Another year, and another 10000 gold spent on construction produced the first major result, the Amber Highway from Marienburg to Averland, a 20 meters-wide road with separate lanes for each direction.

Every kilometer there would be side-stops and water wells for horses, and every 10 kilometer an inn with a large station for caravans, with fodder and water for animals.

The rocky and steep parts of the road had to be hand-carved by myself, since this world lacked dynamite and excavators. The time would come, but for now ease of trade and commerce was more important. Plus I was quite a powerful excavator myself.

Or a space launch vehicle if I needed to. I should be able to lift a mountain into orbit if I tried, but the

Morrslieb, or the Chaos Moon hanging over the North Pole warned me that space was not exactly safe either.

Such a gigantic warpstone that it formed a new Moon. I wasn't very keen to get too close to that thing.

Even worse, the Skaven were digging and had reached both Marienburg and Nuln with their tunnels.

Sure, they were only rats, easy to kill. But they were also not simply rats. They were insane rats, able and willing to use warpstone to craft weapons of any kind.

I could and did exterminate a few clans of them, then collected the magic loot and blew myself up by experimenting with Skaven weaponry like a fool. An indestructible fool, so it wasn't all that bad. Still, warpstone was not a safe energy source, no matter my hopes.

In comparison, the condensed power stones of our Wizards were a thousand times safer, and those were not safe at all either.

Another road to Middenheim, and then Nordland and Ostland should link the Empire together even stronger than magic weapons.

Which meant I had to depart on more looting expeditions, in the Wasteland and other lands, mostly targeting Orcs and Ogres and other less-civilized lands.

When I returned, my huge raft filled with 25000 gold coins and a hundred tons of weapons and armor, my acolytes flew up to meet me, and show off their own flying skills.

Winged flight was still flight after all.

"Master Pef! See, we can fly now!" Thor yelled in happy voice.

Odin just nodded at me, perhaps a bit wiser than the sanguine youth flipping his wings in front of me.

"And so modest too..." I observed smartly.

"Ah, I am the Champion of Humility!" Thor shouted loudly.

I landed and split my loot into different piles. Magister Martak walked at my side to observe my effort. "And all this took you an entire week?"

I shrugged a bit carelessly. "I also dug mass graves, helped some 30 caravans under attack, and rescued a dozen fair ladies..." I explained in a modest tone.

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"An Ice Maiden of Kislev too..." Martak noted with a frown.

"Anika, yes. Am I so well known, already?" I wondered a bit confused. Anika was fighting Orcs in a frozen wasteland, with no one around, no one but...wild animals.

"The Amber Order has members all over. And they all know me. And thus you." Martak added with a snicker. Fuck! Animal gossip was the worst!

"The network of gossip spreads all over the Old World. I know." I hummed to myself, while the kids dug into the loot for some cool weapon or gem to claim as their own.

"You don't know. You suspect and guess, but you don't have any idea, my young apprentice. A sparrow or a raven may fly around and inform a shaman of your actions, or maybe a tiny mouse or rabbit trembling in a burrow under your tent." Martak said with a glance at the kids, as they mock fought with real weapons still dripping with Orc blood.

I blinked, then moved and grabbed the weapons before the kids decapitated each other or themselves for that matter.

"A dozen snakes each!" I ordered as punishment.

"But they taste bad!"

"And they also bite!" Odin commented wisely.

"Now." I continued in a soft voice.

They kids ran into the forest, already casting their Amber magic to protect themselves from the wild.

"On the other hand, you managed talk to a bear?" Martak asked a bit more curious.

"I think the bears of Kislev are special. Changed by their bear-god, perhaps?" I answered with a frown. Normal bears would not drag sleds otherwise. Nor be ridden like horses.

Martak sighed, and walked away, leaving me confused. Much to learn I have.

Twinshriek flew up, keeping his eyes on the kids, lest a Reikland bear eat them. Unlike Kislev, our bears were dangerous and would eat even Amber Wizards. Not very often, but it did happen.

I went to my cabin to brew some tea, and consider my last raid. Anika was a pleasant surprise, not at all like the other Kislevites and their vodka-addled minds.

She tasted like ice-cream...

'Come, hard skull. Young ones have found a bear.' Twinshriek yelled from the sky.

I moved fast, and grabbed the bear by the scruff of his neck before he could eat a Thor as a snack.

"Bad bear! Little Thor is my acolyte. A future Amber Wizard, master of wilderness and all beasts!" I warned the bear and shook him a little.

'Food?' the bear asked in a simple tone.

'Come' I demanded in his mind, and dragged him along, like a misbehaving cat.

A few kilometers away, there was a deer spot and some berries bushes. "You have a nose, don't you? Smell food!" I pointed towards the illiterate bear.

The bear sniffed at me. 'Hard paw. Bear grateful!' the beast muttered with a humble growl, then ran towards a deer.

Damn bears. Soon they will ask for the right to bear arms too!

It would be quite unbearable.

I sighed softly and flew back to my cabin. The tea had boiled over and I had to start again. Bear with it, Pef!

It could be worse.