After saying our goodbyes to Grimstrom and the King. Fakasta and Stilbraker led us out from Nuinaer the same way we had come by. This time as we reached the door that signaled officially leaving Nuinaer, we were greeted with a line of wagons. Wide, wooden carts, loaded to the brim with smooth cut stone blocks. Each were four foot wide by four foot deep and two foot high. Joel looked at them lovingly and went hastily over to check the weight. To my surprise, he managed to lift one quite easily. I wanted to have a go myself, but didn’t want to look like a dick if I couldn’t. I knew Joel had a serious strength buff in construction related tasks.

“They’ll make short work of most buildings, but they’re a ton weight,” he exclaimed.

“Quarter of a ton, to be exact,” the dwarf at the head of the wagons replied as he made his way over. “You must be Builder Joel?”

“Well, I suppose,” he said uncertainly. The dwarf looked at him like he’d made a mistake. But Joel pulled himself together to clarify.

“My name is Joel, and I am the main builder for Far Reach. But I don’t normally go by the name Builder Joel.”

“The dwarf, stroked his beard. “It might be tough to get everyone not to call you Builder Joel, seeing as you’re the head builder for Far Reach, but we can work on it. I’m Builder Bekta,” he said thrusting a hand out to shake.

Joel grabbed it with a smile on his face. “We don’t need to change anything. Builder Joel is fine by me.”

I watched in awe as his name transformed above his head. No one else could see it of course, but I couldn’t contain my joy at seeing it happen.

“Dude! Your Identifier changed!”

Joel, level 16, Head Builder of Far Reach: Human.

“Huh, that’s pretty cool,” he said beaming with pride.

The two paladin brothers led us through the doors and along the tunnels once more. This returning at the head of the train of wagons following at an impressive rate. The one at the very front was filled with all of Joel’s and my own gear. I was looking forward to sorting through it all. Once we had a building to store it in of course. Possibly even a room for just Sania and me, I thought wistfully.

As we moved along the exquisitely flat track. We passed an area off to the side of the tunnel that hadn’t been there before. It was a hive of activity, with the soldiers working with other unarmored dwarves. Digging out and extending. Stilbraker and Fakasta came to a stop here. “Right. This is where we’ll leave you. Lots of work of our own to do if we’re going to get our new barracks ready any time soon,” Stilbraker said.

“You're putting a lot of work into them. You’re really serious about helping protect us?”

“Of course we are. Did you think the King was lying?” he said eyeing me dangerously.

“No. Not at all. I just, it’s all hard to take in. That you're willing to do all of this for us.”

“Well, we are, and not just for you, but the thousands of people that will probably need you soon. Now if you want to see something even more impressive, get your ass out of the tunnel and go back to your own home.”

It felt strange that someone called Far Reach my home. It didn’t feel like it yet. It felt like a last resort in an isolated valley. Despite that, as we parted ways, I still felt myself speeding up subconsciously, walking even more quickly when I saw a circle of natural light in the distance. The entrance had been previously obscured with magic, so I wondered what had changed.

When we reached the tunnel exit, there were a number of surprises to take in, not least of them being that the exit now came out where the valley flattened, right in the center of our settlement. The road continued from the tunnel in a straight line directly to the steam.

“Holy fucking shit,” Joel gasped as he took in the activity all around us. The wooden palisade had remained untouched, but that was the only thing. The foundations that had been dug out for the whitan were now home to stone block walls that stretched a good twenty feet above our heads. Several other smaller stone buildings were already being erected. I did a double take as I saw the old whitan had been completely demolished.

“What are we using for shelter if the whitan is demolished?” I asked feeling a little annoyed that it had been dropped without any of our say so’s.

“Follow me,” Bekta said in a voice full of excited cheer.

Leading us off the flat road, We came to the front of the new, half built whitan to discover the opening. Two wide, wooden, double doors already hung on ornate metal strap hinges.

Inside, I was amazed to find there was already a ceiling and a set of stairs carved into the sloping valley floor that reached up to ceiling at the far side.

“Eventually, we’ll excavate most of the bedrock out of this room and reinforce the foundations if they need it, which quite honestly, we won’t. But this is one of the places for people to hunker down on an evening,” Bekta said before marching up the stairs and through the opening in the ceiling.

We came out into another wide open room, which again had a ceiling and wooden planked floor throughout. There was no one in there at the minute, but evidence of people sleeping up here was clear. There was also a number of grand fire places around the walls that had clearly been used.

“At the moment,” Bekta announced loudly. “most of the people who need the shelter are sleeping in here through the night. We stop the building work on the whitan when darkness falls at and focus on the other buildings until dawn. While this floor is all open now, there’ll be a number of rooms and the main entrance to the castle.” Beneath will be used as storage at that point.”

“Woah, woah, woah. Castle?” I said halting our tour guide.

“My apologies, Lord Clive. Call it whatever you will, though in all honesty as your main defensive building and the way we are designing the construction, it will have more in common with a castle than a whitan.

“Hell, I don’t mind at all if you’re building a castle, Bekta. It’s just a little unexpected.”

“It’s a natural progression to what you’re going to need in the future. Hopefully, it will serve you all well. We’ve kept the walls mostly solid all the way around for now, so there's more protection, but the lintels we’ve installed are for much wider windows. And of course the main door when the time comes.”

I looked around and noticed the lintels in question. There were currently a number of thin slits for windows. They didn’t let much light in and reminded me of old castles where archers could fire safely from.

“That’s a really good Idea,” Joel said, clearly impressed, moving closer to inspect the walls and windows.

“We weren’t sure what you’d want on these lower levels, but it’s probably better to keep the nicer windows for higher up.”

“And you're working at night on the other buildings? I mean, no wonder you’ve gotten so much done, but you all must be exhausted and… in the dark?”

Bekta barked with laughter. “We’re dwarves lad! Most of our work is done in the dark. We can see just almost as well in no light as in light.”

“So why was Nuinaer all lit up?”

“There’s beauty and mystery in the dark which all dwarves crave, but having dark vision doesn’t mean we would choose to live in darkness. It’s a totally different kind of sight. Plus there’s nothing quite like the gleam of a plump, juicy emerald or ruby.”

Joel nodded acceptance of the explanation as Bekta led us toward a set of ladders leading above.

“Obviously, this is going to be a staircase at some point, just not until the buildings up,” Bekta said as he climbed.

The next floor up was the top of the existing work. A waist height wall on all four sides and an amazing view . The only other thing of note was the twelve dwarves in four teams of three. Three of those teams were laying the heavy blocks. One spreading whatever they were using for mortar while the other two placed the block. By the time it was laid, and they both had a brief look at its placement, adjusting as needed, the next section of mortar bed was spread for them and onward they went. The last of the four teams were receiving the blocks over the top of the wall and loading the others up. It was an impressive, seamless operation.

“Amazing,” Joel said, almost drooling at the construction action. “But what are they using to make sure the walls are plumb and level?”

Bekta snorted. “There eyes, lad. Whaddya think they’re using. What level builder are ye, anyways?”

“35,” Joel said proudly.

“Well then ye should be able to see if it’s set down right yerself.”

Joel looked at him uncertainly. “So, here’s the script, Bekta. I have a ton of construction experience in my world, and it translated to level 35 in this world, but I’m not used to how these skills work yet.”

“Well go and have a good old look at the last block then and tell me what you see.”

Joel did as he was bid, and walked over, focusing intently as he approached on the block in question. When he turned back to us, he had an extra sparkle in his eyes. “That… is… amazing. I can see everything. I could even see the blocks' weight and its moisture content!”

Bekta looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “Must have been a strange world ye come from.”

“You could say that,” Joel agreed. “How high are you intending to build the whitan, or castle?”

“Well, that’s down to you and the Lord of Far Reach here,” he replied thrusting his thumb in my direction. I didn’t entirely feel comfortable with the title now there was an actual small village with buildings and expectations. I suppressed the feeling. Nobody wanted to hear me bleating on about that kind of crap. It didn’t exactly inspire confidence, and that’s what everyone needed right now.

“What do you think Clive?” Joel asked. Oblivious to my internal conflict.

“I say go high or go home! If it’s possible, we might as well have a proper castle.”

Bekta slapped my back. “You’ll do for me lad.”

Joel grinned, too. “Hey Bekta. What kind of force will this building be able to withstand?”

“Depends on what enchantments we put on it. We have four master builders here including you, and we can all put something on. We can probably drag a few more up from Nuinaer to add more when we’re close to completion.

“They stack?” Joel asked amazed.

“Sure they do. Most of the palaces and castles of Falritas will have top builders from all over the world come to lay a stone to fortify them.

“So, what can we do?” Joel asked, and I listened raptly.

“Defenses obviously. And attack bonuses too. If you’re going high, you’ll want to put some ballistae on the roof.”

“And we can do that?” Joel asked eagerly.

Bekta chuckled in response.

“Of course we can. Ballistae fine enough to cork a dragon's arsehole in flight.”

I shook my head in disbelief that this was all happening. “I gotta say Bekat, this is way more than we were expecting.”

“The way I hear it, you guys have a duty to keep as many of the Neutrals coming your way alive. This place is going to blow up like my bladder after ten pints of ale. You're going to need a lot more than one castle with a few ballistae.”

“Why did you not start with the walls?” Joel asked, changing the direction of the conversation suddenly.

“Effective walls are gonna take too long to build first. This castle covers you as somewhere to live and somewhere to fight from should you get overwhelmed. We can start on the walls after that.

“What of the other buildings? What are they?” I asked.

“Workshops for further building work at the moment. Blacksmiths, carpenters, timber store, stone mason. Oh, and a house of healing. As we continue to build, they can be converted into other kinds of buildings easy enough, like shops and houses.”

As he spoke, I realized I’d been completely ignoring Sania, Grigor, and Lierin for the last twenty minutes. To my surprise, Grigor wasn’t even with us anymore.

“Where’s grumpy ass gone?” I asked Sania.

“He went to see his people as we should probably do soon, though I understand your excitement.”

“Are you not excited?” I asked surprised.

“I’m not sure what to think,” Sania said surveying the work going on. “The whitan I was born in, is gone.”

“Oh shit. You were born here, in that whitan? Why didn’t you say?”

“It wasn’t important,” she shrugged her shoulders looking around. “I don’t mind what is taking place, either. I’m used to everything changing around us very fast since I met you and I embrace it. But it’s still hard to take in that the Wultr are going to have a stone city in the Crasters. It’s not something any of us would have ever dreamed of, or even thought about, for that matter. I find myself wondering how my mother views all of this.”

“Shall we go and find Sanyl now? Leave Joel to get all hot and steamy over our new castle?”

Sania smiled and nodded, and I felt through the bond that she was grateful for the offer.

“May I come too?” Lierin asked. “Joel’s busy and I’d rather he had the time to talk freely and take all of this in. I’m excited for him.”

“Of course Lierin,” Sania replied.

Lierin ran over to Joel to speak briefly, leaving him with a kiss on the cheek before coming back to us. He watched her leave with doting eyes. Even so, I knew the moment we’d descended the ladders he’d be covered in mortar or lifting blocks.

As we walked away from the new castle, I marveled at the dwarves. They were machines and made it all look so effortless. They smiled and laughed and looked like they were having the most fun possible while still dressed. I even took a moment to acknowledge that they’d took the time to cover the main building area with stone chippings, rather than let the whole area get overly muddy with the foot traffic. I did slightly mourn the loss of the soil, but realized at some point there was every chance this entire area would be roads and houses in all directions. I was responsible for deforestation and urbanization. On this occasion, I could live with that.

Sania’s mother was sitting with Rilaz and some of the other elders from across all of the packs. They all looked up as we approached.

“Welcome back my Alpha, my Daughter. You have negotiated quite the deal. I expected some wood and mud huts!”

I felt self-conscious that Sanyl addressed me before Sania, but I felt nothing but pride from her. While I could accept that I was a leader here, Sania deserved the recognition far more than I felt that I did.

“Your daughter is as much Alpha as I am Sanyl. I consider us to be fully equal in this. I don’t know what the term is for that, whether Sania is an alpha too?”

“She is,” Sanyl smiled with pride. Then she took the time to welcome back Lierin with almost motherly affection. It warmed my heart to see as they all fell into a comfortable conversation. I could barely concentrate as my attention was pulled away by a thousand different things going on around the camp.

I spotted Grigor talking with the two other Woltars, Feen and Kuhn along with Grastad and Scralex. I couldn’t help but feel that was a conversation I should be part of, more than mother and daughter reunions. I excused myself and headed over.

I wasn’t sure what kind of reception I would get as I approached, but it was one of surprising reverence as they all bowed.

“Whoah, guys. Settle down with the bowing?”

“Grigor has explained your battle within Nuinaer and that you walked away victorious,” Kuhn said.

“You have beaten Grastad and Niko in single combat, too,” Feen added.

“And you struck the killing blow against the Baatazu demon!” Grastad joined in the embarrassing adulation.

“Then there is the fact that the Dwarven King honors you and helps to build this settlement,” Scralex finished.

“Ah, for fuck’s sake guys. I thought you were all talking about something interesting. Can we just knock the bowing on the head, and focus on building this place up to look after together as a council of equals. A Krysan, a Nystiobek, three Woltar and… Shit, I haven’t thought this through. It’s probably a bit shitty to have three Wultr, and Sania as well, so…”

“It’s, fine,” Feen interrupted. “Grigor speaks for our pack, Sania for the pack who inhabited this place originally. A council is a good idea, but Kuhn and I do not need to be involved. We are just warriors and we are happy with that. Though perhaps you should include Joel. Both as a human presence and as the architect of the village aside from the dwarves.”

Kuhn nodded his agreement.

“I dunno Feen. That was a pretty well thought out, well balanced argument for just warriors. I think you might be more of a thinker than you’re giving yourself credit for.”

Feen nodded back respectfully, but said no more. I decided I really liked Feen and Kuhn at that moment.

“So, is there an actual plan for the settlement so far?” I asked them.

“You should ask the dwarves,” Grastad snorted. “None of us know how to build a settlement.”

“None of us know how to build anything,” Feen added.

“Okay, that’s very true for me, too. And I’m sure the dwarves know what they’re doing. But we should at least look at and try to understand the plans.”

“They’re in the timber store at the moment,” Scralex volunteered. Pointing eagerly toward one of the stone buildings. For me, there was nothing yet to differentiate them.

“Come on then. Let’s have a look,” I replied beckoning them all after me.

As we walked, couldn’t help but like things were finally looking up for me. Even after I regained my legs and arm back, I had a black pit in my stomach over what I was going to do in Falritas. Now I had a purpose. I understood so much more of what was going on in the world, and I wanted to make an impact. And that felt good. So good I could scarcely believe it. I instantly cursed myself for having the positive thoughts. Sod’s law everything was going to turn into an utter shit show now.

On entering the timber store, we found Bekta, and Joel were already there going over the plans. After the usual greetings, Bekta happily showed us what he was going with for now.

The main plan showed the whitan, castle structure in the center, surrounded by trade shops and then detached housing, spreading away like a spiderweb. I could make out plans for a wall much closer in than the one Joel had built, and I was curious.

“Why so tight with the wall?” I asked Bekta.

“Oh, that’d just be the first wall. Let's get you all safe and compact. Once that’s achieved, we can begin work on the next ring, which will be roughly where Builder Joel had his wall. His plans made some sense for initial makeshift protection when you began. But those were borne of desperation. Now we have a garrison of five hundred highly trained Dwarves here and the potential for thousands more to come pouring out of Nuinaer within a couple of hours. That makes a flimsy palisade wall all but pointless if you get my meaning. Now we can do it properly from the start.”

I noticed Joel nodding along with the explanation before grabbing my arm.

“Clive you need to see this. Look at the drainage system, water pumps and sewerage treatment they’ve got worked out. It’s mind blowing. The whole place will have fresh water in each house and the sewerage system is ingenious. Tanks and ponds and plants and… dude it’s an eco-warriors wet dream.”

I listened intently, but I was so far out of my depth I just had to smile and nod in response.

That evening, I did the most important thing I could do, even though I was a day late. I made a perfect mint and raspberry compote of +2 strength. The dwarves had provided us with a range of different foods and bread was suddenly a thing again in our lives, so I layered the compote on a slice of thick white toast.

Since I’d received the permanent point skill, this was the third time I’d used it and directly benefited from it after my last fuck up with the mint tea. It was actually a huge relief to register those two points of Strength on the clock.