Chapter 104 - 103: A Little Economy

Chapter 104: Chapter 103: A Little Economy

By afternoon, Velaris had developed another problem.

Food.

Not because there was none.

Because everyone had different amounts of it.

Iris noticed it while walking past one of the garden villas.

A small group of residents had gathered outside one of the entrances, and at the center of the group was a woman holding a packet of instant noodles.

"How much?"

"Two Copper."

"Two? For one?"

"I have to use my own water and fuel."

"Then one Copper."

"One and a half."

"Fine."

Iris slowed to a stop.

She watched the transaction take place.

The woman handed over the packet.

The other resident passed her the agreed amount of Copper.

Both checked what they had received before walking away, apparently satisfied with the exchange.

Iris stared after them.

She had not organized that.

Nobody had asked her to create a market.

There had been no announcement from the Village Center telling people to trade food.

The residents had simply started doing it themselves.

And apparently, food was becoming one of the first things people were willing to spend money on.

Iris looked around.

It made sense when she thought about it.

Not everyone had arrived in Velaris with the same supplies.

Some people had managed to keep packaged food in their spaces before coming here.

Others had almost nothing left.

Someone might have ramen.

Someone else might have canned meat.

Another person might have rice.

Someone else might have preserved vegetables or other ingredients.

Even when people had enough food to survive, they might not have enough variety to make their meals enjoyable.

And if one person had something another person wanted, why not trade?

Iris continued down the road.

She passed another small group sitting outside a villa.

One person was holding several cans while another had a small bag of rice.

They were discussing an exchange.

The quantities were small.

Nothing about it looked like a business.

There were no stalls.

No signs.

No merchants shouting prices.

Just survivors figuring out how to make use of what they had.

Iris smiled slightly.

This was how things were supposed to develop.

Naturally.

She did not need to control every interaction.

She only needed to make sure people had the freedom and means to interact with one another.

Her thoughts shifted when she noticed a group returning from the edge of the settlement.

They were scavengers.

Several residents were carrying bundles in their arms while another dragged a sack across the ground.

They dropped their findings in a small pile.

Plants.

Wood.

Stone.

A few pieces of metal.

Nothing particularly impressive.

But useful.

One of the men reached into the pile and pulled out something strange.

It was a mushroom.

He held it up between two fingers.

"I found this outside."

Another resident immediately shook his head.

"Don’t eat that."

The man frowned.

"Why?"

"Because I don’t know what it is."

"Then how do you know it’s poisonous?"

"I don’t."

The man stared at him.

"That is not helpful."

Iris almost laughed.

Almost.

Instead, she walked closer.

"Let me see."

The man handed the mushroom to her.

Iris examined it.

It looked ordinary enough.

That was exactly what made mushrooms dangerous.

Something could look perfectly harmless and still be poisonous.

She handed it back.

"Don’t eat it yet."

The man lowered his hand.

"Why?"

"I’m not sure what it is. Let’s figure that out first."

The others nodded.

The man carefully put the mushroom back into the pile instead of throwing it away.

Iris’s gaze lingered on it.

Then a thought surfaced.

She had noticed something before.

At first, it had seemed too insignificant to matter.

No one in Velaris had gotten sick from eating something they had found inside the territory.

Not once.

She had seen people gather plants.

People had cooked with ingredients they had brought from the surrounding area.

Others had experimented with food they had found while scavenging.

There had been no cases of someone accidentally consuming something poisonous within the territory.

Outside Velaris, that was a different story.

Poisonous plants were common.

Contaminated food could be dangerous.

Even materials that appeared harmless could carry toxins.

Scavenging outside the territory was never completely safe.

But inside Velaris?

Nothing had happened.

Iris frowned.

She opened the Lord’s Panel.

The familiar interface appeared.

She moved through the territory information until she found what she was looking for.

Her eyes widened slightly.

There it was.

The territory itself provided a form of protection.

When Velaris had been established, harmful toxins and poisonous substances within the territory had been neutralized.

Iris stared at the information for several seconds.

"So that’s why."

She looked back toward the mushroom.

She still did not know whether that particular mushroom was poisonous.

It had been found outside the territory, after all.

The protection did not mean everything in the world suddenly became harmless everywhere.

It applied to Velaris.

Inside the territory, harmful substances were neutralized.

That meant something that might have been dangerous outside could become harmless once it entered the protected area.

Iris’s mind immediately began working through the implications.

People could search for food inside the territory without the same fear of accidentally picking something toxic.

They could gather plants.

They could collect useful materials.

They could experiment with ingredients.

And if the territory expanded, the protection would expand with it.

Iris stared at the territory boundary on her panel.

That was huge.

She had been thinking of territory expansion mainly in terms of gaining more land.

More room for houses.

More room for farms.

More room for future buildings.

But the territory’s protection was another reason expansion mattered.

The land itself was becoming safer.

That changed the value of everything inside it.

"Interesting."

Iris closed the panel.

She looked back at the scavengers.

"Keep anything you’re unsure about separate until someone can identify it."

The residents nodded.

It was a simple instruction.

They did not need her to identify every plant themselves.

They could learn.

They could record what they found.

They could discover which plants were useful and which were not.

Over time, their knowledge would grow alongside the territory.

Iris walked away.

She did not need to solve everything herself.

The residents could learn.

And as they learned, they could begin creating something larger.

Later that evening, Iris passed the Village Center again.

Several residents were gathered nearby.

One man was speaking excitedly to another while holding a few Copper coins in his palm.

"I actually earned something."

His friend laughed.

"Then don’t spend it all."

"I’m buying food."

"Of course you are."

Iris smiled.

It seemed another resident had discovered one of the Village Center’s resource management functions.

Certain resources could be sold to the territory.

Wood.

Stone.

Plants.

Other useful materials.

The prices were not enormous.

They were not supposed to be.

Velaris was still new, and Iris had no intention of creating wealth out of thin air.

What mattered was that people could turn the things they gathered into currency.

That Copper could then be spent inside Velaris.

A person could gather wood in the morning, sell it, and use the money to buy food later.

Someone else could gather plants and trade them.

Another person could cook meals and sell portions to residents who did not have the time, ingredients, or ability to cook for themselves.

It was a small cycle.

But it was a cycle.

Iris watched as another resident walked out of the Village Center, looking pleased with the few Copper coins they had received.

They were not rich.

Nobody was getting rich.

But for someone who had entered Velaris with limited supplies, even a small amount of currency mattered.

It gave them choices.

Iris looked toward the houses.

Someone was carrying a bowl of freshly prepared noodles.

The smell reached her before she saw the person.

A resident sitting outside another villa called out.

"How much for one?"

"One Copper."

"Does that include the egg?"

"Half an egg."

"That’s robbery."

The seller laughed.

"Then cook your own."

The buyer reluctantly handed over a Copper.

Iris smiled.

This was exactly what she wanted.

Not charity.

Not everyone depending on the Lord for every meal.

People could gather resources.

Sell them.

Earn Copper.

Use that Copper to buy things from other residents.

Someone could cook.

Someone could repair equipment.

Someone could make tools.

Someone could trade clothing.

Someone could gather plants.

Someone could specialize in construction.

Little by little, people would begin exchanging what they had for what they needed.

The system did not need to create a massive marketplace immediately.

Velaris did not have enough people for that anyway.

It did not need dozens of shops or rows of merchants.

It only needed to give people a reason to participate.

The residents would figure out the rest.

Iris watched the exchange continue for another moment.

The buyer took the bowl.

The seller counted the Copper.

Neither looked particularly important.

Neither had a special Occupation.

Neither was an appointed official.

They were simply two people living in Velaris.

And that was what mattered.

A settlement did not become a home because its Lord declared it one.

It became a home when people started creating lives there without being told to.

Iris looked around.

The stone roads.

The garden walkways.

The small houses.

The temporary dormitories.

The Village Center.

The people carrying wood.

The people sorting stone.

The people cooking food.

The people trading.

The people returning from scavenging.

It was still small.

Still incomplete.

Still fragile.

But it was alive.

Iris smiled.

"Velaris is really starting to work."

Her gaze drifted toward the people moving through the settlement.

Yesterday, she had been thinking about what people could contribute.

Today, she was watching them prove it.

They were not waiting for Iris to tell them every step.

They were already finding ways to help themselves.

And that was perhaps more important than any building she could purchase.

A few people would gather resources and sell them.

Others would use those resources.

Some would cook.

Some would trade.

Some would find things nobody else had thought to look for.

The settlement was beginning to develop its own rhythm.

It was not organized.

Not yet.

But it was beginning.

And somewhere in the back of Iris’s mind, Daniel Voss’s strange elemental affinities remained.

Fire and Wind.

Two affinities that looked different from the dull gray displays she had seen on everyone else.

She still had no explanation for it.

Iris briefly considered opening his information again.

Then decided against it.

She had already looked.

There was nothing more the panel could tell her.

Not every mystery needed to be solved immediately.

Some things could wait.

For now, Velaris had people who were gathering resources.

It had people who were finding ways to exchange them.

It had food changing hands.

It had Copper beginning to circulate.

It had residents discovering what they could offer and what they could get in return.

It was still far from being a proper settlement.

But it had taken another step.

Iris looked toward the Village Center.

"A little economy," she murmured.

It was not much.

But it was a beginning.

And for Velaris, beginnings were becoming more important than she had ever expected.