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Chapter 22

Chapter 22

That evening I had two molds for 144 coins each in front of me, one was an old one with last years date on it but that was fine. Arisa, Cyra, Liana and Mina were present to help get the coins out of the molds. It took me 6 runs before I was able to load all 288 coin imprints and the girls to lock them down before cancelling the spell. The goal was to create 5000 coins every night in less than an hour. Popping the coins out of the molds was the bottleneck so we recruited 4 more women working in the tower. They were from the same group of slaves that I freed. Two of them were married to knights and I was happy to hear that. Soon we were popping out coins every 5 minutes. This gave us 3500 coins an hour. If we added 4 more women and another mold we should hit our target. Unfortunately it would take the carvers a month to make another mold. The specialist had been making new molds to change the dates on the coins. So I committed to making 12 coin runs every night. Soon we would hit 5000+ coins a day.

In the morning I went to the training barracks for the magi knights. I talked with the trainers, martial teachers and sword masters. The sword masters had developed hybrid techniques for the knights. They practiced fighting solo, in pairs and in groups of 6. I had 34 small changes to make to future armor that would allow better range of movement and slightly better protection. I reviewed the coursework and electives. I noticed a hole in the training. I had them add etiquette, survival, stealth, observation and first aide training. We had six Indians in the recruits and I hoped more would join in the future. The swordmanship demonstration was impressive with wooden swords. The original knights were also training to learn the new combat from the masters and they did the demonstration. They both used the katana one hand and shorter waikashbi in the other hand. I watched six matches and was flummoxed with the speed and accuracy of the killing strikes. I could see why they wanted the armor upgrades. The two Japanese knives even came into play. I decided to add a hand axe to the knights armory. It would useable as a thrown weapon or for help in survival. Then I would also add two short boot stilettos. For ranged weapons, a thigh holster for a heavy pistol that had yet to be invented. An artist, leather worker, carver and tailor who worked for the academy were brought in as I was eating lunch with the trainers and masters. They got the ideas and would make a sample suite. The plates would be wood for now and I would make the stone plates once they perfected the design. I had them make a dress uniform as well. Just the katana and pistol holster would be part of the dress uniform. I spent a few hours making changes to their buildings with my stone spells to accommodate their evolving needs.

Leaving the academy I was happy with the progress and went to watch magi practice. Riona was happy to see me. She showed off her students skills, making blocks of ice, animating stick golems, throwing voices, a minor illusion of a stationary squirrel, a moderate fireball from Riona, sparks that were able to paralyze and Carina being able to fly as she was evolving her levitate skill albeit very slowly. I remained positive during their demonstrations. I spent time with Carina in the magi tower. She had a gorgeous office. She took a room on the 5th floor with a massive window. The furniture was white oak and very stylish. I sat in the chair opposite her desk. We talked about the academy and its needs. She that the towers that were to surround the central tower and act as dormitories were needed soon. We talked about school uniforms which excited her. In the end we decided on Black Robes with Colored Trim. The colors would follow their years red-1 year, orange second year, yellow-3rd year, green 4th year, blue-5th year, indigo-6th year, violet-7th year, white 8th year. On graduating the robes would change to solid while with silver trim. We talked about benchmarks to pass the years but couldn’t decide on anything firm. I talked about a physical component to training for magi and she agreed to 4 hours a week as well as team sports. Riona then said she had evolved her magic display and could see how much magic abilities cost. So we spent two hours talking how she did it and she asked if I could use perfect recall to get more info on abilities and spells. I had tried but the process I went through was not able to, I think because perfect recall only worked on things I had seen and the selection of magic had been in my mind only. But that got me thinking about literature. I excused myself and went home.

I started with perfect recall and started transcribing short children books with notes on illustrations as needed. I gave the authors credit for the works even though many on them would never be born in this altered timeline. I passed 11 children’s books to my printers the next day. I had a number of longer text books in mind but it would take a few months for the illustrations and plates to be made for those 11 books. I wrote out a list of 659 books I had read in my past life, 58 were text books, 88 were childrens books. I was I had read more of classics now. The only great works I had read were in high school and freshman year of college.

I went to the university the next day. The campus was looking great and Renee met me. She gave me a tour. It was about 25% completed from the original vision. There were seven buildings under construction. She had 410 male and 190 female students on the campus. She had just over 300 professors teaching and doing research. 300? Apparently we had attracted quite a few scientists. She said my gunpowder had been produced and they were closing in on a successful percussion cap. Two metallurgists were ready to start pressing brass shells. They just needed me to create the machine from stone. I thought about the city layout for a bit and decided the ammo factory would be built south of the city. I didn’t have any knowledge on how to make springs so getting those for a modern gun would have to done in research. I estimated with the people we had working on it we might have our first hand guns in a year. The chemists were still debating and confirming the general chemistry book I had given them. I had three more chemistry books in my head and two biochemistry. The physics and math books had made Avalon the center of the math universe. I had one book on general astronomy in my head that I should put down on paper. The school of astronomy had 11 professors. I talked to them for a bit and then made them a set of large lenses for a telescope. I made six microscopes for the biologists as well. I gave a short speech to the professors and students about how the mind of everyone could come up with great discoveries. There was a question about the study of magic and I said it was being researched in the tower I was building. The tower was easily visible and everyone knew what it was. After a few questions I went into an explanation of chromosomes and traits on the X and Y chromosome. I spent two hours explaining heredity and answering questions. It got their blood going. A convergence of math, biology and magic. That night I transcribed the astronomy book and sent it over to the school. It took 13 hours and a slept till noon.

Carina woke me by bringing me some cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs. She said the book had arrived at the university. She asked what my plan for the day was and I tried to pull her into bed with me but she shrugged me off. I got out of bed and decided to spend two days flying to towns and curing disease. I got a good feel for towns from above. Camelot was growing so fast sanitation was becoming an issue. There were seven ships in the bay from four different countries. My 3 steam ships were anchored there as well. The clinic had 49 people and I cured them all. My next stop was Pendragon. The clinic just had 11 people. I slept in Avalon before heading west. Lancelot had almost 200 people sick. I found some serious sanitation issues that I ordered corrected after curing the large group. I only made it to the next 3 towns before heading home to the tower.

I passed on making coins for the second day so the next day I spent the entire day making 15,000 coins and listening to gossip from the women. That evening a played with the kids in a game of tag. That evening I showered with Carina and didn’t get much rest after. In the morning Colette came to see me with the French ambassador. Our towns to the west had encountered French settlers. Basically the French were colonizing along the Mississippi river. He came with maps and ended up ceding the land the French claimed. Basically I had all the land 30 miles north of my road and all the land south. I had to send 200 light stones to France for the land though. Light stones were a huge commodity in Europe and had grown. A single light stone was valued at nearly 2 pounds of gold. It was also seen as a major status symbol. I had been making about 5 a day for sale in Avalon and didn’t realize they were selling for so much.

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The next three weeks I divided my time between the kids, constructing the ammo factory and expanding orchards. Colette gave me some disturbing news. She was expecting Avalon Kingdom to add 10,000 people next year. Apparently plagues in Europe were causing famine and people were fleeing. We wouldn’t be able to feed that many. We came up with a plan to push them most of them west. I told Amelia to expect to take in only 1,000 immigrants a year. Wait, this wasn’t my job. I told them to figure it out. I would be available to suppress and disease outbreaks.

In December bad luck befell two of my children. Caleb and Dana had cooked and eaten some mushrooms in the woods. They got really sick and cure disease had no effect. Using recall I found the mushroom and it was poison and destroyed the liver over a few weeks. It had no cure. I checked my magic.

Magic Pool: 204, Magic Regen: 14.4 per hour

Spell Design Points: 6

I was still short one spell point I needed for moderate healing. I became manic. For the next 11 days I cast spells emptying my magic pool, then checking my status, then I would meditate to refill my magic pool then empty it again, then checking to see if I had gotten the spell point. I didn’t sleep for the 11 days growing a forest in the walls and adding to the magi academy. I finally got it and learned the spell.

* Cure Moderate Wounds, Level 1 (0/100) (Stone Spell – tier 6) – repairs tissue and organ damage, COST: varies

I immediately healed the children and found I could only repair the liver, not remove the toxin. It took less than 1 magic to heal each but they would have to get healed every few days to live. Then a month after I started healing them and they were cured completely. Both children had developed their first magic ability, Poison Immunity. The good news was two of the women with magic watched me heal the children every day and learned a less powerful healing spell. It accelerated healing by 30 days in about a minute but couldn’t repair tissue and organ damage. The higher form of the spell could repair and mend bones. There was another spell that was called Purify that would remove foreign containments. Too many spells and too little time. Spell points were coming slower as well. I guessed I might only get 4 to 5 a year.

It was March 28th 1677. Caleb and Dana were having their 10th birthday party. I got them ponies to learn how to ride. As the extended family were celebrating a messenger rushed in. An army was approaching from the west. What who? They didn’t know but 9 days ago Lamorak, the farthest city west was completely destroyed. The messenger had travelled 800 miles in eight days on 8 different mounts. I changed to my eagle form and summoned my 6 Pantheon golems to head west with me.

The next morning I was circling over the invading army. It was a Japanese army of maybe 2000 men. I searched for more but didn’t find anymore. They had attacked Gareth, the next city along the road. I figured I would wait for the golems. The two developing towns had less than 300 people between them. I landed and approached the army with my golems. I man came to meet me and my rusty Japanese I found they had used the map I had left in one of the cities when I visited. They had built a fleet of 120 large ships to establish a city on the shore. Unfortunately one third of the ships were lost at sea and half the men had died of disease and hunger. They landed with less than 3000 of the 10,000 people they started with. To survive they had been moving inland and raiding tribes and villages for food. They were harassed across the plains by Indians and kept losing people. They were in desperate need of food. I looked over the group, 1800 men and 200 women. But half the women were indian and Caucasian. They were captives. I sympathized with the man but he had crossed the line. I told him that he had doomed his expedition by attacking my citizens and that I may even take war to Japan. He didn’t seem concerned as the golems walked forward. The slaughter of the men was complete, the women were freed. The 106 Japanese women would be settled in Lancelot…except 1 who had a sliver of magic, the first Japanese I had found with magic. She would return to the tower to be taught how to use her magic. I suspected the loss of the fleet would prevent the Japanese from sending more ships but I had told the same thing to the Chinese Emperor.

Back in Avalon I had Amelia plan to send a settlement of 1000 to the west coast. I wanted a city there within a year and I wanted another 1000 people heading out every year to establish more towns up and down the coast. We would give them provisions, wagons and building tools, sending 50 French soldiers to guard them. I wanted them to claim the territory and work with the local Indians peacefully. That meant I needed to drastically increase our food production.

April, May and June were spent with my personal golems clearing fields and either planting seeds or growing orchards. Things were going well and July had the first settlement heading out with 796 people and 52 French soldiers. They were to found the town of Merlin. I made private plans with Amelia. We were going to try to control Canada, Alaska, Hawaii and all the way to where the Panama Canal would be. Amelia started spending a lot of time in the map room. The map was now a very accurate world map since I had perfect recall and covered the wall. There was a large map of just the Americas as well. The goal was to secure the land in 50 years and then we would grow strong and prepare for the invasion. If I didn’t survive she was to give a book I had prepared explain the invasion of earth in 2088 and what I knew of their weapons and ships. I had been told magic was the key to defeating them.

With the group leaving to colonize the coast I could return the magi academy. I spent the rest of 1677 completing the first dormitory tower. The main tower was just over 650’ now as well. I was getting antsy to go on a trip again but resisted the urge. I had expanded the coins enough to bring Savannah and New Orleans into the currency system. In February 1678 the new population reports were handed to me.

Camelot 24000, Pendragon 2500, Avalon 10000, Lancelot 8800, Excalibur 3900, Galahad 1300, Percival 1500, Gawain 1400, Lionel 800, Geharis 700, Bedivere 1200, Gareth 1000, Lamorak 900, Kay 300, Merlin 700, Savannah 14000, New Orleans 1500

Every government system was strained, food, currency, education, judicial and construction. People were flocking to Avalon because of the freedom and fairness of taxes and the ability to get an education. We were quickly becoming the center of the intellectual world as well. I was walking down a street to a large 5 story building. Inside we were making our first bullets. We had a short .44 caliber round for hand guns, a long .44 caliber round for rifles. Below the facility was the testing range and you could hear the pops as they tested new rounds. I walked down the stairs and six men were there checking the penetration of various rounds. I had built four single shot rifles and two single shot hang guns out of hardened stone for the testing. I talked with the lead researcher. They had two short rounds they had settled on. The first was a high powered shot that had a heavy kick. The second was a good round with less of a kick and good to kill from 30 yards. Accuracy was good on the sample guns to about 20 yards. The rifles round they had selected was good to 250 yards. Today we were testing the first bolt action rifle. I felt this rifle with 5 shot load was good enough for this era. The handgun would be a simple breech loader single shot. It could be reloaded in about 4 seconds. I didn’t want something too advanced and I wanted them made of steel, not hardened stone. They tested the 5 shot rifle first and even though the underground range was only 120 yards, the marksmen put all 5 shots within 6” of the target. The hand gun also was accurate to 25 yards before getting some deviation with the marksmen. The success made production of the accepted rounds going high gear. They estimated right now the could make 600 rifle rounds a day and 200 heavy hand gun rounds as well. They could get that up to 5000 rifle rounds and 3000 handgun rounds in two months as they hired and trained more manufacturers. That was fine. They could store the rifle rounds for now. I would make 300 single shot hand guns for the magi knights. They would need 3000 rounds daily for practice so focus on producing those rounds. They could save the casings to reuse as well helping with production.

I went to the knight academy with my golems and dug a long channel 300 yards long and 50 yards wide. I then built an arched ceiling 30’ high. The golems then buried the complex. It was the shooting range to train the knights. I added 80 light stones that could be covered to change light conditions. These stones were embedded into the wall. Making all the hang guns took a week. Then inviting the 52 knights and 77 trainees down to the structure they had watched me build was exciting. I showed them all the gun and demonstrated the firing and reload. Their eyes popped. The holster on their armor and dress uniform that had been empty now made sense. Everyone was issued a hand gun and I was super strict on hand gun safety. Anyone caught violating it would be without their firearm for 30 days and have 30 hours of physical conditioning punishment. Right now their belts had a small pouch that neatly held 10 rounds. There was an expanded pouch that could be attached that held 40 rounds if they were in a combat situation. Firearm practice was going to be twice a week right now, firing just 20 shots each time. Since the kickback was so extreme first year cadets would not be issued a firearm.

I made six rifles over 2 days. I gave them to the oldest and most trusted knights. They would practice in secret. I had no plans to make more rifles. The metalsmiths had that job.