This book is actually relatively easy to understand! He can't figure out everything necessary for the current project with it, but he can learn to, for example, calculate static truss stresses. This example of a truss looks a bit like the internal structure of Nick's ship, actually.

Of course it does, it's a big nonmagical structure.

If Nick takes more than a couple hours Valanda will start wondering if he's been waylaid by that lady.

About an hour and a half in there's a delivery! It's a large wooden crate, full of "tools". The delivery man is intent on delivering the thing inside and getting a signature that it was received, can you unlock the door please?

"Nick's out, I'm guessing it's his signature you want."

"Look, I was just told to put the box inside, and get a signature. You might as well be Nick for all I care."

He unlocks the door.

He tries really hard not to look ready to turn the guy's brain to gold if anything goes wrong.

(That'd look exceedingly strange on an autopsy report.)

The guy looks bored. He wheels the crate in on a little wooden cart and carefully sets it on the ground and glances around. "Yeah, there we go. Sign this please."

He reads the thing he's supposed to sign carefully.

It says that he received the box from Vannin Forgeworks and it was in good condition and they're not responsible for broken or missing things.

He comes up with a way to spell his name in the local alphabet and signs.

"Great. Thanks. Thank you for choosing Vannin Forgeworks and have fun with your box of shiny toys."

And the guy leaves expeditiously.

Nick comes back maybe an hour after that, sans-shelving. "Hello hello once again."

"Someone from Vannin Forgeworks left that, I'm assuming it's something you ordered."

"I don't even know what all they're going to be sending me, but Vannin himself was at our meeting, so it's probably perfectly fine. Shelves will be a little while too. Want to grab a lunch and get back to it after?"

"Sure."

"Mind if I suggest a place? I could spout the names of different culinary traditions all day and you'd have no way to tell what I mean, I think."

"I was hoping you would, I don't know how to tell where's good around here."

"We still don't know if you can stomach cheese and cream... Hmm... I feel like some Southerner food."

Southerner food, it turns out, leans very salty and very 'umami', which is a word that feels different than most English does. Smoked meat, peculiar spices, mushrooms, and the like.

As long as all the local humans can eat the local mushrooms he'll assume it's probably the mushrooms and not the humans that are different here. If he dies trying them then that'll suck but that's life.

"What culinary traditions are there? I don't know anything about any of them."

"The big ones are Southerner, Northerner, City-Style, Terran, Cloudborne, and Highlands."

"I'm guessing Terran is the oldest one, right? Was there just one kind of cooking before people came here?"

"Oh, no no no no no. There were dozens and more, or so I read. And a lot of subdivisions of Terran. Those five are what are popular and available now, though."

"I guess I'll have to try them all at some point. So how do you tell which restaurants are good?"

"Lots of subtle little things you just have to get experience with. Like so many other things. And sometimes you just have to try the food and see how you like it."

"At least one of us knows these things."

He starts telling Valanda about the little details that are 'good signs' or 'red flags' for restaurants. These warm plates they got served with are a good sign, for example, because it shows that they're probably freshly cleaned with hot water.

"What do you think of your first Cloudbank city so far, anyway?"