(Are you sure you're well enough for this, Mimin?)
(Yes! Probably.)
I'm recovering from the cold that I caught yesterday. I'm already feeling better, though! It's all thanks to Tails for taking care of me.
Currently, I'm having Fluffy teach me about the Forest of Magic, and some other stuff which he said he'll mention during today's lesson.
Actually, when I woke up today, I got this strange feeling that today is going to be a great day! Is this because of the White Fox's intuition that I inherited? I feel that it's related to today's lesson, too.
(Well, if you say so. Shall we begin today's lesson?)
(Yes! I'll be in your care, Fluffy!)
(Alright. So, for most of today's lesson, it's just going to be me explaining stuff. If you have any questions, just interrupt me and I'll answer them. Got it?)
(Yes!)
(...Are you really sure you won't fall sick again or get bored of the lesson?)
(I'm sure I'll be fine, Fluffy!)
I have to sit through today's lesson! I need to know what that strange feeling today morning is about! If it's true that today is going to be a great day, then everything should work out, right?
----------
(Alright, let's start from the beginning...)
Oh! He's finally going to start the lesson!
(In this world, known as Phantasia, the land is divided into three continents. Hamel, the continent that prioritizes humans. Dinen, the continent that prioritizes demi-humans. And lastly, Librum, the continent that treats everyone equally.)
(Which continent is the Forest of Magic in?)
(Librum. And Librum is located to the south of the roads that goes between Hamel and Dinen. West is Hamel, east is Dinen, and south is Librum. The continents are connected in a sort of T-shape.)
(I see...)
(There are multiple cities in each continent as well. I won't go into detail about Hamel and Dinen, since they're really far away from the Forest of Magic. I'll only be explaining about Librum for the most part.)
(Where is the Forest of Magic located, exactly?)
(On the edge of Librum, further south. If people from Hamel and Dinen are to come to the Forest of Magic, they will need to pass through a good part of Librum first. Unless they intend to take a massive detour.)
(I see...)
(Anyway, about Librum. There's only two cities in Librum, if I remember correctly. One of the cities is near the Forest of Magic and that city is called... Lindis. The other city is closer to the center of Librum, and that city is called Sylvein, I believe.)
(So, west leads to Hamel, east leads to Denin, and south leads to Librum. Going further south, past Sylvein and Lindis, leads to the Forest of Magic, where we are, right?)
(Yes. Also, it's Dinen, not Denin. You mixed up the name.)
(Ah. I see. It's Dinen. Got it.)
That name in particular can be confusing sometimes... It's not my fault that I misheard it and remember the wrong name, you know!
(To the east of Lindis, there are open fields with plenty of space. The people of Lindis took the land for themselves, and started to build farms, cheap housing, and so on. Simple facilities are built there. Important facilities, however, are still maintained within the city of Lindis. I'll explain about this later)
So the free land was taken and occupied by the people of Lindis to help fufill their daily needs. I think I understand.
(To the west of Lindis, there's another forest seperate from the Forest of Magic. That forest is occupied by animals and less dangerous beasts, so it's much safer there compared to the Forest of Magic. The people of Lindis hunt those animals and beasts to get materials and food, and such.)
(So, what's the difference between animals and beasts?)
(Animals are usually calm and won't attack others, with the exception of a few of them. Beasts are usually evolved and stronger forms of those animals, or are just aggressive and threaten the lives of others.)
So animals usually aren't dangerous and beasts usually are. Got it. Is that why Silverwolves and White Foxes are regarded as beasts?
(An example of an animal is rabbits. They normally don't attack unless they're scared or threatened. Then the example of a beast in this case is the Horned Rabbits. They're aggressive, and basically are stronger rabbits.)
(I understand.)
(Now, about the city of Lindis. This city is where the poor people gather-)
(Poor? Are they victims of some sort of unfortunate incident?)
(No, not that type of poor... Ah, I should start with explaining something else first, and that's the currency system of Phantasia.)
Currency? That's a word I haven't heard before. What is it? Is it edible?
(I think I kept those coins away somewhere... Let me dig around here for a bit... Ah! Here, take a look at these, Mimin.)
Eh? Why does Fluffy have these shiny, round things buried in the dirt in the first place?
(Coins?)
(Yes. These are coins. As you can see, they are made with various valuable metals, cut into circles like this. There's also two different sizes for each metal coin, and there's a simple carving on the larger coins.)
Fluffy shows me the coins with small and large sizes. The large coins have the symbol 10 carved on them. There's also three different metals used for the coins, it seems.
I finally ask the question I had from earlier.
(Can I eat these?)
(What... Of course you can't! They're made of metals! Didn't you already know that metals are inedible?)
(Ugh...)
Yeah, I guess that makes sense. These coins were also just buried in dirt a moment ago... They just look so shiny and tasty, though...
(Anyway. About the currency system. These coins are what majority of people use to exchange for goods and services from others. The brown coins are made of copper, the silver coins are made of silver, and the yellow coins are made of gold.)
(Eh~? Silver is also a metal? I thought it's just a colour.)
That's interesting to know. So, is the metal named silver, because of its silver colour? Or is the colour named silver, because of the silver metal? Which came first?
(The coins hold a different value based on the size and the metal they're made of. 1 gold coin is worth 100 silver coins, and 1 silver coin is worth 100 copper coins. The large coins are worth 10 coins of the same metal.)
(So, 1 large gold coin is worth... 100,000 copper coins?)
(That is correct. You're really smart, Mimin. Most of the time.)
(What is that supposed to mean!?)
Is that a compliment or an insult? Or is it both? I don't know anymore...
(The value of... Let's say, your clothes that you're wearing now. The value of your clothes should be around 3 large copper coins? That sounds about right.)
Eh? This shrine maiden outfit is worth about 3 large copper coins?
...I still can't tell how much value it has, exactly.
(Ah, that's about the same value as having six meals, on average, in the cities.)
(Eh!? My clothes are worth as much as three days worth of meals!? Isn't that a lot!?)
(Ah, again, meals can vary in prices. I'm just using the average value. Don't worry too much, Mimin. You can always hunt for food yourself whenever you need to, so it doesn't really matter to you.)
(Yeah... I suppose.)
I wonder. What is life like in the cities? I really can't imagine with this currency system...
(Back to our original topic, Mimin. We got sidetracked for too long. Now, About the city of Lindis.)
Ah, right. Focus, Mimin!
(As I was saying, this city is where a lot of poor people gather and live in. By poor, I mean people who are unable to earn enough coins to live in cities.)
So that's what being poor means. Isn't that the same thing as being unfortunate, then?
(Because of that, the cost of living in Lindis is actually really little, compared to all the other cities. Your clothes may only be worth 1 large copper coin there. That's how cheap it becomes.)
(Eh? But if everything is cheaper, doesn't that mean nothing really changes?)
(Well, sort of. Remember I just said that important facilities are maintained in Lindis? This is where one of those come into play.)
(Oh?)
(Guilds. It's a facility that is built in every city, so no matter which city you go, you can always find them. What this guild does is, it accepts requests from people all around Phantasia, and they put it up in the guilds for people to accept and work on them. Rewards, which are usually coins, are handed out to those who complete the requests. For Lindis, it's usually requests for gathering materials of animals and beasts that gets completed.)
(I see. So the people of Lindis can do these requests to earn some extra coins.)
(The guild also acts as a store for people to sell their extra materials to. So, even if there's no requests for it, people may still hunt the animals and beasts in that forest. The guild also buys the materials for more money than usual, that's why the people of Lindis sells materials to the guild instead of other merchants.)
(So it's also just extra coins for the people of Lindis? Why would the guild-)
(-Because the cost of living in Lindis is really low, remember? Everything in Lindis is much cheaper than other cities.)
(Ah! I see! The guild provides opportunities to Lindis to earn more coins than usual, but that amount of coins is less than the normal value in other cities!)
Is this a good thing or a bad thing? It's a win-win situation, so it's probably a good thing, right?
(Well, what the guild and the cities do is none of our business. We only live in the Forest of Magic, after all. As long as they don't threaten us, we don't have to interfere with anything. Do you understand everything so far, Mimin?)
(Yes!)
(Let's take a break before we continue with the lesson. It's not good to go through large amounts of information at once.)