Jay regretted offering to help expand the village. Maybe it was due to mana, but the trees were several times more durable than what they should be.

"Jax if everything is so damn hard to take apart, then how is your house even close to breaking down?"

"Oh this is Halfy wood, and it sucks up and stores the mana around it abnormally well. Davel Halfy theorized its due to the large leaves but who cares. It makes for the best wood, but it loses its characteristics without maintenance."

"Ok."

Jay must have lost something through the translation; he needed to learn the language himself somehow. Then again should he risk Mage Silvia rummaging around his memories? Who knows maybe that was simply the style of the elves?

"Hey Jax do you know anything about magic?"

"Not much; only that it can strengthen things and monsters form near lots of mana. Go ask Mage Silvia if you have questions.

Jay should have expected that response but that put him in a bit of a snag. Based on Jax's response, very little about magic was known by common folk. Wait monsters?! Huh then the psycho might not have twisted his guard dogs himself. Why didn't other fauna and even the flora like the trees attack him then? Jay concluded that maybe the mana simply amplified pre-existing tendencies to the extreme, and so maybe the psycho actually did mess with his dogs. Jay did recall a deer fleeing at what seemed to be an impossible speed when he snapped a twig.

Cutting down just one tree took half the day, and Jay knew his muscles were powered up by the mana. He mused that it would have been a nightmare to try taking this down back on Earth.

The foreman called for a food break, and many let out groans of relief. This was back breaking labor for everyone it seemed.

"Thank you very much foreman. May I know how I should refer to you?

"Oh just call me Genks. You are a lot less hopeless than some of the knuckleheads around here so I should be the one thanking you."

"You flatter me Genks."

"Well go and eat."

The ration for those working to expand the village was a simple fare. The chef scooped out a helping of stew and poured Jay a cup of water.

"You filter your water right?"

"What do you mean? We get these from his lordship."

Ugh so a Tyrant who somehow even controls the water supply.

"Is the river water not safe?"

"Well anyone who tries drinking from even boiled water ends up sick somehow."

Lovely, at least dysentry wasn't an issue. Break time lasted about a quarter of an hour, and he was back to hacking at the bases of these absurd trees.

"Seems like it would be a normal routine to cut down these trees to sell, why isn't it Jax?"

"Oh well the King doesn't want to 'waste' resources on expanding the barrier to include more land, so we have to wait for the trees to grow back. His majesty is too busy at war with the other countries."

Jax's sarcasm was palpable.

"Shut it Jax or the Kingsmen might hear ya!"

"Shut up about that. They don't care about us frontier villages. Why do you suppose they don't even have a regiment stationed nearby us?"

"You don't know that and we don't want to risk it."

Jax fell silent to that.

"Why do you people live like this Jax?"

"I don't plan to; I will become an adventurer!"

"Do they not have any requirements to start?"

"No but they do have ranks. I suppose I will start out as rank E as most do."

Ah. That's how they kept the rowdy under control. They went off in search of freedom through the adventuring system and became satisfied that way. This world was looking to be more and more like a dystopia.

The rest of the day was spent in silence. Jay finally realized why he didn't like the morning quiet of the village; they were all living in fear. Man how was he going to pursue any of his passions, because even an attempt to gather more knowledge would make waves.

Dragging the lumber back was effortless thankfully. The wood might had been difficult to cut down, but it was surprisingly light to carry.

Jay wasn't sure whether to be excited or terrified to have Mage Silvia's help. Well if he rejected to meet her it could raise some eyebrows so he didn't have much of a choice. Why did she even call out to him though? It seemed to be normal to not know how to regulate your mana intake properly based on the fact that Jay was able to keep up with the villagers.

Figuring it was foolhardy to go to a potential fight without a weapon; Jay went and grabbed his swords. After a deep breath, Jay rapped the door.

"You're finally here. You know how long I've waited?"

"But I was…"

"No buts!" Mage Silvia cut him off.

"Well go on in!" She was pointing at a barrel filled with a strange black liquid.

The furniture was sparse but the gigantic calendar spread out on one wall took Jay's attention. It read 9/32/ ADW 118. Well that shows why he didn't hear the ousos as years.

"Well respectful Mage Silvia, thank you for your consideration, but no thank you."

"If you are talking about the elf you killed, then it is fine. They take past events way too seriously. I see you're an otherworlder, but I haven't told anyone."

"How do you know that?"

"Your thoughts get carried along with the mana you bleed out. Also you were basically a government official right? You enjoy stability, or maybe my assumption isn't quite true. Oh well. The reason why I called out to you is because as it stands you will die an early death if you don't regulate your mana intake. Now that I think of it how do you exist? Hmm it probably has something to how you were summoned?"

Jay thought for sure he was screwed when Mage Silvia mentioned his past, so he had unsheathed his swords. Yeah his new abilities probably came from that. Wait, an early death!?

"Oh put those away I made it clear that I intend no harm. Wait a second; let me see one of them."

Jay didn't even express his approval but she already grabbed one of his swords, on the blade. And like he expected her hands started bleeding.

"I suppose this would be something you would expect to happen, but you don't realize how powerful your swords are. How did you manage to fuse mana into your sword?"

Wait fuse mana with his sword? What was this lady talking about?

"I don't know what you are talking about but this is simply steel."

"What is steel? Wait … a combination of iron and carbon? Wait the solid form of mana had a use other than fuel for spells?! But that doesn't make any sense, wouldn't this had been discovered by now? Hmm … there is more than that though; is that a link?"

Jay almost didn't comprehend what Mage Silvia said. Wait that made him even more like a light novel protagonist. Where was his damn harem then?

"Oh those sneaky bastards, they silenced that part of the details of the research didn't they? Well as it stands you will be discovered and executed, so in exchange of teaching you are going to help me topple a kingdom."

Jay knew his day wasn't going to end peacefully.

"But first let me fix that fluency issue with the language. You need to understand this language to be a proper mage."

Jay blacked out.