After William found his perfect cement mix and further concrete mixture. The next month became a schedule of teaching children and adults their basics in reading, writing, and math. Then going with Kena to continue with the creation and practice of her gravity spells. Throughout said practices William had covered carts of materials loaded and then refilled with his portland cement mix. Using [ Create ] to slowly build the up the resources for the wall and further constructions. After the first few days of this he had the builders follow designs to start digging out the foundation of the walls. However a snag was hit.
The combined village wanted housing over protection. Saying that that his wall couldn't fit everyone. He could see the skepticism in the crowd the conservative villagers were feeling like he was boxing them in. Limiting their space. He pushed back the walls would have enough room for every single family, group, or building the village once had and more. He then stated that if they didn't erect a wall when the Imperium came back they would burn any house again better to wait and have the wall. He argued it would be better to lose nothing and rebuild after they came through. But then acquiesced that houses could start after the wall reached just above his height. With that said the village caved the wall became first in line for the concrete.
As the month went on, on the fifteenth day the wall rose a full foot off the ground. Many of the villagers were skeptical when he showed the builders how to mix the concrete. The gray chunky slop looking more like food for pigs then what it would become. They soon learned otherwise within a few days as the concrete cured.
William had had to make a bargain concrete wall he didn't have steel rebar to make it extra strong. So went with straight concrete. He wasn't happy with this but the village needed the wall in earnest. The wall was also sloped to deflect projectiles and make it harder to climb but easier to repulse attacks. Emilia had said it might help against magic weapons. The last thing he didn't exactly enjoy, was the problem of pure magic. He had learned from Emilia that runes were usually carved after a stone wall was finished as they would stop projectiles tunnels or magic that would undermine the wall. However what he also learned was that the earth magics involved were poorly designed. They targeted only homogeneous substance such as the stone a wall was made of. Concrete even cured was a non homogeneous mixture every square foot of it was made of thousands of different particles of gravel, sand, and that didn't cover the cement which had five plus ingredients. A mage would have to destroy his wall piece by agonizing piece taking valuable time. Time that William hoped to counter with long range firepower. However with all those advantages tunneling would still have a large impact. Therefore William had ideas in his back pocket to deal with these problems unfortunately it would require electricity something he planned on fixing during the winter with the help of Kena.
By the end of the month the wall was three feet high the villagers looked at it with meek pride as it rose. Casting a slight shadow on its interior during the day. And as the wall rose so did Kena in power.
Her understanding of the first fundamental was nearing completion. More spells were in her repertoire such as ‘Gravity Burst’ ‘Singularity’ ‘Defensive Orbit’ ‘Stellar Redirect’ ‘Light Bender’ and a number more by the end of the month. Of course she would still need to practice with each. As it turned out spells were much like skills they got more efficient in cost as the caster used the spell. Thankfully it couldn't become super cheap and sounded like the system capped at fifty percent the cost of the original spell. However what made William gleefully jump with joy was a light poke on his cheek as a notification popped up as they finished their session on the thirtieth.
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[ Congratulations!! Contract: (Fundamentals of the Universe 1?) Teach Kena Vun about a Fundamental Force of the Universe. Rewards: Earn another contract?, +200 manapool, 1/10 Loyalty of Kena Vun]
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Two months of training and she had done it would be awhile before he could continue pursuing teaching Kena the next fundamental. She was a little bitter but understood that they could continue once the village was in a good place defensively. But he at the very least, he made the contract with her to reassure her of his commitment.
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[ **NEW** Contract: (Fundamentals of the Universe 2) Teach Kena Vun about a second Fundamental Force of the Universe. Rewards: Earn another contract, +200 manapool, 500 XP ]
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Although William wanted to continue seeing the universe break with controlled micro black holes especially since the next fundamental he planned for her to learn would be electromagnetism and all the real world application Kena could get out of it. If he could get her to make the first magnet for the village. Electricity would only be a few steps away. Unfortunately Runick didn't have copper so he would have to foot the bill on that end. But first he needed coal.
Coal was the gateway to resource refinement. However access meant finding it. Unfortunately he had materials to make guns now and every gun made was one more firing at an attacker. Meaning he needed to stay put and have someone else find the coal. He on the other hand would also build a blast furnace for the event of finding coal at it could speed up refining any metal ore primarily iron ore into pig iron. The pig iron would be used to make more air rifles efficiently for the village. While coal was being located and he built the furnace any time after the furnace before coal was found would go to guns. He would go through the slow process of making more of his air rifles piece by piece. Turning the raw iron ore into what he needed was time consuming and expensive on mana cost. But if he could make the metal normally his life would get a whole lot simpler.
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For his exploration problem he turned to the village hunters. He hadn't bothered the hunters with tasks as they already did so much for the village. At first the animal skins they brought were William's only real resource he could use easily and turn it into leather. However the hunters were also his scouts and explorers and the toughest of his villagers. So he made a proposition to them. Whomever could find the area the black rock that burns was found a gift for their home would be made by William. To William's surprise it seemed he made a misjudgment. The hunters were his most loyal villagers. They owed him much as he had saved the Iron Fingers from slowly wasting away and giving them a new home. He need not worry about a gift.
However during his meeting they brought bad news since they had gained his translate skill they became more in tune with the spirits of the forest. They had said that they had wept at the villages destruction and gave them its bountiful resources for survival. But they were starting to get annoyed at the constant consumption without looking for ways of self reliability. William had a moment of thought then nodded and told the hunters to assure the spirits that by next summer the village would be on the road to stable independence for its food supply. Until then they would have to bear with the dependence. William had a plan.
With that he sent the hunters to search. While he made a furnace and guns. William had a number he wanted to hit but in a way he wanted every man woman and child to defend their home. So he was shooting for one hundred and eighty seven rifles. He couldn't spare innocence unfortunately. The only ones he would spare were those not tall enough, those unable to lift and maneuver a rifle, or those that couldn't make out a shape at one hundred yards. While those under these conditions couldn't actively shoot they could pump air into the extra pressure stocks and run reload operations for those shooting.
Runick was on a knife edge Will was holding it steady. If the town was put to the torch again William didn't know if the villagers would give up. Grief was a powerful emotional response. But the hunters had given him hope that the village wasn't as brittle as he thought. With these thoughts in mind and his purpose straight in his head. He started on his work list as fast as his mana could regenerate.
The blast furnace was first. It was slow going as special heat resistant bricks were needed to survive the temperatures of metal production. Each layed very special as many inputs and outputs must be made as the furnace was made. The hearth and hot air inputs were by far the most technical as Will had to still figure out how to get hot air into the actual furnace. But that was for future Will to figure out. By day fifteen Will had constructed a six foot brick monstrosity so he went to the creation of guns with gusto.
He had fifteen extra guns by the end of the month, sixteen if Will counted the one Cluci carried like a baby wherever he went. He had slowly given out each as it was made to a hunter. They were by far the best shots in the village after Cluci and hardly needed training except on maintaining the weapon. Cluci even pitched in to give tips and even show off modifications he had made to his to make it fit his form more comfortably.
By the end of the month there was still no sign of the coal deposit according to the hunters. They were hopeful as they had managed to spot old wheel ruts leading off the main road several miles to the south. Which definitely matched Vun Senior’s usual cart. William felt it was so close but he kept at his rifle production.
By half way into the month three things happened simultaneously. First the good, the Wall around Runick managed to be over the top of his head by another foot as Will hid and avoided the villagers until Cluci caught him eating on the fifteenth day. The increase was due to Kena she could both mix concrete in larger batches and supply the builders as they went using gravity magic. Significantly speeding up their pouring and shaping time. Will was impressed with their progress and said that they could start housing in the morning.
Secondly at the end of the night Will would have a total of thirty five rifles outfitting the hunters entirely with seven to start outfitting to adults of the village or trained guards. The sudden increase in productivity was due to a breakthrough again by Kena. She realized she could crush the ore and sort the particles out for him by the barely perceptible presence in space-time the iron-oxide particles of the ore had in comparison to everything else. It helped a large chunk as evidently [ Create ] was doing all of that before actually turning the iron ore into the steel bars Will was creating. A further thing was also due to Kena as usually Will had to break apart what he called his rifle sheets basically a sheet of metal with all the parts for a single rifle connected by the thinnest of metal he could get. Kena would take the steel leftovers and compress them using the power of a goddamn black hole back into serviceable metal bars even if the lattice structure within the metal was destroyed. These two steps done by Kena basically freed up enough mana to make a few more rifles.
The third and fourth discoveries were made by hunters the discovery of Imperium Scouts and the desperately needed coal deposit in the exact same position. The scouts were a few days ahead of a legion and even further behind a baggage train with only enough guards to protect from a bandit ambush or large groups of monsters. The villagers were spooked but William quickly squished any hesitance or fear they would hold. Instead however he proposed that since the wall wasn’t completed he would buy time with his rifles.
He proposed a series of hit and run attacks on the lightly defended baggage train it would slow the legion down. Hopefully enough for those that stayed to hastily construct the last four feet of the wall. In truth only the front slope and the barest of the overhangs and gun slits needed to be completed with a walkway to allow uncomfortable maneuvering nothing else the rest could be left to a days during the siege or when the enemy was defeated. The villagers felt emboldened by Will’s plan. Will took command of the militia force. Kena and Cluci volunteered with a few of the old goblin guards the hunters were the second to last to volunteer the last was Grock healed from his wounds he felt as if he should give back to a village he now defended. In total the guerrilla force numbered thirty six with two of them not using rifles as such they left a rifle for the village in case a monster attack happened. They made hasty preparations in the night Kena and Will making the last rifle only a handful of hours until the group left. At first light the group made their way to get Runick some well deserved payback.