask, little one. By consuming a fragment, I can answer immediately. And I already know what you want to ask, so I'll tell you now," replied SIA's always gentle voice. "Yes, you can hire her and pay her to work with you. I recommend starting with one mana fragment for every object she helps you prepare. There are many professions that require intermediate pieces before assembling, especially at higher levels, so she could be very helpful. She can even help you gather materials if she doesn't like going out to hunt. If she saves up enough money, she'll be able to buy a recipe or, with some luck, find one that synergizes well with the ones you already have. That way, you can help each other… and most importantly, you can be friends."
This was a special function SIA had configured for Liora thanks to the Merchant Medal, created solely to assist her whenever Lua couldn't. Even though every answer consumed some of the stored energy, SIA was always ready to watch over whatever Liora might need.
"Thank you, Miss SIA," said Liora with a bright smile, holding the sphere Sally had just woven.
Sally looked at her, a bit confused. She didn't understand why Liora was talking into the air as if someone invisible were answering her.
Liora turned to her calmly and spoke again:
"Miss SIA said that if you can make more of these, I'll pay you one mana stone fragment for each. She also said you can help me gather materials. And if someday we get a recipe for you, we could help each other," she explained in a soft voice, though it carried the steady determination that always characterized her.
"I… is that okay?" Sally asked timidly, nervously rubbing her hands together.
"Yes. Lua helps me make these for free, but she has to watch over Uncle Joe and the others so they don't cause problems again," Liora said with disarming sincerity.
"Thank you," murmured Sally, a small smile appearing on her lips.
And so, without any further ceremony, Liora hired an assistant nearly twice her age. All around them, a few passing players paused to watch the scene with discreet smiles, touched by how the two girls—so different—seemed to complement each other so well. There was always someone keeping an eye on them in case they needed help or wanted to place an order.
…
A few meters away, Bert was shaking his head with a resigned look as he plunged his hands into a bucket filled with a greenish, sticky pulp that smelled like boiled leaves.
"We were honestly pretty dumb. We have access to the internet—we could have looked up so many useful things… It reminded me of what Steve said. He doesn't have any construction profession, yet he can put up walls or mix materials just because of his real-life experience. Lua explained that when you have a recipe or a profession, the things you create are recognized by the system and get attributes. But if you craft them with your own hands, it doesn't mean they're useless—they're just weaker," he said, picking up a handful of the mixture and letting it fall onto a thick cloth they were using as a filter.
"Do you think this paper will work for your talismans?" asked Sig, who was cutting fibers into small pieces, while Loli stirred another bucket so calmly she might as well have been making soup.
"Even if it doesn't work for that, at least it'll be useful. Keeping on using animal hides is uncomfortable, expensive, and… gross. Paper has many uses, especially once we can bleach it," Bert replied evenly.
"Hey, guys. I brought the white ash you asked for," announced Silver as he arrived, carrying a bucket filled to the brim. His face was covered in a fine gray dust.
"Thanks," the three of them said almost in unison. Silver nodded efficiently and went back to his task without wasting time.
"What do we need ashes for?" Loli asked, eyeing the contents with suspicion.
"We don't have any commercial lye, so we have to make alkaline lye ourselves. Ashes are the main ingredient. We'll dissolve them in water and then strain it," Bert explained, taking a handful to show the texture. "If everything goes well, it'll help bleach the fibers and separate them."
"And how long is all this going to take?" Sig asked, wiping her forehead.
"I hope you're ready… because this could take a couple of days," Bert replied seriously, giving the improvised mortar a couple of solid taps.
Loli and Sig froze for a moment, processing his words.
"Days?" they both asked at the same time, their voices a mix of disbelief and preemptive exhaustion.
"Yes. What did you expect? To get it done instantly?" Bert replied without the slightest hint of concern.
"Ugh…"
"Don't stress about it so much. The part that takes the longest is drying the paper, plus cooking the lye and boiling the fibers. But if Lua lends us a hand, we could at least speed up the drying with heat magic. Even so, we'll need at least two full days," Bert explained as he grabbed a small container and started measuring water to dissolve the ash.
"Well… anyway, we can always leave someone watching over the cooking process while we go back to our adventure," Sig proposed with that calm tone of someone who always preferred to delegate any task that involved waiting around.
Loli just nodded, stirring the contents of her bucket with a thoughtful look. Even if she didn't say it out loud, she too would have preferred something that didn't take so long. Still, she knew that if they managed to produce paper, it would be a huge advantage for the village.