“Well the money should be through and as long as there aren’t any problems then we should own the surrounding lands. It cost a decent chunk but we now have the surrounding acres, so with the ten acres you already own it should be about 50 in total. It pushes up a decent way into the river and back south.”
“Thank you Malina, we all appreciate you using some of your inheritance to purchase more land for the coming people and the advertisements.”
Yes, all of us are very grateful. One of the few things that we were going to have trouble with was money. Without any true ability to sell materials we would have needed to find money soon or else we would have to deal with humans coming around these parts.
“Well I am happy to help, since I plan on staying here I obviously want to do what I can. Plus if you get your way then money will be inconsequential in the future, might as well put it towards something useful now.”
As we continued to expand, we had started encroaching on the other properties that surrounded our own. While most of them were barely used half the time or owned by some realtor agency. We did not wish to deal with the law so as new projects were put on hold more and more. I decided to stop second guessing myself and take some money out of my inheritance. I used to use it all the time for traveling, but since being bonded to Myc I liked the idea of settling down somewhere.
So all the projects that got put on hold were now ready to be started again. Expanding the housing area, moving some of the buildings to accommodate for the rapidly growing Mother Tree. Myc had pretty much covered all the ground in the roots, they were spread so far out that most trees were just a part of the Mother Tree. Some of the trees accepted his presence but most rejected it and had to get cut down or moved.
Even the orchards that were filled with fruit trees needed to be removed, fortunately Myc was capable of having the Mother Tree grow new ones. It was a pretty heavy drain on the soil so we could only have a few types, we went with apples, almonds, and cashews. Since we didn’t really eat meat we stuck to a pretty vegan diet, nuts held a lot of fats, proteins, and minerals. Mixed with the fruits, grains, beans, and vegetables we were growing on the farm it was more than enough for basic nutrients.
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The next major project was technically three parts. The first part was an expansion on the fields, they were big enough now but with Myc helping to regulate nutrients and stop pests most of the work was planting and harvesting. So an expanded farm meant more fresh food for us, and a few fields to make into crops to sell rather than use. It would allow us to pay for any necessary expenses, taxes, materials, etc.
The second part was a large building needed for testing new ideas, essentially a research building. As we expanded more, certain things would become necessary. So new plants were needed for any materials, new designs for bodies, and basic advancements in our understanding of science. We couldn’t use Myc for every new idea or result we had to do some observations and experiments.
The final part of the project was going to be Myc’s attempt at mining without actually disrupting the environment. Most mines developed by humans were essentially large holes dug in the ground. They used giant machines and explosions to destroy sections of the environment leading to massive destruction of flora and fauna. However, Myc had a better idea that would be far less dangerous and would limit environmental impact to near zero. Using trees like the Pycnandra acuminata, they were species that could absorb heavy metals. While the humans wanted to use them to attempt to undo the damage they had already done, we were going to use them to siphon materials from the ground and use them. Myc would be able to dig the roots deep enough to extract a huge amount of metals from the ground. Then when the veins ran dry we would cut down the trees and replant something new in the empty space.
The only problem we ran into was the fact that to actually use most of the metals and minerals the plants could take from the soil we need to smelt them. We used fire for now because of the small amount of heat and the need for cooked food. Eventually we would need a form of electricity and then we could use electrical heaters and stoves. So until we could do that we needed something that could shape and smelt the metals.
So with a few plans in action we started clearing more forest to make way for the Mother Tree. Buildings were planned out and sections were left for future purposes. We didn’t have everything planned perfectly but it could wait until we got a few more minds on the issue. Because soon the next batch of people were going to join our little cult here.
This group was another test batch but this time it was going to be a little larger. Using a small survey we asked how many people were planning on showing up. We got about 30 definitely, 40 maybe, and 20 probably not. So we figured a good 30 would show up, as there was no reason for them to be serious on the answer they gave.
Hopefully Oliver would be a part of the group, it would be nice to have someone that was familiar with the group already. Since we couldn’t reveal Myc right away I would have to get rid of all my familiar augmentations, that was going to have to take some getting used too.