I stopped in Pendragon and spent a three days curing disease and building a small town hall. The settlement had about 130 people and were working well together. They were to elect a mayor to go get educated in Avalon. I passed a number of farms along the road as well and if the people came to meet me and were friendly I would grow them an apple or cherry tree.
Camelot was a mess, dirt roads, bad smells, just chaos. I found the mayor and exchanged the Avalon coins for the prescribed silver and gold. Well it would take two or three weeks for him to collect the metals. I looked at what he wanted for the stone pier and breaker. We started looking at the breaker first. It was 600 yards out running from the right shore and was to be 300 yards long. With the depth of the water it was a big project. I told the mayor I wanted his people to deliver wagon loads of stone, he put eight cart teams on the task. We made the breaker 20 yards long into the bay over 3 days and I saw why it was needed as the wind picked up and the waves were 9’ high. We widened the breaker to 40’ and extended it to 40 yards in the next two weeks. It was about 8’ above the high tide. I decided to stop work on the breaker and do the pier because the depth was just requiring too much stone. I had been healing people in town for an Avalon 5 coin to help promote the currency switch. The mayor was trying to instill my hygenic practices but it was an uphill battle with so many people. I stayed in my warehouse which I added a second level to and got a residence set up on the second floor. I also had a 10’ wall surrounding the warehouse with 30’ between the wall and warehouse to create a private space. I was happy the mayor’s soldiers kept people from bothering me while I worked. In two weeks we had the second pier half done, it was more work since the water was getting deeper than the first pier. It was 200 yards away from the first and would help the city spread out. While I was fusing rock on the pier I was shocked when I saw a ship sail into the bay flying a flag of the Ottoman Empire.
An hour later I found the ship captain was looking for me. The ship belonged to the monarch and one of his visors was on board. I brought him to my apartment above the warehouse to meet with him. He had a translator and he was here to trade and had learned were I was from the man from Athens. Wow. He had travelled here, I didn’t think the empire ever went to America in my timeline. They had bought the ship from the French to make the voyage. They wanted to trade for two specific types of swords, a yagatan and kilij. Fortunately they had some metal made samples of the swords for me and he had two master sword smiths of the ship to help me if needed. He wanted 500 of each for the royal guard in my stone metal. He also was here for 200 light stones. Wow that would take me months. I told him so. He said if I could get it all done in a month he would double what he came prepared to pay. He had planned to pay 5,000 gold coins, 27 virgin slaves, 120 large bolts of silk, seven large rugs and 25 casks of expensive spices. He would add 7,000 gold coins, 23 skilled slaves and 12 large bolts of cloth in he could sail in 33 days. I did the math on a sheet. Each sword would take about 6-8 magic depending how many times it took to reshape it…maybe an hour per sword…so 1000 hours…so 50 days right there working nonstop. The light stones just required 10 magic. I could make 31 a day if I used all my magic…so 6 days for those. I could expedite the swords with molds…like I did for coins. Maybe 3 wooden molds that could be filled with softened stone at a time and if I had help it could reduce my magic cost. Yes that would work…doubling my speed. I said it might be possible and the price was acceptable. I would bring him the first 50 light stones tomorrow for the 27 virgin slaves. I thanked him as he left. I had 9 light stones lying around in the apartment and made 5 from magic pool in a few minutes. Then I took the swords to the carver and had him create the molds overnight. A single block mold for three swords each. Returning to my apartment I set the 7 golems to gathering rocks for the pier and the last golem to get rocks for me. I looked at my base magic.
Magic Pool: 177, Magic Regen: 13.3 per hour
Spell Design Points: 2
I had spell points? Well I just wanted to see my regen. Every 3 hours I could make 4 stones….36 stones would be 24 hours. Next I went and got food supplies and beds for the 27 slaves set up in my apartment. I added a few different color stones as I made them. The next day bunk beds were set up. When I was done I delivered the light stones to the visors ship. The virgin slaves were brought from below and they looked to be in terrible health. They were all young and were definitely beautiful if they got healthy. I asked the visor how many he started with and he said 40. I was angry but didn’t show it. I brought the women to my apartment. It was going to be tight and I only had one toilet leading to a septic tank. I should send them onto Avalon but they needed to help me first. A language barrier. The women were from seven different ethnic backgrounds and none spoke english. Once in the apartment I cured them all of disease they had and showed them the larder for food and got some of them cooking. I pointed to the beds and they all eventually selected one. I showed them the bathroom. They seemed relieved as a group and ate with gusto. Three of the women had been closer to death but should recover.
After dinner I brought them all to the two tables with the sword molds. I showed them my spell to turn a rock to clay and forcing the clay into the mold in 60 seconds and getting the top of the mold in place. It took 4 soften stone castings to get them to understand. There were 6 women at each mold. We did the first run. I hardened the stone swords once and popped them out of the mold. Only two swords passed inspection and I showed them where there were gaps from not being pressed into the mold completely. The next run 5 swords came out good. The next run 5 good swords again. I was tired but I also decided to show them a light stone ball and how I enchanted it. I needed two women to also make stone balls when I was making swords as well. We did two more runs getting 4 and 6 swords and 6 balls of stone. I took the stone balls, 5 were good and I made the point the 6th one was too small. That was enough as it was close to midnight. I went to my room and locked the door. I woke once to make light stones. The next day we made 100 passible swords and 240 stone balls. I took one of the swords and softened the blade and made the edge by pinching my fingers down the edge and smoothed out a few defects. At the end of the stone spell time the stone hardened and I checked my work. It looked good. I just had to stack 5 harden stone spells on the sword now to finish the blade but I would wait and do them in batches of 80 or so. The girls looked on in awe. And I noticed they were young, attractive, and really smelly. I decided to get them simple clothes and some soap and take them to bath. I ordered the mayor to purchase me 60 new outfits and a few bars of soap. Then we marched two miles into the woods to a stream that was deep enough to wash. I had two golems with me to guard us and to my shame I watched them bath and laugh. On the high bank I grew an orange, cherry, pear and apple tree. The girls were mesmerized as the trees grew. They came, naked and ate the fruit like they couldn’t believe it was real. We spent three hours at the stream and finally returned to town they were clean and in new clothes. I focused on finishing swords while the girls prepared food and got ready for bed. I finished 27 swords in 3 hours before going to bed. The next day we made 140 passible swords from the molds. I just finished 28 swords before calling it a day. It took another 7 days, two more bath trips, before I had 1100 swords out of the molds and 295 sharpened swords. I had 50 light stones as well. The next day I hardened the swords in three batches and bought the swords and light stones to the ottoman ship. He was impressed with the speed of my smiths. Two of the skilled slaves had died in the last week and he wanted to give me his two master sword smiths to make up for it with the 21 other slaves. I accepted and took the men with me. They were cooks, tailors, weavers, bodyguards and fishermen. I had the mayor get them cleaned and boarded until I left for Avalon. I also cured them all of disease. The next day I took off from making the swords and went and utilized the accumulated stone for the pier, getting it extended 10 yards. It was big enough for two ships, one on each side, but the water was 60 feet now and I needed a lot stone to reach the bottom to extend the pier. When I returned to my apartment the chatty group of women quieted when I entered. One girl with silky blonde hair brought me food. A meat pie. I ate it and smiled. I went to my room and went to sleep. I forgot to lock my door being so tired and woke to a naked girl in my bed pulling off my pants. I let her figuring she was just undressing me so I could sleep but then her naked body pressed against me. I pulled her away and gently put her outside before locking the door.
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The next day I slept late and tiredly made light stones then got food from the women and returned to my room. I decided to check my spells as I knew I had something leveled up.
* Stone Golem, Level 10 (17/100) (Stone Spell – tier 9) – create a golem from 1 cubic yard of stone, each level increase adds density, strength and durability, COST: 6.9 Magic Pool, Evolutions: Reduced Golem Cost, Improved Intelligence
* Soften Stone, Level 9 (24/100) (Stone Spell – tier 3) – turns 1 cubic yard of stone to clay, each level increases affected volume, COST: .8 Magic per minute, Evolution: Purify Stone
* Strengthen Stone/Metal, Level 10 (2/100) (Stone Spell – tier 3) – improves 1 cubic yard stones resistance to damage, each level improves the volume and the stones strength, COST: 1.1 Magic, Evolution: lighten stone by 20%
* Stone Bullet, Level 8 (79/100) (Stone Spell – tier 0) – temporarily creates a small stone and fires it at a target, each level improves the density and speed of the stone, COST: 0.1 Magic, Evolutions: Control the shape of bullet
* Nature’s Growth, Level 10 (43/100) (Nature Spell – tier 5) – complete 1 year of growth on a single plant in 60 minutes, each level increases the plant’s growth, COST: 1 Magic, Evolutions: Rejuvenate the soil around the roots of the plant, infuse magic to supply the plant for 1 year adds 12 magic cast
* Plant Snare, Level 2 (86/100) (Nature Spell – tier 0) – activate a square yard of plants to entangle an animal within 50 yards, each level increases the area and range, COST: 0.3
* Thermal Stone, Level 8 (66/100) (Stone Spell – tier 3) – raises the temperature of 1 cubic yard of stone 100 degrees for 66 minutes, each level increases the temperature and volume, COST: 0.9 per 106 degrees, Evolutions: Can stack the spell to extend the time of the enchantment
* Light Stone, Level 6 (41/100) (Stone Spell – tier 2) – creates a bright light source (2000 lumens) on 8.1 ounces of stone burning the stone over time 52 years, each level increases affected mass and time, COST: 10, Evolutions: the light can be white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo or violet
* Cure Disease, Level 4 (23/100) (Healing Spell – tier 3) – cures one person of disease, each level reduces the casting time, COST: 3
It was my strengthen stone reaching level 10. The evolution choice had some interesting options and I got it down to either metallic inclusion or 30% increased hardness. The second was useful because the spell stacked 5 times max and that 30% would make it 4 times harder? That would be crazy hard…or was it fixed and it would take less casts now to max. I wasn’t sure. The first would allow me to harden metal so I choose it. I took my two sample swords and tried the spells. It was neat. I was only able to stack it twice on metal but it became shiny and slick like Teflon. It wouldn’t ever rust. Then I found the flaw…the metal strengthening wasn’t permanent like the stone. It would last a long time…decades even but not permanent. It would fade eventually. The other thing I focused on was my cure disease, I was close to an evolution.
It was late and that night a storm blew in and the girls were a bit scared so I came out to assure them, the walls were thick stone and the windows were, crash. A window shattered. I started casting strengthen stone on the other windows and it worked…this opened all kind of possibilities. The storm made the roof creak but the beams were embedded in the stone. We might lose some shingles but that was it. I started finishing swords to keep the girls company. Then I got an idea and got a cask of emeralds….an emerald sword! I spent the next 3 hours pressing the emeralds in and molding the sword. The handle and guard were black shiny stone and the blade was clear emerald. It was beautiful after the hardening process was done. The storm passed and two ships were beached that required digging around them to get them in the water at high tide. I spent my day finishing swords, 160 in one long day. One of the girls started rubbing my shoulders. It felt too good so I let her. Eventually I went to bed, locking the door.
I finished the order in 31 days. I even gave the visor the emerald sword as a gift for his monarch. The visor handed over the promised goods and I got a caravan ready with the women and men. The pier and breaker were not done but I told the mayor to stack rocks near the structures and next time through I would make more progress. It was time to go home.