The wintry weather up in the North wasn't too bad. Will walked along the streets of Anth with just a thin overcoat and a pair of pants in the local middle-class fashion.

  He'd noticed that his black robe, while well made, wasn't impervious to wear and tear. He'd had it fixed by an expensive tailor and packed it away for formal occasions.

  The part of the town he currently walked was pretty poor. It wasn't quite a slum, but the townsfolk who lived here clearly didn't care about making their house fronts presentable.

  It was rather lively, though. Children were running around in small groups. Workers of all kinds walked the narrow streets, often moving loads of various goods or other materials on hand-drawn carts. Sometimes, the pedestrians had to step aside to give way to a bigger cart drawn by a donkey.

  A little ahead, the housing began to thin out, and Will caught sight of the river that flowed through the city. Finally, while the road went on, the city ended. There was just one last building that stood out from its surroundings.

  The front door was open, and Will took a look in. He was greeted by nothing but a broken horse cart sitting in the middle of a dirt floor. It was clad in cobwebs that were just about visible in the daylight seeping in through the cracks.

  "Whatcha lookin for?" Someone spoke behind him.

  Will turned around to see an old man who was dressed in slightly dirty clothes. He held a crude, smoking pipe in one hand.

  "Oh, sorry. I was just curious. All the other buildings around here are so small..."

  "Well, it's a warehouse. It needs to be big."

  "I see. Looks like it's abandoned, though."

  "It's perfectly good. I just don't have any use for it anymore." The man took a puff from his pipe. "Wanna buy it?"

  The question was sudden and clearly not posed too seriously, but Will happened to have some plans in his mind.

  He glanced at the river that ran just a couple dozen feet farther from the back of the building, flowing toward the center of the city and its dock district.

  "If it's truly yours to sell, I could be interested."

  ---

  A day later, Will returned with a horse-drawn cart loaded with some large wooden puppets and a pair of hired helpers sitting uncomfortably among them.

  The two men moved the crude dolls into the warehouse before taking off with the empty cart, leaving behind Will to inspect his order.

  The wooden constructs were crude facsimiles of people. The heads were nothing but featureless wooden cylinders that looked too small in proportion. The limbs ended in crude, spherical joints that matched some similarly sized, hemispherical hollows in the torso.

  For now, four limbs had been tied to each torso with some crude cord.

  Will picked one bundle apart and started to chant the level-three spell Craftsgolem. The spell wasn't particularly difficult, but it was long.

  After ten minutes, the joints started to glow. When Will picked up an arm and stuck the joint into its corresponding indentation in the torso. The glow kept the arm in place, and another glow lighted up further down at where the elbow would be. That was where Will connected the forearm. Finally came the wrist and five simplified fingers.

  "Move your arm around," Will commanded.

  The arm spun around. It just about works, Will thought, feeling satisfied.

  Instructing the carpenters to make the joints as round as possible hadn't been easy, since the men didn't see the point. Thankfully, they had obeyed the order closely enough, and the surfaces were even enough that the wooden parts were kept separate by the cushioning provided by the spell.

  Finally, Will had ten fully assembled wooden craftsgolems walking in a circle around the warehouse floor as a test run.

  Three days later, he paid four apprentice masons for their completed work and had a crude but functional chimney through the roof that connected to a simple forge.

  He also had four crude anvils brought in. They were little more than a flat cast iron slab fixed to a tree stump that had had most of its roots shortened so it could be transported easily. Will had the golems dig some holes in the dirt floor to fix the stumps in place.

  Finally, Will had a very crude steel mill running.

  One golem fed pieces of iron ore into the forge and kept the fire going. Another golem used tongs to carry a glowing piece of hot ore to an anvil. It stood aside, holding on to the piece while another golem hammered at it.

  All four anvils were occupied, and the golems produced crude, flat pieces of steel at a slow pace.

  In contrast to the golems' slightly clumsy movements, they exhibited a level of consciousness about what they were doing, given how they kept adjusting the workpiece with a sense of purpose so it didn't simply fall off the anvil under the relatively heavy blows.

  Will simulated nightfall by activating an hourglass-based mechanism early. The golems registered its chime readily, and the hammering stopped. The one operating the forge started to put the fires out by splashing some water on them.

  Sadly, it managed to catch fire in the process.

  Will hurried to the mindless creature and splashed it with some water. It wasn't the first time something like it had happened.

  "You," he spoke to a golem that stood in reserve. "Splash water on any golem that catches fire!"

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  Will reset the hourglass mechanism, and the golems began working again, but there were more incidents. For some reason, the constructs just couldn't perceive or understand fire well enough.

  They'll burn this place down sooner or later, Will realized.

  ---

  A girl of perhaps twelve stood in an alleyway, facing four bigger boys.

  They were within a slum block on the outskirts of the city, and the girl knew there would be no guards to respond to her cries, no locals willing to take on the gang of teenagers. Thus, she didn't bother crying out and revealing her weakness.

  Behind her, there was a bloodied form slumped next to a wall. It was someone who was barely conscious and seemed to have trouble even breathing.

  "Jenna, take a hike already," the boy in the front spoke. "This is between us and Vlad."

  "You've hurt him enough. You take a hike," the girl replied calmly, even if she didn't really feel calm inwardly.

  Jenna raised the weapon in her hands a little higher. It was just a broken piece of wood with a rusty nail driven through one end.

  "Haha! Jonah, why haven't you kicked her out of the way yet? Don't tell me you're scared?" Someone further back taunted the boy in front.

  "Shut up! You handle her if you think you're so tough."

  "Well, since you're so scared, don't mind if I do!"

  A grinning boy stepped forth, holding a shoddy-looking crossbow in his hands. It was already loaded with a bolt, and the boy's finger rested casually on the trigger.

  "Move aside, Jenna!" the new boy reiterated the command in a chipper tone. "Do you want to die for him?"

  Arrow Ward (II) triggered.

  Arrest Fall (I) triggered.

  A tall but slim form jumped down from the rooftop and landed softly between the quarreling kids.

  The boy in the front was startled and set his loaded weapon off prematurely. With a sharp twang accompanied by a rattle that revealed the weapon's dire need for some maintenance, the bolt flew forth and simply shattered against the newcomer's clothes.

  "Is that a way to greet adults?" Will inquired with raised eyebrows?

  The gang of boys retreated swiftly.

  "Who are you?!" one of them shouted.

  "He's wearing plate!" another one warned everyone else.

  Will didn't have any of the useless direct-damage cantrips slotted, so he took several seconds to cast an Electric Jolt.

  "Ahh!" The boy he'd hit screamed in terror and turned to run. The others backtracked while wearing expressions that told Will they didn't even understand what had happened.

  Will pointed his hands at the ground in front of the boys and fired a shitty little cantrip fireball.

  "It's a mage!"

  Finally, the remaining ones got it right and turned to flee as one.

  Will watched them go with a smile before facing the girl who was eyeing him suspiciously, with her shoddy club still poised ready to strike.

  "Hey there! Is that your boyfriend?" Will pointed at the slumped form in the back.

  "No. He's... just my friend."

  Will suppressed a grimace. Sorry, buddy, I didn't mean to make her say it out loud like that.

  "Gotta be an important friend for you to protect him like that?"

  "He's always been a friend."

  "Very good. I like your loyalty. I could use you, I think."

  "Fuck off! I ain't no ho!"

  "Don't worry! I have a legitimate job for you and a healing potion for your friend."

  ---

  Things simply fell in place on their own. It was just yesterday that Will lamented the fact that he would have to hire someone whom he could trust with his investment.

  The problem was he didn't know anyone like that. Then, just the next moment, he suddenly had someone in his hands who seemingly had morals, who owed him a favor, and who'd probably respect him enough not to try anything.

  "Oh, stop cowering there already," Will spoke to Jenna.

  The girl was still hugging the door she had only stepped halfway through to observe the arcane horrors within Will's meager workshop.

  "What are they?!"

  "They're just some golems! Stupid things only suited for simple tasks. They're no threat at all.

  "Well, I suppose they could hurt you accidentally," Will added after watching one of the craftsgolems drop the glowing piece of slag and metal they were carrying around.

  "Your job is to keep them from burning this place down. Or burning themselves down," Will started to list a few risks he had foreseen.

  "They'll listen to simple commands from you, so just tell them to stop moving if you need to interfere.

  "Ah, and that reminds me!"

  Loyal Guardhound (V) triggered.

  "Now, don't be too startled..." Will's warning came too late, and the girl had already bolted back outside.

  He took a minute to catch her again before getting back to the introductions.

  "Look, it's just a doggy! It won't hurt you."

  In front of him stood a Lesser Hellhound with some beautifully white, sharp teeth, rust-colored fur, and glowing red eyes. It stood barely taller than his knees, and its relatively large paws were armed with dull claws.

  It was a particularly weak summon that didn't even have the ability to breathe fire like proper hellhounds did. People didn't really use it in fights due to its low HP and weak attacks. A basic level-three summoning spell would definitely be stronger for combat purposes.

  No, it was basically a glorified scouting spell, the only advantage of which was the fact that the summoned creature remained with the party until it was either explicitly dismissed or slain. No matter how much you rested, it wouldn't get unsummoned.

  Loyal Guardhound was the perfect spell for cheesy gamers because you could just slot it once, cast it, refill the slot, and take another rest. Voila! Your scouty dog was still with you, and your 5th-level spell slots would once again be filled with more critical stuff.

  Of course, in this real world, it would likely not be such a good scout, given how you couldn't share vision with your summons like you could in the game.

  "It's growling!" the hysterical girl he was holding on to shrieked.

  "Doggy, this is Jenna. You will obey Jenna."

  Instantly, the low growls stopped. The hound sat down and turned its eyes toward the door.

  "Doggy, just to be clear, stay inside and don't attack anyone unless we're being attacked. Do feel free to look intimidating to any trespassers, though!"

  The hound swung its black tail back and forth once, but its eyes remained firmly on the open door, through which it probably could hear the sparse traffic on the road outside.

  "Now, he's a smart doggy. He'll understand and obey your commands as long as you don't ask him to tie your shoes. I think he only really understands fighting and guarding. He hasn't been very good at fetching..."

  ---

  Jenna watched the golems with a bucket of water sitting on the floor next to her.

  Life had become pretty strange since two days ago. Easy, too.

  She now had a daily income of six coppers. It had gone up by approximately a thousand percent compared to begging and stealing. Not that Jenna knew what a percent was, but she did know she was financially secure all of a sudden.

  "Trust is valuable" was the only explanation she'd been given for her high wage.

  There was a bunk she would have the golems carry next to the forge for the night, and the heat still radiating from it kept her pretty warm until early morning when it was time to light it up again.

  The neighbors and passers-by had complained about the noise a couple of times, but since it only went on during the daytime, they didn't have a legal leg to stand on. Or so Will had said.

  Jenna had repeated his words, and when Doggy growled, people took one glance at its red eyes and left.

  All in all, it was an easy job. Just make sure the golems didn't burn down themselves or the whole warehouse.

  The door opened. Doggy perked up for a moment before lying down again.

  "Morning!"

  It was Will, of course.

  "Hello, Owner."

  The man carried in a flimsy bookcase he placed at the back of the warehouse. Next, he carried in some books that barely filled up one shelf. Jenna didn't care much for the books, but she knew they were expensive things.

  Finally, the tall man covered the bookcase with a dirty sheet. "Just something I bought in case I'll need it later," he gave as a brief explanation. Not that Jenna cared.

  "You can read them if you grow bored," Will added.

  "I can't read."

  That earned her a stare.

  "Oh. Dammit! You should at least be able to sign receipts for me... Know what? Take these," Will said and handed her three silver coins.

  Jenna was stunned. She rarely even saw silver, and she'd never touched it. People usually hid their silver well, if they had any. I wonder if he has gold, too?

  "Use those and ask a nearby merchant to teach you. Tell them the money is from me. Have the dog watch the place while you are out studying."