Starting from zero: growing up with knowledge from another world

Chapter 3

  The time passed with the days turning into months and then years, and I finally turned seven last month. This was a major event for me because I would now be allowed to walk around town on my own, as long as I stay away from certain areas and don't wander off with strangers. A few other things have changed for me as well, like I now have a small herb garden in the backyard, a fair distance away from the house. There are a lot of medicinal plants that only grow in certain areas and can't be cultivated outside of the areas they are naturally found in, but there is still enough here for me to practice alchemy and compounding.

I've also gotten good enough with magic that I am now able to create and use my very own spells. I was finally able to create a mirror-like surface utilizing water magic, so I am finally able to see in detail what I look like. I have 3-tone brown hair, mainly comprised of a shade of dark brown that looks like rich, moist soil, with a red-brown and forest dirt shade of medium-dark brown mixed in. I have green eyes with flecks of silver mixed in, reminding me of a galaxy of stars. I have very lightly tanned, smooth skin, characteristic of Elves, along with short pointy ears, a small nose, and thin lips. Overall, I'd say I have above-average looks, in large part due to my Elven heritage.

I also got good at using barrier magic, my barriers can now last about 12 hours if they aren't destroyed. Mom was particularly pleased that I was able to use temperature barriers, I also created one that blocked out harsh sunlight, which I use to combat the hottest days of the summer. It ended up becoming one of my chores to put up a temperature barrier around the food cellar every morning and night: A cold warding barrier around the house at night during the winter, and sunlight (UV) reducing barrier during the hottest days of summer. This, however, did help me raise my barrier magic to level 4, so there were no complaints from me.

Today I woke up, completed my morning routine (with the added barrier magic chore), and ate breakfast faster than normal. I was quite excited to be going out into town by myself for the first time. I hadn't done so over the past month or so because I was busy with my garden and finalizing some new magic I was working on. Quickly getting ready after breakfast, I said goodbye to my mom, Kaede, and her children who had grown up and probably only come back to the house for the food that I make for them, then ran out of the house heading for town.

One of the times that I was spending the day at the guild, I found a detailed map of the town that listed emergency routes and such, so I had a good understanding of the layout. I haven't received much money from my parents, a bit more than a hundred Lorn. Lorn is broken down into nine different coins, each coin worth 10 of the ones before it:

Iron bit – 1 Lorn

Small copper – 10 Lorn

Large copper – 100 Lorn

Small silver – 1,000 Lorn

Large silver – 10,000 Lorn

Small gold – 100,000 Lorn

Large gold – 1,000,000 Lorn

Small mithril – 10,000,000 Lorn

Large mithril – 100,000,000 Lorn

Gold and mithril coins are rarely used by commoners and mostly used by wealthy merchants who have as much as or more money than lesser nobles. While it doesn't yet apply to me, I've heard that guilds use a magic tool for their guild cards that have a bank-like function, so its members don't have to carry around all of their funds. They can simply withdraw or transfer those funds in a town or city where they are making the transaction or near where they are making it. I, however, only have a few Iron bits and copper coins to my name, and even if I did have more, I could just keep my coins in my item box.