The next morning I woke up to two people hugging my body as if I was some kind of body pillow. Sophie was on my left, and Sei was on my right. I couldn't help but blush slightly at this because of everything that has been going on with Adel.
"Mufu…." I watched as Sei shifted and buried her head into my neck, causing me to feel a bit awkward. I raised my hand and brought it down with a fist of fury. No….. But I will shake her awake.
"Sei, wake up." I shook her shoulder, causing her to groan in annoyance, which resulted in her turning over and facing the other way. All that was left was to peel Sophie off me so I could get up, and I was golden. Luckily with Sophie, she never really held on tight so slipping out of her grip was always easy.
Once I was free, I got up and crawled out of the tent before zipping the door back up. Once I could finally stand, I stretched and took a deep breath of the crisp morning air. "Seems winter is around the corner."
"Morning, Faith. Want a cup?" Thurul's voice caught my attention. I turned to see him tending to the fire brewing what looked to be this world's equivalent to coffee. It was a bit stronger, but it was sweet instead of bitter, which I found appealing.
"Sure. where did you get that from?" I was confused. I did not see him bringing anything in.
"Melinda gave me some when she saw me tending to the fire. This stuff is great when you have a hangover." Thurul said with a self defeating smile. I could tell he was feeling it. He did drink a lot last night.
"Next time, don't start drinking contests with the King." I said in a teasing voice, causing him to chuckle.
"Well. It is kind of hard to ignore a request from the ruler of the kingdom. But I must say for a human, he is a good man. He understands the meaning of being a ruler." Thurul seemed to be one who did not praise people much, so I guess this was a good thing coming from him.
"He is indeed a good King. Sadly his son or sons, are not the best. I do not know what will need to be done before they are ready to take over for him. Maybe if we can figure out a way to make the King live forever, then Gravos will always prosper." I said this as a joke, but it made me wonder what I could do for my family. I had thought about trying to share my mana with them, but that would not really give them infinity mana. They would only never use the mana they have. Or whatever was used would be refilled instantly. If mana is what extends life based on your mana capacity, how would I go about extending the lives of others?
"Hmmm… Us dwarves are already a long lived race, much longer than humans. We can live to be six hundred years old or more. And even then, with all of our technology, we still can not figure out a way to extend the lives of others. Sadly the same goes for the elves who are masters of magic." Thurul explained as he took a sip of his coffee while passing me another cup.
The warm cup in my hands made the morning chill vanish as I blew on the top to watch the steam come out of my mouth. "I wonder…. I had once thought about sharing mana, but that doesn't solve the underlying issue. It is the max mana one can hold that allows their lives to be extended."
"That is the case. Once a person is born their life expectancy will be decided. If you are able to have above average mana as a human, you may live a few hundred years. But it also is based on race as well. I'd say your race is able to live just as long as we dwarves, if not longer. While those pointy ears will live to be a thousand or so years old. But this is because they combine their mana capacity with their race." Thurul let out a sigh. I guess he was jealous of the elves.
"I plan to research it a bit when I reach the academy. I hope to be able to dive into the library there and find some things that might help." I could only hope that maybe I could find something sooner rather than later.
"Ahhhh!" A loud ear piercing scream came from within the tent, and the sound of skin on skin was heard. I watched as a red faced Sophie crawled out of the tent in a hurry and dived into my arms.
"Sophie!?" It is good that I was paying attention, or my coffee would have gone everywhere!
"Sophie, did you need to freak out like that? I mean, you slapped me good! It's not like I meant to hug you like that!" Sei came crawling out as well with a large handprint on her face. I guess Sei must have rolled back over and clung on to Sophie, and with Sophie's inability to handle others well, I can imagine Sophie's reaction.
"Sei, Sophie is not good with others as it is. I mean, I had to roll you over myself this morning because you clung on like I was your pillow." I couldn't help but sigh. It's not like Sei knows what she is doing while she is asleep. It is basically impossible to know unless you record yourself sleeping.
"Well…. Sorry…." Sei pursed her lips and apologized.
"See, Sophie, she didn't mean to." I said while scratching the fox girl's ears. Sophie turned her head and looked at her, still red in the face. Only after a few more minutes of coaxing did she finally stand up and sit next to me but still kept her distance from Sei.
"Here's you two go. Drink this and calm your nerves." Thurul handed two more cups of coffee out. "I will go back today and finish up some more product. With the cast, I think I can get around another hundred done today. Once you get the field clear and need to get the factory going, let me know. I will work on a really nice forge setup that will allow you to make a few hundred at a time."
"I owe you a big one, Thurul. You are doing ninety percent of the work right now. We can adjust the contract if you want a bigger cut." I felt bad at this rate, even ten percent was kind of low.
"No, it's fine. Just when you get things set up here, I would like you to take a trip to my kingdom and set up shop there as well. Not so much with the pens but your other idea there." I guess he is talking about the hover carriages. They would make things much easier, especially if they are hauling lots of goods around.
"I would need to talk with His Majesty before I make any decisions outside the kingdom itself. Maybe if we signed a trade agreement or some kind of alliance between the two nations." I really did not know how that all worked, so I was just speaking what came to mind.
"Hmmm… alliance, huh? That may be possible. But we will need to wait until an actual prototype is actually working and call over a delegation to see it themselves. Bah! Politics was never my thing." Thurul downed his cup of coffee in one go and stood up. "I be off. You take care, Lass."
"Mmm… You too! Make sure you come to the tournament to watch me win!" I said with a wide grin.
Thurul smiled back as he said: "You betcha!"
"Not if I can help it!" Sei must have seen my declaration as a challenge because she quickly jumped in on my words.
"Okay, let's finish up our coffee and start on that barrier!" I really wanted to know the inner workings of these barriers that allowed you to register people to them. This would make things much easier later on.
Thirty minutes later, I was standing next to Sei in front of a large stone we had just moved and embedded into the ground in the center of the plot of land. This was just a large rock, nothing really special about it, but that was what was to come next. "Okay, to do a barrier correctly, we will use this stone as its core. Now the trick is the inscription. First, cast the barrier you wish to use. I would suggest one that blocks people from leaving or entering. The idea is to make the barrier as strong as possible. The core itself will then be protected by a multi layer barrier making it impossible to break from the inside unless the person is stronger than the caster."
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