The morning was quiet.
Remnants of the celebration still lingered in the courtyard. The colorful lanterns still hung from the strings, though their candles had long gone out. The long banquet tables in the garden sat empty. Wine stains, scattered breadcrumbs, and tired chair backs, everything was over.
Today was the first day of real work.
I had breakfast alone, in my room. I was well-rested. My body felt ready. My mind… a little less so.
I left the house without telling anyone. There was nothing to report. My plan for the day was to visit the newly opened mine.
It didn't take long to reach the mining site.
Once was enough to remember the path.
And even if I had forgotten, Mnex wouldn't have.
Eventually, I arrived at the base of the hill.
The sounds of work echoed from above, picks striking stone, rocks scraping together…
But the closer I got, the more disappointed I felt.
It had been a few days.
And all I saw… was a hole.
Not deep, not wide.
Just… there.
A worker passed by and noticed me. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and gave a small nod.
"My lord. We're doing our best. The stone's tougher than we thought."
"This is it?" I muttered to myself.
Maybe I wasn't mad at them, just at myself.
"What were you expecting? A tunnel to the center of the earth?"
Mnex's voice oozed laziness and disdain.
I crossed my arms.
At least something bigger than this hole…
"Oh sure. You thought they'd build the New York subway in three days with medieval tools. Very reasonable."
I didn't respond.
I planted my foot on a rock and stared into the shallow pit.
At this pace… it'll take years, I said.
We need another way, Mnex.
There was a pause.
Then Mnex sighed.
"You're going to try magic again, aren't you?"
If it works, why not?
"Because every time you take a step forward, you take two steps toward your grave. Sure, you can soften the ground with mana but overdo it, and this hole becomes your tomb."
I took a deep breath, eyes still fixed on the excavation.
So?
"So be careful. If you're going to use Pulse, keep it controlled. Loosen the surface. Don't go poking the mountain's nerve endings."
I gave a slight nod and turned my face to the sun.
We'll also need more workers. Or we develop runes that speed up the picks…
"Do both," said Mnex.
"A good engineer never settles for one solution."
Right. Too bad I forgot my certified engineering degree in my other seven year old pants.
"What can we do, you ask?" Mnex's tone sharpened.
"Here's what… listen and take notes.
One: Apply Pulse magic in intervals. Loosen the surface layer to make digging easier but don't go too deep.
Two: Rune-enhanced picks. Instead of powering each pick individually, we inscribe connection runes on ropes.
The picks attach to the rope, the rope links to a power source. Centralized system. Efficient. We just need to design a new rune chain.
Three: Use power cubes. You know, those tiny metal boxes you made before? Those.
Four: Lay down small rails along the slope. Carts will run smoother with push and pull runes embedded in the rails, helping horses with the climb.
No broken backs. No wasted time.
Five: For cave-ins… wait, no, I already said that."
Mnex paused, then sighed.
"This entire system is called: efficiency.
One solution is never enough.
Magic, science, labor… they should all work together.
Now go, little lordling. Build your mine."
The clinking of picks faded into the background. Workers were still watching me, but no one interfered. Probably because I was a kid.
Sometimes being seven was a blessing. Sometimes a pain in the ass.
But I had no other choice. I knelt beside the stone ledge, placed my palm on the ground, and closed my eyes.
"Here we go," I said.
"Gently," Mnex reminded. "Just the surface."
I breathed in, drew mana from my mind world with a Pulse, and released it into the ground. The magic seeped under the rock, coiled and spread...
"Pull it back, slowly," Mnex instructed. "Reading conductivity…"
I withdrew the mana. My skin tingled, but nothing exploded. That… was progress?
"Looks like it's working," I said.
"For now, yes. But that was only a test. Next step: automation."
I stood up and glanced around. The workers were still eyeing me from a distance.
Then it hit me, it was time for a little performance.
Mnex. How about a small demonstration?
"Oh, you just love showing off," he said with exaggerated enthusiasm. "But first, maybe consider some safety measures…"
Screw safety.
"Sure. Just don't cry to me three seconds from now when something explodes."
I chuckled. Spread my arms wide. This time, I released the mana carefully, but with flair.
The surface rocks trembled. Some cracked and split.
The earth peeled open like a layer being scraped off.
A few workers backed away in fear. One dropped his pickaxe.
Another whispered, "The ground's moving…"
Good. That was a start.
"From now on," I muttered, "everyone's going to know Henry Evan Godfrey isn't just talk… he delivers."
Mnex let out a hum.
"Impressive. Impress them too much and they'll kidnap you to use as a living excavator."
Maybe one day.
With nothing left to do at the mine, I headed back to town.
Time to bring some of these ideas to life.
We'd been waiting for this moment for a while now.
Tilda's Temper was open when I arrived. I could hear the sound of metal being hammered inside. I didn't knock. The shop looked different from the last time I'd seen it, Mnex's schematics had clearly been put to use, and the place had already gone through restoration.
Tilda looked up and sighed the moment she saw me.
"Well, well. The little boss. If you're visiting me, I'm guessing you want something."
"And, once again, I have an idea," I said, smiling.
Tilda wiped the sweat from her brow. "What is it this time? Another plan for the farmers?"
"Nope. Pickaxes. A new model."
She shrugged. "Let's hear it."
I grabbed a piece of charcoal from the workbench. Mnex jumped in immediately:
"Steel head, not basic wrought iron. If it's too soft, it won't cut. Too hard, it'll snap. What we need is balance.
Handle: carbonized walnut.
Shock absorption layer: goatskin.
Slight curve at the tip. Modular, detachable head system.
And the rune chain: Flow. Bind. Push. Bind. Stabilize. Bind. Seal. Flow."
Hey Mnex, how am I supposed to explain this to her?
She doesn't even know what carbon is…
Besides, we're handling the handle with Master Rastlin anyway.
But Mnex wasn't done.
Mnex, of course, decided now was the perfect time to explain steel production in excruciating detail. Carbon this, temperature that… Everything from balancing the carbon ratio to maintaining the right heat.
"Charcoal is essential," he said. "But that's not enough. You'll need double bellows to keep the heat consistent.
Don't pull the metal out when it's red, pull it when it turns lemon yellow. Then quench it in oil.
Wrought iron won't break, but it'll bend. Cast iron is hard, but brittle.
What we need is the perfect union of both."
My head was starting to throb, but I kept writing.
Tilda frowned. "That's a lot of information. Not sure if this will improve the pickaxe or kill the blacksmith."
"It's safe. At least if you follow exactly what I said," I replied.
"Also," Mnex added, "linking each pick to a mana source is ridiculous.
Instead, open a socket at the bottom of the handle. A standard connector.
When it's tied to the rope, the power activates automatically."
I swear I'd already said Rastlin was handling the handle. But you loved repeating things. Loudly.
It's not as exciting as working with something like Shou Sugi Ban, but still—better than nothing.
Mnex sighed. "Better than nothing… Inspiring. I'll be sure to log that overwhelming praise right next to 'barely adequate' and 'meh.'"
Tilda leaned in and examined the sketches.
There was a long silence. Then she glanced at me from the side.
"Did you really come up with all this yourself?"
I smiled. "More or less."
"When I was your age, I was making horses out of mud. You're designing new alloys."
I shrugged. "Times are changing. My generation grows up fast."
Tilda chuckled. Then she pressed her hands to the table with a serious expression.
"I'll have a prototype ready in two days. But if these diagrams are right… this might change not just mining, but all of smithing."
"It would be shocking if anyone expected less from me," Mnex said.
"Honestly, the real surprise is hearing this from you. I mean, you sound like a hill gnome who tripped over a blacksmith's journal."
Tilda turned back to me. "Bring me the materials, the rope, and the handles. You supply the goods, I'll do the work. But…"
Her eyes narrowed just a bit.
"If this works, you're putting my name on that new alloy."
"Of course," I said. "This pickaxe will be the first star of Godfrey Mining.
If you get the alloy right, I swear, we'll call it Tildalium."
"Serious?" she said.
"Dead serious. Tildalium or nothing."
"Shake on it," she said, extending her hand.
As we shook, there was still that half-smile on her face. Dangerous but reliable.
Next stop: Master Rastlin's workshop.
There was still a lot to do, and I was getting impatient.
Thankfully, this time we didn't need to invent a new formula. The rune connections he'd designed for the MIO project could now be adapted both to the ropes and the pickaxe handles:
Flow – Bind – Stabilize – Bind – Seal – Flow
Handle material: carbonized walnut.
Inner layer: goatskin.
That was it.
Simple enough that Rastlin didn't need much explanation.
All that was left now… was to wait a couple days.
Mnex would handle the design sketches for the transport system tonight.
That was fine.
I could be patient for a couple days.
By the time I returned home, the sun was setting. The courtyard was quiet, my footsteps echoing in the corridor the only sound. I shut my door and sat at the edge of my bed.
As I slipped off my shoes, I let out a deep breath.
A lot had happened today but we were far from finished.
"Mnex. Let's talk transport system."
"Oh lovely. We haven't even dried the sweat off our back, and it's straight to logistics. Fantastic pacing."
"I'm serious. We need to move the mined materials out. That rail system you mentioned, it's time."
"Fine. Simple solution. Small wooden cart. Set it on rails.
We carve a push-rune chain on one end, and a pull-rune chain on the other.
Makes things easier on the horses."
"So we're distributing the load?"
"Exactly. Less strain. The cart will glide across the tracks.
Push on the rear, Pull on the front. The horses supply the force the runes manage the burden."
I got up and walked to my desk, found a blank sheet of parchment. Mnex dictated, I wrote:
Rear end (Push side):
Flow → Bind → Stabilize → Bind → Flow → Bind → Push → Bind → Seal → Flow
Front end (Pull side):
Flow → Bind → Stabilize → Bind → Flow → Bind → Pull → Bind → Seal → Flow
I nodded slowly.
"Will this setup hold during movement? Just these runes enough?"
"As long as we embed some guiding runes into the rails, no problem.
We'll link it to power cubes.
And carve the runes into the wood, not just on the surface, less friction damage that way."
"Embedded runes. Got it. We'll pass that to Rastlin in the morning."
"Already noted. If this works, transportation's sorted."
I lay back on the bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling.
"Mnex?"
"Hm?"
"What kind of rune should we use on the rails?"
"Easy. A bit of flow for glide, push and pull to keep it moving. Might get wobbly, so we stabilize as needed.
See? Problem solved."
I smiled.
"Getting sleepy…"
"Great. Sleep tight. Dream up another five projects while you're at it."