A few hours later after lunch.

“ Seriously Azanii, not so much weight.”

Azanii ignores David’s plea and adds another five-pound brick to the basket.

“ Your stats are one thing, but they are only a reflection of your actual body. You are done with council stuff unless there is an emergency. Now lift.”

David looks at the basket full of five-pound bricks and sighs as he strips off his shirt before squatting down and lifting the basket from the base with his bare hands. Without prompting David starts walking away as Azanii follows.

“ So how were things on your mother’s side?”

Azanii puts her hand under the basket and uses the other to adjust David’s own holds. When he lets go with each hand, he feels her holding the whole basket with one hand.

“ A lot more people, we had more examiners than you, but also had bigger needs. Unlike you who mainly sought bulk middle and lower class workers and a small number of professionals...”

Azanii rushed in front of him when David caught a stone on his boot. After a few seconds, they were walking again.

“ She went big and tried to get too many upper-tier people didn’t she?”

Azanii snorted a little fire and nodded.

“ My clan is much richer and larger than you here. But our expenses are equally increased because of our carried-over development and larger bodies. Unlike you who are literally building a city to their desires. She has to deal with the mess of several randomly placed important buildings like the nurseries. She wishes she could start fresh rather than having to work around pre-existing structures.”

David considers that a moment as they passed out of the mountain keep area of the city and moved into the soon-to-be warehouse district.

“ My suggestion would be to build new key structures in a layout that makes sense to your people and transfer everything to the new buildings before removing the old ones, or use those as a lesser backup for those of lower station.”

Azanii blinks and stops to think about what he said before catching up on the missed step.

“ A very astute political suggestion. One she already has thought of.”

David merely shrugs while resecuring his grip before winking toward Azanii as he walked on. After another five minutes, they get to the stockpile for the sewer and he sets the load down and watches as dozens dig into the dirt. Already miles of sewer track has been marked out and were being dug by some of the newly hired crews who decided not to take the day off. After emptying the basket the two begin to walk back.

“ Any special cases I should know about or for a good laugh?”

Azanii snorts thinking of one.

“ We had a human bard from your homeworld. Decent with the lute sucks at being an adventurer. Tried to woo one of my sisters back home. I think the term from your world is, he rolled a critical fail. We must truly recreate some of those board games. They are amazing for training the mind stats and good team building.”

David gives a chuckle as he shook his head.

“ It is a D&D reference, a critical fail is when you roll a one on a twenty-sided dice. I was never a big fan, but I had tried a game or two in my college days. I prefer to be a tiebreaker in such situations. Basically, when two people argue about an outcome someone with an outside perspective to settle the dispute.”

“ I recall the adventurers from before have a unique perspective about some things?”

David raised an eyebrow as Azanii seemed to look away slightly.

“ I would suggest your mother add in some ‘persuasion’ laws. After all, your species will likely not stay small in number and you should guarantee some... rights for your people. We have already added several to prevent coerced rape via mental manipulation because of skills and punishments for such.”

This causes Azanii to pause in her step again before catching up.

“ Right, we do have a few protections in place, but now that things have changed.”

David raised his shoulders and looked ahead. His gaze was worried by Azanii’s guess.

“ Most people are generally good people but have underline bad habits. Before the change... many people would beat their partners or even their own children. There was a lot of illegal drug use. Crime is unavoidable, but I will be damned if I let the roots of the old set foot here.”

Azanii looked down at David’s right hand and she can see he was clenching it tightly. So much so she could hear popping. Then she realized that was not popping but snapping of bones.

“ David calm down before you hurt yourself further.”

David looked at his right hand and sighed.

“ I have been doing that a lot lately after my stats reset. Since my endurance is considered trained to max... All the stat points differences have been making things a bit funny. In particular, something like that causes my strength and dexterity to forcefully grow by destroying the weaker older bone and muscle tissue. It hurts, especially when it is doing the same to my internal organs.”

Azanii winces just imagining the pain.

“ How bad does it hurt now?”

David looks down for a moment to check his stats.

“ Officially, my pain resistance characteristics are maxed. But realistically, it hurts like hell. Nothing like burning alive for six months on your own divine energy, but having something snap every time you move sucks.”

“ Aww, maybe when we get home we can do that thing where I kiss it and make it feel better.”

“ I feel you are buttering me up for a critical success. So let's get another two loads over there before we call it. I could really use those kisses, and maybe give you some in return.”