Year 2, Spring, First Month, First Week.
This year, Caiset would have a lot of free hands, so the Chief proposed a change in the village's organization to guarantee that everyone got something useful to do.
Normally, they didn’t have much leeway when dividing the tasks in the village. Since all the adults had to take care of the magic fields and the teens had to work in the village fields, the other tasks had to be done by elders, as best as they could.
Previously, Chief Omero couldn’t change much so they didn’t have a proper organization. The only ones he could manage were the elders and the children. The elders would end up with the responsibility of teaching, fix things, look after the babies, take care of the sick, and do other odd tasks around the village.
But now, the village would have 200 spare hands, so they could start organizing themselves better.
Technically, the Chief was responsible for organizing and deciding important things. However, it was up to him to enforce his orders, the Kingdom wouldn't interfere in the village's internal affairs. So, most of the Chiefs would share command with other elders.
Chief Omero didn't have a problem in consulting and discussing his decisions with the elders, in fact, he would organize regular meetings to do it and because of it, he was respected and had a lot of prestige among the villagers.
Surprisingly, Karl asked if he and the other veteran team members could join the elders in the meetings. If this request was done one year ago, he would be dismissed and even laughed at, but when the Chief brought it up with the other elders, they quickly agreed.
Usually, a common villagers’ hut could only fit five to seven people, but the Chief´s hut was an exception. Inside of it, there was a big meeting room that could fit 50 people easily. Right now, the 36 elders, the Chief, Karl, Diana, Toni, Tael, Samia and Sania were in a meeting to decide the new organization of the village.
Although elder Said estimated that Diana’s recovery period should be longer, the magic nutrition diet improved her recovery by a lot. Also, Diana stayed in a warm environment through winter, which also helped.
Since yesterday, Diana got permission to get back to the team, provided that she take it easy in the next ten days.
“First, Karl said that he has something to say before we start dividing the tasks.”
Karl thanked him before saying:
“Good morning everyone. I have many ideas of tools that could benefit the village, but I need a lot of materials and time research before crafting them...”
Seeing that got the villagers’ attention, Karl continued:
“I have to give preference to the tools that I can craft with the resources we have right now and the ones that can help us more. First, It’s great that we can eat magic meat regularly, everyone has seen the benefits, but to go further, we need other sources of magic nutrition like magic-infused vegetables and fruits.”
An uproar arose in the room, the elders couldn’t imagine stealing food from the magic fields.
“OK, calm down... We don’t need to steal their vegetables, we only need some seeds... Although we can’t currently grow them to the quality of the noble´s magic fields, we can get the vegetables to a good enough quality... If we have a proper magic diet, it'll improve our health and strength.”
They didn’t like the idea of stealing from the nobles, but how could they not be tempted. After all, for them, this could mean living more.
“The magic fields are too difficult to take care of, how would the teens handle it?”. An elder offered his opinion and everyone became sad after realizing he was right.
“I already crafted some tools to help in the fields. The only reason why we can’t use it to decrease the workload at the magic fields is that the Guards would see it. But here, we can use it without problems... I asked around and it seems that the most difficult tasks in the caring of the magic fields are watering and cleaning the fields of weeds.” Everyone nodded in agreement.
Since the growth of magic crops was different, it would need three times more water than common crops. The magic effects would also increase the growth rate of weeds and plagues, demanding more care from the farmers.
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“I’m planning to upgrade the WET so that the water can be transferred directly from the wells to the plants. The tool will be similar to the WET, so we only need to get more materials… The upgrade would require a bamboo line from the wells to the fields. I discuss it with Old Bill and he gave me an idea to make small holes on the bamboo sticks to allow the water to drip over the soil. It might take a lot of bamboos but after the tool is done, it would only need one person to activate each well and water several crops at the same time…”
The elders were initially confused, how could a tool replace the work of dozens? But after Karl explained most of them understood it. They started asking questions and praise Karl, but he still had a lot to talk about.
“The disease´s problems can be solved by the Vitality Enhancer, it might take a lot of time to do it, but it would only occupy some villagers... To grow the magic vegetables I need to do other modifications, but once we gather more materials it should be doable.”
After answering the elders’ questions, Karl told them that the most pressing problem was materials and time. He wanted to craft more magic tools, but they were short on all sorts of materials.
Also, it would take a lot of his time to upgrade the designs and maintain them. The problem with using LQ materials was that the craft would wear off and the crystals would stop working with time, so they need to redraw the designs and get more crystals.
Moreover, Karl told them that if he continued creating magic tools, he would soon spend all of his time upgrading and re-crafting the tools. So, the only way forward was to teach Alchemy to other, Karl wanted disciples.
Before last year, the villagers' only concern was survival, they didn’t have time for power struggles and other irrelevant problems. However, some of the elders started to realize that their decisions would create a new power structure in the village.
Of course, they all wanted to have some part of it to guarantee their descendants' livelihood. They knew that the best tasks and food would always be given to those in control.
After Karl talked about disciples, they all started to throw their kids' names on him. Previously, they thought about asking their grandsons and granddaughter to join the hunting team, but they were afraid of the dangers. Now that crafting magic tools was also a possibility, they took the chance to secure positions for their families.
“Unfortunately, not everyone can learn Alchemy, and some might take too much time to do it… I propose that we make a selection among those who are interested, as soon as possible.”
The elders displayed complicated expressions, they were afraid that their family members wouldn’t be able to learn it.
“We can also arrange for some of the less gifted in Alchemy to help with processing the magic materials…”
Karl offered a way out so he could please the elders, everyone agreed to it.
Tomorrow they would start testing all villagers that were interested in learning Alchemy...
.........
“So... You thought that you could escape after failing us?”
“Ahh... Master Pyro... No, we wouldn't dare... We wouldn't! We are looking for the girl, she ran off with the egg...”
The two mercenaries trembled in fear. They try to disappear when they realized that their plan failed. Once they left the Eastern and Southern regions, they were relieved because they thought they had escaped from their employee's grasp, but they couldn't imagine that Master Pyro would find them here.
“No good, it's no good... I already dealt with the others, even the Mages... Only you remain... But that's about to change…” He said smiling wickedly.
“Please Master, spare us!”
The pleading mercenary bore a pitful expression, but his movements told a different story. He carefully moved his hand inside his pouch while his other hand swiftly grasped a dagger secured at his side.
Pyro didn't react to his plead, so he chose to attempt a surprise attack. The man drained some energy from the MQ crystal in his pouch, conducting it to his legs, and dashed forward aiming to slash the Mage's neck.
As a fire Commander, Pyro only needed a spark to cast a Fire Wall around him. The red crystal in his ring shined and a Flame appeared above his right hand. With ease, he powered the Flame and drove it around himself using his left hand, forming the Fire Wall.
Before touching the fire, the mercenary gave up on the attack and started to run in the opposite direction, extracting more energy from the crystal to power his escape. Already running, he looked to his left, feeling envious of his comrade that started fleeing earlier.
Pyro's response was another evil smile. Initially, he thought that the mercenaries wouldn't give him a chance to stretch his muscles. He used both hands to form a Fireball in the air, moving the fire from the Fire Wall and condensing it inside the ball.
In less than five seconds, he stopped forming the Fireball and launched it towards the mercenary the started running first. The Fireball was made of dense fire and was darker than the Fire Wall. It traveled fast and met the man before he could turn in a corner.
When the Fireball touched him, it exploded leaving no chance for him to survive.
After launching the attack, Pyro didn't pay attention to the man anymore and started to cast another elemental spell. First, he drained dense fire energy from his ring and used it to attract fire from the still burning Fire Wall, to form a fire line connecting his hands.
The fire line continued to absorb more fire becoming darker and hotter. Soon, the line absorbed so much fire that it looked like it was made from solid fire. Then, Pyro released one end of the line while rotating his other hand, which still held the line.
The fire line formed a Fire Whip. He continued to rotate it until it stretched enough. Pyro made a stronger last round before whipping it towards the other fleeing mercenary.
The Fire Whip soared in the air towards its target stretching until it almost doubled in size and finally got him. It circled his leg, making a sizzling sound of burning flesh, and tied the man.
Pyro pulled the Whip back with one ease motion, which further belittled the suffering and screaming mercenary. When the Whip disappeared, dropping the fainted man, Pyro looked at the man's destroyed leg in disgust.
“I guess I still need to work on my Fire Whip... I intended to tie and pull him back, not to burn through his entire leg... It's a shame! I was gonna thank you for helping me test my new spell... ”.