The road out of Brookstead curved through rolling green fields, golden with wheat. JP took his time walking, eyes always scanning the ground, the trees, the sky. If this was his new life, then he'd better understand it the way he once studied blueprints and circuit diagrams.
A glimmer on the roadside caught his attention. He crouched and picked up a stone faintly glowing with blue veins.
[Appraisal]
Object: Azure Quartz
Property: Weak mana retention
Potential Use: Stabilizer for magic circuits
JP turned it over in his palm. "So, like a resistor… controls the flow. Interesting." He pocketed it.
Farther ahead, he noticed tree bark peeling away to reveal streaks of silvery threads underneath. Curious, he touched it.
[Appraisal]
Material: Silver-thread Bark
Property: Conducts both water and mana
Potential Use: Insulation or mana-channeling wires
"Insulation? Now that's handy." JP grinned. "Can't have my circuits frying villagers."
The road eventually wound into a forest. Rays of sunlight pierced through the canopy, shining on mushrooms that glowed faintly green. JP plucked one carefully.
[Appraisal]
Object: Glowcap Fungus
Property: Emits bioluminescence when infused with mana
Potential Use: Organic light source, weak but sustainable
He chuckled. "Lightbulbs made of mushrooms. Edison would lose his mind."
By nightfall, his satchel jingled with odds and ends: quartz, bark strips, fungi, and even shiny river pebbles. Each one, to his new eyes, wasn't junk. They were puzzle pieces waiting for assembly.
JP sat beneath a tree, looking out at fireflies drifting like sparks over the meadow. "This world may not have wires," he murmured, "but it's got circuits everywhere. They just don't know it yet."