By the end of the meeting, we hadn’t agreed on much beyond the few things the president, Pryte, and I had already discussed. Grant would be staying with us, which wasn’t really a downside; he was another set of hands who could help Trolke with the various construction projects and add his own expertise into strategy discussions. Earth’s actual military strength and processes would be an important knowledge base as all this progressed, so he was a welcome addition. How much exactly he would be willing to help us on that front would remain to be seen.

  Less welcome was the follow-up meeting they agreed on in two months. I understood why they wanted it, this was their world too, but one of my least favorite things in any part of the corporate world had been the meetings, and bringing that to my life in the form of semi monthly update meetings almost made me hope I died on the tenth floor to avoid that new hell. But no, this was all important for the future of the world, and like it or not, I had to be involved, at least until I figured out how to make Alex do it. I probably had to wait until after the baby was born for that one.

  Everyone had finally said their goodbyes, and a few new cell phones were passed out, with promises that the cell networks were one of the bigger priorities. I’d ask about Internet backbones in the next meeting, as I wanted to show the others the Internet and get their thoughts on my own quest there since it was still hanging incomplete. It still seemed like an odd concept that the Spiral was lacking to me. Depending on the damage to the undersea cables and any of the tier one networks, it could be a nightmare to get it fully working again, but it was something that I wanted to prioritize once we had food out of the way.

  I was starting to form some big plans in regards to scientific endeavors, and this was going to require better worldwide communication than just the cell networks would allow for. How many of my old engineering professors were still teaching? That was something to look into as well. As many academics as I could get on my side in the future would be a big boon. I’d need to start making a list of any colleagues who I thought would be interested in working with me again. I thought I had left behind this kind of networking once I retired, but apparently not.

  “Grant, I’m going to introduce you to two more people you haven’t met. Then I’m going to leave you with one of them for a bit so I can have a follow-up meeting over everything that was discussed today. I don’t want to say I’m kicking you out, but I’m guessing you understand from your background,” I said, leading the soldier back toward the kitchen. I needed him to meet Rabyn in a controlled environment before I let him just wander the property. Hopefully, Trolke had some work for him, though.

  ‘Entirely understood. If it helps at all, though, I do respect what you’ve been able to do so far for the planet, and I hope I can help you do even more good in the future,” the man replied with a nod of his head.

  “I appreciate that, and as for the first person you’re about to meet, he’s someone that we didn’t introduce to the delegation yet, but you are welcome to report back to them about it. I just didn’t want the fight while they were here,” I said, holding the door open for Grant before resuming. “This is Rabyn. He is an orc, but he has sworn service to us, and so far has been incredibly useful.”

  Grant looked ready to take a swing at Rabyn, took a step forward, then seemingly forced himself to stop. He was gritting his teeth as he spoke. “I will respect that you have him here, but I will do my best not to interact unless absolutely necessary,” he said, barely holding in a sound of rage.

  “Good enough, and if it helps at all, I realize that eventually we are going to have to have a trial for the actions he was part of,” I said, quickly leading him out of the kitchen. My words didn’t look to have remotely calmed him. Instead, we headed to the back yard, where Trolke was taking a break for a meal. “This is Trolke. He’s a giant we’ve hired on to help get some things built. Since we don’t have a lot for you to do at the moment, I was hoping you could more or less give him a hand as he needs it.”

  “Yeah, I can do that. Do we have somewhere for me to bunk up?” Grant asked, some of his anger had left his voice, but not nearly all.

  “That will be task number one, finishing the bunkhouse,” Trolke said after swallowing a bite of food.

  “Got it. Well, after you’re done with your meal, why don’t you walk me through what we need to work on? I won’t claim I’m much of a carpenter, but I’ve helped my family with enough construction projects over the years that I’m not bad at it,” Grant replied.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  “That’s better than most of the people around here,” Trolke said. I left them to their talk and made my way back to the table for the next big conversation of the night. Rabyn, John, Glorp, and the brothers had already sat down with everyone. I considered waiting for Maud but figured she would probably be happier skipping it anyway.

  “Well, that went okay enough,” Pryte said as I took my seat.

  “You think so?” I said, still not sure about this whole council thing.

  “Honestly, everything y’all agreed ta can just be taken back if ya really have ta,” Mel added.

  “Yeah, that’s why I think it went okay enough. We made an early power play, and then I went for straight diplomacy, and I think it worked out. I don’t know what their original plan was other than to milk us for as much information as possible, but I do think they are sincere, at least for now, on the whole council idea. Timon, how did you read the meeting?” Pryte asked.

  “One of those guys they said was a senator, that had to be an intelligence man. I’ve seen enough of the type to be able to spot them. I had Glorp and Chip do a little extra spy work as well. They had a lot of weapons in those cars of theirs, so they were ready for a fight if it came to one,” he answered.

  “Kind of figured that. The people driving the cars struck me as bodyguards,” Pryte said.

  “Could be Secret Service. That’s the force that protects the United States President, and it would make the most sense. It could also be military, depending on just who they found for protection. But this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. We’ve had enough Presidential assassinations in our history that they tend to always have guards,” I said as Alex and John both nodded along with my statement.

  “I also actually enjoyed my conversation with Mary. She was infinitely curious about my biology and history. She found the idea of a Paladin order, especially one dedicated to knowledge, fascinating. I would enjoy talking to her more. She shared a great deal about your world with me,” Elody added.

  “Mom is up to something. I don’t know what, but she was using that tone she does when she’s trying to handle us,” Alex said.

  “What? I thought she was just happy to see us,” John replied.

  “Let’s not fight about your mother. She’s a very skilled diplomat and likely has several spinning plates she isn’t about to tell us about, but I doubt any of them involve anything that hurts you two. You both are her world,” I said, cutting off any more debate in that direction.

  “The important thing here is how do we all feel about that meeting. Personally, as I said, I’m on the it went well side of things. Yeah, I don’t think they fully understand just how much power Dave really has, but as he grows stronger and the mana flow strengthens, it’s going to become very obvious where the power rests,” Pryte said.

  “I’m kind of in favor of a Council of Earth. I get that I’m supposed to be an emperor, and I guess I’m willing to do that as far as keeping everyone safe is concerned, but I do want others to have input on worldwide decisions. So I guess I’m as happy as I can be about it,” I said.

  “At least no one decided ta fight the integration. That’s happened before and doomed planets,” Mel said.

  “Yes, that could have been a giant problem. Mel is entirely correct there,” Elody agreed.

  “Connie, did you have to work much in the way of magic on anything?” Pryte asked, looking to the dwarf.

  “Nah, well I started too, when things looked like they might get hostile, but you calmed that down fast enough. For the most part, that was all worked out without me nudging much. Personally, for a bunch of humans, they seemed pretty decent, especially considering what happened to their planet. I’ve met a lot worse people,” she replied.

  “Good. Does anyone else have anything they want to bring up? Otherwise, we can probably call it a ni-” Pryte started to say before a loud crashing sound interrupted him. It had come from the kitchen.

  “What the hell?” I asked. My question was immediately answered as the moose ripped through the kitchen door into the room we were in, stopped, looked at all of us, and let out an ear-piercing scream.

  Of the varied classes able to shift form into other beasts, creatures, or species, few are as capable as the Master of Skins. Most classes only give limited benefits when shapeshifting, rarely taking on the entire aspect of the creature they shift into. The Master of Skins, though, can emulate nearly anything with flawless precision, given enough training. Some of the most skilled individuals are even capable of shifting directly into another person, gaining all the benefits of that person’s own skillset. Strangely, despite the power in a class like this, it has never been known to be utilized with the Arena.

  Classes Volume 2 by Zolinjar

  3500 Followers - Bonus Chapter

  ?????????? 80%

  750 Favorites - Bonus Chapter

  ?????????? 80%

  100 Subscriptions - 3 Bonus Chapters

  ?????????? 50%

  100 Members - Vote On 2 Bonus Excerpts

  ?????????? 40%

  Read up to 20 chapters ahead of Magical Engineering on my Patreon:

  Checkout the official

  And if you like my work, consider checking out my other ongoing series.