Year 2, Fall, Third Month, Fourth Week.

“Are you sure this is gonna work?”

Toni looked suspiciously at the long pole formed by several bamboo sticks roughly tied together, it didn’t look very professional, it was even worse than their first WET prototype. The previous day, a group of a dozen level two disciples arrived at the outpost to start preparing the magic barrier. Apparently, the largest yet created Array would circle the entire outpost, practically half of their village (ex-village). Fortunately, only some key parts of the Array would need to be tested and modified with the last resources exchanged with Keller, so the Alchemy Department had anticipated the construction of the basic structure and shipped it earlier. The group of disciples that have been tormenting Toni since yesterday, was sent with the giant Array to guarantee its correct installation.

When they arrived, everyone was relieved and cheered for a good five minutes, working here had become a strenuous task, only the promise of the barrier kept them from giving up. First, the disciples would place the stone slates in the leveled ground around the outpost to mark down the position of the external circle (Execution Array). Then, the workers would carefully and precisely mark down the positions of the stones, any mistakes would require a remake. The next part was even more thorough, the workers would start digging a shallow and narrow ditch where the stones were placed, to ensure precision the disciples would remove stone by stone as the workers dug. In the last part, they would just place the stones inside the ditch and level it. Fortunately, after a few adjustments, the Array shined proving that the stones were connected correctly.

Before evening, all the pre-arrangements for the magic barrier were ready, and that’s when Toni’s torment started. By nature, the disciples were a very eager group and for the first time since they entered the Alchemy Department, they didn’t have any assignments. At first, they only formed a circle sitting on the ground to discuss their ideas, but soon they started to bother everyone with unending questions. What problems do you have? What makes your job more difficult? What could be improved in the outpost? The good intentions were surely appreciated, but they needed to learn limits. Reiner was all about motivating the department’s members, but she might have gone too far.

Fortunately, the disciples found something they could improve and started to work on it before driving Toni crazy. One of the most problematic situations in the outpost was the water supply. Every morning, Toni had to send three teams to collect water from the nearby river, almost one kilometer south. Actually, they were following the river trajectory into the Forest, but they couldn’t place the outpost too close to it because the water could attract and host a lot of beasts.

To solve the water supply problem, the most simple choice was to construct a well, but it would take too much manpower to do it. So, the disciples decided to make a magic tool to facilitate the task. The first idea was, of course, to follow the design of already built and tested tools, like the WET. At this point, it was an unofficial requirement for all disciples to know how to draw the first and most famous tool in the village. In no time, the disciples had tied together several bamboo sticks (not a very meticulous job), processed the blood of freshly hunted beasts and drawn the design in the prototype.

The result was a long bamboo pole with a Direct Property Array (Direction + Property Extraction Arrays – Outlined pentagram inside of a triangle) on its tip. The Array was drawn in a wood plate cut to fit inside the bamboo tip and it was facing the inside of the bamboo stick to prevent the LQ earth crystal (placed inside the Property E. A.) from getting lost in the soil. When the workers saw the disciples placing the plate facing the internal part, many thought it wouldn’t work, but they explained that the Direction Array could direct the Array's effects to any direction around the Array.

Finally, it was time to test the prototype. The disciples held the pole vertically and started inserting it into the ground. The initial contact was unsurprisingly soft, after all, the Array was adjusted to push earth affinity upwards (like the WET), causing the soil to loosen up and even move. As the pole entered the ground, the soil flew upwards forming some dust and the resistance slowly increased. They continued to press it until it became too hard to press forward and the soil flying from the sides gradually stopped. The pole had only gone approximately one meter deep, but they didn’t felt discouraged, it was only their first try. When they pulled back the still functioning tool, the soil around it started to fly out off the hole again.

Before the pole exited the ground, someone had already suggested trying pushing it again, maybe the loosened soil around the pole’s tip couldn’t be pushed upwards entirely and was accumulating at the bottom. They tried again and this time, the pole went a little deeper, confirming the problem. The disciples proceed by making other tests. In the end, they discovered a few things: rotating the pole improved the operation as also did constantly moving the pole downwards and upwards.

In a few hours, they had tested many designs and finally decided on one. With the workers' help, they built their first magic excavator (m-excavator). The bamboo pole continued but their connections were improved by the workers. The tip was formed by two triangular wooden plates connected by two rectangle plates. The internal side of each plate had two Direct Property Arrays, adjusted to move earth affinity upwards. They also added another Direct Property Array inside of the pole, but a meter above the tip, to help to push the loosened earth upwards. With the tool, the villagers only needed a couple of hours to build a water well. As for drawing the water, they already had the WET for it.

***

“Holy Origin! Don’t you die on me! Sania… Sania!”

Lew put pressure on the girls’ wound while directing the other hunters to enter the cabin and check for more Guards. He couldn’t let her die, the villagers were finally starting to trust him and this would surely fall under his responsibility. The hunters checked everything and came back to report that not a single Guard was found alive.

“Let’s go back fast, she needs a healer…”

“No… Cough, cough… Bring the cart, we have to take the crops. I can wait…”

Sania woke up and managed to say a few words. Lew didn’t want to risk her life, but the cold stare she gave him, made it clear that they would have to do it, otherwise, she would find a way to do it herself. Fortunately, the hunters were fast, in less than 30 minutes the cart was already loaded with three times more weight than it would normally support. The rest of the crops were hoarded inside the cabin before they set it on fire and left.

A few hours later, they arrived at the village or soon-to-be ex-village. Sania's condition appeared to be stable but the girl had been in out of restless sleep. After unloading the cart, Lew decided to head to the camp right away. The night wasn’t a good time to travel, even on the Path, that was the reason why the workers stayed in the empty village until they could move in the morning. But Sania needed a healer, so he decided to take the risk and go.

***

“Do you hear anything?”

“What? No… Wait there’s something… What is that? It looks like a fire lamp… Go tell the Chairwoman, we don’t know if it’s one of us…”

However, before the hunter could run back to the camp, the familiar three whistles used to identify the hunters were heard. It was one of them. Either way, he had to report it to Chairwoman Katlyn, someone traveling at this time couldn’t be anything good.

After walking for quite some time, they finally saw the campfire, Lew breathed a sigh of relief and asked the hunter guiding the cart to make the whistle signal. In fact, he had already learned the easy signal, but he refrained from using it until he was officially accepted. He walked back to the cart and checked on Sania again, her temperature was a little high, but she would be tended to shortly, so he kept their pace, better to don’t startle them.

***

“Move faster! I still want to go to Eastforge today…”

“Lord Supervisor, I think the next fields are from the village the City Lord asked us to pay attention to…”

“Oh… Do remind me about it…”

“Yes, Sir. This village, Caiset, was the only one that met the increased Tributes’ quota last year. The only village that didn’t have to give up slaves…”

“I see... We shall be a little more attentive to their Tributes… What is that?”

“Sir… I think it’s… It’s smoke, Sir!”