Since the legion had dropped off the cattle life had roughly returned to 'normal'. Though for most, things kept changing. Bugs were now a part of the regular diet and their new homes looked like townhouses found in a major city. Their hunters were safer then ever with the creation of the air rifle. However the biggest change was the unfinished twelve foot wall surrounding the village. They could no longer see the beautiful views of the forest or see the plains give way to the sandy beach several miles away. But they didn't really care about the views, the wall made them safe from the dangers in the area. It was a small price to pay for security. However while the villagers felt safe William didn't.
Yes the wall would be completed by the time Locke returned. But the problem of overwhelming force still posed a threat. Then there was the problem of magical forces while concrete would slow them from making a breach in the wall it wouldn't stop them sweeping the wall of defenders. His wall design made such an attack near impossible as the arrow slits and overhang gave defenders almost complete cover. Even if this was true the town would still be vulnerable from projectiles coming over the walls. However magic out ranged his current weapons but he had a plan to change that. The problem was that to get the range he so desperately needed and decide to continue weapons development he had to start making gunpowder. Something he was not happy about. It would mean his biggest bottleneck wouldn’t just be steel but the very substance that made his guns work and he was the only one who could create it.
Out of the three ingredients that were required to just make gunpowder he had the two that were the easiest to get charcoal and saltpeter the latter being collected from the cesspits of Runick. The last was sulfur and any easy source of it was leagues away from Runick. Unfortunately he was stuck. While he could eventually eliminate the need for him to get steel the hard and slow way. Currently his portland cement mixture was the largest consumer of his time and mana. With the need for sulfur now becoming prevalent and the need to also look to the future and creating copper wire and rubber cover for it William found himself paralyzed by the choice of what to focus on.
That was until he remembered one of his favorite Latin phrases. 'Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum' or in a non dead language ‘If you want peace prepare for war’. The electricity project was in its infancy. Kena needed time to develop her control over charges before William would consider having her make him a magnet. She was still having trouble manipulating her mana to such a degree to interface with the number of atoms she needed to. This was even after he taught her the basics of atomic structure. To William’s chagrin after Kena’s experience with trying to make a magnet he had tried with [ Create ]. He couldn’t even get a weak magnet. Turns out the system knew how much energy was required to create magnetic objects. With electricity out of the picture for now and his blast furnace being useless without electricity to create the needed hot air. He turned to his other plans and projects. The first and easier one was the creation of a cattle pulled cultivator for the villagers. It would make early planting take fewer people and waste less seeds in the spring. This was by far the easiest but there were a few more.
The next was the range problem with defenses the solution the Gatling gun. William would have made cannons but the slow aiming and training required would be a hazard for his untrained villagers. Hence why the gatling gun became the best choice. The gun only had to cranked to fire, the planned modern swivel mount would make it incredibly easy to aim, reloading was a simple gravity fed drum and last but not least the Gatling was able to fire at targets with effective ease with a spotter out to a ranges of just over a mile. As far as Kena had told him there weren’t many spells that could be fired off at half a mile let alone a mile so the gun made perfect sense.
His last project was more of a gift for his best minion Cluci. Cluci was deadly with a ranged weapon so William wanted to give Cluci an even deadlier range. Thus Will would match the Gatling's last used caliber to the rifle he would give Cluci. The nineteen o’ three Springfield except he would be giving the thing a bit of a makeover with some modern materials to make it lighter and stronger. With relative ease he made a contract with Cluci for the weapon and also a group contract with the villagers for the cultivator. The Gatling project could wait as it would take the longest. William had never seen the weapon up close so there would be a lot of guess work.
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[**NEW** Contract: (Going for Distance) Make the described rifle for Cluci … Reward: +200 manapool, 200 XP, 1/10 Loyalty Cluci ]
[**NEW** Group Contract: (Machined for better yields) Make a cultivator for the villagers of Runick. Reward: +400 manapool, 500 XP, 1/10 Gratitude of Runick]
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To see that the villagers were finally less skeptical of his works was an all round good thing. William educating everyone had turned most of the village into a hub of independent thought. His classes in the more advanced topics had led more people to ask if Will could make things for them if they brought him resources. Something he was happy to do as long as they paid him in the form of a contract. These mini contracts had led to a level up of [ Contract ] just before he made the contract with Cluci meaning he could still take on the requests.
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[**NEW** Contract: (Make the requested item (453)) Make the item. Reward: +10 manapool, 1 XP ]
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The names for contracts the system gave after the tenth started to become blander and blunt. Which made William wonder if the system was sentient in some way but unfortunately he had no way to test the theory. While the requests weren’t worth much they still improved his skills and manapool. So the weeks went by William slowly whittling away on his projects. The coal eventually arrived but was unceremoniously dumped near the rest of William’s hills of resources. Not like he could do anything with it right now. It saddened William to see the coveted dark rock and just leave it to its own devices. Unfortunately Kena still hadn’t made much in the way of movement while her mana manipulation had significantly improved it still wasn’t on the scale required. But William could see her determination.
Within the first two months since dealing with the legion the wall had finally been completed the grand construction wasn’t really celebrated as much as it should have been but with winter coming within the next few months it was all hands on deck to complete houses or gather life sustaining resources. Snow would make it near impossible to do anything so William marshaled the villagers to pour the foundations for as many buildings as possible and not complete the full buildings the wooden structure could be erected even with snow covering the ground. But still having wet concrete in freezing temperatures would lead to problems.
Nearing the end of fall there were enough buildings to comfortably house all of the village without anyone being relegated to a hide tent. While it wasn’t very private it was warm and dry. It would be many months more before each family had their own house within the walls but it was certainly coming along well.
During this time William had completed the animal drawn cultivator which would allow for better tilling of the soil but also automatic seed planting. This machine would free the villagers up from the spring planting season however William didn’t really know what they could do with this labor surplus. However one day maybe a week before the first snows were expected a number of adults of both goblin and humanoid had come to Will and asked what certain words meant. Things such as Chef, Chemist, Physician, Tailor, Machinist there were more but it quickly became evident what was going on. His time as a teacher had just grown as it seemed that if an adult was taught about a modern topic that resonated with them they would develop a ‘modern named’ class. This was both a bad news good news situation. William wouldn’t have to worry about the lack of skilled labor in Runick. However he now had a whole bunch of people who were unskilled in their new classes meaning they were still unskilled. With the influx of need to teach the new workforce at least the basics of their new classes. William only had time to work on Cluci’s new rifle. This didn’t bother William as the problem of Imperium was still several months away before he would have to worry about anything more then Locke’s legion. So William put his heart and soul into teaching the new labor. In this way winter for the village was relatively quaint all things considered.
Kena was still hard at work she had finally managed to crack into manipulating the charges of atoms in molecules. However she still could not control more then the few she concentrated on. Will’s defense projects had stalled with having to invest more time teaching the new labor forces. Thankfully by the end of winter all of the adults had a basic understanding of their new classes weirdly the system seemed to have inferred from other occupations as to what these new modern classes were to do. William just hoped that the skilled criminals Locke brought at least covered a good deal of the new classes. A few other developments that occurred were the secret construction of a workshop for William by the village.
It was in the style of Williams houses and seemed to have been a bastardized version of his elegant designs but it was the thought that counts. A school was also developed but this had been given a special design by William so he could teach many classes at the same time while they worked through one of his assigned problems. A few weeks before Locke’s Legion was due for arrival William had placed the final touches on Cluci’s new rifle.
The gun was a near perfect copy of a late model Springfield with its improved scope as a base. However William had made some small tweaks such as changing the stock to a lighter material then the standard wooden stock. He used carbon fiber where possible and titanium to change the overall weight drastically. He also made an absolute ton of ammo for it. William did not want to worry about Cluci running out of ammo at least when at home. Upon receiving his new rifle Cluci looked at his old air rifle with respect but eventually gave in to his newer model. William gave a rundown on maintenance how the ammunition was to never be exposed to direct heat or risk someone getting injured. By the end of his spiel William was surprised when he saw Cluci dissemble the rifle and then reassemble it without to much trouble or knowledge on how to. Another surprising thing happened involving Cluci once he had fired his first shot out of the new rifle. Cluci gave a hug to William. Cluci thanking Will for giving the chance to prove his skills. William could only respond back by saying ‘Your welcome’.
Through these many months Irene had been getting weirder and was the odd one out. She had an odd curiosity when it came to anything Will spoke about to his students. She also followed him around everywhere he went. When William had unveiled the cultivator she had nearly fawned over him for some reason. William couldn’t place the cause. Seeing the completed wall and the complicated structure to safeguard defenders she had almost hugged him but William had left the scene before she could. A few days after William had received his new workshop and Cluci had shown the entire town his new weapon William finally found out the reason Irene was acting so weird.