Len cracked his eyes as a knocker tapped on his room's window, he rolled out from the warmth of his blanket and went to the window, his mana sight revealing one man on the other side of the window, he opened it and grabbing the coins from the sideboard.
"Thanks," He offered the coins.
"Morning," The man took them and continued off to the other farms.
Len closed the window as he heard the man knocking on another window.
Rick grunted from his bed to let him know he was awake.
Len cast cleanse on himself, looking around the room blearily.
His mother and father had been busy, building a second story onto the farmhouse and adding single rooms for everyone. Which included a guest room, Rick and Len shared. Lydia took lens room instead as it had only a single bed.
Little magic, little know how and you can build pretty much anything.
"Too damn early," Rick grumbled, his voice rough from sleep.
"Early catches the... whatever it is that works with trains." He started changing into the uniform they'd got yesterday.
The clothing was rugged and sturdy, better than the stuff he'd purchased in Eskon.
The best dungeoneers didn't care about their appearance, only what the effect of their gear would have on them surviving.
Rick flung his blanket back with a jerk, giving Len a look. "You know what works with trains? Sleep. In comfortable carriages, not on dusty floors."
Len rolled his eyes but couldn't help grin. "Come on, you love this as much as I do."
"I love the part when we find mana-infused gadgets. Waking up at this ungodly hour though? Not so much."
They moved together getting ready.
He pulled out his old clothing, worn from the fighting and use, putting it on the bed, he might use it later on, or it could be used for something else.
Then he started pulling out the rest of his gear, donning his armor and bracers, he left his helmet in his bag—always nicer when he could get by without wearing it.
Then the sword belt went on, outfitted with pouches of gear.
"Going to be nice when we can get some firepower," Len said.
"I thought you'd do that the last time we were here," Rick said.
"We don't have a mana stable powder yet. We also didn't have a steady stream of mana stone coming in to power up an enchanted gun."
"What about the finger poppers?"
Len opened his mouth and tilted his head to the side.
"You didn't think about it," Rick said
"Well they're really inefficient using your own mana to hurl a bullet," Len said.
"But they work and we're in the business of if it works?" Rick looked at Len.
"Then its useful," Len muttered.
"Right you are," Rick's voice was muffled as he slipped on his vest. "Even after a dozen cleanse spells it still smells like sweaty ass in here."
"That's your own funk," Len said as he threw on his pack and opened the bedroom door.
He sniffed the air. Tea?
He followed the scent, with Rick following, finding his father and Lydia already seated at the kitchen's small table. Edward had set out four cups, steam rising from each.
He'd activated one of the light crystals illuminating the room.
"Morning," Len said, taking a seat across from Lydia. Her hair was pulled back tight, ready for the day ahead.
"Good morning boys I hope you had a good sleep."
Rick grunted and Lydia grunted back. "Thanks for the tea." Rick said as he sat down nursing his cup.
"Slept well, nice to have a bed for once," Len said. "Less knots in the morning I find."
Len savored the warmth of the tea, letting it chase away the last remnants of sleep. The familiar blend of herbs his mother grew in her garden brought back memories of countless mornings just like this one, before everything had changed.
"So I won't be going with the advanced group like you lads. I'll be in the second convoy helping the engineers. We've got a mix of these Xinta engineers and those from the Isendia mercenaries."
"Why not?" len asked.
"Well the simple truth is while I know a lot about trains and I'm really interested in them and steam engines I don't have the practical knowledge that the Xintas bring with them. There's still lots I need to learn which is exciting," He held up a hand forestalling any complaints. "As I've been learning I've been more interested in steam engines and trains instead of all things steam powered."
"Okay?" Len said, Trying to figure out where this was leading.
"If we're going to have trains running across all of the continent I'd kind of like to be part of that. Running the trains building the tracks maintaining them That's all exciting to me."
" If that's what did you want." Line shrugged taking a drink of his tea. "Who am I to stop you I hope you enjoy it life's too short And I can't think of anything that's more rewarding than doing the thing you love every day. I'm also too damn old to try and argue with everyone to tell them what the thing is that they should do instead of just wishing them good luck on what they want to do."
"Right ornery old bastard," Rick agreed.
"Don't listen to him he's an asshole in the morning," Len said.
Edward chuckled as tension bled out of his body that Len hadn't recognized until it left.
They finished their drinks in comfortable silence. Len stood first, adjusting the sword at his hip. Rick and Lydia followed suit, gathering their gear.
The morning air was crisp as they stepped outside, dew still clinging to the grass. They set off down the path toward Goran, their boots crunching on the gravel.
***
Goran had transformed since they'd been there last. Where crumbling buildings once stood, neat rows of new structures lined freshly paved streets. Len's gaze swept over the half-finished walls - massive stone blocks fused into a whole, with gaps where gates would soon stand.
Light crystals had been matched with enchantments to boost their light output and polished metal to create floodlights that bathed the road.
Second Company soldiers manned a temporary checkpoint at what would become the main gate.
They stood off to the side, watching the minimal morning traffic continue through.
Proper fused stone streets cut through the city slightly sloped to direct water into toward stone-lined drainage channels that ran alongside them.
"See those plots?" Edward pointed to squares of tilled earth between buildings. "Every family gets space to grow their own food. They don't have growing Enchantments just yet, but they do have the heating crystals to stop frost from killing off the plants."
"Lets everyone do something about their own food and reduces strain on the farms."
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"See that over there." Edward gestured toward a skeletal structure rising above the rooftops. "Water tower. Christina designed it. It'll have a water condenser enchantment at the top. Then the water will flow from the tower through the pipes into people's buildings reducing the need to put a water condensing enchantment on every single building and giving us even more water in reserve."
"It's the fourth such tower the first one's already up and working Edward peered through buildings squinting and pointing "You see it over there?"
One caught a glimpse of the bulbous stone tower it stood on four legs with a single stone column dropping into the ground the upper section was made of wood creating a huge container.
"Water flows through the tower couple of guys cast Cleanse spells on the water as it passes through. Burns through their mana Right quick we've got four people working on it a day just to keep them fresh."
Rick shot Len a pointed look. Len sighed, knowing what his friend was thinking. A enchantment casting cleanse upon the water could run indefinitely freeing up those people for other tasks.
He's right, Len grimaced. At least he'd admitted it in the safety of his own mind.
The fact was in this time and age, there wasn't anyone else he knew who knew enchanting so it would fall on him to teach.
Adrian said that there were some people that were trying to learn it already. I'll start with them.
The basics weren't hard - anyone with decent mana control could learn simple enchantments. He'd focus on those that could then train others and multiply their capabilities significantly.
"I'm going to head off to the barracks got paperwork to do and we're going to be put on a new training schedule to make expedition squads," Lydia said.
"Might be worth staying around," Rick said. "Len's got something to show the troops."
"Okay," Lydia shrugged.
"Still be a little bit of time before all the troops arrive," Len said.
"Well before that Len do you want to see what we've been doing?" Edward asked.
"Yeah dad I'd love that," Len said.
"Meet you down at the warehouses set aside for the trains?" Rick asked.
"That works. Could you give me a rifle and a couple of bullets?"
"Can do see you in a bit. Thank you for hosting us Edward, your wife put on quite the feast."
"Any friend of Len's is more than welcome," Edward bobbed his head in thanks, smiling.
Rick waved them off and headed towards the industrial district.
Len's father took him on a different route.
"The Xintas have revolutionized the steel production in Goran. Or will, see that over there," Edward pointed at buildings that were going up in the growing industrial district around the train tracks.
"Yeah, the new buildings?"
"Those are going to be one facility, iron will go in and steel will come out. We've gone through several different blast furnace designs. They've come up with a general form, but they're interested in talking to you about the enchantments that we can add into increase the air movement and heat retained," Edward said.
"Okay, I can have a look at those plans while we're recovering the train, see if there's anything that I can help with," Len said.
"I didn't realize just how difficult enchanting was until I started talking to Gretchen and her people. I took a look at some of the books that came in from the library. I—well its something beyond me."
"For now," Len said.
"For now, yes, I might come to understand it more in the future, though I think that I'm better suited for mechanical things, instead of the runes and lines that you work with and the calculations—Gretchen was telling me about them. Whole different thing to calculate out how much the material can take of mana passing through it at any given time." Edward chuckled. "It is a fascinating time, all of these new things getting layered on with old knowledge and turned into something different entirely."
Edward led Len through the growing industrial district, pointing out buildings under construction.
"The Xintas want to set up two main facilities - one for the trains themselves, another for all the parts that go into making the railroad work. Rails, ties, spikes, that sort of thing."
Len nodded, studying the layout. The buildings were positioned near the existing rail line for easy transport. Smart.
"Christina's already drawn up plans for specialized machinery. Says it'll let them produce standardized parts faster than individual craftsmen could manage," Edward explained.
An idea sparked in Len's mind as he observed workers laying track nearby. The manual labor was slow, requiring precise measurements and careful placement.
"So I've been thinking about making a specialized cart for some time. One that clears the path ahead of it, forms it into a railroad, you only have to move it. I'd like to get it to the point that it doesn't need materials and supplies but can turn nearly anything into train track," Len said.
"Going to still need bridges," His father said.
"If we know where there is going to be water or canyons we could go underneath instead."
"Though that would make all of the trains go underground," His father checked around them and Len created a bubble of disruptive air around them that wouldn't allow anyone to listen in.
"I've seen these second train station that runs underneath Goran They've been moving a massive amount of material to create the train track. How would the train remove all of that and keep going?"
"You'd have to break up all the materials ahead then compress them into supports to hold up the ceiling and tracks. The train keeps moving on the tracks created. You are correct there will be extra material left over." Len cast his gaze higher, thinking. "In that case would need to have some kind of collector attached to following train cars, maybe scoops off to the side that would funnel the broken down material on the sides of what the train has built into empty train cars?" Len nodded to himself. "I Think that would work you would just have to stop everything once the rubble collecting cars are filled. Then its a matter of, do you pull the train back, or do you have another train moving back and forth emptying the train cars on the building train before it fills up completely and then dumping it all at the end of the tracks, before returning and doing it all over again?"
"Would that still take more time than making it above ground?" Edward asked.
"Well if you were doing it above ground I'd reverse it, the train cars filled with stone, then feed it to the forward building car. Then that would Use the stone to create a railroad ahead of the train it would be a lot faster as it doesn't have to breakdown material as it moves which is going to be hugely mana intensive requiring probably Mana stones or mana cores. Would stone actually work as railroads the actual rails themself?"
I'm not sure but my guts telling me that if you would have a heavy train running over stone stone doesn't flex it cracks whereas metal will flex allowing it to shift under a load."
"And stone is a lot more susceptible to the elements," Len nodded. "Okay so we're going to need iron or steel for the rails themselves the trains main function is going to be cutting through the stone and whatever is ahead of it feeding the material into carts then drawing up steel rails and putting them down," Len said.
"For a railroad you need to make sure that there is a ballast so crushed stone or gravel underneath then you have the rail ties or sleepers, on top of that is your actual rails which are kept in place with fasteners such as spikes," Edward said.
"The Sleepers would have the same problem as making rails out of stone. You need to reinforce them. If you could use some of the crush stone and put it into molds add in steel rods fuse it all together into sleepers. Turn the train into a factory on wheels."
"That sounds like quite a lot to start out with," His father said.
"I think to start it might be best to have each train car doing something different. So a leading train car that grades the area ahead and prepares it. Then you have a second train car laying down all of the railroad parts then probably have the train engine itself, followed by cars that would make the rails sleepers and ties from gathered materials or stored materials. You'd need people working on it it, so a train car for people to live in. Then the following train cars are just filled with materials to support the railroads building or to be shuttled to some dumping location."
"I don't think we'll be able to complete anything like that soon," Edward admitted
I don't think we need to build anything that advance right now. Instead we can use the skills that we have the abilities that we have to speed up and do the process ourselves. Though in the future I see it happening where the train is able to build its own passage. We can speed up the process by getting others to make the train cars and modify them to our own needs."
"Seven train carts got derailed with the engine. The rest were hooked up to new freight engines and hauled off to Vordun."
"Are there still supplies on the trains?"
" I think that all probably got recovered by the train company. Doubtful they'd want to leave anything with profit behind," Edward said.
Their journey had brought them back to the warehouses where everyone was preparing.
It buzzed with activity as workers loaded supplies onto carts. He slowed his steps checking the tools - hammers, picks, shovels bolts, sheets of steel of different gauges. Everything they'd need to repair a train engine.
"I think they're waiting for you Len," His father pointed to Rick, the Xinta's as well as a few officers, one wearing the markings of infantry, the other for the engineers.
"Look after yourself and see you at the train," Len's father hugged him.
"First train engine," Len grinned.
"First train engine," Edward chuckled and patted him on the shoulders.
Len started walking off.
"Remember when someone's asking who's your favorite kid!"
"You all are," Edward said.
Len clicked his tongue and shook his head, but smiled.
"Len, this is Lieutenant Simmons," Rick gestured to the infantry officer, a middle-aged man with brown hair peppered grey. "He'll be commanding our security detail. Got a platoon in strength."
"My men are ready to keep you safe while you get that train running." he nodded to Len.
" Appreciate it," Len said.
"And this is Captain Sam," Rick indicated the engineering officer, a woman with sharp features and practical boots caked in mud. "She's bringing twenty of her best to help with the recovery operation. They have been pulled from their task of building station number two."
She and Len exchanged nods before turning their attention back to the map between them all atop a crate.
"The convoy will take the northern road to Vordun," Rick traced the route on a map. "Then use the roads that run parellel with the tracks going from Vordun to Karsh. The obelisk should be here." He tapped a Spot marked with an X.
"How long do you estimate it will take you to reach there lieutenant?" Rick asked.
"Three days travel, maybe four," Philip estimated.
"In the meantime the Advanced Party is going to take the more direct route." Rick traced out a another pass through the forests to the north of Goran all the way to the train's probable location. "I'm hoping that we can get there inside of a day assess the train and begin preparing for the rest of the convoy show up."
They looked around checking to make sure he had everyone's attention.
"Plan is to rebuild the train engine. Then between the train schedule we load it and the extra train cars up on the tracks. and bring it all back to Goran via Eskon. Three squads will continue on with Len and myself, heading north through the Stained Mountain Range to a secondary objective."
