The Hidden Valley [2]

Before getting into other random stuff, let's talk about the history of the paper of the Earth.

Paper was first invented by Ancient China, the first known manufacture of paper dates to about A.D. 100. It's actually not that ancient, considering papyrus, other leaf-based sheets, or even animal skin used as writing media all around the world before that. But yeah, the earliest paper was Made in China.

Paper was produced from fabric fibers. The procedure implied: (1) The pulping stage, disintegration in water with additive; (2) Sheet formation stage, pouring the pulp into the sieve for dewatering and random interlacing of fibers; (3) Finishing stage, drying and smoothening.

It wasn't until the 18th Century with the advancement of civilization, in general, led to industrial papermaking. In 1719 Ferchault de Réaumur suggested the idea, and about half a century later Friedrich Keller developed the use of wood fibers for paper production.

It was until 1798 that the first paper machine that produced a long, endless paper web invented by Nicholas Louis Robert. The machine was able to produce 15 meters of paper at that time. Since then the industrial papermaking began to take a leap and bound. It also raises some environmental issues, but let's not delve deeper into tree hugger stuff.

The ancient paper of Chinese was made by dissolving wood fibers (from paper mulberry) inside water for half a year before drying it for another several weeks. It then pounded into pulp. As for the rest (sheet forming and finishing), it only needs a night or so.

Yeah, the traditional papermaking was that tedious and time-consuming. The first step took too much time because it depends on water to dissolve the wood into fibers. But that concern was no problem in the modern papermaking industry. There was a dissolving agent(deformer) to bleach and pulverize(pulping) the wood.

And somehow, there was a detailed paper(.pdf files) of the paper machine and everything its need. Starting from the machine, the control system, the chemicals for dissolving agents, and also a detailed production line with feasible materials. Powered by magic-driven electric generator and magic-computer as the control system.

The magic-driven electric generator was a mesh up of magic and electric generator.

There is a material called *managmite*, it's a naturally formed metal that is native of this world. It contained three natural elements: the first is a mineral with the same atomic number as the Fe-26 but it was not quite the iron; around 17,71% is of Co-27, and 2,42% is Ni-28.

The only thing that different is the Fe-like elements but not an actual iron. Iron(Fe) is the fifth most abundant mineral on earth. Some scientists believe that iron was not naturally formed on earth, but rather come from the space in the form of a meteor. This element was ..., actually having the same atomic number as ferrum but denser and having different chemical and physical properties than the said element.

Marth thought that there was no way that two atoms with the same atomic number could have two different characteristics. After all, the atom on the periodic table was of its most fundamental form(not quite right, actually). But this element is the same as Fe-26 and its isotope, but also not the same.

The most defining trait and characteristic that differentiate these elements with the traditional(Earth) Fe was that this has other properties, that is *manamagnetic*. It's a special property to draw or avoid Magic Power and store (or reject) it, pretty much the same principle with magnet and battery. These properties were never to be found on the magic-less earth.

The author of the .pdf files, and also the creator of the tablet seems to call these magical atoms with the same name as on the periodic table but with added prefix m stand to magic on it. And there was quite a lot of m-X in this world. The first period didn't have such m-H or m-He, but the second period, all the metal to metalloid have the m-X version. It seems that gas-state magical atom was hard to be found.

I think it's time to stop with the prolonged talk about another world magical chemistry, and let's recap what we have here.

To make a fully-automated paper machine(or any modern manufacturing machine) he needs to make a generator and computer. This sounds like leaping too many steps on the tech tree, but actually, he could make it right here and then.

He found that very *managmite* with a high degree of *manamagnetism* in a pure accident.

◊ ◊ ◊

This was what happens at the time.

It was Freitag already, it was already a week since he reincarnated into Marth Zwarteschwan. Though his mind remembered it still on his sixth day because of the strange disappearance of his Monday.

His routine was to be a masochist in the morning, overseeing the worker(slave) on their job before the lunchtime, continue with learning [Dark] magic in the noon until the day darkened. And then, after dinner, he gave a short course to the slaves.

This morning, somehow he didn't need to undergo that hellish/masochistic training with his Master, Lin Yue. The first light of the daybreak, she grabbed a horse from the stable and brought him on a ride. She only brought one horse, and with his short stature of a boy, the two of them could mount this horse without a problem.

Marth was perplexed by this sudden ride and puzzled by her. But then he completely forgets all of that question out of his mind and enjoys the rare journey with his master. Though she was somewhat a sadist when it comes to training, she was ..., indeed, such a good woman. With him riding on the back, he hugged that snake-like slender waist to his heart content.

On the journey, he thought, 'Finally, some breather ...' but never crossed in his mind that this ride was actually a prelude to another hell.

The horse finally stopped in the short mountain with a gentle slope. The mountain was located eastern from the Winter Mansion. It wouldn't be wrong to call it a hill, but it was still a mountain in essence because the height reached thousand of meters above the water surface.

"Get down!" said Lin Yue.

"..." wordlessly, he jumped down from the horse.

"The time limit is lunchtime, haiya~!" Lin Yue pointed at the Winter Mansion that could be seen albeit vaguely, "Run back to the mansion! You can use your magic or other skill if you feel need to, yano~ ..., Now, go!"

'Huh, wait ..., what?'

He thought that his ear starting to hearing some strange thing so he glanced at Lin Yue with a questioning gaze. But the woman with narrow-slit eyes glanced back with her ever seemingly closed eyes.

"What's wrong? Why aren't ya running already yaka~? If you don't start running, you'll miss your lunch, yano~!"

"..., is this also training?" he asked, empathizing the last word.

"Isn't that given? Why I'd bother to bring ya to this place if not for that yara?"

'This poisonous sadist woman ...'

"Grmph ...," he grumbled and started to run heading back to the mansion.

Just when he thought that this was his long-awaited free day, Today is Freitag, shouldn't this supposed to become his free day? But what kind of poisonous thought run through this woman that was also his master.

Suddenly brought him to a mountain, and then dropped him in the middle of it. And told him to run down the mount ..., what kind of ..., what kind of exhausting punishment is this? He doesn't deserve to receive such punishment like this at all!

"And if you fail to reach the mansion before the time limit ..., Just remember what happened four days ago, yana!" shouted Lin Yue.

Marth involuntarily gulped hard his spit, that day he fainted because of his body reached its limit. It was his first time fainting from exhausting energy too much than his body could tolerate.

That hellish training was too traumatic that he subconsciously trying to behave obediently in front of Lin Yue. As to not pricked her ire.

'It's good that I'm running down the hill.'

Because there was a force called gravity, he could run without wasting too much energy.

There weren't many obstacles on this terrain, just some boulders and pine trees. There was a small stream, but it runs straight parallel with his destination.

He ran through the pine woodland, it's a bit humid and wet. Although it was Summer already, this area still retains its humidity because of the row of pine trees.

The color of dead chlorophyll filled the woodland ground, dried and fresh pine spike-leaves scattered everywhere on it. And such, he runs down with his vision focused on his front.

Snap ...

But then ..., he tripped on something, possibly a trap wire because there was a snapping sound right after.

Hsyunng ...

There was a sound of something fast splitting the wind. He looked around to see what was the source of that worrying sound.

'This ...,'

He widened his eyes after noticing something coming from his back. It was a fricking sharpened wooden log like that used as a battering ram! The log has a length of around 8 meters and the diameter was around one and a half meters. Connected with two strong ropes on another rope that tied in between two pine trees, it was swinging very fast at him!

He dodged the trap by doing tiger leap to one side and rolled on the ground.

With his rugged breath and hurried heartbeat, he looked at the dangerous trap.

'What the hell was that?!?'

Just who was it, who was this vicious trap-maker to put this lethal trap in this kind of friendly environment?

Moreover, it was quite a precise trap that looks like it'd hit him. If he was somehow unable to dodge it, he would be dead for sure.

No, death was unlikely, but he'd be gravely injured.

He brushed off the dirt and leaves stuck on his training attire and continue running downward. It was cautious jog at first, it then turned into the same pace as before.

But then, he stepped on the strange ground that produced yet another strange sounds. Learning from the prior experience, he leaped to another direction and waited for the trap to work.

Grabbag ...

The pine leaves and twigs that seemingly looked normal just before dropped as if there was a pit beneath it. A pitfall revealed itself, and it was quite deep actually. Around two meters or so.

'Before it was a wooden log, and now this? I wonder, is setting up a traps kind of trend in this place nowadays ... As if!

Now, he felt suspicious of these traps. This land was barren with declining wildlife, probably because the woodland couldn't hold the natural ecosystem of the animals.

There were some components of the ecosystem that seems like missing, extinct, and it made this region barren. Even though it was a lush and healthy forest some years ago, now it was only a wide woodland.

Preparing a trap in this place was something like a waste of time and energy. And if not because someone to bored and without not much thing to do, there wasn't anyone who'd willing to set up traps in this place.

As if matching the timing, Lin Yue came still on top of the horse and said.

"I forget to tell ya this, Marth-boya. This mountain is filled with traps and pitfalls, so please be careful if ya don't wanna get caught in those traps, yana~!"

"So it's you!" he shouted at her, unable to cope up with his frustration.

On that, the oriental woman just tilted her head and said, "Hmm ..., don't worry, it won't kill you, yano~! I didn't smear poison in those traps, so don't ya worry 'bout that."

'No, this itself is very weird you know? What are you trying to do? Are you trying to kill me?'

"Grmphhh ..." he grumbled once again.

'She said I can use magic right ...?'

He looked around on the pinewood, a trap could only work when one didn't aware of it. And animals or small critters have a little of awareness and intellect so it could be trapped quite easily.

'I just need to know the trap's location and avoid it ...'

And he learned a spell for this exact purpose.

"/a/--▪egal▪--/er/." "▪we▫ef▫er▪--▪ze▪--▪ef▫e▪--▪i▫je▫e▫ex▫ve▫(100)▪" "▪u▫ve▫we▪--▪ze▪--▪egal▪--▪er▫e▫pe▪--▪be▫ze▫e▫u▪--▪ef▫we▪--▪ka▫i▫er▫ge▫je▪" "▪je▫ve▫er▫i▫te▫ye▫(ze)▪"1

A long-winded magic spell that was really difficult to spell. This magic spell was of [Dark] magic system.

Well, he didn't learn that one peculiar spell. Rather, he understands the system itself and then created this spell here and now.

[Elemental] magic relied heavily on magician's knowledge about natures and elements. The incantation and magic spell was never worth mentioning and he could change it at will. As long as the right image formed in one's mind and the common sense of the world(or the magician) related to the image, a spell could be cast.

That works very different with [Dark] magic, and of course with the [Light] magic too. Let's talk about the [Dark] magic first, because right at the moment Marth used one.

Most of the cases of, [Dark] magic didn't use any mental image or the likes. It relied not on the magician own thought, but on the incantation.

[Dark] magic has this rigid set of rules in incantation and magic spell before it could cast the magic. Actually, it was some kind of structured command in language that the magician knew and then encrypted. It then became some kind of weird incantation.

For reference, the first spell he said was the encryption header. And what he said after was the spell content.

The encryption header expressed into something like this: /a/ was the same as 'a' vowel, ▪egal▪ is a separate function which means 'equal' or simply '=', and /er/ stand for 'r'.

That expression indicated that 'a' will be encrypted as 'r'. The decrypted version of the spell was something like this.

for i in range(100):

 def i = any kind of traps

 search(i)

Yeah, it looks like some kind of modern programming language. Actually, this was the best and simplest way to express the spell that needs simplicity but definite arguments and function.

By the way, this is what a normal [Dark] spells looked like (decrypted version).

I command darkness to abide by my will. The ...(long-winded paragraph of magical incantation that the author didn't bother to write)

And the mage who cast it must encrypt it into that nonsensical sounding spells. The more complex the encryption of the spell, the Magic Power used becomes lesser. It was still a mystery to be solved, but that's how it works.

It would be a pain in the ass to encrypt a paragraph of 200 characters, so programming language was the way to go. It halved the characters and it was easy to remember.

The spell worked perfectly, costing 5 Magic Power and the spell lasted for 30 minutes. He could detect any kind of traps in a radius of 100 meters from him.

On his vision, there were dark lines and stroke or something added. This was the outline of those traps and its trigger. He could see all of it despite it was hidden.

'With this ..., I can avoid these bloody traps.'

With that spell, it was a walk in the park. He avoided the triggers and run through the hill without much difficulty.

This even surprised Lin Yue who was the one who laid down all of those carefully prepared traps. While watching at the boy who was running downhill, she began thinking about some trapping plan and location for the next downhill rush.

'Still, isn't this way too many? Master Lin set those traps in just three days, I wonder how she did all of that ...'

He heard from Rosetta that whenever the morning(masochistic) training end, Lin Yue would go out of the mansion. Though he never asked where she went and didn't bother with her business. But now, he finally knows why she did that.

It was to prepare all of these traps!

'Fuck you, Lin Yue! No, I'll definitely fuck you!'

The grudge on his heart to his master of the sword accumulated until it becomes incurable. He really bore grudge into her, in some way or another.

'Huhh ..., what's that?'

He found some unusual terrain and trapping. It was clearing into a rocky valley. There was a large circular 'trap' outline detected from his spell on the valley's entrance. The only thing that differs from this trap from the rest was that this one has the sign of the usage of magic.

It was too conspicuous to be a trap. Just what was Lin Yue thinking when she put that kind of easy to avoid the trap? But this kind of easy trap sparked his curiosity even more.

He walked cautiously to that place. And he learned about some minor details. This trap definitely wasn't Lin Yue's.

All of the other traps he encountered along the way was new, he could tell because of the materials used.

But this trap, it was never something that has a similar meaning with the word new.

The trap was a [Magic Trap] engraved in the stone wall of the valley. It was hidden quite well but because of its size, if one pays attention to the surrounding careful enough, then they could notice this trap.

From the carving, it was apparent that this trap was carved on this rock for more than a year.

'If someone bothers to put a magic trap in this kind of place, then there must be something hidden in that valley ...'

His train of thought was not false in any way, but ...

'I won't bother in exploring what's in there though ...'

Marth was not someone who rashly rush into something without investigating and preparing it beforehand. Even if he found something amiss with this valley entrance and somewhat curious about it, he wouldn't enter it here and now.

"I should continue running ...," muttered Marth.

When he turned his head to one side, he noticed something that pricked his interest.

'That is ..., this natural crevice, and this ..., a mineral vein!'