Sylphia spent the better part of the next few days just drilling the siths from dawn to dusk, or, more accurately, from breakfast to dinner. Using her command skill, she taught them how to fight cooperatively and in formation.

The siths learned fast, though she was unsure whether if it was due to the influence of her magic, or if the siths were naturally blessed with a quick wit.

The only difficulty she had was in making them forget their old habits. Whenever they sparred with each other, they would instinctively break formation and clump against one another the moment they reached melee range.

It was nothing that a good dose of 'motivation' couldn't solve, however.

Just once, she lost her cool during a practice battle and stopped it mid-way. Then, she lined up all the siths who broke formation and, using her magic, 'convinced' the rest to flog them one by one. Needless to say, the habit died soon after.

That display of brutality, combined with her heaping praise to those who performed as she ordered, via copious amounts of headpats, inspired absolute obedience from the dogmen, even without the use of her magic.

One unexpected side-effect of this treatment, however, was the rise of a headpat cult among her soldiers, with each counting the number of pats they received and wearing them like medals.

She concluded that, surely, this was nothing to worry about.

Eventually, however, she found herself settled into a routine. She got up, ate, gathered the siths, dispensed headpats. Repeat. But she was not one for routine, and sure enough, she got tired of it. Thus, one morning, she decided to skip training altogether and take a quick stroll around the village instead.

Hmm... where to go?

Two paths led away from the temple. One led further up the ridge, circling around a cliff face near the underground waterfall. The other path cut through center of the village and branched out from there. Fewer houses lined the road up the ridge, and few siths walked along the path as a result. Meanwhile, the center bustled with commotion, with one or two siths always running between the densely packed huts.

She tilted her head from side to side as she deliberated on her decision. I don't really feel like working up a sweat, so I guess I'll just wander around the center.

So down she went, following the slope deeper into the village.

Every sith she came across would offer her a solemn bow each time even if she met the same sith twice. Or, at least, she thought she met the same one twice - she couldn't actually make out which sith was which, as, despite each one being unique, with their own color and pattern of fur, they all looked very similar to each other. In a way, it was rather fortunate that siths did not have names; she would not have been able to connect them with a face either way.

As she passed along the narrow streets, she got a close-up look at their daily lives. It was normal to see one or two siths lounging around in their mushroom houses, chatting away. The little ones ran around without a care, playing with their toy weapons just as little boys would.

Hmm... so even monsters live a normal everyday life...

On her way, she met with a group of adult siths armed with practice weapons, walking up the village.

"Woof!" barked a sith with a monochrome coat of fur, "My Goddess, is it time for our training already?"

Ack! Of course I'd run into these guys here... Caught in the moment, the little procrastinator racked her brain for a quick excuse. "Uh, err... Ah! That's right - today, I'm letting you guys do it on your own!"

"Woof! A-are you sure, my Goddess? Woof! The others aside, I am still unsure of my movements..." He swung his arms as though he was holding his full gear.

"I-I-It's all right!" Sylphia patted him on the back hard enough for his head to swing back and forth. "All you need is practice, right? I don't need to be there just to tell you to keep working on it, right?" she said with a wink.

"Woof... r-right?"

"Of course I'm right!" She grinned. "And here's the key - since you'll all be working as a unit from now on, you should depend less on me, and more on each other! That way, you can help each other get better, isn't that right!?"

"Woof!" His eyes sparkled. "I have been short-sighted all along!" He then lowered his head to the ground and showered her with praise, "Woof! Truly, the wisdom of the gods far exceed mere mortals like us!"

The other siths followed suit.

"Bowow! Truly!"

"Ruff!"

Her words, accompanied by a light mist of magic, vanished all their doubts. Thus, without so much as a complaint, the siths finally went off with a spring in their step.

Heh.

Once they had walked far enough away, she pumped her fist and muttered, "Yes! Off the hook." She too, hurried along before any of them could have second thoughts.

For a while, Sylphia's stroll continued at a leisurely pace with no further interruptions.

A good distance into her stroll she came upon a large hut, partially hidden behind outcrops of giant mushrooms. It sported an oversized chimney built on its side, a unique feature within the village. It piqued her interest and so, she decided to check it out.

She passed the giant mushrooms and approached the building at a leisurely pace. That chimney looks built from rock or something... If they're capable of masonry, why do they keep living in these dinky huts?

"Heeey..." She greeted as peeked into the building.

Oho!

Inside the building was Letty, speaking with a sith with charcoal black fur. The sith held, in his hand, a metal rod and prodded it into an opening at the bottom of the large chimney.

"Oh, hey Letty!" Sylphia waved at her.

"Ah?" Letty placed her hand on her chest and said, "I... didn't know you were coming, Sylphie."

"Ah, no, I was just roaming around and saw this place." She looked around the hut. "It's pretty big, isn't it?"

"Mm." She nodded. "This is where they make the Mythril, apparently."

A tiny spark lit up in Sylphia's eyes.

"Ohohoho?" Excitement brought a spring in her step as entered and watched the sith work his tools. "Let me see, let me see?"

"Rawf, of course, my Goddess." The sith moved slightly to the side, allowing Sylphia to look into the furnace. "Rawf, I am honored that the Gods favor my humble workshop." He then prodded the white hot flames, causing a mote of sparks to erupt out of the furnace. "Rawf, please don't get too close to the flame, dear Goddess, you might get burned."

"Okies!"

The sith went on with his tasks with Sylphia looking over his shoulder.

"Speaking of," Sylphia said, without taking her eyes off of the sith's actions, "what are you doing here, Letty?"

"Huh? Weren't you the one who asked me to see if we could produce weapons faster?"

"Eh? Did I?" She chuckled, "Ehehe, I forgot."

"Geez..."

"So, what do you think so far?"

"Well..." She rubbed her forehead. "This one, here, told me that the smelting process takes the longest time, and it's impossible to make more than one weapon every day, or one set of armor every three days..."

"Geh... that's really slow."

"Rawf, I apologize, my Goddess," the sith said, "the Mythril takes a lot of time to melt and shape, even if taken directly from the crystals..."

"Hmm..." She looked curiously around the workshop. "By the way, are you the only one in here?"

"Rawf, yes, my Goddess."

"Huh... And no one is helping you?"

"Rawf, yes, most of the village is tasked with protecting us, after all, so it can't be helped."

"Huh...?"

Wait, weren't there a bunch of siths just killing time in their houses? They've got some nerve to be slacking around when they're facing extinction!

"Say," Her eyes narrowed. "if I give you... I don't know, five, ten guys to help around, how fast can you make weapons? Just give me a rough guess."

"Rawf, well... if the furnace is utilized all day without having to stop to assemble the weapons..." The sith rubbed his chin. "Rawf, maybe 3 weapons and 1 armor a day?"

"Oho? And how much faster if you had more furnaces?"

"R-rawf!? Well... I truly cannot say, but, perhaps, we can double the number for a second furnace, but only if I had more hands working on it..."

"Mm-hmm...?" Sylphia's lips curled up.

"S-Sylphie...?" Letty glanced at her with a hint of worry in her eyes. "What are you thinking...?"

"Hey, Letty, how about I give you something to do that's a bit more permanent?"

"Eh? W-what do you mean?"

"Basically, I want you to manage the supplies we'll need. Food and medicine is a given." She paced around the room as she explained. Then, patting the warm stone wall of the furnace, she said, "But on top of that, we need weapons and armor."

"Umm..."

"I've got my hands full with training the siths, you see?" She shrugged. "So I can't go running around the village making sure the equipment is being made for each of them."

The scribe began fidgeting with increasing intensity. "Uuuu... okay...?"

Then, all of a sudden, Sylphia tugged on her hand, saying, "Okay? Okay! In that case-"

"Ueh!?"

"-come with me!"

"W-wa... wait, I didn't mean-" Being abruptly pulled along kicked the wind out of Letty, and all she could do was whimper, "Waaaaaaait...!"

Just like that, she dragged her around the center of the village with a cheerful grin on her face. Curling her free hand around her mouth, she yelled, "Listen up! Listen up! The Goddess of Mercy is recruiting members for her Supply Corps! Those who want to serve with this cute Goddess can come on over to the temple and sign up!"

All the while, the flustered scribe put up a token struggle. Tears gathered around her eyes, as she cried out, "T-this is... this is too embarrassiiiiing!"

And so, Their tiny voices filled the siths' village. Amidst the giggles and the whimpers, the dogmen roused from their homes and followed the source of the turmoil that disturbed their peace.

A bead of sweat ran down Sylphia's forehead and teetered on the tip of her nose. "Guh..." she grunted, "I... forgot how steep... this place was..."

A similarly out of breath Letty replied, "Geez... I... told you..."

But their effort was not for naught. Behind them, a line of volunteers formed, stretching right down the road.

"Well, at least we have our volunteers now!" The little girl grinned.

"W-what do you need this many siths for, anyway...?"

"Hmm? Isn't it obvious? They're going to help you churn out weapons from that workshop."

"Wait, help me...?" Letty flailed her hands in protest. "I-I don't know anything about making weapons!"

"Oh, don't worry about that!" Sylphia patted her on the arm. "The smith will teach them how. I just need you to organize them and make sure they don't slack off."

"U-um..." The uneasy scribe fidgeted and squirmed, as though she was trying to think of an excuse, but couldn't quite come up with one.

"So!" She patted the girl on her upper arm. "I'm counting on you, okay?"

"Uuuu..." she whimpered, Okay..."

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"Hihi!" She grinned.

The two later returned to the workshop with the recruits they gathered.

Overall, Sylphia managed to gather 20 siths to work with Letty. She stood in front of them and prepared an impromptu lecture.

"So, here's what I want you all to do." She raised her index finger. "It's called an 'Assembly Line'."

"Assembly..." Letty cocked her head. "Line..?"

She nodded. "When I watched the smith here working alone, he told me that the part that takes longest is smelting the Mythril." She turned to the sith with the black coat. "Correct?"

"Rawf," barked the smith.

"That means, during the time that the Mythril is smelting, it should be possible to complete other tasks, if there are other workers in here to help." She pointed to the volunteers. "That means you lot."

The dogmen barked in acknowledgement.

"But first, we need to increase Mythril production. This place can't make us the amount of Mythril we need to fully equip an army. So, first thing's first - I want you all to build one more furnace!"

"Eeh!?" Letty twitched. "How long will that take?"

"What do you think?" she asked the smith, "We don't need the mushroom roof, we just need another one of these big furnaces."

"Rawf..." The smith let out a long grumble. "Rawf! It will take a few days if we can work with this many people. Rawf! But aside from that, we will also need a larger supply of coal and mythril crystals."

"Mm." She nodded. "You can have part of the volunteers go out mining while the rest work on the weapons."

"Rawf!" The smith nodded. "It will be done."

"Good. In that case, let me place my first order: I want 100 spears and as many pieces of armor, and I want them by... 10 days."

The smith's jaw dropped. "Rawf! E-even with two furnaces running, that amount cannot be possible!"

"Hoh...?" The girl's expression darkened.

"R-rawf!" The smith shrank back.

"S-Sylphie!" Letty stood between them. "Y-you're scaring him!"

She disregarded Letty, however, and continued, "How many people do you need to make it happen?"

"Rawf...?"

"How many?"

"Rawf... I don't know... Rawf, As many as I can have..." The smith hung his head.

"Hm. I see. I see."

Hearing this, Sylphia stepped out of the workshop.

"Wait, Sylphie!" Letty chased after her. "Where are you going?"

"Getting more volunteers."

"...Huh? But we just got all the available siths in the village..."

"Hehe." She grinned. "Not all of them."

Letty followed her all the way to the flatlands outside the village where the sith warriors were practising their drills in her absence.

"We've gotten a few recruits recently," Sylphia said, "The army is now about 100 strong. I'll lend them to you for a few days to start up the workshop."

"Eh...?" Letty took a step back, placing her hands on her chest. "One hund-"

"In the meantime, I'll find more siths who can help in a more permanent basis."

And with that, Sylphia stood at the ridge beside the training ground and took a deep breath.

"All units!" She shouted. "Attention!"

Her black haze fell upon the sith below. Immediately, each one stopped their drills, formed up in neat files, and raised their arm forward in salute.

"Awoo!" The siths all barked in sync.

Scanning left and right, she inspected their formation.

Hm. Clean and proper. Just like I taught them. These guys really do learn fast.

In a loud voice, she addressed them, "Tell me: what is a soldier without his weapon?"

Prefaced with a myriad of different barks, her soldiers answered, "A meat shield!"

"And tell me: am I training soldiers, or meat shields?"

"Soldiers! Awoo!"

"Then I have a mission for you: in due time, your numbers will grow. Very soon, the weapons and armor you have stocked in the village will not be enough to arm all of you! That is why-" She then waved her arm towards Letty. "The Goddess Of Mercy needs your help!"

The dogmen's expression lit up. While Sylphia was feared and respected for her reputation, Letty was loved for her gentle and caring personality. Just as demonstrated earlier, the siths would jump at any opportunity to be of service to her.

And so the dogmen yelped over one other:

"Wao! Anything for the Goddess of Mercy!"

"Ruff! Whatever you need, my Goddess!"

"Bark! Tell us what you need, dear Goddess!"

Letty was staggered by their reaction. "E-ehhhh...!?"

"Heheh." With a triumphant grin plastered all over her face, Sylphia turned around and said, "You heard them."

"S-Sylphie... how did you get them to be like this...?"

"Hm?" The little girl cocked her head. "In the end of the day, they're dogs, right? Hihi! They're pretty loyal once they get used to you ordering them around."

"E-eeehhhh...?" Letty's shoulders fell and her face clouded over in anxiety.

Later that day, the soldiers went over to the workshop to help construct another two furnaces at once. More than a hundred siths shuffled around the area, lugging materials, shaping dirt and cutting mushroom stalks.

Meanwhile, their Goddesses looked on in the sidelines.

"They're... really industrious, aren't they?" said Letty, "Is it because of your magic, after all?"

"Huh... I don't think so." Sylphia replied, "You can see my magic, can't you? There isn't anything floating around the right now."

"Hmm..." She rested her head on her cheek. "But what if it had some latent effect?"

"Ah!" The little girl perked up, "I never considered that. But... how am I supposed to know?"

"Hmm..." She tilted her head sideways. "I wonder..."

A latent effect, huh...? She snuck a peek at Letty. I wonder what would happen if I try my magic on her, though...?

The next few moments passed in silence as they watched the siths work. And the siths excelled at what they did. As though they were animated by some otherworldly force, they pushed on without rest and soon enough, the foundations of the two new forges formed before their very eyes.

After a while, Sylphia remembered what she needed to teach Letty. "Say, do you know what an assembly line is?" she asked.

"T-the thing you mentioned earlier...?" Letty shook her head. "Sorry..."

"Mm. I see." She stood up. "The concept is simple. With how the smith creates weapons, he does everything himself - he smelts the Mythril, shapes it, makes the handle or whatever the weapon needs, and sharpens it."

She nodded.

"The problem with this is that it's slow. You heard him earlier - even with two furnaces, he would only be able to make six weapons and two armors a day. At that rate, he can never finish my order in less than two or three months."

"Do... you really need that many weapons?" Letty asked, "Don't the siths already have some weapons and armor among themselves?"

"Those won't be enough." Sylphia started pacing around. "I said it before, didn't I? What I'm not going to teach them to fight - I'm going to teach them how to wage a war. You can't think of a war as a single battle, or something that will end in a short period, though it could very well be as such, if you prepare well. No. War preparations should look into the future and take into account as many possibilities as possible."

"Huh..." Letty cocked her head to one side.

She doesn't seem to be getting it... I should explain in simpler terms. She crossed her arms. "Hmm... Basically, it's like this - we need to prepare for the worst case - what if the entire army I am training is wiped out and all of their equipment was stolen? In that case, we need to build at least a garrison to protect the village and buy ourselves some time. Would 6 weapons be enough? 12? 24? No, we need hundreds, as fast as possible. That's why I need you to increase production."

"Huh..." She finally nodded. "But why me? Aren't... you more suited to things like this?"

She shook her head. "You're smart, and more importantly, diligent. I'm confident that you can grasp new ideas very quickly and put them to work. I'm not familiar with the process of creating weapons and armor here, and if I took charge, it'll take me a long time to figure things out. That's why I'm counting on you." She winked. "Right?"

Plus, I'm betting my magic could teach you what you need to know. I can't use it on myself, after all...

The scribe quivered as Sylphia suddenly clasped her hands around hers.

"By learning the concepts that I know and learning the methods of the siths... You'll to combine that knowledge and create a new one! An assembly line, a factory and ultimately, an industry! One that can mass produce Mythril weapons and armor!"

In that instant, the black haze exploded around them.

Letty's eyes, for the first time since they met, gleamed. "You... trust that I can do this?"

"Mm." She nodded without hesitation.

"B-but...what if I fail?" Letty tried to avert her gaze, but her face would be pulled right back.

"No." Sylphia shook her head. "You won't fail."

While they were focused on each other, the black haze wrapped around them and melted into Letty's skin.

The scribe closed her eyes and, with a sigh, withdrew her hands to her chest. After a moment's reprieve, she opened her eyes once more and said, "I will do my best."

And with a warm smile, Sylphia tilted her head and said, "Thank you."

While the extensions to the workshop were constructed, Sylphia, Letty and the smith got together and discussed how to meet the quota for weapons and armor. The sith explained his process of creating armaments while the little girl shared the concept of mass production using machines and replaceable parts. Though Sylphia's own understanding was vague and general in nature, having gotten them mostly from the games she had played, with the use of her magic, the two were able to understand the principles behind the concepts and began redesigning equipment and techniques to put them into action.

Amidst all of this, however, one thing puzzled Sylphia.

She wondered why Letty did not seem to resist her magic. She should have been able to see the black smoke, being a magic-user like her, but not once did she react to her use of it.

In any case, in the days the followed, the workshop would become the busiest corner of the village. Every hour, dozens of siths passed in and out, bringing in bags of coal, mushroom stalks and raw Mythril crystal, gathered from the rich highlands around the village. Then, after every dinner, bundles of polished mythril arms would be hauled out for storage.

At the center of this, Letty and the smith invented new techniques of creating weapons and armor. With this technology, the three, later five, Mythril furnaces churned out arms and armor non-stop every single day. The new armaments looked nothing like the ones the sith always used. Though slightly less durable, they each came in separate parts that were quick to disassemble and replace. In particular, parts which were expected to break often, such as blades and spearpoints, were prodded in larger quantities, in comparison to their sturdy hafts.

Roughly 10 days later, production ramped up to 10 pieces armor and 36 weapons every day even without Letty's direct supervision.

Despite this, achievement, however, they were still not able to meet Sylphia's order. At that point, though, everyone but her had forgotten the amount she originally requested. And in the end, she had no complaints.

Thus, once she was presented their stock of arms and armor, she told them they had met her expectations.

Many headpats were given out that day.