At the age of 14 I was sent on a hunting mission… Gathering together slaves, tamed beasts… I purchased a carriage… we were to hunt then tame large birds named craxizs they were a flightless bird. Complete meat eaters. Extremely colorful.. There beaks are worth a lot...the carriage i purchased had not a speck of leather no leather seats of any sort… in fact each section of the carriage i had purchased then had carpenters change… it was more costly.
In my past life i had been a big rig driver and had always had a large interest in expedition vehicles… I had also grown up on a farm. Had a working understanding of how carriages are made even if i was not an expert of any sort.
Useing my past knowledge. I decided to create an expedition vehicle. Useing some basic programming knowledge with the ideal of enchanting as the mode of operation… through lots of error and very little success i had created some appliances that i used to have in the modern era.
With beast of burden carrying equipment plus pulling a trailer… we set off...looking back seeing cages stacked up it was easy to tell. This was a capture mission. My personal trailer was having an easier time being pulled. I had made segmented wheels with a track that sat under the trailer… some skirts to hide it and on the outside the standard oversized wheels which were on a split axle that maneuvered up and down. Allowing some vertical movement.
My tracks were linked together again with wood ceramic coated and then some enchanted plants were grown on the pad… as long as the plants stayed rooted in the pad it would wear away slowly and then grow back… each section was actually a reinforced pot..that a ironwood tree would grow out of however the tree was more like a shrub. As a seedling I payed some distant relatives that had elve genes and plant magic. These cousin elves, mess with its growth it grew unusually thick and short.
On the rear of the trailer was an additional trailer hooked on with some clever walk ways between the two using my knowledge of trains and trolleys that had this type of walkway it was relatively easy to make this..
I had tried to make sliding walls like i had seen on camper trailer. However i had failed each time even though i had a basic understanding i just could not make it correctly. My original thought was to make a sliding drawer type of wall that would spread out… use a hand crank with teeth to roll the walls in and out… however if you rolled the walls out past the halfway mark the walls would fall off the tracks… there no (cheap rope) to use or wire to hold tension on the top so i was not sure what to do here. While you can say you could braid vines and such even making it easier with plant magic…. Lets just say… i did not know how to braid. Even if i knew about braids. And purchased rope is costly. There was also a lack of time at this moment so i never investigated further...it was on a todo list… but the trip would happen soon.
This civilization was very unbalanced, ceramic industry was very advanced however there were strange gaps that simple stopped progress. When construction of building are made scaffolding is normal… ropes and pulley systems are not used. It is not that there unknow. It more that they're not used. However chains are normally made of ceramics. And conveyor belts are often seen in construction sites.. That actually what made me think of sticking a track underneath a trailer.
Leaving the city. You would notice that everybody even the cook always wore armor. Most of the armor was almost a links of plate with small pivot joints between each plate. Less flexible than leather armor slightly heavier than chain male. Again with no metal used. For this expedition i had gathered quite a few slaves.. Each outfitted with large packs..the bottom of the pack would have two drawers with latches. Hanging just above the waist. Connected to the bottom where poles similar to modern day tent poles only made of wood. A shovel. Dried vines maintained in a coil with oil and moisturizer. Not as effective as a real rope. Extra ceramic plates. Extra soles for the sandals they wore. On top of the two drawer chest that they carried was almost a plate linked sack… again made of wood and ceramic… with a simple flap that could be hooked to keep the contents dyer. Under the armor was a layer of waxy paper that had deliberate holes punched through them this helped keep the links from pinching the skin. The holes allowed air to blow through so sweet could dry easier.. Some links had enchantments on them for comfort… such as dry breeze… endurance…. Or stamina could be written i actually seen Todd with both endurance and stamina Enchantments on his armor….Does it have a difference i am not certain. My belief it can not hurt. Those types of enchantments are easy to add to the back of a armor and let hang off with just a few links attaching them… Grandfather Armor has many links of enchantments hanging down from the waist. Grandmothers also started to add them on from the back of the shoulders just like a v down his back so he can still carry a pack.
There also rules about Enchantments.. There not stackable… for instance one enchantment per a person… so writing endurance on two different links then adding it to armor does not give you twice as much endurance...when you make a chain of enchantments… it almost became a paragraph in magic what will happen to the user…. For instance… a chain of enchantments such as, fleet of foot…. Endurance… easy breath…. Would make a great long distance runner… if you changed it… to fleet of foot …. Strength… easy breath… the user gets jumping strength. And last example easy breath ...endurance...soft hands…. Makes a great bed partner. According to grandma…. I have to wonder does he still wear the armor… actually with grandma…. I think he would she loves his armor. that armor everyday is cleaned and waxed… then again so is grandpa… but the wives take turns only she constantly maintains that armor. First wife.
Right now my armor has no enchantments… other than standard enchantment that everyone uses with ceramic plates. Death blow avoidance or death blow negate...depends on the enchanter… the difference are so minor that no one really could tell the difference without a national study and it being in the percentile of which is better.
All of my slaves. Have at least one extra enchantment.. Teds himself and his slaves often have several. Daryl also gets more enchantments for his slaves than I… his however are mostly defensive. I however spent most of my funds on the carriages and trailers… and experiments. Only the last few weeks have I spent time on purchasing slaves. In fact i got up this morning and instead of getting ready i purchased 6 more slaves before i left. They also are carrying the generic body armor. Two of them where apprentice enchanters. The rest are minor healers… who are fit. I actually have purchased male slaves… but there only 10 of them… the majority of them are female. This was simple because they have to share my living area…
Todd again has more males than females. Daryl probably at 60/40% he concentrates on staying alive… I have the majority of drivers tent followers rear guard and healers… Todd is obviously attacker… daryl defence… and i am support. It not 100% but it mostly that way… i still focus on cheaper attack such as enchanted stones thrown with slings… area destruction… Todds has Glaves spears. Archers. Daryls book keeping, shields crossbows. Direct magic attack. Also Daryls crossbows have no metal they're expensive… they have no springs either… it is all manual hooks and cranks...there enchanted and so are the bolts that he uses… they carry the bolts on the inside of the shields… the crossbow also snugly can perch on the shield. His rate of fire is slow… however they make up for that by being superb with the crossbows much better than the average crossbow men on earth...I really want to know how they got such flexible yet still stiff bow arms… i expect it going to be something like how longbows were made in england.
I thought of using the carriages like tanks with copulas but they're so expensive i did not want to armor then as they are. In later experiments i will figure something out.. There needs to be alternative ways to travel…
The beast of burden that i chose to pull my trailer..resemble long legged crocodiles. There actually pretty tame beasts… as long as they're fed...which is easy to do they will even eat vegetables as long as it smells bad… the basics of taking care of these beasts is simple stay clean when sick and there feeds been off don't take care of them. They are also pretty smart they remember very well… so abusive owners sometimes will get eaten if a opportunity is presented.
Many drovers have muzzles for this particular beast… we don't use it simple because we will make sure to feed them well. Those goblins we came across should do well.
One cart is wider than the rest with walls. It's like a mini mobile stable that has a heated bed on the bottom… this will help keep the dino's on our side. They have a name in this languages but mostly there called damn beasts...I think there intelligence might actually be smarter than a dolphin…
I swear sometimes they talk… they talk a lot more when they see something new...but it is all like a demented evil orchestra…
Watching the start of this hunting caravan… was very surreal… ted up front beating the bushes…
We dont march off like an army...there a basic formation going along. Heavy fighters in the front. Scouts on the edges to the left and right of the caravan. Two small gaggles for the rear guard..that pretty much it…
In general human military tactics. such as line formations, old sword and shield formations those pike and spear formations that i recall from earth… their effectiveness is not that great…
First… there no metal… shields break easier even enchanted shields… there always the solutions of carrying more shields.. Like the vikings did with their duels… knowledged from the 13th warrior the movie.
Monsters are often heavier.. Than humans.. Or faster. Taller.. Have magical attacks…...you get the ideal… flamethrower attacks on a shield line is suicide..
swords men are out there… however majority of people like glaves, halberds, spears, pikes,,, crossbows slings, magic attacks… those sword users we always read about in those neet stories… where a hero fought a monster with his claymore or one handed sword… not likely.
When we reached the first river. One of my trailers was pushed back to the edge of the river.. There a simple pontoon boat was made.. Leather bags.. With a enchanted cap simple twist the cap and it starts to push air into the bag. Think air mattress inflator. We made this to save money on bridge tolls… I had the knowledge of pontoon bridges. And how the army used them… slaves would then move to another trailer and drive that back over connect the pontoon bridges and go from there. Three sections.. And 2 trailers.. Each section about 12feet long..we should be able to cross every river we need to cross this trip would also test my enchantments and ideals.
I hoped to keep making specialty trailers. That increases the survivability of convoys.
Looking to the east where the sun was rising we finished crossing the river luckily it was only a small river 2 sections wide.. None of the trailers got stuck in the mud… a bunch of the slaves hoped into the river grabbed the handles and then lifted the section out of the water.. Later when the rivers are deeper we will simply hook and drag each section to the riverbank then pull them up and over… but for now we will do this.
Todd with his slaves started to find and pick fights with beasts that were directly in the convoys way...this was often added to the pot later on.
As we explored days away from the city. Looking for these birds. We kept finding beasts to battle… some of them did some serious damage to us… however still unsuccessful… and not having enough damage to return home with a good enough excuse we continued to look… at the same time. Any useable meat we could find. We through into are heaviest trailers. With freezing enchantments.. The outside also had clean air enchantments.. This helped keep the meat wagons from smelling strong enough to bring beast to attack are camps. Helped being the main word here… giant dire wolves. In packs of 10-23 would attack us often… you would only get about 8 beast before they would pull off in the bigger packs. A pack of ten might have one beast manage to get away. Even wolf meat is food to be eaten… however the majority of this meat was given to the damm beasts. I saw a beast i really wanted to tame… it looked like a miniature 4 tusked hairless mammoth...i seriously wanted this beast… but the herd was so large and I while hunting them watch them frighteningly attack an armored rhino herd of six…
The bull of this herd. Levered his tusk under a rhino and tossed him over his shoulders. Where that rhino was spitted by a cow tusks in the back… the rhino was feed still alive to the smaller mammoths while still trying to get off the tusks in the middle of the herd… I ran right back to camp.
This is not earth most things are omnivores
There is one thing i should mention… while the meat is feed to everyone. The mana beasts core is ground up and feed to me, todd, daryl, the fighter slaves, and the healer slaves… other slaves still just get the small amount of core ground up they normally get no extras.
Of the 3 cousins i get half of the extra portion that daryl gets.. He personally gives me the extra.. This is because i have healing talent. Todd is the front liner. However of the 3 of us i get the most. Since then i have tamed 3 additional beasts… A flying scaled bird that when is an adult will be easily 14 meters long.. No ideal on the wingspan. Two direwolves.. We checked to see if it was even possible since direwolves are not a normal tamed beast.. One of my slaves Tamed a plant… how is that possible i don't know weirder the plant shoots ice out… she says it sees with noise… i am thinking radar.. The plant surprisingly is not a meat eater we put it in a ceramic pot and stuck it on top of one of the wagons near the meat trailers… friendly fire is doubtful.
Many of the healers are also adding pets however not all my healer slaves can tame.. So while having two dire wolves helps out.. It seriously tiring me out.. I also got the bird watching from above… however if a fucking dragon sees it for lunch i sending that bird right into a direwolves din or maybe those mini mammoths. None of my pets have names… it’s not like i can feed them somewhere along the way they will die and be added to are meat lockers.. The bird i kinda want to keep…. It’s almost like having a dragon for a pet… but not really.
Ill ask the enchanters to carve into the bones on the spine of the bird. Stuff to make it better… It not like the bird can send waves of fire or anything down but it does have mana.
I should explain the spine of the bird has cones of bone popping out of the spine… so the spine is spiny.
Day 11 of our family hunting trip…. Daryl finally loses his temper…. And he is not even the hot head in the family… Where the fuck are those birds...in my case… i am okay because we have only lost 6 battle slaves… and we are only 3 days away from the castle if we need to run at a trailers speed.
I have also sent my bird at night to the city to drop off some wooden carved tablets… this is snail mail.. Explaining the family what's going on… however the bird has always left before sunrise..
I also asked that a roost be made for the bird on the 5th floor. Outside the family house wall. If they accept and start to build a roost. i will not kill the bird before we return… i have also been trying to find these common birds that the family wanted to tame… i just can't seem to find them… there as common as blue jays in america… so it not like they went extinct.
Sure you can't find them everyday you walk out the door but you will see them every few weeks. If you're a outdoor person. This task was not an impossible task at all. It just not working out for us.
Not only do we need to find a breeding pair.. We need several breeding pairs…
Grandfather already got the rights to a piece of property on the edge of the city land…
The feathers look good and women love them.. They are a heavy bird...there beaks are worth money and they can't fly away. The small wing bones have spiny ridges that have a mild paralysis poison.
Grandfather also thinks they will make a perfect trap for local Goblins. I actually wonder what he means by that… we can only tame so many of the birds. Which would not be enough to wipe out a goblin infestation..
We soon arrive at a river a little larger than average… here as we do with every river we cross we line up in rows and ranks. Normally 3 rows. Heavy fighters in front with battle animals.. Behind on some large tree stumps or wide stools are archers and mages.. The final line is healers at full capacity. We actually have a few fighters in back just to warn us if something come up behind us.. In this line we often have the trailers lined up..sometimes a healer will stand on top of a trailer. I refuse to do this because there are birds out there just like mine only bigger and i do not want to be a snack.
I should note i do not order anyone on top of a trailer… They are foolish people who have no fear and are gambling their lives. I Allow it because maybe they could heal my cousin a few seconds faster if they see them better from up there..
Finally bate is set there at the river's edge… anything that goes after the bait we kill as fast as we can… most of the time we can kill everything that going to come fast enough to set up a bridge. We let the bodies drift downstream to keep anything curious occupied. It works.. it is a loss of food but crossing a river is dangerous.
We gotten used to this… we had a plan from the start.. And just enacted the plan right away. So no bumps so far.
Todd sometimes gets impatient… however Daryl and me are pretty good at keeping to the rule that we have set… Daryl just because he a rule stickler.. Me because i want to lose as few as possible… i honestly think that 3 of the sixs deaths could have been saved.. Two from giant birds.. One from a ambush by a predator that did not kill instantly. But the battle slave was not ordered to keep pace with the camp and lagged behind to far.
The other 3 deaths followed our rules and we could not think of a way to keep those deaths from happening…
Finally we start to set up are bridge 2 hours later… i forced them to wait an extra hour because one we had more fight for bait.. Two because the river was bigger. Who know if something will come downstream while we are building the bridge.
Everyone who used up their mana right now is forced to take a nap… all of our beast are actually in the back facing away from the river…
All sections of the bridge are being put to use and we still don't quite have enough bridge… luckily i had thought of this earlier… wedges and thin boards stretch between the bridge and the riverbank on both sides… this actually was pretty dangerous.. So we did it slowly i am perfectly fine with taking a full day to set this bridge up… yes this is too much time. However. While transitioning are camp would be split in half… as one side grows smaller any predators might see that as an opportunity.
I want everyone to transition over at one time at a steady pace. With full eyes on both sides to make certain we do not get ambushed.
Looking at the bridge.. I just feel uneasy… i keep looking at it wishing i had a better rear guard…
Hey daryl… how good do you think are map is… i ask.. Well going by what you say from your birds eye plus a few other. We should be correct within about 5 kilometers.. Hmmm the advantage of bridges for major rivers is there fully staffed.. At all time so they don't get destroyed.. Are pontoon bridges however don't need a staff when we are near.. However we are also vulnerable when we cross we would not be so vulnerable at a taxed bridge…
Looking at the bridge… the river .. our lack of defence… Todd come here i hollar. When Todd come and joins us… i point at the river… okay… the pontoon bridge gets us across the river.. However it does not protect us.. As we cross from one side to the other we travel across slowly.
That means even if we have ½ of us on that side we still have a few of us in the middle on the bridge.. Plus we have some of us on this side.. If we get hit from the air. We will lose someone.. If we get hit from something that comes downstream we will probably lose someone. However we can do something for getting hit from behind… let's make a fortified position.. Here to face are backs before we cross. After we cross we will do the same on that side.. Will mark this place down on the map… and use this on the way back to the city… we can do this for every middle to major river we cross. And then add it to are uncles and grandfathers maps after we perfect the pontoon bridges we have made for them.
We can abandon the forts. After we leave… we can also improve them some while resting. Later we can come back with slaves skilled in construction. Because we can leave messages with the family they will not worry about us and grandfather can immediately add this fort here to his map before he leaves… We also can store the extra mana beast cores here… seal them in and add them on the way back home. We will use them to grow the amount of mana each family member has…
Our whole winter we can add the cores to our diet… when we are stuck in the castle.
This was day 14 of are hunt for those damn birds… might as well make ourselves useful.
And every boy loves to make forts even older men can be talked into it pretty easy back on earth in the old days.. Boys and men love forts…. We just do. With close to 150 people building guarding and hunting we made a 6 story ugly square fort/tower… with spiked wall 2 meters tall going directly to the edges of the river… we used are beasts hard to help carry pull and dump dirt to make those walls. Then added the spiked fence. We were pretty proud of ourselves then..
2 meters is around 7 foot tall. The fence maybe added another 4 feet of deterrence..
We rested a day.. Baited the river cleaned up the beasts crossed the river in only 3 hours. And pulled up the pontoon bridges and started creating a second fort on the other side… it took less time on this side. Only 5 days to make a mirror image… then we rested another day as we left that fort.. A scout told us that the first fort was attacked we looked back and saw those evil little mini mammoths destroying the walls… easily...i told daryl and todd… watching with my bird…. I realized the mammoth only tore up the walls and used the tower as a backscratcher… they left the dirt alone..so the two meters of dirt would actually still be there.
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Carving up a letter/plank i sent the message with a different tamed flying beast… one of the healers tamed beasts it was smaller. It described what had happened…
Two days later my 3rd grandmother sent a letter back with that beasty. Saying send all the extra mana cores we had collected… with the flying beasts they will sell them and send back enchanted bolts and other expendables ...why had i not thought of this… often smaller flying beasts are used as messengers and even delivery services.
So we bagged up everything in double layer of animal skin… and strapped them to flying beasts… my flying bird. Actually carried a perch… that it gripped from its feet… this was so as other flying beasts got tired they could rest quickly on the way to the castle..then off they went.
Not all flying beast where birds…you know reptiles.. Gaseous floating animals… it's a fantasy world of course they got to have something that reminds me of overlords from the zergs. If only you could use it as a carrier… then again i did just have it wrap its tendrils around a sack full of mana cores… while one tendril was gripping the perch so it could get pulled along by other beasts...did i mention the one who volunteered to tame that beast was Daryl's male scribe that kinda like a overseer… only i laughed when he succeeded.. Everyone else wanted to know but how do you describe a game from your past life.
Side note that overseer has great situational awareness, i sure hope to God that he did not think to add Karrigan to this world…
I keep calling it the overseer… they kept wanting to call it floaty and stuff… puff and other stupid names it’s a gas bag with tentacles okay.. Sure it's got fins that make it move pretty fast like an insect's wings.. However the wings are clear.. Unless you are super close to it. You can't see them. Only the two tentacles.
In the future i think i'll try to add one to each trailer in the convoy… they really do see well and apparently they taste so bad that nothing wants to eat them… you can also train them as pets.. Which might be good … they can carry approximately 50kgs.. So a small adult.The scribe says they are a herd type of beast and are surprisingly smart… like cows smart.. He made the comparison. Ill add the stuff that actually matters to the next letter/plank that i send out...we should have carried paper… next convoy thick glass jars that are rough or ceramic jars to carry letters in. so the flying birds can carry letters… add a little rubber to the outside or even weaved straw and the bird can simply drop the jar into a shoot or something to deliver. Then go rest.
3 days later most of the flying beasts come back however not my bird or that gas bag or a few others…
5 days later the birds join us… carrying a cage… my 1st grandmother is in there.
The gasbag is also in the cage… a real rope(leather rope) is tied to the corners. And that is how all three large birds are carrying the cage…
Grandmother gets off with a cackle… we simple throw the cage onto the pontoon trailer.. Not like it weighs anything maybe 5kgs… it's nothing more than a small cage with a simple seat in it that grandma had her legs dangling out of … it took here 3 days to get here. Because the birds had to fly lower since she got cold easy… first night she sleep in a big tree.. Second night on the second tower we made. The birds are tired.. They had to fly low and slow… we let them also rest.. My bird… is complaining in my mind but i promise juicy meat and a long day of laying in the sun on top of a trailer for bringing the elderly here.. It's not communications it simply… conveying an imprint.
After keeping the promise i have made. The convoy goes on… Finally grandma tells me why we can't find the birds… we make to much fucking noise… we passed many nests…
She even saw a few because she flew so slowly and so low.. I always have my bird stay high so he does not get attacked. That night we got hit… it was our first attack.. The culprit was goblins… in the middle of the night i heard the warning… my direwolves where up and out in a instant.. I raced to the largest trailer and opened up the stalls...hurrying the damn beasts… they were hissing… like a storm each gate i opened they raced out quick but then waited for me to open the rest… finally all the damn beast where out of the small stables and raced off into the dark.
I finally saw what were attacking us… goblins.. A good sized warband i guess… grandma stole a slaves spear and went a racing to the front lines with a gleeful cackle… sending up a white flare… well it is magic so i guess a flare the wrong word...i raced to the healers gather point… and started to fire up the firewood we have set under a kettle… we have some silk bandages here… everything i could think of to help heal without magic.. Even silk thread for sewing flesh together.
The water was boiling fast.. However the battle was not slowing down. Suddenly the ice plant started to fire off balls of ice right above the trailer looking up i saw two goblins again… mental note find more of those plants we need them. My first customer came in… The enchanter girl also had fire magic… we was missing two arms and a leg… goblin snuck up on her before the alarm came in. however when the goblins were killed off. The realized she was still alive the sent her back… she was also no longer a virgin..
I immediately started to pinch of veins.. And was sewing up the skin tight. In fact all the healers were doing something to her… however we mostly used magic to num her.. And pinch of blood vessels.. There are going to be many more to take care of. She pretty much dead anyways… if she lives back at the house we can. Spend some money and get her to heal… i give her a small potion that kills off babies… normally this potion good for a few months… relatively cheap… 3 silvers. However goblins… are like a virus… then tossed her into the stable where the damn beast sleep… the bottom is warm.. And the damn beast are hunting goblins.. We will close up the stalls so we can put all the wounded there.
My second customer… has his guts hanging out… lost a lot of blood… he walked here himself… i wash off his guts… give him a blood thickening potion… hand him off to two healers to go inside a trailer and check his guts in case there a nick. They can sew that nick then his stomach and within 3 days he can be out there guarding us again… the trailer has a bright enchanted stone in the ceiling… my ideal of a paramedic cart.. Only without the really cool stuff in there.
Sometimes i wish i had the same equipment as the MASH unit had even if i did have the crazy medics.
Those healers will test the lining of his guts several times before they sew him up… in fact they might not even use any healing magic on him tonight if he is lucky and we are also. I expect to lose those healers a good 40 minutes but it’s worth it… he is very likely to be back up and running quickly.
We got a wave of 6 more wounded. All at once… it was pretty hectic… the way to handle waves is one on one… until you know what your looking at… if it's decent or good you push them off. And look for the more damaged.. Then go help them and come back.. Only if you think they will die do you do the bare minimum then stick them in the stable.
I got a cripple his spine was cut… thats a lot of healing magic to fix… but he will live… no other injuries.. Knock him out lay him on his stomach and toss him into the stable for now… i immediately go and look at the one next to me who the healer looks overwhelmed… again loss of limbs… stab wounds… he lost an eye… heavy bleeding… he is alive… i actually let her continue blocking veins up.. I work on the damage behind the eye… the brain membrane has been damaged and he leaking the fluid out of the brain… i force mana to heal that nick… then go about closing veins… finally i sew up his stab wound and almost literally toss him into the stables… he will probably live… but next few days will be just shit for him.
Customer four.. Dead… would cost to much mana to save him … heart nicked… plus organs are damaged.. And a bitten neck that needs sewing… i pat the healer and point to number five… as another 3 come in… doubling up on customer five… stab wound… organ are damaged… close to the liver… needs mana.. Needs sewing … worth the investment… i give my nod and they start working hard on him…. Oh it was a her…
Customer six will live healer did what was needed… laying in the stables…
Customer seven dead…
We had 23 come in for healing 17 will live. That night. Grandma came back covered in blood… with lots of nicks and cuts… we sewed her up but no healing… when she told me to heal her.. I pointed at everyone else.. Then said no. she was mad.. But not terrible.
Ah… one of the dead was Daryl…. I never even looked at his face… was he customer 11… i only remember the wounds.. He was someone who could have lived if we all dumped are magic in him and saved none for anyone else… he was also the one who fought the Goblins on top of the trailer… but he died fast. Well as much grief as i feel.. I also know that we had already dumped some of our mana into other customers… there still would not have been enough for him.
He was Todd's brother… i think i will not tell todd his brother who protected me might have survived if i sacrificed everyone else...I also do not believe in that might… it helps mitigate the guilt… but it is still there.
We lost close to ⅓ of are warriors that night… it is a little less but we still lost many… as soon as the sun rises and the damn beast come back.. We will move camp to much blood...of the warriors ½ of them are in the healer's tent and the stables.
I lost my cousin. We lost a few others who help make the camp run… that enchanter is done for now she lived but needs to go back to the city… Grandma told me to tame as many gas bags as we can find… even if i feel sick…
I with a scout unit found a herd of gas bags… I tamed six more after pushing myself… passed out.. And grandma made me tame another 3… my head hurts so much now… i passed out a second time… then another two...passed out… failed passed out . failed passed out… one more… she kept me trying until the whole herd of gas bags were tamed then ordered me to take them to our camp… that was a simple order follow foolish humans… i was carried back just so you know… once there… more cages were made… 3 gas bags to a cage… throw in sick person. On a cot tied sick person to cot then send gas bags to home… now i know why she made me do this… once every gas bag was sent… we hunted for another herd...We… hehehe well i laid in a cot with a migraine bitching every chance i got when my grandmother was not around…
I looked at one guy who was guarding me… hey Jacob if you get injured we are going to leave your ass to die… i regret trying to keep your slave asses alive… fucker just smiled and said well then i'll have to be careful not to get hurt...wipe that smile off your face fuck face and go find something to kill get out of my sight...he stopped smiling then a few of them went and killed a small bug… order kept but stayed away in case i ordered them to kill something bigger… then i moaned and groaned for longer.
Every once in awhile i was given a sip of wine… or some other beverage… grandma always gave me the sip… after awhile i could not help it.. Clever old bat give me more i know i am only suffering because you're making me but then you try to jolly me up with liquor…
Grandma… ah old bat is it…
Oh sounds like you got some courage there… let go and tame a second herd.. Fuck i yelp…
Please grandma… i know you worry about your age but don't worry… if grandpa gets killed off i pay someone to marry you…
Grandma pile drove her elbow right into my stomach and i was dropped to the ground then with some anger we went hunting for more gass bags… i added three more gass bags… however i could not add anymore… even if i woke i could not stop crying...grandma stuffed a stick sideways then tied my mouth closed… she wrapped a rope under my chin and over my head to keep my mouth closed she did not sew it shut...one more patient was sent out..
Later i found out that it took the gas bags 6 days to make it to the house… the birds kept the gas bags feed other tamers kept watch over the heard… the gas bags went over the wall in the cover of darkness.. And dropped the cages in the garden… they stayed there for 3 days then they came back to use with new slaves… at this point all i could do was order the gas bags to loiter and move…. After two weeks the headache started to lessen… i had realized i had been fed and watered… each day and someone had cleaned me… the convoy had actually kept going...under grandmas leadership only we went slower…
When are soldier delivery system arrived… they were added to todds or my group or grandma's group… she however kept control of everything… then gas bags took more wounded back.
One month after the battle grandma had me tame more gas bags an additional 6.. However i was getting ahold of control tricks the headache still happened.. But not as bad as the first time…
The others had to add one every two weeks… i still had to do my job at this point… start exercising.. And other things.. Some slaves reached there limit very fast to the point even under orders they could not add anymore… however i was constantly feed and taken care of while grandmother kept sending me out with a scout group to add more… did i level up… no… i still the common man… grandma just didn't mind torturing me for results. There was also a side benefit… if you sent the tamed beasts far away like to home… with a simple order… they would do the rest for you…. It was a simple background awareness this was probably while messenger services could have so many birds at one time. And knew if a bird was eaten in route…
If the gas bags were closer to me i had a higher awareness and my headache hurt a lot more…
So in between deliveries i could add more gas bags… if the gas bags where near me i could not add any. No matter how many times i tried.
This also worked for other beasts… such as direwolves.. I had to have some prior knowledge of them for it to work… if they were close to me i could not add more… if they were hunting and a pack came close i could add one after capture… the hunting cats where a lot easier as long as they were asleep i could add cats… slimes took too much mind space i guess…
And of course i could have a damn beast as a pet but i could not tame a damn beast… no one tames damn beasts… however you will see them in almost every human city...Month 3 of my journey which the last month and a half i had mostly been laying in a cot.. Or riding a trailer… we had continued to send and receive battles and supplies… and grandma had set up a tower outside the city where the gas bags and birds could settle down the bottom floor was a den for damn beast and dire wolves.. They had separate entrances..
Grandma was pulling the same trick with other tamers.. Just not as effective as her grandson that she personally poured crushed mana stones down his throat.. With his drink and lunch…
After i started walking and doing my tasks.. She sent back to buy very young tamers slaves… and send them here. She wanted to see if the age was why i was so adaptive… i was sure she was right and after this someone else would suffer… those poor tamers… when they got here…
I felt so giddy… the slaves shiver when i smile now…
We are currently 12 days away from the city by gas bag travel… Grandfather has left with his convoy… many of his trailers have adopted certain designs that i had… he had pop out trailers also… he could afford rope… grandmother is right now building two towers.. With walls here at the river… the bridge will be a lifting type like a drawbridge however the towers have an elevator here. So the bridge will be up in the sky. One side of the wall for the tower will lower and meet the other tower… she is also building a good 14 meter wall inside dirt .. and afterwards will have ceramic tiles on the outside.. This is one of the bridges grandfather wanted built… his convoy is quite large this time bigger than ever before… most of the family's funds are gone… however as we continue to hunt for mana cores… that are then safely ship back to the families tower.. We should be okay… and that last tower the gas bags only come at night to deliver..
Do don't currently have ballistas… but as soon as we can afford them to be made they will be...grandfather has some that he is coming with…
4 weeks later grandfather arrived… with two more grandmothers in tow and most of my aunts..
The plan is each bridge once complete will have an aunt in charge of it with lots of slaves… to maintain. That way they can complete the fort that will be made to guard the towers.. Then we will simple close up the forts leave a couple slaves at the fort enough to open up the gates when one of our convoys pass through and that is all. Some tamed dire wolves and pet damn beasts will get a den created near the gate. With everything to make the Damn beasts grateful and stay tame when a convoy comes by.
We are sure we will lose a few forts… it not like this is the first family to try this… however.. Beasts do not normally stay in forts… after a few tries… we hope we get it right… Goblins again are the biggest problem that's why damn beast and direwolves will be left a den.. If we were outside the empire… the success is near impossible.
There are monstrously strong creatures out there. But mana beasts and goblins are the biggest problems in the empire… and strays… plague… and parasite beasts… there are humans who can get a parasite the parasite will cause them to go rabbid.. Until the host dies.. Strangely enough goblins love parasite humans… and are immune to them… those two problems cancel each other out… then you just have a larger problem of goblins. Then again goblins love humans period… beastkin elves… anything they can fuck… but they love to eat parasites humans… well they will eat the rest also… they just don't try to fuck a rabbid human.. Ehhh well whatever…
Parasite humans are like a drooling fast slobbering zombie… that pretty much it… they won't take over the world or anything...just another danger in this world to watch out for. Ah if you get bit plague is likely afterwards…
When grandmother showed up they were all excited.. Daryl had a brief moment of silence but that was about it… he not the first cousin to be lost… we lost entire convoys…. Sometimes goblin tribes can get very large… in the hundreds… mostly the siting of such a large goblin den will have the local cities armies go out and attack them… you just need to make sure you can tell them about the sightings..
Grandfather already making maps to be sent off that have none of the family's bridges on them
And will only show the approximate location of these sightings.. That's for later but he is already prepared with special maps...
After all if the City finds out about are bridges. It will increase our taxes and then we will have to man it all the time… sure we put the family emblem on the gates.. But the city has to find out about the forts first before we will admit to them.. And each fort is quite off the route other traders will take after all we left with the ideal of finding those damn birds… which we never did find…
Grandpa shows Up with quite a few of them wth… his convoy was like 7 times larger than ours how did he hunt them…
Grampa would not say… i found out later that he sent tamed birds to grab them behind the head and lift off with them. One at a time..then had them carried to the convoy. He caught about 6 a day.
Blindfolded the ones he did not tame… then stuck a slavery seal on them… the tamed birds will lead and if they try to attack the humans non tamed ones will get zapped… it not like the birds were smart enough to follow commands and they can not be pets…
Uhhhh how does that work…
This is where grandmother admitted that they used to use slavery seals on beasts before people..since they did not think i needed to know that in my history lessons it was never mentioned… they actually heard about it from an old elven cousin of there own..
Tricky old people...grandfather moved his convoy onward… we simply kept working on this bridge… then we were to continue on to the next bridge grandfather wanted built.. Along the way… it was decided that every 8 hours by gas bag we would build a simple tower that was solid except the top two floors.. There would not be a hollow tower just solid until the last 30 feet.
Each tower would be dirt middle then a cement type of ceramic on the outside walls.. The top two floors would basically be nothing more then stable and a living floor plan. About six slaves would live on that floor and that would be it.
Grandmother found that the key was how young you where and how much mana potion you stuffed down a child's throat for max amount of tamer abilities just ignore the torture you do… some of the kids committed suicide.. And they were not anywhere near my level.
However grandmother stayed in that tower and continued to experiment. I still had to add to my growing tamer beast but i was now having more fails then success… i really wanted to try other types of beast to tame also… The cage slowly changed also… and we found out if you released some of the gas bags but still kept one tamed in a small herd the others would follow… for instance… five gas bags would carry a cage… would not attack humans. And you only needed one of them to stay tamed… Gas bags really had no predators… they were just weak so if they attacked something often they would not succeed… that was the main reason the sky was not filled with gas bags.. They taste bad even birds don't like them. However if one is by itself something that is hungry will attack it… better to have a larger herd..
Grandmother was also allowing me to hand off tamed beasts to younger tamers or simple adding them to a herd..there gasbags… is it maybe a flock they do not have feathers.. Maybe i should use school… gaggle always sounds like a nice definition.
After the second fort was made.. We moved on to the third...towers interspersed between each fort… me pretty much made it a rule to only have gas bags move out at night. So later on we were less likely to get caught.. As fall began… we stopped adding forts and towers and slowly did the finishing touches then moved back. We had news weeks ago that both uncles had returned… as we headed back sometimes we would stop to create a tower… or cross a river… making notes as to where future developments should be placed..
It got colder each night the last few weeks on the way home… everyone who should be returning was returning no major battles had happened.. Some trailers were stored up in the bottom of the closer towers.. Those that were strange designed… the normal looking trailers we returned with.. Meat lockers full to the brim and several meat trailers more then when we started out..
Are family and the maximum amount of slaves arrived at home and moved into the city.. Grandfather returned a week after the first snow… the towers and forts had their maximum amount and there was plenty of food for the whole winter this was the best winter we have had yet.
Gas bags… unfortunately hibernate… and were completely useless that whole winter…
They pile up.. On the ground like a pile of eggs and just sleep… however all of the gasbags we dealt with hibernated inside forts and towers outside the city… damn beasts also hibernate or at least lower their activity… there not true cold blooded but they sure act like it.
Direwolves however are not… and they hunted constantly that winter..
we lost two towers… but not to attack by hunger… one killed themselves by being lazy and not cleaning the chimney and gassed themselves… the other ate all their food up fast then climbed down the tower and were eaten outside the tower… all towers went into winter with the same preparations.
While we stayed in our tower we went back to our previous daily lives.. However this winter we ate better… and we had a lot of mana cores… we ate more mana cores than food that winter…
To be honest i don't think even nobles will eat mana cores like we did… if we got hungry we ate manna cores until we were not hungry then had a little bit to eat… and we did that for every meal.. In fact the slaves on average ate more per a meal then the family did.
The younger kids where not as good about it however i and my healer slaves did this constantly… i also was motivated to study more… and would get to go to extra classes i had provided the funds from are hunting while out.. Plus i got half of daryl funds also.. Tod spent his on better equipment… hired trainers for his battle slaves.. And spent a lot of time training he also took mana core drinks with him… he wanted battle magic… that Ice plant we had found… was in a heated room and the elves were doing there best to breed it with other plants. We did find some others.. That winter.. But they were to distant from the castle to send some slaves out to fetch for us…
Some carpenter slaves were sent to the closest fort we had. With lumber and everything else then given directions to make more trailers… the closet fort also had a good forest nearby..
When the slave market prices went down the uncles and grandfather would go there and purchase...but they were starting to be careful not to purchase to many at one time.. We still had to make it through winter after all and we needed special kinds but without being obvious about it.
I was now 15 years old and just as perverted as i was in my last life… surprisingly it did not bother the slave girls a bit… they encouraged me pretty often… and would go out of there way to make me active…
This evening i was talking to my grandfather and uncles with the grandmothers in attendance…
Grandfather how come we don't make a road between the forts we have made.. It would make travel time much faster… all we got to do is not make a road from the city to the first fort… we can even ferry supplies from tower one to tower two and then carry that to fort one in a trailer… from fort one to fort two we build a road..it will be costly but that road will decrease time… then we work from fort two to fort 3 or at this point in time fort 7. And use fort 3 as the cross road.
We could even build the road underground then pave it.. So no one will come across it...or build the road wall it then cover it with a hill… add some shrubs and trees and by 3 weeks later it will look natural..
That one will cost us less but will increase the likelihood of us being caught not as much as just leaving a road out in the middle of nowhere.
Are city makes some of the cheapest bulk ceramics around… however city p has ironwood at the lowest prices.. If we make an effort to create a road here. All future developments will be much cheaper.. Plus then we can spread out where we purchase slaves…
However my grandmother pointed out city p has the longest travel time in the initial building phase and has the least amount of value for trade goods to purchase or sell…
Send one of the youngest uncle there to trade then… they will think he got pushed this way because he has the least value grandfather can maintain the money trail… and let the other two uncles roll the dice for which city they go to…
It makes it look like we are being mean to the youngest… until he proves himself… behind him could be a second and third convoy who only purpose is to make communication towers.. And bridges.. At least the foundations.. The aunts can take control of the forts. I just wish there was some way to make the towers invisible.. Or look like a tree.
We also need a way to stockpile enough cement and ceramic to at least make one road and tunnel from fort one to fort two plus all the building we do the only thing i can think of is after we use up the supply we gather currently to make those towers we start to purchase more from each city in small sums to be used on the forts and with communication everyone send the ceramics to that fort from each city we are currently at.. After a week of planning and thinking up problems than solutions.. The house had a road map of their plans… after the first meeting where i said my bit… i no longer had a right to talk...but i did listen in at each meeting.. Todd was also forced to come… he was giving mental problems of how he would defend. Against certain problems as a convoy happened… i was given different mental exercises. As the months went further along the problems become more twisted. We had to add people to are plans. Me and todd that is.. Todd had to have sergeants come in and sit with him and they would do mental problems the family would think of and how they would need to act..
The healer team and i had to plan how to take care of people what we would need in the future trailers… we even trained younger non healing talent slaves how to take care of wounds until they got to a healer… Todd was even given merchant problems and had to figure out how to integrate those problems with his desire to make his fighting force bigger and better armored…
This time around one of my Aunts would be in charge.. Her name was bloom.. Yeah i know bloom… she was also given mental problems however she had a overview plus she would mostly be in charge at building sites… most problems where if she got killed how would todd handle this. Or that… then i was asked how would i handle the convoy if so many people died and bloom and todd were dead… i actually did well… of course i am reincarnated. So i had more years then todd yet still younger then my aunt…
Ah did i mention at fifteen i look 11 years old… My family were determined to continue to feed mana potions just like this winter and slow down my aging even further...and while i did want to actually do more than what i had… at the same time… i was not as worried about it because once i was a full grown man… i would stay that age even longer… i was eating close to 42 ounces of mana milkshake before i ate each meal. I actually got to the habit of carrying a tankard with a lid around with me everywhere i go and would sip on it as i was thinking…
A second good thing that happened is i slowed down on what i had to say before i said anything...this actually made me seem wiser than what i was.. I was probably in my family the most enthusiastic about drinking the potions, Todd did a good job also but maybe only ⅕ of what i drank in a day he drank… and he still was probably drinking six to seven times what a noble would drink.
Drinking ground up mana was like drinking watered chalk… you had to force yourself… nobles added flavors and such… are garden did not grow enough fruit for us to do that we just had to down it.
The benefits to having so much mana was energy… longer life and slower ageing… higher amount of mana available in a fight… you also healed faster...you just were not wolverine.
That's pretty much it… you're still human if you're killed your still killed. Drinking mana potions does not make you immune to poison. If you do not practice anything you don't get better at something. Ah a side benefit to faster healing is more intense practice. So Todd became every woman's fantasy made young arnold shortanager to look wimpy. When i get there i'll be in that category for awhile… Right now my slaves are very happy with me and treat me well. And i do my best to treat them well.
I won't be joining the expedition army neither will todd.. My aunts are pregnant again and so are my grandmothers every single one of them… they stay at home most of the time… every winter this happens… my uncles who are not married have to make do with the women in the house when there in the mood or some of the house slaves…
Grandfather might get a sixth wife… the grandmothers are talking about it.. However they also want to wait until all the infrastructure has been in place.
Next year will be a very busy year… The direwolves seem to have had lots of puppies also.. And the damn beasts have laid lots of eggs.. This is great for us… because soon we will have a lot of growth happening… the only ones who have not gotten pregnant are the slaves… well the male slaves can't even have sex. There neutered. At least all the one in our home we never bought male slaves who were not.
Are Cousins have been given hints… and some of them will be joining us.. Only the ones that can keep there mouths shut. After all soon we will have more towers and forts to be built… We are just not there yet.