A Relatively Powerful Mage

Imri read the progress reports with anticipation. It had been over a week since Rhesk had been killed and the Chixel army broke. The builders with earth magic had been tasked with reshaping the demolished landscape, leaving the day-to-day construction to the mundane builders. Despite the damage, the task wasn’t too challenging, just mana intensive. Imri had reserved his now respectable mana production capacity for their use, speeding up the process immensely.

There were a few skirmishes with small groups of Chixel, but they never amounted to anything more than a nuisance. Imri had wanted to encourage the Chixel’s retreat and had suggested he lead an assault on one of the larger groups that was loitering about. Sylvi had given him a look that suggested he was being an idiot and Imri let the matter go.

To distract himself, Imri began the tedious task of converting his Time Dilation enchantments into Temporal Expansion versions. The upgraded spell was easily a major improvement, and the redone enchantments also had a far greater mana efficiency from his improved crafting ability. However, it was mindless work, and his thoughts kept drifting, resulting in less-than-optimal results. They were still a major improvement from any of his previous works.

As the final demolished pass was repaired, Imri could feel Emelia drawing ever closer, and presumably the rest of the survivors as well. Imri dropped the pretense of doing anything productive, waiting with the patience of five-year-old on a sugar high. He knew exactly where she was at all times, and could feel her pass into territory firmly controlled by Celestia. As she neared the outskirts of the settlement Imri was there waiting for her. They embraced and then shared a passionate kiss, not caring about the throng of people gathered around them.

Despite Celestia still being mostly a large campsite, with only a handful of buildings completed, the former captives stared wide-eyed. Many of them had been in captivity since shortly after the integration, and most of them hadn’t seen signs of human civilization in weeks.

The former captives' arrival also caused some logistical challenges. The main shortage was in shelter, with only a minimal number of tents having been brought in the exodus from Minneapolis. However, this was a very temporary issue as private residences were being built as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality. They were also in the process of building a moderately sized inn, which would be the second largest building after city hall, though the two dozen rooms wouldn’t even be able to house the current influx of population. The problem was somewhat mitigated as a few more people had begun coupling up, finding romance among fellow settlers. Several people also used the tavern floor, preferring that over sleeping outdoors.

One of the workshops that had been finished was for carpentry and was shared among several different woodworkers. The first, and highest level was a woman who had made the enchanted bows that Sylvi and Jenson had been wielding. She was meticulous in her craft, taking almost a week on each project, but the results spoke for themselves. The second woodworker was more of a generalist, usually cutting the wood down for use in various construction projects. The third woodworker was a full-fledged carpenter, having had the profession both pre and post-integration. She had her own furniture business before the integration and she easily picked it back up, working faster than ever with the benefits of her profession.

While the woodworkers were making great progress, they were starting to run into a bottleneck in the supply chain. The amount of lumber was starting to become an issue. The council had seen this problem coming and had told the builders to substitute stone for wood, wherever possible. There were also a pair of prospectors who worked as foresters, responsible for maintaining the small woodland groves that dotted the plateau. Unfortunately, even though they had both gained druidic classes, they weren’t high-level enough to grow the trees fast enough to keep up with demand. The plateau also didn’t have enough land for them to expand the groves, especially considering the farmers were also limited in what they could grow due to space. The plateau, which had initially seemed expansive, was already starting to feel small.

Imri had known that Celestia wouldn’t be able to grow to a massive city without trade. They had established it where they had because it had been defensible and near the healing hot springs. Unfortunately, its location also made it difficult for them to trade with any future settlements. Imri was working on a solution for this, but it wasn’t something he could solve soon. For now, they would be constrained by what they could extract from the plateau.

However, he hadn’t been the only one to notice the problem. Others were beginning to question if Celestia would ever grow to be the impressive capital Imri had sold them on. Some had suggested building down on the Seagrass plains, which would provide plenty of farmland. While this idea had been floated, it had largely gone out of favor with the arrival of the Chixel army. They simply didn’t have enough strength to guard anyone if they decided to settle in the open. There was also the Umbral Tigers, which seemed like a small concern to Imri personally, but he knew most people wouldn’t be able to survive an attack from the creature.

Another alternative was the topic of discussion during today’s open forum. A prospector who had been ranging further afield, attempting to traverse some further into the mountain range, had returned.

“There’s a verdant river valley about fifty kilometers further into the mountains. It’s almost entirely wooded, with the glacial river running through the center. The only problem is traversing down to it. The mountain pass is far narrower than most of the terrain leading up to Celestia. Descending into the valley might be impossible without technical climbing, and I wasn’t able to reach it.”

“How do we know this isn’t claimed by some monsters? We shouldn’t push our luck,” Someone pointed out.

“Why does any of this matter if we can’t even reach it?” Another asked.

“While expansion is something we eventually want to consider, we don’t have the resources to support two settlements,” Laura pointed out.

“It wouldn’t hurt to continue exploration of nearby lands. If it is infested with monsters we’ll eventually want to know that. If it’s a tranquil option for future expansion, great,” Emery pointed out.

The next order of business was introducing some of the key additions to the settlement. The first was the officer Sylvi had referred to. His name was Major Owen Harper, and he was a middle-aged man with a crew cut, somehow looking well put together despite wearing some of the extra clothing that had been scrounged up for the new arrivals.

“It’s remarkable what this group has achieved, and I humbly accept this post on a temporary basis,” the major said.

“Temporary?” Steve asked.

“My primary objective is to establish communications with the United States government. I believe working together is the best way to accomplish this objective. Once that is achieved, I will speak with my superior officers and may receive orders that conflict with my position here.”

“You really believe the United States government is still around?” Emery asked.

“Ma'am, with all due respect, we have no idea what the situation is around the world. It could be that everywhere is as bad as here, or it could be that we got hit the hardest. Until we know, I think it is imperative we gain as much intelligence as possible, and the best way to do that is by establishing communications. We know a lot more about the nearby area thanks to the Costa twins, who were in Kansas City when it was attacked. While the situation there is bleak, it is far more tenable to deal with one alien race that only seems moderately interested in hunting people than the two near us who are both trying to enslave us. I think it's highly likely there are larger groups of people there than near us,” Major Harper explained.

Imri mostly agreed with his reasoning, and he could see that he had won over the majority of the gathered crowd. The only objection raised to Major Harper's appointment as commander of their forces was by Zhaire, who wanted to keep his autonomy. Imri expected the major to argue the request, Zhaire was the highest-level soldier and was strong enough to be a strategic asset. However, the major simply nodded and acquiesced to the demands.

The next person was more unassuming than the Major. She was tall, even taller than Imri and only slightly shorter than Zhaire. She was also younger, likely only a year or two removed from college. Her name was Imogen, and she had been an electrical engineer who had worked for a national power company.

“You believe you can set up a power grid for our settlement?” Laura asked skeptically when the taller woman had proposed it.

“It won’t be functioning any time soon, but yes I can do it,” The younger woman said confidently.

“I agree, establishing power is a necessity,” Major Harper said, having no qualms about jumping in now that he was in charge of military matters.

“Everyone here would like power, but I’m curious what type of power you propose we use. I’m no expert, but most of the methods of power I can think of wouldn’t work up here or require infrastructure we don’t have,” Steve said.

“That is an issue, but one I believe can be solved. At a small scale, we can take advantage of some of the running rivers to create hydroelectric power. It's also possible that we could find a natural wind tunnel that would be sufficient for wind turbines. Either way, I’ll need a detailed survey of the nearby terrain,” Imogen said.

“I also have a third method that might be helpful in the future. If we ever have a surplus of mana, I suspect it would be simple to devise a method that could convert mana into energy,” Imri added. He suspected it would be simple to create an enchantment that produced heat or force, either of which would be easy enough to convert into electricity with Imogen’s help.

The final agenda item was more of an announcement, and the council had saved the best news for last. A new metal had been discovered, a material that had been identified as Zopralt, which was a new metal with properties similar to copper, only better for mana conductivity. Imri was practically salivating.

While Zopralt wasn’t a natural treasure like the springs and Espeonite crystals, it was nevertheless a great boon for Celestia. While it wasn’t yet known exactly how much metal was in the vein, early estimates were that the metal was quite abundant. While Celestia would never be a large agriculture or lumber town, it was now firmly a mining town. A mining town that happened to have magical healing hot springs.

While there was supposed to be a discussion about how much effort to invest in mining the material, Imri had cut that conversation by offering ten thousand credits per kilogram of the stuff. While he probably should have been more coy about how much he valued the precious metal, he had more credits than he knew what to do with. Even with a large portion of his wealth tied up in CDs, he still had hundreds of thousands of credits. His proclamation had likely set off the post-integration equivalent of a gold rush.

Throughout the next few days, this proved to be true. One of the building teams was tasked with creating a mining shaft. Most of the prospectors, along with a large number of the newly integrated citizens quickly got to work, mining the easily accessible metal. It wasn’t long before the market was flooded with the metal. Imri hadn’t specified how much of the metal he would buy, and he didn’t want to discourage the efforts, so he gladly traded his credits long past when it was strictly necessary.

His easily accessible credits started to run low on the third day after the mine had been opened, and he was forced to close the contract. He was far from the only person interested. The settlement itself wanted a lot of the metal, knowing it would be used for any future wiring and certain pipes. Between the city council, the builders, and Avery, the demand continued and the price didn’t drop much from his initial offer. It was also doing wonders for the economy, spreading the wealth beyond the crafters and hunters.