Chapter 267: Chapter 267

“Everyone is staring at us.” James says uneasily as the group enters Long Fang City after the battle.

“We called hundreds of Dragons and Drakes right on the edge of town. Of course they’re staring.” Nemu points out to the panicking Royal.

“You get used to it.” Nila adds with a smile, making James shake his head as if to refute any such possibility. The idea of getting used to days like this just doesn’t compute. At least at home, with Nobles trying to assassinate him he knew what was going on and could process it.

“Look on the bright side, you’re bound to get even more levels, and you’ve already made first advancement. Not bad for a day away from home. We’ll sort this out then fly you back to the Castle in the morning before anyone misses you at court.”

“Can we not fly?” James begs, not looking forward to doing that again.

“How about on a Dark Phoenix next time? They fly through the void and not the air, maybe you’ll like that better?” Cain suggests with an evil grin. The void is even more unsettling than the heights in his opinion. 

James gives a noncommittal noise Cain takes as a maybe, so he lets the topic drop while they walk the rest of the distance towards the town center in silence.

“Welcome back Duke Cain. That was quite the show you put on. I take it the Gnoll threat has been taken care of?” Administrator Damien greets them outside his office.

“That it has. We should have a few more completions of the Gnoll killing quests as well. Plus, with the area clear and over a thousand dead, I believe we’re close to the Territory quest.” Damien looks a bit startled at that, but quicky recovers his composure and double checks the quest requirements in his documents.

“Just the defense force to be stationed and two major improvements, a condition that the locals must agree had been completed. Did you have anything in mind?” Damien asks, putting the documents back in his ever present briefcase.

“Not yet. I was wondering what the people needed? The valley is in pretty good shape, so the answer wasn’t clear right away.”

“The top complaints are usually about the road out of the other side of the Valley, headed towards the farming villages inland of the coast. It’s no more than a dirt double track that the wagons have carved. The next would be a dam for the river to reduce spring storm surge, or a Master Smith to upgrade tools, if you can attract one to such a backwater place. The locals really don’t expect much other than that, they’re used to living simply.”

Those things are all worthy tasks, and sound complex, but they might all be possible for Cain, and in a short time frame. Being able to use a load of summons to accomplish a task instead of needing to hire multiple specialists that may not exist locally puts Cain on an entirely different level than a standard infrastructure contractor.

“Do you have a topographical map of where they want the dam to be built? If I’m going to do that I need to make sure it won’t flood anyone out or block any roads.”

The river comes down out of the hills to the east, through a bowl shaped valley and then into the river bottom where Long Fang City is. Building it would cut down on rainy season flooding by a lot, as well as provide more reliable water in the dry season, increasing crop yield. Cain just needs to check the affected area for residents.

“How about we get everyone settled in for the night and I’ll go take a quick look at the necessary upgrades?” Cain suggests and Damien smiles at this new Duke’s enthusiasm.

“Certainly, I’ve booked the entire top floor of the hotel for you and your entourage. Feel free to pick any room you like, we don’t have any other visitors today since the Merchant’s Guild provides a room to their members.”

The Inn is an interesting place, a three level pagoda style building, with a large swimming pool in the back, but to everyone’s disappointment, no hot tub. The beds are comfortable though, and the walls are thick, so it should be good sleeping.

At first James thinks he’s going to get a room to himself, a change from his usual life where staff constantly barges in to take care of something or another, but that dream is quickly squashed. Nemu and Vala declare that they will be guarding him tonight, while Mythryll is bunking with Nila and Evangeline is with Misha while Cain and Laura head out to inspect the work to be done.

Cain decides to leave right after a local vegetable heavy and exquisitely spiced dinner, before the King finds out that Nemu doesn’t do personal space and fully intends to cuddle. He’s also reasonably certain that Vala is only on guard duty in his chambers for the entertainment factor.

Cain transforms back into the Golden Proto Dragon once Laura and him clear the edge of the town and reach the open space of the fields, the three Dragons taking to the sky with a causal grace.

“Alright, the plan is to scout the road to the next village over, then I’ll glass the path on the way back and you can cool it. That would give them a smooth, even surface for the road, with no more mud and ruts.” Cain suggests and Laura thinks about it a while.

“That might be too smooth. We should get some gravel to drop on it as it cools, give a bit of grip and texture so it’s not like walking on ice.” Laura has a point, Cain decides. But neither of them know where to get large amounts of gravel.

The next solution they come up with is Cain’s [Acid Rain] Spell. The impact of raindrops on the cooling stone should give the surface a nice dimpled texture. It would be better if they could create a hailstorm though. Certainly one of the many Shamans Cain can Summon has one, but it would take ages to find the right Shaman if he’s unlucky, and if the Acid Rain doesn’t work, Laura has a variety of Ice magic.

It’s a short flight to the next village, only ten Kilometers away. They don’t see a single traveler along or even near the road, so they decide now is as good of a time as any to terrify the villagers and get right to work upgrading the road.

Cain ends up needing to make a very slow pass, with his breath near minimum output, creating a meter thick layer of molten rock, with three copies of acid rain active plus Laura’s Ice Fog Breath to give the new road a non skid texture. Not as fast as he had hoped, but a very good surface.

The ten Kilometers that took them minutes to travel takes them half the night to resurface on their way back, but by midnight the road is done right to where it turns to cobblestones inside Long Fang River Valley.

That’s one project done and they’re off to check the canyon the city would like to flood for the dam.

Cain can tell that idea is a no go even before they cross the ridge where the dam should be built. Multiple lights, filtered through windows and hung in trees are visible from the night sky, scattered all over the valley. Building a dam would flood them all out.

So, they keep going, checking the next valley, one that was beyond the edge of the map Cain looked at. It’s similarly suitable in shape, a hole between rocky hills that slopes downward towards the valley. But this one is destroyed, every tree is cut down, the river is full of debris and trash from a large army sized camp is everywhere.

That doesn’t seem like something the occupants of the first valley would do, they’re very much in tune with nature from what Cain can see. The scene below becomes clear and easy to understand at the Dragons descend on the valley though. The long term camps were all on one side of the river, but a monumental battle took place here recently. Among the debris and destruction are tens of thousands of bodies, all stripped clem of weapons and armor but many of the flags and pennants remain.

The bodies are a mix of Beastkin and humans, with one army aligned to a pair of Nobles that Cain doesn’t recognize by symbol, while the other bears the Royal crest. One of the more influential Royals fell here, and it wasn’t easy to take them down. Going by the destruction, they likely spent half a year in this valley a day’s march from the Capital before the final battle. The duration seems odd, but Cain decides he can ask the King about it later if they get the chance.

There aren’t any caves or other features that might let the water escape, this really is the perfect spot for a dam, so Cain calls on the Kone clones again, bringing an army of Dragons to the valley and ordering them to move all the bodies out of the Valley to a sheltered spot in the hills. If they see anyone who looks like he might have been important, they’re instructed to keep them separate for future identification.

They might not have relatives left, and the bodies have been mostly picked clean, but if anyone’s coming looking for them, he doesn’t want to make it too hard to identify their lost allies and loved ones.

Moving them all out of the Valley so they don’t spoil the waters takes until sunrise, but now all that’s left is a bunch of rags, broken spears and tent canvas. He can build the dam with that all there and just send a crew to clean it up once the waters start to rise.

The team of Dwarven Earth Mages plus the Granite Elementals are called for this job, their skills in stone buildings and architecture coming in handy once again.

By their determination, the dam should be no more than thirty meters high, any more would spill from one of the low points around the valley. They quicky design a structure, complete with adjustable gates made entirely of stone and local copper found under the valley floor.

With those in place, the water level can be properly controlled once the reservoir is full. For now, the setting reduces the flow to two thirds of what the river banks can hold, only a little lower than the current height of the river, and definitely not low enough to cause a drought on the other side.

It’s done, and now that they’ve gotten both projects for Long Fang City complete, all that’s left is to inform the residents of the first valley about the new water feature, so they don’t misunderstand and tear it down.