Simple mining tools and equipment were brought in an hour or two before the sunrise around the time the stewed fillets were done. However, I did not feel like cooking again so I had the night crew eat in my camp while I handled the delivery. With the arrival of the tools and equipment, I sent the ogre and my familiars to wake up the settlement.
What the director seemed to think of as pickaxes for goblinkind were an assortment of large and small sledge hammers with a rounded edged face on one side and a long narrow spike on the other. While big and heavy tools like these would work wonders in the hands of goblins and hobs, I was more than a little worried. They also made great weapons.
If I did not know any better I would have thought Director Carlyle was trying to inspire rebellion to make me rethink any future attempts to industrialize portals. That was just me being psychotically paranoid, though. Right?
Regardless, the ogre and his underlings worked twice as hard and fast as the day before in smashing up rocks and then loading them into broad but short metal wagons to be hauled away. The ogre himself had his choice of three pickaxes. One small goblin-sized one with a twelve-pound head and an enormous handle, the second was a larger but still one-handed version with a seventeen-pound head, and then the ogre-sized two-handed warhammer with a head that weighed twenty pounds by itself.
Smashing apart large boulders into large rocks the ogre could pick up and throw into a pile took minutes with such a tool in hand. Despite the stark rise in productivity and efficiency thanks to the new tools, I could not help but worry about my future mine. I was someone who made money training creatures, so I knew how quickly the goblins could grow in strength and endurance with long hours of effort and magical assistance.
Director Carlyle himself showed up around the time of the sunrise which was around noon back home and when he arrived I immediately dragged him to the side to talk about the equipment. He did his best to simply ignore me while I talked about how the creatures here would double in strength after a month or two of being worked in these conditions. Then, he simply shrugged it off when I was done.
"That's what we want," the director said while putting on a pair of glasses and opening a briefcase Kershaw held for him. "While every country has at least one portal like this one to draw resources, we're not the first ones to use subhumans for labor. We'll probably be the most humane, though.
"So," he continues when I start to get triggered by the mention of humane labor, "We want them to get bigger and stronger. We want to keep feeding them this mana stew you're cooking. We want that ogre to keep breeding and we want the trollkin to become trolls for breeding. Then we want all the goblins to grow into hobs and trollkin so they can breed, too. Then when we have more ogres and trolls for breeding, all the new ogres and trolls will be shipped to training camps."
"What about the people who oversee the portal operations?" I ask more curiously than defensively, knowing I would get better results from the director trying to be impressive.
"Nobody under C grade will be on this side of the portal doing any legitimate business," he assures me. "Not just because of the combination of workers but because of the rest of the area. Have you been to the top of the volcano? Do you know if there's a city-sized dragon living in another caldera up there? No? Me either. But we brought drones to find out."
Because the only things I could see were papers in the briefcase, I could not help but ask, "Where are they?"
Closing the briefcase with a single organized paper folder in his hand, the director holds a pen out to me and says, "Just shut up and listen. In acknowledgment of your rights and services in claiming this potential mine, the American government is currently willing to offer you ten-percent of the site's first year of bringing in resources. If the site should stabilize into a permanent operation, the American government will be willing to lessen their short-term income in favor of long-term benefits by offering you a thirty-percent yearly income while the site remains in function. You have twelve hours to consult a lawyer if necessary, but I can assure you the contract says the same thing about the money."
"The goblins?" I ask without even looking at the pen. "What about other creatures. Do I get money or contribution? Am I allowed to have the physical metals and stones that the mine brings in? Do I have rights to travel in and out of my own mine and territory? I also want a chunk of private property here in the event that the site becomes permanent. What stipulations are there that affect the creatures, my money, and my shares of the mines? Details, man, details."
"Everything is as I told you," he says almost tiredly. "I did the best I could on every detail, kid. The creatures get raised and shipped like I said, any that attack a person will be killed, these incidents do not reflect on you while you are not present, you can draw creatures from the portal for your business monthly. You get to choose how you get paid your ten percent when the yearly sum is finalized, no stipulations besides functionality affect your money or ownership so as long as only one or two random goblins go crazy in any month, you're fine. If a group of them attack a person or people, we'll scrap the labor force and halve your money to compensate initial investments and potential long-term financing to compensate for the new labor force. As for private property, that can wait til the site is permanently functional."
"Poniard, gather the work force," I say after a few moments of consideration and then reach for the pen. "Inform them that if any of them attack any people, they all die. Director Carlyle, tell the American government that we have a deal."
"Good, I get five and then fifteen-percent yearly commission for the mine if this works out," the director says brightly while watching me sign the front papers in the folder. "If this works out, both of us are going to be very rich men."
"I don't want contribution, I want my percentage half in money and half in physical metal and stones," I inform him professionally, almost briskly. "I will also be coming through here more than once a month for business both in the mine and around it, the ogre and lessers will need that much of my attention for the first few months. While here, Si-Pon and my familiars will help themselves to the surrounding resources as they see fit. Anyone who gets in the way gets slapped."
Going from smiles to frowns in an instant, Director Carlyle quips, "You can't let your goblin go around slapping people. Me, one thing. The guy last night who tried to file a report against you? Funny as hell. As it goes on, though, it becomes a lot less funny and a lot more serious. Goblins cannot slap people unless it's to preserve your life."
"The dude was fidgeting with a 7.5mm Automatic Protector in insubordination while being told the rules of the area to preserve the natural environment and its inhabitants, I felt threatened again," I argue with a practiced poker face.
"That's why last night was funny as hell to hear about," the director admits with a shrug while marking notes in the margins and putting the papers away in the briefcase. "Other situations and people who might have connections… I can't protect your stupid ass forever. You can do a lot of whatever you want, just don't involve other people unless you're doing it yourself. That's all."
I was pretty much just told that I had permission to slap C grade cleaners for the Bureau as long as it was my hand slapping them. That made me feel like I had just been handed a trophy. Considering how much money I was currently worth and my potential value to the Bureau after something like this, though, I was not surprised that I was allowed to slap people even with Director Carlyle for a friend.
With the paperwork signed and ready to be finalized and filed, more work crews started coming in and actually got to work cleaning the rubble from the caldera. By the end of my second day in the caldera, porous pumice and metamorphic rubble had been bulldozed up against the walls along the entrance to the caldera from outside. It was quick and thorough.
Even though most of them would remain here, all of the trees in the caldera were uprooted and transplanted with magic in and orderly fruit orchard on the newly cleared land. All of the other trees, though, were trimmed down and dragged through the portal. As for construction material, the vast can forestry below the caldera had everything we would need and then some.
I spent two days in the caldera working with the director not only in overseeing the labor tasking and training of the ogre and his lessers but also overseeing the modifications to the caldera. For now, this was mostly just making new homes to move the settlement away from the future mine as well as setting up room for expansion and laying the foundation for two small future plantations.
As far as educating the ogre and his people went, I made a show of teaching them simple interactions with people using Poniard and the ogre and myself where the Bureau crews could see when they were not working at digging open the shelf cave containing the spring. When they were out of sight at rest, Si-Pon was brainwashing them to ensure the behavior habits of future generations. It was a cheap move like what I did with the raptors, but it was for the best.
Because of this brainwashing, as well, the inhabitants of the mine would all die before abandoning the mine to ensure its permanent functionality.
When I finally felt comfortably leaving the caldera it was the day before the portal would become permanent and the inhabitants had much healthier looking bodies than before while moving with more energy. Even the ogre appeared younger with brighter coloring in its mane and clearer eyes. Si-Pon assured me that the settlement was on the road to recovery and would soon be producing new hobs and trollkin in a month or so, if not new trolls and ogres in the same time.
When I returned to my property after leaving the portal it was while being followed by a large loading truck full of goodies and with my own vehicle loaded to the point of bursting with young goblins. Glaive and I sat in the front two seats while Poniard sat in the next row by herself. Behind her were two trollkin and then a full load of goblins.
The goblins were anxious and worried after being separated but I brought the two trollkin females along for the ride to be shown the ropes by the much healthier and stronger forest hobs I already had. Since there were so many creatures overall I decided to divide the forest and mountain goblins between my two current dorms. On the ride, or ordered a new building installation for a proper kobold dorm again.
Leaving a large team of Bureau workers to unload the second truck full of boulders, trees, cauldrons of mana water, crates of metallic silt, and various other plants in their designated locations, I take the goblins to the training area. There, I made their first introductions to the treadmills that would be their new best friends
*