Frostbound
Chapter 317 - Well Laid Plans

Chris

Frostheim

"The expansion is going well and the first stage should be completed in a few weeks." Abigail listed from her sheet, "Are you any closer on the elevator research?"

"I'm getting there," I said, holding back a sigh. It honestly wasn't on the top of my list of priorities, but I wasn't going to tell her that. "Miles will have better luck than I will."

Abigail scoffed, "You really think his living gondola will work?"

"Hell if I know. Doesn't hurt to try."

Miles claimed that an easy way to facilitate travel up and down the cliff face was through a Living Gondola. He proposed finding a vine or creeping plant and growing it into a sort of lift to bring people up and down.

It would require Nature or Plant Mages to run, but it wasn't that far-fetched of an idea when you thought about it.

"I'd trust an electric elevator over plants," Abigail was against the idea. "We also don't have a lot of Nature Mages and those we do are focused on planting."

Her eyes searched through the Meeting Room filled with the entire Council to find Phillips. He was in charge of most of the expansion effort and was our Head Builder. "Phillip, how goes the rollout of electricity?"

That was a milestone everyone celebrated. Miles and Gabriel had finally cracked it. It took nearly 8 months since returning, but it was nice to have the win.

"With most of my crew held up with the expansion effort, the rollout is slow but moving. Being able to sink the wires into the ground instead of ripping everything up is perfect." Phillip reported.

I had long gotten used to his accent and even the occasional French word he used didn't trip me up anymore. I wasn't actively learning the language, but passive exposure was doing something at least. Phillip wasn't the only French Canadian in the city.

"We have yet to come up with how we are going to pay for it, yet you're already moving on to implementation?" Hal complained.

"I don't see why we can't use meters like before?" Sam proposed. "Charge based on how much they use."

"We don't have nearly enough meters to put one for every household. We only have a few and they were meant for testing, not to track usage." Vincent said. He was the one in charge of making them. Well, telling people to make them. He didn't make them personally.

"As I said before, that isn't important right now. This is a big thing and should be pushed out as soon as we have it. It will raise morale and give people something to be excited about." Abigail loudly cut off further conversation. "Not to mention extremely useful."

"If we have to, we'll just eat the cost until we have something set up. With Miles working to refine the process, it should become cheaper to generate." She continued.

"If he doesn't blow himself up first," Hal muttered.

I smirked at that. Gabriel had explained in detail some of the... accidents they'd had. Miles was a full-steam-ahead man who only looked back after something bad happened.

"Ahem," Abigail drew attention back to her. "Next up, we have Frostfall. Hal, if you would."

"Still a dumb name," Hal began, "The Order members we sent with Samuel have come back and reported that their claim was successful. Their pylon is up to the Village Level with our help and he plans to keep it there.

"As they are now, they'll need a bit of help with the Wave comes around, but now that it only happens once every two months, that shouldn't be an issue. One or two members should do the trick."

"How are the fields? Did they bring enough Farmers? Are they set on food?" Abigail asked as Hal had only reported the Security situation.

"The Order stayed to help plow a few acres for them but that was all. If they created more since then, I don't know. By the time they were leaving, planting was just finishing up. The Hunters they have are capable so they should be fine." Hal said.

Abigail nodded, "Good."

"Next, Ashton has sent word about his troubles to the East. Supposedly, their forest is infested with Goblins and other such monsters hindering their travel and trade."

"Ha, serves him right." Hal snorted. He didn't have the greatest opinion of the man. "What does that have to do with us, though?"

"If it cuts Ashton off from the East, it cuts us off from the East. We were expecting a lot in trade from the new Faction he joined. They have most of Eastern Canada under control with a lot of people and goods that will flow if we can link them."

Elliot rarely spoke up at these meetings since he'd been added to them. As a Captain of one of the Orders, he had a place here. "If we send aid, it will be good for training as well. Not any nearing their evolution, but those that are lower in level."

Most of the Order had either evolved or were close to it. The test was a major Essence gain for them, but there were the few who stayed behind to protect the City and others who had joined after.

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Hal grunted but didn't disagree. "We are running short on good opportunities around here. Other than the Dungeons, there isn't much else to fight."

Hal pointedly looked at me, but I didn't show any expression. Technically, it was my fault but I didn't much care. Going out to hit things was therapeutic. It wasn't my fault that the beasts wizened up and started to stay away. Especially the lower-level ones that were needed for training.

Abigail looked at me making it my decision of if we were going to send anybody.

"We can ask but if he declines, we'll find somewhere else," I said. "There are Dungeon breaks happening elsewhere we can use."

While humanity had spread out to reclaim land quickly after being returned, we still weren't everywhere yet. There were areas that were left abandoned for one reason or another, usually due to being in a dangerous area. No one living in the area left the Dungeons undelved.

Those then broke, releasing waves of monsters to only make the area more dangerous. It was a downward spiral that only got worse with time. It also worsened as mana levels continued to rise.

Both Elliot and Hal nodded.

"We have some good news next. Rachel managed to finalize our Trade with Vanessa. Our Metal and Earth Techniques for their Fire Techniques. Together it works out to a somewhat even trade since they have a lot more Fire Techniques than we have of Metal and Earth. We won't be getting their best, but we also aren't giving them our best, so it evens out." Abigail announced.

It wasn't a surprise they picked those. They were the two that meshed best with Fire. Rachel had left for the Eternal Flame faction shortly after returning and hoped to facilitate such a trade while there. She needed the Flame for a few things before evolving.

"Transposing through a Communication Stone is... challenging, but it's getting done." I knew she wanted to use more colorful words but held back in the current company.

Grace was the one bearing the brunt of it. I lent Sophia to help when she could, but most of the books would be written by Grace.

"Do we know how much longer my men have to play middleman?" Hal asked.

We'd worked out how to make the Communication Stones Tracy had given me but they weren't the best for distance. They weren't powerful enough to reach Eternal Flame Falls from here and required people to sit in between to relay the signal.

That honor fell to Hal's Order, as his Scouts were both the quickest and had a skillset beneficial to camping in the middle of nowhere for an extended period of time.

"Not much longer," Abigail answered, "A few days at most."

With the meeting wrapping up, there was only one last thing on the agenda. Once that was unfortunate for me, but good for the whole.

"As a reminder," Abigail started, "I will be leaving for the Twins next week. Grace and Sophia will be taking up much of my duties, but if there are any pressing concerns, Chris will be taking them up."

Hal openly laughed and even Vincent chuckled a little bit.

I was not looking forward to the experience, but I would do it. It would cut into my forging time, but that was life.

A part of me wished some idiots would try me. It would at least make it more entertaining.

___

Victor

Lakeshore

Those bastards have both their Dungeons at D-rank now! That's absurd!

One of the many things Victor wished he'd done differently was to place his pylon in a different area. He hadn't thought much of it at the time, they'd had a source of fresh water, there was a Dungeon nearby, and it was close to his previous home. Perfect, right?

Now that he knew more, he wanted to go back and gut his past self.

Sure, there was a Dungeon, but there was only one. The barbarians in the North had two and the Twins had three! If only he'd known. So much for a tutorial, he scoffed, you'd think it would tell you things like that.

Thinking about that time made his blood boil. He didn't lose his entire family or get torn away from his loved ones like so many others had. His anger came from a different source.

A source he knew would come back to haunt him.

"Your regret is meaningless. You signed the contract. You knew what you were doing." the voice taunted. It had been with him every since he signed that blighted contract.

Get out of my head! Victor yelled in his mind only for the voice to chuckle darkly, but it did recede.

You did it for survival. It was necessary. The usual platitudes he told himself tasted more and more like sand in his mouth the longer it went on. Victor knew the truth, even if he tried to blind himself from it.

With blessed silence, Victor went back to planning. With both the Northern Dungeons at D-rank already, things would only grow more skewed as time went on.

From the reports and pieces he'd been able to pick up, Frostheim was already stronger than what Victor could cobble together from his contracted army. Fort Hope would be easier, but they didn't have much to gain. Only one Dungeon not much further ahead than the one Victor already controlled.

To boost my Dungeon, I need their crystals.

The mine had been a sore spot ever since he'd learned about it. If they had been less open, I could have kept it to myself, but no...

"You're thinking about it too hard," a voice not in his own head said.

It startled him so much that he nearly yelped, and he'd worked hard to craft an image of an unflappable leader.

"How many times have I told you, Maeve, not to sneak up on me." He ground the words out through grit teeth. A spike of anger rising again.

"I'll ignore it like all the rest." the woman goaded, knowing it was a source of endless frustration for him. "But you're thinking about it too hard. All you have to do is get your hands on some of the crystals."

"I know that, but we can't very well mount a full frontal attack," Victor sneered, "The man and his hammer will crush us."

"I didn't say to mount a frontal attack, now did I," she lounged on a couch inside his office like she owned it. Her dark black hair cascaded over one armrest while her feet kicked over the other.

Another thing she knew Victor hated.

"Do you think he could storm the walls? I highly doubt it. All you have to do is get the crystals and get back. If he attacks, you'll have the advantage. Who knows, you might even win if he attacks recklessly. He goes out often to kill monsters in anger. You can use that." Maeve stated like she wasn't talking about poking the bear. More like setting the bear on fire, really.

"We both know what he did to the Demons, what makes you think we'll fare any better?" Victor shot back.

Instead of a snarky remark, the woman's lilting laughter filled his office instead. She was laughing at him! "We? Who is this we? I'm only hear because I was told to be. I don't care if this shithole goes up in flames. I can just leave."

That was the largest source of Victor's annoyance with the woman. The knowledge that he couldn't touch her, even if he had the opportunity. In a fight, he wasn't sure he would win but it wouldn't even get to that point. Not with the contract.

I can't attack now, I need to be ready for when things kick off in the South. Now that things have cooled off, I need to delay, not rush ahead. But... if I can get the crystals and get back, things would be much easier.

I can't...

Could he really storm the Walls?

He could if he evolves before I do. That shortens the window tremendously.

He played the ideas out in his head but couldn't settle on one. The longer he waited, the worse his situation would become, but he also couldn't hamstring himself by being reckless, no matter what Maeve said. Goading or not.

I'll scout it now. It doesn't hurt to put a plan together. I don't have to use it.