Authors note: Like always: I take some creative freedom on this. If I wanted to write a manual, I would do this instead of writing a fantasy novel ;) However, if there are some glaring mistakes, I would appreciate it if someone pointed them out!

Character Information - Who is who?

Because I have created quite a variety of characters, I will now create little cheat sheets before a chapter for the characters who will appear in the chapter, but not for those who haven't. Please open the spoiler if you need some reminders. (Be careful, it can be a spoiler for the chapter!)

Alexander K. Leonandra (Wolf-kin)

* Transmigrated from the Earth and the MC

* The fourth child of the current Leonandra household

* Golden eyes

* Snow-white fur and hair color

Aurum (Swan-kin)

* Son of Salyna Leonandra

* Specialized in accounting, economy, and finance

* Blue eyes

* Snow-white feather and hair color

Green (III) from the Forest of Fallen Wishes (Fairy)

* Messenger of the temple

* Head of a temple branch in the east of Moorgrel

* Teaches the MC magic

* Specialized in healing, herbalism, agriculture, and administration

* Light-green eyes

* Greenish hair

* Autumn-colored wings

...

"Mr. Alexander is there really a need to do alchemy in the open... well, we are in storage, but this one has so many holes, I see barely any difference to being outside."

"You will see why we want to be as far as possible from anything expensive and flammable, like the garden with all those expensive flowers from other territories, which Mom likes so much when something happens to..."

Aurum interrupted Alexander quickly before his new master would go on one of his long tantrums about doom and gloom, "I got it, Mr. Alexander. The old shack it is."

Aurum, Alexander, and Green were in a storage hall near the training ground for his paper-making. This place was guarded by a couple of soldiers since the method of making such a product should be held, as long as possible, a secret.

Nobody really believed him in the first place that he could create paper which was presumably expensive and hard to make, especially not with the weird alchemical ingredients and machines he had that looked to anyone else more like the mad dreams of an alchemist.

One of those machines was in front of Alexander. A massive pressure pot designed by him and manufactured by the estate blacksmiths. On the side was a smaller, airtight vessel that would be used for the bleaching process.

Aurum dragged his index finger across it while asking questioningly and already doing his job as Alexander's accountant, "I don't get it, Mr. Alexander. The blacksmiths worked overtime to create this... pressure pot? Should it really be like you said it should be, or was there maybe a way to make it different?"

While Aurum was questioningly looking at the apparatus, Alexander checked all the other chemicals and ignored him since he needed to concentrate on the inspection. He made a lot of them since he wasn't sure how much he would need to start anew because he miscalculated or because the world's physical structure was so different that, for some reason, it wouldn't work. He already readied himself to blame the world if he failed.

On the other side of the storage hall were barrels full of wood chips. Alexander calculated that he could create thousands of sheets of paper with it. However, while he was not averted to risk, one thing made him worry as he checked them with his [Mana Sense], 'Why is the damn wood full of mana?'

It wasn't really full of mana but had residue from the little the trees at their estate usually had. Alexander could see whoever made the chips followed his instructions this time and took the cheapest wood.

It could be that his mana sense was getting more sensitive since it leveled up or that this wood was in some way special. His new retainer told him it was cheap and would be used for cooking otherwise, but he wasn't sure about it.

However, the existence of mana as an energy or whatever concept it followed was a variable he feared since he couldn't even find anything scientific about it and only philosophical discussions.

From this, he could conclude that it was more of an abstract concept than anything more measurable and predictable. He often tried to somehow predict the movement of mana, but it wasn't doable for him. Ambient mana moved, in his eyes, in unpredictable ways.

Yet, Alexander tried to create a dataset that looked like the mad ramblings of an asylum escapee. There was no logic in there. At some point, he even tried to plot them statistically like it was done with the movement of electrons by using any means possible.

By doing so, he found a problem that was a welcoming discovery. Using [Mana Sense], the ambient mana's movements would change. He found out that as [Mana Sense] leveled quite fast, the direction changed, and by cross-referencing all of his old notes, he concluded that the higher his skill was, the more different the mana moved.

He even used Ocilia for the experiments, and it suddenly fitted very well with one of his observations, where he had a much lower [Mana Sense] level. He concluded that [Mana Sense] somehow influenced ambient mana in some way, and this reminded him of a certain drug dealer.

Nonetheless, even though he found it intriguing, it threw much more questions to answer: How is [Mana Sense] changing the mana he observed, or is it the skill itself that perceived mana differently suddenly? Why is mana not changing in a way which correlated to him increasing his [Mana Sense] level but randomly?

He had a lot of questions for another time since he couldn't even experiment on ambient mana since it was too hard to control, to say the least. His own mana, he could control perfectly, while the ambient one was like a sturdy building he tried to remove with a spatula. Green was also less willing to answer his questions after the whole insect-of-doom incident. It could also be that she had just no idea.

This brought him into the territory he hated: Naturalistic philosophy, which gave him more questions than answers: Is mana a particle? A wave? An elephant riding a bicycle? He didn't know, nor did the literature he read.

While he couldn't move it through means like [Mana Manupilation], he could use mana to manipulate physical means, as it was possible to control particles and ignore physical law. What does it mean? It could mean everything and nothing. He knew that all the reputable scientists would do cartwheels in their graves if they knew about this.

This thought made him smile, and he returned to the real world after solving his inner crisis by ignoring it and putting it for future Alexander to solve. Now he would need to make gold, hopefully, a lot of it.

As he checked the ingredients and apparatuses, he opened the pressure pot with a wave of his hand, "Yes, what was your question again?"

Aurum frowned but repeated his question, knowing that his master was very often lost in his thoughts, "Was there really a need to make the pressure pot exactly like this? The smiths put a lot of work and time into it."

Alexander nodded, "Yeah... the pressure pot..." he had no idea what the correct name was, "...it is there to help me hold the pressure constantly. Otherwise, I would boil my brain... so, I think yes, it needs to be exactly like this if you want to have a master with a brain."

Aurum frowned, "I really don't get alchemy, but if you say so, Mr. Alexander."

The young swan-kin discussed since he became a retainer, an array of things with his new master, but every time magic, science, or alchemy became the topic, everything went over his head. He would rather stick to his specialization and only learn what his master was best at roughly so he could assist better.

However, he was forwarned by his mother that those types of people are using gold as it was air and don't care about pesky things like budgets. So he needed to always try and act financially responsible. Yet, how could he do it if his master could just tell him that it was necessary? He would need somehow acquire a rudimentary knowledge of those things over time.

As Alexander worked and put everything inside the pressure vessel to their designated places, Aurum tried to steer the conversation, "Why isn't Ocilia here? Shouldn't she help her master?"

Aurum was clearly irritated since he talked to Maurice and Ocilia, both were nonchalant and very much interested in learning and training, which was fine, but they were, for his taste, not proactive enough.

While Alexander calculated the quantity in his head for the first batch, he answered nonchalantly, "She is in Wolfsteeth, visiting her old friends."

The swan-kin teen sat beside Green, who read her novel and ignored everything around her, "You are too lenient, Mr. Alexander."

With a wave of his hand, Alexander put all the chemicals and wood chips into the pot to their designated places, "Well, she learned a lot and needed a break. Don't forget the concept we talked about, do you remember?"

He did and frowned, "Life work balance? I understand it, but I just never heard of it before and find it very... let's say, debatable."

Alexander closed the pressure pot and started the coal fire while casting the air shield spell on all three in the room. A small film of almost transparent green crept around their mouth and nose. It eliminated smells, was very good against poisonous gas, and had other applications.

Green frowned, "Thanks, but you need to ask before you cast a spell on someone, got it?"

Alexander scratched his head and smiled sheepishly, "Sorry, you were very invested in your novel, so I just did it."

Green looked at him sternly but returned to her novel. Now it was time for the centaur to return all the macguffins to his lover, the dryad, and win her back. Green was excited.

The puppy returned to his work and answered Aurum, "You need to look at it logically and from a view of productivity in a more holistic sense."

Aurum only knew a little about that concept, "Why, though? If, in the end, our approach will give us more... I don't know, products. Isn't it better to ignore it?"

Alexander concentrated now heavily as his hillbilly pressure vessel started, and with it, pressure started to rise. He would need around 10 bar while the temperature would need to be about 150°C (300°F). There was a need to look at the apparatus more closely as this process could quickly go haywire. With his [Mana Sense] and air contraptions, he also concentrated on the mana and temperature inside, hoping for the best. He noted down to build, at some point, a thermometer.

Yet he answered as he could multitask in such cases pretty well, "You look at it short term and not wholistic enough. A blacksmith could work less and decrease his output by some percent, while in his free time, he could open other avenues like making... I don't know, baskets on the side. This, in turn, would increase the overall economy in the long term."

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Aurum crossed his arms and pointed out, "What if they don't and just laze around?"

Alexander smirked while his concentration was fully occupied by the vessel. Until now, it worked fine. He hoped at least, "Perfect, they will search for hobbies or other things to do while they have nothing to do. Hum... beast-kin can't do nothing. Look at Sarah as an example. Even though she loves to avoid work, she goes shopping or finds exciting things to do. This will open avenues for others to profit from, and in the end, we will profit too."

Aurum thought it through for some time and somehow understood it, "Arent you, Mr. Alexander, just sacrificing one thing for the other?"

Alexander answered him, "Yes and no. As I said, look at the economy as a whole. Pushing your wor... subjects to concentrate on their work heavily will make it hard for other sectors to thrive. While we can't too heavily control the people in our domain, we can influence them. A diversified economy is much more stable than one focused only on one aspect and much better equipped to absorb shocks..."

Aurum mumbled as he remembered what one of his colleague's households went through, "Like the Kloepi household who possessed silver mines and concentrated on them. When the price of silver decreased heavily, their estate and fief felt a giant economic shock... I get it."

Alexander nodded slightly, "Yep, and there is more. Someone who can concentrate on a hobby and is happy with it will also be happier with the ruler of the fief who made it possible. So, when you look for workers, make the hours more bearable."

This whole discussion was a continuation from the day before when Alexander told him to hire workers for the paper making. He mentioned the term work-life balance, which brought confusion, and told him to think it over.

Aurum frowned, "Isn't it better for them to produce more, so we can invest more in other things?"

Alexander shook his head, "Live by your principles. I get that you are hot-blooded and want a quick change and betterment for the desperate and forgotten, but if you rush it or become hypocritical, it will look bad on me, and what I want to achieve in the long term will be stifled in the end."

Aurum showed his hands in peace, "I get it, I get it..." he put his arms down and crossed them again, "...I just saw someone with similar ideals and much more resources than I do, so I am a bit impatient. Excuse my behavior, Mr. Alexander."

Alexander smirked, "Don't worry. When I have my products, you will sell them and make a ton of gold. You can rip off every noble or rich merchant with this little white gold mine."

Aurum started to chuckle, "Got it. So, how is the paper-making look like, Mr. Alexander?"

Alexander frowned, "It needs a bit more time, but it looks better than I expected, I think, honestly..."

He couldn't see through the pressure pot, but from what he could conclude with his contraptions and [Mana Sense], the cellulose was much cleaner and purer than he thought possible. Even bleaching it would only slightly better it, 'Is this an effect of the mana or something else?'

Even the trees were new; they were a new sort he never saw or heard about on Earth. So everything needed to be strongly analyzed.

Aurum looked confused at his master, "Why the frown, Mr. Alexander? If everything is fine, isn't this a joyous situation?"

"Hm, ignore it. I am a pessimist and brace myself for the worst-case scenario..."

He was interrupted by Green's laughter, "Haha, sure thing! Let's ignore the suicidal attempts where you bet everything on learning skills like the ones to ignore the [Mana Fear] one."

Alexander frowned, "It was my dad. What do you expect? Wait for you to come and teach me and be unable to come close to him for years?"

Green waved her hand, "Nevermind, I am sorry. But at least the new magicians..." She made exclamation marks with her hands as she said magicians "...would have no problems since they learned the mental fortitude skills early on."

Aurum was confused as he knew about the situation and how his master helped some very loyal veterans learn [Mana Sense] and other mana-specific skills, "Aren't they magicians, though?"

Green shook her head and chuckled, "Not at all. They mostly use their mana skills to increase their innate energy and other skills. The spells they learn are only the lifestyle ones and some survival ones..." she tapped her nose, "...like this one."

"And that will not make them magicians?"

Green frowned, "Magicians are seen in society as spell slingers who can create chaos and destruction with a simple sentence and some mana. This is a pure definitions game, but if you want to give them a name, it would be mana warriors or something of the sort..." she remembered something, "...well, Ocilia actually uses spells and integrate them into her race-specific skills very well, so I would call her magic... warrior? Something like that."

Aurum nodded and understood. They used the magic only secondary to their skills, while mages would use them primarily. Though, his master was an absolute enigma to him.

He trained his body very heavily through the mana item and gruesome training with his siblings, much more than any other warrior he saw or heard of, even thinking back to his school time. At the same time, he was also highly talented in magic and alchemy. Aurum heard that he also started to learn a bit of mana artificing but couldn't really comprehend why he started to learn to be a crafter, 'This is mind-boggling.'

Even Aurum's mother, Salyna, was more or less confused by the puppy as he was pretty much an allrounder, 'His levels should be insanely high.'

He wanted to ask this question but disregarded it out of conduct. In his mind, Alexander should be on the cusp of Tier 2, while he reached this Tier only a year ago.

Aurum always felt superior to everyone else. Be it his idealism or talent. He was that good. However, returning to the estate and seeing everyone, he suddenly became average. He didn't care, though, as his life goal was suddenly in the hands of a messy puppy sitting on the ground and scratching his butt, 'Life is weird, huh.'

As time went on, Alexander suddenly opened the apparatus. With many air contraptions, he lifted the giant masses of cellulose and put them into the other vessel, where he would bleach it to get the rest of the lignin out.

...

Outside of the storage hall

"FUCK! What is this terrible smell?!"

"By the circle! What is Mr. Alexander doing in there!"

It smelled dartingly, and everyone in the perimeter suddenly ran away, especially every smell-sensitive beast-kin like the canine-kin.

...

Inside the storage hall

As Alexander put down all the cellulose inside another vessel, he opened another container with chlorine gas inside. He let it slowly inside where the cellulose was and closed it afterward, 'Is this how it is done? Hopefully.'

Alexander made a motion where he dusted his hands off, for no reason, and looked at the vessel where the waste was, 'This will be fun now.'

The alkaline lignin and thiol would be excellent materials to work with. Still, it was impossible for Alexander now as he needed to build and plan another more complicated process to work with them. So, he would do the most pragmatic thing: Destroy them.

Burning them would make a mess through the smoke and other poisonous chemicals that could escape. However, he learned an excellent spell from Green, specially made for such situations.

The disintegration spell, even though it sounded like the best spell for killing enemies ever, was useless since it could only disintegrate things with little to no energy, and the denser they were, the more challenging and more mana intensive it would become.

So he built the relatively complex 2D construct and chanted. He concentrated on the waste, and it slowly started to disintegrate into little flakes.

After ten minutes, Alexander lost around half of his mana and was sweating heavily, but the waste was gone. Only some blackish flakes were left.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at Aurum, "Damn it... find some very loyal workers who are ready to learn magic. You can't smell it, but this stuff is highly toxic and smells terrible."

Green interjected, "We can see it. Your film of the air shield spell is grey since it defended you from it."

Alexander frowned and corrected himself, "Some very loyal workers. Since they will need to learn much more spells, otherwise it will become a hassle."

Aurum nodded, brought out his notebook from his bag, and noted it down on a parchment with a rough pencil.

Alexander looked inside the bleach tank with his contraptions, trying to evaluate the different parameters like temperature, and it looked stable enough. Since it was the case, he sat down on the ground and used his [Mana Absorption] and [Meditation] skills in combination to recover as much mana as possible, "One hour."

He fell into a trance and tried to recover as much as possible. Mana-recovery was a bitch since the more he lost, the longer the recovery time was. He didn't know why though, as all mana veins and points looked fine, but the mana inside his body would move much slower. He would need to plot it out later, too, the correlation. He already noted it down on his to-do list, which became longer by the day.

...

Outside the storage

"Hm? The smell is gone?"

"Oh... you are right. Hopefully, it doesn't come back... it was awful, and I feel like I was getting poisoned..."

"Just go to some healer later. Not like you need to pay or anything."

"Nah, but do you wanna go to Wolfsteeth? I know a bar where the beer is cheap, and the boys are cheaper, hehe."

The other guard raised an eyebrow, "My wife will kill me if I don't get a check, and if I go with you again, she will cut off my balls, so a big no from me."

The dog-kin guard blew a raspberry, "You are such a boring guy."

The other guard shrugged, "Whatever."

...

Inside the storage a little later

"Mr. Alexander?"

Alexander slowly opened his eyes and felt much more refreshed. He regenerated a good chunk of his mana, and his mind calmed down. He stood up and checked the progress instantly, and it was ready. For some reason, the cellulose had barely any lignin left. He thought so, at least, 'Well, should it look like this? I hope so.'

He opened the vessel and repeated what he had done multiple times till all the chemicals were depleted. It went on for at least ten hours which was rather fast. However, he hoped that it was to his advantage and not that he accidentally created radioactive paper somehow.

After Alexander was done and drenched in sweat, he told Aurum the next step, being a little giddy, "Ok, time to create the paper, hehe."

The raw material looked good, he thought so, at least, and it was a lot. He calculated wrongly and created much more than he thought. Not like he would complain. The miscalculation was that he thought there would be much more mistakes and waste, but it worked too perfectly. For his taste, it was worrying.

However, his paranoid side had no chance as he prepared for the next step, which was the easiest. He brought it with the guards to a big hall, similar to where banquets were held, and laid out all the cellulose.

Beside him was the last apparatus he requested: A giant roller, which was actually nothing new. He only wanted it to be very smooth. With this, his helpers, the veterans he helped to get [Mana Sense], got to work and flattened it. Afterward, it would only need to dry and cut into appropriate-sized pieces.

All the time, Alexander stood on the side and looked incredibly happy, 'This is white gold.'

One thing was a little weird, though. The cellulose had mana. And a lot more than before. It was probably condensed into it while it was processed. This was another indicator of how mana worked, and he would need to look more later on into it.

It was more than enough for mana contracts, but he couldn't create them. There was some kind of enchantment that needed to be put on them.

He suddenly looked towards Green, who looked interested in this mass being platted, "Hey teach, you know that you are the most beautiful fairy I ever saw?"

Green looked back with a frown, "I am the only fairy you ever saw."

Alexander waved his hand, dismissing it, "Potato potato, listen, you couldn't find some way to get me the enchantment for mana contracts?"

Green needed a minute to understand why her student said it, and the moment she did, she suddenly turned her head towards the mass and ran to it, inspecting it more thoroughly. Her eyes almost popped out, "By the circle..."

She looked back to her student, and a giant evil smile bloomed on her face, "Done!"

Of course, she would wait a bit for the final product to be finished, and if it was really something similar to the temple's unique mana-imbued leaves, which the member used for their contracts, she would gladly somehow get it through the black market or otherwise.

The enchantment was cheap to procure, but another thought struck her, 'Who cares about this?'

The paper her student made was cheap. Insanely cheap. She was ready to propose to him to buy it for a good price, sell it to other temples, and make much more gold.

Since it was tiresome, her student shouldn't be greedy and stupid enough to try and enchant it all. At that time, he could just make more paper or teach others how to make it and concentrate on anything else but stupidly repetitive work.

Green prayed inwardly to Obis, the world, that the paper was good and that her student would take a deal. Even ignoring the gold aspect, she could build connections by selling it under the market price, 'Do we really need the enchantment? I could just outright sell the mana paper.'

As she was in her thoughts, thinking about all the opportunities, there was also a short thought about copying the process. However, she wasn't stupid enough to treat her little golden goose like that. For once, her head would surely roll. For another, this was almost likely not the last invention he made.

Cutting herself out from future endeavors because of short-sighted greed would be the dumbest decision she could make. Instead of having a tiny cake for herself, being a partner in a giant cake was the way to go.

Alexander also felt elated as he saw his teacher smiling and drooling, 'Shit, it is what I think it is, right?!'

He also went through all the same thoughts as his teacher and came to the only right conclusion for him, 'I... just don't care, huh?'

Gold was the only thing he wanted, and only so he could use it. He had no wish to be filthy rich and collect it like some famous duck. He would first repair the mansion, then put part of it into the research he was allowed to do, and the rest would be invested into the programs he talked with Aurum about.

Both smiled like villains who were ready to sell orphans for some coins. Aurum didn't understand what was happening as he looked at them, but he used one of his appraisers [Mystic Skills] on the cellulose with the database from previous generations.

For some reason, the white mass showed him an insanely high price, and he suddenly understood why they both smiled like they did.

His skill, which was akin to a database, was basically ancient. There was some ancestor who presumably recorded something similar. Cross-referencing it with the current market seemed to make the price range enormous, but even the lowest price was one thousand times higher for a little piece of the white-platted mass than what he paid for all the things to create all of it.

'Master was right. It is a fucking gold mine.'

He started to smile like the others too.