Drafting has reached level 18! 90% Correction.

“Muahaha!” Nadia cackled evilly as she swooped over their heads, finally able to control the warping of space accurately enough to fly with it. She swung an invisible blade from the tip of her finger and cut through a tree branch above them, dropping it on their heads.

Baroke knocked the arm-thick branch away from them with an annoyed brush of his fingertips.

“Are you sure you should be giving her supernatural abilities?” Kala asked, riding on the wagon behind them as they trudged along the side of the mountain. They were following a team of Knick-knacks and refraction spinners cutting a flat path ten paces wide through the eastern side of the mountain. Big enough for traffic in both directions.

The Refraction spinners were able to cut any substance merely by injecting extra space in the center of an object. Their blades didn’t have actual mass, so there was no resistance as they sliced off massive, building-sized chunks of mountain ahead of them, simply by temporarily increasing the distance between one side and the other. The sharpest blade Calvin could imagine.

The hundreds of oversized Knick-knacks following them then carried the resulting stone chunks away, measuring the angle and smoothing out any inconsistencies.

“The key here is that I can take those abilities away any time I want,” Calvin said, glancing up at the flying princess. “In the meantime I want an idea of how difficult incorporating Warped mutations into humans is.”

“It doesn’t seem that difficult,” Learner said, floating upside down and backwards as they made their way down the side of the mountain, creating the thoroughfare to Juntai lands. They were walking at a comfortable mosey as the knick-knacks cleared the land in front of them at a gentle decline.

“Sorry, but you’re not exactly a good standard for what a human body can and can’t do,” Calvin said.

“Oh,” Learner deflated somewhat, still floating in front of them upside down and backward, and showing no signs of stopping. Calvin wasn’t sure if she were showing off, or completely unaware of what grandstanding was and doing it on accident.

The small caravan, including Calvin’s friends, experiment subjects, and apprentice, continued down the gradual slope for hours, until they finally reached ground level, gradually turning from South-East to straight East, clearing a path straight into the heart of the Juntai jungle.

They were deep into the jungle on the opposite side of Calvin’s mountain when Baroke spoke up.

“You think the Juntei will be happy about you carving a road straight to their land?” Baroke asked.

“Not in the slightest.” Kala answered for Calvin. “I learned in my studies a long time ago that people as a group are extremely resistant to change. There’s going to be a huge uproar about this road, which is why we’ve got to bring something to make the new road more palatable.”

The princess patted the huge hunk of copper about the size of a head that they’d pulled out of the mountain, weighing the cart she sat on down drastically. One of the first gains from the handful of ore veins the scouts had identified.

Sandwiched around the copper boulder were fine silks from Boles, glass from Uleis, raw Nem pebbles and Lipia wood from Gadvera, various mother-of pearl artwork and a roll of lace.

“Ah, the old ‘ask for forgiveness and follow it up with a bribe,’ rather than ask permission.” Baroke said, nodding.

“Everyone knows the Juntai place a premium on copper,” Calvin said. “I want to know what else they have a demand for.”

Baroke sniffed at the jungle air, his expression thoughtful “I would guess iron.”

A moment later, Calvin felt his skin light up with gazes just as he heard men step out of the underbrush. They were in a loose semi-circle around them, watching Calvin and his summoned creatures with more than a little trepidation.

Ah, we finally get to meet the Juntai. Calvin thought to himself.

The first thing he noticed was the distinct lack of clothing. Like he’d surmised earlier, clothes didn’t exactly do any good in the humid heat of the jungle, and these men and women wore nothing aside from an overabundance of copper jewelry, along with thick copper coils around their forearms.

They held what appeared to be iron tubes that stood about up to their shoulder. The iron tubes had coils of copper staggered up the sides of the weapon.

Is it some kind of club? Calvin thought, frowning at the iron tubes. They leveled at them like a spear rather than gripping them at the base of the tube, though, but there was no point. Calvin couldn’t make heads or tails of the thing.

Looks like a rudimentary railgun, Elliot said.

A what?

Think of it as a super-crossbow. They probably use an Ability to power it. Details are unimportant: It’s a ranged weapon, and it’ll put holes in you.

Good to know. Calvin thought.

“Do you speak Gadveran?” Calvin asked, staring at them without moving. They were pretty wound up, and Calvin didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot.

“How about the trade tongue?” Calvin asked in Ilethan.

“How about Genosian?” Ella asked, giving them a shark-toothed grin.

“We speak the trade language.” Their leader – Calvin assumed – said, His gaze lingered on Ella for a moment before he rested his metal pole on the ground. The others didn’t set their poles down, but they did seem to relax somewhat.

“What is your reason for carving a snake down the mountain and into our land?” the leader asked.

“We’re humble traders,” Calvin said, peeling the oiled tarp off the wagon, revealing the goods jammed into the confines of the wooden shipping container.

“Kala, the copper,” Calvin murmured, prompting her to hand Calvin the lump of metal.

Calvin turned and raised it above his head, with Ella and Baroke flanking him. “We are establishing a way to move large amounts of good across the mountains, and this is a taste of what we have to offer.”

The leader frowned. “Humble traders? You bring an army of steel with you, cut through the mountain in a day, and call yourselves humble?”

“Yes?” Calvin said.

The man chuckled. “Well, it’s not for me to decide whether or not to do business with you. Stop your construction immediately. You may bring yourself and two others to meet with our Elder. The rest of you must stay here. If you continue tearing a gash into our land, we will consider it an act of war.”

“Who wants to visit Juntai?”

“Ooh, ooh!” Goob said, bouncing up and down with his hand in the air.

“Just kidding, it’ll be Kala and Ella.”

“The Juntai and the Genosians don’t get along particularly well,” Ella said, shaking her head. “It would be better to pick someone else.”

Hmmm… Nadia’s sure to do something terrible whether I leave her here or not. But if I leave her here, at least whatever terrible thing she does will be far away from the main city of Juntai. Actually, come to think of it…

With a mental tug, Calvin dismissed the Chained Spirit, and Nadia was back in his head.

Boo, she said sourly.

You can come out again if I need chaos.

Fingers crossed.

That left Baroke, Learner and Goob.

“Come on, Baroke.”

“Whoop!” The archer shouted, pumping a muscled arm in the air while Goob sagged.

“You two,” Calvin said, pointing between Learner and Ella. “Make sure Goob doesn’t wander off and get killed. Make sure you don’t get killed either.”

“Can do.” Learner said with a salute. Ella simply shrugged and climbed up to Kala’s seat on the wagon, reaching under the seat and producing one of the princess’s novels before beginning to flip through the pages, giving him an absentminded nod.

“I’m good for a while,” She said, finding her bone marker and picking up where she left off. “But we didn’t bring more than lunch, so if you’re out past sundown, We’re eating Goob.”

“Sounds reasonable.” Learner said, nodding.

Goob dove forward and caught Calvin’s overcoat, staring up at him with desperation all over his face.

“Master, you can’t leave me here with them!” he hissed.

Calvin patted Goob on the head. “Don’t worry, they’re just teasing.”

“Oh?” Learner asked, brows furrowed.

Calvin glanced up and spotted her confused expression. “Well, Ella is teasing. Learner just doesn’t know any better. I’ll try to be back before dark. Try to keep yourself entertained while I’m gone, catch some bugs or light something on fire.”

Calvin glanced up and saw the scowling Juntai. “Make sure the fire’s contained, though.”

“Please take me with you!” Goob begged until Calvin trapped him in a bubble of air.

Once that was taken care of, Calvin, Baroke and Kala followed the Juntai back to their village. The trek was tense, with mostly naked men looming in close behind and to either side.

They had skin that was a touch more orange than the Gadverans, and an interesting rounded face with a pointy chin. The stares that Calvin was receiving were filled with apprehension, but more than a fair share of curiosity.

They’d rarely seen people like him, they were fascinated at his clothes, his boots, his belts, and especially his skin. They’d seen plainlanders, men and woman with honey-colored skin with wavy hair. They’d heard of Ilethans and Gadverans, but they’d never heard of something quite like Calvin. Malkenrovia was so far removed from Juntai that they didn’t even have stories, most likely.

“So, are you the one constructing the, erm…” The leader of the Juntai fumbled for the right words in the foreign language. “Hair growing into the sky?”

Calvin looked over his shoulder and spotted the skeleton of his tower in the sky through the canopy. at this distance, the Abyssal Steel supports looked like nothing more than filaments, or hairs, growing out of the scalp of the mountain.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Calvin said, and hushed murmurs in Juntai rippled through the tribesmen walking beside them, using their steel and copper tubes as walking sticks.

I really need to steal one of these tribesman’s tongue. And raise Genosian Language.

Calvin had forgot again.

“Are you a god?” The leader asked, followed by a hushed silence from the men walking beside him.

I think you know the answer to this.

“No, I’m a wizard.” Calvin said. “I’m from Gadvera.” The relief from the people around them was palpable.

Calvin, if someone asks you, ‘are you a god?’ you say YES!

“You don’t look Gadveran.” The leader said.

“I was born across the ocean to the west,” Calvin said with a shrug. “There aren’t many like me.”

The leader absorbed that in silence as they continued walking, but eventually they came across the man’s village.

The buildings were made of mud and thatch, a step down from the homes Calvin had grown up in in Deinos, but not entirely unfamiliar. They were little more than places to keep the rain off of one’s head, and they didn’t really seem to need more than that, what with the overabundance of food and warmth of the jungle.

One thing did stand out though, as Calvin was walking through the village. There was an odd rasping, grinding sound coming from a few huts over, and Calvin couldn’t make out the smell of smoke.

He smelled cooking meat, and he saw several women gutting the days catch, glancing up at him curiously as he was escorted by.

But no smoke.

Odd.

Calvin tried to appear friendly and non-threatening as he walked through the village, trying to absorb all the information he could. It seemed as though not everyone wore an overabundance of copper. Those who had the most seemed to be warriors or perhaps hunters, carrying those…rail guns Elliot had told him about. Most people seemed to have a bit here and there, except for children under the age of twelve.

Ones that hadn’t had their first Break yet.

I see. It looked more and more possible that they used an Ability that synergized well with copper.

Calvin for one was glad he was wearing shoes as they squished through the mud that spanned the distance between each hut, but the respite was short lived as the murky and probably poop-filled water slowly began to invade his shoes, and stay there.

He forgot about his shoes when he saw what was in the center of the village.

It was completely at odds with the thing he saw in the very center of the village, the thing emitting that strange humming, rasping noise.

In the very center of the village, there was an enormous flywheel spinning above their heads, made of solid steel with enough weight on the rim to keep it humming along for hours. It was supported by a clear crystalline structure studded with strange boxlike mechanisms. From the bottom of the strange machine, there were dozens of thick tubes covered in what looked like congealed tree sap, each tube leading to an individual house.

“Ah, it looks like the Hearth is low,” The leader of the warriors said, walking up to the contraption and putting his hand over it. There was a crackle as lightning streamed from the copper studs on his palms to the ‘Hearth’.

In a matter of seconds, the flywheel above their heads began spinning much faster, somehow powered by the lightning.

Calvin heard the sound of meat sizzling over a fire from the hut to his left, and traced the tube coming out of it all the way back to the flywheel, where it had something raised and interacting with the flywheel. A minute later, that thing dropped back down, nestling in with the others, and a woman came out with a steaming snack for one of the hunters.

Hah, Elliot chuckled in the back of Calvin’s mind. What a surprise. Savages that have harnessed electricity but none of the peripherals. Electro-savages. What interesting things magic can conjure. Hey look, you can see that guy’s balls.