15th of Ab, 120 years since megados eruption
So I just woke up, and I already have a headache. Aesmo and most of the Esmos are gone, with only a note telling me what they're up to. The note just says "Fucking around with religion. Will be back soon." I swear if they're starting some sort of cult I'm going to... not do anything actually. It has no impact on me and I know Aesmo's smart enough to not get everyone killed.
Anyways, the only Esmo with me is Fesmo, who has been complaining that the hydra tree is too big again. Seeing as I'll have to mine a ton of ore again, I've been helping turn it all into charcoal. In the process, I found a familiar problem; the charcoal took up too much space. Apparently charcoal has a low density. I was kind of too annoyed to make a good solution, so I just compressed it directly.
I'm just waiting for my new pickaxe to arrive, as Aesmo has my old pick for some reason. I really wish she'd tell me what she's up to. At least be more specific than "fucking around".
26th of Ab, 120 years since megados eruption
I just got my new pickaxe! It's made of adamantite and has way too many enchantments for a normal pickaxe. I love it. I'm going to test it out as soon as I check up on Aesmo. Correction, I'm going to send Fesmo to check on Aesmo, as I'm busy figuring out why there's a spider in my home.
Addendum: it's because there's no one around to kill them. Turns out centipedes are really good pest control. Bonus fun fact; carapace tastes like lead. Slightly sweet, into bitter once you bite.
14th of Aes, 120 years since megados eruption
Aesmo is wanted in 3 cities for several counts of murder, arson, disturbing the peace, religious sacrifice (it wasn't religious nor sacrificial!), breaking and entering, theft, burglary, impersonating a guard, impersonating a government official (wait who?), resisting arrest, obfuscating evidence, spreading anarchy, escaping imprisonment, and proving three different rival religions are all fake. (ok that last one isn't even a crime.)
Honestly, I'm just impressed that they didn't charge them with fraud for what they did (technically donations are 100% voluntary). I'm disappointed in you for getting caught. If you didn't then maybe you could have overthrown a government! (But I only wanted to mess with religions.) [Then you could've collapsed more than those three]
Anyways, now that that's all dealt with, I can start re-mining out my bedroom/hole down the center of a mountain. (I wonder if there's a word for that.) I'm going to mine until either Aesmo stops me, or I feel like I should stop. While I'm mining, the Esmos are going to be turning ore into metal dust, then sell it to any nearby city they aren't wanted in for some mythril or gems. Turns out gems are a really dense form of wealth.
Unlike last time, Aesmo will not be writing in this diary, as she now has her own to record the logistical jargon that she likes to write (It's not jargon! :{ It's called reports). To be honest, I'll probably never actually read it, but it's good to keep a record.
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Ancient journal, suspected to be records for an unknown mine. Attempted translations may be inaccurate. "__" areas are untranslated.
19th of Aes, 120 years since megados eruption [TL note: no exact date of megados eruption exists. Approximated 2800 years ago.]
Ore mined; _______, _______, and ______. [TL comment: someone find out what ore was named what.]
Ore processed; 11 jars of ______, 3 jars of _____. [TL note: word for 'jar' may also be possible unit of measurement? Unknown actual amount.]
Trade; N/A
Minor problems; _____ crack on furnace 3, section 4, subsection 2. No fix required. [TL comment: I think it says 'external crack', but the spelling for 'external' and 'internal' looks too similar for me to be sure.] [TL comment: That's because both are spelled the same, but conjugated differently.] [TL comment: It's an adjective, there's no conjugation?]
Major problems; none. [TL note: word for 'none' has many definitions. We chose what we think fits best based on context.]
Comments; Desmo's ability __[3] to be controlling fire that is in contact with her. [TL note: 1; 'Desmo' is conjugated as a possessive proper noun, hence adding 's. 2; word for 'ability' was decided based on context. Possibly wrong. 3; 'seems' would be a good fit, but unable to confirm that is what goes there. 4; last half of sentence was a pain to make grammatically correct while conserving order of words.]
17th of Alm, 120 years since megados eruption
Ore mined; ______, _______, _____, ______, and iron. [TL note: derived word for iron from similarity with 'steel'. Small chance to be incorrect.]
Ore processed; 4 jars of _____, 7 jars of iron, 13 jars of ______, _4 jars of ______. [TL note: Written numbers above 19 are untranslatable.]
Trade; ________ of ___ for 7 ___ of gemstones. [TL note: unknown unit of measurement. May be using shorthand.]
Minor problems; [TL note: long list of cracks, similar in writing to previous crack. Full list can be found at the end in section 2.]
Suspected clogging of [output] of furnace 2. Pausing furnace 2 while Desmo clears clog. [TL comment: We know its referring to an output, but does anyone know what kind specifically? Is it a valve? A tap?]
Major problems; none.
Comments; [TL note: entire section had been torn out prior to recovery of journal.]
[TL note: from here on out, repetitive parts are truncated. Full version can be found in section 1 of end]
15th of An, 120 years since megados eruption
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Ore mined; Iron, _____, [truncated.]
Ore processed; 6 jars of iron, [truncated.]
Trade; __ jars of iron, 7 __ of _____, 1 __ of _____ for 11 carts of _____, 4 ___ of gemstones. [TL comment: what kind of unit is a cart? is it volume? mass? weight? and how much?]
Minor problems; [Cracks truncated]
Charcoal production slowed due to blood river [sic]. [TL comment: I checked a dozen times and yes, it really says that. I can only assume the word for 'blood' has other definitions we don't know of.] [TL comment: Either that, or 'blood river' is a specific river, either by name or title or something. I fucking hate river names.]
Major problems; Chimney appeared to be clogging. Potentially something fell inside. Besmo went to fix it. [TL note: Chimney may not be correct translation. Blame Chris.]
Comments; Besmo is not immune to fumes. Resistant, but not immune. They're currently recovering. Fun fact, Besmo's poison smells terrible when burnt. [TL comment: Mostly easy translating. No idea if 'poison' is actual poison, or referring to something else. I bet it's
[TL note: contextual evidence says we're missing an entry, but that's not possible. The last entry and the next are on the same page. No idea why an entry is missing.]
9th of Ar, 120 years since megados eruption
Ore mined; [truncated.]
Ore processed; __ jars of mythril/titanium, 17 jars of mythril/titanium, [truncated.] [TL note: the word for mythril and titanium are known to be indistinguishable without conjugation. Unfortunately, we do not know what conjugation is for which.]
Trade; [TL note: this section was covered in what looks to be dragon blood.] [TL comment: what the fuck made a dragon bleed? and only on this part of the journal?]
Min
Recent rain clogged _____. Easily cleared.
Major problems; Charcoal supply is wet. Drying will take a long time.
Furnace 3 suffered sudden rapid deconstruction. No one was hurt. [TL comment: aka it exploded.]
Supply of fiery clay is fully exhausted. Halting further mining until supplies can be refilled and furnaces repaired. [TL note: 'fiery clay' may actually be referring to fire clay, useful for use in furnaces.]
Comments; A messenger pigeon came in three days ago. Nothing notable. [TL comment: Please note that pigeons from 2000+ years ago are very different from modern pigeons.]
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11th of Ar, 120 years since megados eruption
I mined all the way down to the fortifications again. This time the door was attached to the wall. Well, sort of, it was only hanging on by a screw. Was, because I accidentally hit it and caused the door to fall off. Whoops. Also, turns out mana spire survived! I fully expected it to be dead by now. At this point I feel like I should give it a nickname. What do you think? (Name it Beau, since its beautiful.) [I have no concept of beauty, so I'll just take your word for it.]
Unfortunately, I couldn't mine the gold top of the mountain, as there was a storm approaching. Not that I'm afraid of storms, but the Esmos certainly are (I wasn't :} ). Which I mean, they never experienced a storm before, so I don't blame them. The storm lasted for nearly a month, and thanks to that the charcoal's wet. Desmo learned the hard way why you don't throw wet things into a very hot furnace. (It explodes!)
Aesmo did well with trading, maybe a little too well. I think the local economies would've flatten at the rate we were going. I... have no real use for mythril anymore. Whoops. (Gesmo will use the gems though).
For now, I'm going out shopping for some more fireclay. Maybe I'll try trading my mythril for something with better wealth density; I'm surprisingly running out of room.
21st of Ar, 120 years since megados eruption
I've been trying to put it off for as long as possible, but I guess they're losing patience. I'm of course referring to the dragon lord council. See, as a new dragon lord, they want to get to know me better. It's also a chance for the opposite. To be honest, I don't care.
Unfortunately, they scheduled a meeting already in a couple of days, and they expect me to show up. Well, I'll just treat it like an annoying interview, except I'm already hired and don't actually have to do anything for the job. Now that I think of it that way, it makes me sound really lazy. I swear I'm not lazy. Just uninterested. (Nah she's totally lazy)
Aesmo's fixing the furnace while I'm gone, which should keep her busy. In case it doesn't, I'll have her experiment with the jar of gold dust we have. Gold is a fairly unremarkable metal, so I'll be surprised if they find anything. Oh, they're not allowed to test it with any acids. It's a pain to clean up. ( :{ )
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Interlude; Dragon Lord Council Transcript 3
The following is a written transcript for the Dragon Lord Council meeting that took place on the 24th of Ar, 120 years after the megados eruption. Participating members; 18/25
"Thank you everyone who came to welcome our newest member. Vildra, could you please introduce yourself?"
"Hello, I'm Vildra Miltos. I didn't actually want to be a dragon lord, but apparently I qualified for it. I'm 252 years old, forgot what day my birthday was though. I prefer living unbothered by others, and have no plans for starting a family or anything like that."
"Thank you. We shall introduce ourselves in response. I am Genen, the oldest of the dragon lords..."
...
"That concludes the introductions of everyone here. You will receive a letter of introduction from those that are not here today. Do you have any questions for us?"
"Sort of. I already forgot most of your names, and I will forget them again. Will that be an issue?"
"No, names are just a formality. You can use someone's title to refer to them when you forgot their name."
"I see. Does everyone have a title? Do I have one?"
"Yes, though titles are mostly unofficial and can change at any given moment. For you, it is 'richest'."
"...richest? What does that mean?"
"It's quite simple. Your wealth estimates are well above most of us, and the estimates do not include what you have hidden. Accounting for that, most of us believe that you are the richest out of all of us. Hence, 'richest'."
"Huh. I see. I don't hate it, but it's not like I'm rich on purpose. To be honest, I don't give a fuck about wealth. It just takes up too much space."
"Interesting. Anyways, do you have any other questions?"
"No, none that I can think of right now."
"Then we will begin with our own questions. Firstly, how did you get so much wealth?"
"I mined for it. Or rather, I mined and then traded it for gems and mythril. Saves on space."
"Got it. Though its hard to believe that you could mine out enough material to account for all of your wealth in only 2 years..."
"Oh no, I didn't do it alone. I had some... servants to help me. They're quite capable, if odd."
"Is it possible that they are the rumored 'ciel army' that Uildra claimed you had?"
"Maybe? I don't know what my sister thinks."
"I see. What spells do you know?"
"'Erase memory' and 'gravitas'."
"Only two?"
"Well, I know that I should know 8 or 9 spells, but I forgot what they actually are. I at least know what they aren't."
"Unusual, but not unheard of. Next question, why are you a cannibal?"
"Dragon meat is the best kind of raw meat to eat. Nutritious and flavorful. And before you ask, no I do not kill anyone to eat them. I'm an opportunistic cannibal. I only eat already-dead dragons."
"I see. Well, moving on, what is your opinion on..."
...
"Thank you for answering our questions. This concludes the introductory meeting. Anyone who wishes to may leave now."
[3 members, including Vildra, leave]
"...Fuck."
"'Erase memory' huh. I swear we destroyed all records of that spell centuries ago. How did she learn it?"
"We must've missed a copy. Either that, or Liberos did something without anyone finding out. Start checking the records of the last 252 years for any discrepancies."
"She has servants? Where were they during the war?"
"I'm surprised at how honest she was about being a cannibal. I'll respect that."
"How the fuck does she not know about Mip's scam? That was the biggest news in 7 years!."
"I believe we are all thinking the same thing."
"Yes. Should the announcement be made public? or only for dragon lords?"
"Public is fine. It'll probably save her from being courted as well. Though there will always be idiots."
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An announcement from the dragon lord council.
"Contrary to popular belief, the "richest" Dragon Lord Vildra does not care for material wealth. She seems uninterested in having mates, family, tribe, worshipers, friends, or any other social connection other than servants. She also appears heavily isolated from current events. It is for these reasons, as well as her personality, that she has been designated the True Neutral among Dragon Lords."