The ship steamed away and we went around the peninsula and repeated the attack in Valencia. I sank five Spanish ships on the way. Valencia had much better defenses but they still fell. I sank six ships in the harbor that attacked me and killed 700 soldiers on shore defending the city. I ravaged the two largest churches and the cities armory and treasury. On the second day I noticed my Magic Sense ability had reached level 5. I could extend the range, increase the sensitivity, and discern affinity or concealment. Riona had the sensitivity which allowed her to numerate magic and she had affinity as well. My range was around 5 yards right now. Numerate was not useful as I could judge based on a percentage of my magic already. Concealment seemed unimportant right now. I went with range which extended the range to triple. I could find magic out to 15 yards now. I travelled through town to find people with magic. My Spanish was terrible and people boarded up their houses. I found what I was looking for at a bakery. I knocked and slowly the door opened. The family was extremely scared, me and the four golems entered. The family had six children, two sons, four daughters. All the girls had a wisp of magic, 2-4 or so by my guess. The girls were 7, 9, 9, and 14. It took a little while to talk to the parents. In the end the entire family came with me and I gave them a chest of 2,000 silver coins on the ship and got them settled in. I think they might have been too afraid to decline. I found two old women with magic as well but passed on recruiting them. The main army then showed up four days after our attack.

It was headed by a fancy looking general and had over 6,000 soldiers. It took half a day to organize a meeting. The peace talks were the following, two tons of gold and Florida and most of Mexico were seceded to me. Also I was due 4 tons of silver and 4 tons of copper every year for the next 20 years. Basically they would keep the islands and South America, keeping their mining and pillaging going. It was a good deal for me. I knew Spain’s navy was probably crippled for at least the next 10 years. They lost not only ships but some of their best sailors. I had to wait 7 days for the gold and walked around the city with my golems. I found a few more magic potentials. A 15 year old girl in a tavern with maybe an 8 which I recruited and a young 9 year old girl on a horse farm outside the city. She was strong, almost a 15 on the magic scale. Her father was happy to be rid of her. We bought a number of goods in the city with the silver coins we looted which I thought of as a redistribution of wealth. We left port and headed for Ireland.

Dublin was an active port but surprisingly no one attacked us. We landed and I walked the city. It had faced a few plagues so I made it a point to heal groups of disease. There was also magic people everywhere. Apparently the purge had not happened yet. A week in the city and I had recruited 7 families who had 17 women and girls with some magic. Finally a representative of the king arrived. We began the negotiations. I hadn’t shown my power by sinking ships and invading cities so it took a week of meetings to reach a treaty. Everything south of Jamestown was seceded to me and a tribute of 2 tons of silver every year for ten years to be delivered to Camelot. I was frankly surprised how smooth things had gone. I had immigration to the Kingdom of Avalon posted. We didn’t have a king so I probably should have not called it a kingdom. Sailing was different with the steam ship. It was faster and hard to dock with so few crew. Our next stop was Amsterdam.

We did some trade and I was sad when I learned Rembrandt died. He had completed three massive paintings for me and I got all his remaining sketches. I traded light stones for numerous luxury goods and added six skilled craftsmen families. Two woodcraft, two alchemists and two botanists. We traveled to Denmark and added 59 colonists, two of the girls in the families had a small magic spark. It was time to return. The trip took 14 days and everyone was shocked.

I checked my warehouse when I got back to Camelot. It had a number valuables, lots of raw gems and coins and ore. It was July 3rd, 1674. I needed to choose my next course of action. I wanted to go to Japan and China. I decided the best way would be to travel across the continent then build a ship on the California coast. Both steam ships were anchored with skeleton crews for defense and I got 80 sailors to volunteer for the trip.

I took all my settlers and magic potential citizens to Avalon with the 80 sailors remaining behind. In Avalon I made 5 large carts that would be pulled by two golems each. I spent 3 weeks taking care of things that needed magic in Avalon. When I told my group I was going the Asia Riona and lover, Noelle, wanted to come. Noelle was a darkness mage and had two spells, shadow jump which allowed her to jump from shadow to shadow within 20 yards and shadow blend which allowed her to merge and hide in shadows. The kids all wanted to come too. But not yet. I did build a small model of a steam engine for the town. I hoped the craftsmen could figure it out and maybe we could get trains going in the next five years. I left with 75 people who wanted to go to California to settle and the two female wizards. We went to Camelot. I planned to take the steam ship to Excalibur which was the smarter move. It would still be a 1000 mile land journey. It took 7 days to get everyone to Camelot and I had 10 golems this time.

Camelot was starting to buzz with trade again. I needed nearly 300,000 more coins with the new cities in Florida and Georgia being added. Collette said the quicker Avalon coins reached them the quicker adding them as citizens would happen. It was also time to start taxing people. I figured 10% of income was a good start. I would get that going when I returned.

In Camelot it took 5 days to organize. I loaded the treasure in the warehouse onto the steamship. Next we loaded provisions and the carts full of provisions and the 75 colonists. The trip took just 5 days to Excalibur. I spent two days in Excalibur I handled a few issues and built one stone bridge. The sailors complained about everything on land but that was fine. We started west, 158 people. The golems could have made 100 miles a day but we kept a pace for everyone. The terrain wasn’t bad and we made 30 miles on average. We ran into some Indians but they wouldn’t approach. The caravan slowed down when we hit the mountains. I had to get creative with my spells creating easier crossings and climbs. In all it took 42 before we hit water. It was California bay. The settlers found a site in four days that they liked. We then got to building. It took two months to build the ship. I also built a short pier to dock at. I built a small fort out of stone for 50 men, grew 4 different orchards of 40 trees and six houses over the next month. I hoped the 75 settlers would be able to establish a thriving community but most likely they would an infusion in the future. I wasn’t planning of coming back. We were going to Japan, China, India, Africa then back to Camelot. Once the I felt the colonists had a chance we sailed.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I tried to find Hawaii but we missed it. it was a 20 day trip across the ocean. My time was spent was Riona and Noelle. My stalwart immunity ability hit level 5 and the evolution was called rebirth which brought me to 100% health but had a 7 day cooldown. I spent my days writing out basic science and math books with perfect recall. I was excited to get to Japan.

Japan was an isolationist nation and didn’t want talk with us. A fishing village had everyone fleeing when we landed. We sailed south to a city and tried again. Finally I found someone willing to communicate. After two days I was given two teachers to teach me Japanese. It took two weeks before I was talking to a lord. He didn’t want to trade until I showed him a light stone. I got a lot of luxury goods and artifacts for a few dozen light stones. I hadn’t found anyone with magic in this city. I asked about sword masters and martial masters. I was referred to a city far to the south. That was our next stop.

The city was bustling, ships, people. When we docked armed soldiers met is. I was able to negotiate some trade after two days. I found my Japanese was quickly getting better. During trading I found two young cooks and their wives willing to come with us. I was already happy with my haul. I walked through the city and couldn’t find any magic in anyone. I was very disappointed. Two cities, maybe 20,000 people inspected and zero positives. For sword masters we found 3 sword masters in their 40s who would come with us after we paid their family gold and silver. We went around and stopped twice more in cities, no magic but two more sword masters. They each got their own cabins and it allowed me to work on my Japanese. One of the sword masters suggested I get a swordsmith. My sword masters recruited a family of swordsmiths, 9 people. It was time to goto China.

China was different as they were happy to see us and trade. It was crazy as our ship and people were extremely popular, like celebrities. I traded light stones for tons of goods. The ruling class was happy to have us and my magic was well received. Learning the language was more difficult than Japanese but we spent a month in a large city trading and even had members of the ruling dynasty visit us. We received gifts and many exquisite items in trade. I had also seen two older women with magic so I knew they existed. I was invited to meet the Emperor in Beijing. We sailed north to the capital. It was a 50 mile march inland and I decided to take 6 golems and Riona and Noelle. In the capital it was an extravagant reception. The emperor asked about the golems and I explained them as best as I could. I gave him a gift of 21 light stones of varying colors. The emperor asked me to demonstrate true magic and I grew an orange tree for his courtyard. Everyone then ate an orange and was stupefied as they ate them. I spent four days in the palace. The emperor made attempts to send women to me but I declined. He did send three young chefs to me as a gift and they were escorted to my ship. When I talked about finding men proficient in hand to hand combat he put on a large dinner demonstration. There were eight matches in a bracket. Apparently the top 16 sects in the city performing for the Emperor with their best young disciples. I watched the combat closely looking for a form that would suite my Knight Magi. There was even a woman in the first round but she barely lost. In the end I was very impressed. I had my three best selections. Two were focused on upper body combat going in for a quick ending combat move. The 3rd was a balanced attacker with feet and hands and a solid defense. I asked if these three disciples would be willing to come with me and teach my soldiers combat. I had to negotiate with the dojo masters. Before that I gave each warrior a 100 lumen light stone that should last 1000 years for thanks for the demonstration. I also gave the winner a blue and green 1000 lumen light stone. After talking with the three masters I ended up paying the balanced form 17 light stones and 20 pounds of silver coins for 3 of his top 5 disciples. The term was a 20 year contract, after which they were free to leave. The winner of the tournament tried to drive a hard bargain. He wanted 101 light stones for his top disciple. The emperor was there and said the man was being greedy so I passed. The last master had a small dojo with just 5 students and he agreed to take his entire dojo to travel with me. I learned his students were all his children and his son had lost in the third round. I also asked the emperor if I could recruit 30 peasant children to bring back with me. He was fine with it. We had seen twice that number of people with magic in the city alone. The law prevented fathers from selling their daughters but they could put them in service of another man. I would be allowed to roam the city and surrounding towns for children. I know it was terrible but this was the times and getting them to learn their magic was very important to Earth’s future. We wandered with the golems and six members of the Emperors court. We picked children between the age of 6 and 14. It only took us a week to find 32 candidates with power between 3 and 8. When we found a girl we were interested in the emperors men came and briefly talked to the parents before taking the child. I personally slipped each parent a small bag of coins anyway and said their daughters would be trained and could return when they reached the age of 20. With 32 children the ship would definitely more lively. The emperor did figure out what I was doing. He wasn’t too happy but I explained that only my children could generate magic offspring indicating I was taking mistresses. I did end up pointing out 9 old women and 17 peasant girls with magic for him. They were probably going to live very pampered lives. We left China and headed to Thailand. We were not well received so moved onto India. Women were treated terribly here and many fathers were willing to sell their daughters. We stopped in 17 cities and large fishing towns and added 22 more children and 15 teenagers. The teenagers could start learning from Riona and Noelle once they learned enough English. The trade in India was so-so. My cargo holds were getting close to full as well. We landed in Bahrain and were not well received until we showed our gold. I travelled the slave market and purchased 27 people, only 7 with magic but the others in the group were parents and siblings. I felt like I had done well on the trip and decided we would head straight home so we got 2 months of food for everyone and left shortly after. It was 9 days to the tip of Africa. We had outrun numerous ships trying to catch us on this trip but the steam ship just pulled away. We ran into two Spanish ships just as we headed north around Africa and the idiots fired on us. I burned both ships as we were 70 miles off shore I doubted anyone would survive. They were probably slave ships or going to China for trade. We headed across the ocean to Brazil and then through the Caribbean. When we hit Florida I felt like we were home.

It was April 7th 1675 when we entered the port at Camelot. We had been gone for so long. I had brought back a lot of racial diversity for our future magic community. As the golems moved the cargo to my warehouse I was excited to return to Avalon. The mayor however was harassing me about the breaker that was incomplete. A storm had wrecked ¼ of the buildings and killed 170 people in the fall. It was a hurricane. I decided to put up a seawall on the shore. So rather than return to Avalon I spent a month raising a ½ mile long wall that was 12’ high and it was fused and anchored. In that time the golems got all the goods to Avalon and the children had been transported and settled. As soon as I finished I turned eagle and flew to Avalon.