Len knocked on the door to his family's temporary home, looking out to the southeast where Goran lay. It was one of the closer farming settlements that had been abandoned by the previous owners and returned to the Isendia family.

  "I got it," Jed called from inside, opening the door. "Len!”

  “Hey, Jed. Is everyone around?"

  "Dad's out with some neighbors, helping them fix up a cart and prospecting the farms. Laurie is down in the city looking at some of the clinics. Des is helping Mom make dinner."

  Len glanced at the sky, there was still a good chunk of the day left.

  Des walked into the front room, wiping his hands clean on his pants. "Hey, Len. What are you doing?"

  “Looking to get away from house chores?”

  “No!” He nodded his head yes and clasped his hands as if begging.

  Len laughed. “Well good thing I need you. Len picked up empty steel plates he brought with him. "Mom, can I steal them for a bit?"

  “Okay! Though I still want one of those warming plates you were talking about when you get back.” she yelled from the kitchen.

  I have enough steel plates. “Okay!”

  Jed and Des both grinned.

  "Here, you can help me with these." Len gave Jed the growing formation as Des walked out and closed the door.

  “Get those,” Des grabbed the heating crystal holders leaning against the wall.

  The building was sturdy and made from wood, a cluster of five similar houses at a cross roads leading to farms and Goran.

  "Dad tell you which one's the best field yet?" Len asked.

  "That one out over there," Des used his chin to point.

  "Jed, you know it too?" Len asked as he started walking in that direction.

  "Yeah, I was with him when he was walking around it. You hear anything from the city?"

  "Well, depends on what you mean by 'what I've heard in the city'," Len asked.

  "Anything interesting or useful?" Jed asked dryly.

  "Well, I know that we're hiring a whole bunch of workers to make stuff if anyone's interested around here and I know that the whole city is probably going to get redesigned if Rick has anything to do with it. I also know that with these enchantments we're about to have a harvest in the middle of winter."

  Des and Jed looked at the items in their hands and then at one another skeptically.

  "Don't trust your dear brother?" Len said.

  "Trust you just fine, but it seems a little... I don't know, crazy, even with everything," Des said.

  Jed shrugged. "Might as well wait and see, I guess.”

  “This the one?" Len asked as he stopped near the edge of the field.

  "Yeah, this is it. It goes down to those three trees over there, then across to where there's a bunch of rocks piled up, then back down to this kind of dirt track we're standing on," Des said.

  "All right, Jed, put down the big plate on that corner there," Len jabbed out with his elbow, holding steel plates himself. "Then take the smaller ones and put them at each corner of the field. With the carved side pointing out.

  Jed looked over the span of the field, putting down the main enchantment. "Yay, running."

  He took off at a jog towards the three trees that Des had pointed out.

  "And what are we doing with these?" Des held up the heating crystal holders.

  "We're gonna put those throughout the field. They should have a range of about twenty meters. So put one twenty meters from the sides of the field and the corner, then put two more towards the trees and create rows of them along the road.”

  “Like a twenty meter grid with the holders where the lines cross.”

  “Right!” Len said.

  “Okay,” Des walked into the field that was covered in half rotted plants that had been left.

  They harvested and didn’t care about clean up.

  Len eyed the ditch that went along the side of the farm.

  "Do you know which way the water flows through here?" Len asked.

  "Starts up over on where the field meets the road down there," Des gestured with his sticks, "then splits this way and down to the boulder pile."

  "All right, well I'll start up there then." Len hurried up to where Des had pointed out, stopping next to the ditch that ran along the sides of the farm.

  Using his utility knife and mana blade enchantment he quickly carved a water condensing enchantment into one of the steel plates, adding in a few hidden parts and passing mana through the enchantment to activate it.

  Water started to flow from the center of the enchantment. He put it in the ditch, pointing down to the ground, letting water flow through it. Len copied the enchantment onto another steel plate and faced it down the ditch that ended at the boulders.

  He used the activation sequence and water started to flow through. Len seated it in the mud standing and wiping his hands clean as Jed reached him with the last growing marker.

  "So it's like that spell that you use to pull water out of the air?" Jed said.

  "Yeah, this will keep all the fields well watered throughout the year." Len stood up and they started walking back towards where Des was, having finished putting his sticks into the field.

  Len spotted a group of farmers, headed by his father, moving towards them from the other side. "I guess they finished their prospecting," Len said.

  "So what is happening in the city otherwise?" Jed asked.

  "You know, you can go into the city and check it out for yourself," Len said.

  "Well, I don't have much in the way of coin now, do I? Also, most people are worried with all the troops coming back. That while it's nice to have everyone back, there could be issues. Lots of people haven't been home in a long time," Jed said.

  "We're gonna have plenty for them to do. A whole bunch of working projects throughout the city. Something to keep their minds off of it. But yeah, there's probably going to be some upset,” Len shrugged.

  “I'm hearing all kinds of rumors coming out of Eskon though," Jed said.

  "I thought you hadn't been into Goran?”

  “You hear things in passing," Jed shrugged.

  "Hear things in passing, right. And nothing that you hear in passing ever misses you, does it?" Len asked.

  Jed just smiled.

  "Okay, so what are you hearing out of Eskon then?" Len asked.

  "Hearing that there's a bunch of nobles who are starting to get all angry with one another. People saying that the king's not getting any better. That these screens and all this mana is creating a lot of tension between people," Jed said.

  Len nodded. We don’t have to worry about just the apocalypse, the civil war and noble’s plots will create plenty of issues.

  Len opened up his messenger bag and pulled out a warm wooden box.

  Des raised his hand in greeting. Len pulled out a heating crystal.

  “Put the crystal in the holder, then grab here,” he did as he said. “You want to thread mana down to the right, then around and back to this point.”

  The area warmed up as the enchantment worked.

  “Okay,” Des said.

  Len gave them crystals and they worked to the edge of the field where Edward and the other farmers were waiting.

  “What you got going on here?” He father asked as he reached them.

  “Just a few tricks,” He winked and kneeled down, activating the growing enchantment formation.

  The remaining plants through the field started to wither.

  “This here adds nutrients to the soil and speeds up crops. Those heating crystals will keep the ground and the area around them warm. Then we got water coming down through the ditch up there,” Len pointed to each thing.

  "These are the enchantments I was talking about to speed up growing. Now, it's no crystal growing house, but this should be good enough for a few months and let you grow another harvest without worry. These are just the first ones. Basically, what I was able to make in a short period of time. Oh, with enough time and workers, we can spread this to all of the fields."

  "And you're saying that this should be good to grow in?" His dad asked.

  "Yeah, I was hoping that we could start planting today and see how it does. Based on that, I can tweak things and we go from there."

  He turned to the other farmers, putting his hands on his hips. "Well, lads, it looks like we got some work to be doing. No more prospecting for us, at least for today." There were a few half-hearted, good-natured grumbles

  " Jorkin can you see about the the irrigation system to make sure that the water actually goes into the fields?”

  “I got it,” Jorkin looked to four others and they headed off up the ditch.

  "Me and my lads can break up the soil with the plows, Yasam, you and the other lads up to grab the good seed and get it in the ground?”

  “Sure we won’t be wasting it?” Yasam asked.

  “Don’t know till we try it,” Edward said.

  “Alright, lets give it a shot then,” Yasam said.

  Edward turned back to his boys. "Come on, you three, let's put that strength of yours to use.” They went back to the hamlet of farmhouses, pulling out plows and carrying them over to the field.

  Len worked with his father, pushing against the plow, cutting through the soil easily. A loamy scent filled the air as he walked in the path of the plow.

  "It's giving off a fair amount of heat there," his dad said, as they moved between the heating crystals.

  "It's supposed to heat up the air a little bit and also direct it into the ground to make sure that the roots don't die off," Len said.

  "Smart idea.”

  “I wanted to get lightning fences set up that would deter animals from coming onto the farmland. But I think that's going to be a later project," Len added.

  “How did things go in Velkaris?” His dad asked.

  “Good, we got an agreement in place that should be good for us.” Len said.

  “Though something else is weighing on your mind?”

  “Goran and Velkaris both have a bunch to go through before they’re ready for what’s to come. Got to weather the storms they’re facing right now,” Len said.

  “And your worried they won’t?”

  “Lets say there’s a reason that I’m hoping to get this grain in the fields and grown as fast as possible.”

  “That bad?”

  “It ain’t pretty though there’s plenty of problems elsewhere. We’ve got a lot of projects to keep people employed and working. It feels like we’re on a tight line. We stray too far on either side and we fall off.”

  “Then just have to stay the course and try your best,” His dad shrugged. “There are days when things are tough and when they’re easy. On both of them you’re carrying on.”

  They kept plowing a group behind them was sowing the fields that they had plowed.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Jorkin’s team was off near the ditch where it was filling with water, using shovels and hoes to clean up the irrigation channels.

  Work proceeded quickly with all the teams knowing their parts to play and their skills.

  It wasn’t long until they were done with the patch around the heating crystals and back where the growing enchantment was placed.

  "This is rich soil, this is." Edward picked up the dirt, rubbing it between his hands and smelling it before dropping it back to the ground, rubbing his hand on his pants.

  "Will you look at that?" Jorkin pointed to where they had started. The group moved over to what he was pointing at.

  "Shoots already?" Yasam asked.

  Edward ran his hand over the small green shoot poking up through the ground.

  Len looked down the path the plow had gone on, seeing tiny growths sticking out of the dirt already. "It used to be that this enchantment would allow you to have a full growing season in a month."

  "A month?" Jorkin asked.

  All the farmers were looking at him now.

  Len shrugged, "We'll have to wait and see."

  “I think we can see that its working though,” Yasam said.

  “Well, how bout you all feel about making some money?” Len asked. “I need to find people to help me make all these things and I know that you’ll get paid per item completed.”

  "Per item, you say?" Edward looked at the different items throughout the fields. "How long did it take you to build something like this?" he asked.

  "Well, I think I did all of this over the space of a couple of hours. Also, now I've got down how to make them all. I just need a couple of carpenters to make the heat crystal holders. Then anyone that knows how to carve into metal, we can make the other enchantments. Heck, I can teach you most of it. There's just an outline you need to follow and that's it."

  "Hell, if they're offering easy money like that," Jorkin said. "And getting paid to make stuff that we're going to use?"

  "Kind of a no-brainer, ain't it?" Edward said.

  “The faster we can make all of this stuff, the faster you all can get to farming."

  There were a few chuckles among the farmers.

  "My little Ellie, she's been saying that you're accepting anyone that wants to work," Jorkin asked.

  "As long as they've got a good head on their shoulders, we don't care who you are, man or woman. Anyone can take that plow there and drive it through the field if they've got a high enough body stat,” Len said.

  Jorkin and the other farmers nodded in agreement.

  “Mind if they come along?” Yasam asked.

  “The more the merrier,” Len said.

  "It's good to know that you haven't lost your common sense being out here in the city,” Jorkin said.

  * * *

  "Come in," Rick's grandma said as Rick knocked on the door. He pushed it open, checking the inside.

  There was no one but his grandmother and himself. She looked up from her desk and the paperwork covering it.

  The increasing levels had reduced the wear of age upon her. There was a tiredness to her movements. Ever since she had regained her faculties, she had been working non-stop to help the family recover, as well as Insendia itself.

  "I've got you a new plan for this city," Rick said, pulling off his map case as he walked towards her, pushing the door closed.

  "A new plan for the city? I didn't think we needed one," she said.

  "Remember how we were talking about how Goran needs a defense against creatures and people?" Rick popped the top of the map case open and withdrew the map he'd drawn. "Well, I took a look at the city and thought about how to develop in that vein."

  His grandma stood, getting a better view of the map as he laid it on the table.

  "We'll expand the city to accommodate the increasing population," Rick began, outlining her plan. "We'll add military bases around the perimeter, defenses along the tracks. We'll need water and sewage systems. Initially, we'll dig wells for water, then lay in the sewage,” Rick pointed to the different points.

  “This is going to be a massive undertaking," Carolyn said.

  "It won't be that much, really," Rick interjected. "I've got Len working on extruders, fusers, and excavators."

  "And those are?" his grandmother asked, her eyebrows raised in curiosity.

  "Extruders will extrude out a certain material. In this case, it will be stone. So, I could make the form of a house, put it down, then attach an extruder to it. It will slowly draw up stone from the bedrock in the shape of a house.” Rick said.

  “Fusers allow you to combine certain materials. So, if I was to extrude two pieces of stone, or carve them, let's say, then I could use a fuser to seamlessly combine them together, retaining all the strength of a single piece instead of two individual pieces. An excavator will allow you to, well, excavate. Think of it as a super-powered shovel. You point it at what you want to suck up, it sucks it up and throws it out of the back. It would be better if we had storage devices or folded spaces, because we could just throw it into that, then change out the storage device and go dump it somewhere. But," Rick shrugged. “Guess we’ll have to hook them up to carts or something.”

  "You're talking about essentially rebuilding the city," his grandmother observed.

  "Kind of," Rick admitted. "Though, as it is right now, Goran can defend against some attacks, but as soon as beasts start gathering in greater numbers, and people get desperate, we're going to need some walls."

  "I thought that cannons and rifles defeated walls," his grandmother countered.

  "While rifles and cannons are about to become obsolete, you can enchant walls to be stronger than steel, much stronger if you want to. Plus, you can create mana barriers which are as strong as the mana supplied to it. So, it would take..." Rick looked at the ceiling, shaking his head. "I don't know, a metric ton of cannon fire."

  His grandmother gave him a flat stare. She shook her head. "Why are we going to let cannons and rifles become obsolete? You and Len seem very capable of coming up with interesting solutions," she said.

  Rick crossed his arms, one eye narrowing in thought. "The resource cost is really high. You can make alchemical solutions that would act like gunpowder. That's for sure. Or you can make an enchanted barrel that would shoot a projectile. Those are fine, the longer the barrel the higher the speed and force.”

  “So you can make firearms.”

  “Yeah,” Rick grimaced. “Okay so say a person is at fifty meters, gun shoots like a thousand meters per second. Reaction speed of people goes up with body. At level twenty five you’re reacting at forty milliseconds I heard. That means you can react to a bullet being fired. Lightning say moves like hundreds of thousands of the kilometers, and it’ll fuck you up.” Rick held up his hand to forestall his grandma. “Those weapons still have a use against weak creatures. Don’t have to use up mana. Though you can also just make a casting rod, enchant it with lightning or another ranged attack, point it at the damn thing and activate it and buh-bye creature. And problem a bit of the landscape.”

  “So using casting rods as firearms?”

  “Yeah you can, good use, there was one guy that used dozens of them, deadly bastard, just focused on making mana barriers with his own reserves. Was a dervish in a fight. Called him the iron cowboy.”

  “Surely getting hit with rifle fire would be more powerful?” His Grandma asked.

  “The effect of mana is calculated against the output of tons of dynamite. There’s a reason for that,” Rick said.

  "Is there a way to make those quickly?" his grandma asked.

  “Make what?”

  “These casting rods.”

  "Same as what we're doing with the sound transmission devices and the tokens." Rick reached into his pocket to grab the ones Len had given him, putting them on the desk. "We can use molds, put in either iron or steel, cast it into a shape, or we can use crystal, the enchantment already built into it."

  His grandma picked up the sound transmissions device, turning the numbers.

  “There’s an activation sequence, you press your finger to the right side, inject mana to the left and then up to the top left of the device. That will allow you to call someone else,” Rick said.

  “And the token?”

  “Just need to use it once and it’ll be locked to you. Len said something about it being the contract,” Rick shook his head and shrugged before she could ask anything.

  "I also wanted to ask you, what kind of resources are inside Goran's territory?"

  "Goran's biggest export is our mercenaries. Our second most is food. Third is probably our tailoring and clothing because we have to make everything for the troops, and the families of those left behind want something to do. We have clay and stone deposits. The forests hold timber and medicinal ingredients."

  "Have you sent out anyone to go look at those medicinal ingredients?" Rick asked.

  “We have people going out there to collect them?”

  “They might have been altered by mana to become more effective or different,” Rick said. “Tenebrook and his people are working on potions right now. The more materials they have to work with the better.”

  “How is progress with that?” Carolyn sat back down, gesturing at the seats opposite her desk.

  “Much faster than I thought.” Rick frowned, taking a seat himself. “They are reading through the books that we brought back and then breaking down the attributes of all the plants and working with molecular chemistry? Yeah,” He saw the equally confused expression on his grandma’s face. “I was confused as hell, but he’s breaking it down to the smallest parts and then building up the knowledge from there.”

  “How long till he’s making potions that we can sell?” Carolyn asked.

  “I think that he could make potions right now. Though if he was able to understand the ingredients and information. The return could be much greater. Information on chemistry was able to push many alchemists further,” Rick said.

  “What is your aim with him and his people?”

  “We get them to figure out a process to make potions that can run by itself or with minimal people and ingredients. We mass produce potions of every kind. While that’s going on Tenebrook and his people research different concoctions or formulations,” Rick said.

  His grandma tapper her fingers on the desk in thought. “There have been reports of beasts in the forests. I’ll get Everett to organize groups to check the forests, harvesting ingredients and timber.”

  “There are spells that we can use to dry out the wood and season it,” Rick said.

  “That will make things easier. If you have this stone extruder do you need stone from the quarry?”

  “The extruder will work slowly and require a lot of mana to work to pull up stone from the bedrock. We can use it for the strongest foundations. We can use fusers to clump the stone together as we want. Then use the extruder on it to move the stone in the ways we need.”

  “The extruder makes stone?”

  “No, it just pulls it out in a certain direction. So you want to have a big clump of it to extrude out into the shapes you want. Think of it like making something with clay, you can move and form it as you want, but you need clay there for you to manipulate,” Rick said.

  “Okay, I get it now.”

  “So stone from the quarry is going to be really useful and allow us to build much quicker. The clay will be really useful too for making the forms that Len needs. Oh he also needs people, anyone with carpentry or smithing skills or a level ten with the mana stat.”

  “We’ll start getting the troops working on these projects. It’ll start building up their sense of cohesion and getting them to work together,” Carolyn said.

  “Save us money and give us a labor force. It'll train up their skills as well," Rick said. “Think that the city is a bit tense, it has been a while since they all returned. Was thinking that having dances and ways for them to blow off steam could be good.”

  “Everett and I have been having long talks on it. I’m hoping that they’re in a better state than first company was. The tasks will increase their skills which makes them stronger too.”

  "I can also use them to help me build up all of the houses. If I can create a couple of forms, all they have to do is just copy the process again and again and we can quickly make a lot more houses,” Rick wheedled.

  “What's the first stage?" Carolyn waved at the new design.

  "Walls," Rick said. "The faster we can get up walls, the safer I'm going to start to feel here. Then we always have something to pull back to or at least defend.”

  “Those are considerable fortifications,” Carolyn commented as she studied the blueprint he’d thrown together.

  "Better to have bigger and stronger walls than not," Rick said.

  "We should be having the other companies return to us over the next two weeks," His grandma said, "We have enough gold to pay for another six weeks. After that point, we will be out of funds and the banks can make a request to the Royal Council and the Royal Family for our lands to be sold off to cover the debt.” She sucked in a breath. “They’ll let the other families know about this. They’ll work together to carve up our land and pay the minimum price—keeping us in debt probably. The bank will have the rights to sell it off so we won’t be able to do anything about it.”

  “Why?” Rick asked.

  “Because they can, because they want more land to look good to other nobles? Maybe they actually want the resources on the land?” His grandma shrugged. “There were few nobles that were pleased about our rise, the land we gained.”

  “Is there a reason you’re telling me all of this?” Rick asked.

  “I want you to know what I’m betting on you. What I’m trusting you with. What will happen if we aren’t able to make the gold we need to pay our debts in six weeks.”

  Rick’s expression became solemn as he nodded.

  “We have two options ahead of us.” Carolyn continued. “One, we raise taxes and try to recoup more. Two, we generate more funds to cover your uncle's expenses. I've already sold off most of the junk he bought, hoping we can get at least something back from it. I've also received a few interesting inquiries."

  His grandmother opened a drawer in her desk and pulled out several open letters, handing them to Rick.

  He read through them. “They’re looking for the bodies of mana beasts, and the rewards that come from dungeons. Why would they be coming to you for this? No one should know about the crystal dungeon.”

  “We are one of the largest fighting forces in Plynthia and there are other dungeons right?” Caorlyn asked.

  “Other people have been in the dungeons and they’ve figured out something about them. Now I think about it. When we were sent into the dungeons they had a pretty good understanding of what was going to happen.” With the system in place they’re probably stronger and were able to get through the dungeons without being killed.

  “We can send this information over to Lucius so he has a base of people to start selling stuff to. We could say that our people brought back some stuff and sell it off to the families. Get some cash coming in.”

  “That was what I was thinking,” His grandma smiled.

  "Also, this arrived for you." She handed him a couple of large parcels sealed with wax.

  Rick took the packets, opening them and peering inside. "Ah, this is the information that Lucius said he could get me."

  He took out the folded maps and spread them on the table, his grandmother frowning at them. "These are points across the Myrned River. They're looking for soil composition and ground stability. Also, the depth of the river to see if we can cut that train tunnel underneath it all. They've also given me information on the ground between Velkaris and Goran, and from Goran to the stained mountain range directly north.”

  “It's always useful to have maps of the surrounding area. When you're done with them, make sure to pass them over to the command team so that they can add them to their own versions," Carolyn instructed.

  Rick nodded. "Can do. Also, it might be good to give us an idea of who has stone, iron or other resources that we need in the local area."

  His grandmother nodded.

  "How is sourcing that from your contacts going?" Rick asked.

  "We should have the first shipment coming in two days. I've only been able to order a couple tons of iron. I'm hoping that you and Len can turn that into steel. I know you mentioned it before.”

  “We can make a furnace to do that,” Rick said.

  “That helps, though we’re going to need to pay them upfront to get more,” Carolyn said.

  It has been a long time since they've had contact with us so we need to rebuild trust.”

  “Okay,” Rick nodded. “How about the skilled workers?”

  “It has been a bit of a mixed bag. There are a lot of people who are looking for work, though information about how the skilled trades and crafting community within Goran were driven out is still very fresh in their minds. We're going to have to prove that we are interested in skilled workers once more.”

  “Len, Lucius, and I were talking about starting a possible school that would utilize the system and screens to advance people’s skills much faster using the information that we know from the future,” Rick said.

  “Allowing us to raise skilled workers from the population we already have," His grandmother sighed. "Then we’re going to have to heal people faster and we can use this to teach women skills other than cooking, cleaning and raising children. Problem is that they need to still care for their kids.”

  “Maybe one solves the other?” Rick asked.

  Carolyn cocked her head to the side in question.

  “So lots of cities started up skill schools. Places where you’d have kids learn skills. Then the guilds would scout out these talents. The ones that did the best they’d hire away. Many places the school was run by the guilds to foster new talents. The kids are already learning numbers and letters. Why don’t we add in skill courses. They can learn what they want, they get stronger and then they can pick out of that what skills they want to develop further. On the other side we also offer it to adults so they pick out a skill and learn it.” Rick’s eyes were unfocused, his mind moving instead.

  “We supply them with materials and teachers, then they create simple and gradually more advanced things with their skills. Increases their skill level, gives us goods that we turn around and sell.”

  “So a carpenter makes a table and chairs, we take that and sell that to people. Generate an income from them learning,”

  “Or an enchanter makes a water condensing enchantment, a smith makes rails, a mason carves up stone, a builder works on the walls or the city,” Rick said.

  “I like the way you’re thinking,” Carolyn said.

  “And to start we need materials or tasks for them to complete and people that have a higher grade of the skill and a willingness to teach others,” Rick said.

  “Okay, I can get some people working on that,” Carolyn said.