When Ethan returned he spent his days in his room and workspace reading over the book. The armor set he had brought home with him sat in the corner of the room on a stand by itself. From his tests, he had unraveled some parts of the armor's runes and found possible uses for some of them to be implemented into the golem.

During his normal hours, he would study the armor and ask Andy for suggestions as he wrote up his findings. During this time, he was not disturbed much as promised and was left to learn. Ethan compared the old golem designs to the runes he had brought back from the dig site. After comparing his notes with more recent runes and other designs he concluded that those buildings use to be safe houses of some kind and that was why they held artifacts and gold. The rune formations laid into the building helped protect it from damage and catch ambient mana from the area to power it as needed.

‘The golems of old used up too much mana at once to make use of the ambient mana drawers. If I want to make a modern-day golem viable I need to come up with a new power source to use and an efficient way to charge it. The high-density crystal, metal, and liquid batteries that the ancient people used are no longer viable because the formula to make them no longer exists and the crystals as described by texts that mention them also don’t seem to exist anymore. What to do? What to do?’

Ethan took out his new spell book and began flipping through it to the current spell he was learning. Whenever he stalled on studying runes for the golem he would go back to learn more spells. He had already memorized two spells, but only one of them he had actually cast completely. [Cloud of Daggers] from his testing seemed to be a great area of effect spell and would be great at stopping a group of stampeding animals. The other spell he had learned which took him less time to memorize was. [Dispel Undead] was a good counter spell to thralled undead, but he had no undead to test it on with only the description to go off of.

Today he turned to a new page this one contained [Memory Manipulation]. Its description read “Use this spell cautiously to remove memories or add new ones to the target. The more vivid your imagination the better the spell will be. Warnings: Must be touching the target during the entirety of the duration of the spell. Can not lose focus during the casting of the spell or the effects may backfire. Use with Caution.”

Ethan began reading through how to cast the spell making sure to read over the suggestions written on the sides. These beginner hints were very helpful when he first tried to cast [Cloud of Daggers] he had initially launched the spell on top of himself which wasn’t very helpful. With the hints, he was able to better get a feel for the exact location the spell would activate on.

After some time, a knock came at the door. Ethan closed his book and tucked it into his bag. Another knock rang out. Ethan stood up from his chair and opened the door. At the door was Andy. He was out of breath and exhaled hard before speaking.

“Come on. We are going to be late. I know you are working, but this meeting is mandatory.”

“I’ll grab my stuff. I’ll meet you there.” He closed the door and looked around the room.

He picked up his bag and stuffed a few more notes in it. He also grabbed the armband that he had left off and slid it on. Looking around the room one more time to check if he missed anything before he locked the door.

When he walked into the meeting hall he saw that it was already packed. People were chatting in small groups or finding their seats. Ethan looked around and saw Andy already seated near the front. The room was semi-circle in shape with several levels of seating for different levels of members. Ethan moved to go up the stairs when he was stopped by someone.

“What do you want Arron,” he said exasperatedly.

“Well, I have just submitted a new mechanical device design for the aqueduct system. I have you done anything of note?”

“I went to the archaeological dig site. It wasn’t very interesting because it is now mostly cleared out, so I focused on my rune structure studies.”

“Yes. That. It is a shame you don’t get out more. You should move on to other things. I mean how much progress have you made with those old golem designs? Only a fool would continue to work on it. And you aren’t a fool? Are you?”

“I am a knowledgeable person. What does it matter to you anyway? Why don’t you focus that ego on yourself? I don’t need your drama.”

Arron scoffed and took his steps down the stairs while pushing Ethan away with his shoulder. Ethan turned to look at him, but Arron ignored him. Ethan turned back to the stairs and found a spot to sit on the second floor.

A bell was rung soon after he was seated and the others who were currently chatting stopped and returned to their seats. An older man at the front stood up from his seat and took to the stand.

“We start these proceedings with the schedule of topics for the day. This meeting is only for two topics so I hope it will be short and not keep you for too long. First, we have the discussion and vote for funding as a reward for outstanding creations and work in bettering our kingdom. I will now have our three finalist candidates come up and introduce themselves and their submissions. We will start with Louise then Naren, and end with Arron.” He motioned to the candidates before returning to his seat in the front.

The first candidate Louise left her seat and stood in the center before addressing the crowd. “Hello everybody. For those newer or old members who do not know me my focus of research is in agriculture and ecology. As a half-elf, it does come naturally for me with my affinities. The submission I have submitted is a pesticide. This chemical concoction improves on older methods of weeding and pest deterrence with an improved formula and cheaper ingredients if made in bulk. Though the only difficulty is in the manufacture of this process. With this grant and additional funding, I hope I can pay alchemists to learn the intricacies of this formulas process. With their help, I could further improve on the manufacturing process.”

Louise looked to the next contestant Naren and stepped off the stage for him to go up. The middle-aged man walked up and turned to the audience around him.

“I have long been ‘that transportation scholar’ and for good reason. I have loved to study the movement of people and grow my understanding of city expansion as the capital and other cities grow. Now two years ago I stood here with an interesting idea for a floating balloon for my submission. It ultimately failed of course because of its issues with directional movement and difficult setup and disassembly. I closed that project and sold the right to the invention but before I came upon an epiphany. You see I was up in the air riding in a prototype sky balloon for the last time when I saw the city below me. Now I don’t know any flight spells, so it was quite the sight for me and what I saw was the movement of people. In the busiest time of the day, I watched them, and I thought. Now finally, after two years of testing and prototyping, I have the rail cart to show you. Name subject to change. It is a rail track system to connect points and make stops for the transportation of goods.” Whispers through the crowd spread for a while as he continued speaking.

“The carts are powered by electrical magnetic levitation system that allows the rails to be powered while an operator pushes the cart on one end as it accelerates towards its destination. I envision this railway could be implemented underground where goods could be manufactured and then quickly transported to the other side of the city. This system if successful could also transport goods between cities. If I were to earn this funding I would start on the manufacture of a full-scale version of this rail cart system above ground. Thank you.” He took a bow and returned to his seat.

Finally, Arron stepped up to the stand. “Thank you Naren and Louise for your speeches and wonderful examples of creativity. For my invention, I have been working with the water department to design a new filtration system. As was discovered several decades ago we know that contaminated water spreads pathogens. That is no clearer than the outbreak from a few years ago. I have come up with a solution. My tests on a new fabric I have developed show that it prevents dangerous particles from moving through it. This is achieved while allowing water to flow through it at the same time. This fabric is difficult to make currently so I also hope to get the funding necessary to make its manufacture more viable before implementing it city-wide. Thank you.”

Arron stepped away and returned to his seat as well. The old man from the beginning returned to the front.

“Thank you all for your submissions. You have all heard their ideas and current projects. We will now begin a thirty-minute discussion on their ideas and their flaws. The contestants can be asked questions during this time. If you are interested in speaking then please stand up and wait to be called upon. Let the time begin.”