This is Our Land (Emerilia Book 5)

by Michael Chatfield

  “Send me to the college!” she yelled. A teleport pad came to life as she dashed through, racing back to her lab, sending copies of the information out to a mass of other researchers and added it to the archives.

  We live in such exciting times!

  Chapter 34: Time To Build

  Kol was waiting as Dave ran up to him.

  “Hey, phew. That was a night,” Dave said.

  “What were you in such a rush about?” Kol asked as they walked into the bank.

  “Making plans. Hopefully after this, I can be left alone in peace—well, once I teach some people how to do magical coding, you have all the factories up and producing, that kind of thing.”

  “What?” Kol said in alarm.

  “Something the matter?” Ukon stood in the foyer of the bank.

  “Nope, just need to check a few things.” Dave waved Kol onward.

  What is he doing now? Kol thought.

  They stepped into Ukon’s office.

  “So, what can we do for you?” Ukon asked.

  “Well, I heard that you put in word for one of your banks to be moved to Verlun—thanks for that. Took a lot of stress off Florence and the people there,” Dave said.

  “I saw it as a wise investment. Those higher up agreed with me after all the success we’ve had in Cliff-Hill,” Ukon said with a proud smile.

  “Good. Then I’m going to be using all of my savings, except this month’s wages, to buy higher levels for my mine manager class,” Dave said.

  “What?” Kol yelled.

  “I’ve got a bunch of resources and materials coming in, and I’ve got extra gold coming in as well to pay our people. With the higher mine manager level, we can get more materials faster. I was told that you’re holding them?” Dave asked Ukon.

  “Yes, we do have the materials from the class.” Ukon nodded.

  “Good. All of those go to the smithies upon arrival. Is there anything else I should know?”

  “I feel it is my duty to remind you that Wis’Zel’s ceramics factory in Zol’Ord has been finalized and the paperwork for the money to be sent to the landowners has been completed,” Ukon said.

  “Perfect—less to worry about. Kol, how was the talks with the Dwarves and Elves?”

  “I got a large number of Elves who are interested. They’ve been making bows out in their trees and they have a constant demand but between gathering materials themselves and then having to put them together, they’re being pulled in a lot of directions. If we can supply them with materials, a place to stay, money, food and water, they’d be pleased to get working on making us bows. I had a talk with the council about the artillery. It’s clear that we’re still in the beginning stages of messing around with titanium and their projects were on the high end; they need more cannons and soon. If we can get a line of them operating, then they’re willing to send people to help,” Kol said.

  “Good, good. Looks like you’ve been busy. I’m going to be teaching our people how to do magical coding so that they know what to do with the DCA armor—made a minor adjustment to it that we can add in. Also, the Aleph are sending over factory people to help us build multiple factories for different uses. I’m thinking we leave them with making vehicles; we deal with armaments, other than the bands, just because they’re finicky as hell and quality control is going to be a bitch on them.” Dave tapped his chin.

  “With all of this buildup, it is going to cost quite a bit,” Ukon said.

  “Don’t worry, I have gold coming in.” Dave waved at Ukon.

  “Making a new factory, the cost for start-ups like this—it is in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions,” Ukon said.

  “I’ve got a few thousand tons of gold coming in. I’m covered,” Dave said.

  Ukon looked like a fish out of water with his mouth opening and closing.

  “What we’ve got to do with our alliances and the businesses we’ve built here is to create a war economy.” Dave looked to them both. “Here we’re going to be taking people and practices from all of the races we’re allied and work with, put them together and make the weapons, armor and other accessories we will need to not only fight the enemy but defeat them completely. Oh, and we’ll probably be having the factories and a smithy located in the Stone Raiders’ guild hall.”

  Kol sighed as he nodded in agreement.

  “Well, I can get that gold pulled for you today, and I will see what I can do about helping you later on,” Ukon said.

  “I have multiple patents that I will need to submit. I would like the bank to retain copies just to keep the trader’s guild loyal. I don’t want anyone messing around with them and making items that aren’t of the highest quality. These will be weapons going in the field,” Dave said.

  “Okay, I can talk to our people and make sure we double-check with the trader’s guild to back you up,” Ukon said.

  “Sweet. Otherwise, how are we looking on the business front?” Dave asked.

  “For the last few months, we’ve had profits across the board. With the new contract, we’re actually looking at about breaking even with all of the expansion and predicted costs that Suzy has submitted. No need for loans or anything of that nature. You will be running low on funds after today, but as you’ve told me, that won’t be too much of an issue,” Ukon said.

  “Well, certainly sounds good!” Dave smiled.

  Kol grunted, wondering what changes were coming to Emerilia.

  ***

  Dave sent his orders off and grabbed more carvers from the seeder. He replaced a number of charged vault soul gems and the small carver-making factory. He dropped off the factory with Kol, who was actually in the smithy’s office, delegating to his shop heads about the massive hiring process they were going to start. As well as the fact that they would be making a factory that would use people from multiple trades to make items, including smiths.

  That dealt with, he headed off for the guild hall. He hadn’t told Suzy what he’d done yet, letting her have some time with Induca.

  Deia said she would be free from her training in a couple of days. Dave was hoping he could have everything ready by then. He hated dealing with all the managing crap, but it seemed he’d gained some skills from his past life.

  He stepped through the teleport pad and entered the guild hall. Malsour was there and waiting for him. He’d already talked to Josh, who had given him the okay to start building up factories and the like. He was also on a payment plan because he’d put all of his money into his mine manager class, but he felt that it would pay off.

  Quest: Mine Manager Level 8

  Pay 20,000,000 gold

  Rewards: Unlock Level 9 Quest

  Increase to mine’s output

  Class: Mine Manager

  You have become a manager of a mine! Provide more gold to this class in order to increase productivity! Items will be delivered to you once a week.

  Status:

  Level 8

  Effects:

  Every week you gain:

  1,280 Steel ingots

  128 Silver ingots

  64 Ebony ingots

  8 Mithril Ingots

  384 random ores

  With the first level Dave gained ten steel every week, which doubled with each level. At level 2, he got one silver each week; it doubled with every level as well. Ebony he got at Level 3 and Mithril was unlocked at level 5.

  The upfront cost was immense and it was only because Bob had put the resources of the Datskun under Dave’s name that he was able to even buy the extra levels. It had cost him 31,500,000 gold. More wealth than most kingdoms on Ashal had access to. For the Mithril alone, it was worth it. Dave would be getting the same amount of Mithril as the Dwarves mined in a week.

  Since the Aleph and the Dwarves had talked, the Dwarves agreed to teach the Aleph some manipulation techniques for the different materials, including Mithril, for a large chunk of the stored deposits.

  There was simply no other way for Dave to get Mithril other than to try t
o mine it himself or get it from the guild hall’s miners.

  With the additional resources, he could put them directly into his smithies or sell them off. Although it was a massive upfront cost, Dave had little use for gold. His patents were making him money and he had paid off his factories in Zol’Ord and his smithy in Cliff-Hill.

  His teleport pad was making gold hand over fist and so was the massive contract for armor with the DCA. Gold wasn’t as good as silver for filling runes and there simply wasn’t enough Mithril for sale for his smithy to use.

  Mine Manager was a costly class, but in Dave’s eyes well worth it. He watched as the horses pulled the carriage through the teleport pad and brought him into the Stone Raiders’ guild hall. Aleph automatons moved with their own loaded cart of materials that the smithy had bought from the Stone Raiders, ready to load the cart up.

  “Thanks for the ride,” Dave said to the teamster driving the cart.

  “Have a good day, boss.” The Elf tilted his hat.

  “You too!” Dave jumped off and headed through the housing complex. He greeted Stone Raiders and various others in the first housing complex. In the second, there was just Aleph who had been hired by the guild and guild members. Automatons worked tirelessly, moving resources from the refinery and into the warehouse filled with crates of holding.

  Dave continued on his way, working his way through the housing complex and to the large corridor that overlooked the growing city. Dave conjured a disk of metal beneath his feet; runes covered it as he floated down to the city street below. He destroyed the disk and headed through the city.

  “Hmm, that would be a decent place for a workshop and smithy.” Dave wandered through the city and into a large open area that looked like most cities’ marketplace.

  He conjured a disk, carving out runes on it. Light shot out from it and created a laser that cut through the rock easily. Dave moved the laser around, cutting out a rough room from the stone block that had been cut out by the mining machines.

  “Okay, so, we need more automatons. Also going to need more miners and to get this whole thing moving. So, need power. If I can up my sensing power, I can probably scan the area and see the fluctuations of Mana and follow it to a Mana ley line.” Dave carved out a rudimentary desk and conjured a rolling chair. The floor was pretty rough but workable.

  Dave pulled out soul gems, the size of his torso, and put them off to the side. He pulled out a carver, making runes around them.

  “You are so handy!” He talked to the tool. Excitement at just what he was going to do bled through to all his actions.

  He pulled out a number of other materials and laid them on the table, pinning windows of his interface to the wall and destroying his conjured laser. He looked over at the walls. It showed the materials in stock, the number of automatons in use and their locations; another, the rate that the miners were working at, then the power levels, air saturation and the like.

  “Okay, we need more room, more resources. To do that, we need more miners, more automatons, and more gardens to keep the air in here working. Maybe an enchanted fan or dozen to keep air circulating—got a few, but still a bit stagnant. Also going to need power to keep this all going. So, to break it down: first, power station; second, gardens; third, get this city spinning; fourth, mine our damned brains out!” Dave wrote down his plan on an interface notepad, “sticking” it to the wall next to the other interface screens. It was as if he had a massive wall screen with all his information.

  “Feel like I’m a damned stock market trader.” Dave snorted and sat down in his conjured rolling chair. Making sure all of his conjured and powered items were hooked up to his varying power sources, he pulled out Induca’s rings and put them on.

  “Whoa, that is a rush.” Dave’s voice sounded odd with the sudden boost to his Intelligence.

  He checked out the rings.

  Rings of Smartness

  Formed by David Grahslagg, these rings increase the user’s smarts.

  Quality:

  AAA

  Abilities:

  Increase user’s Intelligence by 15%

  Ability to resize

  Soul Bound (not currently bound)

  Charge:

  100,000/100,000 (10 weeks)

  Durability:

  70/70

  “Well, not happy about only getting a triple A rating—just one rank below S, though,” Dave grumbled.

  He had found that getting a nice bonus 5% was easy enough, but going higher than that it became harder and harder. Getting to 10% took a heck of a lot more Mana and needed to be made of ebony, not steel. It was only through Dave’s magical coding skills and use of silver he was able to get the ring to work at 15%. Any higher and he would need a full day to work on it instead of a few minutes or use Mithril.

  Adding in the soul bound ability and resize was relatively easy now that he’d used it for his own armor—made it easier to move in even at a higher expense of Mana.

  Dave’s Intelligence was originally 738; with the two rings he was boosted to 976.

  “Wait, need to do some stat changes. Been a few days since my last, so, shouldn’t be too bad.” Dave opened his character sheet.

  “So, increase Intelligence, bigger base stat. Then up Agility, so I’m not totally falling over myself. Also less hand cramps from all this coding. Hmm, I want to work longer, so, Endurance as well?” Dave only needed four hours of sleep where most needed eight, but he hadn’t slept that much in two days and he didn’t want to get stopped for much. Endurance also meant he didn’t have to eat as much food as a normal person.

  “Okay, 40 in Intelligence and Agility because thankfully I’ll be sitting in this seat. Add on 50 Endurance because I have the feeling I’m going to need it. The Mana barrier on my armor is good to make up for my Vitality, which is much higher than when I started off.” Dave snorted, thinking of how he thought a stiff breeze could possibly kill him.

  He removed the rings and looked at his new stats.

  Character Sheet

  Name:

  David Grahslagg

  Gender:

  Male

  Level:

  148

  Class:

  Dwarven Master Smith, Friend of the Grey God, Bleeder, Librarian, Aleph Engineer, Weapons Master, Champion Slayer, Skill Creator, Mine Manager, Master Summoner

  Race:

  Human/Dwarf

  Alignment:

  Neutral Good

  Unspent points: 356

  Health:

  24,300

  Regen:

  10.06 /s

  Mana:

  7,780

  Regen:

  22.55 /s

  Stamina:

  3,090

  Regen:

  20.25 /s

  Vitality:

  243

  Endurance:

  503

  Intelligence:

  778

  Willpower:

  451

  Strength:

  309

  Agility:

  405

  Dave closed the window, feeling his tiredness falling away and feeling a little less hungry. He carefully pulled out a handful of nuts and berries and munched on them. The time dilation effect was really noticeable now, but it seemed that the increase in Agility was doing its work to make it so he wasn’t all messed up.

  “Okay, smarter, faster for longer—let’s get started.” Dave put the rings on again, which boosted him up to 1,029.

  Dave made an unintelligible noise. His eyes moved rapidly as he opened interface windows around him, changing different things before he carved out runes on his table and conjured the basics of what he would need to make his plan a reality.

  Chapter 35: Madman On The Loose

  General Loughbreck looked out over his “guards.” Technically, he was the guard captain of Gufaross. In reality, he was the general of Lord Esamael’s forces in the northern cities. Gufaross and Owesa made a barrier between Emaren and Haugr.


  It was Loughbreck’s duty to make sure that none of the king’s spies went south to find out what Lord Emaren and his allies were doing. Seeing as Loughbreck not only controlled the guards in both Owesa and Gufaross, but also the “bandits” who lived outside the city, ready to support him if needed, it was easy to make sure that any spies had an unfortunate accident.

  He looked to his new orders. Their plan was continuing on as before. When spring and the Dwarven tournament came, Lord Esamael’s forces would be moving to take Haugr. Originally Loughbreck was to take his army and assault Barosvik, keeping the forces there pinned down, so that they couldn’t support Haugr as Lord Esamael’s armies used the Emaren teleport pad to take the city. Now that there was a teleport pad in Verlun as well, the plan was to assault the city, take the teleport pad there and support the forces in Haugr. Once they killed the king, then the other lords and ladies would bow down to them. Those who didn’t, they could hunt down and destroy.

  The plan had been to take over Verlun and force the Stone Raiders to give the teleport pad over to Lord Esamael. The problem was that the overconfident Stone Raiders didn’t care for the lord or his minion Geswald’s subtle threats and pressures.

  They were pushing out the old and entrenched competition in Emaren with rare and powerful items that they sold to the mage’s college while they made alliances and trades with the farmers in Verlun. The traders there were treated as equals by the Stone Raiders.

  They supported the Stone Raiders and they’d overcome the ever-increasing number of barriers Geswald and Esamael had put in their way. Still, even with all of that, the Stone Raiders and their farmer friends had figured out ways around it and were making a ton of gold.