“The capital city of the Thesis nation, Schema, has a population count of 250,000 people,” said Dalton as we rode across the streets neighboring the castle. He had purchased a book called ‘Geography & Trivia of the Thesis Nation’ from a library, apparently. “The Thesis nation is the size of roughly 1,000,000 square kilometers. Therefore, it’s similar in size to the country of Egypt, back in our real world.”
“I see. That means it’s a huge place, huh?” I said.
“Our earth’s total land surface area is around 149 million square kilometers. Its total water surface area is roughly 361 million square kilometers,” Dalton went on. “1 million square kilometers is less than one percent of our total land surface area back on earth.”
“What are you? A geologist,” mused Benjamin, flaying his right hand through his red hair.
“Not really,” returned Dalton. “I just happened to have a geology book back when I was alive. I really like knowledge, you see?”
“Uh-huh,” intoned Benjamin. “What did you do to land up here?”
“I was test-driving an A.I-driven car and wound up in an accident. A couple of cars were illegally racing and I was in their way,” explained Dalton in a neutral voice.
“A.I.? Artificial Intelligence? What’s your job, bro?” asked Benjamin.
“I was a car engineer,” replied Dalton, putting his hands at his hips.
“Then, what the hell were you doing test-driving a car controlled by artificial intelligence? You could have used some caution there.”
“Well, it was fun. So I did it.”
“...That’s it?” said Benjamin, his hands spread in horror at his cheeks. Benjamin promptly removed his hands from his face. He cleared his voice. “Well, at least you had fun.”
“Not you too, Benjamin!” quipped Catherine by their side. Benjamin looked at her, seeming to say ‘oh, you were listening?’.
“To be honest,” Dalton waited, “a friend in the business of A.I. machinery wanted me to see how things could be improved from an engineer’s perspective. He was sitted by my side in the car. I wonder how he’s doing now.”
“Well, I’m sure he must have gotten reincarnated or something. That’s assuming his karma was good,” Benjamin said. He glanced at me. “By the way, what was your job, Aidan? You committed crimes or something? Although, I don’t think you would admit to that.”
I frowned. “I was a casual office worker. Nothing more, nothing less,” I replied. ‘I don’t care about self-fulfilling prophecies like karma or whatnot. Are you still a kid wishing for Santa to take care of your revenge? Maybe you believe in Angstrom positive vibrations rather than keto food?’
“That plain description and attitude kind of irks me off. Maybe you are hiding something. But I won’t push you for it. We are a team, after all,” Benjamin said.
‘Maybe I’ll get to show some smooth moves when we reach the Dungeon of Flowers,’ I thought. ‘Something to shut down Benjamin.’ “Driver, how many more minutes until we reach the blacksmith?”
“I’m not a driver, dear hero. I’m a magic channeler. This lacrima, which I hold in my hands is the object propelling us forward. I believe a previous hero compared the lacrima to a radioactive nuclear core, although I’m not sure what it means. You see, a select few people also use magic wands to channel magic from their core. That’s the reality of the Thesis nation, as you’ll notice in your adventures. Therefore-”
“I’m sorry, Mr. magic channeler, but how long do we have until we reach our destination?” I asked.
The magic channeler shrugged, then smiled. “It could take anywhere from 30 minutes to 45 minutes.”
“Oh, okay then,” I said, with prompt relief.
“By the way, the people who can use magic wands are called wizards,” the magic channeler said. “Also, my name is Evans.”
“Hmm…” Dalton was contemplative for a moment. “I’ll read a trivia from my book. It says: The Business Automation Index assesses whether an organization is ready, and that it also has the potential, for automation. End of quote.” Dalton took a brief pause, before continuing, “Based on the automation level of businesses in the Thesis nation shown in the chart before me, citizens are given a universal basic income of 30,000 utils. Does it mean the various manufacturing facilities in the Thesis Nation are powered by magic rather than electricity?”
“I don’t know what you mean by electricity, but the rest of what you said is correct,” concurred Evans.
‘I see, this world still has universal basic income despite being on the verge of destruction.’ For sure, a universal basic income prevented every free competitor from being miserable. However, that went against my anarcho-capitalist instincts. Maybe, it was a necessary evil. I would say that actually possessing a share in an automation index public stock which could be traded for various things , like territory, and such, could be viable. Use of tariffs - provided there were still countries to trade with - on luxury and such expensive items and giving out universal basic income might sound like a better option, but owning a share in a so-called automation index – and getting dividends - was better. Both were better than having the hassle of killing each other or accepting loss merely due to lack of defense.
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“If you guys have so much magic as to draw out universal basic incomes from it, how come you are not defeating the demons?” I asked. Catherine nodded imperceptibly at this question.
“Still looking for a way out, are you?” opined Benjamin.
“Well, it’s true that our nation is high in magic,” said Evans with some degree of pride. “However, the efficacity and speed of magic is more for functional use, rather than for offensive use against demons and monsters. Many common folks don’t even know how to use magic and depend on magic batteries to run their household chores. Fortunately, these are free.”
“In other words – and I hope so - there are no slaves doing the dirty work of giving magic to the population,” Dalton said.
“Precisely,” Evans nodded.
“You guys must really trust your goddess,” Catherine said with some admiration.
‘That’s certainly true,’ I thought.
“Yes, we do,” Evans said.
‘Come to think of it, what happens after some automation index is echanged for land?’ I thought. I could not find an answer, since land was an scarcity. ‘Maybe periodically get public stocks as and when it increased?’ Some places on earth even had infrastructure down to the last meter, and rent prices were sky-rocketing.
As I remained in thought, we came across a gathering. People were gathered about an outdoor stage. Some acrobats were performing stunts, to the delight of the crowd. First, the acrobats piled up upon one another to form a pyramid. Then, they used hoops to jump into.
As I watched, it occurred to me that aiming toward an ideal meant entering the flow state – at least, I thought that was the case for me. In other words, I did not really seek to be a different person. I sought to be in my best state, albeit cold and calculative. ‘Let’s just say that I failed to create situations whereby I could pull out my full potential, while I was alive,’ I thought darkly.
To take it a step further, what if being in the flow state meant being ‘in the zone’ - just as much as some athletes were able to access the zone? I was not happy with this line of thinking. The dark king’s skull appeared to the back of my mind. ‘I’m definitely not going to be like that guy,’ I affirmed to myself.
Being able to access the zone meant being among a select few. That was a harsh truth that told me to settle for only the flow state, rather than excellence itself. I then thought I just wanted to derive results from intuitive situations in a decent way. Still, given the resistance I had mounted against the goddess and my encounter with that dark king, I thought that settling for mediocre reasoning and work was not good enough. Back in my world, second to science, I aimed for transitioning into a career in I.T. However, it was only a daydream, and I had lost the chance, because of a matter of choices and my early demise on earth. Therefore, I had to be great at something else.
Something like… becoming a great adventurer.
Looking at it this way, it was obvious that from the start I had wanted to be great at something. Going the dark-king way was also a no-go. The dark king was a tyrant, and I did not want to persecute myself into becoming a tyrant, or persecute others, for that matter. In truth, I did not know if the dark king was really a tyrant, but it was also my instinct telling me that the goddess was kind. Maybe the dark king had a way for me to return to my world, but it was too late now.
‘I just want to be better,’ I thought, narrowing my eyes.
***
At the blacksmith’s shop, we found gear like chainmail and swords. There were a couple of large furnaces that were seemingly operated independently, thanks to magic. One of the furnaces heated up swords and iron shields. Once sufficiently heated, a blacksmith’s assistant took the sword out of the flames, and put it on top of a slab of stone. He hammered the sword into shape.
The chainmail manufacturing was more delicate work, and took up a table at the side of the furnaces. There were three men working on the chainmail. One was making springs out of steel wires. Another was spreading and then cutting the springs into smaller, ring-shaped objects – however, he used magic. The third man brought a couple of the rings of steel’s edges together and slid them onto a rod fixed at a distance of 20 cm from a wall. He then widened the gap for some other steel ‘rings’, and slid them onto the rings already on the rod. (English Heritage, 2018)
That was a long and arduous process. “How long is it gonna take you to make a chainmail,” asked Dalton.
“Around a quarter of a year,” replied the first man. “It costs 1300 utils apiece.”
I had obtained 50k utils from Ambrosia, so I got myself one. I also grabbed a steel sword for the price of 2000 utils. I bought a bracers and shoulder armor kit for the price of 2000 utils. Fearing loss of mobility, I bought no further items.
Dalton bought a full set of armor, for the price of 28000 utils. That was expensive. He had his breastplate, arm set, and leg set, along with a helmet. Seeing Catherine buy two swords, I also bought a spare sword. I was left with 42640 utils, which I thought was fairly reasonable. We got food for free at the dining room of the castle, as I learned after my meat bun purchases.
“Woah, how much money did you get from Ambrosia, Dalton?” asked Benjamin.
“50k utils. And you?” said Dalton.
“Same, bro. I bought a crossbow with twenty bolts, at the price of 2000 utils. You are splurging, man!”
“Does not matter,” Dalton flexed his muscles; he was pretty built up, all things accounted for. “It’s the defense that counts.”
Catherine bought a leather breastplate for the price of 1000 utils, and we were done with our purchases.
***
Mr. Evans, the magic channeler, dropped us off at an area in the boonies.
There was sparse housing and more vegetation. That said, there were plantations of carrots, and tomatoes which were well-maintained. There were also wheat crops. Even though we were in a village – as we walked about and noticed the surroundings – there was a formal look to the place, such that it did not seem disorderly. There was a giant water wheel in the middle, which was running within a large river. The wheel was likely used as part of a watermill to ground wheat into grist and chaff. The grist was grain that was separated from its outer layer, that is, its chaff.
The dungeon we were going to enter was in a cave inside the forest to our south. Catherine pulled out a compass, and enthusiastically lead the group. It seemed she had a zeal for travelling.