In the morning, luckily for the city, the snow had stopped and the executives could start their work.
The city's executives had split into parts. Ziu took the triplets to explore and hunt for valuable food's and materials that would be the turning point to their survival, whilst Tin, Clara and Silmor focused on city development. The three of them would go around the city whilst everyone was awake and do everything they could to stop any arguments or issues.
Whilst everyone carried on during the tough cold conditions, there were two people taking things rather easily. They seemed to not be too bothered by everything around them, as if they knew that everything was going to be ok. These two were Fishy, the city's leader, and The Elder, the ex-leader of the city.
The two of them sat outside Fishy's house on the doorstep whilst everyone walked past them, not even blinking an eye to the two homeless-looking people playing around with ordinary looking stones.
"Listen closely as I don't possess the magic to be able to do this anymore, but I can explain it." The Elder started educating Fishy on magic. This wasn't his first magic lesson with The Elder so Fishy knew what to expect. But this lesson was slightly different from what Fishy expected, as he was being taught how to make magic stones.
"Alright. I'm ready." Fishy was determined, holding a flat stone in the palm of his hand.
"No, that stone may be too small, start with a bigger one." The elder swapped the small pebble in Fishy's hand with a larger, almost tennis ball-like, stone.
"Magic stones are usually stones that are naturally great at holding mana. They hold mana and that mana can then be manipulated. Of course, these rocks are naturally forming in some mana-filled lands, but you can create them. You need to slowly and carefully infuse magic into the stone, making sure you don't put in too much or it'll break, but if you put in too little then you'll be wasting magic and the leaking mana can cause the stone to crack."
"I see…" Fishy stared at a simple rock, one similar to what he would kick about whilst walking home from school in his old world.
"The reason I gave you a bigger stone is that, naturally, people often output more mana than they mean to, so it's better to use bigger stones as practice until you can control your mana output."
"I see…" Fishy repeated.
Fishy eventually closed his eyes as he was prepared to, in The Elder's words, 'feel the mana flow around his body'. He tried to visualise it in his mind as blue tunnels, similar to what he's seen from cartoons in his old world.
He tried to move some mana into the rock, unsure of how much was too much, or how much he could put in.
However, when he opened his eyes, he looked at an empty palm, covered in dust.
"What happened?" Fishy asked as he looked at the obviously cold Elder.
"You didn't just crack the stone, you obliterated it, only dust remained."
"Oh, let me try again."
Fishy contained a large amount of mana, larger than any ordinary person, and because of this, he was unable to gauge how much he was letting out.
It was like a stream of flowing water that had been blocked up for centuries, and finally, when it got a chance to leave its resting place, it burst out in destructive force.
To anyone, this problem isn't an easy fix. Fishy would need to understand how to create a tiny pin-sized hole in his body to let out mana and seal it back up again before the hole grows and ruptures, causing him to explode in mana.
"Have another go." The Elder handed him another rock with his shaking hands. Once Fishy accepted it, The Elder pulled his arm back and wrapped it close around his body.
"Are you cold? Should we go inside?" Fishy asked as he started to wonder just why they were doing it outside.
"No, sadly we can't. We need a large amount of space in case something bad happens."
"Oh… I see…" Fishy couldn't understand what bad thing could possibly happen from a rock, but he didn't wish to question The Elder's wisdom.
"Don't worry about me, I'll survive." The Elder climbed off the step that he rested on and started walking away. "But let's take a break, it's almost time for dinner."
Dinner in the city was currently being provided by the executives. A large food hall was built out of the old meeting hall, which was previously used as a boiler room. Tin cooked the food whilst Clara served with a typical service smile, Tin's triplets also helped with the cooking. Ziu stands guard on the side with his team, scattered around, watching closely and communicating with each other on a closed telepathic magic frequency that only they plus Fishy can listen in on. Communication magic was key for any mage to learn, but creating a truly secure frequency was something only a genius would be able to create, and luckily, Fishy was one such person.
Silmor, The Elder and Fishy didn't have any jobs during dinner time and used it as a time to rest.
The food hall was filled with all the villagers and was lit up inside with almost every single torch and candle the city had. The magic torches filled the walls to light it up just like the smiles on all the villagers. It was the time they all came together. They were talking with joy as it was one moment during their normal depressing day that they could come together.
However, whilst everyone was eating and laughing without a care of the outside world, a loud bang echoed around the room from outside. Everyone turned to face where they believed it came from. Ziu was the first one to leave and take action, rushing out the door, quickly followed by Fishy who arrived at the scene late.
"What happened?" Fishy asked as he stood in the remnants of snow, next to Ziu who stood beside a man, screaming and shouting on the ground, whilst being stood on by one of the city guards.
"Get off me!" The man screamed.
"We caught him trying to blow up the supply room." The guard said, throwing the criminals rifle to Fishy who quickly recognised it.
"A Tanban Rifle," Fishy said, looking at the small engraving on the side. The symbol of the Tanban Empire, a fierce and murderous bear.
"Who are you?" Ziu unsheathed his sword and rested the cold blade against the criminal's neck as he flinched away in fear. "Who sent you?"
"Like I'd ever tell." He said as he tried to push his neck against Ziu's sword, but it was too slow, as Ziu had already removed it.
"Lock him up." Fishy said, "Guard all shops and houses. The nighttime is the ally of thieves."
"It'll be impossible to stop us all." The guy said as the guards slowly took him away.
"Is that a challenge?" Ziu stopped the man from being taken away and forced him to watch as he stated his words. "On the name of my lord, I promise that I will not only stop whatever plot you are planning but will also protect the lives of every single citizen in this city."
The criminal was quickly taken away to the city jail to rot whilst Fishy was left dying of embarrassment at Ziu's words, it wasn't that he didn't trust him, but he because he hated being called a lord.