When William had made his preparations for meeting the legion. He had instructed Kena to find some fallen branches and just move them out into the road after he made a gesture. He had told one of the hunters when one of legion started to walk away from the stump to place five shots in as close grouping as possible. All these things were planned, calculated. He wanted the cattle as a long-term goal of other sources of food. The seed stock was also planned. Adult criminals planned. Want for trade bars of each magic metal planned.
What wasn't was the trigger happy want of dozens of orphans or the sudden want of having the enemy waltz around inside the walls like she was a tourist on sightseeing vacation. William was now trying to find reasons to reassure himself of the 'why'. But he eventually came to the conclusion it had been a last minute in moment greedy move. The orphans as he had hastily thought during the meeting would serve as a way to bolster the lack of people in the village who could learn new trades. The payoff was immense but the growing pains would be terrible. The other greedy choice was now walking with him in silence a day later and now only a few hours away from Runick.
He was dying to know some things and his hunters were sure of their relative safety. As they were starting to chat amongst themselves. So he lead by asking a question that you don't ask a lady. "So how old are you and your husband uh... Sena...Lega...fuck it Irene?" "Haha Irene is fine and I guess William for you. I thought we were supposed to be quiet?" "Nah the hunters keep a good eye on this area. And William is fine. We can talk now." "Oh then I think the two of us passed our fifth decade after our first century." "Huh and I assume you both have a level of [ Immortal ] then at the very least." "Level? I don't think I know what that but I have heard stranger words for tier or circles. Well in any case my husband and I are both in the second circle. How about yourself you don't have the air of someone who isn't at least in the second circle?" "Oh, well I didn't really get [ Immortal ] fair and square." "I've heard weirder. So how did you earn it?" "Dying, not joking." "Ah so you must be a new to [ Immortal ] the first circle." "Uh...no" William continues walking as Irene stops. "Then what circle were you given." William thinks for a moment then just says it flatly "Fifth" Irene falters and kneels in the dirt pleadingly "Lord Willow please excuse this lesser from her sins know that my actions shou..." William walks over and tries to lift her up and promtly fails.
Sweet lord how much do you weigh woman!
William then places his hands on each of Irene's shoulders and shakes her while firmly saying "Do not call me a god, demi-god or anything of such affairs."
"But you are of the fifth circle near the gods themselves." "Yeah, and? What am I supposed to do? Thank you, for noticing me? This isn't a gift I'll have know. A god granted the skill at level five so I can fulfill a bet. I still have to level up my class like everyone else." "But you created something that's not conjured you make stuff and it stays no magical residue. It just is." "It's a class skill. Gotta level it up just like you it even has some limitations just like everything else." William was holding in anger. He was not a god to be worshiped. He wanted simple things not cosmic power.
"You wanna know who you should be admiring look behind you. Kena can probably without to much effort learn every single spell in existence. She might make several schools of magic. At least once I am done teaching everything she needs to know about her class." "What do you mean teach her. Like learning learned skills from you like the villagers?" "No like her actual class stuff." "Why? The system should be able to teach her?" "Yeah about that. I seem to radiate something that gives people one of a kind classes based on my world. Only works on children as it would seem. Kena was a few months from her eighteenth birthday when I crashed into her village doing a botched summoning ritual. She received a class that was so bare bones I am pretty sure as I teach, the system makes shit up for her. Pretty sure the system doesn't know anything about what I am teaching and it's playing catch up." "See these are things that make you worthy of a higher status. The system knows everything. But you are living proof that it doesn't. You are something to appreciate like a god or at least something near it." "Then the gods are dumb for never looking in on my universe. We create star like conditions to create energy, we are the apex predators of our world because we create to tame the wilderness. We do not survive we thrive. We have not found absolute facts that A or many gods exist in our universe but we still have faith." "To many in the Imperium what you just said would be blasphemy but I agree with you. I prefer gods who are not omnipotent but flawed like a mortal." "Well then, fellow blasphemous fool, do you know what electricity is?
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The last few hours of travel for the guerrilla force was filled with laughter and talk of the future. They approached the incomplete walls of their village near evening. Triumphant in their victory. They were met by cheers by the surviving villagers. Their enemy defeated in battle their loved ones were finally avenged. To William this was a stay of the trial. The Imperium would be back. This time in force. The village also wouldn't have a weeks notice to be prepared. By the next summer they would need to be ready. William knew there was a veteran imperial commander to the south that would come for Runick in force. William would make sure his village was defended with everything he could make.
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The wait for the legion to pass was excruciating for Will. He had to wait for the cattle so he could help the villagers pen them in quickly. However he had a new toy to play with. Irene Adler. While he wasn't going to give her a look at the air rifles in detail he did show her the water purifier, and the unfinished blast furnace talking about how each worked with her. It was an enjoyable time, Irene seemed well versed in what they called natural philosophy. William was able to bounce some ideas off of her but her technical knowledge in certain aspects was lacking. Though it certainly wasn’t because she didn’t understand it. It always came down to the technology being outside her current working theories of the world.
The blast furnace was a prime example. The blast furnace primarily works on three key setup reactions within the body of the furnace. The two main ones are to setup the reducing agent acting on the iron ore. The last is the reason William was so happy to have limestone as the limestone can be used as a way to remove the impurities or the slag pretty well. All of this information goes to Irene and while she understands why certain things work. The real beauty of this furnace is lost on her but she’ll understand pretty quick once he actually lights it. The charcoal purifier goes much better as a way to make most water sources drinkable. Eventually Irene is also shown concrete and while Irene sees the aggregate water and cement being mixed together William does not reveal the recipe for the cement. While Irene does note the fact that most War spells won’t scratch the walls. However she doesn’t believe the strength of the slurry turned stone. William writes this off as if the Imperial legions return the concrete will hold out against their onslaught.
Eventually Irene goes off by herself most interested in the new housing being erected. Ever since William hinted to the rest of the village the sudden increase in residents there was a sudden mad rush to construct housing. Including that he didn’t know how many orphaned children there would be or the number of petty criminal tradesmen. However the real problem of taking in that many people reared its ugly head how does one feed all of them if we still can’t farm. William’s answer was ranching cattle. Nonetheless it still wouldn’t help. Farming wouldn’t come into effect until next harvest season except for the fast growing vegetables.
The village would be running on fumes by harvest especially once the forest spirits cut them off. No he had to find something fast or they would only be able to take on some of the new people not all them like he wanted. Will had an idea but he wasn’t exactly thrilled to propose it as it disgusted him to end. His idea? Bugs, eating bugs. The wetlands and long grasslands around Runick had many different types of bugs that had the potential for being smoked or salted to preserve them possibly. But there is an adverse reaction to putting bugs on the dinner plate that just didn’t sit well with him but the village needed the calories.
Damned the gross factor being alive is better.
It took a bit of coaxing but the villagers did realize the food crisis and sadly caved to the hunger they would later face. Better to get used to it now as the lean times are coming soon. So by the end of the week termites, ants, grasshoppers, mealworms, and many other bugs found their way onto the table. Thankfully if this became normal now the other wild greens, nuts, fruit, and meat could be preserved for when the bug populations would be thinner in the winter.
When Will first tried the new food he was pleasantly surprised that the bugs turned into a crunchy solid that was at least palatable and not slimy as he thought it would be. However Will found it best just to not think about what he shoveled into his mouth during these drastic times. Irene at least was a good sport about the lack of normal food. But desperate times call for desperate measures. With food at least sorted for the foreseeable future and the legion finally moving off William sent a team to go out and get a few wagons of coal.
Thankfully with the new draft animals carting raw resources from the various mines became very easy. With coal now secure by next week. Will could focus and was going to finally continue teaching Kena the four fundamentals. This time however he would be teaching electromagnetism but start with the practical everyday things. He desperately needed a magnet if he ever wanted to make his blast furnace work properly. For that he needed electricity but with Kena he was on easy street.