Chapter 26

One tall order

I head back to the department of magic to talk with the master. Since I left the administration to him, he is the only one who can tell me how long it will take to honor our order of one hundred greater golems. I fully intend on using only the cheapest material, but even like this, I know we do not have enough stock.

“Good morning Master, I have a question for you. Without changing anything to our daily dealings, how long would it take to get the resource for one hundred greater golems?”

“Quite long I am afraid. As we are, apart from the occasional magic organs, what we receive is barely fit for power sources. I am afraid we will need the alchemists’ help to pick up the slack.”

“What is the problem?”

“We lack both in materials and production capability. Supply will get better when the trains bringing sand from the western beaches get fully organized, but it will take at least two weeks.”

“The empire is willing to offer four tons of quartz, two of copper and one of alum.”

“Aren’t these the very material we considered being viable during our visit to the alchemist’s workshop?! That’s worrying, I did not expect their spies to work so fast. Honestly, this isn’t such a bad deal if you consider the current value and the price of transportation… but once we get our own production line, we will be able to alleviate our expenditures by quite a lot. No, what am I saying? We’ll be rolling in gold!”

“Eh? What do you mean?”

“For now, we’re stuck furnishing the others ministry and the army, but the Queen has released the ban on selling to the public. There is an enormous demand for reusable power sources, it will make us loads of money! Can you imagine? For the first time in the department creation, we won’t be in the red!”

Something he said bothers me quite a bit, but I just cannot put a finger on it. I try replaying our conversation a few times in my head until I finally grasp his mistake. "Master, you do realize the power sources have an unlimited lifespan, right?”

He says something angrily in his native language. “How did I forget about that! Thank the goddess we had to donate our initial production to the state. But what can we do? Is there a way to make them break after some time?”

“You want to make defective products on purpose?” We could remove the anti-surge, but then they would break right away, which is not really a solution.

“Is there a way to make them break after a number of recharges?”

After a number of recharges? It is the opposite of my initial problem, and quite a few methods come to mind, but they are all overly complex and will result in the need for much larger crystals. Not an ideal solution, and not even an option in our current situation.

What if I target the anti-surge, instead? “I have a solution, but I must warn you, adding a random element to a spell is something I have never attempted before.” I snatch some paper and write a few words. "Theoretically, if you add this part to the metal, there will be a slight chance of melting but whether it is right away, or after years of usage will completely depend on luck. Now, getting back to my initial question, can you give me an estimation?”

“What was it? Oh, right, the one hundred greater golems! Hard to say. Right now, we lack both in material and means of production, but the supply should improve at a much faster rate than the production. I don’t have enough details to make a full projection yet, but…” He quickly moves his fingers on both hands and after a dozen seconds, he answers. “Five weeks, at the very least… three if we stop the production of the giant crystals.”

It will not happen… ever. Even so, that does not seem so bad is what first came to mind, at least until his next statement.

“Mind you, as you asked, I am only referring to the acquisition of the materials, it takes between two and three hundred man-hours just for the cores and twice or thrice as much for the sources. Not everyone can complete over a dozen cores a day like you do.”

I did not think about that. I have repeated the process so many times that it has become a second nature… but it also means that assuming enough supply, I can probably fulfill the order by myself by working six straight days.”

“The northern mountain range is not as far as the beach, and there is a lot of quartz. Can we send people there instead?”

“I don’t think so. The beach is easier to access and there are too many magic beasts up there.”

“Five weeks then. In the meantime, if you could get whoever is available to make power sources in their spare time, it would be great... albeit only from our worst materials though, there is no need to be wasteful. It appears there is not much I can do here, so I will be rejoining the labyrinth expedition. Before I go, tell me if there is anything you need.”

“Our supply of spider silk is running low, my lord. We’re still trying to establish the lower limits, but the problem is that we sometimes lose material. It is not like we have a choice though: as long as the giant spider silk is in limited supply, we have to determine the optimal amount for each task… You said you were trying to build a silk farm, right?

It only happened a few days ago, and yet I had already gone and forgotten about it. “I will give you what I have on hand but do not expect much: it has only been five days.”

When I arrive at the first site, I find twenty marks on the wall but only a single spindle, a very fat spindle, but still a single spindle nevertheless. When I look inside the cave, there are thirteen animals still cocooned. My presence disturbs the giant arachnids, and they scurry further inside of the cave. As I follow them to get a better look, the terrified giant insects desperately put themselves between me and their progeny.

Twelve adults, some egg bags, and about two dozen of spiderlings. With these numbers and their size, I expected them to have a bigger appetite, but it seems the colony only eat less than two rabbits a day.

When I set up the parameters for this site, I knew I would overfeed the magical beasts, but I never expected they would stop making webs after capturing too many preys… I thought it was instinctual or something like that.

The next site is an even bigger and worse surprise, the front of the cave is littered with giant arachnid corpses, and there are only a few living spiderlings left inside the cave. Thankfully, this species stocks its silk in its complete form so it is not as much waste as I first feared.

I do not know much about their ecology, but I suppose they are a migrating species. Still, I do not think it is normal for all the adults to leave the nest at the same time. Could the one left inside have come to help the others? Normal spiders are not exactly known for their gregarious instinct or their intelligence, but when creatures are tainted with magic, everything becomes possible.

The last site is well… more of the same. I heard many people said that the third time is a charm, but I have just proved them wrong. Inside the cave is a single spider – a very, very fat spider – surrounded by egg bags. The stupid thing did not even bother to cocoon the golems offerings, and most of them dangle from a half-broken web or litter the ground.

I really have terrible luck, I must have played came right after they migrated. How am I supposed to follow their tracks? They are incredibly heavy for spiders, but not that much compared to normal animals.

But, even if I cannot track the beast, I only need to turn the problems around and find their destination. Thankfully, my undead sense is ideally suited to find caves and life-forms. As it turns out, the second location is only about a hundred paces from the first one, as are the third and fourth.

Well, it seems like there is no more need for the other sites. I recover the golem and set them here with new orders: one prey every two days at most and then again only give a prey if there is some silk to recover.

What about the site near the village? I kill all the spiderlings obviously. Others will no doubt come to recolonize the area eventually, but it will spare the villager the cost of hiring adventurers for a few months.

I teleport outside the city, then right into my workshop to drop the silk and a note.

I smile internally, now has come the time to rejoin the expedition, and hopefully learn the maddening bag’s secrets.