บท 6: From Traveler to Trader
It has been one full week since John had been visiting the Silver world. In that place he was lauded as a hero and an important guest. He was taught how to wear the armor which was actually like a thin film that enveloped him and passed through his clothes. He learned it acted like a second skin to these silver men – the Hirbax, as how these alien civilization called themselves. The Hirbax had a different concept of clothing which was basically adding these layers of new materials over their body. John managed to raise their interest when he successfully brought different metallic stuff from earth.
The Hirbax were amazed with the concept of sprockets and gears when John brought his bike to this world. They remarked it was a crude but effective technology for beings who were non-metallic. A couple of ordinary things amused the Hirbax – the aluminum foil and the toilet paper. They said they would prefer to use the foil if they excreted like humans but treated the toilet paper as precious since they felt they get shinier when rubbed with the paper. Some even developed electromagnetic powers when playing around with toilet paper which raised the value of the commodity even further. It seems that electromagnetic ability raised a Hirbax's value in society. Even if that rare occurrence only happened at least 10% of those who used toilet paper it started a craze that made the Hirbax to firmly request John a trade starting with toilet paper and foil. John wasn't amused since he was just visiting this world to supposedly relieve his stress in this world, but when he was handed a gold bar for paper he suddenly changed his mind.
Is this a real gold bar John thought and the Hirbax explained that it was one of the resources the first human left them, to give it in exchange of otherworldly wares in the future. The first human taught them to shape the gold into bars and only do so in a specific weight. At first they found it funny since gold in this world is simply part of the soil. As metallic beings, they could extract certain metals with ease. However, when this first human brought strange food and things that triggered them to have more inspiration, knowledge and even powers, the entire Hirbax civilization actually made mountains of gold bars to encourage more trade with that human. Unexpectedly that human stopped visiting them without any notice, they said it has been four thousand years since the man came. John took mental notes with all the stories the Hirbax told him and decided to stock up on toilet paper and foil.
As he got to become more accepted in Hirbax society, John realized that these people hardly had names. They seemed to recognize each other by the energy they emit. They also seem to be very open in society since they could simultaneously hear different conversations in their mind. John actually took great effort to learn to focus on certain mind conversations while drowning out the noise. What he didn't know, that as he learned the culture of the Hirbax his brain capacity and processes increased. Though significantly increasing one's brain capacity in a day could kill a normal human being, with his passive regeneration John felt that learning their weird culture was natural. Unknown to John, even at earth his mind could process different thoughts simultaneously even sensing movement and live beings from around him. Though he adapted an almost photographic memory and increased mental comprehension, John intentionally made mistakes in exams and other school requirements so he could still feel he was the same.
It was already two months since he established trade relations with the Hirbax. He now had 240 gold bars scattered hidden in his family's house. He suddenly realized he couldn't cash in with these gold bars as a minor so he decided to work on it when he hits 18, after all he only used part of his weekly allowance to buy a few rolls of toilet paper and foil before trading it for a number of days. John also realized that he didn't get hungry much often if he didn't engage in sparring with the Hirbax. The schedule of sparring ended when the trade began and instead was replaced with dialogues of ideas and the differences of the laws of the two worlds.
He learned more of how the first human taught them languages from earth but through their mind since the Hirbax didn't have mouths, or at least they didn't show them when John was around. John couldn't pinpoint where the first human came from since the first human traveler taught them old Norse, Egyptian and Aztec as well as the more common old English, Latin and Greek languages. What he was somehow sure was that the first human visitor was a mage, barely moving his body, he could control elements of fire, water, earth and wind which amused the Hirbax. They even had folk tales about the human traveler as he taught some of them magic which became extinct except for some magic scrolls that were left as mementos of the ancient generation. It could also be assumed that the ice property of supposedly metallic beings was a remnant of the lost art of magic given to them during a long period of ice age in their world.
John's strength plateaued during the two months of trade but he did sharpen his mind, improved his senses and could 4 handle parallel streams of thought consciously. This improved his martial prowess that he could sense anything around him with a five-meter radius. His mana sensitivity also increased which enabled him to sense different types of mana about a mile away from him. This also made him realize that mana was present in earth thought in very minute amounts. He could sense mana from undisturbed forests or high mountains even though he was far away but what interested him was the fluctuating manas he could sense once in a while in populated places. That would mean they were people or creatures who were power users but blended with society.
By the third month, he got another 120 gold bars and decided to bury it in the backyard when everyone was asleep at midnight. Good thing he had developed night vision so burying gold bars in the dark wasn't a problem especially under the flowerbeds since the soil there was soft. He just hoped none of the flowers would die after he replanted them.
Then it hit him, why does he have to transport all the gold bars everytime he got them. Couldn't he just leave it at the Hirbax world and only get it when he isn't a minor anymore? Or better yet, what if he found someone to process things for him and give that person a share of his profits. He then learned that at times direct development of mental muscle doesn't automatically mean having more intelligence. So during his free time he became busy on finding ways on how to trade gold in a non-conspicuous way but to know success. John guessed he doesn't need be stressed out to get rich fast, but the gold hidden in his family's house would surely be found out if he didn't do something soon.
Another thing that he got his mind on is on how to close the cracks at Silver world which were basically tears in space that enabled those black wolf-dogs to pass through to the Hirbax's world. What he was sure of was that either he became powerful soon enough to mend the tear in space or he grabbed a world key of the other realm which also meant he had to be powerful to beat anyone who had a key. It was a chicken-and-egg scenario so John didn't know what to do but he hopes he would become strong enough when the tear becomes larger and another batch of the chaos beings breach the Silver world again, as this was the only time he could also cross into their world.
The months-old routine of John kept him from spending most of his free afternoons with his close friends. They thought either he joined a club, got a new hobby or is dating someone new, which is quite improbable for an introvert like John. What John didn't know was that he was already being independently monitored by both the Principal and Berty even though he completely hid his powers and abilities. What made this old men wary of him wasn't because they knew he had powers but rather he was the only teenager that was being avoided by mana particles in the earth's atmosphere that he stuck out like a sore thumb for the old paragons who could detect the faintest of diffused mana in the air. Fortunately for John, the old paragons have too much to handle at their plate recruiting those young men and women who had already manifested their powers so John wasn't exactly top priority. Also the Gatekeeper is a relatively new paragon in human years so his mana detection wasn't so refined like the old powerhouses.
It would just be a matter of time though before John would use his powers in his world. He didn't know that while he was busy trading with the Hirbax for months, dozens of people have been using their powers irresponsibly which resulted into fires, earthquakes, power failure and human casualties for the last 3 months. Of course when it was reported in the media, it would sound boring and had no statement of what caused these crisis events.
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