Micro’s meeting with Margo went on for several hours, though to her it felt like several months of her life had suddenly been swept away. Each task Micro described required ever more explanations, until even Margo’s desk was covered in notes. Blue, Kolt, and Spark had gone outside to play in the yard while Micro spoke with Margo. Kira and Arbur were helpful in explaining Margo’s problems to Micro, and they were also able to help Margo understand Micro’s requests. They had grown accustomed to many of the strange terms he frequently used, and could translate much of what he said into comprehensible instructions. After reviewing a crude map of the town, several projects were planned.

  “If only you cultivators could add hours to a day…” Margo sighed as she wrote the last of Micro’s orders.

  “Well, time is tricky, but actually—” Micro began to explain, recalling his odd experiences with time in dungeons.

  “Another time, please,” Margo said with her hands up. “I can’t…”

  “She’s very tired now, master,” Kira said softly to Micro, who turned and nodded apologetically in reply.

  “Get some rest before you get to work!” Micro said happily to Margo, who only had the strength to stare blankly at the dense pile of contracts before her. “Overheating doesn’t get you anywhere!”

  First, a paper factory would be constructed near a sawmill, though the sawmill itself would undergo some renovations and expansion. Margo was shocked to learn that sawdust was the main ingredient in some types of paper, as paper’s manufacturing process had long been a protected secret of the neighbouring kingdom. Micro wasn’t sure exactly how it was made, having only overheard conversations about it between the old man and his son, but he assured Margo that he would fund the project from the research phase to production and distribution.

  Second, Margo would commission a reputable nomadic sect to patrol the road and enforce several important traffic laws as dictated by Micro. His list of rules quickly grew long and complicated, but Kira was helpful in simplifying them for the time being. Micro was reluctant to concede that speed limits weren’t worth enforcing in the absence of trucks, but he had to admit that such speeds were unlikely to be commonly reached on foot. He was relieved to hear that it wouldn’t take long to install a number of signs along the road to remind people of the rules and other important information.

  Finally, Micro detailed the location of the paths he had carved through the forest to the west. It took some time to convince Margo that the project would be safe, as long as they hired protection, and the plan was finalized.

  However, Micro also suggested a number of other institutions to construct in the town based on what he had seen outside. He had been surprised to learn that no schools or hospitals had been built yet. While Margo was mostly exhausted by his long and unclear explanations of the many buildings he’d driven past on his own world, and Arbur struggled to understand him, Kira greatly enjoyed listening to every description of otherworldly culture Micro offered. As their meeting ran late into the night, they finally concluded the terms of a building contract, and Micro paid the price of the commission in full. He left her with extra gold to cover any unforeseen expenses that should arise, but still had several dozen gold coins left in his storage.

  “Now get out of here!” Margo said at the end of the meeting. “I’m going to enjoy one last night of sleep before tackling this. If I die before you visit again, give my successor less work.”

  “You would like the Sleepless Trait Core Card if you were a cultivator,” Micro smiled.

  “What’s that?” Margo asked suspiciously.

  “It makes it so I don’t need sleep anymore, so I’ll never sleep again,” Micro replied. “No more nightmares, and so much more time to work!”

  “And that will be a long time, since you’re immortal now,” Kira added.

  “Where did you come from…” Margo shook her head and waved them away, and they found Kolt, Blue, and Spark sleeping on the yard in the space where they had been noisily playing. Kira yawned as she stepped outside, and Micro picked Spark up off the ground.

  “Let’s get you home now,” Micro said to the small girl in his arms, stirring her from a deep sleep.

  “That way,” Spark said sleepily, pointing across the street, struggling not to fall asleep. “Ember is probably working… now…”

  Kira woke Kolt and Blue, and Spark led the group through the dark, quiet streets until they arrived at a relatively large home. Dark smoke billowed out of a chimney, and the front of the house was littered with scraps of metal and piles of wood and coal, but the house itself seemed to be of good quality when compared with its neighbours. Micro hesitated before knocking on the door, but it suddenly flung open with a gust of wind to reveal the angriest person he’d seen in a long time.

  “You brat!” Ember shouted at Spark, who crawled out of Micro’s arms and climbed back up on his shoulders. “I don’t have time to chase you around everyday with all that’s going on—”

  “Hello there,” Micro said, with a wave, though it took Ember’s tired eyes a moment to find him in the doorway.

  “You…” Ember mumbled with an eerie rasp in her voice. She looked around at his silent party, who waited in silence for one of them to speak.

  “I forgot to ask Margo if there is a place we can stay for the night,” Micro said. “Do you recommend anywhere in town?”

  “Sometimes I can’t tell if Micro has a lot of friends or none at all,” Kolt whispered to his sister.

  “I think he’s popular,” Kira whispered back with a similar look of confusion. “But I’m not sure how popular…”

  “Just give me the brat,” Ember said to Micro. Her expression was nothing like the fierce gaze she wore the last time Micro saw her, and she began to cough. After catching her breath, she shook her head and held out her hands, still wheezing. “Come on, pass the runt. You can all sleep here, but keep it down. Our parents are already in bed.”

  “Bed? Oh, beds for humans, right…” Micro picked the child off his shoulders and handed her to Ember. Spark squirmed at first, but soon fell asleep with her head on her older sister’s shoulder. They followed Ember into the dark house, and she pointed to the ground near a table.

  “Sleep there. I’ll get some blankets,” Ember whispered. “Don’t break anything that Spark hasn’t already broken.”

  “This is a bigger house than your other one,” Micro said.

  “Business has been rough, but there’s been a lot of it,” Ember replied while moving some furniture around. “Most of the houses in our hometown were wiped out by the purple fire, so there was a lot of business all at once, and…”

  Kolt didn’t wait for Ember to return before flopping down onto the wooden floor and falling into a deep sleep. Trill tumbled half way out of his pocket as he rolled over, but Trill was already snoring. When Ember returned, Arbur politely took the blankets and neatly set up a place for himself and Kira, and covered the snoring Kolt with one.

  “Anyways…” Ember mumbled. “Goodnight.”

  Micro smiled as his exhausted friends fell quickly to sleep, though he felt slightly lonely when even Ember and Spark disappeared into another room for the night. The house was quiet, apart from the dying fire burning in the workshop at the back of the house. Micro wandered over to it for no particular reason, and then noticed a familiar presence.

  “Oh, hello again,” Micro said, waving to the big hammer resting on an anvil. It was an ordinary hammer, but it seemed to glow with a different kind of energy than he normally worked with in cultivation. It felt more like the aura the soul within his core emitted. “You look well.”

  Though the hammer didn’t reply with words, Micro clearly felt its thoughts, especially after picking the tool up in his hands. He sat by the fireplace and continued to speak to it throughout the night, asking about its experiences, the things it had made, and the people it had served. The hammer was just as curious as Micro, and they exchanged the knowledge they had about the metals of their respective worlds.

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  ~

  When morning came, the old blacksmith, Kern, was so startled by the sight of Micro holding his old hammer that he stumbled backward into a cabinet, knocking all sorts of things to the ground with a loud crash. His wife raced down the stairs to find Micro helping him up, and Ember arrived in time to explain the situation.

  “It’s the second time your family has put a roof over my head,” Micro said with a deep bow to Kern and his wife. “I’m sorry to disturb you during such a busy time.”

  “I am Arbur, disciple of the Truck Sect,” Arbur said with an air of pride, though the dignity of his actions was undercut by his tattered robes and messy hair. He bowed beside Micro with a salute. “I am honoured to be a guest in your fine home.”

  “Thanks for the blankets,” Kira added, imitating Arbur’s bow. “I’m Kira.”

  “Oh—umm, thanks…” Kolt added, but he was distracted by Ember, whose face he hadn’t seen properly in the dark of the previous night. “You can call me Kolt. Your name was Ember, right? It’s, umm—”

  “What are you doing with my hammer?” Ember snapped at Micro, marching forward to grab it out of his hands. He relinquished the tool, and it settled in Ember’s hands comfortably.

  “We were just talking,” Micro replied. “It’s seen six generations of your family working harder and harder… You’ve done well to end up in a nice place like this. It’s happy for you, but it wants you to make more of the things you enjoy making.”

  “How insane are you?” Ember scoffed. “Don’t make me regret taking a cultivator into my home a second time.”

  “Your home?” Kern laughed. “Excuse me, but—”

  “Yes, my home, father,” Ember rolled her eyes. “How about you go back to bed before your knee starts acting up again, huh? You’ve only been able to walk for a few weeks, so don’t push your luck.”

  “You can’t talk to me like—” Kern protested, but Ember glared back.

  “I said go to your room,” Ember growled at her father.

  “Hmph!” Kern cleared his throat and clapped his hands as he turned to leave. “I just came down for some water. I’ll leave you to it then…”

  “I’ll go see the guild about this week’s orders,” Barb said to Ember, then placed a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. She looked back at Micro and smiled. “I’m glad you’re alright, child. I wish we could welcome you properly, but our good fortune has been matched by all sorts of trouble this winter.”

  “It’s nice to see you all in good health,” Micro replied. “Have a nice trip, and watch out for rocks in the road.”

  “I will, darling,” Barb said with a weary smile, then made her way out.

  Some of Ember’s stress seemed to dissipate when Spark began playing with Blue in the large room where everyone had slept, and she placed some bread and cheese on the table for everyone to eat. She gently placed her hammer back on the anvil in the next room over, then joined the group to eat.

  “Bread and cheese sure are popular on this world,” Micro remarked.

  “Of course it is,” Ember spat before she had taken a bite. “It’s winter.”

  “Ah!” Micro clapped his hands once and smiled. “Seasonal crops!”

  “You going to be stirring up trouble here for long?” Ember asked with a sour expression.

  “I’m sure we’ll be in trouble again soon,” Micro said with a wry smile. “But I heard things have been tough for your family recently.”

  “Who’s big mouth did that news come from?” Ember asked incredulously with a mouthful of bread.

  “The hammer,” Micro answered, pointing to the other room. “You’ve been doing most of the work since your father’s injury, but you’ve had to outsource a lot of it because of the amount of orders.”

  “Wha—” Ember gasped. She leaned back with a disturbed look. “That’s true, but how…”

  “And now with some orders changing every week, it’s hard to keep up,” Micro continued with a sympathetic expression. “Now you have supply issues too, since the other blacksmiths moved into town. I can’t imagine how you’ve managed the logistics of so many orders without a truck.”

  “What are you…” Ember began to argue, but she soon leaned back in her chair in resignation. “That’s about right, actually…”

  “A lot has changed since last time I saw you,” Micro said to Ember while the others continued to eat. “You look tired.”

  “Why not take a break?” Kolt asked with his mouth full.

  “Another blacksmith in town delayed orders for that blasted sect last month,” Ember said with a bitter tone. “Their shop was reduced to ashes days later. Even if we pack up and run, where would we go? We survive on old contracts, but now there’s more competition than ever. And we couldn’t run far enough if we tried…”

  “Business is tough here…” Micro nodded, frowning as he thought about the situation. “There’s just so much missing…”

  “What do you make?” Kira asked after finishing her small meal.

  “Everything,” Ember said proudly, but fatigue soon returned to her voice. “Too much of everything. Mostly shields before, but we’ve had order for all sorts of weapons. Strange orders too…”

  “Strange?” Kira asked.

  “I’ll show you…” Ember replied, then went away to fetch something from behind the shed near the house. She returned with a small metal object made of copper.

  “That’s cute,” Kira said as Ember handed her the object. “It looks like a bear, or maybe a mouse.”

  “I’m not sure what it is,” Ember shrugged. “Vale’s group started asking for these things after increasing his regular weapons orders. We’re behind on the training swords he asked for this week, but he needed these copper statue things all of a sudden.”

  Kira passed it to the curious Micro, who enjoyed the feeling of polished copper in his hands. Though it was pure copper, it still hadn’t begun to corrode, and felt smooth to the touch.

  “This is really, nice…” Micro began to say, but as he turned it over in his hands, his smile faded. Kira and Arbur both noticed the expression that not adorned his face. “Oh dear…”

  “Hey, what’s wrong with it?” Ember frowned. “Don’t cultivators like weird toys like that?”

  “It’s well made…” Micro replied slowly. “You do very good work… But these markings on the bottom…”

  “There were a few other patterns they ordered,” Ember said. “They’re as good as anybody can make. What’s your problem?”

  “I recognize them,” Micro said.

  “Master, could it be…” Arbur said quietly.

  “When Cerena was summoned, they used lots of statues with these markings on them,” Micro explained to Ember. “Just like these…”

  “Who’s Cerena?” Ember asked in frustration, but the aura of fear around Kolt and Kira made her lean back in her chair. “Summoned? Like, a hero? I don’t have time for that nonsense right now.”

  “Vale, the cousin of your benefactor, reported you to the empire when he found out you were summoned by magicians, did he not?” Arbur asked. “What use could he have for objects used in magical summonings?”

  “Ember, you should stop making these, and recycle the ones you have,” Micro said solemnly. “They’re dangerous.”

  “What?!” Ember screeched, drawing a confused look from Spark, who was still playing with Blue in the next room. “My life is on the line with these orders!”

  “I’ll give you all the gold you need to cancel those orders,” Micro replied. “If another person like Cerena shows up, this whole town may disappear, along with everyone in it.”

  “Not just one town…” Arbur added.

  “Master Lena said Cerena could probably lift a mountain up over her head and throw it across an ocean without breaking a sweat,” Kolt added. “Just being near her almost killed us. Even Master Lena could barely stay awake back then—”

  “Magicians are always coming and going,” Ember interrupted them. “They don’t bother us, and we don’t bother them. Why should I care what happens between cultivators and magical people? Just let me work in peace. Let Vale, those magicians, or whoever else is in town this week play with their weird statues! It’s none of my business…!”

  “Excuse me, you lowly—” Arbur began to shout, but a quick glance from Micro silenced him.

  “I’ll take care of this,” Micro said calmly. “I’ll talk to Kel, and we’ll find out what’s going on with Vale before it’s too late.”

  “How many more orders for those statues are there?” Micro asked Ember as he stood up to leave in a hurry.

  “They picked up the last of these two days ago…” Ember replied with a frown. “It’s mostly weapons this week…”

  “Oh dear…” Micro sighed, and hurried his pace. His friends quickly stood up and chased after him.

  “I’d like to see more of the things you make some time!” Kira called back to Ember as she was ushered out the door. “Stay safe!”

  “Sure…” Ember replied awkwardly.

  “Bye, Micro…” Spark was sad to see them leave, but Ember pulled her younger sister inside and slammed the door.

  ~

  “Magicians in a town like this…?” Arbur thought aloud as they stepped into the busy street. “What happened to my sect could happen everywhere at this rate.”

  “Are they hiding in the town?” Kira asked Micro. “Could they be in the mine itself?”

  “Well, that brings back some unpleasant memories,” Blue murmured. “So many caves…”

  “Wait for a moment,” Micro said, ushering his party to the side of the street, where he closed his eyes and began to meditate. Morning traffic was already picking up, but people politely walked around Micro and his friends. Micro opened his senses to the world around him, feeling the energy that flowed in the air and beneath his feet. With the Mycelial Art, he then rooted himself to the ground and began to extend his roots as far as he could in every direction. He was able to extend a thin network of roots to the very edge of the town, and deep into the mountain. However, he didn’t simply absorb the energy he found.

  “What are you looking for?” Blue asked, growing impatient as Micro searched the area. “We already know where Kel’s hill is.”

  “I found it,” Micro replied.

  “What did you find?” Kira asked.

  “A few kilometres that way,” Micro answered, relaxing his energy and pointing to the left of the mountain overshadowing the town. “There’s chaos energy there.”