Homesteading in a fantasy world

From the night I discovered the luck anomaly, a week has passed. It has been a really busy time since then. Currently, I was in the war room that was in a wooden building where our future fortress will be built.

This was our operation center for our armies. At the center of the room was a large table that had a map of our nation and its surroundings. It was so big that if you wanted to add something to the map, you would need to climb on top of the table and take a decent amount of steps to make it to the middle.

Currently in this room were two generals: one ran the daily operations of the legion and the other, the Vikings. There were also a few high-ranking commanders and the leader of the spy division, Mirhit. All of us were waiting for a stick to break, notifying that we could start. Everything else was ready, so all we could do was wait, so I decided to look over the map.

On this map was a lot of information about the terrain, important choke points where we currently have a presence, but there was also future information, the plans that we have made for the next few years.

From the capital towards the southern forest, it showed three roads that were to be built that led to three outposts that would eventually grow into villages meant to harvest a lot of lumber for our growing nation. It also showed the constantly expanding farmland and, of course, even more future roads to be built.

To the west would be quite a major road that will be connected to four mining outposts that are incredibly rich in metals and the future site of a legion fortress. The grasslands to the west were split by a river, so a bridge would be necessary.

Coming back towards the east and the southern forest, depending on how well that section develops, there might be a need for a second legion fortress. But honestly, I would like to make it immediately because of the vast distances, but if there aren't any people there, there wouldn't be anything to finance a legion there.

I continued to study the map and plan my future war strategies. But to the east of the map stretched an empty canvas. Mirhit's bugs have been able to gather some information, but they don't survive for long when they get too close to the country there.

We have obtained some older maps, so we should know the locations of the towns, villages, and cities, and a rough estimate of the terrain, but that's all old information from before the plague.

I didn't like relying on old information, but we couldn't get closer due to the risk, and I wasn't going to send Goose to fly over the land when it was so dangerous. When Omar wrote back to us saying everything was progressing quickly on his end, I wrote back asking if meddling with them could be considered an act of aggression against the country.

Apparently, since it wasn't something recognized by the World Council, they weren't going to count this as a hostile action. Probably part of the reason was that they were quite annoyed that something so significant had been kept a secret from them.

I was also informed that if that country's leader cooperates, they won't take any action against him, and then our opportunity to gather information would be over. Because of that, I could feel the coin in my pocket that was going to give us a chance to obtain accurate information. Everyone was incredibly stressed as we waited, hours ticking by. But finally, the silence was broken by a clear snap. It was time.

I took out the coin and said out loud, "If I throw this coin 50 times and it lands on the same side, we will cancel our current operation." Just before I could throw it, one of the commanders spoke up. "I still don’t understand how this would work. I mean, we really won't stop this operation; it's too important, right?" All I did was crack a small smile as I threw the coin and caught it, revealing heads. Like that, I continued, and every time it landed on heads.

When I reached the 20th heads, it almost felt like the entire room was empty of energy and mana, and filled with something else that I couldn’t see. I didn’t stop and continued. Everyone was wide-eyed as this was actually happening, and for a brief moment, I thought about what would happen if we actually made it to 50.

Fortunately, that didn't happen because when I reached the 37th throw, I could almost feel a different taste of holy power, and then it landed on heads. I felt something different. I threw it again, and it landed on tails. "Goose, go now," I communicated through our bond.

"Mirhit, be ready on my word." Mirhit didn’t answer as he was sweating while being in a meditative pose. Currently, Goose was carrying a large bag full of Mirhit's spy bugs. The plan was for Goose to fly over the country so we could make a more accurate map and hopefully see what they're up to, but also to deposit Mirhit's spy bugs all over the country so he could gather as much information as possible.

Goose was now quite big and could easily have children ride him. But with my estimates, it would take him two or three more years until he grew enough that I could fly with him. That meant he could fly really fast with his wind manipulation.

When the Mirhit part of the plan was done Goose will then fly in an expanding spiral from the center of the country while I was connected to him, so my map ability could record everything. It didn’t take long until I had to say, "small release," meaning Mirhit would use five of his spy bugs to search the current area.

This continued for hours until all the bugs were released near population centers. When that was done, Goose could finally start his final mission, during which I needed to concentrate more. So, like Mirhit, I got into a meditative position and started using energy so our bond would be as strong as possible. This way, my map ability would actually pick up the information that Goose was showing me. But even before this, I already knew war was coming.

"They have three war camps where they're training a lot of soldiers. Each camp has enough soldiers to be classified as an army, so 3 armies altogether. And from the positioning of the camps, it doesn't look good for us. Still, we have a lot of information to gather. Mirhit, be careful and notify me if you start losing a lot more spy bugs than you expect." I didn’t expect an answer, so I started to concentrate to the best of my ability.

It took nine hours before we started to see that something was wrong. Goose was running into more and more flying monsters, but since he was rank two, they were barely slowing him down. All he needed to do was send a wind slash and dissect anything that got close.

"My bugs are starting to die a lot faster than they should," Mirhit informed me. "What's the situation with the information gathering?" There was a moment of pause before he answered. "We reached an acceptable level, but barely."

I had hoped for more. "Start playing cards, and Mirhit, start positioning your bugs so luck can't interfere with them being hunted down." I went back to concentrating while I heard the shuffling of cards.

It didn't take long before I got an answer back. "It's not working like it should." Damn, I was hoping that when they got their luck working again, it would work the same, or they wouldn't be able to use it. But it seems they have more control than I thought. This was incredibly bad news.

When 17 hours had passed, Goose and I were finally finished, and he was heading back home. He was completely exhausted, but the wolves had prepared a feast for him. I opened my eyes to see that Mirhit was currently eating, and I raised an eyebrow in question.

"Only about 10% are still alive, so it's not a drain on me. I will probably be able to keep them alive for quite a while, and I am in secondary target locations just in case, like we discussed. This situation is way worse than even you thought."