When the badly wounded Edrick returned home with his father's body, Hannah and Miryam were speechless, just hugging Edrick and crying silently.
Edrick didn't know what to say to ease the sisters' pain.
The death of their father and mother was a huge blow to the Croft family. As a Transmigrator, he should have felt numb, but he felt it felt more like losing two close friends at once.
However, However, having absorbed Edrick's memories and some of his emotions, he felt especially heartbroken.
At the same time, he felt a bit relieved, for if he hadn't been reborn as Edrick, his sisters Hannah and Miryam would have faced an even more tragic fate.
As a modern man with a strong sense of justice, he was naturally angry at this kind of bullying, so angry that he wanted to kill that damn Griff and gut him... Just thinking about it, fragments of Edrick's remaining memories surfaced like a series of nightmares.
Although they were merging with the Transmigrator's past experiences, he still he still found it hard to accept..
Edrick's face was a little pale. From the perspective of a transmigrator, the main reason for the goal of "Griff must die" was that the other party would obviously not let the Croft family off easily.
The fact that Edrick and his father had both met with accidents at the same time showed that the other party had planned this in advance. Now, only one of them could survive, so the choice was simple.
After making up his mind, Edrick immediately set out to take action.
But he was cautious, much more cautious than Edrick. The deadly battle in the boiler room made him clearly realize that it was dangerous to act rashly in this unfamiliar world.
Not to mention the church patrols, the Steamsprite in his home clearly indicated that supernatural powers existed here, so he wouldn't be surprised if the small-time thugs really knew magic.
Edrick's memories were already fragmented, and he was just a pitiful man who had grown up in hardship.
He knew nothing about the world outside the Rust District.
In the early morning, the attic was shrouded in pale gray steam. Edrick used an iron shovel to mix crushed coal chunks with limestone powder in the correct proportions.
This was one of the few things he could do.
This process reduced dust emissions by 50%, making the steam boiler more efficient.
However, there was also a downside to this, which was that excess limestone would reduce the calorific value of the coal and increase the amount of ash.
"At least I have a master's degree in chemistry," Edrick thought to himself, even feeling a little grateful that although the Sanctum of the Village Deity was of no use for the time being, his knowledge of chemistry could be used immediately to improve his life.
Moreover, lime could also be used as a weapon for surprise attacks, so Edrick secretly wrapped some lime in a small cloth and stuffed it into his pocket just in case.
The clanging sound of an iron shovel hitting the cast-iron stove woke Miryam, who was curled up in the corner.
The eleven-year-old girl rubbed her eyes and got up, her hair still covered in coal dust from picking up coal cinders last night. She reached out to touch the copper pressure gauge on the steam boiler and looked at Edrick: "Brother, does your head still hurt?"
"Much better. Why don't you go back to sleep?"
Miryam shook her head. I need to get up and help with the laundry. My sister can't do it all by herself..."
She stood up halfway, then suddenly turned back to look at Edrick and rubbed her eyes. "Brother, what are you doing?"
"I remembered the trick I learned a few days ago. Mixing coal and lime in a 1:15 ratio improves combustion efficiency and reduces dust, just like old Tom at the dock taught me."
Edrick smiled at his sister and pushed the mixed fuel into the furnace.
He deliberately mentioned that three months ago, while unloading cargo at the dock, he had seen the old laborer Tom mixing lime powder into the coal pile.
At the time, the foreman had kicked him and scolded him for "stealing the mechanic's tricks."
Of course, it was a lie—Tom had no such knowledge. But the excuse dispelled Hannah's suspicions.
After all, at the dock, every worker had their own "survival tricks," just like their father had used gear oil to repair a steam boiler crack.
The flames in the furnace glowed an eerie bluish-white, and the limestone crackled softly in the intense heat. Edrick crouched down, using an iron hook to stir the grate, and ash fell through the cracks—nearly thirty percent more than when burning pure coal.
Miryam knelt beside him, counting the falling ash pieces as if solving a math problem: "This means we'll have to burn two extra shovelfuls of coal each day."
She spoke softly, her fingertips brushing against the broken gears in her apron pocket—she had picked them up at the dock, intending to use them to repair her father's steam furnace.
When the topic turned to coal consumption, Edrick's smile faded.
The fragments of crystal ore his father had hidden were tucked inside the heels of his old boots, collected from broken ore crates while unloading cargo at the dock.
The ore was deep gray, with mica-like shards embedded in its surface, glowing coldly under the steam lamp.
His father's hands, calloused from years of labor, had once rubbed the ore until it felt warm, but now it was the family's only hope for survival—there were seven days left until rent was due, and Miryam and Hannah's laundry wages wouldn't be paid until the end of the month.
Hannah slammed the scorching iron onto the ironing board, sending steam billowing throughout the attic: "Father once tried mixing lime into the coal, and the foreman docked three days' wages."
Her voice trembled slightly, and her fingertips unconsciously rubbed the dandelion patch on her apron—sewn by her mother using the last clean piece of fabric.
Edrick lowered his head to continue shoveling coal, letting the steam blur his vision: "Old Tom said that as long as the ratio is right, it'll reduce coughing and keep the steam stove going for two more hours."
Miryam suddenly pointed at the pressure gauge and exclaimed, "The pressure is going to exceed three bars!"
Edrick quickly adjusted the furnace door and watched his sister adeptly add water to the steam boiler.
He suddenly remembered the night his mother died, when she had stood by the furnace like this, warming their mother with a hot towel, using her own frozen fingers.
The limestone in the furnace chamber erupted again, this time mingled with Miryam's humming of a laundry room folk song.
The melody was off-key but resolute, resembling the roar of the steam boiler in the cold winter—in this world intertwined with gears and steam, the three siblings were using a 1:15 ratio to slowly piece together the possibility of survival in the equation of life.
After finishing his work on the steam boiler, Edrick made up an excuse that he was still in pain and crawled back into his tattered bed. In fact, his consciousness was immersed in the dilapidated temple on the mountain top.
He had already obtained the title of "Village Deity (Apprentice)," but apart from being able to purchase skills that he didn't need at the moment, he still didn't know how to use his Faith Essence Points.
Although he had passively consumed 1,000 Faith Essence Points to repair his fatal wound and obtain his body, the Transmigrator was not sure if he could recover every time. This might be a one-time benefit.
However, recalling the names of those books and associating them with the divinity of the Village Deity (Apprentice), the Transmigrator already had a rough idea of the direction of this transmigration gift package.
Now he was ready to find two people who could give him answers. With that in mind, he walked over to the TV.
Two little people, one red and one blue, looked at him on the TV. He also stared at the screen, with many questions in his mind, but not knowing where to start.
Seeming to sense his confusion, the blue little person very understandingly formed a dialog box: "This mama is asking, are you the new Village Deity?"
The transmigrator was also confused: 'Maybe... who are you?"
"You brat, you have to call this mama Queen,' replied the blue little person.
"Or," the red little person tried to add.
"Get lost!"
The two little people suddenly disappeared from the screen, and immediately the screen began to flash violently, as if it had been hit by something.
Half a minute later, the two little people reappeared, and the red little person was actually leaning on a crutch, with mosaic-like gauze wrapped around his body.
"This Mama is here to teach you how to be a qualified Village Deity, you little brat, you'd better listen to this Mama."
The blue little man typed these words in the dialog box with great authority, "If you do it well, you will be a deity, but if you don't, be prepared to become fertilizer..."
Before she could finish, Edrick turned off the TV.
About ten minutes later, Edrick turned on the TV again, and the blue little man's low-resolution face had turned a little red, either from holding back or from anger.
Edrick calmed himself down a little, looked at the TV, and slowly asked the question he had carefully considered: "Where is this place?"
"This is the Sanctum of the Village Deity. Are you illiterate, you brat? There's a big sign hanging at the gate! I told you this kid was no good. Rats breed a generation worse than the last..."
Edrick decisively turned off the TV again.
It seemed that he couldn't get any more information from these two little guys for the time being.
So what could a person with a bachelor's degree in history, a master's degree in chemistry, and a doctorate in agriculture do in this world? Thinking of this, the Transmigrator felt a little excited.
On the TV screen, which he wasn't paying any attention to, two dialog boxes popped up: "Hey boss, he's not giving us a chance to explain. What should we do next?"
"Hmm, if you don't read the beginner's guide, then you'll have to start on the hardest difficulty level. Don't blame this Mama for not warning you!"