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Chapter 25

Chapter 25

I finally finished the outer wall of the magi tower on June 3rd, 1680. I had to finish the top 6 floors and I had some ideas for the roof. I had to work on the dormitory towers before finishing the interior. The train tracks were laid out to 155 miles east and I was constantly being harassed by Amelia and Colette to finish making the rails. I pulled 3 golems to begin tunneling through the Appalachian mountains. They would dig 50 yards or so and I would fly over and make a stone tunnel that was 35’ high and 40’ wide in a stone arch. The train would run in the center and on either side would be roads heading east or west. But at the rate we were going it would take 8 years to complete the tunnel with three golems.

On June 17th I participated in an experiment with professors in the university. I made a large facility to the east of the dam, about ¼ mile from the wall to my compound. I made a 700,000 reservoir tank from the purified water filtration system and then built the machinery to pressurize the water according to their plans. I was a slow moving steam engine that increased pressure when pressure dropped. It took 4 days and it was working well enough to supply about 3000 homes. I spent the next three weeks focused on a new filtration system, 250,000 gallon holding tank and similar pump system. This was all inside the wall of my estate. I then ran water pipes to the magi tower buildings, the magi knight buildings, my tower, the greenhouse and I put another outlet in a small area on the eastern wall. Here I laid out plans for six buildings, a large tavern, a large two story general store, a four story hotel with 120 rooms, a two story restaurant, a coffee shop/bakery and food market. I planned this mini town center would be good when we reached 2000 knights and magi within the walls. The water also allowed me to create some fountains on the property gardens. I also added septic lines for waste from the property buildings while doing the water lines. I connected the septic lines to the cities line. It took me a day to run the water lines in my tower and then made my first toilet and sink in the bathroom. It really was joyous taking my first dump and flush then washing my hands in a sink. Only cold water for now but that was ok. My gravity feed show had hot water. I finished the 4 four bathrooms in my tower and switched over the sinks in the kitchen from the gravity feed system to the water supply. It got me motivated to build the second magi dorm tower. I spent 4 months focused on getting the structure built and getting the plumbing correct, ignoring everything else. I opened the new tower December 20th. I think I was the more impressed with my efforts than everyone else. The new tower only had a 500 gallon hot water tank that could be heated by magic of wood. I hoped to find a way to make permanent enchantments in the future. All the pipes were hardened stone so should last a few hundred years. Amelia came to the tower opening and she just asked if I could work on the railroad now. Ugh.

I watched the testing of the new applicants to the mage tower focusing on my children. Violet, Renee’s daughter could teleport almost 50 yards! Able had three spells, condensing a 4’ ball of water, animating a small wood golem and he could heal burn wounds very quickly. And the boy was only 10! They were my only children in the group. We also had our first outside person come to test. A Spanish girl who was 17, she could levitate objects, well small objects. Riona passed 29 for the new class. Entering new year (Christmas) I gave each on my kids new clothes, the first chocolate bars we had produced and a set of figurines of six mythic beasts, dragon, unicorn, Pegasus, medusa and hydra using stones and gems. I also gave them all copies of dungeon and dragons role playing game I had printed. It was a great holiday.

So I turned my attention to the railroad in the new year. I had made 500,000 coins last year and that was barely sufficient. We were adding almost 100,000 annually. People fleeing Europe. The senate tried to pass a land occupancy act but I quashed it. The Indians would be able to hold their land in my timeline if they were living on it. So the railroad. About 60% of new people seeking citizenship were arriving in Camelot. The had 3 docks for 12 ships and they were almost always full. I decided I wanted to colonize the Bahamas and Jamaica. So the Galahad would transport 300 people to each island with supplies from me to build farms. They were not claimed by the Spanish. Spain was actually in turmoil. They were in a minor revolution, 40% of their country was trying to cede. I wanted to colonize Hawaii as well. It would be a very important strategic point if China and Japan attacked. So I needed to get my train heading west. My tunnel through the Appalachian was only ¾ mile long, still had about 50 miles to go… So it was coins and rails for me till mid April. I was cranking out rails but after 3 months the boredom of my days got to me. I let Amelia, Collette, Riona and Carina it was time for a road trip. I was going to travel with the next settlement caravan headed west. That was coming up June 1st. Amelia literally begged me to finish the rails to Camelot. I had about 50 miles left to complete of the 350 mile line from Camelot to Avalon. Over the next 5 weeks I completed 60 miles of rails. As I was getting ready to leave in May I was getting my goodbye sex from Carina and I knew the next day my soldiers had conquered the fort again. I left two days later before she realized she was pregnant again.

I had 6 golems with me and my travel was slow as I was repairing and improving the road. I had also left 5 days before the 1000 colonists so I wanted them to catch up to me. I also had 15 magi knights with me.

I spent 5 days in Lancelot making city improvements including lamp posts with light stones. The caravan caught up with us and we moved out. Every major town we passed I added lamp posts and grew 7 fruit trees on their commons. When we got to the Mississippi I spent two weeks finishing the bridge while the settlers travelled ahead when we got to the plains I spent a night creating a miles worth of rails. It was just something to do and if I could save a day in future from making them… As we got closer to the Rockies I was impressed with the town just before the crossing. Neat farms lined the road north and south. Twenty two-story buildings were in the town center and the population was very active. I went to the mayor and he was ecstatic to meet me and I had dinner with his family in his humble house. I asked the mayor about improvements I could do. I ended up doing light posts and paving the main road and building a large general store over three days. I easily caught upto the colonists. Crossing the Rockies I improved the rough road and cleared parts of it. I also built small stone structures with a fire pit. As we descended from the Rockies the view was spectacular. I jumped into the air slipping my clothes and went eagle. I flew south racing along the mountains. Then I turned west and just glided. Another eagle approached but quickly fled after seeing my size. As the sun set I landed near a small house. There was no one home, the Indians probably killed them. The furniture was rough and the house was looted. I drank some water from the stream nearby and found a grove of pistachio trees. I harvested a bunch of the nuts and slept in the house. The next morning I made a rough bag and took the nuts with me in eagle form.

I flew west and landed a few hours later in a small settlement. It was Spanish and I was naked. The town people were very nice and talked with me and offered me food. The settlement was 20 years old and hadn’t had contact with the outside world. They had a rough peace with the Indians. I told them the Spanish Monarchy had collapsed and the land they were in belonged to the Avalon Kingdom. They asked who ruled Avalon and I said a great wizard which made them laugh. I then grew 2 pistachio trees in front of them. They were scared and in awe. I told them the wizard was a good person and they should not fear him. I made 7 light stones and transformed into an eagle and flew away.

I returned to the caravan. The rest of the journey wasn’t as exciting. We entered the coastal city of Merlin. It was making progress. They had stable food and fields were growing. My group was to head up and settle where Seattle used to be. But they were going to rest two weeks in Merlin before heading out. I spent the two weeks growing pistachio, orange, lemon and avocado orchards. My golems cleared fields and harvested stone. The group heading to Seattle harvested the fruiting trees for supplies and got salted fish as well. My group headed out, well 59 decided to stay in Merlin. I stayed another week paving the roads in Merlin, raising three buildings for the college and making 3 fishing boats. The town and mayor were very thankful. I flew north passing the settlers and landing in Portland. In the town I found they were down to 760 colonists. They were having a hard time. I started by making them 4 fishing ships and curing the town of disease. My golems arrived with my seeds and I grew an apple and cherry orchard. The golems cleared land for more crops next year. I built seventeen stone shops with apartments above as part of their issue was insufficient shelter. My settlers left and I continued to work on Portland. I added a large greenhouse and grew enough tomatoes, cucumber, squash and beans for them to last a few months. The golems caught 60 bears and 50 deer form meat. The bears had killed most of their livestock. The town was in much better spirits and I wished them well.

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Flying north I found the other group cutting down trees and working to set up their town. They had just 6 months of food mostly in dried beans, flour and pickled vegetables. I started by making 6 fishing boats. I could make a 24’ single mast boat in one casting now. It had airtight compartment so it would never sink after hardening the stone. The men headed out to fish with nets. The golems were getting bears, deer and wolves in the area for meat to be salted. After the boats I made two orchards, apple and pear. I didn’t make a green house but did grow four varieties of squash to fruiting. They could replant the seeds next year. My final contribution was a stone pier and 24 apartments that had 4 units each that were small. I also paved the main road through the town. I had been gone for four months so I felt it was time. The knights that had accompanied me were also ready to return. I had the created a platform the golems could carry that had seats for them. For myself I was going fly. I was smart this time and carried seeds and some clothes.

I flew due east to start and the majesty of the country just made me marvel. I would copy maps with perfect recall and make sure this land remained mostly untouched. The first night I grew an apple tree and beans. i cougar tried to attack me but I killed it with stone bullet. The next day I found some French fur trappers. I didn’t visit them. I turned southeast when I got to the great lakes and a day later of hard flying I was landing in my tower.

It was October 15th 1681. I slept an entire day and Carina found me. She was upset to be pregnant for the 10th time. It was jokingly upset of course. I told her not to tell anyone I was back. I wanted a few days off. She promised to bring me food. Of course the next day the kids found me playing hide and seek. Soon the news was out and Amelia, Collette and Riona found me.

Amelia of course wanted the train tracks to extend down the coast and a million coins. Collette said England was brought back under the influence of the church in Rome and was worried. The ottomans asked about a joint attack on Italy. Maya had uncovered sixteen spies in Avalon in the last 5 months. Riona wanted me at the college to discipline the mages. They were more powerful than most of the instructors and some of the more unruly ones, my kids, were just unbearable. No more trains! We were five or six years from an industrial revolution and metal tracks would happen then. I would get back to making 5000 coins after dinner every night. The attack on Italy was interesting, well more so the church as they still hadn’t been chastised. I told Collette to send a message to the pope that I wanted 30 tons of gold in reparations. Collette said that would make them mad. My plan was not to kill off the Catholic church but maybe raid the Vatican and gut their wealth, the source of their power. For Riona I would send the next two months working on the upper floors and if she needed me for discipline just call me down.

I actually spent my mornings reworking my tower. The first floor was made half into a kitchen and half into a dining room. The second floor was reworked to have 12 bedrooms, each with two beds. The third floor became 12 more bedrooms, each with one bed. The fourth floor was now my master bedroom, office and map room. There was now a fifth floor that was a pool and gardens. This was for Carina. I also rebuilt the servant housing, expanding it and making it more comfortable. My afternoons were in the magi tower and I was having fun. The tower had 16 floors and a roof. The roof was going to be a garden and courtyard for ceremonies. The 16th floor was half dedicated to the magi council, which was currently just me but I made nine large office suites. Each suite had a reception room, office with a sitting room, small library, a bedroom, bathroom, small kitchen and small dining room. The other half was the academies administration and records. It had four records rooms, and 6 offices with reception rooms. The 14th and 15th floor would be the high magi library, it was currently empty except for shelves and light stones. The 13th floor had the offices and living area for the teachers, 119 in total. Each office and living area totaled just under 800 square feet. The 12th floor was the labs that I hoped would be for potion making. As far as we could tell right now you needed ingredients that could be mixed and hold magic. You mixed the prepared ingredients properly then infused them with magic. The 11th floor were the combat rooms and spell practice rooms. The 10th floor were workshops that I hoped would be for enchanting. The 9th floor was another library, the lower library. The 1st to 7th floor were classrooms. And the 8th floor was yet to be determined so for now was just open spaces. The tower was slowly filling up with furniture. I had to intervene twice a day in classes with kids showing off or getting out of control. After 2 weeks of punishments the tower was back under control.

The new class was being tested on December 1st. We had 213 applicants! I told Riona only 96 could be admitted, everyone else would have to wait a year. We had 22 non-citizens trying out as well, 6 were sent by the Chinese Emperor. Riona had leveled up her sense magic agility so far she could basically read someone’s information now. I sat with her while the candidates were tested. 73 couldn’t cast a spell so failed. The rest went through various weak spells and Riona had a page of info on each and kept notes. She said I was a cheat. I asked what she meant. She said I had the evolved form of every spell in my head and how they worked. Everyone else started with a weaker form and not only had to evolve a spell but advance its power as well. She spent two hours explaining spells to me. Summer, a daughter of Ella, demonstrated a lightning shield and small lightning bolt. Leo and Luke, identical twins of Carina used floating stones to fly around on. These were my only 3 children entering the 3rd class, joining my 9 other children. Two of the six Chinese applicants passed. One controlled water and the other could light fires from a distance. They were both in their 30s. The other 4 were in there late 20s and had just awakened minor abilities, no spells. in the end Riona announced the 96 admitted. She was going to have the 3rd year students help teach as she and her 9 other teachers were not enough.

I had a meeting with Renee. She was the Chancellor of the college. We had finished the college but it was about half staffed with 633 professors and had 3,299 students. About a third of the goal. I also found the college was not officialy part of the population of Avalon so I had that changed. Renee wanted more secondary schools in the Kingdom. Right now kids just were in school till 13 or 14 and then got a profession. What did she have in mind. She wanted secondary schools at all towns and cities that had over 10,000 people. They would be 3 years schools focusing on advanced studies and preparing the students to take the college entrance exams. Avalon already had an informal secondary school. So that would mean we would have to build secondary schools in Camelot, Lancelot, Excalibur and Savannah. I put another memo that when a city reached 50,000 population a 2nd secondary school would be added. This made Renee very happy as she thought it would greatly increase the quality of the students applying to the college. I also wanted to add sports to the curriculum. Track and Field or soccer in the fall, wrestling or gymnastics in the winter, and rowing or lacrosse in the spring. I wanted to establish the Olympics eventually. What sports did I want in the first Olympics, 100 yard dash, 1 mile run, 3 mile run, 26.2 mile marathon, 100 yard hurdles, javelin, discus, shot put, weight lifting, high jump, running long jump, pentathlon, soccer, single scull row, eight man rowing, wrestling, biathlon, fencing, gymnastics, lacrosse, archery, equestrian, and swimming. I would build the venue and invite all the countries. I planned to hold the first Olympics in 1690. I was getting excited about the prospect and began writing out the rules for all the events. I would house and feed all participants. The rewards would be medals would be pure and weigh 4 ounces. There would be monetary prizes as well. My Olympic village would have a memorial wall with the winners. Stadiums, hotels, training venues, athlete village, stores… I drew out my idea on paper. The south would have the rowing course, a 2 mile long lake. There would be a bridge over the lake leading to the stables and equestrian venue. There would be stands at the finish for 3,000 people. The west side of town would have 3 soccer stadiums and 3 lacrosse stadiums. There would be 6 additional fields further west. The east would have the major stadium for track and field and the finals for soccer and lacrosse. An indoor venue in the center of town would had the pool, wrestling, fencing, and gymnastics. Around the venues would be shops and restaurants. The athlete village would be to the north. I brought in Collette, two architects and four managers to organize everything. The topic turned to have many athletes. All events with the exception of wrestling would have women’s events. We decided for team events each country could only send one. All other events each country could send 2 people but would have to meet certain minimums. We decided the soccer and lacrosse stadiums would seat 10,000 each. The main stadium would seat 50,000. And then the first Olympics was pushed back 1700 because of the massive amount of construction. I would pay 1400 people to start construction once a site was selected. The site would be 4 square miles and the hotels would have 100,000 capacity for spectators. There would be separate apartments for officials and workers. The athlete village would be initially built for 4,000 competitors but we would hold space to double that. Two weeks later we had a site found, 20 miles west of Camelot and six miles south of the road. It had good elevation and a good supply of water. We made sure intense rains from a hurricane wouldn’t ruin the village. Since we were building from the ground up we were including a massive sewage system. The new Olympics would only be held once every 5 years. The Olympic village was to be the showcase for Avalon so it had to be beautiful both in the buildings and land scapeing. The Olympics would run over 6 weeks…with 2 weeks of events leading up to the start. The years the village were not in use would host Avalon’s national championships in those sports. It would be a major expense for me but according to Amelia and my banker it would not be an issue. The staff for the Olympics quickly grew to 62 organizers, with architects, artists, managers and foremen. With that initiated I handed it off. They would want help building but the only thing I committed to was building railroad to the site.