Chapter 174

As I walk along the main road of the village, plans swim in my head. So many pieces deserving of time and attention that I need to fit into my schedule and I can’t tell what to relegate to the ‘to do later’ box where so often projects go to die.

Alex’s new spear and the deep connection he was quickly developing with this other manifestation of Spike, the seed in his chest, help push his skills forward, even if not altering their actual levels. While I could probably help him even more, I wanted to neither become a crutch nor did I have the proper time to help him.

Adding this new facet to his powers with his incredible ability and now a spear that was the closest thing we had to a monomolecular blade springs his battle prowess and opens up options. Confrontations that before were hard fought, would still be dangerous, but if he wasn't attacked by multiple beasts at the same time, he can probably dispatch them in seconds with two or three crippling blows, and even the stronger beasts he could probably handle well enough.

Heading in alone in the current state of development is still an immensely dangerous prospect, but with the right people along….

A platoon of level 100 soldiers all yielding the +8 weapons and +5 armor with a couple of people wielding the +10 weapons that came, would be enough of a buffer and force distributor that Alex could probably stand around without worrying about much. Especially with Greg as a tank.

Even then, any confrontation would be limited to a few beasts, more could overwhelm our standard 25 people platoon at their current strength, let alone the slightly weaker fighters at the edge if we pulled more people.

But as dangerous as it may be to run into surprises, our level of power is enough to think about rushing the HLZ. My expansion underground in the area is all and well and good, but as long as we didn’t secure at least a couple of the mines our pace would always be slow as molasses. Even with a little over a hundred silver mines, we didn’t have enough remote equipment and people trained in their use to tap even a tenth of my discovery. With physical access, a single silver mine would produce our current output for all the mines in operation while requiring fewer workers. That would also ‘force’ us to process the silver nearby given that transporting silver measured in pounds is a negligible effort compared to ore measured in tons.

I see the main smelting furnace at the end of a corridor, through no steam nor smoke leaves its exhausts right now. It was seeing less and activity given that most smelting was taking place near the mining sites and being transported by scouts with faux inner worlds similar to the way I imagine would be best with the silver.

In a single day, my space bags eliminated hundreds of jobs as a more streamlined process came into existence. Transportation used to be the most time consuming aspect of the entire metal supply chain. On the other hand, it's not like we were lacking in work and all the people laid off from the mining jobs, could either go to another area within the mining ‘industry’ or choose another amongst dozens of options.

I reach my decision. I’m the only one and I need to choose something, so this is one of them. A few seconds is all that I need to find Stuart, the head of all our mining operations, a short and stocky fellow that fit the less fantastical versions of Dwarfs and is an endless source of amusement as his 5 foot muscled frame organizes hundreds of people masterfully. The closest thing we had to a leading Maestro. Even Chalie was more a person that knew people’s strengths and delegated well. Instead, Stuart understood his craft and would not accept anything less than anyone’s best efforts until the whole machine was running smoothly.

I walk in the direction of the nondescript building and then I notice not only the two others talking in low tones but the tightly barred doors.

Shrugging my shoulders, I knock on it and wait as the people inside jump in surprise and stare at the door.

Ohh, how I love thee, perception field.

“Who is it?”

“Uaii, it’s me.” I say with the image of a stereotypical farmer in mind before my tone turns more serious and I hold my laughter: “Nash, I’m Nash and I think I should join your meeting.”

Stuart opens and beckons me in and I lay my actual eyes on the others. Both are seemingly hard-working fellows that I only occasionally saw in the village in passing, though with a more refined demeanor, not the rough edges of physical workers. No real calluses on their hands nor a chemical balance in their muscles that would suggest otherwise. Even the slightly miss aligned fibers of their tendons lean more towards managers that only did the minimum to reach and maintain about 18 in all physical stats.

“Stuart,” one of them calls out. “Weren’t you just talking about secrecy…”

Stuart interrupts him.

“I trust Nash implicitly. And if he was against us, we would have no chance to hide anything from him, not now that he took notice of us. If he hadn't shown up, we wouldn’t even know that he had taken an interest in our activities.”

I look at him intently, but he doesn’t elaborate so I just shrug:

“So, you set up this secret mining council?”

One of the others gasps even as Stuart closes the door.

“How did you…” The fellow to the left turns away from me and continues: “Stuart, did you tell him?”

“Our name is a little on the nose, it is just a coincidence. And yeah, I founded this ‘secret mining council’. Our efforts are bearing fruit up to now, but if we keep this up, eventually, we will run out of mines. Unless we want to station people nearby to protect them. We already lost 8 mines. Even if they haven’t taken more than a pound or two of silver, each of our trips is longer and longer as we are forced to move further away.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“I don’t think stationing people is a bad idea under the right circumstances, but it is not the time yet, soon though. I also want to send an expedition in the HLZ, but that is another story. Just so you are informed… wait. Before I continue… trust them?” I ask to which he nods emphatically.

“Yes, I do, this isn’t just a hoax or a diversion, it is the real thing.”

“Just checking. So… I completed the circle around the HLZ and found in total about 100 silver mines and 3 deep steel ones.”

“Oh, OOHHH, that opens up possibilities. We didn’t have a good supply of the deep steel ore that any higher leveled weapons are going to use.”

“Uhh?”

“You didn't know? Anything +8 and above needs deep steel. Technically it can be made with bronze, but the durability would be dogshit and a single blow against leather would be enough to dull it down to a +1 or +2. Even our best steel is not good enough with people’s growing strength stat.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. If he moved to a more expensive material that we didn't sell him, he would turn into an even larger money sink as the system tries to stop us from accumulating too much coin in hand.”

“Exactly. The way things are now we can mostly balance the efforts. And we have the option of just selling him the steel and not buying the weapons later or buying a small percentage and money would continue flowing our way. Most other villages are only 2 thirds filled because people couldn't keep up with even a few silver coins at the end of each month. If we don’t step up we are soon gonna be in the same financial hole.”

“Yeah. I agree. Now that my piece is over, what did you guys have in mind when you called this meeting?” I ask.

“We have a few ideas on how to structure our mining conglomerate so that it won’t be full of bloat and spies. Guessing your plans for people to enter the HLZ and mine over there… Our efforts only seem more important. Now can we get to it?” Stuart asks eyeing all of us.

“Definitely.” Echoes through the room.

========================

An hour later after meeting with Alex, I’m left with a blank look to my question.

“Rushing the HLZ...?” He said absentmindedly.

“Now, there is a lot we don’t know about the beast's habits and at first I would definitely pick somewhere with at least a good coverage of my root network as we tentatively invade their territory.”

“Keep going.”

“I already talked to the mining council and an excursion like this would be tremendously helpful in both figuring out how much force we actually need and what to watch for in any endeavor mining inside the HLZ. If we left today, I believe that you could hold at least half a dozen beasts simultaneously with enough support.”

“The main squad, you, Greg and Merlin?”

“Yep, that is what I mean. I’m counting on untested growth from me you and Merlin, but I’m fairly confident about the league we are now in. I’m no longer stuck in place beside Merlin. With my stats, I can move around a lot more freely. Every single one of them crossed the 100 point boundary… by a lot.”

“Ok… and we don’t need to dive for the Marianna Trench on our first outing, we can just dip our toes in to measure the water’s temperature and go from there.”

“Exactly. Also, fighting with the beasts may help other people break into the 101 level for their class skills, or at least improve their coordination and push other skills and their classes/subclasses choices.”

“Yeah, I agree with most of that, though I’m not so sure breaking the skill ceiling will be that easy.”

“Why?”

“So few people even reach 99 with a single skill, I had like 5 by the time I broke my spear to 101. Hell, with the amount of Aether I used…. I doubt anyone else is going to break it any time soon unless they find the proper way to do it.”

I scrunch my face at the thought of overusing Aether, especially with the disparate way I tended to use it changing tunes every five minutes given the breadth of my skills and how many areas they cover.

“Ohh, I didn’t realize it was that hard. Still, I think I follow your thought process. Not sure I agree with it, I got like a dozen stuck at 99 though not one reached the half step of 100 but….”

“You sir, are the exception, not the rule.”

“I wonder if anyone else also got to level 101 in the instance?”

“Not before me. At least in this instance, not sure about the rest of humanity. It is always nice to upgrade my high tier title.”

“Spear wielder?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s not fair, I did a bunch of crap and I never got a high tier title,” I say trying to sound more miffed than I actually am.

“Like I said, you are the exception to the rule. And most of what you accomplished was by ‘cheating’, so… do you really expect to be rewarded?”

“Yes.”

We continue making plans for our excursion. From the high minded and philosophical intent down to the nit and grit, though we ask a few of the other fighters to join in just so that our plans won’t clash with their schedule and require drastic changes.

The day goes smoothly as I take the time to relax and prepare.

I have another 2 days before we head over and if I wanted to be ready, I needed to both train with my new powers and make a few improvements to our equipment.

An hour before sunset I enter the smithy. A familiar place that I so often skipped beyond the quick stop for the two daily weapons if I was in the village, most of the time, however, my work was by remote. Though this time my goal is different and a lot more oriented to the normal progression of a proper craftsman, if not quite a blacksmith.

I get there at the perfect time, as Blackwood is finishing with a plate of metal to fit on a shoulder armor that Jack expertly holds in place. His precise and sharp movements tilting the curved piece is an art of its own. Usually, each person would simply wield a hammer with one hand and hold the piece they were working with the other, but the tandem working mode seem to have taken off and everyone was imitating their approach even considering the suddenly slower pace of production.

We had tried something similar in the past, but two clueless people were no better forging than one.

A marginally better piece that took double the number of people and usually suffered from the lack of coordination turning out worse than normal is simply unacceptable. Now, that reality changed.

I just wonder how far Li Wei’s and Jack’s works will go when they manage to meld perfectly. They each have their strong points, with Jack being impulsive, more of a mad scientist that loves his experimentations, while Li Wei is disciplined and methodical.

They also both have mild talent in Magic, though that would take a while to come into fruition with the short amount of time we had available unless they took considerable amounts of time from their efforts in the forge. Not everyone was like me and could juggle to achieve minimum standards in a dozen different areas simultaneously. Most just kept to one or two and drilled down until they strike water or give up.

Each of Blackwood’s hammer blows comes down and I see his usual struggle, even more easily than normal. The very way that Jack shifts the piece in his hold trying to increase the quality forces Blackwood to constantly shift his strikes to never surpass the limit set by the system. A strange game unfolds before me as Jack waits for the last moment trying to trick Blackwood into hitting the hammer perfectly instead of the slightly offset angles the system forces him to use, but he is too experienced and Jack fails each and every single time. But at least he learns something.

I try to taste the Aether in the air and I’m surprised and enchanted to find a thread underneath the large work of the whole village. A smaller but stronger meeting of the minds surrounds both Li Wei and Jack just hours after the last time I saw them and their developing partnership is head for the moon.

I originally came in intent on working alone, but… if I can get them to forge a suit of armor as I take care of the engravings and wooden parts… maybe it will turn out even better than I had hoped.

Well, is time for me to stop being the voyeur and join in the fun.