A Plan Coming Together

Chapter 139

The day after everything happening with the camp being attacked Elim assured me things at his ancestral estate were in the final phase before conclusion. With that in mind, I turned my attention back to one of my biggest projects. The as-yet unnamed town I was in the midst of constructing.

Since he had less on his mind, I informed Elim about my general intentions about it, like letting monsters roam about as citizens. He’d taken that surprisingly well, all things considered. Laughing as he assured me he trusted me with his family's safety.

I supposed it might not be that strange. We had a deal, so any creature under my control would be obliged to safeguard his family rather than harm it. My talk about skeleton shopkeepers might have sounded like just another added layer of protection for them.

It had still been a little surprising how well Elim took it, but I reminded myself I didn’t really know much about the larger world. He was a native of a swords and sorcery fantasy world. Major cities in this world might be guarded by golems or have protection contracts with dragons. All manner of magical bullshit might be at play in a wealthy or resource-rich area.

After what had happened with the halflings, the skeletons in general had loosened up about talking to me and making requests. A fair number of them had even asked for skill resets and taken up trades in anticipation of being able to operate stores.

This led to my build lab seeing a lot more visitors than it had before. Some of them were skeletons who’d asked to start a business, others were their friends, with some merely curious lookie lou’s. I took it as a positive sign they were all feeling a little more secure, enough to openly express curiosity or offer advice and critiques.

The shopkeepers and skeletons both with and without illusions mingled and exchanged notes and ideas. I was flooded with design modification requests, plot change suggestions--everything under the sun.

I was overwhelmed with artistic work, and it was glorious. While all this was going on, they playfully used poker chips in lieu of coins or bartered for each other’s goods. I was having fun watching the proceedings and as the designs became more refined and I started moving them to the surface.

After a week, I felt like the layout was good enough to start putting down proper roads and other utilities. It wasn't like I couldn’t have sooner, but it would have complicated moving other bits. I also decided after some experimenting to go with the back of businesses facing where the streets would be with the customer side toward a park. Sidewalks were nice, but I wanted as pedestrian friendly a design as feasible.

Using a grid system with wide spacing kept the town fairly green and would hopefully make receiving and sending deliveries easier. The aesthetics of the street side of things would need some work, but that was true of most aspects of the design. I wasn’t a city planner in the traditional sense so a higher than normal amount of trial and error was bound to occur.

The part I was most concerned about though wasn’t aesthetic in nature. Sewers would be a must for the living and they just outright didn’t seem to be a thing from what Elim had told me. At least not a kind I was interested in adding to the valley.

Having toxic waste empty into the lake was not going to happen on my watch. No more than lead-based pipes would get anywhere near a home. I was already a bit lucky in that I had purification stones. They didn’t eliminate the entire problem, but they dealt with disease and other contaminants.

While I was working on the layout I got all of the magic users to put their heads together and consider solutions. Several spells were proposed to help round out the cleaning process. All of them had potential, but after some testing it was Aaron’s suggestion of Decay that ended up being the big winner.

Like the name suggested, the spell caused an acceleration of the rotting process of whatever it was cast on. It was technically an offensive spell that would wither whoever it was used on, but not a favorite. The cost and time to cast versus the effect made it better suited to a long-term curse rather than live combat.

Fortunately, it worked just fine on plant matter and corpses. In both cases it broke them down into a rather unexpectedly rich fertilizer. Understandably, Aaron wasn’t exactly excited by the prospect of his magic being used to create a sewer system.

Oddly, it didn’t take much cajoling on my part to get him to cooperate. I didn’t bother lying and saying this would improve the reputation of Sorcerers and their magic. I had no idea what the local population thought of them and why. Instead, I pointed out that no other magic discipline had the ability and everyone in the town would be relying on it.

That caught Aaron's interest. Reminding him to think of how the towns and cities of the living usually smelled and how the streets looked seemed to sell him on it. His magic would elevate the quality of this place considerably.

Given a new side project, Aaron retreated into his lab to plot how it would work, while I supplied him with a scale model of the planned layout. Since he didn’t have the system designed yet, it would have to change, probably a lot. I was editing it fairly frequently anyway as I figured out placement issues, but he said it was a useful visual aid.

At the end of the second week after the incident I had an informal inspection. Almost everyone responded enthusiastically to it, which was nice. On the eve of the event I felt a little anxious, but didn’t let it get to me. There probably wouldn’t be that big of a turnout and I’d been doing fine outside at night.

When I teleported into the town square it looked like there was some kind of undead festival afoot. A band of bards in a mixture of on and off illusions was playing a lively tune while a few pairs danced and everyone else went about whatever brand of merry-making suited them.

Some played cards and any other game on any level surface they could find. Others seemed to be out shopping, using chips as a currency. Chris was doing magic tricks. Or at least he was entertaining his comrades as he robbed them.

It was fun to watch, and for a long while I just stood and absorbed it. Even if all of my plans failed and my intentions came to nothing, seeing them have fun made my efforts feel valid. I still wanted to attract people and adventurers who were worth the all-mighty points, but I was content. No matter what happened, I’d never see this project as a failure.

“What are you looking for, Mistress?” Dawn asked me curiously.

“Huh?” I asked, jolted out of my reverie.

“You keep scanning the crowd,” Dawn clarified. I hadn’t heard her approach, but that was normal. The skeletons were generally light-footed even when I wasn’t distracted. The halflings were like bloody owls, never seeming to make a single sound unless they wanted to.

“Oh, no one… Well, maybe…” I hesitated. I wanted to say Henry, but it would be a lie. I knew where he was, even without looking at my map. The one I was looking for was the little dot up in the apartment with the ensuite training hall.

“I was hoping Henry would convince Andrea to come out,” I admitted. He’d been the one to suggest it might do her some good on top of being helpful. She was a living human from the current era who had lived nearby. Her opinion of the town would have been the most relevant one when it came to making sure it wasn’t too weird.

“It’s frustrating, but it might be for the best, for now,” Dawn said after a moment.

“Yeah, I want to help, but pressuring her likely wouldn’t end well,” I said and sighed. Andrea’s trauma wasn’t something I could ‘fix’.

Mental health had been a complicated field in my own world, and I hadn’t been an avid student of the sciences. Even if I had been, I didn’t have any of the tools, medicines, or professional resources I’d need to really be effective. Goodwill was important, but it would only get you so far.

“Speaking of Henry, I’m surprised not to see him,” Dawn said. She wasn’t scanning the crowd, but looking rather conspicuously at my side.

“He’ll be along soon, we agreed to meet up a bit later,” I said, waving off the matter. We did like spending time together, but we weren’t sewn to each other. He had a few things to finish and I’d wanted to look around a bit on my own. I was definitely looking forward to our date though.

Dawn looked at me with slightly narrowed eyes then gave me a little hip bump as she snorted. It seemed my thoughts were a bit transparent this evening.