First thing in the morning, I went to the research tower to pick up the special healing devices I’d made last night. Fiara was already awake before me. She’d found my creations and was examining them closely by the time I arrived.

“Ah. Good morning, Fiara. Convenient, aren’t they?”

“Chief,” she looked at me with a startled expression, “did you make these?”

“Yes, last night. They’ll be going in the hospital, the colosseum, and the Kobold farm; the places where lots of healing magic will be necessary.”

“I’m not sure why you need them at the farm. But, leaving that aside, how did you do this, chief? There are two different variations of the spell in here that I’ve never seen before, and you fused them together so naturally. Those texts you shared with me did mention something about creating new spells by altering spell patterns, but actually doing that is really high level. I,” she rubbed her left ear shyly, “I didn’t think you had that much ability. No offense.”

Mm? Did I step on her pride? “Fiara…” I smiled warmly. “I’ve gotten a bit good with spell formations through practice, but CSPs are still beyond me. I still haven’t gotten the skill, so you’re right to doubt me. That said, there’s something I’d like you to make for me.”

“A-Alright,” I thought I saw a shadow flash over her eyes, calculating all the work she was already doing. “I’m still working on the sealight enchantments and training those new apprentices you sent me, but I can try to squeeze something else in. What is it?”

“Small leather pouches with a spacetime enchantment to make the area on the inside bigger than that on the outside. Also, a weight reducing effect, if you can. There are several things I want them for.”

She nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”

I was about to leave, but I hesitated at the door. “If you need a vacation, you’re welcome to it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so unenthusiastic about researching before.”

She quickly fixed her expression and shook her head. “No, that’s not it. I just feel a little useless having so many projects and nothing to show for it.”

I looked at her seriously for a few seconds, but she kept her pleasant expression up. I sighed. “You really sell yourself too short. I don’t have much time today, but is there anything I can help with?”

She genuinely thought about it, ears flicking absently. “We’re running low on blood to conduct magic power, and I have a lot of apprentices who need to practice. Could we use some of yours?”

“Of course,” I smiled, making a waist-high pot with earth magic. I cut my wrist with my nails and let the blood flow down, holding the wound open so it couldn’t heal. I still had to cut it a few more times as found a way to repair me. My blood replenished as quickly as it spilled so, frankly, it was an easy request.

After a few minutes, the pot was filled. I let my wound seal and made a lid for the pot, to keep the blood from spilling and dust from getting inside.

“Once the Kobold farm is running, I’ll have them collect the blood and send it to you. Then you'll have a steady supply.”

“Thank you, chief.” Fiara put her hands on the pot. It was warm to the touch. “I’ll do what I can about those pouches you want.”

“Thank you,” I said, gathering the healing Eggs I’d made in a pelt I borrowed off one of the tables. “And don’t worry, you’ve been of more help to me than you realize. So take care of yourself, alright?”

She gave a small smile and nodded, and I made my way to the hospital; it was closest of my three stops. It had a fairly simple design. There was an open reception room inside the doors and the rest of the first floor was for emergency patients. There was something like an ICU at the back, but I didn’t pay it much attention. I cleared out the first two emergency care rooms and took out the first Monster Egg. To hide the top-secret technology from view, I encased the whole thing in a short and wide aluminum cylinder. The common Earth metal seemed pretty strong and light, and it didn’t interfere with the magic when I tested it. Better, I didn’t need to use high-level spells to make it, since it’s ultimately a normal metal you can even find in worlds without magic.

I fixed the aluminum cylinder to the ceiling, where the magic could reach most of the room. Just like the metal casing I made, the magic was cylinder-shaped.

I set up the same type of thing in the second room then packed up and left for the colosseum. It was still pretty early, so only a few eager War Orcs were sparring in the arena. I walked around the shaded perimeter and fixed another five aluminum disks to the ceiling.

“Listen up, Warriors!” I called out. “The healing devices I promised are ready. Just stand under one of these metal disks if you get injured. Try not to need them, though; they’ll erase both the pain and the training you got hurt pursuing. You won’t ever get stronger if you use them all the time, but it’s much better than dying or being crippled. I’ll have those death battle request forms ready in a few more days, so please be patient.”

A few bruised War Orcs went to test out the healing devices, while the rest went back to fighting. I left them to their business and made my way to the Kobold farm.

The Fomor Slaves I tasked with guarding, feeding, and watering the livestock were still performing their duties. By the looks of things, they’d worked out a shift system so that the beasts wouldn’t be left alone during breaks. I could see a few from the morning crew relieving those on the night shift. Also, as I’d ordered, a small group of assorted Orcs, War Orcs, and Goblins were gathered just outside, awaiting my instructions.

“It’s good you’re here,” I smiled in greeting. “Let me just set a few things up and then I’ll demonstrate what your job here will be.”

The building was a wide open rectangle, so there wasn’t much in the way of private rooms. So I made a few with earth magic. I fixed up four separate rooms, each with an aluminum disk fixed to the ceiling. I also made some hardened clay tables with iron cuffs attached and put a few buckets in each room.

If the healing magic doesn’t stop diseases from spreading, I’ll include some other measures later.

“Alright,” I dusted my hands off, stepping out of the fourth room. “Now everybody watch closely.”

In order to secure a Kobold safely, I recreated one of those wire slipknot leashes I’d seen on TV and fixed it around the nearest beast’s neck. It fought back wildly, but, well, it had no effect. I forced the lizard-dog-like thing into one of the four rooms and cuffed each of its limbs and its torso to the table. I chose the back right leg to work with, since it would be easiest for everybody to see from the door. Sliding one of the pots under the table where the limb connected to the body, I made another useful tool: a meat cleaver.

“You’re job is important,” I said to the people watching. “In order to feed a city like ours, with a huge population of Orcs, without overhunting the surrounding wildlife, this is how we’ll supply our meat.”

I brought the meat cleaver down on the Kobold’s leg. It howled and thrashed. Blood spilled into the pot below, and I pulled away the severed leg. After just a second, the beast’s leg started to regrow, until it was only whimpering from fear, rather than pain.

“There, see?” I smiled, ignoring the flecks of blood that had splashed on me. “Through Magic Engineering, we have a near infinite meat supply. If anyone gets injured while working, they should come here to quickly get healed.”

I was about to keep talking when the leg in my hand started to twitch. “Hm?” I looked at it curiously. Everybody else was staring too as… a Kobold’s butt started to grow from the severed limb. In half a minute, nearly half the torso had regrown.

“Oh, interesting,” I murmured. I’d never tried healing a severed limb before.

I allowed the process to continue out of curiosity, and soon a new Kobold had been grown from just a leg. It wasn’t alive, though, since it had no soul to animate it. Still, it should have been a perfect clone of the Kobold it used to be a part of.

“Well, we can get more meat and fur from this than I thought,” I mused. “Magic stones too. Anyway,” I shrugged, creating a large wheeled tub against the far wall and dropping the cloned beast inside. I had to quickly adjust my plan for this place in my head.

“Your job is this. Every day, pick one of the Kobolds—a different one each day— and cut off one of their limbs like this. Use the flesh clones to make more until there’s enough for everybody to eat dinner, then send them to the women for butchering.”

A War Orc raised her hand. “Could we just keep making, err, flesh clones from flesh clones? Why do we have to hurt the living ones still?”

“Huh,” I muttered. “You can try that. But if, for some reason, you don’t have any flesh clones from the previous day, you know what to do.” I picked up the pot on the floor. “Collect as much of the blood as you can. At the end of the day, someone will come to bring it to the research tower.”

I looked at the blood curiously. Why wasn’t that regenerating?

“If this looks like it’s going to regenerate, please push it outside of the healing field and start a new pot,” I said just to be safe, then I made enough wire leashes and meat cleavers for everybody.

Now that the messiest task was dealt with, I wanted to see if my new clothes were ready yet. I dropped by the spot where the women who liked weaving and sewing tended to gather, and they sprung into action as soon as they saw me.

“Lord Vyra, you’re here!”

“We were just going to send someone to find you!”

“Ohh, I hope it fits. If it’s too small, I’m going to cry.”

“This fabric is so delicate. Just how many reels did I weave?”

“Haha, my finger is full of needle pricks.”

It seems like they had quite the time. A few women carried a folded piece of cloth over to me, the others moving out of their way and watching excitedly. Two of them held onto the shoulders and reached their arms above their heads, allowing it to unfurl all the way.

It was a simple dress, but I know from experience how hard something like that is to make well by hand. It had a simple V-neck and long sleeves that widened at the wrists. It was tight around the waist, but flowed around the legs. There were two slits up the sides to not inhibit movement.

Silfela grass couldn’t be dyed, but it was silky and smooth. The women had embroidered the seams with thread to keep it from being too boring. We didn’t have the technology for zippers, or even buttons, so the dress was secured by laces crisscrossing the back.

“You mentioned it’s fragile?” I asked, taking it carefully into my arms.

“It was,” a woman nodded. “Thesil figured out she could use plant magic on the thread to make it much stronger.”

A High Orc woman blushed while the surrounding women poured compliments on her. “It, it should be about as tough as bear hide,” she said quietly.

I grinned. “Excellent, Thesil. Inventive ideas like that shound be praised.”

I slid the dress on over my shoulders and had the women help me lace it up. I don’t really like dresses, to be honest, but it’s my fault for not specifying what kind of clothes I wanted. I can always wear armored pants underneath and the upper armor above the tighter portions. Actually, armored dresses might be more appealing than I thought.

“Does it fit?” someone asked nervously.

I flexed my arms the fabric stretched, but it didn’t tear. It wasn’t too loose either. The neckline wasn’t too low, and my chest fit inside. I was somewhat surprised by the quality.

“Yes. You all did quite a good job. Thank you.”

They melted once their days of hard work was recognized, laughing and chatting enthusiastically.

“We based it on the style the Human magic caster was using, since you’re an excellent magic caster, Lord.”

“There’s a cloak to go with it, but we didn’t want to bring it out if the dress didn’t fit.”

A long, silfela-green cloak was brought out. It tied in the front, and the shoulder seams were shaped well enough that it didn’t slide back. There was a nice loose hood that she could use to shield herself from the sun, and it could likely be used as camouflage. This too was embroidered along the seams.

“Very nice,” I muttered in astonishment. “You all worked quite hard these past two days.”

The women happily drunk up my compliments, pretending to be bashful when they were clearly thrilled that I liked it.

I held my fist over my mouth and cleared my throat. “I was thinking about making Golems to spin the thread and weave the cloth, while the detailed sewing work would be your job. What do you all think about that?”

The women shared looks.

“Um, weaving does take a lot of time, but it isn’t like I hate it?”

“Sometimes I like taking a break to spin thread, since it’s hard to mess up.”

“The reason is because everybody else in Babylon will need clothes as well. If you ladies have to take care of everything from start to finish, it will be extremely difficult.”

The reality of that much work quickly sunk in as their expressions hardened.

“Please make those Golems,” they said simultaneously.

“Alright, I’ll make them soon,” I said, adding that task to my mental list.

Next I dropped by the area where the women who liked making armor tended to gather. As expected, Just clothing doesn’t feel like enough when I’ve been wearing armor for so long.

“Lord Vyra!” People called out and waved for attention as I walked past. Even wearing new clothes, I’m extremely recognizable, thanks to my size and bright red hair. I smiled and gave small waves back, silently hoping nobody approached me with new problems that needed solving. Soon I saw the three women who’d made my Fomor fur armor, and I knew I’d arrived.

“My Lord!” The three women bowed at the waists when they saw me.

“Rise,” I smiled, looking them over. Their names were in my : Turka, Morva, and Eulga. Morva was the tallest one, and all three were clearly very pregnant, not that it appeared to bother them.

“The armor you made served me well, but I’m afraid I outgrew it.”

Morva nodded and smiled with a hint of sadness. “We can see that. Did you want a new set?”

I nodded. “Preferably something made of leather, this time. I think fur would look a little strange with these clothes.”

Turka nodded. “It’s done.”

“Of course, I’ll wait,” my three eyes flickered when I realized what had been said. “It’s done?”

“We stole your measurements from Thesil and the others,” Eulga grinned while Morva stomped off to grab the armor. “They told us the same thing you just did, complaining that fur would make the dress look strange.”

I let out a breath and shook my head. “You three are amazing, do you know that?”

The two women grinned and Morva returned. She was quite a big Orc, but she looked small carrying my armor.

“It’s made of a buffalo magic beast’s skin, so it’s pretty tough, but we couldn’t think of any way to make it stronger with magic. Sorry.” Morva smiled sheepishly and handed me my breast plate. It was a rich, dark brown. Considering the way it shown, it must have been polished with something. The metal pins fixing the straps to the armor looked like tasteful decorations. They were likely made of bronze.

I’m not sure how far these three communicated with the women from earlier, but the breastplate had the same style of V-neck as my dress, with a bronze netting filling the gap for protection. My armor used to show my chest for practical reasons because we lacked resources, but now I think these women are doing it on purpose as an aesthetic choice.

“I do like the design,” I started tactfully. “The color of the leather is beautiful, and the bronze pins are placed tastefully. But why does it show my breasts?”

“Because a woman’s only battlefield isn’t in the forest,” Eulga grinned, rubbing her swollen belly.

I knew it.

“That Bazarath guy seems pretty stiff, but you’ll definitely be able to win him over,” Turka smiled encouragingly.

“He is an attractive guy,” Morva nodded, blushing.

“Yet again, I’m not looking for a mate,” I said calmly. “And since I’m founding a kingdom, I’ll probably marry for political reasons.”

Eulga tilted her neck to the side. “I don’t know what that means? But just force them down if they say no.”

I held my lips from twitching and lowered my head. “Thank you, ladies, for the new armor. Would you help me put it on?”

Soon, I was covered and ready for battle, minus a weapon. My breastplate, hip guards, and shoulder pauldrons were all above my dress but beneath my cloak, while my groin guard, leg guards, and bracers were hidden underneath. They even made boots for me. I didn’t think anybody in the city knew how to do that yet, since half of our populace has hooves. They were a little stiff, but they fit. They laced up the front, rising about halfway up my calves.

“It’s fantastic,” I said, and I meant it genuinely. “Now I’ll be forced to come to you three anytime I need new armor.”

“We’d be honored if you did,” Morva bowed her head. The other two quickly mirrored her.

I nodded. “I have a few more errands to run, but I’ll see you around. Thank you again.”

I left what was quickly becoming the armor district of town, heading for the West gate, where I’d asked another group of people to gather yesterday. I passed by the farms on my way there, admiring the abundant produce that growed without stopping. It felt so good as a leader to be able to secure enough food for such a gluttonous populace.

Through the fields of green, I saw a group of Orcs, War Orcs, and High Orcs lazing around in boredom. It would be wrong to keep them waiting any longer.

“I’m glad you came,” I smiled brightly. “Sorry to keep you waiting. Are you ready for your first task?”

The Orcs hurried to their feet, but they looked at me with a hint of skepticism. I responded with a serious face and quickly used to make sure no one was close enough to be listening.

“I’m sure we didn’t kill every Fomor in our final battle. There should be some settlements that were left untouched. Find them. Come back with their locations. I’ve destroyed their ritual altar, but it’s unsafe to leave them wounded like this. Do you understand how important this mission is?”

The Orcs made terrified faces and nodded quickly.

“Good. Try not to be seen while you’re sneaking around, and don’t tell anyone else in the city what you’re up to, either. Say you’re just scouting the general area.” I raised an eyebrow. “That’s it. If you understand, then get going. And don’t get yourselves killed, either.”

I watched the group run off and turned back to the city, my cloak fluttering.

It’s good that Bazarath likes to sneak away from my side. I should have somebody watch him, just in case. I want to be able to keep him as my pet for a long time, after all.