It seemed that every time she stepped into the hidden master’s sanctum, it had changed. Where before, the place had once been strewn with the uneven walls and floors of a mortal mineshaft, now only smooth polished stone remained. Where once only oil lamps provided feeble lighting for the interior, strange new orbs lay dug into the ceiling, emitting a light as crisp and refreshing as the sun itself.
Today was no different in that regard.
Guo An stared in wonder at all the runic devices. She had seen a number of pill condensers in the city before, but they paled in comparison to what she saw here. The devices along the wall of the hall clicked and whirred like living things, emitting strange lights that carved the metal within their stomach’s into strange new shapes.
It appeared Master Johansen was an accomplished alchemist and rune-smith in addition to a warrior.
And illusionist, she thought.
Even as she watched, he was practising some manner of technique. One that had strange blue symbols floating above his palm. It was clearly text, but of what ancient and unknown writ, she had no idea. It made for a near arcane sight though. One only emphasised by the thick bundles of twisted copper rope that ran from the back of his armour along the walls and into the machines she had just been so entranced by. Furthermore, the air was thick with the stench of ozone as every now and then electricity arced from the lines.
In many ways her master appeared akin to some manner of massive arcane spider held within his web.
“I need you to find me a guard.”
She was jolted from her observation by the words. Then she bristled as the import of what he meant hit her.
What use had Master Johansen for a guard when she had offered her services so freely?
…Then again, she was not always present. And a household guard could handle a number of tasks she… was less inclined towards…
Like watch duty. Or laundry. Or the changing of chamber pots. Certainly, Master Johansen had yet to request she perform any of those tasks, but she lived in fear of the day he would. With that in mind perhaps a cadre of mortal guards would not be so bad?
Still, she frowned. “That might be difficult master. The city is far away and may be loath to part with some of their mortal guard given the recent tainted beast attacks.”
Servants were easy enough to find – any mortal could fill that role - but trained guards? They were an investment. Training. Armour. Weapons. Essentially nothing compared to the cost of even a single outer sect disciple, but still a cost that many sect-masters were reluctant to pay.
For who would desire to invest in mortal warriors? A contradiction in many a sect master’s mind, for an armoured and trained mortal would fall to a cultivator’s blade as easily as an untrained farmer.
And then that gold was wasted.
Still, they were useful in other ways. For keeping other mortals in line. Patrolling the provinces. Generally performing any task unworthy of the abilities of a real warrior.
Paper tigers in all ways that mattered.
Unfortunately for her, even paper tigers would be in demand with the fall of the Northern Walls. Sure, Liaochang city had high walls and many sects in residence to protect her, but she had no doubt that defenders of any kind – no matter how humble in origin – would be a closely guarded resource in the days ahead.
“Oh.” Her hopefully soon to be master, hummed. “I hadn’t thought of that. Makes sense, I suppose. Fortunately for us, I just need one.”
“Just one?” She cocked her head.
He nodded. “Yeah, just one. Hell, a cripple will do in a pinch. And I can’t imagine it’d be hard to find someone like that in that kind of job.”
An could only stare in incomprehension. Her master wanted a crippled mortal guard? It was a strange request - but one she could perform. A single guardian would be much easier to source than an entire household guard, after all.
“Ah…” She paused, embarrassed. “I will need funds.”
Shame burned at her at being forced to admit to being limited by such mortal concerns, but there was no denying the truth. If she were compelled to acquire a guardian for her master, she would have need of monetary assets. Of which she herself owned vanishingly few.
Which is to say none, she thought glumly.
If her master noticed her shame, he gave no indication of it, entranced as he was by whatever mystical art he was performing.
Instead he simply raised his hand - and a chunk of gold seemed to fall out of the air into his waiting palm.
An could only stare.
“Well, I was planning on using this as a semi-amusing paperweight, but I suppose it’s better to be put to better use.”
An continued to stare, entranced by the head sized lump of gold that had seemingly materialized out of thin air.
“Will this do?”
The man’s words finally snapped out of her shock.
“Yes!” She coughed. “I, uh, I mean… this young mistress means… she thinks so, yes.”
Her mind was racing. Certainly, gold was considered more of a mortal currency than the solidified-ki spirit coins the sects used, but it was not as if there was no overlap or exchange. No matter how you sliced it, the large golden block was valuable. Incredibly so. And her master had produced it as if it were nothing.
Out of thin air, she thought numbly. And he intended to use it as a paperweight.
“You going to take it.” The man prompted, his voice distorted by the odd helm her wore.. “Can’t exactly move while I’m hooked up to all this stuff.”
“Yes!” Her words were almost unseemly as she almost lurched forward to grasp the proffered item.
It was surprisingly heavy as she beheld it in her palms.
…Then she caught herself, shame warring with greed.
“It is a bit much for my needs,” the tiger-woman admitted reluctantly.
Master Johansen’s head turned to regard the object in her hands. “I thought that might be the case..” Then he simply shrugged. “Well, I suppose you can use the remainder to buy yourself something nice.”
An gaped.
How beneficent was her new master? – even if he had yet to formally proclaim himself as such. She shuddered to think of all the cultivation tools she could acquire with such a lump sum.
She bowed. “This Guo An will procure a guard of premium quality before the passing of the seventh day of the month of the Rat.”
Then she was off, a fire burning in her heart. Her resolve to have this man accept her as his student only hardened by this latest act.
With the heavens as her witness, she would procure only the must suitable protector for her master’s needs – whatever those needs may be.
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Jack paused in his examination of a set of thermal harvester blueprints.
“Within a week? I thought Xin said the nearest city was like a three week walk from here?”
He shrugged. Perhaps she just didn’t know. That tiger lass was as new around here as he was in some ways.
…Or he’d just misheard. Sure, he had some grounding in Chinese given who his former employer was, but Jack knew he wasn’t entirely fluent. Most of the time he’d been using his subdermals to translate what the natives were saying; which according to said device was apparently some bastard mix of Chinese and Korean.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
He’d work on his comprehension later. Right now he needed he’d focus his immediate efforts on the Plan. And he had a lot of work to do if that was ever going to be a reality.
“Now lets see if we can’t solve my energy problem. Preferably before this suit becomes a giant paperweight itself,” he murmured as he fed the design specs into the nearby omni-fabs.
The design software was slightly less than pleased at the prospect of using porcelain tubing over insulated wiring, but there was nothing for it. The surroundings weren’t exactly flush with rubber for him to harvest, so he had to improvise.
“Aye, I hear you ya picky bastard.”
…Which was why he didn’t even bother to skim the long list of warnings the fabricator supplied him with as he input the build order. He’d already been through this song and dance a few times while he’d been building the omni-fabs.
Though, despite their name omni-fabricators were not omni-fabricators. Oh sure, the intricate system of casting trays, laser cutters and dolly hands held within the fridge size boxes could conceivably build just about anything you cared to name - once they received the raw ingredients to do so - but the issue lay in the fact that they could only build relatively simple sub-components rather than a whole machine.
A contrast to the nanoforge, which could churn out a fully functional smelter in a few hours by itself.
No, the omni-fabs required a five-machine long conga line - and many more hours - to replicate the same feat. And unfortunately for him, the nanoforge was busy churning out another mining drone so he could keep up with the growing material demands of his new fabrication line.
And now I’ve got to re-task something to start churning out armour and spears before the local residents go apeshit over me stealing their mine, he thought. Unless I can think of something else to distract them?
He tiredly ran a hand through his sweat soaked hair as he pulled off his helmet. Between the smelter, conveyer line, fabricators and nanoforge, the temperature in the mineshaft was just a few degrees short of the inside of an oven.
Not that the lass seemed to notice, he thought absently. Was that because she was one of these ‘cultivators’? Or one of these half-beasts?
Did animal people even sweat? He knew dogs sweat through their tongues, so maybe it was the same for the natives?
…He had no clue.
Either way, that was something he needed to keep an eye out for. It would certainly be inconvenient for him if the locals caught onto the fact that he wasn’t some kind of ‘hidden master’ because a stray bead of sweat happened to run down his neck at an inopportune moment.
Looks like I’ll be keeping my helmet on when I have visitors for the foreseeable future, he thought glumly. At least until I can install air-con… which means I’ll need to create another fabricator line… though I’ll probably need another… No wait, before that I’ll need another smelter… but conveyer line one is getting pretty overloaded…
It seemed he’d pulling double shifts for a while yet.
--------------
The ways and means of cultivators were a confusing thing to Xin, but this latest act by the man was at least something he could understand.
Better yet, it was something he could get behind.
Xin rubbed the grainy powder between his fingers. "Master cultivator, you're saying that this material is what is holding those stones together?"
“Aye.”
Were it any other man, Xin might have said the words coming from him sounded tired.
It wasn’t any other man though, so he banished said thoughts from his mind. Instead he glanced toward the square block the cultivator had set up not more than a few hours ago. Made of a series of shaped clay blocks that each fit together perfectly, the bricks had a generous helping of ‘Se Ment’ slathered between them.
Xin knew this because the cultivator had created the square object not a few hours back, in full view of the town square. Then he had left, leaving behind his tools and the small metal wagon he had used to transport it all into town.
His only instructions to the gathered crowd were to leave the small structure undisturbed. Dutifully, the residents of Jiangshi had done so.
Despite their growing curiosity.
So it was that four hours later, the man had returned. And commanded one of the many watchers present to attempt to push over the small collection of blocks.
The man had failed.
As had the next.
And the next.
That was around the time Xin had arrived on the scene, and now he watched as a group of five strong men attempted to break open the block. They had already succeeded in moving it, to the cheers of the crowd, but they’d made no progress in parting the bricks from their companions.
The Se Ment, whatever it was, held strong.
“You wish us to use this substance and the bricks you have supplied to build a wall?”
“Aye.” Master Johansen nodded slowly. “You lot were complaining that I robbed you of your livelihood. Well, I can’t start the next phase of my plan until An gets back, which should take about two to three weeks. So here I am, offering to commission the lot of you to build a wall around the town. Two men tall, with a parapet, and wide enough for two burly men to stand abreast along the top.”
Xin resisted the urge to gape. Two weeks? Not nearly long enough. A wall of that size would take months.
Then he glanced at the brick structure the cultivator had created just that morning. By all accounts, it had been the work of two minutes, excluding the drying.
“Can you do it?”
Xin frowned. Two weeks was still wildly optimistic in his eyes, especially given that they had never worked with this Se Ment before…
“Perhaps. If the heavens were on our side.” He shook his head. “Still, we already have a wall.”
Xin nearly jumped as the cultivator snorted in amusement. “And how much good did that wall do you in your last scrap?”
The mayor glanced at the many patchwork repairs that had formed across the wall in the days since the attack.
As if reading his mind, Master Johansen nodded. “That’s what I thought. Either tear it down or build around it.” The man’s helmeted head turned to regard him. “I don’t care which. More to the point, do you really care if you have a redundant wall so long as your people are getting paid for the work?”
Xin nodded slowly. That was… reasonable. Especially now that the man had specified that they would be paid for the task.
Satisfied, the cultivator continued. “Good, now you mentioned that you lot usually trade in iron or other barter - but it’s not like you don’t use coin either.”
Xin nodded again, more confidently this time. While it was true that much of the Jiangshi market traded more in barter than flat currency, it wasn’t as if Imperial coin wasn’t also used on occasioned.
…Even if pressed disks of iron from the mines had slowly taken the place of Imperial coin as the currency of use in recent years.
“I thought so. Reckon I could hire the lot of you for a few weeks using this?”
Xin glanced up and audibly swallowed.
A massive brick of gold seemed to have formed out of nothing in the cultivator’s hand.
The mortal gulped.
It was more than enough*.*
The man could hire the entire populace for Jiangshi for a year and a day using that! He thought. Sure, it would need to be melted down and pressed into coinage to be used, but that’s a negligible issue.
Greed warred with sense for a moment, before sense won out.
“That would be too much master cultivator.” He admitted reluctantly. “Especially if you would be supplying the building materials for the task. A fifth or less would be more than sufficient to equal the wages of our working population for the duration of the job.”
The man nodded, and for just a moment Xin felt like he’d passed some sort of test, before the cultivator broke a chunk of the golden material off the block – with his bare hands!
“This enough?” Xin stared as the smaller block of gold was placed into his hands, before he nodded numbly. “Good, pay the people you need to pay. Build the wall. I’ll be back tomorrow with another set of bricks and cement.”
The cultivator turned to leave, as if a thought had just occurred to him. “As I told you earlier, all you need to do is add water to the Se Ment, then mix until it becomes a thick paste, then slather it on whatever you want it to stick to. After that, you just leave it undisturbed for a few hours.
Xin nodded again, committing the details of the miraculous substance to memory, even as part of his mind remained utterly focused on the incredible weight of the gold in his hands.
“I… I will!”
The mayor wondered if the man even heard him, given the way he was already walking off. Xin just stared after his retreating form. Then down at the gold in his hands. Then at some of the nearby townsfolk who had clearly been eavesdropping on their conversation – and were now staring at the gold in his hands.
The half-ox quickly shoved the precious metal into his robes, ignoring the almost disappointed exhalation of air that came from the crowd at the motion.
“Alright, you lot!” He shouted to the band of men who had still yet to shatter the brick construct. “Enough playing around. We’ve got a wall to build. You lot help me move the cultivator’s wagon to the wall. And someone find Foreman Zhen. We’ll need him for this.”
---------------------
There that’ll keep em’ occupied for a time, Jack thought as he walked back towards his ‘base’.
Sure, he could have put up the wall himself in a few hours with the nanoforge, but he figured it was better to keep the natives occupied. Because building a wall was a better plan than throwing a bunch of spears and breastplates at them and telling them to figure it out.
Much better to wait till An gets back with her drill sergeant before I start forming my little personal militia. Though… didn't that leave the town remarkably open to attack? Especially now that I’ve sent An off…
He frowned, before shaking his head. The town would be safe enough. The last attack would have depleted the surrounding forest’s of hostile wildlife and it would take time for it to replenish itself.
If there was an attack, it would likely be by lone stragglers or small groups rather than the mad rush that he’d happened upon a few days back.
The locals would be able to handle that with what they had on hand. They weren’t children. They’d been surviving out here for years without him. They’d survive for another two weeks while they built their wall and he got his industrial base up and running.
Though what if another one of those thaumatallogically charged beasts shows up? He stopped in his tracks. The locals said they’d had no idea that wolf was even in the area before it started tearing up their livestock. And An did say that spirit beasts tended to be territorial?
With that in mind, wasn't it kind of a given that another one of those is going to show up eventually? To fill the vacuum?
He sighed as he continued walking, mentally adding a radio to his build order. That would give the chief some means to contact him on the off chance something they couldn’t handle arrived.
Then he’d just have to come running – or more likely rocketing – out to the town. Preferably before too many people got eaten.
…And then pray to god that my suit is up to the task of putting down whatever hellish abomination this death world has managed to dream up.
Guns.
Oh how we wished that he could’ve just started his production run with guns.
Alas, that was a trap. Not just because he didn’t have any blueprints for guns. No, the real problem was that if he didn’t trust the locals not to get into mischief with a bunch of swords and spears, he sure as shit didn’t trust them with muskets and gunpowder.
No, as much as it burned him to take things slow, he was better served slowly building up the foundations of his new personal kingdom.
Humble as those foundations might be, he thought as he extracted his armoured boot from what he now realised was a sizable mound of cow shit.