...

Place: Wolfsteeth Temple, Green's office

Time: Shortly after mistaken Ludwig for vermin

"Nice to meet you, Ludwig of the glistering misty forest. My name is Alexander K. Leonandra."

A small brownish-orange squirrel stomped angrily on the chair while looking at Alexander with his big brown eyes. It was cute, 'Would he take some nuts if I gave it to him? Should I try?'

"You wanted to squash me like a vermin! What is wrong with you?!"

However, Alexander could barely hold back his laughter when it started talking. It was squeaking while angryly ranting, almost breaking his already wavering conduct.

"First was the crazy Oracle, making me feel Outer Circle only to be greeted by nobility thinking I am a rat! What is wrong with Moorgrel?!"

Why did Alexander suspect it was a rat in the first place? Certain animal species didn't exist in their fief because they could not survive. Rodents were such a case with many others, like birds, fish, and basically everything else. Moorgrel wasn't too friendly for anything but wild demons and monsters.

Most animals, like cows, pigs, etc., were imported and turned into monstrous versions of themselves after decades of choosing the most survivable ones.

It was mostly the same for mounts, but this time, they opted to directly domesticate monsters. Why didn't they use horses? Because most died and the only one's which barely survived were weak. Wealthy merchants and nobles used them to flaunt their influence in Moorgrel since keeping them alive was a monumental task.

Ultimately, the monsters they decided to use as mounts were giant boars and massive lizards. It was cool to imagine riding those until seeing a 2m (~6.6ft) giant pig looking like it took steroids daily or massive lizards who never skipped leg day. To domesticate those, one would have to be a monster themselves.

However, it didn't only happen to animals that benefited them. The rats they had were a practical example of quickly adapting through whatever means necessary to survive the hazardous environment made out of monsters that would kill them and plants, who were sometimes declared as monsters, too.

Those local rats didn't just adapt; they started dominating and could easily kill medium-sized dogs if introduced to Earth. Some speculated that they had turned into monsters.

As such, Alexander genuinely thought that Ludwig was a rat since they had nothing else.

However, seeing the little angry fur ball, this cute chipmunk would never kill a dog, but he hoped Ludwig would sing a Christmas song for him, 'I really really want to give him some nuts and see him eat...'

When Ludwig suddenly turned to him, full of cute wrath, Alexander came out of his thoughts, scratching his neck sheepishly, "Well, we don't have anything like you here, with only various sorts of rats, so..." He shrugged, "...sorry?"

While he would usually not be this nice, Ludwig was now someone of more importance, and he could not act rudely. The Temple was always a give-and-take, with nobles needing to respect them. Because his Father was a big-shot, he could act more nonchalantly inside his branch, but to someone different, he couldn't be as blatantly bothersome as usual.

Furthermore, he was very likely the one who brought him the schematics, which meant he could also be a future partner, not wanting to anger him.

Fortunately, Ludwig calmed down, sighing, "Well, whatever, you are Druid Kairosos's son, and I will accept your apology."

Alexander tilted his head in confusion, "You know my Dad?"

Ludwig's eyes suddenly sparkled, and he heard Green groan, throwing her head back in annoyance. After a moment, he understood her reaction when the squirrel started his a little too comprehensive explanation.

"Yes! Druid Kairoso has been a role model since he came to this place, built up the Temple, fought those devious demons, and..."

Alexander knew his Father was a big deal since he was a Druid, but he didn't expect others to know him. Apparently, he was someone akin to a role model missionary who had great success.

"...seeing this place for myself, I can't be more proud of all those who fight for peace and prosperity!"

Even though he knew the Temple was keen on combating wild demons, he didn't realize that those who stayed here for a few years became overwhelmingly respected in other branches.

"Every breath I took burned my lungs the second I was on the outside and..."

He knew why the Temple needed to combat the wild demon energy: It was infectious and destroyed their natural energy. The same was true for the draugr, who had something akin to dark or black energy.

"To heal someone on the street yesterday, I needed to triple my energy than usual. How can anyone..."

Environmental influences weakened them massively, a general problem on their side. Even though their energy was incredible, especially regarding healing, they were simultaneously too weak.

"His merits are known through every branch, with many seeing those who come here as true heroes, fighting those despicable..."

Alexander started to respect his Father more. He was humble even though he was meritious, which would never happen to his son, as he had an enormously large ego, wanting everyone to know that he was accomplished.

"I also obviously respect your people who hold those pests away from the rest! Seeing it for myself, we need to support you more..."

Interestingly, according to Ludwig, other branches of the Temple, who were not on the ground like Green and his Father, also showed great respect to them since they were the reason the Kratikal area was limited.

"Messenger Green has my highest respect! Nobody could be this brave and..."

Green suddenly started to enjoy it from the sidelines, smirking when Ludwig praised her left and right. However, while enjoying these tellings himself, it was too much at some point, becoming weirdly personal.

"Mr. Alexander, if you want, we can find a fitting wife for you since you have the blood of an accomplished Druid! It doesn't matter race, gender, or age. We have many Saplings for you to choose from..."

"Got it!" Alexander stopped the conversation. Wanting him to get married was a step too far. He was already ignoring all the eagerness from the Cold-Snout Household, which made him incredibly uncomfortable.

Little girls loved him, and even some older ones tried to seduce him, sending him letters after hearing from Emma, Matilda, or Vanessa how he was. His only defense was, for now, to say that he was in love with his aunt.

Fortunately, for most people, it made some sense because of Elisabeth's exceptional talent. It was not unusual for equals to be attracted to each other and for Alexander to search for someone like that.

As such, his being who he was and having the blood of an apparently accomplished druid made him a good breeding stock inside the Temple and nobility dating scene.

Alexander wanted to end the topic quickly since he didn't expect a squirrel to hook him up with someone, "I get that you want me to marry another Druid's puppy, but I am fine for now..."

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Ludwig wasn't too happy, stopping his deluge of words and frowning, but he didn't care. Alexander came for one thing here, and he wanted to have it, having high expectations.

Alexander turned toward Green, his smile becoming overly fake, "...where is my train?"

Green sighed, leisurely waving at Ludwig, "Give him the package, you know, the reason you came here, and stop frowning; not like you are here to tell Kairo's son who his Father is."

Ludwig stopped immediately, smiling sheepishly, "Sorry!" He immediately looked for it in his adorably small slung bag.

'Are his rations made of nut-based meals? Jesus, please make it true.'

After a moment, he brought out an MC Escher painting turned into an object.

'Oh shit... that's... how?!'

It was a glass ball with multiple fine threads inside, moving weirdly in a way he couldn't comprehend. The threads were running through multiple small rings that teleported them seemingly in a way that made no sense when considering classical physics.

It was impossible to count the threads, all meshing and loosening, as if the past and future were playing out simultaneously, creating something Alexander couldn't take his eyes away. He wanted to research this little artistic and scientific miracle.

Ludwig's energy invaded the glass ball, surrounding it. A small thread inside lit up, breaking apart and creating a small hole inside, while another appeared outside. He put his hand inside the outer wormhole, pulling out multiple books and stacking them on the desk.

The cuteness of a small squirrel pulling out spaghettified books that normalized in size when they were a certain distance away, through a seemingly fluid and comical effect, made this moment pleasant to watch.

Alexander wished he knew how spatial enchantment worked precisely, but he knew only the rough concept. It was like knowing conceptually how the double-slit experiment worked but being unable to calculate it.

However, applying a theoretical mess to something practical was the most critical and challenging aspect for an engineer like himself. Of course, he respected his colleagues who researched, but most of what they accomplished was very impractical for society as a whole, even though revolutionary for their field.

When Alexander saw it, he couldn't imagine how to do it practically since he had only a seventh-grade understanding of how to artifice mana items and had not even started to practice yet.

For Alexander, spatial objects were a mystery because they used practically time travel to expand their space. It was genius and incredible, 'The application of Einstein's relativity theorem...'

The fundamental principle was as this: when A was stationary, like sitting on Earth, and B moved with lightspeed to another planet and back, the time passed while traveling for B would be slower than for A, meaning one traveled theoretically into the future.

Artificers applied this logic to an enclosed space through magical means like enchantments. The inside would then move seemingly at light speed, creating multiple points in the future.

Those multiple points in the future were the multiplied available space for the inside of the pouch or spatial object in general. Still, the enchantments were destructive, needing unique material not to deteriorate when activated.

When Alexander put objects into the pouch, they would immediately travel toward a specific point in time. What he saw inside was just a projection of the future, a much smaller one, though. The space he was seeing was empty, with only the item being visualized.

Opening the enclosed space would trigger other enchantments, which would react with the items in the future. When Alexander touched the projection, it would appear in existence, traveling back in time.

Would it work conventionally? Never. The energy needed would be massive. Only through enchantments could one make it happen in this small edge case.

However, what did Alexander ask, like a real Earthling, when hearing about this? How much boom was this? Unfortunately, not much boom.

Spatial objects couldn't act as nuclear bombs. When destroyed, they usually imploded, destroying all objects inside them. At most, there were minor explosions or other occurrences like someone getting caught in an unwilling teleportation or part of them.

Also, creating rooms where one could slow down time was exceptionally challenging but not impossible. In those cases, it would cost a tremendous amount of energy and material to operate such a chamber.

Sadly, while he knew the rough concept, everything else was still far too much for him, and books about this topic were scarce. Usually, those enchantments were made with [Mystic Skills]; if not, the artificers would never give away their knowledge so easily.

'Never mind, I can later decipher the secrets of the cosmos. Let's create a monopoly for now since there is no Teddy to stop me!'

For now, he was more interested in the masses of books Ludwig pulled out, with Alexander starting to read one and becoming increasingly confused. It was not because of his dwarvish but because of what was written there, 'Huh?'

Green saw his confusion and asked, probably fearing that those weren't the correct literature, "Is something wrong?"

"No, but..." He grabbed another one, becoming much more confused when he skimped through, needing a minute to comprehend what he was reading.

Green became much sterner, "So?!"

After skimping through the first hundred pages and the last ones, looking at all the schematics, he didn't know if he should say it or not, but he did it nonetheless, but carefully.

"It's... easy...."

Green leaned back, shrugging and looking smug as if she had done a job well, which was true. She did her job very well, and being able to sell the mana ink for barely anything was slowly flooding other markets, which the Royalty in the draugr territory didn't like since they also created it.

However, he cared little about such trivialities and was far more fascinated by what he read. In short, it was nonsensical. It was a one-to-one interpretation of a steam engine that would use cheap mana stones instead of coal. Apparently, if he believed the notes, they were pretty efficient, but that's it.

'It can't be, right?'

When he requested it from Green, he somehow thought there would be some clever solution to move a giant block of metal on rails with magic, but there wasn't in this world, or at least not something he knew of.

'What a weird solution.'

Alexander already had multiple ideas without using an engine, but what he saw depicted didn't make sense. Why would they transform energy from whatever was inside mana stones to thermodynamic to mechanical?

At first, he thought it was more efficient that way, but after some calculations, he couldn't find a way to excuse it.

'Maybe it's just too old? One of the first?'

He quickly looked for the year the books were written, and on the last page, he quickly found it. It was written by an unknown dwarf ~250 years ago, with him holding the eighth revised version written ~100 years ago by someone called Margold Bumbraf. The name of the initial dwarf who wrote the book, which explained the steam machine in general, was too obvious, making him smile widely.

'I see that you don't like the spotlight, huh?'

It was akin to a pen name, a rarity for inventors. For example, Alexander blatantly named the book press after himself, Alexander Press, basically following the Edison path.

However, it was not only an ego thing since all those achievements would eventually become a badge of honor for him. He could use those to haggle with others, showing that he could be helpful for his Master or others, making deals easier then.

'Gandalf? Well, this is quite the indication.'

However, the name of his colleague was a little too on the nose. Clearly, the white wizard never wanted to make this train in the first place or was qualified to do so.

Alexander thought Gandalf was somehow forced to show off at some point, pulling out an idea and working backward to bring it into this world. Not a bad idea in itself since there was nothing close to it, but he was still clearly unqualified.

While it sounded mean how Alexander thought, he didn't mean it insultingly since he was genuinely impressed. Gandalf was clearly not an engineer by profession or anything close to it.

How did Alexander see it? The math was full of mistakes, the formulas were revised multiple times by others, and the explanations for specific physical laws had quite the errors that were also revised after probably testing them.

However, it was clear that the idea was revolutionary for the dwarves and gnomes, immediately making them build it, 'I get it.'

He put the books into his spatial pouch while trying to see the positives, 'They really aren't that technologically advanced, huh.'

Even though it was a small insight, if Alexander extrapolated slightly, he could predict their approximate technological progress. At first, he feared that other races were far more advanced, but that wasn't the case. He could catch up quickly by creating something easier and better and releasing all that information for free. With that, everyone could start their projects, accelerating the progress.

'They really did cost a lot, huh.'

The books Alexander held were treasures, and those little people didn't like to show them, hoarding them like dragons do with gold. It was a massive mistake in his mind, but only because he knew how great those could expand the technological progress even further.

However, having now those, he needed something to show off when all those families came to visit, so he could show how great it was and make them do it too. It was a perfect opportunity.

Usually, the Guard Household puppies weren't spoiled by their parents because they would train them harshly. However, when it came to the financial side, most could buy whatever they wanted, never being concerned about that aspect. Because of that, he needed to push them, wanting to buy it and build it, too.

'A rail track from the south to the north... how great...'

Alexander suddenly understood how to show it off, but he needed his Mother, Father, and Salyna to help him. All his people were literally before a burnout, unable to handle another project.

'Right, Dad can help...'

For some reason, the wild demon waves became increasingly smaller, and they barely did anything anymore. As such, Alexander's Father decided to come back for a couple of months, switching with his Mother's personal Guard, Cross, again.

When Alexander was about to leave, his head full of ideas and new motivations, Ludwig suddenly stopped him, "Wait! Your Oracle gave me something for you..."