Chapter 2 - Rant
Author: J. Arque
Editor: –
Proofreader: –
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Note From Author:
Hi guys, it has been a while since my last update but here is chapter 2 for y'all
When I started to write this chapter yesterday, I felt kind of unsatisfied by Carl's personality and honestly, his personality was pretty bland for an MC. So I decided to change Carl's personality from depressed and calm old man into a grumpy old man. Hope you like this change.
J. Arque
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Exton, 14 Late Winter Markadia Calendar
Kids, I knew some of you fantasized to be transported into a middle ages fantasy world. You dream of exploring the new world, slay some dragon, kill a devil king, or Save a damsel in distress.
But for me to be transported into this world, was a really dreadful experience!
For example, because there was no toilet in this era, this old man had to take a dump in a bucket. In a goddam BUCKET!
I was horrified when later Bob threw the contents of the bucket into the Exton River -which surprisingly flowed right next to Exton village- while there were some kids swimming and some women villagers washing their cookware in the river.
I really wondered why people in this village didn't die out because of diarrhea a long time ago. Maybe there was no such thing as diarrhea or even bacteria in this world? Or maybe human's immune system in this world was a lot stronger than in earth?
Not to mention that I just spent a dreadful night in a bed made of hay covered with linen blanket that was also a breeding ground of fleas, lice, and thousands of other bug species that ate every part of my skin almost every second. Thankfully it was Late Winter and it was not freezing cold compared in the early winter or middle winter. Bob's house also had a central hearth so I immediately discarded that devious blanket and move my hay bed closer to the hearth.
Another problem was food. This was the most essential thing that I need to tackle first. Seriously, my body already suffered from severe case of malnutrition. And despite almost all of Exton population were farmers, the harvests in each year was not enough to support the population for a whole year. It added with the fact that the villagers needed to pay tributes to Markadia Government every year. Almost all the people in Exton or every other place in the Rohrkadia had to put into starvation.
The reason it was so hard for them to increase the production, was the farmer in the peninsula only cultivate a small chunk of land that available to them, despite after the population booming since fifty years ago. The soil was simply too hard to plow with their standard iron plow and hoes. Also, instead of using seed drills they manually sow the seeds by hands which was going to take a very long time and made the seeds weren’t evenly distributed. They also used the two-year crop rotation system in which they let fallow the land after the use for a year. This made the fields unproductive for half of the time.
Hunting without a permit in Ramswood also prohibited by Markadia's law. Surprisingly even in this world, governments are prick. But even when the people from lower caste were permitted to hunt, deer population in Ramswood still wouldn't enough to supply the whole the food demands because they already hunted by the riches.
The second thing that I needed to fix was my pathetic physique. We can’t afford to be weak when some dumb-ass bandit running around chopping people’s head. This scrawny body would easily be crushed by a full grown-adult.
I needed to start an intense training for my body. Strength, endurance, dexterity, flexibility, you name it. But screw with training if I was hungry. Sigh, I really miss Helen’s protein juice.
I also needed to learn swordsmanship and marksmanship since I didn't have any immediate plan to introduced gunpowder knowledge into this world. Maybe later if I had enough power to control its distribution. I didn't want to bring out something that I couldn't control, let alone it could also potentially become a weapon of mass destruction if it fall into the wrong hands.
Honestly, I didn’t care if people die because of guns. Even without it, people would still kill each other. Guns only fasten the process. Sigh - I sounded like a republican.
But, I couldn’t let these people use guns against me, it would be bad for the story if it happened… or was it?
Anyway, as far as Karl's memories could tell, I still have numerous advantages in fighting and warfare knowledge over the majority of the people in this part of the world. Hopefully none of them were smart enough to get in my way.
Next was money. I needed to find a way to gain money in this situation. Why? I simply couldn’t feel safe without it!
For most of my lifetime, I was rarely in a situation where I had shortage of money. But now, I only had nothing but pair of coarse linen clothes which you would consider as rags in earth and a jar of wild strawberries. This shit was humiliating.
I –as some of you might guess- could probably make a lot of money using my knowledge from earth, but in the end the most important thing that people in this part or even the entire world need was food! People don’t care if this world has electricity, gizmos, or internet if there is no food, right?
I could make paper which was a lot cheaper to make than a parchment that commonly used here, I could also designed a steam power plant for electricity, Chemical factory, steam engine, and lots of other thing. But, it would be a bad business my friend.
Since there is no demand from the market simply because what people need urgently was food. After they got their food then maybe there would be demand for other thing. However, I did have some knowledge from 21st century earth that might help them -or maybe some of them- survive this great famine. And since the price of food also sky high in here, it would be fabulous business! I could become rich and they would get more foods. Everybody win.
Then, is that the reason why I was here? If not, then, is there any reason at all?
Well, maybe l could think that later after I had lots of food in my belly. Now was not the time being philosophical broody old man.
For now, let the entrepreneur be the entrepreneur.
After a few hours of thinking and mediating about my problems, I found two plausible option to attain sufficient food that I urgently need.
First option was to cultivate crops in Karl's parents’ land using better methods and tools. Thankfully in Rohrkadia there are no such thing as feudalism or manorialism where the land only owned by the nobility. It would be close to impossible for Tanne caste like Karl's parents to purchase or rent land if the system here was feudalism or manorialism.
Instead, the system used in Markadia, Banthage, Paloph and many other city-state in Rorhkadia Peninsula was fairly similar like the one used in roman antiquity.
For example in Markadia State Law, folks who were not from Bidha Caste or Slave caste were able to possess land. So even a former slave or freedman -Ebs Caste- could also purchase a land from someone. However, to cultivate and maintain a land was very hard and daunting process and often it was not worth the effort. Because of that, people often sold their own land to someone that had more wealth and resources to use the land effectively. Especially the one near the city or town where the price of lands were usually relatively high compared to the one in the edge of civilization like Exton.
Sadly for the past a hundred years people could not claim an unclaimed or abandoned land since they automatically become the property of the government, or in Markadia case, the five Royal families. Again, what a prick. But hey, at least people still could buy the land from Royals if they decided to sell the land.
It was also permitted by the Law to rent the land over another person for certain amount of time. Usually the small transaction was in verbal only, where the two people were talking to each other until they reach an agreement and use the sacred pact which was some kind of local ritual at the end to finalize the transaction. For medium scale transaction the law require another person who will act as a witness of the transaction. And for the large scale one, they also need to write the agreement into two physical evidence usually in parchments so one of the evidence could be stored in the Markadia government office.
Because Karl's memories I knew I still have Karl's parents’ 30 acres of land at the northern side of the village. And maybe I could persuade Bob to lease other villager's unused land and open new modernized farm. I could introduce a new plow, seed drills, selective breeding and the use of better fertilizer to the farm. I could also apply the Four-year crop rotation system to increase the efficiency of the land.
If I could modernized all the unused open land near Exton, I bet you, in 10 years instead of died of starvation people in Exton would die from obesity.
Other option was maybe I could be a musician or performer for the aristocrats in Markadia, I could make a guitar or other zither type instrument with Bob’s workshop. Seriously, there are so many tunes and lyrics stored in my song database. Beatles, Scorpion, Chuck Berry, and bunch other things.
But in the end, I asked myself why do I need to entertain these fucker. So I decided to choose option one.
After I figured things out, I went to Karl's uncle in his workshop just a few minute walk from his house. I saw Bob with his strange looking hammer. I was disappointed when I found out that his workshop was a simple one. It only had a stone furnace, an anvil, a grindstone, and bunch other thing that you could see in typical blacksmith forge from Hollywood medieval wannabe movie.
"Uncle Bob!"
"Oh! Hey Boy, what's the matter? Ye want to go to Ramswood again?"
"No Uncle Bob, I just want to check things in your workshop and talk to you about couple of things"
"Oh, come on in then!"
I sat on the old wooden crate next to the grindstone. Meanwhile Bob continued his work. He mended the bellows, pump more and more air in order to increase the temperature of the furnace. Apparently he was working with iron ore burned with charcoal fire, a kind of primitive method to produce wrought iron from a perspective of Professional Material Engineer like me.
"Uncle, what do want to forge?"
"Ol’ man Wilmot want couples of arrow head for the boys"
This Old man Wilmot, with age probably around 70 or 80, was the village chief of Exton. He was the one who had the largest land in Exton which probably around 300 acres. The old man originally had handed over the chief position to his son. But when his only son and daughter in law was slaughtered by the Red Swamps like half other population of Exton couple of years ago, he had to stood up into the chief position again. As a fellow old folk, I really felt sorry for this man.
Chief position in a village and town was semi-hereditary since according to Markadia Law. Chief was the title for the one who control the most land over the surrounding area. Kind of like Plutocracy in earth. But since a Chief could also split his or her land for their descendant into smaller pieces of land, It was a common occurrence in other villages that chiefs position were passed into another person who were not related with the previous Chiefs at all. When the chief hood change, they only need to report it into Markadia’s government.
Bob income mostly came from Chief Wilmot to arm the 'boys' –which was a group of six teenager who in truth were just bunch of bullies that consider themselves as militias- with cheap weapons like iron tipped wooden spears and a simple hunting bows.
But, did they honestly think some six wannabe militias could stop a seasoned bandit group like Red Swamps with some spear and hunting bows? The Red Swamps would probably crush them in seconds. But hey, let’s not judge this people since they were going to be my people in the future. And at least the weapons were good enough to give the villager the illusion to feel safer.
"Do you know how to make steel uncle bob?" I asked
"Steel? Nay Boy, only those Guild men know how to make one, me, only a self-proclaimed smith. Why ya ask?"
"Steel, I know how to make one Uncle Bob"
Bob laughed and dropped to the ground "Haha, Ye can't even use this tiny 'ammer, and how could ye know how to make steel… Boy, ye should join those mummers if you want to tell a better joke"
Fuck you Bob and Fuck your annoying Trakken accent too.
"I am not Joking Uncle, last night I had a dream about an old man... And he taught me lots of things. One of them is how to make a good steel. Just let me try it"
When Bob about to say something I used the puppy-eye technique that my granddaughter often used on me.
And it surprisingly worked.
"Er… Dream? Very well, Ol' man Wilmot’s order still three weeks away, I celd play with ye for some time"
"Okay, but we need to gather this… "
After I listed the additional ingredient of a crucible furnace construction, I also asked about the unused land surrounding the village to him. He said it is really cheap and would probably cost us about 100 Strung per year to rent an acre of land and we could also purchase the land permanently but probably cost us around 500 to 1,000 Strung per acre depends on the location.
If my plan worked, an acre of land would yield 10 times more than the normal one. For example an acre could yield 70 bushels of rye instead the normal rate of 4 to 7 bushels per acre in Exton. If the prices still stable until then, the gross income per acre would roughly around 35,000 Strung per year since the price for a bushel of rye was around 500 per bushel. It was a huge sum of money per acre. If some of you still believe this was a bad business you better bang the wall with your head.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Other operational costs like seeds, manures and couple other things maybe around 100 Strung per acre. So the total cost only 200 tops, per acre in a year. Even in unlikely event somehow the prices drop significantly to 30 Strung per bushels I would still gain a bit profit from it.
However, a significant price drop might possible if there is competition. But no thanks, I didn’t like competition. I planned to monopoly this business.
The fertile land around Exton, especially in Great Extonian Forest was huge. Probably millions of acres but most of lands were -well, a forest. The open land around Exton was about 1,000 acres and third of them was owned by Chief Wilmot.
Karl's parents have 30 acres themselves. Using the right tool and appropriate condition, each person could work with 15 acres each or even 30 acres each if they were helped by draft animals.
The only problem was the tools like steel gang plow, cultivator, roller, seed drill, thresher and a reaper would need quite amount of Strung to make, probably around 11,000 to 12,000 Strung. I knew Bob income only about 300 Strung a month and he did not have any savings or anything like that.
Hmm, Then how?
Ah, how about a crucible steel sword?
"Uncle, how much is a sword in the City cost?"
"Hmm… a long Iron swords created by guild's smith are about 50,000 each but if they are made o’ steel probably about 150,000 to 200,000 Strung"
"200,000!" It decided then, I was tempted to abandon my initial plan to cultivate Karl's ancestor land and become a smith instead.
"Then how many iron ore do you have now Uncle?"
"I ‘ave these and other half ingot from Ol’ man Wilmot, why?" he showed me about a fist of iron ore in a leather pouch.
Those should be enough to make a long sword
"Uncle, I want to forge a sword but I need iron ores, charcoal powder, bit of sand, and some pieces of glass"
"We 'ave iron ores, sand and charcoal but not glass… Only nobles in the city ‘ave one of ‘ose"
Hmm. We could use the silicon from the quartz sand to substitute the glass. It would only help to separate impurities from the metal, so the carbon from charcoal could be absorb nicely by the metal and turned it into crucible steel ingot.
"It's okay Uncle, iron ore pellets and a little bit of charcoal powder and sand were enough"
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After I left Bob's workshop, I went out to search for the clay that suitable for the new furnace. I remember from Karl's memories there was good clay sources just few miles inside of Ramswood.
But when I walked further into the woods, I couldn't find any good clay that suitable for my crucible. Just when I was about to give up, I suddenly decided to use a new route that Karl had never used before.
But suddenly caught a glimpse of a majestic and extraordinary view.
When you enter a forest you probably would not expect a gigantic sinkhole appeared out of nowhere in front of you. But that was what had happened to me.
The diameter of the sinkhole in front of me should be more than a 200 yards wide and was about 400 to 450 yards deep.
It was practically hidden from the human civilization, right in the middle of the forest and you would only be able to see them if you were close enough.
At the bottom of the sinkhole, there were a dozen of towering karst, probably made of limestone and gypsum. Those towering karst stacked together by nature as if they were chess pieces in chess board. If you have visited Zhangjiajie national forest Park in China, you could see the similarities between them.
I really wanted to go down so bad, but that would be a stupid idea. I would likely killed myself when I tried to climb down these cliffs without proper ropes and safety equipment. So I decided to leave the sinkhole for now.
I was excited when I caught a glimpse of the cliffs. It was white as if they were made out of limestone, but then near the top there are a fine line of grey then slowly became orange then red. It was clay!
If they were really clay, then the nearby area's lower soil should also had similar clay layer just below the top soil layer.
When I used my hand to dig out the top soil, I could find orange-red colored clay that could be used to make bricks and coarse pottery. Then a layer of greyish clay that could be used to make firebricks, then finally I found the layer that had lighter grey and slightly white clay, this was the clay that I need to construct my crucible.
After I got out the Ramswood, I went back to Bob's house to get a small wooden bowl. Later I used the bowl to dig out the soil in the periphery of Ramswood. The farther we got from the sinkhole the deeper I had to dig to find the clay layer. The soil was quite hard but water from nearby river also helped me soften the soil.
After I dug out the soil about three feet down, finally I got my clay.
I used a wooden barrel and filled them with clay. Unfortunately the barrel became so heavy that it almost around two hundred pounds. Fortunately the road was not rocky and bumpy from there to Exton, so I could just roll the barrel to Exton.
When I arrived at Bob's Workshop, I saw Bob currently not in.
I leave the barrel and went to search for food. Maybe I could find more wild edibles or catch some fish in the nearby river but then I remember the scene that morning and I decided against that and only search for wild edibles.
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Four days later,
Exton, 18th of Late Winter, Markadia Calendar
The crucible furnace was finished. It was made mainly from red colored clay and firebrick that made out of grey fireclay. Bob still a bit skeptical about this, but I understand. How could an eight years old have a knowledge to make a steel even if I was taught by someone in my dream it was not like I could easily replicate the method in reality.
Well, fortunately Bob was not a cynical man so it was not hard to persuade him. You just need to bullshit him a little.
After the preparation was complete, I mix all the ingredient from the formula that I often use in earth. In my youth, I often experimented with this formula. Even though I failed to recreate the steel at the first eight tries, but later on, even without using a scale I could easily measure the right composition only with using my intuition. The mixture then sealed tightly using the mix of grinded limestone and clay to prevent more charcoal to enter the mixture.
The furnace was filled with enough charcoal to melt the steel. It designed to contain the heat so that the mixture in the crucible could melt perfectly. It could make the temperature inside of the crucible to more than 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. This achieved by mending the bellows for hours. It was only two of us at first but then a fellow villager named Pateyk who was a friend of Bob also helping mending the bellows.
We burnt the mixture for couple of hours before we took the steel ingot out. In earth, normally I would not be this excited to be able to produce a crucible steel ingot, but now that was not the case. I smiled throughout the process. Bob also smiled to see the ingot that we produced after such a hard work.
After we took out the Ingot, I told Bob to hammer the ingot very gently or it would crack since this type of steel was very hard to work with.
Next, for another 12 hours of reheating and pounding with a gentle force, Bob and I could see the sword started to form. A black line in Bob's eyes suggesting that he were really tired. I also had not sleep for 24 hours.
Bob's friend, Pateyk the carpenter who also helped with mending the bellows earlier continued to help us. Pateyk and Bob followed my direction very closely. I also instructed them to carve a pentagram near the hilt to add the artistic value to the sword.
Then we arrived at the most crucial part of the process where we reheated the blade and then quenched it into a cold water. It was the riskiest process since it could crack the blade and we need to start all over again. But thankfully the blade did not cracked from the quenching process. After more reheating and pounding, we move to the polishing process.
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Exton, 23rd Late Winter Markadia Calendar
Finally, after five days of polishing and grinding the blade we added the guard and leather grip into the blade.
The final sword was very beautiful. It was not as good as the one that I made in earth but it was an excellent sword nonetheless. I could see the wood like pattern in the blade similar like the one we could normally see in Damascus steel.
When Bob test the strength of the crucible steel sword it could easily split a normal cast iron sword. It would also bent flexibly when Bob tried to thrust it into a tree.
I could see Bob expression as if as he just saw something magical. I displayed my best smug face to him "Beautiful isn't it?"
"She was gorgeous! Gods! It was eight days but it was worth it!"
"Of course, tomorrow we should go to the Trakken to auction this sword Uncle"
"What? Auction? We spent days just to forge her!"
“We should definitely sell it, it is my goal in the first place” I continued, “Uncle, Remember what I told you about an old man in my dream?”
"Aye, I remember that"
"He also taught me how to use father's land and make it more productive"
"What do ya mean by this 'more productive' thingy?"
"It means we could grow more food that any people in Exton even more than Old man Wilmot!"
"What? How much more?"
"10 times!"
"Gods! 10 times? Why people never heard it before!?"
"I don't know uncle, but that's what the old man taught me, some of them were almost magical! You could see the steel as an example! And most people probably would not believe me if I explain it to them"
"Gods! Are you sure it was 10 times?"
"Of course uncle, it is only my worst estimation, in reality it probably would increase the yield up to 20 times"
It was indeed only my worst estimation. Normally in Exton, farmer with 4 acre of land would only yield 16 to 20 bushels of rye each year. And in 4 year they could only use the land for 2 year with their 2-year crop rotation system (1 year grow, 1 year fallow, repeat). So in totals the farmer with 4 acre of land would yield 32 to 40 bushels of rye every 4 year.
Using better methods and tools, a farmer with four acre of land would yield 60 to 70 bushels of rye and 3 other crops per year. And with 4-year crop rotation system (1 year crop A, 1 year crop B, 1 year crop C, 1 year Crop D, repeat) it means that we could use the land continuously without letting them fallow for a year. So in total the farmer not only would yield 240 to 280 bushels of rye, they would also yield large amount of other crops for example Turnips, beans, and Wheat in those 4 acres in 4 year.
If we combine the total production of four crops that grown in those four acres in four years, we could get the approximation of 18 to 20 times increase in production. In the bad case scenario like there are disease or drought, we could still at least yield 10 times better than Exton current production.
"That old man in your dream must be one of the gods! First he bestow you the way of making magical sword and now this!"
Magical sword? Well, its ability was certainly out of the world. Maybe we could advertise it as a magic sword in the auction house to increase the price. People in this world loved these superstitious thing.
"Well… perhaps you are right uncle, He also taught me a lot of things after all" Evil grin displayed on my face, "So don't freak out if I have a knowledge that seems otherworldly"
"This is amazing Karl! It must be Tatia in heaven who prayed to the gods to bestow you all those knowledge!"
“Yes it is Uncle, yes indeed”
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Next day,
Exton, 24th Late Winter Markadia Calendar
Sadly for me, my worst nightmare had really come to reality. I got sick last night. Thankfully it was not diarrhea but unfortunately I didn't have any idea what kind of disease it was. I felt ache at every inch of my body. I also got a massive headache since I woke up in the morning and I felt like there is a bulging meat in my throat.
Bob who already packed for our journey to Trakken, got worried and called the widow next door Yolanda to check on me.
Despite her skin was covered with dirt and sweat, Yolanda herself was a very exquisite woman, probably the best looking woman I had ever seen since I arrived in this world. The weird thing was she looked like an 18 years old girl despite being a widow.
Did she married at 9 years old?, I thought.
However based on Karl's memories, she looked just like five years ago so that shouldn't be the case.
Her appearance reminded me of Sandra Dee back in the late 50s before she got married except Yolanda was a lot thinner than her. Yolanda tied and let her light blonde hair lie on her left shoulder. Her sharp stare showed that this woman probably very intelligent. She had one daughter at the age of seven, only a year younger than Karl.
When Yolanda arrived at our house, she told me to lie down while she observed my condition.
After a while, Bob walked into our direction and asked her "Yolanda, how is Karl? Is he okay?"
She nodded then I heard she said "He is okay, he just got cancer"
…
...
What the fuck?
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