“Mama! Mama! Look what I found for papa! Look, look! It’s sparkly like papa’s toys, see?”
“Oh wow, what a beautiful crystal rock. I’m sure papa would be very happy. Go on, go give it to him.”
And so scurried the little guy over to his father, eyes filled with joy and a beaming smile across his face.
“Ian’s as lively as ever.”
“Mother Kateline! Here, have a seat, you have been working hard.”
“You’re underestimating me, Heather. I may be an old hag, but I have raised that anomaly of a son, a little work in the land isn’t enough to tire me. HAHAHA!”
“Hahaha, yeah, my man is one hell of an anomaly, but I like him the way he is. After all, it’s this passion of his that made my heart flutter.”
“You’re no less of an anomaly. HAHAHHA! sigh— That boy went against the norms of this world, risking his and everyone’s life, but look at him now, the most revered and respected man in the colony, and perhaps the world.”
The two women, Kateline, the mother of Adrian the genius and the current leader of the colony, and Heather, the foremost beauty of the colony and the wife of Adrian, also a mother of four, looked over at a shed acting as a workshop, Adrian’s workshop. There could be seen a young child, hopping and jumping around merrily, to his side, a man, Adrian, sat on a stool, looking at the cheerful child, and a small slit of a smile on his face.
Before being interrupted by his energetic youngest child, Adrian was working on a new invention among many, one that could further change this cruel life.
Not even a year ago, Adrian cracked the code, the purpose of all the objects, the inventions that he found buried in the ground. Through numerous trials and errors, he would rule out the false theories and test out the valid ones. And through combining different objects together, he would come up with mechanisms. Through different mechanisms, he would notice patterns that formed the baseline for all his future inventions. Although it would be more accurate to say that he recycled the inventions and made them functional.
“Who would’ve thought that a rascal’s self-indulgence would prove so useful. What used to take us months to accomplish can now be done in mere weeks. We don’t have to worry about the elderly and the children freezing to death anymore. From furnaces to tillers and metal tools, all these inventions he’s built have helped us greatly. But I have always wondered how he’s managed to come up with them. How did he use some centuries old metallic objects to make his inventions? How did he even find them? I guess some things need to stay secret.”
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“Phew, making crucibles is one tedious job for sure. Now, I need to get some more clay and ores, we’re almost out. Norman, I’ll go gather the supplies, stay here and keep working on the tillers.”
“Master Adrian, for how long do I need to work on the tillers? I want to work on more projects, more exciting projects, maybe even invent something. This is getting tedious.”
“Norman, you’re an apprentice craftsman, I am an inventor, I do not possess the skills you do. As for inventing, you don’t need my permission, you can come up with anything whenever you’re free. But while you’re in the workshop, focus on learning from Mr Helm, that’s what we need for the colony’s survival.”
“Survival?! But master Adrian, your inventions have guaranteed our survival, no one died last year. Surely we can waste some resources on improving our quality of life.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“My inventions are only tools designed for survival, and they served their purpose. But we need more of them, to cut down on the time of work and to maximize the yield. We can think of fun and discovery once we’ve enough tools for the next few years. For now, we work.”
Met with utter defeat, the young man could only disappointedly nod with acceptance.
After giving Norman a sympathizing smile, Adrian made towards the great forest nearby.
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“Sigh— It’s always a hassle finding minerals and clay in this tree covered region, it’s never fun. Now, where should I go? The usual place is running out so maybe I should look for somewhere else, which means I’ll be gone for a while. Let’s leave this flag here so they know they don’t need to look for me.”
The flag was a simple blue cloth, fluttering at about waist height. Adrian began using it as a landmark and a message to his family that he’s looking for supplies.
This flag is symbolic to Adrian’s blue shirt when he was still a young man roaming the forest looking for the treasures.
As for these infamous treasures and how Adrian would always find them, it all began when he was a wee little boy.
It was a very lucky coincidence, when one day, when he was playing in the forest, he noticed a shimmer in the soil under a tree. Digging into the dirt, he retrieved an object with an odd shape and a shine like nothing he’s seen before. Getting his hands on something so mysterious and intriguing, awakened a hunger for discovery within Adrian.
Throughout the years, he would search the forest for more of these objects. Journey after the other, Adrian noticed a pattern in the placement of the objects – they all were located under a tree.
So Adrian made it his mission to dig under every tree, looking for more shiny treasures. And a child’s playtime turned into a life changing profession.
The day this change occurred was when Adrian found a brown and coarse variant of the object. They always came as shiny and pristine objects, almost devoid of any imperfections.
Noticing this noticeable difference, Adrian examined this specimen thoroughly, then he found a latch which he opened. The rusty object was a box that contained a bunch of papers and a weird article with unknown inscriptions.
Following this discovery, Adrian focused his efforts on decrypting the writings in the papers and testing the unusual object made of yet another unknown material. Needless to say, decrypting language is not an easy task, and it took Adrian almost a decade to decode it.
But all this time enabled him to uncover the secrets of the old civilization, their last records were from an era called “4089 a.d.”.
At the end of this era, humanity faced a crisis that could wipe them out. In an attempt to preserve their existence, they put about one hundred people in cryo-sleep and sent them to space, then set a specific date for them to return to earth in pods. These survivors would mark the new beginning of humanity, supplied with all the tools they needed. Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned.
Humanity did prosper and spread around the world, but all the knowledge the survivors have was irrelevant in the new earth’s climate. The essentials like farming and building homes were manageable, resources were plenty and the survivors were well trained. But nature was brutal, dwindling the numbers in manpower. Moreover, the survivors were adults, which meant that their life and contributions were limited. They did their best teaching their children all they needed to survive and make the most of the resources around them. But with such a short period of time and in an unfamiliar environment, the best they could do was teach them to make and use primitive tools. Thus they lost the luxury of the best resource, iron.
Centuries passed and the growing population spread on earth, trying to build a new world. A particular group arrived at the area where Adrian now lives, the Frozen hell.
Adrian still doesn’t know about the adventures of the survivors, he only knows about the old world, thanks to the efforts of a lone man, Mordan.
Mordan was of the many that had died during the great crisis. Knowing of his doom and the plan for the survivors, Mordan strived to do his part to assure that the survivors will have a bright future.
He compiled all the essential knowledge he could and stored them in different boxes and time capsules that he buried next to tree saplings. Trees help stabilize the soil and minimize the shift of the terrain. This great forest that constitutes the backbone of the current colony was grown by an earnest man, and Adrian made the most of this treasure.
Thanks to the curiosity of a boy and the efforts of a man, humanity gained a new life, one based on science and discovery.
“Phew— this cave is very deep, but rich, it will be worth mining. I need to report to the colony. Hmm? It seems I still have some time before I need to go back. Should I search for more of Mordan’s tools?”