Two red lines on the ground, shovel in hand. Steve’s life had been simple since the moment he had arrived here. The hard labor that he was putting into all these handyman jobs and his subsequent rise in levels came with a sense of calm and mental tranquility when he was busy with these jobs. Couple that with the pillow and high quantity and quality of food he was consuming in a natural/rural setting, and Steve realized that until he was in a support role, nothing was going to bother him or daunt him for that matter.

[ Handyman class level 19 ]

[ Class Feature: Basic Shovel Proficiency Obtained ]

‘At least this class is predictable. Well, predictable seems quite a bit negative. Dependable seems more apt I guess’, Steve thought. The Government was basically behind him in all his undertakings at least as far as Windrow was concerned and Steve had given his best as far as the war support effort was concerned. Joy had informed him that the government owed him a lot of money and it would be paid once most of the adventuring teams showed up. The defending wall of Windrow formed a square around the village and the moat was being dug parallel to the southern wall. Steve understood that with the construction of the moat and the healer’s center, the government was preparing for a serious war with an escalation in the power of the undead. He continued with the shoveling as he tried hard to understand the more abstract ideas that someone like Glen would be thinking about the war.

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Far from rural windrow, the king of Dravos, King Samuel III, sat with three of his high ministers, in the capital city of Drawa. “Our war with the Tamar collective is at its peak. We will take their capital in a week. Although, our alliance with the Patheo empire requires that we divert our war efforts towards their cause”, the high minister for mage communications informed the gathering. “Enough with that war already”, the king replied, “Does Dravos have to lose good and skillful people in every generation to keep peace in the central lands. I’ll talk to the Patheo king to end the holy wars there. Minister, give me details on Windrow and the resurfacing undead. No nation will help us with this but they all want a damn military alliance with us”. Sensing the king’s mood today, the minister quickly shuffled through his mage reports and read out the message sent by the Paladin in Windrow. After the message was read out, the king went into his monologue in the silence of his ministers. “Undead forces multiply by five every two days. What is the rate of increase in adventuring teams every two days?” the king questioned the high minister for defense. The minister just showed him two fingers. “ Only twice the force each time. That’s a losing war if I’ve seen one. Find handymen, if you can't find that class, just get youngsters newly eligible for the class system to take that class. We cant help the paladin on the healer front, Drawa has got like ten proper healers in a city of a million people. Most healers are on the war front. Tell him to work with the potions we are sending via tantrax. As far as I am concerned, we will lose windrow, its surrounding villages, and a bunch of good adventurers in this war before I can raise a more international alarm on this problem. Throw gold and magical amenities at them, until they lose, or someone there just levels like crazy”, the king said in a somber mood.

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“The king has approved magical equipment supply, a million gold coins, and 20 low-level handymen for the war effort”, Glen was informed at lunchtime by Joy. Glen took in a long breath and breathed it out even slower. He got exactly what the king was saying, ‘Level up on your own or die’. A Million gold coins would impress the general public, but the fact that no soldiers and healers were sent said everything to Glen. Magical Equipment would help in the fight but that required individual levels to be effective in a war. This was not a law and order issue that paladins were used to. This was going to be an escalating, static, defensive war front. “Please note a notice for all adventuring teams. The undead wave arrives tomorrow, and a general meeting for all participants in the defense will be held tonight after dinner at the food stop. Most fighters will get state-sponsored magical weapons from the station. End of notice”, Glen signed the notice and Joy pasted it on the station bulletin board within a minute. “Where are the damn generals and commanders when you need them?” Glen asked rhetorically in his empty office.

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News of the meeting at night spread all across Windrow. It achieved the dual goal of informing the adventurers of their presence is expected at the food stop and the collateral goal of informing the civilians of Windrow that war was heating up and leaving was a wise choice if one did not contribute to the war effort. Steve was done with plastering the bricked floor of the moat by late afternoon and was staring at the part of the village wall where he would construct a healer’s center. A quick dig for marking the walls of the structure and Steve was speedily creating the walls for his structure. Binding fluid and bricks were thrown to far-off distances for faster construction. Steve realized that the more he did it, the better he was going to get at it and he was going to start his next faster. How did he know he had more jobs waiting for him? Between the healer lessons, the construction jobs, and Steve’s day job as the server at food-stop, he would always have more work to do. And so in silence, Steve continued his job, all the noise being made was made by his actions and his actions alone. A quick plaster and Steve vacated the room he had created to act as the healer’s center. ‘ I’ll do the outlet and the window tomorrow morning. Five beds will fit here easy’, Steve thought, ‘I better get back for dinner prep, or ill loose my main ticket job here’. Steve made his way back from the southern wall to a comparatively empty food stop, where the participants of the late evening meeting were having a meeting of their own before dinner. “What magical items is the paladin talking about?”, said a member of the flamboyant team. “Will the government give us anything useful?”, asked a member of the team full of mages. Steve just walked into the kitchen, there was going to be a lot of ‘war talk’. “Just in time, Steve I’ve been thinking about a small garnish garden, It would also be a good space to decompose the kitchen waste. Get the shovel and dig me a preparatory garden after dinner,” Madilyn was in order mode again, “and start cutting the romballs for tonight's dinner, they are in the bags there in the corner, also debone me some trackfish.” Romballs were potato-tasting perfect spheres that grew in bud form like cotton buds. Steve took the bags to the front room and started peeling the spheres. “They say it's gonna be a blood bath, people are leaving the village. Things are gonna get dire. Thank God the King has sent all the monetary aid he could for us.” Chatter filled Steve’s ear as ten adventurers consisting of five swordsmen and five mages were having a serious but highly speculative chat. “It’s just the news that has reached the station, not the equipment. We are going to get standard station grade gear which let's be frank, isn’t going to be new. I think it's mostly going to be fifteen-year-old junk for us and some dusty toys for the mages. These requirements don't even matter, we already have our magical gear which might or might not fit in with the junk that they hand us over,” A member of the flamboyant fighters spoke. To this their team leader peter just put a finger on his lips suggesting he be quiet as Glen entered the place with his team carrying a bunch of equipment. Three tables. That was the occupancy of food-stop today. After taking their orders, steve moved to the kitchen where Madilyn was busy making mashed romballs. “Let me guess, it's quiet out there,” Madilyn said with a smirk. “Yes, it is, it feels warmer to me already,” Steve replied with a nod and moved into the hall to see if anyone wanted anything. Pin drop silence pervaded the room as if a magic spell had been chanted. There was no such thing. The realization that tomorrow at this very time they would be fighting a battle of stupid odds against Sera knows what had put a thoughtful expression on all fifteen participants of the battle. Food was served in silence, consumed in silence. Madilyn entered the front hall after they all were done with dinner. “Shall we begin?” Madilyn asked as she looked at Glen while taking a seat with Steve at the fourth table. “Let’s begin if all of us are ready,” Steve asked and got attentive stares from his audience. “First up, the flamboyant cutters. You are an all-melee team with similar capabilities and levels, I and my team have decided to equip all of you with magical chainmail. On physical attacks, the chainmail will produce a magical wave that will give your enemies some knockback,” Steve informed. The flamboyant cutters waited for a second, the gravity of the equipment set in. Glen’s team passed them the chainmail. “Next up, are the astral mages team. You have been allocated five rechargeable mana rings. These rings increase your mana pools by ten percent. Also, five low-grade mana potions for the team,” Glen said as Regi put down five rings and five mana potions on the astral mage team’s table. “You guys don’t need to worry about consuming or damaging this equipment, it is yours and replacements are available. If you are hurt in battle, a healer is available for small to medium injuries. Tomorrow we fight. In the name of Sera,” Glen said as he unsheathed his sword and held it vertically. The sword shone brightly with radiant light in a medium-lit hall. “At least someone here knows what they are doing,” Athena, the leader of the astral mages muttered under her breath.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

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The teams exited food-stop. Only Glen, Astria, Madilyn, and Steve sat at the tables. “Now that everybody else is gone, get Steve his gear,” Astria nudged Glen. Glen stood up the way he had when he announced military gear for the adventurers. “To Mr. Steve Grant, the handyman and healer of this battle effort, I and my team have allotted to you; one enchanted leather armor, one bag of holding, one rechargeable mana ring, and one rechargeable ring of stamina. The leather armor is enchanted for location detection, Astria had the map that can be used to locate you at all times. The bag of holding is a low-grade one but should be good for all your operations. The mana ring is the same as the mages and the stamina ring is a ten percent one too,” Glen said as he handed him the rings. “About tomorrow’s job, you never leave the healer’s station. The tracker will most probably bring you anyone who is injured. Don’t panic if you see skeletons or blood, We have fair odds tomorrow,” Glen calmed Steve down. Steve put the leather armor and rings on. Working for this government thing had its perks.

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Steve shoveled out some grass to make space for the garden in the backyard of food-stop. Madilyn had allocated four days' worth of food waste as manure. This was going to make a great garden with fish and romball peels for fertilizer. Far from the garden, at the southern wall of Windrow, something happened. The cracks in the wall that steve had plastered started to mend into a solid structure. By the time this sudden transformation was over, the southern wall was taller, reinforced, and looked almost pristine. An alert Tracker sitting on the southern wall noted these changes and spoke with a grin, “Reinforced walls, you could do it before the battle, but you would do it tonight so the leaving villagers take notice. The king really is a propaganda boy.”