The trip took 47 days to reach New York and 4 more days to Camelot. Camelot was rapidly growing. Four ships were in the harbor. We docked at the short pier. I went to the mayor. There were 2200 people in the city. Land was getting expensive in the city. I just told him I was taking 18 acres north of the new pier for a dry dock for building ships. I would be displacing about 60 people and I didn’t care, they could be compensated. I brought the 31 Icelanders to the land and told them to plan on building whatever they needed to start building ships. They would have unlimited funds to get started.
I told the mayor I would cover all their expenses and gave him a handful of gems. He wanted, no needed more Avalon coins. Yeah that was something I had to look forward to. I got my cargo onto carts in my warehouse and settled my 4 mages on the second floor. I called 7 golems to me to pull the carts, it would take them 3 days to get here. I gave the 7 painters a speech about the cities I controlled. If they settled in Avalon and taught at the college I would see them housed and fed and paid. Five accepted the offer and I got them supplies to walk there. In the few days before the golems arrived I extended the pier 3 yards, I just couldn’t find a match for the golems strength to move the boulders.
When my golems arrived I headed out with my 8 wagons and 4 wizards. As was typical I stopped and made repairs on the road. There were two new villages forming on the road. Both farming communities to supply Camelot. Pendragon was up to over 200 residents now as well.
We arrived back in Avalon on October 5th, 1970. The city had transformed again. Amelia found me or was told I was back. She had a thousand things for me to do and a thousand things to tell me. Avalon had reached 1200 people. Amelia was worried it was growing too fast and getting out of control. Crime was up and accelerating. There was a gang starting from a recent group of English. After talking a bit a made the decision the two men apparently in charge of the forming gang were going to be relocated to Lancelot. They were technically employed by me. If they didn’t want to relocate they could move out of my territory. The next big issue was the shortage of coins, big surprise. She had a request for me to make 200,000 coins. Then she had requests for two new vineyards, a new peach orchard and an expansion of the olive orchard. There was a need for the dam to be raised 15’. She also said we needed two new roads paved. Overwhelmed I said we had all winter and brought my new mages to Riona. Riona was super excited for the new mages and she had made dozens of notes in my magic manual. She had developed her magic sense to see the affinities. I was just as excited as her. Carina had gravity magic, Riona had fire magic and she had found another color was Nature magic. Looking at me she could see nature magic and dark gray…so that was stone magic. A mage needed to express their magic before she could associate the color with a magic type. Maya had mental magic…wait…I brought Maya to my room and called in the five women. Maya was going to be our spy master. She could detect lies and read minds. This was to be kept confidential. She could screen people and find moles. I explained what moles were. We were adding new people so fast it was getting hard to track them. Amelia said the Spanish had requested the road south be extended to facilitate trade… it was currently paved for about a mile and had gravel for another 10… then cleared about another 20 miles beyond that. it was not a priority.
Ok I sat down with a smooth whisky reading updates. The glass works had finally made mason jars with screw on lids. The rubber ring was painted on and the aluminum for the lid was in short supply. But maybe in 2-3 years we could start producing them in volume. I had canned as a kid and I had made this technology a priority. I was happy we had made progress. The rubber rings were an easy next step. Rubber trees were in the Amazon. I told Amelia to set up an expedition to get some rubber trees.
Next was the death report. Two deaths from fighting, one construction death, and six deaths from disease. My first trip in the morning would be to the clinic. Next report was the French report. I had a consort waiting for me. The French sent a private message as well. They were willing to establish a fort 100 miles north of Camelot to act as a buffer to the English. I said that would be fine and let Amelia take care of it. The Spanish were also promising protection from the English. I found the request for the construction of the trade road south. A girl, one of the freed slave girls, brought me a cheeseburger and fries. I greedily ate it and asked for another. The next few papers were all the construction updates. The college was getting built slowly. But now I needed students. I called Renee and told her to write out a call for applicants…maybe I would have to go overseas again. An applicant needed to speak English and be able to write an essay on what he or she wanted to learn. There would be free passage to America for the top 90 applicants every year between age 16 and 18. Renee would have to pick a city were these students would be picked up…say every April 15th. Carina and Ella walked in with the new babes Able was born July 27th, 1670 of Carina and Summer was born August 20th, 1670 of Ella. I cured the children of disease. They were beautiful babies. I stopped working for an hour to hold them. The next paper I reviewed was the Indian treaty, I had only reached 14 of the required 20 children. I had Riona pass on that six candidates could come to my tower and I would fulfill my obligation. The next paper was the coinage issue, ugh. I told Renee to get the women mold pressers ready to do two hours after dinner every night. There was probably some idiot out there hording these coins, burying them in the woods or something. I next reviewed Amelia’s job distributions. I noted to add street cleaners and lamp posts. I would fuse a light stone into them and they could have a removable cover at night…or just left uncovered. There were dozens of requests from town folk. Amelia’s job, not mine. Next was the trading sheet. Amelia had broken it down. I needed to add more light stones as it was the largest margin item I had…I would make 5 every morning before going to work. If I didn’t make these light stones I faced a rapid drain of coinage. We were selling some food, olive oil and water barrels. Riona’s mother could make potions right? I told Riona to explore that. The sewer was complete under the major roads in downtown but needed me to harden the stones to make sure it would never collapse. The rest of the papers I thumbed through and then went to take a hot shower. Carina joined me and I had missed her touch. The shower lasted a long time.
In the morning I had scrambled eggs and pancakes with honey and butter. I went to the clinic and eliminated the disease then I toured the city…well it was almost a city. I decided we needed some taller buildings. I got Amelia and showed her where we would add four four story buildings with 6 apartments per floor. I then went around town using my magic here and there. I saw we had a police force with a uniform now. I then went a few miles out to the site prepared for the new vineyard. I grew 60 vines before returning to town. The vineyard needed 5,000 vines…
It was close to dinner so I returned to the tower. I noticed I was the only adult male with some 20 women and children around. Dinner was a spicy chicken and rice dish. I didn’t know we had rice. Renee was at the table and she confessed she didn’t want to have any more children. I told her that was her choice and I was fine with it. Ella said she wanted more children as did Carina. Carina showed her magic as well, making objects float. I said before she knew it she would be flying like a bird. She was shocked and then had a big grin.
The conversation turned to the museum and the theater. The first performances were grand but they wanted 76 light stones of varying colors for the performances. I was starting to get frustrated with people demanding instead of asking. I decided I would tell Amelia all the golems and myself were taking a break for a month. They needed to be able to cope without my assistance and this was a trial period. I would still make coins at night but that was it. The coin pressers arrived and there were now 8 of them with the wood molds for coins dated for this year. We made 1200 coins that night, just under 1000 were good enough to be hardened. The women were out of practice. In a few days I guessed we would be up to 1500 viable coins a session. As we were making coins a young woman walked in. She was the noble lineage consort the French had sent me. Her name was Colette. She was 18, tall, almost 5’9”, had long shiny light brown hair and brown eyes. I was surprised she had no makeup. We talked while I cast spells to make coins. She was the daughter of a minor noble. She said she was selected because of her height, beauty and intelligence. She had no magic from using my sense skill. I told her she was to train to be my diplomat. She would deal with all delegations as she spoke and read 5 languages fluently. She would chair the colleges departments of culture and languages when it was built. She was free to seek my bed or to seek a husband. She asked where would she live as she was currently in the inn. She had 3 servants and the tower was already crowded. I thought for a bit and looked out my tower window. The major bridge crossing the lake was 150 yards south of the tower. The land to the road was clear but I didn’t want a building there. Across the lake was the Indian settlement. Just on the other side of the main road were three buildings…one was a building for cleaning fruits and vegetables for sale, one was a house, and the third…I think it was a tailor shop maybe? Well it didn’t matter. I turned to Colette and told her she could have a French chateau built there on 8 acres. It would be her home and the Avalon diplomacy building for hosting foreign dignitaries…parties, meals and such. She would also have to find and fund diplomats to any countries we were allies with. She could get with the architects to design and build the building. They would relocate the three buildings.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
During my shower both Ella and Carina joined me. We continued to the bedroom. It was not awkward at all.
The next day I pulled in all 16 golems. I decided for the next month we were going to focus on Hogwarts. I decided my tower and the strip of land going north to the dam along the lake were my personal property. This was a half mile wide strip that was two miles long and included Hogwarts. The first thing I had the golems do was mark off the land. There were a few fields and orchards in the area but that was not an issue. Eventually I would build a wall to keep my land separate. For now we moved to the Hogwarts site with the one building. We were going to spend a month working on the center tower. The center tower had two basements so excavation first. The days passed and I ignored the requests from Amelia and just delivered coins every night. The month passed quickly and we completed the two sublevels of the tower and started the outer wall which was almost 10’ tall. It was a good run, if we focused on the tower we could get it done in three years.
After the month I checked my abilities and spells. Shapeshift had reached level 5…it did have an evolution. I narrowed my choice to either mass deviation which allowed me to double or half my mass, or I could choose a humanoid form. The humanoid form would help as disguises but the mass variation seemed awesome so I choose that. I had two new forms I could choose. I choose eagle first. I quickly found a 105 pound eagle with a 12’ wingspan had to spend a lot of energy flying. What beast could I become that was 420 lbs? Tiger, bear, lion? I already had a cat form but lions were awesome. I tried quickly and found I could now be a panther between 105 and 420 pounds…so maybe another cat form was not needed. I decided to hold it for later.
I looked over the entire info sheet.
Magic Pool: 183, Magic Regen: 13.6 per hour
Spell Design Points: 4
* Ageless, Level 3 (Stone Magic Ability) – like all stone you are ageless, your body ages 1/12th as fast greatly increasing your life expectancy, each level increase slightly slows aging even further
* Shapeshift, Level 5 (Nature Magic Ability) – you can shape change into one beast form healing injuries, each level increase adds another beast form, forms: Black Panther, White Wolf, Bottlenose Dolphin, Eagle; Evolution: Can half or double mass
* Stalwart Immunity, Level 3 (Stone Magic Ability) – you have resistance to disease and infections, each level improves the speed at which you heal from injuries and poisons
* Magic Sense, Level 4 (Divination Magic Ability) – you can sense magic and estimate its power, each level improves the range
* Stone Golem, Level 11 (9/100) (Stone Spell – tier 9) – create a golem from 1 cubic yard of stone, each level increase adds density, strength and durability, COST: 6.1 Magic Pool, Evolutions: Reduced Golem Cost, Improved Intelligence
* Soften Stone, Level 10 (20/100) (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, TBD
* Strengthen Stone, Level 10 (23/100) (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 (81/100) (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 11 (24/100) (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 9 (7/100) (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 9 (17/100) (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 5 (83/100) (Healing Spell – tier 3) – cures one person of disease, each level reduces the casting time, COST: 3 Magic, Evolutions: Area of Effect 5 x 5 yards
I had a new evolution for soften stone? I usually felt when I had a choice and was surprised as this didn’t happen for this time. Also 4 spell points…I really wanted the healing spell which cost 7…maybe in a year or two. So soften stone…5 options that I narrowed to two. The first was doubling the volume to 2 cubic yards, the second extending the time to 5 minutes. Both would be useful in my efforts but the first would expedite construction. I selected it. I came with another massive benefit. Originally I could only effect stone in a one cubic yard area. Now I could select 2 cubic yards within a range of two yards from me. So I could effect a strip over 4 yards long. Extremely useful when cutting blocks of large stone or softening large stones to fuse together.
I talked with Amelia and my construction foremen. They were happy and much more appreciative to get the golems back to work. I even only sent 4 golems to patrol, which added two golems to city construction. 98 of my 183 magic pool was dedicated to golems. I felt comfortable adding two more, which gave me a magic pool of 73 to use after they were animated.
I spent a lot of time on the golems, using sapphire for eyes and gave them a slightly pinkish skin stone by finding some pink colored rock. I even buried a light stone in the head to give the eyes a light glow. For hair I used ruby. Both golems were feminine in nature and rather than carve clothes on them they were nudes. I did cloth them with human clothes after animation. I made a saber and dagger for both of them out of ruby which took me another two days. I named them Athena and Artemis. They would be my travel partners and continue to work on magic tower in the interim. I also wanted them to learn sword skills even though they could just crush people with their fists.
My days went into auto mode again. Morning was construction sites, afternoon was growing in fields and at night was making coins and playing with the kids. The highlight was going to plays, perfecting dishes and watching the kids grow. Colette did finally seek me out in January. She was a virgin and I did my best to be gentle and caring. On February 20th I found myself getting ready to plan a new trip. I wanted the west coast. But I decided I would try to start a settlement in Austin, Texas first. Hopefully I would have two ships built by my shipwrights and could take 250 or so to start a town. I prepared a note to Amelia to start stocking my warehouse in Camelot for a November trip and find volunteers. I guess I needed to check on my shipwrights.
Athena and Artemis travelled with me carrying chests of coins and clothes. I was in eagle form, powering up to altitude then gliding and repeat. I made it in 2 days but the golems ruined their clothes. I got them more in Camelot. The shipyard was not ready to build sea ships. They had two frames for building a 24’ fishing boat and a 20’ wide bottom row boat. Ugh. I talked to Armon and his efforts and he explained. He was drying lumber for building a large ship and hoped to start one in a year or so. I wanted a ship in 8 months. Wait…my strengthen stone was better than steel…I could build a stone ship. I wanted to test some things first.
We got an 8lb, 12 lb and 24lb cannon. I found a sheet of ½” thick hardened stone could stand up to the 24 lb at 50 feet. Thinner and it had a chance to shatter. So over the next two weeks we laid out the hull of a 300 foot ship. It was a flat bottom ship that was wide. I put side bulkheads in that were sealed. The ship wouldn’t sink unless they were compromised. The ship would have three lower decks. One mid deck and a stern castle with two levels. The mid deck would have 16 24 lb guns on each side. We also had four long 12 lb cannons on the stern as it was so wide. We added two long 12 lb cannons on the bow as well. Even with the cannons we had room for 104 crew on the mid deck. We had no idea how much load it could take. With the decks done we worked on the masts next. Armon had me create 4 masts and the bowsprit. After 2 months of work it was time to roll the ship into the water…would it float? Or flip and sink?
Well it floated…it was too buoyant. Well we had a lot to add and install cannons as well. I spent two weeks working on the lower decks…added storage rooms with bay doors on the two lowest decks. The third lower deck I added 62 cabins with windows. Still too buoyant... I added a built in fresh water tank on the lower decks, six 1800 gallon tanks.... the water line was finally close and the tanks get the center of gravity low. I embedded light stones on the lower deck hallways. The top deck was 70 feet wide. The stern castle was 48 feet long and with the two decks I had plenty of space for six large cabins, a nav room, small arms armory, and dining room. Then we turned over the ship to professional riggers. I added cleats where they wanted them.