First thing in the morning Rosario went looking for the five earth mages that had accompanied Donnie in his flight from his village. He found them sitting around a campfire roasting some rabbit for breakfast. Upon seeing Rosario approaching them, the five mages all went to stand, but sat back down when Rosario motioned for them to stay seated. Rosario sat at the fire with them and pulled out some jerky that was made from one of the animals he had killed in the last month, to be honest he didn't know what he was eating, he normally just gave the meat he hunted to one of his clansmen who would smoke and dry it.
Looking at the five around the fire, Rosario observed them as the six of them all ate in silence for a few minutes. Of the five, three were men and two were women. Each of the five mages in front of him didn't fit the stereotypical look that most people from earth imagined mages to look. All of them were quite physically fit and had deep callouses on their hands showing they were used to using them. All five of them were all brunette with brown eyes, the males were all around six feet tall (183 cm) while the females were around five feet tall (152 cm). The five of them looked almost like siblings.
After making brief eye contact with each of them while eating, Rosario finished his last piece of beef jerky and dusted his hands off on his pants.
"My name is Rosario; I am the current leader of this village. I came over to ask if any of you would be interested in being employed by my village. I have an idea and I wanted to hear your opinions."
Pausing to gauge their interest, Rosario saw he had their attention.
"Before we get too deep I know it might not be something you want to discuss, but with your earth affinity are you able to manipulate stone? Or are you only able to manipulate dirt?"
The five of them exchanged brief glances before one of the men spoke up.
"My name is Toraq, these are my brothers and sisters: Torvid, Torrin, Tammy, and Tooley. What you are asking usually depends on the proficiency of the mage's element. As for all of us our proficiencies are high enough to manipulate stone. Of course, the denser or heavier the stone the harder it is to manipulate, what is the job you are looking to hire us for?"
"Well, you see, one of my men dug down into the soil of this plateau and we found that about three to five feet deep is a layer of what looks like marble. We used to have stories on my world of earth mages that could make houses by raising the stone up from the ground, do you think this might be possible?"
Toraq looked at Rosario as if he was crazy. A palpable silence sat around the campfire until Tammy started laughing lightly. Looking at her siblings she said. "I just checked, and he is right, there is marble below us, and not just a little bit it seems like this whole plateau and portion of the mountain is marble."
Torvid then spoke up. "What your asking is not easy, it would take us quite a while to replenish our mana between each time we manipulate the marble, at our proficiencies with our earth elements it will be a while."
Tammy replied before Rosario could. "That is true brother, but we all know that the more we use our proficiency and drain our mana the quicker our proficiency will improve. I feel that if we are able to accomplish this project we will see our proficiencies reach unimaginable levels. It would allow us to manipulate all types of earth with much more ease. Why not get paid to essentially practice our magic?"
Rosario pulled out some meat and began eating again as the siblings talked amongst themselves for a few minutes. Finally, they all turned back towards him.
Toraq spoke. "Before we agree to anything what is the actual job, and what are the benefits?"
Nodding Rosario gave them a rundown of what he was looking for.
"So far we began building this "city" on the plateau using the blueprints we have received from hunting. Don't get me wrong I don't mind the blueprints and they are easy to use, but my vision is to build a city that will last thousands of years. When I first found out there was marble below the city my mind went straight to a book I had read a while back on my home planet. Unfortunately, I do not remember the book's name, but the jist of the book was there was a society of earth mages that was wiped out and enslaved by another society. One of these earth mages bid his time as a captive until one day he was able to get to a volcano. As an earth mage he was able to shape the volcanic rock as if it was fluid. The man built a massive city using just his powers all out of this volcanic rock. When his captors came at his behest to see the city for themselves he allowed them all entry into the city before manipulating the rock to kill his captors all around him. Unable to escape the man defeated them all. Now I am not an earth mage so obviously I am not looking to do the second part, however the way the city was literally created out of solid stone had me fascinated. I would love to have the same kind of city built here. Knowing that it's a possibility has me starting to think that instead of having this plateau as my main city it will be my clan's greatest fortress. Of course, I have also thought of the issues that if there are no seams in the rock any kind of movement of tectonic plates can cause massive cracks, I am sure we can figure this issue out as we go though."
Seeing Tammy wanting to speak Rosario paused.
"It is possible to build without seams, you would need an Enchanter who is able to help with drawing runes, but there are runes for everything especially for something as simple as a stability rune or durability."
Smiling under his helmet Rosarios excitement almost radiated off of him.
"As for your question of pay. I am willing to pay essence crystals to you five and any other earth mages that help. For every day you work on this fortress I would provide each of you with two essence crystals of the person's level. So, for you Toraq, I can feel you are at level five with no evolutions. I would provide you with two level five essence crystals or the equivalent essence for each day you work. That would be fifty essence a day. After ten days if you move to level six I will then increase your pay to sixty essence a day. On top of being paid essence, I would allow you five to, and this is contingent on if you wanted, choose a space in an appropriate area of the fortress to build your own homes. There will also be the option to join my clan as an inner member and receive a lot more benefits and training, but that could be a talk for later. What do you think?"
Again, Rosario sat in silence as the siblings talked amongst each other. Another fifteen minutes went by before they finished their discussion and Tammy got up to walk in front of him. Sticking her hand out for a shake she spoke.
"We agree to do this for the pay you stated, do you have a plan for the already built structures and where you want us to begin building new structures?"
Shaking her hand Rosario replied.
"I personally do not have a plan as to where all the new structures will go. You five will be working with my resident Architect, Sigurd. I will send him over to you in about a half hour. His word is law on where things should go as I trust him to design the city, like I will be trusting you five to build it, and Andromenia to supply the proper runes for it to preserve. I look forward to working with you five and I will have Andromina draw up a simple work contract for you to be sure that I will not go back on my word for payment."
Saying this, Rosario got up to go search for Andromenia and Sigurd to inform them of the new changes coming.