The day after our ember stopped moving, the village started to spring to life like a well oiled machine. At first, I didn't think much of this - I just assumed that the warriors of town would explore our surroundings and establish a defensive perimeter, and then we would hunker down and wait out the time until our ember started moving again.

It wasn't until I started to hear bits and pieces of conversations drifting into our house from the streets that I realized I had wildly underestimated the importance of these stops.

"-Haven't found any yet, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. Just last year, Edward found a few flare roots that popped him up five levels and rounded out his third spark. If we can get that lucky this time, we might still have a chance."

"I don't think we're likely to find any flare roots. We've always had terrible luck. Besides, didn't Edward invest two Feats into improving how quickly he could find unusual herbs and treasures? I always thought that was a huge waste, so I never followed through. He may have gotten five levels, but that doesn't mean he's actually stronger - after all, two feats are worth way more than five levels. If I didn't know better, I'd think-"

The two people who were conversing drifted out of my hearing range a moment later, but I frowned.

Flare roots? Gained five levels?

I used my spatial sight to get a better look at the people who had passed by, and confirmed that they were holding weapons and moved with the unusual speed and firm footsteps of town warriors.

I felt the itch of curiosity start to claw at my heart. Were there things besides monsters in our immediate surroundings? Felix and I had been talking about finding other materials to help boost Felix's attempts to turn the universal tree's wood into a proper item, but we hadn't been sure what form these materials would take. We hadn't even been sure whether the natives of this world would place any importance on these items at all - after all, the first material compatible with the Market's system that we had found, in our second world, had seemed difficult to work with.

Now, it sounded like the people of this world were not only familiar with magical materials, but had their own, alternate uses for them. Such as directly eating them.

At the same time, I hoped that these flare roots could be used by Felix when he made the universal tree bark into an item. If he could… then that might mean we already had a clue for our first target. It didn't even sound like flare roots were overly rare - after all, a warrior had found one semi-recently, and it sounded like these two warriors were hoping to make their own, similar discovery.

Once my father woke up, I decided to pester him with a few more questions.

"Dad, I heard a few people discussing flare roots when I woke up. What were they talking about?"

My father gave me a thoughtful look.

"Flare roots are a type of rare herb that is found in the wild, Miria. They aren't that common. Every time we stop, we usually have a few lucky warriors find a few, but sometimes we go a few stops without finding any. I've never heard of a stop where more than ten were found in the nearby area, either."

"So the town usually finds a few each stop?"

My father rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"I suppose. On average, I would say we find about three per stop? But whoever finds them usually eats them. One flare root can give someone up to three levels. The effect is weaker the higher level someone already is… but even for me, they would be worth a level if I ate them on the spot. They're also a pain in the neck to preserve, so whoever finds them usually doesn't bother to bring them back to town for craftsmen or children to eat." He poked my stomach playfully, nearly hitting a particularly ticklish spot. "So sit still and honestly work on your levels, and don't spend all your time dreaming of shortcuts. Okay? A lot of kids sit around dreaming of someone dropping a pile of flare roots on their lap and letting them coast through their early levels in minutes. At the end of the day, they spend so much time dreaming that they don't actually put in the time to level up themselves." My father's lips curled up into a fond grin. "Well, I did that when I was a kid too. To this day, I've never even seen a flare root. I know what they look like, but even at twenty-eight years old I have yet to see a single one." My father sighed wistfully.

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"So are materials like flare roots common?"

"Not really."

"What other materials can people find in the wild? If people are looking for flare roots, surely there are other things they can also find if they get lucky, right?" I hoped there was a long list of valuable herbs and materials just laying around in the wilderness - it would certainly make Felix's job a bit easier.

"Well, the most common find that our town gets from one stop to another is ironleaf. Ironleaf can be smelted down into real iron, and it grows from a very special type of tree that looks a lot like a small mountain of silver. Each ironleaf tree has abundant foliage, so acquiring enough iron to arm the village is easy. It's part of why most mobile villages and towns have easy access to iron equipment.

"In addition there are a lot of rare plants that can strengthen people who consume them - though most of them wither and die upon being uprooted, meaning that you only have an hour or two, at most, to consume them. Then, there are materials that can be fed to the Ember, strengthening it. Feeding our ember enough materials is how we got access to the [Tamer] spark. Embers can upgrade in multiple ways, but finding rare materials is one of the most reliable ones. Rumour has it that every single ember in the world started out as a wandering ember like ours, but once they grow strong enough and large enough, an ember will stop moving and instead start to burn and weaken nearby monsters, as well as softening and warming up the land so that crops can grow nearby. Our towns will heavily reward anyone who manages to find these materials.

"Finally, there are other materials that can be used to make weapons and armor. There are so many that it's hard to list them all. There's a big list in the temple, if you're interested in memorizing them later. If you plan to become one of the town's warriors when you grow older, it's not a bad idea to memorize them in advance. You never know when you'll get lucky," said my father. He winked at me, and I smiled. I wasn't sure how lucky I was - but I was definitely going to make full use of that list.

After I finished talking with my father, he made us breakfast, before he left to rejoin the warriors defending the ember. I spent the next few days watching our surroundings as the town sprang into action like a well-oiled machine. Each day, at least a quarter of the warriors remained on guard. Another quarter of the warriors began to scout out our surroundings. Many of them returned with baskets of food, while others brought back other materials. I even saw one group run up to one of the [Priests] of the town, before they dragged a small sled of materials over to our ember and fed it a giant pile of metallic wood. As things settled down, my father also let me start wandering the town again - albeit only when under the supervision of another adult. During the time we were stopped, groups of warriors also took turns defending the kids - typically, I was placed in a group with ten other children and two or three other adults to keep us safe in case of an emergency.

I started to get the hang of the system our town used during these stops. Some warriors scouted for materials, food, and monsters. Others defended the town. A few rested. The remainder guarded the children, and remained near other civilians in case of an emergency. Everything was well organized and planned out, and people acted as if this was nothing out of the ordinary.

I also started to realize that the food in this world was quite unusual. I hadn't thought much about where the berries my father fed me had come from… but naturally, food didn't appear out of thin air. Our town didn't have any crop fields, either - it was too cold for crops to survive on the back of our village bearing beast, and there also wasn't enough soil for roots to grow. The only reason a town of this size could survive at all was because most food in this world was abnormally nutrient dense, at least compared to the standards of previous worlds we had been in. In most other worlds, a handful of berries would barely qualify as a light snack, even for most grown adults. In this world, a handful of berries could be boiled in water to provide an adult with enough energy to keep going for an entire day - or keep a child warm. Due to this, as well as a few unique preservation methods, the town generally stocked up on food during each stop, then slowly worked our way through our reserves during the time that we were moving. This also meant that our town had no real farmers - the town was essentially divided into craftsmen, warriors, and some people who handled logistics and other miscellaneous tasks.

Time continued to pass. I looked for other opportunities to grab a few levels by helping out with a few monster waves, but the monsters in our surroundings got wiped out by the scouting teams before I could find them. At least during this stop, it seemed like the local monsters were outmatched by us. While I found it a bit disappointing that I didn't get an opportunity to snag a few more easy levels, I was glad that nobody got hurt. After about a week of being stopped, the ember started to light up again, which caused everyone to rush back to their towns. A day later, the village-bearing beasts and the ember set off again, leaving us once more wandering in the frozen wilderness.

Time continued to pass.

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