Jack waited patiently while Gao and his sergeants poked at and clambered all over the six-legged vehicle he’d just finished fabricating. Something that had taken a not-inconsiderable amount of time, given the sheer number of parts the thing had needed. To get it done he’d had to repurpose a number of fabricators repeatedly to get the most he could out of his limited build capacity.

He’d gotten it done though – and the first Kang-Crawler was complete.

And you’d never know the original design was based on a medium-light ore hauler, he thought with some small pride.

The cargo bed was now a crew bay fit for four people. The drone-control block now contained the driver’s seat, an incredibly rustic manual control system and a single mesh grill through which to see. He’d used the same system on the top of the vehicle, with a domed turret built to house the vehicle’s main armament; a single twelve-pound smoothbore cannon.

That last addition alone ensured it was not a pretty vehicle. The melding of the ore-transport’s ruggedly efficient square lines with his dome shaped additions was not a smooth one. Not by a long shot. It gave the whole thing a distinctly… Frankenstein-esque appearance.

Something he was sure would only get worse once he saw the crawler in action. While multi-legged vehicles had a number of uses on worlds where the terrain was guaranteed to be rough, the uncomfortably organic nature of how the things moved meant that crawlers had never really caught on in the civilian market.

At least, not outside a few weirdos.

Plus, they’re universally slower than an equivalent tracked, wheeled or hover vehicle, he thought as he looked at the thing’s crab-like legs.

The only upside they had was that they weren’t super energy intensive like hover vehicles while still able scale just about any surface you cared to aim it at. A useful trait in a land where roads were far from a guarantee, mountains were plentiful, and forests were all but omnipresent.

No, legs had been the only viable choice.

“And this war wagon can move for weeks?” Gao asked curiously as he clambered down off the hull. “Without needing to stop for rest?”

“So long as you keep it topped up with the battery packs loaded in the crew compartment.”

Gao nodded, before turning back to the turret. “And this ‘cannon’, it works like our rifles?”

The man was impressed, Jack could see that much, but he wasn’t blinded by his awe. He was thinking of how this massive beast would function in combat, and Jack could see the Crawler was coming up wanting in his mind. As evidenced by the frown that stole over his features as the man watched one of his people inside the tank make the turret traverse.

The traversal wasn’t slow by any means, but it wasn’t fast either. And to accurately hit a cultivator in combat, you needed to be fast.

Or make your shots indiscriminate.

“Sort of.” Jack allowed. “It’s got something called grapeshot.”

Gao’s eyes widened in interest at the new word, before they moved to track something behind his master, a frown forming.

Curious, Jack turned to see what had caught his second in command’s attention.

Elwin.

The answer was Elwin.

“How fascinating,” the elven woman said as she peered around the massive room, taking in the myriad of cables, screens and whirring devices that filled it.

Behind her, Lin gave him an apologetic look over the woman’s shoulder. A sentiment echoed on the shamed and worried faces of the guards accompanying the pair. Though whether they worried about Gao or him, Jack couldn’t say.

Likely Gao…

Truth be told, Jack wasn’t too bothered by this invasion of his workshop. No one in here had the sort of technological grounding needed to truly understand what they were seeing.

Well, except perhaps the Crawler, he allowed. But that was never going to remain a secret for long.

Besides, he’d not told his people to restrict the elf’s movements – and short of attacking her, he doubted they had the ability to stop the headstrong woman from going where she wanted. He’d only instructed them to watch her.

The silver haired woman’s eyes lit up as they alighted upon the crawler, a delighted giggle issuing from her throat.

“Oh, is this some bizarre mix of golem and wagon? How ingenious. Though I see not the purpose of the pipe?” She turned to him. “Is it to spray boiling oil upon one’s foes?”

He moved to say no… only to realize that wasn’t a terrible idea.

Not so much oil as… fire, he thought.

No, that was certainly something to consider when he built the next one. He’d always intended to have at least three. So they could cover each other in combat. Even if they blasted each other with grapeshot, the small ball bearings wouldn’t penetrate the hull, so they could hose attackers off each other if one was boarded.

With the flamethrower idea though? Perhaps he could implement that idea a little more literally than he’d originally intended.

“What are you doing here?” He turned his thoughts away from any future thoughts of bathing cultivators in sticky napalm and back towards his problems in the here and now.

Of which Elwin certainly ranked – though truthfully, not through any real fault of her own.

“You weren’t at breakfast.” The elf used a single delicate finger to tap her chin. “For a host to leave his guests to dine alone, well, where I’m from it would be considered rather rude.”

It was considered rather rude here too, but he’d done it anyway. Elwin was an added paradigm he didn’t want to deal with.

He had enough problems without adding ‘foreign interests’ to the mix.

To that end, he would have palmed her off on Ren, but she was undergoing some kind of… cultivator thing because of the scrolls he’d palmed off on her and couldn’t be distrurbed.

“I was busy,” he said brusquely.

To that end, he glanced back at Gao. “Assuming the crawler gave you the staying power to go head to head with spirit beasts, could you do it?”

The man’s answer was instantaneous. “If it can do as you say great one, then I believe what you ask would be possible. To that end though, I would need more people. Securing the compound already has those we have brought with us stretched beyond what I am comfortable with.”

“Recruit from the local populace. God knows the city already has a surplus of people in it. I imagine you could find a few decent recruits amongst them.”

If the militia captain was in any way surprised by the answer, he didn’t show it, as he placed one palm on his chest and bowed. “By your leave.”

Jack nodded. “Get that done and come to me when you mean to start your people on driving lessons. I should have the training program hooked up by then.”

The other man seemed momentarily puzzled by the latter half of that sentence, but gamely continued on as he took the dismissal for what it was.

It seemed that was happening more and more often around him, people just taking his oddness for ‘hidden master’ eccentricities. He imagined it helped that word of his extra-imperial nature had slowly started flowing down through the ranks.

Most now knew he wasn’t born in the Empire – though only Lin knew exactly how foreign he was.

When Jack turned back around, he was a little dismayed to see Elwin still standing where he’d left her.

Did elves even call non-magic people ‘mortals’? Or did they just use peasant? He didn’t know. And he didn’t want to know.

“This, all of this, only reaffirms my decision to seek you out. I am glad to see the rumors about you are not exaggerated.”

Jack sighed. “What do you want?”

“What all women of power and reputation want,” Elwin smiled. “A continuation of my line. To that end, I have traveled half the known world, seeking a man who is both powerful and not currently… entangled. A rare pairing of traits, as you might imagine.”

He resisted the urge to sigh. So this was another woman after his baby batter. Well, she would be disappointed. The genes in his blood were company property, and as such, DRM locked.

Given he was already stringing along both An and Ren, he might have felt guilty about that fact if he were a more sentimental man. He wasn’t. He liked An. He liked Ren. He felt zero guilt about lying to them. He’d been lying from the start, this was just another notch on that belt as far as he was concerned.

Besides, he had time to sort the whole situation out before it came to a head. It wasn’t like they were expecting kids tomorrow. With the war on, both the women in his life were quite content to wait.

Apparently cultivators could control that kind of thing. And he’d be lying even more if he said he was surprised by that.

And when it did become an issue, he thought. Well, I can think of one solution. Not exactly one I’m super psyched about, but it would work… after a fashion.

“I’m sorry to say that I am quite entangled. You’ll just have to keep searching.”

Elwin just smiled. “Really? I don’t think that’s truly true. You have commitments and goals, certainly, but none that I can foresee precluding you from taking me up on my offer at a later date.”

“I’m not interested.”

“You haven’t even asked what I can offer.”

God, this woman was persistent.

He sighed. “Make your case.”

The elf’s smile only widened. “The woman you intended to meet, you intended to meet her to recruit her. As a trainer for your own house of cultivators?”

That got his attention. “How did you know that?”

“She told me. Or rather, she told half the inn.” Elwin inclined her head. “She was bragging about it and I happened to overhear her from my table. As did others I imagine, given how her former compatriots showed up soon after. And I think we all know what happened after that.”

Damnit Bai, Jack thought venomously. On the bright side, I can tell Ren that her information network hasn’t sprung a leak.

“What were you doing there?” Jack asked, turning toward her. “No offense, but I have a feeling that particular establishment wasn’t exactly up to your standards.”

For the first time since he’d met the woman, the elf’s smile turned decidedly brittle. “It wasn’t. Unfortunately, as a foreigner to this fair city, those establishments that might otherwise cater to a woman of my standing refused me service.”

Yeah, she definitely wasn’t pleased about that.

“What are you getting at?” Jack asked.

“In the place of the woman you lost last night, I am willing to act as a tutor in her place. To teach those with the talent ,the skills of a magister.”

It actually took Jack a few seconds to process that. “That could take years. And could the locals even do… whatever it is you do?”

Elwin waved a hand airily. “I am four hundred years old. A few years are nothing if it secures me an heir. My father might be old and ailing, but he likely still has a decade or two left in him. In a few years, you will return to my home with me, with an heir in my belly. With my line secured, my father will look more favorably on me as heir.”

The woman spoke like it was a foregone conclusion. Jack didn’t care. No, his interest was on something else.

“But could you teach the locals to do what you do?”

Just a hint of annoyance seemed to enter the woman’s features. “I could. Mana or… whatever it is the locals call their bastardized variant, until it is one or the other, it is but energy.”

Huh, so until you learned techniques it was like…stem-cells?

He hesitated for just a moment before he asked his next question. “Could you teach those techniques to Ren? The woman who was with me last night.”

Elemental attacks were pretty damn high level around here from what he’d seen – and Elwin had taken out Pen like it was nothing. If she could teach that kind of thing to both Ren and An, it would really boost their usefulness.

Unfortunately for his burgeoning dreams, the elf sniffed disdainfully at his question. “Reach into yourself and feel my mana upon you.”

He stiffened a little as he reminded himself that he was supposed to know this kind of thing.

“Hum, how elusive,” the elf muttered. “Still, you can feel how my mana washes through you without touching upon your own energies. Water and oil cannot mix. As my mistress once said, you may carve stone into a statue, but once carved will remain so. Mana and… Ki, I think it was, are incompatible. One nourishes the body. The other the mind.

A little relieved he hadn’t accidentally rumbled himself, he continued. “Sounds like mana doesn’t make you hardy like the locals? And me.”

Despite adding the last bit as an afterthought, Elwin didn’t seem to notice. Instead she sniffed disdainfully again. “No, but even if I were I would not lower myself to clashing with steel like some plebian. Yourself excepted of course. Your work with golems is just more proof that you were destined to meet me.”

This time it was Jack’s turn to ignore the last part of his conversational partner’s statement. Instead, he found himself unsurprised to hear that mages were just as ridiculous about avoiding close combat as the locals were about avoiding ranged combat.

Though if Elwin was as squishy as a normal person, that kind of made sense.

Still, even if his mages wouldn’t be shattering boulders on their pecs, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be useful. If he couldn’t have a cadre of punch wizards to bolster his forces like he’d wanted… well, maybe regular wizards could be a semi-decent substitute.

Though it might come with more political headaches, he thought.

“I’ll consider it,” he said finally.

Elwin flashed him a knowing look. “That’s all I ask. If you need me, I’ll be here.” She tapped her chin. “It won’t even be a chore. Your delightfully precocious goat-girl showed me the ‘shower’ last night, and I now intend to inspect the ‘cinema’. I hope it’s equally as enjoyable.”

As Elwin moved to leave, her entourage in tow, she nearly bumped into Ren as the other woman… didn’t quite run into the workshop. Still, the two glared at each other as they passed by.

Indeed, Ren was still glaring in the elf’s direction when she disappeared out the door. Finally though, she turned to Jack, hesitating only slightly as she noticed the intimidating shape of the crawler behind him.

“Shui wants to meet.”

This time Jack did sigh.

Why did it feel like his life had become an endless series of meetings?

-------------

As it turned out, unlike what he had expected, Shui had not called him to meet about his clash with the Silver Paw last night.

“The compound you created in a night.” The woman said without preamble as soon as he was ushered into her office. “Can you create more?”

Jack paused in the act of looking around the woman’s remarkably mundane workspace. Sure, it had a few swords and a small assortment of hunting trophies hung on the walls, but aside from that, it just looked like any other office he’d been in, albeit a little more rustic than the norm.

Stone walls. Lanterns. An open window with an expansive view of the city behind her. A large wooden desk covered in parchment, a few quills and an ink pen.

It was not what he’d expected of the gregarious pig-kin at all.

“For a price,” he said finally. “And much simplified.”

He certainly had no intention of expending any more nanomachines than he had to in order to give this hypothetical building electricity or gas heating. Water was simple enough though. All one needed was pipes, gravity and a water tower on the roof.

The pig-kin snorted. “Of course. But can it be done? Just as fast?”

He nodded. “Give or take a day or two.”

The pig-kin nodded, relief pervading her. “Good. Good. Then I need you to create me a series of structures. Homes. Preferably tall ones that will take up less ground space.”

Jack’s confusion must have shown on his face.

“They’re for the mortals.” Shui continued. “They pervade the streets, getting in the way of troop movements and generally getting underfoot. I have counseled the magistrate to have them cast out, but the Imperial Scion has refused for reasons that are beyond me.”

Jack nodded slowly, even as he mentally raised his opinion of the Magistrate up a notch. Maybe his shaming of her treatment of the lands outside the city had some effect?

Probably not, but it was nice to dream.

“More to the point, petty thievery and muggings are now rampant. Merchants dare not leave their homes after dark. Eventually, we can expect riots to break out. The nights are warm now, but winter will come again and we will have frozen corpses littering the streets.”

The Brigadier tapped her desk with a single thick finger. “I need not tell you that such a thing would be bad for the morale of my mortal troops. Not to mention the city as a whole.”

This time Jack nodded more firmly. The woman’s words were a small reminder that while cultivators were where most of the killing power of the Empire lay, mortals were the ones who held the line long enough for those cultivators to deal the decisive blow.

“So you want me to build big houses that can house hundreds, if not thousands of people in the name of getting them off the streets?”

Shui nodded.

“I want my name on the buildings.”

Shui nodded again, more slowly this time. She seemed confused by the request.

“And I want to reiterate that I expect to be paid well for this.”

This time her nod was more confident. “I will take as much as we need from the defense budget. Though I will reiterate that these buildings should be simple. I am paying to see these mortals off my streets, not have them living in luxury. I expect that to be reflected in the price of these buildings.”

This time it was Jack’s turn to nod, before he hesitated. “Still, these people have been here for months now. Why are you only just clearing them out now?”

“Only just.” Shui chuckled mirthlessly. “As if I haven’t been complaining of these problems for months. No, it’s only your arrival that has given me a second option, one palatable to the Magistrate.”

She leaned back, pensive.

“Though in truth, that’s not the full answer.

She wet her lips, the next words coming hesitantly.

“Apparently a number of instinctive warbands have broken away from the main front around the breach and are now rampaging through the northern reaches of the Empire. The Imperial army is too preoccupied with the main force to pursue them.” Shui gazed into his eyes with deadly intensity. “Recent reports from our scouts put one of these warbands on a direct intercept course with Ten Huo. Initial estimates suggest this force may number near a million strong.”

Jack swallowed uncomfortably. “So, we’re outnumbered about something on a scale of ten to one?”

Shui smiled mirthlessly. “Something like that. Hence why I’m hoping you’ve got a few more tricks up your sleeve, Jack Johansen.”