The summer solstice festival itself went without a hitch. I showed off some new magic, explained the importance of antibiotics and hygiene, and told people to give microscopes a try. I also thanked the glass-makers and metalworker, and encouraged people to find stuff they were passionate about. Now that we had the seeds from the Izlandi Kingdom and our tamed monsters were being managed to become more docile and useful, food would soon stop being as much of an issue.

I brought out the ritual artifacts too. The large uncut diamond with its lustrous sheen. The tablet with the words of the human language. And of course, the red heart made of monster stars. I hesitated before touching the red heart that I had made myself. After the dream I’d had a while ago, I’d realized these stars were more dangerous than I’d assumed. But instead of getting rid of it, I instead just decided to handle it carefully for now. Should be fine as long as I didn’t sleep on top of it, right?

I introduced measurements too, and added to the artifacts at Bek Tepe, the metal rod and lump that would define the meter and kilogram respectively. I made a note to myself to replace them with steel versions once we had the technology to do so. But for now, I put them carefully in Bek Tepe and handed out some replicas to the elders so they could conduct their business accordingly. And although we didn’t need a system of currency yet, I figured we could just use the Izlandi Kingdom’s system of precious metal coins. There was plenty of silver and gold to go around down here, after all.

We finished off the festivities and eventually returned to the city.

---

“Aren’t there a lot of kids around these days?” I said.

“Yes, teacher, it’s all thanks to you,” said Elder Kezler.

“Me?” I said as I blew on my hot drink.

“Yes,” he said as he moved the burnt out charcoal in the campfire pit, “we used to lose every other child before adulthood before you came around.”

“I see,” I said, “so you’re saying I’m a good luck charm?”

It was early in the morning on a day on the cusp of winter. The summer solstice festival was a distant memory. The city itself had grown a lot since then. More huts, built in more sophisticated styles, with iron fittings and frames. Paths paved with stone leading throughout the city. Underground sanitation. And a few more aquifers bringing water from the river to a treatment site before flowing to every single hut. The entire city was beginning to look like an ancient city from classical legends back on Earth. All that was left were marble buildings and statues, and we’d have the beginnings of a proto-Rome.

“Luck, yes,” said Elder Kezler. We were sitting alone, enjoying the warmth of the little fire pit. “But also your magic.”

“I suppose c-sections, antibiotics, and clean drinking water will go a long way,” I said.

“Most importantly, everybody is well fed. Offensive magic has changed our lives,” he said, “more hunters means more food, less orphans, and less trauma for all involved.”

“Huh,” I said, “guess I didn’t put as much importance on that as I should’ve. Are you saying I should focus on more offensive magic?”

“No, no,” he said, “everything we have right now has made most hunting very easy. In fact, if we weren’t taking only as much as we needed, we might’ve depleted the resources around us long ago.” He sighed. “I am a little worried about the future generations. With so many more children, it’s easy to see that we’ll end up increasing the size of our community very quickly.”

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“Don’t worry, elder,” I said, as I leaned forward. Somehow, the energetic red haired old man looked quite feeble that morning. His hazel eyes didn’t have the spark they usually did. That mischievous, youthful spark, that rebelled against his old body, as if to declare that the few gray hair on his head were nothing to worry about. “As long as I’m here, I’ll figure something out.”

Elder Kezler smiled. The spark was back in his eye, although it looked different. “I do not think I can thank you enough, teacher. All of humanity is indebted to you.”

Huh. Hearing that made me pause.

All of humanity? Indebted to me.

It sounded a lot grander than anything I felt entitled to. I’d helped them out a little, but that was all. I knew it hadn’t all been because of my selfish desire to search for the meaning of ‘annihilation,’ and that I had helped these people out because I’d found them, and grown close to them. But somehow, I didn’t feel like I’d done much. Not when they were still living in huts and only a handful could grow over seventy years old like Elder Kezler.

I finished my drink in silence. Elder Kezler smiled as he prodded the charcoal again.

---

To establish a reliable trade route with the Izlandi Kingdom, we had to explore one of three options.

Heading west from the city, we could travel to the sea and swing around the mountains and plateaus by hugging the coast. However, the monsters over the sea were still unknown, and we would be a lot more vulnerable out there. And even if we could protect ourselves, there was no guarantee we could defend any cargo we were taking to trade. Still, I figured I could explore this route later.

If we followed the river east, and went into the open plains beyond the human Jora tribe’s lands, avoiding the ‘roof of the world,’ we could try to swing around the mountains. But this route would take us to the territory of the Singing Horde, and I was trying to avoid them for now. I knew I had to go in this direction eventually, since it was the most likely place where I would find clues about ‘annihilation’ or the elfin Jora tribe. But for now, I wanted to avoid it if I could.

And finally, we could go through the mountains, making a path at high altitudes, with some tunnels through the mountains too high for ordinary humans and demons to cross. Actually, since humans were the only ones with magic, we could make sure the entire path was too difficult to traverse without magic, which would give us complete control of the route. The demons would have to rely on the humans to come to them and would have to buy and sell on the humans’ terms.

The biggest problem with this mountain route were the glaciers. Perhaps we could make tunnels and paths through the mountains with magic, but that would be pretty much impossible to do with the glaciers. Even if we carved something through them, the paths wouldn’t be reliable. They’d be a pain to create and an even bigger pain to maintain. No, we needed a way around the glaciers. I hadn’t been able to find a route like that before, but I hadn’t been trying very hard. It wasn’t too difficult crossing the glaciers, for me, but now that I had to account for other people, I was willing to spend some time surveying the mountains.

I even went to do so in the winter. I went alone, however, since most humans wouldn’t be able to help out here, and Kelser was busy these days, in the midst of young love. Lucky guy. I was stuck staring at maps, sketching potential routes in charcoal, while he was eating fruits in a secret grove that I totally stumbled into and did not explore explicitly because it was his favorite place to spend a date in. Okay, of course I checked if it was safe. I even found and removed a type of plant that would cause itchy boils on the face!

I chuckled to myself as I walked through the valley in front of the foot of the glaciers, trying to find the end of the domineering ice. At this point, Kelser was a little brother to me. I really wanted to make sure he was happy.

I finally found the path through the glaciers that Kol had talked about long ago. Or at least, I thought this was it. It was much narrower than how she’d described it, and was far from where she could’ve reasonably stumbled into on her way from the Izlandi Kingdom, but I was willing to chalk that up to either her confused mental state or immortal shenanigans.

I marked the path on my map, and followed it all the way through the glaciers just to be sure. Sure enough, it came out to large mountains on the other side. This little path would help cut down the time and danger of this trade route, but there was still a lot of work to be done.

I went back to the city to prepare a construction team.