Elas observed his new recruits walking up the hill toward his cabin with his crown's vision. The group was mostly composed of working age men and women but there were also a handful of elderly and children. He had told the representative to only bring those ready to work so he must have decided that the elderly and children present were good enough.

The representative was a pale lanky man. His clothes were worn but clean and were of superior make. Elas figured he was some noble fallen on hard times.

The rest of the workers also had done their best to look presentable with the lot of them looking cleaner than the majority of the townsfolk. Elas almost felt sorry for them as they would be performing physical labor for the time being. The workshop would take months to build and they would have to start by clearing and flattening a sizable area at the bottom of the hill.

Elas focused on the representative to glean his stats. The world turned gray as a complex multicolored shape appeared in the man's chest. The man's stats were mundane for the most part but they did support Elas’s observations. The man was either an experienced steward or a lesser noble given the above average management and leadership related milestones he carried. He was also missing landlord milestones which meant he had never personally owned any substantial amount of land.

Unlike the game where a character's stats were written down in detail. Elas only had a surface level understanding about what each color and polygon in the stat view represented. With enough time he would probably start identifying recurring traits and achievements. But that would take years if not decades given the complexity of the multicolored high dimensional shape graphs that was the stat view. For now he had a vague idea of what achievements, talents and skills a person had.

The representative reached his house while Elas was still trying to make sense of the man's stats. The rest of the group had stopped a respectful distance away, no doubt having been made aware that they would be serving an important figure.

No one in Farhaven actually knew what the title of Grand Alchemist meant. Upon his retirement from office the Emperor had stopped bestowing the title as he did not deem anyone in the current generation of desolate age alchemists worthy of it. Instead the current highest alchemist title in the empire became the bureaucratic Minister of Alchemy.

As a consequence most of the populace have never heard of his title and simply assumed it meant he was a particularly skilled imperial alchemist. The intricacies of imperial titles were an alien concept to most outside of high nobility and the elites of the capital.

The representative knocked on the door before announcing himself.

“Elder Elas, We have arrived early as requested.”

Elas stood up from the chair he was sitting in, straightened his clothes and grabbed his firebolt staff. He had chosen to wear an enchanted combat robe and multiple ward rings and trinkets along with his firebolt staff. The dark red robe with black embroidery paired with the ominous looking staff made him an imposing figure.

Impressing upon them his power and station would hopefully decrease problems in the future. He had heard from the baron about the deteriorating relationship between the new refugees and townspeople as the new group had arrived just before winter of all times. Which forced everyone in town to be a bit more frugal during the winter to keep the unprepared visitors alive.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Fear and respect shape far better employees than hunger and need. And if their employment under him were to continue as planned they would be hungry no more. Elas grabbed the workshop's construction plan on his desk before heading towards the door.

He opened the door and walked out. The representative moved out of his way as he took a few seconds to observe his new workers. They squirmed under his gaze and avoided looking him in the eye. It seems these people were wary of authority which wasn't unusual; they were refugees running from the chaotic interior after all.

The only person to look him in the eye was the representative himself who stood ramrod straight and held his gaze with the warm smile of a diplomat. It was obvious why the group had chosen the man as their leader.

Elas handed the construction plans to the representative.

“I do not believe you have introduced yourself.” He spoke.

“My name is Argis, Elder.”

“Well then Argis, that is the construction plan for the workshop. I want you and your people to clear and flatten the area for the construction.”

Argis read the plans which only really detailed the dimensions and rough location of the building. Elas expected the carpenters to do most of the planning themselves as it was their field of expertise he just wanted a usable building.

“Um Elder, can you point me to the area you need us to clear?” Argis asked while scratching the back of his head.

Elas held back a smile as he had made the plan vague on purpose in order to have a reason to impress his strength upon the group. Elas moved mana into his staff, four small stones flew up from the ground to the top of his staff and turned into molten projectiles as he pointed the staff to an area at the bottom of the hill and shot the four mini firebolts to mark the points of a rectangular area. Each firebolt slammed into the ground creating smoking craters visible to everyone on the hill.

“I want everything in between to be cleared and flattened.” He told Argis.

Argis and the other workers stared at the far away craters in silence. Most of the workers had jumped when he suddenly casted the spells. Elas could also see a fair amount of activity in town due to the sudden noise.

That should remind everyone to play nice. It had been awhile since the guardians of Farhaven had displayed a show of force so it was about time to assure the populace that they were protected by the strong and to silence any troublemaker.

Elas took out a pouch filled with coins and tossed it at Argis who flailed his hands to catch it.

“That is your budget for the month, make it work” Elas said as he shooed Argis away and returned to his abode.

Elas needed competent managers and Argis was as good a try as any. Hopefully he doesn't disappoint.

“I will do my best, Elder.” Argis said as the door closed.

Elas laid in his bed wanting nothing more than to sleep his aches and pains away. He had decided to hold off the drugs for the next few days as the toxic buildup was becoming unsustainable even for his superhuman resistance to the stuff. Overdosing multiple times in a row had its consequences.

Going without vigor potions meant he was relegated to light work for the time being. Just as well as he needed time to observe each worker's stats. Checking more than two hundred individuals' stats should take about the same time as recovering from the potion overdose. Elas called the crown through their link and it appeared already on his head. He was starting to get used to the crown's abilities.

He closed his eyes as he activated the crown's vision and started going through his workers' stats.