[Day 11 - Morning]
Three days had passed since the Stonehollow agreement, and Kieran had spent every waking hour calculating, planning, and problem-solving. The math was brutal and unforgiving.
Twenty cords of timber per month. Each cord was 128 cubic feet of stacked wood—roughly eight feet long, four feet high, four feet deep. That meant 2,560 cubic feet of processed timber. Depending on log size, that translated to somewhere between 60 and 80 individual trees that needed to be felled, limbed, cut to length, and transported.
With traditional methods—axes, saws, and manual labor—Thornhaven's three woodcutters could maybe produce five to seven cords per month working full time. They'd need to triple their output, which meant either tripling the workforce or tripling the efficiency.
[Resource Analysis: Timber Production]
[Current Capacity: 6 cords/month]
[Required Capacity: 20 cords/month]
[Gap: 14 cords/month]
[Solution Options:]
Hire more woodcutters (expensive, limited labor pool) Work existing cutters harder (diminishing returns, injury risk) Improve tools and techniques (capital investment, uncertain results) Revolutionary approach (high risk, high reward)
Kieran sat in his hovel, the small mana crystal from the Rat King's hoard resting on the table before him. It pulsed with a faint blue glow, radiating barely perceptible warmth.
[Item: Mana Crystal (Small)]
[Mana Capacity: 500 units]
[Current Charge: 500/500]
[Regeneration: 10 mana per day (ambient absorption)]
[Applications: Enchanting, Alchemy, Power source, Energy storage]
In World.io, mana crystals were mid-game resources used for magical crafting and powering enchanted items. But the game had always abstracted away the actual mechanics—you just clicked "enchant" and the item gained properties.
Here, in reality, he needed to understand the underlying principles.
Kieran's enhanced Intelligence worked through the problem methodically. Mana was energy. Energy could do work. The question was how to convert magical energy into mechanical advantage for logging.
He'd spent the last three days consulting with everyone in Thornhaven who had relevant knowledge. Henrick the woodworker understood tools and wood properties. Senna knew basics about magical materials from her healer training. Even old Marcus had contributed observations about the few enchanted items he'd seen in his lifetime.
The conclusion: mana could be channeled through conductive materials—usually metal—to produce effects. Heat, force, enhancement of existing properties.
What if he could create a tool that used mana to dramatically increase cutting efficiency?
[New Quest Available: Innovation - Mana-Powered Tool]
[Objective: Design and create a mana-powered logging tool]
[Difficulty: Very Hard - Requires understanding of magical engineering]
[Reward: Significant efficiency increase, Unlock Magical Crafting skill]
A knock on his door interrupted his thoughts.
"Kieran? You in there?" Henrick's voice.
"Come in."
The woodworker entered, carrying a bundle wrapped in leather. "You said you wanted to see the best saw blade I could forge. Here it is."
Henrick unwrapped the bundle to reveal a two-person crosscut saw—the kind that required two operators pulling back and forth to cut through large logs. The blade was nearly six feet long, with teeth that Henrick had obviously spent considerable time sharpening and setting.
"This is quality work," Kieran said, examining the blade.
"Best I've made in twenty years. But Kieran, even with this, we're not going to hit twenty cords a month. The math doesn't work."
"Not with traditional methods. But what if we could make the saw cut faster? Much faster?"
Henrick frowned. "You'd need more men pulling harder. There's only so much speed you can get."
"Unless the saw itself did some of the work." Kieran set the mana crystal beside the saw blade. "What if we could channel energy through the blade to make it cut more efficiently?"
"You're talking about enchanting. That's mage work, not woodcutter work."
"I'm talking about problem-solving." Kieran's Tactician's Mind was already visualizing the design. "Mana crystals store and release energy. If we can create a circuit—a pathway for that energy to flow through the blade—we might be able to enhance the cutting action."
"And you know how to do this?"
"No," Kieran admitted. "But I know systems and optimization. Magic follows rules, just like everything else. We just need to understand what those rules are."
[Intelligence Check: Attempting to reverse-engineer magical principles]
[Success: Partial understanding achieved]
Over the next several hours, Kieran and Henrick experimented. They tried different configurations—mounting the crystal directly to the blade, creating wire circuits, testing various metals for conductivity.
Most attempts failed completely. A few produced faint glows but no practical effect. One caused the crystal to discharge suddenly, making both of them jump back as energy crackled through the blade.
[Experimentation Progress: 15%... 23%... 34%...]
"Wait," Kieran said after the crackle incident. "That discharge—it happened when the blade was moving. When we were sawing. The motion might be part of the circuit."
He reconfigured the setup, mounting the crystal in a housing attached to the saw's handle, with thin copper wire running to contact points along the blade. The theory: when the saw moved back and forth, the motion would complete the circuit, allowing mana to flow through the blade during the cutting action.
"Try it," Kieran said.
Henrick made a test pull on a log. The blade bit into the wood, and suddenly the crystal flared bright blue. The saw screamed through the wood like it was soft cheese instead of oak, cutting six inches in a single stroke.
[Success! Mana-Powered Saw Created]
[Tool: Mana-Enhanced Crosscut Saw]
[Effect: Cutting speed increased by 400%, Reduced operator fatigue, Clean cuts requiring minimal finishing]
[Mana Cost: 5 mana per minute of operation]
[Current Crystal Charge: 495/500]
Henrick stared at the cut, then at the saw, then at Kieran. "That's... that's not possible."
"It's very possible. We just proved it." Kieran examined the cut—perfectly smooth, minimal tear-out, the kind of quality that normally required extensive hand-finishing. "How long does it usually take you to process a log this size?"
"With a normal saw? Twenty minutes of hard sawing, another ten minutes cleaning up the cut. About thirty minutes total."
"Time this." Kieran helped position the saw for another cut.
They worked through the log systematically. Each cut took less than a minute of actual sawing, and the cuts were so clean they needed no finishing. Within ten minutes, they'd reduced the entire log to usable lumber.
[Efficiency Gain: 3x faster than traditional methods]
[Mana Consumption: 50 mana for complete log processing]
"Sweet mercy," Henrick breathed. "At this pace, I could process ten logs a day instead of three."
Kieran did the math. "The crystal regenerates ten mana per day naturally. At fifty mana per log, we can process one log per day just from regeneration, with the crystal never depleting. Any additional cutting draws from the stored capacity."
"What happens when the stored capacity runs out?"
"Then we're back to normal sawing until it recharges. But one extra log per day, consistently, is fourteen cords per month by itself. Combined with normal production from our three woodcutters working traditional methods, we hit our quota."
[Production Calculation Updated]
[Traditional Methods: 6 cords/month]
[Mana-Enhanced Production: 14 cords/month]
[Total Capacity: 20 cords/month]
[Quota: MET]
Henrick was grinning now. "This is going to change everything. Can we make more? If one saw does this, imagine three or four—"
"We'd need more mana crystals. This is the only one we have." Kieran examined the tool thoughtfully. "But the design is proven now. If we acquire more crystals, we can scale up production dramatically."
[New Skill Unlocked: Magical Engineering (Basic) - Level 1]
[Achievement Unlocked: Innovation Pioneer]
[Bonus: +2 to Intelligence when designing magical tools or systems]
[Quest Complete: Innovation - Mana-Powered Tool]
[Rewards: +100 XP, Magical Engineering skill, Tool prototype created]
[Reputation +25 with Thornhaven (Word of innovation spreading)]
By afternoon, half the village had gathered to watch the mana-saw in action. Kieran had Henrick demonstrate it on another log, the blue glow and screaming efficiency drawing gasps and excited chatter.
Marcus approached, watching the demonstration with mixed awe and concern. "This is remarkable, Kieran. But I have to ask—is it safe? That much power concentrated in a tool..."
"The mana draw is controlled by the circuit design. As long as the crystal housing remains intact and the operators follow basic safety protocols, it's no more dangerous than a normal saw. Arguably safer, since it requires less physical force and fatigue."
"And the cost to operate?"
"Essentially free after the initial crystal investment. It recharges from ambient mana naturally."
Marcus shook his head in wonder. "You've been here less than two weeks, and you've already changed how we farm, fight, and now work wood. What's next? Are you going to teach us to fly?"
Kieran smiled slightly. "Not yet. But I am thinking about that crane system I saw at Stonehollow's quarry. If we could adapt similar principles for loading and transporting timber..."
[New Quest Available: Infrastructure Development - Logging Operations]
[Objective: Establish efficient timber harvesting and transport system]
[Reward: Increased production capacity, Reduced labor costs]
The rest of the day was spent organizing the logging operation properly. Kieran designated work teams, created cutting schedules, established safety protocols, and set up a transport system using the village's two carts.
With the mana-saw providing one guaranteed log per day and three woodcutters working traditional methods providing the rest, they could meet the twenty-cord monthly quota with room for error.
[Quest Progress: Establish Trade Routes - 65%]
[First Timber Delivery Status: On Track]
[18 days until delivery deadline]
As evening fell, Kieran returned to his hovel to find Elara waiting outside.
"The innovation celebration is still going," she said. "People are calling it 'Kieran's magic saw.' You're missing your own party."
"I'm not much for celebrations."
"I've noticed." She leaned against the wall. "Can I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."
"That saw. You figured out how to make it work in three days. You've solved problems that have plagued this village for years, and you do it like it's nothing." Elara studied him. "Where did you really come from? And don't give me the vague 'somewhere else' answer you gave me before."
[Social Challenge: Elara is probing for truth]
[Her loyalty is high, but she deserves honest answers]
Kieran considered how to respond. He couldn't tell her the full truth—that he'd been a player in a game that became reality. But he could give her something real.
"I came from a place where knowledge and strategy were valued above everything else," he said finally. "I spent years learning how systems work, how to optimize them, how to find solutions to impossible problems. Then circumstances brought me here, and I'm applying what I know to help Thornhaven survive."
"That's still vague."
"It's also true. I can't give you more specific answers without—" He paused, searching for words. "Without revealing things that would be difficult to explain and harder to believe."
Elara was quiet for a moment. "Are you dangerous? To the village, I mean."
"I'm trying not to be. My survival is tied to Thornhaven's survival. That alignment of interests is the best guarantee I can offer."
"That's a very calculated way to think about it."
"It's the only way I know how to think." Kieran met her eyes. "Does that bother you?"
"Sometimes. You're so... detached. Like you're solving puzzles instead of helping people." She sighed. "But then I remember that your puzzle-solving has saved lives, including mine. So I guess I can live with it."
[Elara's Opinion: Conflicted but Loyal]
[Trust Level: High, but with reservations]
She pushed off from the wall. "Get some rest. Tomorrow we're starting logging operations, and you'll need to supervise until everyone knows the safety protocols for that magical saw."
After she left, Kieran pulled up his status screen.
[KIERAN VALE - Level 6 Commander]
[XP: 478/600]
[HP: 200/200]
[Current Mana: 125/125]
[Skills]
World.io Expertise (Passive, MAX) System Interface (Active, MAX) Sword Combat (Basic) - Level 3 Tactical Command (Basic) - Level 4 Agriculture (Basic) - Level 2 Magical Engineering (Basic) - Level 1 [NEW]
[Active Quests: 7]
[Reputation: Thornhaven - 465/1000 (Honored)]
The mana-saw was working. The logging operation was organized. The timber quota was achievable. Another problem solved through systematic analysis and innovation.
But Elara's question lingered: Are you dangerous?
Kieran didn't have a good answer. He was changing Thornhaven rapidly, introducing innovations that shouldn't exist in a medieval village, building power structures that would eventually challenge established authority.
Was that dangerous? Probably.
But the alternative was letting the village die, and that wasn't acceptable either.
He dismissed the philosophical concerns and focused on practical matters. Eighteen days until the first timber delivery. Then he'd need to prepare the first intelligence report for Brunhild, which meant compiling data on agricultural yields, militia status, and economic indicators.
She'd be watching closely, looking for any signs of failure or weakness.
He needed to make sure she found only competence.
[Day 11 Complete]
[Major Achievement: Revolutionary tool created]
[Thornhaven Status: Increasingly Advanced]
[Warning: Rapid advancement may attract unwanted attention]
One step at a time. Solve the immediate problems, build the infrastructure, establish the systems.
The empire would come later.
[Current Status]
Level: 6 Commander
Days Survived: 11
Innovation: Mana-powered saw (1 log/day passive production)
Timber Quota: Achievable
New Skill: Magical Engineering