Paperwork is a sisyphean task. There is never an end to the signing and documenting of information. You ask why it is necessary. It is not a why it just is. This is is what William thought to himself as he documented six hundred plus people so he could effectively teach them. He created paperwork. The bane of existence. But it was a necessary evil.
Thankfully the endless list of Name, age, and occupation if applicable were the only things he needed. Thank the gods he wasn’t gathering survey data. He might have killed himself over that. Too bad it wouldn’t actually end his suffering.
It took two days to process the entirety of the new blood into Runick. The Legion left the morning of the second day. Irene stayed behind, this time as a guest instead of a soft prisoner. William welcomed it as she could act as a liaison if the Imperials decided to get uppity again.
The second day he wrangled Cluci and Kena to help him. ‘Many hands make light work’ was what he told them. At the end he formatted and made individual lists of each occupation. After the group was settled into their cramped but newly built houses work was started with gusto.
For the adults each was assigned a task associated with their occupation. Building for crafters to get used to the many new tools they would start using once their workshops were erected. Farming for those that dealt with various plant stuffs such as herbalists, or potioneers. The new seed stock was planted using the cultivator.
The piece of equipment greatly sped up the planting process. However with the additional people and only the one machine many were put to work making fences for the livestock. Others were tasked in clearing more land for the agriculture. Another project in the works once planting was done, was the digging of several irrigation canals from the nearby river.
As for the construction side of things, houses were the name of the game. At any given point a single construction crew using William’s house design could erect a house in as little as ten days. Housing was still cramped but by next year there would be very few people living with roomates they weren’t forced to live with. For the excess of people they were currently digging the new sewers.
While William would have to individually lay plumbing as only he could place pipes without ripping down a wall. He could make simple flushing toilets they would just require a bucket of water. It would be a while before he could even think about running water. But a properly made sewer that wouldn’t get stopped up or need maintenance that was his goal.
Oh the wonderful gift of modern hindsight towards public infrastructure. He didn’t have the problem of centuries old pipes or grandfathered systems. No he could build from scratch to his exact specifications. As for the children things were much simpler.
With Kena’s help William had designed a roofed amphitheater. The building was styled after the roman Pantheon. The large dome's opening would provide light to the otherwise dark interior and also provide a vent for the dozens of torches littered about the building. Until Runick had electricity classes could only be held while the sun was up.
William hoped the giant unsupported dome, a marvel of engineering, would inspire awe, wonder, and curiosity. The main amphitheater was designed to house up to six hundred people at once. The other half of the building had several smaller separated amphitheaters that sat one hundred people. These were the specialist classrooms.
A large flat area with a raised slab table for demonstrating the particular topic was at the base of each amphitheater. The first topics he taught to the new children were their letters and how to read. The next was a cursory speckling of various fields of study. Those that showed interest he placed on list for follow up classes once they mastered the basics. Any that didn’t display an interest he didn’t cast aside.
These were the key to him making his modern way of life many fields require a generalist approach. He wouldn’t snuff out the curiosity of those who didn’t want to specialize. However any children that fell into this category would have to wait until he could create the position they might fit the best.
The adults that joined for the last few hours of daylight were also taught the same things however their first task was to learn his translator skill. Breaking the barriers between cultures was Williams first true hurdle with the immigrants. However not all problems came from the newcomers.
Unfortunately as with all groups of people there is always tension even when there shouldn’t be any. A whole ten days into work and a group of the original villagers of Runick found every way to dump their work on the imperial immigrants. Specifically it was the only men that made up that group.
The original bullies were making trouble again. Since they learned William wasn’t some demon they had summoned but a humanoid like them they lost all pretext of being nice. They became his biggest detractors at least until the new invention made their jobs easier. It seemed to William that they thought more people meant less chance for oversight and could slack off.
Thankfully William had sicced Cluci on them if they decided to make trouble again. While the teenage ravenfolk was small, a gun was the great equalizer in any argument. Cluci reported to William the problem and continued his watch. The problem was that William didn’t see a way to combat their behaviour yet.
More oversight was needed or the sloths of the new bloods would follow in the troublemakers footsteps. Runick needed a force that could be used as police but they needed another job or the new positions would fill with people less then savory. William wanted to preserve the worker cooperative feeling Runick had. But as Runick grew it would require a central oversight or some things would never get done. It was something to discuss with Mayor Issabel the next time he could.
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The next month was a grueling process by William’s standards. His schedule was mostly teaching the children of various ages then broadly going over as many subjects as possible. Then teaching the adults for a few hours. His nights were spent burning candles. Slowly putting together the other pieces of his small steel refinery.
While he couldn’t power anything yet he at least knew what the pieces of machinery did as well as how they all hooked together. His first creations were a series of large heaters to feed hot air into his blast furnace. The other was an oxygen furnace. Which first required a large electrolyser for the production of oxygen and hydrogen. While the hydrogen would be vented or burned off currently. It could potentially become more useful once electricity was in abundance.
As it turned out electricity was just on the horizon.
Kena had been working diligently. She mostly helped with construction. As she could create the largest batches of concrete to supply multiple building sites all at once. However her main focus was to figure out how to make a magnet for her teacher.
William had mostly tried to help but in the end she was the one that had to control the energy safely. It was on the last day of the month when she was able to control the energy flow of her mana while also creating a magnetic field. The field was weak for now but if she mastered the process, magnets were probably the easiest thing she could create.
At the start of the next month, William was pleased to note that most of the new adults had learned the translator skill. It was great for intermingling of the many groups as all of them would evidently hear their most comfortably spoken language. It led to many friendships forming without the interference of a language barrier.
The only thing that seemed to be a hangup was a unified culture.
Unfortunately the Rift didn’t have a culture except that which is accepted by the majority. The original Runick was gone. The Iron Fingers were the first to chip that sense of a unified culture the new imperial immigrants would quicken the pace. While the pantheon of common deities provided a backbone every people had its own distinct beliefs.
The goblins held The Innovator in highest regard. The Imperium seemed to revere a mortal turned [ Immortal ] or as they called her The Lady. While probably still alive. Early in Imperium history she had a strong relationship with every god and goddess leading the early Imperium against its enemies. The leftover Runick survivors seemed to revere The Maiden as they had once relied on blessings for a fertile harvest.
However as William had taught, built, and his stories had propagated amongst the villagers. He could have sworn he heard prayers to himself. He had eventually told everyone that he was not in fact a demon or powerful entity. He was just an ordinary humanoid that was given immortality at its highest rank.
He could swear that he felt a growing warmth in his chest since then. He really didn’t want to be revered as a deific figure but he couldn’t exactly call his knowledge anything less than godlike in many ways. His literal existence had given them classes that without his guidance they would be lost. William had thought on this fact over the first month.
While he didn’t really like the idea of becoming a figure of worship he couldn’t shy away from the notification pop up, and the new tab that had appeared on his status by the end of month.
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[ Congratulations!! Due to your actions, deeds, and fame you have collected a number of worshipers who revere you like the gods themselves. You have been given access to the ability to give minor blessings to your followers based on their collective thoughts of you. Grow your followers to receive greater powers, and blessings. Expand your cult following to become a godlike being yourself. ]
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Seriously you call them a cult well I guess anything is a cult if its not the real pantheon. Anyone who receives that message probably gets a big dose of ego on top of their cornflakes. Guess I’ll take pride in reducing the number of worshipers to zero as my knowledge spreads to more individuals. At least I hope. Well lets take at these blessings might be beneficial.
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[ Name: William Willow
Age: ???
Deities of Worship: [ Lilith(Love/Lust/Law) ]
Deific Powers:[ Domains: Knowledge, Peace, Death, Trickery]
Number of Followers: 100.
Progress to next tier of celestial might (100/500)
Blessings:
Limit of one blessing per follower.
Blessing of Minor Knowledge: Allow for a follower to plum the depths of your vast sea of personal knowledge. Limit one question per month per follower
Blessing of Strength: Allow a follower to gain a 1% increase to all their physical stats. Permanent unless taken away
Blessing of the Mind: Allow a follower to gain a 1% increase to all their mental stats. Permanent unless taken away
Blessing of Stealth: Allows a follower to be as quiet as a gentle breeze
Blessing of Peace: Allows a follower to stop a hostile argument or fight between at maximum ten people.
Class(es): Arcane Engineer Lvl: 5
Experience to Level: (1163/14,000)
Health: (10/10) Health Regen: 1/hr
Mana: (6435/6435) Mana Regen: 6/min
Stats:
Strength: 11
Dexterity: 21
Constitution: 10
Will: 30
Intelligence: 30
Charisma: 20
Points Available: 0
Skill & Curse List:
Class Skills:
[ Create Lvl: 5 ]
[ Conceptualize Lvl: 5 ]
[ Contract Lvl: 4 (2/5) ]
[ Group Contract Lvl: 2 (2/3)]
[ Design Library [Passive] (Entries: 627) ]
[ Recycle Lvl: 3 ]
[ Day Off [Passive] ]
Learned Skills:
[ Universal Translator [Passive] ]
[ Teacher [Passive] ]
Curses:
[ Curse of Thalassophobia ]
[ Curse of the Pacifist ]
]
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William blinked at the tab in his status. He was mildly amused by what domains people collectively thought him as. During the next few nights he would have to go through his followers and handout blessings. If he needed to be the lightning rod to join Runick together then so be it. However there was no harm in gaining from it, probably.