Kingdom Of The Weak

With most of their Order fighting the Spectres in the south, the ex-Temple Knights and supporting Priests were based in a ma.s.sive camp not far from Three Pines. As the Order of Light was formally launched, they began to construct permanent buildings where before they had pitched tents.

Led by Darian, two Order of Light Sky Galleons ventured deep into the far south looking for Sky Trees.

On top of that, George had the Adventurers at Three Pines seed the fertile heights of that region with Lenisu. Those hills would eventually be covered in Lenisu vines.

As Frames became harder and harder to use due to waning mana, more and more residents at Three Pines turned to their Comrades to get around. Wolfcats were an absolute favorite, and it was fairly common to see someone riding one up the trunks and branches to the tree-houses above.

But often these days new structures were built lower, on the ground under the Trees, rather than high in the treetops. People no longer feared the Wilds who trod the earth. Even more, people were streaming in to the Quarin Ruins and fixing up homes for themselves in abandoned graphite structures.

Meanwhile, KarGoth became heavily industrialized. Factories sprouted up all across the new region as the ma.s.sive population influx flooded the market with needs and skills. On new roads built and guarded by the Order of Steel, steady streams of ores piled up as the mining towns boomed, and George saw fit to process them farther for their own uses. Shadowflash was not happy about it, but the Reforestation was running in earnest and he left them alone, for now.

At that time, Arnold released a new version of Frames that were lighter and easier to move around in, but bulkier due to the extensive use of springs instead of magic runes. This soon became an industrial favorite, especially since they didn"t cost mana to maintain or utilize.

One of the reasons why KarGoth had to industrialize in a hurry was because Fal"Herim had adapted its production facilities for war. It wasn"t just because the Order of Sand was gobbling up mercenary bands left and right and growing exponentially. Weapons, ammunition and armor were churned out by the thousands every day. Siege machine components, desert-worthy chariots, fortification supports… Tim"s industrial sector in Fal"Herim made and sold these in bulk, and with practically the whole world fighting each other, his profits absolutely soared. Even Paleres bought weapons from him… and dared not complain about them "almost-raiding" nearby while equipment and supplies suddenly went missing without leaving a trace or evidence of any kind.

As if in appreciation for Paleres" tolerance, Tim decided to extend the scope of their raiding to the north and south, adding the border towns of Otta and Ira to their theatre of raiding operations. Part of it might have been due to the declining yields from raids into Paleres border towns. But really, even with the raids, Paleres ended up being one of Fal"Herim"s main customers.

Another of his main customers was the Song Clan. Having brought thousands of his people to build the Great Docks at his Bog Marshes, Song Chen suddenly had the upper hand in his strife with the Wilds in his territory. As more friends of the Song Clan arrived from the Dragon Empire, many of the local Wilds quietly decided to migrate to friendlier regions.

Having the Song Clan as big customers was helpful to Tim when he wanted to send more and more Lynxmice into the Dragon Empire to find out where all the mana crystals were coming from. They"d narrowed it down to the exact building within a military depot, a strange site where n.o.body ever saw mana crystals going in. What did go in were large groups of heavily armed troops… and often came out with only half their number.

"It seems dangerous." Remian observed. "I thought they were just importing them from elsewhere, maybe having a secret s.p.a.ceport to receive shipments… but this is something else. It looks like they have another Spatial Node, and the place it leads to does not seem friendly."

"Even so, they"re able to fight for crystals. Whatever they"re fighting on the other side, they"re not as powerful as the Spectres." Tim observed.

Meanwhile, the first building to be fully completed in Craggy Falls was the airport/railway station/new Adventurers Guild Headquarters. The three were combined into a single towering structure, with two underground tunnel floors of railway connections, a domestic terminal, an international terminal, five floors of amenities including shops and restaurants, ten floors for the Guild (including "inn" rooms), and a flight control tower crowned with small landing pad at the very top. There were three tall "shelf" floors of airship hangars to the west side, a big railyard and a roundhouse to the east, with a major loading area in the middle.

"We have power!" Joshu pumped a fist as he flicked a switch and a light bulb turned on. Then, he glanced out and his face fell. "Why isn"t the waterfall flowing?"

Oh. Right. Since the completion of the dam, Craggy Falls no longer fell. In fact, with zero energy usage, and the windmills starting up, the unused power had been directed towards pumping water upward from the lake beneath the falls. That was a form of natural power storage taking advantage of the basic terrain. When they needed power, the power station staff would open up the downward flow to match power needs, trying to match supply with demand. It was tricky, considering their current equipment and technology. Half of it was dials and levers. Hopefully, the two dozen or so ex-priests and ex-mercenaries managing the station could manage. After a whole week of training with them, Remian still wasn"t confident they"d be able to handle things safely. If not, well… at least half their staff had abilities in healing magic.

Honestly, Remian expected they"d run into lots and lots of problems the first few weeks. But they would learn and they would adjust, and sooner or later they"d get the hang of it. It might be costly, in the end, but experience was often the quickest teacher.

He hoped they would learn well. These systems were simple toys compared with what was to come. In the future, Remian wanted to add more kinds of power storage, particularly molten salt batteries. Then, when they needed ever-more power, they could add a molten salt reactor too… a.s.suming they could figure out suitable cobalt-chromium composite alloys.

The first people to move into the new building was Remian"s new cla.s.s, formally registering as an Adventurer Band named Group-2.

Why Group-2? Because they looked up to Mindy, Tim, and George as Group-1. Or at least, Alani did, and she handled the registration entirely on her own since everyone else was too busy studying to bother.

Why were they studying? Oh, right. Remian said they would have a test this weekend… which involved nothing less than a shopping trip to Ashdale on a very limited budget to buy what was almost definitely expensive and highly demanded machinery at this time. Considering the market values, and their deliberately limited budget, it was unlikely they could buy the machine whole and would likely have to put it together with parts. Putting together their own supplies, flying to Ashdale, communicating with the locals, identifying the machinery, spotting for quality, even putting it together was all part of the test. They were, of course, entirely allowed to talk to each other during this test. Also, it was a group test; either they would all pa.s.s, or they would all fail, together.

In this sense, communicating with each other was part of the test too. Unlike traditional exams where everyone was not allowed to talk to one another, this particular test encouraged, even demanded them to learn to work together.

Incidentally, Xiao Yan and Eriane were not part of Group-2. They were still happily running around with Aeyrie and Vigil"s hunting pack; Ember, Scarlet, Moonlight, Flare[1], Cheery, Snaps and Chubs. They had built their own treehouse near Ruth"s and Xiao Yan secured it with her own formations, providing a repulsion effect to anyone whose blood was not recognized by the formation.

"Isn"t it all going to disappear once mana is gone?" Ruth asked.

"No, it won"t. My formations use Qi, not mana." Xiao Yan a.s.sured her.

It wasn"t a very strong formation, Qi on this world wasn"t very thick, and Darian or Mindy could crush it with ease… but for a children"s clubhouse, it was rather impressive.

"Do you intend to have her join our cla.s.s?" Alani asked Remian, once. "She"s actually older than me by a year."

"Not yet." Remian said. "I"ll let her run around freely for at least another year and see what she does first."

As the first electrical appliances came on in the new Adventurers Guild, Alani"s group and Xiao Yan"s group both camped out in the main hall and enjoyed the breeze from the new electric fans while Joshu and roughly thirty older Adventurers went around picking rooms.

"There won"t be enough rooms here for all the Adventurers to stay." Xia warned Remian quietly.

"There"ll be plenty of apartments out there." Remian a.s.sured her, gesturing to the town being constructed all around them.

Since they were using magic to move things around and speed up the whole process, construction could have progressed faster if the materials were ready, but despite George"s best efforts, KarGoth simply couldn"t keep up with demand. There was so much construction going on everywhere, the brickyards and steel mills were overwhelmed. Both had roughly quadrupled in size since Remian"s return, and still their production had already been booked and bought up to six weeks ahead.

These days, half of Mindy"s imports were construction materials. Steel supports, bags of cement, bricks… Mindy even started trading ships with Deutero, exchanging dozens of Wasps in return for Sky Galleons. Escorted by the Red Fang, three second-hand Sky Galleons made the trip to Fal"Herim and back on a daily basis.

Mindy herself, though, never left. She stayed cooped up in her workshop studying Libertaria"s propeller systems, often consulting Jim and Arnold.

Remian popped in to her workshop one day and caught her drawing a monstrous airship with a huge propeller below blowing sails and a gas envelope upward.

"Not like that!" Remian groaned and sketched out a helicopter, a single propeller plane, and a large cargo airplane with four propellers on its wings. "Actually, you can take it further…" he drew a canister around one of the wing propellers, then revised the sketch some more until it became a turbofan jet.

"Wings…?" Mindy stared at the airplane designs half in horror. "How hard do they need to flap?"

"They don"t need to flap!" Remian had to take a couple of hours to explain airflow and airlift to her.

Even so, Mindy was dubious. "I think they should flap. Let me go ask an expert."

Remian groaned. "There"s no need to ask Aeyrie about it. Just trust me. It"ll work."

But despite his attempts to persuade her on fixed-wing aircraft, Mindy kept drawing schematics with flapping wings on them. "Flapping wings are safer than sharp fans that might harm birds!"

"Mindy, if you"re going to have the wings move, you may as well do it like fish." Remian rolled his eyes, rolled up his sleeves, and sketched out one LTA fish-like airship where the "wings" had turned to fish flippers. He even added a fish-tail. "Or if you"re really against propellers, what about cycloidal rotors?" He drew out one.

Almost predictably, Mindy"s next design looked like a big fish. It was a single-structure airship where the upper half of the fish was actually a gas envelope. Plus the tail was a cycloidal rotor.

"Well… I guess the fins can help maneuver the ship around. In this case, the main power for propulsion should be the tail." Remian observed, then drew an electric motor at the back. Mindy drew a turret and a c.o.c.kpit in the front. In the middle, the sides of the fish opened up for cargo.

On top of the envelope, Remian drew some weird symbols. "This should work."

"What are these?" Mindy blinked at the weird symbols.

"That"s a formation marking. It"s just the name of a long-lasting containment formation. Show it to Xiao Yan. She"ll be able to handle the actual formation."

Qi wasn"t very thick in this world, and not at all powerful, but if it was just to contain ga.s.ses, it would do.

An airship that used an electric motor for propulsion and a Qi formation to secure the gas envelope. Remian was half-tempted to set up a Psionic control system and a magic cannon just to make this fish an all-powers type. But no… in the end, hand-held steering and a ballista turret won out.

"You know, there"s a much, much simpler way to handle all this." Remian observed afterward.

"What?" Mindy blinked.

Remian drew a square box and a gas envelope with formation… being towed by a really big bird. "Tda! Sky Chariot!"

Mindy choked. "The Eagle Lord is going to kill us if we even suggest it!"

Remian rubbed off the big bird and drew a dragon instead.

Mindy giggled, even as she protested. "Stop! Stop! You"re going to get us in trouble!"

Remian scrubbed out the dragon and drew a winged horse.

At that, Mindy froze. "The Pegasi?"

Up till now, they hadn"t been very friendly with them. They and the Pegasus Lord"s clan were polite, at best, and they had had their sc.r.a.pes and skirmishes in the past.

"No, no, we can"t!" Mindy shook her head in the end. "The Wilds would never stand for it. Hanging on to them with our bare hands is fine. Tying ourselves to them personally is okay, that"s just a form of sticking together. But if we tried to put them in reins and saddles or tie them up in any way, they"re going to kill us."

Mindy scrubbed out the airship entirely, and then drew a little girl on the Pegasus" back, both arms around the winged horse"s neck in a tight hug. "There. That"s the most you can expect from the Wilds."