I ended up spending 2 days inspecting the rock dams before I actually went up to the mountain. While a few needed repairs or changes, it was significantly fewer than last year. Given that the goblins working on the project had built even more dams, I considered it a success. The few that did need repairs or changes were in peculiar locations where the normal behavior of the stream had changed so much from it's initial state that the need for changes was only apparent because of the currently increased water flow due to snow melt and the spring rainy season. For most of the dams, the goblins who were with me at the time even made a comment that it needed repairs before I said anything.

Over the two years they've worked on this project, our valley has been pretty much fully handled. While they'll still have to do maintenance here, I've encouraged them to use the tunnel into the next valley over, and start building rock dams there as well. Before we started putting these rocks dams in, the water in the stream would be quite muddy during springtime, but now it's running almost clear, and isn't nearly as turbulent. I've also noticed that we have significantly less debris flowing down the stream, which should mean the main dam will be much easier to clean over the years from here on out.

As we get more goblins and we start to need more water and food, it might be worth considering further terraforming the island with terraces higher up the slope. While we're taking up quite a bit of the valley right now, there is still plenty more space to go before we need to start considering a practice like this. Like up near the cave where I built a few terraces though, it would increase the usable land on the island, which at some point will be necessary if we keep growing our population.

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I started the mesh construction room within the large open area of the cave, not too far from where I have all the crystal growth apparatuses. I chose an area that already had a long tunnel in it, so that I wouldn't have to carve quite as much stone out to make the full room.

I thought about other methods to improve the accuracy and precision of manufacturing while I worked on carving out the initial room. Gear ratios are often used for similar purposes. A caliper, for instance, uses this principle to make tiny changes in distance readable by the human eye. The main issue that occurs with developing a caliper, or other precision instrument in this scenario is a lack of initial precision.

If the gears within a caliper are not incredibly precise, you'll end up with more error than the measurement tool because the gears don't mesh perfectly. Essentially, you want the simplest possible machine so that your source of error is negligible for manufacturing. Which is why this entire project is based on a simple lever arm and sliding pivot.

Any error introduced in the use of this machine should all be in the same direction, which for most purposes means it's non-existent. It shouldn't be too hard to modify the work area here to make other precision devises in the future too. For instance, if I need precision gears or other mechanical components, this will help with exact measurements. It might seem like overkill, but in many ways it's a shortcut around the normal incremental increases in precision that would come about through small improvements in technology.

Either way, after 18 days of work, I'd gotten a large portion of the room hollowed out. I've been carefully cutting the stone into an arch shape to help prevent cave-ins. Honestly, given the sheer size of the room, if I had to do this without magic, it would have caved in already. At the furthest point, the room is going to be 150 feet long and curve a total of 75 feet, in a cone from the opening of the room. That area is a 15 by 15 foot square, which then continues into the cone.

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With magic, the stone can be easily cut from the wall or ceiling without causing impact damage, which would potentially lead to a cascade towards collapse. I'd say I'm about half-way done cutting stone, which has now started to pile up in the cavern. I'm going to be in the city for a few weeks running the academy though, so I'll have to set up some hauling jobs to bring the stone down so that it's available for the construction crew to use.

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I gave myself three days of extra time when I returned to the village before the first academy class began. Although I had a pretty good plan worked out for how the classes would go, I wanted to actually get the whole thing planned out. I figured it would probably be best to start with the very basics of our town.

Day one will begin with Zaka, Zeb, and myself. This would just be a basic overview of how things currently run in town. Zaka handles disputes, and summons new citizens. Zeb handles all the new construction projects. I handle new projects until I find someone suitable to handle those projects full time. There are other important people in town to know as well, though their specialties are less interacted with, so they'll be listed off shortly after. Individuals like Karsh, and the head of the city guard.

On day two, I'll give them a rundown on city hall, currency, and the various government services that we have. I intend to actually take a full day handling these to give them a good understanding of money, and how to estimate their living costs. I'd like for them to be fairly financially literate, as it'll help them long term.

After we've covered currency and finances, on day three I plan on covering the basics of what we've discovered as far as evolution and prestige are concerned. What we know so far about gaining levels, and ways that they as individuals can focus their lives towards areas they're interested in, and how that will benefit them long term. I plan on also driving home the importance of proper ecological concern while dealing with this topic. It would be easy for an individual to get the wrong idea and cut down a whole forest to level up, or to drive the ground birds to extinction because of the same notion.

Day four will be a history lesson. I'll cover the major events that have occurred here on the island since Zaka arrived. Letting the goblins know how things used to be, and how far we've come. Not only will this hopefully inspire them to make things even better here, but also help them avoid making some of the same mistakes that others made.

The fifth day I intend to cover all the various industries that we currently have available in town. From clothing and woodworking, to papermaking and blacksmithing. I also intend to give them an idea of some of the future industries I'm planning in the near future. Such as glassmaking and felt manufacturing.

The sixth day will be a bit of a shorter day, where I'll explain to them that I'm planning on collecting info on abilities and magic that they gather as they prestige and evolve, along with details related to their circumstances that lead to their ability, and of course, the pay for the info. As for the days that I intend to collect that info, for now it'll be on the consecutive seventh days when I'm running classes. So tomorrow would be the first day, and then seven days from that. After which it'll be another six weeks before I run another set of academy classes, and collect the data again.

We'll then take a break for one day and I'll be available to gather new info on prestiges during that day off. When we return, the next six days will be filled with the various different career tutors I've gotten to agree to coming in to explain their work. I plan on doing two different trades a day, starting with fishergoblins. Then, at the end of that week, I'll once again be available to gather info on prestige and evolution.

Overall, I don't know if each day will actually take all that long, but I like the idea of spreading it out over the course of two weeks. It gives us some growing room as more information gets added into the learning curriculum as well. Eventually, someone else will be taking over this job, and they'll be able to collect the prestige and evolution data on more days than I can. I'm sure I'll have to modify the curriculum moving forward after I experience the first class, as it's unlikely I'll have gotten everything right the first time.