I stayed the night in the same inn as my parents because they requested it. They expected Gryn and his team to arrive early the next day and wanted me to finalize some details with the village. They were more than willing to take over the immediate supervision while they were here, but that would only be for another month or so.
They needed guidelines and scheduling to set the villagers to for while we were not there including training hours that accommodated their daily lives. Even if the overall gold value of the village was now equal to smaller towns than our own, they still needed time to spend that on appropriate material and food supplies.
Unlike me they could not plant a field and harvest it in the same day- even though I left a pamphlet on 'communal' farming' being a part of magic training.
Each villager depleting their mana every morning into the field could reap harvests as often as twice a month but every three months a harvest would need to be left to fall and the soil turned for fertilizer. They would not be capable of turning projects this large for at least six months.
After several brief lectures about responsibility between training and housing regimes we finally decided on their immediate work details while I sent my wisps hunting the next day.
Late the next morning just an hour or so before noon was when Gryn and his party finally showed up to deliver their weekly report. Our parents immediately waved it aside and were instead offered a side job from the Guild for pay and exam credit to help demonstrate to the villagers the uses of their training fields and drills for the day. While their wisps were sent out herb gathering.
Gryn ended up spending much of his time with me while his team polished their public speaking and leadership skills. My job current was to dig wells at the four corners of the farming plots that led into the training fields and these wells were then connected to the river via shallow tunnels. For drawing water I simply installed a set of two pulleys for two large buckets at every well.
Because it would still be some time before the fields were properly put to use I only put up a basic irrigation system in the corner lots that were tilled in mounds for growing various herbs. The irrigation system was basically just one tall post with a barrel on top that was tapped on all sides to feed simple grass ceramic pipes. These pipes lead water at slight angles to smaller sprinkler canisters while sprinkling water along the way.
The herbs were a basic supply of alchemy goods for making mana and healing products in the village, the new side job of the stay-at-homes. I had already sown clones of fair quality herbs from the surrounding forestry Gryn just watched me work large-scale alchemy and advanced healing magic one after another.
Gryn himself was capable of taking a candy and a potion and building half-acre houses along the farms. However, he would only be able to do two houses and their furnishings before needing to stop and rest for an hour or so. His ability to regenerate mana was not as great as mine even though he was going to be hitting puberty soon but after that he would temporarily become stronger than me.
Instead, he currently chose to just hang out and talk about his team or nothing at all. I could tell there were things going on in his head but he seemed to be content to ignore them. As far as I could tell, he was just watching his little brother grow up.
For my part I just talked about the details of their future armors and weapons, the kind of people I wanted them to seek out and associate with, and then we discussed the team's ability's. They were all developing in leaps and bounds as magic users but it was because of this that their physical skills were stagnating. I advised that Gryn took a large bounty to celebrate everyone officially becoming mercenaries.
His complaints were not only valid but the worries I had years ago when I involved myself. They were too reliant on gadgetry. So much so that the younger brother and sister still trained only by using the mana drawing bows and refused anything but stronger versions of their first bows from me.
As for the older siblings, the guy slacked in the magic department while his swordsmanship and spear skills had several levels to them. His sister, on the other hand, had mostly given up on physical skills except for light fencing and archery in favor of magical advancement.
Once I opened the doors to the world of magic to her, she become more focused on support skills and enchanting.
Her wisps, who did more fighting than she did, had taken on the forms of large arachnids with scythes. The armor she had begun requesting was even slowly shifting down robes and gowns fit for mages. She was trying to fill a role the team did not need.
Possibly her only saving grace from me cracking down on her as the unofficial team manager was the fact that she and Gryn were a budding romance who doted on one another. She was filling a role that better suited him as a leader and combatant but it was creating drama- friction in the team.
After a few hours of listening to the team gossip we finished the herb plots and moved on to laying the foundation for future houses and properties along the back rows of empty farm plots. It would still be some time before the villagers actually moved off of the bridge but I wanted the construction process to be smooth and easy. As well as however they wanted it as long as it fit the fifty-by-seventy foot rectangular parameters I limited them with.
Now was around the time the villagers were finishing up with their first day of drills despite it being early in the evening. From now on, though, they would start their day with fitness or weapons practice. The rest of their day would be spent in relative leisure fishing and hunting as they pleased despite their new wealth
Gryn and his team had not even encountered any predators in the past week despite 'intensive scouting' so they had recently hit a bored spell. I myself was becoming steadily more and more bored and even a little frustrated with this first step of my pilgrimage. Soon, though, things would be over for both of us.
By the time the sun was setting over the forestry below the mountain the main construction projects were complete and my brother's team were buying a room at the same inn as our parents. I had done all of the work I intended to and had even set up an armory building near either side of the river. It was time for me to bid my farewells!
A few brief visits to some village leaders to double check finances, equipment, and supply stocks were all it took before I could finally leave the village and return to the shrine. Sili and the serpents were reluctant to leave after having spent so much time at an easy fishing ground. If not for the fact that they could damage distance ecosystems overnight I might have let them all stay.
Despite being dog tired from all of the work I had done today I still forced myself to build an in-ground armory in which to store the militia's extra supplies for future serpent partners. Now that Sili knew how to deal with people for the most part and could bond serpents to people, I had little to worry about here. Until, of course, Sili achieves complete sentience.
With an armory full of weapons and alchemy products I closed the thousand-pound lid on the solid granite basement and started getting my own things together. Dressed in my usual traveling gear, I took Sili to the side and for the first time just sat with her and showed her affecting my massaging her head and jaw. She seemed to like it.
After several minutes of affection, I pressed my head to hers and goaded her into forming a link before unloading all of the firsthand memories of her recreation.
While the excessive overload of information was rendering the partial dragon unconscious, I did my best to pile together of a bunch of emotions and impressions about how proud I was of what they were becoming and how much I honestly cared for their continued survival.
Leaving my most advanced familiar so far sound asleep on the steppe by their basking pool, I got up and rode my wisps away down the other side of the mountain feeling like a total dick.
*