I wanted to go back to sleep as soon as he started talking. He was talking about our lack of food supplies, and the retraining of all the slaves. Our lack of manpower which we needed to farm the land to feed the people. The fact that we would need more daily hunts to bring in meat for all the wyverns I'd brought back. This was a portal zone so we were making do with what we had barely.
The presence of the dragons on this continent was accelerating the growth of almost all the plant life. Including our crops. Which was good. Except we weren't able to farm those crops because we didn't have enough people. Add on the fact that we didn't have proper currency so even if we wanted to pay our workers we lacked something to actually pay them with.
"We can make a workable stop gap by paying the slaves in food," I suggested.
"Food isn't proper payment," Letty shot that idea down, "Asking for a whole days work in exchange for a few meals is completely unreasonable."
"What if we didn't ask for a whole day of work?" I continued along that line of thought, "Some of the slaves would volunteer simply because we got them out of that situation. Especially if we enforce a work regiment that doesn't allow them to overwork themselves. We should throw in some fresh clothing, and keep their housing cost free in the meantime. We should also invest in some recreational activities that allow them to get back into the mindset of someone who isn't enslaved."
"That might work," Goliath frowned to himself, "But that's only a temporary solution."
"We only need something that will work until we have proper currency," Savannah shrugged, "Once the slaves understand that they'll be more then willing to work for their own meals."
"We can solve the currency problems as we go," I shrugged casually.
"It's that relaxed attitude that is causing your current problems," Letty slapped my shoulder hard enough to make my entire chest slide over a couple feet.
Goliath, and the water great both nodded in agreement. It seemed they both agreed on that point.
"Before we can even worry about the currency we need to worry about the housing situation," Letty continued without allowing me to speak, "The hollow mountain is completely full. We have three people to each of the smaller rooms, and a few hundred to each of the larger rooms. Ideally we'd be better off shipping most of these slaves out as quickly as possible, but our bold leader wants to rehabilitate as many as possible before returning them to their home planets."
"I..." I wanted to argue, but Letty cut me off before I could speak.
"If we manage to rehabilitate them they won't be PTSD riddled mental cases when we send them back to their home worlds," Letty smiled, "Many of them may decide to stay once they get used to their new surroundings."
I wanted to argue with that point.
"You have to think of that possibility when you consider the people you rescued," Letty kept talking, "Then you have to consider the possibility that they might leave on their own as well. These portals link us to other worlds. While the earth will stabilize eventually, and portals will quit opening eventually. I'll be glad to see the portals stop opening in the future, but the problem with that is that travel between worlds won't always be this easy. The natural barrier of each world is difficult to pierce normally. The earth is mana starved, and lends its mana to all off world portals."
I'd sensed something like that when I moved off world. I just didn't expect it to be true.
"So traveling between worlds was harder in your time?" I tapped my talon on the stone floor a bit impatiently.
"It was near impossible," Letty narrowed his eyes at me, "You needed the power of an elder dragon or a world class mage to even attempt an off world portal. Often you'd need three or four of them depending on the planet you wanted to seek out."
"That means that all those off world outposts will be cut off once the earth stabilizes," Goliath blurted out with a concerned tone.
"You don't have to worry about that for a hundred years or so," He brushed off Goliath's concern, "You'll have more warning signs before earths barrier snaps back into place. The portals will slowly stop opening. I suggest we put some proper gates in place in fifty years or so from now. That would be the best plan for the future. Although a proper gate is quite large. It would be best if we had more ground to set up the portals. That means we should really work on our negotiation tactics with the human nations sooner rather then later."
"You plan to use the negotiations to fix our currency problems," I sighed heavily, "I guess I should really work on what we plan to say."
"No," Letty cut me off, "Diplomacy is a weak point for you. Savannah, and Eliza will be the one leading the talks."
I nearly choked on whatever I was thinking about saying next.
"Quite frankly I'm concerned that you would cause a war or give away our resources for next to nothing," Letty smirked at my stunned expression, "I've already started working on Eliza's training. Her ability as a negotiator is decent, and her standing among the human population should grant her a good amount of leeway. They won't be able to simply ignore her, and Savannah is surprisingly good at deception. A few lessons, and diplomacy should come to her rather easily. The humans won't be able to attack us at the moment because our forces have changed a great deal in the last few weeks. Between the slaves, and the wyverns we've brought in our numbers have blossomed a great deal. Add on the fact that the humans have no clue of the strength our new forces have."