Woodblock Printing

After more than a year of contact, especially working together to compile the Dictionary, Ace had confirmed that Peter was an honest man with considerable influence in the city-state's cultural circles. He was the most suitable partner.

"Please don't crack open my skull. It is an honor to work with you, Teacher."

The study was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

Ace had planned this for a long time. Through the Dictionary, he had finally gained the status, reputation, and impending Citizenship he wanted. Now, he could do the things he had once wanted to do but had not dared to.

Using woodblock printing technology, he would gradually promote the popularization of books and become the largest printer and publisher in the city-state, even across the entire Salia Peninsula. This would provide strong financial support for his research into the mysteries of the supernatural. He did not care who took the lead in the business, as long as he received a sufficient share of the profits.

He still lacked sufficient prestige and capital, making Peter the best possible partner. As for what would happen after the business grew bigger and stronger, he had papermaking and movable-type printing as his backup.

As his status rose, he could also use other technologies from his previous life to build up industries. But industry was not the goal. His goal was not to become some interdimensional trust, but to pursue the supernatural.

In this world, the absolute power of supernatural beings crushed all defiance. Everything in the mortal world was within easy reach. Thus, most heroes never cared about running industries. If they wanted something, mortals would offer it all to them. Industry was merely a tool for pursuing the path of the supernatural, not an end in itself.

Ace asked his father to find familiar carpenters and prepare blank woodblocks. Using the ink he had mixed, he prepared to begin printing. He then borrowed several of Peter's students, including Morton, the teacher who had first taught him to read and write.

Morton was deeply moved as well. In just over a year, Ace had gone from a half-grown boy who could not read a single word to the youngest Scholar in the city-state. Now, he had even gathered them to work on woodblock printing.

"Mr. Morton, seniors, thank you for coming to help. We need to spend half a month writing the Dictionary's contents onto parchment in thick ink, then quickly pasting it onto the blank woodblocks. That way, the carpenters can directly carve the reversed text for printing. This work is quite tedious, and I have caused you all a great deal of trouble. This is a small payment: fifty Silver Talers for each of you. Please do not find it too little."

Those who had been unhappy about being dragged here for manual labor felt somewhat better when they saw that they could earn fifty Silver Talers in half a month.

Studying under Teacher Peter was expensive. It cost fifty Silver Talers a month, enough to cover half a year of expenses for a family of three. Any little bit of subsidy helped.

The woodblock work progressed smoothly. Once the carving was finished, Ace entrusted Romon with the printing work.

He converted their former house in the Eighth District into a ready-made workshop, hiring seven or eight men and women for forty Copper Talers a day to print and bind the Common Tongue Dictionary.

Although there were slaves in the city-state, each one cost one to two Gold Talers, which was far too expensive.

Moreover, only nobles and citizens had the right to own slaves. The law stipulated that nobles and citizens could keep no more than twenty slaves within the city, while after purchasing land outside the city, they could keep no more than three thousand slaves.

After three hundred copies had been printed, Romon delivered the first batch to Peter's servant, Joan. He was the chief steward of Peter's household and was responsible for the actual sales. Each copy was priced at fifty Silver Talers. On the market, copying a book required paying its owner half to one Gold Taler, so this price was not expensive.

Yet after costs were deducted, they made nearly ten times the cost of each book. If production increased substantially, costs would continue to be spread thinner. It truly was a business with enormous profits.

As for what came next, if the response was good, Ace and Peter also planned to use woodblock printing for broadly popular books like Myth and Epic. Controlling the sale price and production volume would be for Joan and Romon to consider.

Ace was now completely immersed in developing his spiritual power and paid no attention to anything else. Through experimentation, he discovered several conditions that improved the effects of spiritual power training:

First was the environment. Quiet natural surroundings, the Dawn, places such as mountaintops, forests, and waterfalls—ideally rotating among them—produced excellent results;

Second was one's state of mind. Calming oneself before and after training, reducing emotional fluctuations and distracting thoughts, worked very well;

Third were objects. Training with lead objects was the most strenuous. Lead seemed highly inert toward interference from spiritual power, but the training effect was also good;

Fourth was intensity. Each training session should leave one feeling extremely exhausted while retaining just a final trace of strength. That was exactly right;

Fifth was balancing work and rest. After training once a day, one needed sufficient rest and enough nutrition.

He combined these five conditions and called them the Five-Step Meditation Method. He also bought an estate with beautiful surroundings in Buku Town, the nearest town to the city-state. Buku Town was very close to the city-state and had convenient transportation. Although a small number of Low-level Demonic Beasts appeared there, it was already far better than the wilderness.

His mother, Marina, worried about him and came along. Romon also hired two old soldiers to protect them.

Every morning, Ace quietly meditated at dawn. He then returned home and slept until noon, ate a large meal, trained martial skills with the two old soldiers, and read the assorted books he had collected at night. His routine was very regular.

After meditating with the Five-Step Meditation Method for nearly a month, Ace clearly felt that his martial skills were improving rapidly as well. All kinds of techniques came naturally to him; where his eyes went, his hands went, and his mind followed.

If he had been a little older, he would have been an exceptionally outstanding warrior among mortals. This was the benefit brought by supernatural spiritual power.

One could imagine how much more extraordinary nobles who had awakened their bloodline potential must be, while heroes with special powers were even more beyond the reach of mortals.

In the blink of an eye, the year came to an end. Ace's spiritual power had greatly increased. Previously, he could use it to lift silver objects weighing one kilogram. Now, he could lift silver objects weighing up to five kilograms. His maximum interference range had expanded from one meter around him to three meters around him.

In addition, he had gradually awakened his perception, allowing his spiritual power to more keenly sense the spiritual fluctuations of nearby living beings.

He tried controlling weapons such as iron swords and daggers, but unfortunately, their flying speed was far too slow to hurt anyone. His dream of controlling swords had been shattered immediately.

Needles, on the other hand, moved much faster when controlled, but directly killing someone with them required excessively high operational skill.

He believed the fundamental reason was that his spiritual power was not strong enough. He needed more training.

Life in Buku Town was not entirely without incident. They encountered some trouble, but whenever the old soldiers stepped in, the local thugs were nothing more than easy prey. As for those matters that reached the town Guild Hall, Ace's identity as a Scholar would show them what true despair was.

Romon had a servant deliver him a letter. It read:

"Dear Ace, Mr. Peter wants you to visit his villa soon. He has already reached an agreement with Tailos and will introduce you to study medicine under him. You are so clever that you will certainly become an excellent doctor.

"Our family's printing business is also getting better and better. The Myth and Epic we printed in cooperation with Mr. Peter have been very well received. The Dictionary has received another print run, and the city-state library has commissioned us to print three hundred copies of The Founding of Medimous. It seems they intend to distribute them to all nobles for study.

"I have also collected some fresh medicinal materials for you. You can come and see their quality."

It seemed his father had acquired some Low-level Demonic Beasts with unusual abilities. It was the perfect chance to return and study them properly. After reading the letter, Ace lit it with a candle, called for his mother Marina and the two old soldiers, packed up simply, and left Buku Town in a carriage.

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