Ep. 1205 Return to the Mountain Part 3
Lin says "So, here is where you have been hiding!"
"I'm not hiding, I'm working. I already did quite a bit of work on the enchantments, now I am working on the golems."
Lin says "I can see that. You know there are important conversations going on, right?"
"It should still be the elders getting to know the elven leaders, nothing that needs my presence."
Lin says "So, you are not doing this to avoid the political stuff?"
"Nope. This is important and will affect the live of everyone in the city. Besides, I've got a promise to keep and this is a necessary step for that."
Lin says "What promise? To whom?"
"My promise to the tree to plant its seed somewhere safe."
Lin says "Oh, you told me about that, but I had forgotten."
"So had I, but Athena reminded me."
Lin says "Well, I guess that's okay then. Since I found you, shall we have dinner together?"
"Sure, let me just finish this group."
Lin sits on the throne and watches me as I finish with the golems, then we have dinner together. It turns out that she had something else in mind and we end up testing out the king's bed. She leaves after we have had our fun for a while and then I get back to work.
By the time I finish all the golems it is quite late, but I am not done just yet. Next, I alter and improve the programming of the golems, which takes me a few hours. After that is done, it is finally time for me to add some new enchantments to the city.
The first enchantment I want to add takes a little experimenting to figure out. I want to put a barrier over every entrance to the cavern that will block temperature from passing through. I want to control the temperature of the cavern and first I need to plug the holes.
Since it is just a variation of a barrier it isn't too hard to figure out the enchantment. The hard part is making it so that it will automatically cover any new entrances that are created. Luckily, I have examples in the other enchantments on how to set rules for an enchantment.
I have already done something similar, so it only takes a bit of work to figure it out. With that done, adding an enchantment to keep the cavern at a comfortable temperature is easy. However, that uses up the mana that I freed up and I am nowhere near done yet.
So, I send an order to the golems to go to the outer walls of the cavern and carve some formations. These are the same formations that I put on the ship and the crystals to gather mana. However, they are a slightly weaker version, I don't want them to be detectable.
While the city isn't really a secret anymore, I still don't want to make it easy for enemies to find. The gathered mana is then split into two streams, one small one large. The large stream is fed into the city for use in the enchantments and the small one feeds into the air.
The small one will over time raise the mana level of the cavern and make the environment better. Or at least that is what I am hoping will happen, it is something of an experiment. If it works, all the food grown in the cavern should have some mana inside it.
From what I have learned so far, that should make the food more sustaining. From what I currently know, it should work, but I will have to wait and see. If nothing else, the higher mana levels will make casting spells easier for everyone.
Next, I order some of the golems to go to the main square of the city and make some changes. They rip up a twenty foot square of the paving stones and build a small wall around it. This leaves an area of dirt open, where I plan to plant the seed of the tree.
Before that, I take the new source of mana and set an enchantment to infuse it into water. That water is then fed into the soil beneath the square to feed the tree. When that is ready, I contact Jarvis and have him send the gardener golems outside the castle for the first time.
Their orders are to prep the soil that is already there, add more soil, and add fertilizer. Once all that is done, I leave the palace and head to the main square. While I am waiting for the golems to finish their work, I take the seed out of my pouch.
I look around to make sure Athena isn't around and then cut the palm of my hand. When I smear my blood over the seed it is quickly absorbed by the seed. At the same time, I feed a good portion of my mana into the seed as well.
I keep it up until the golems are done preparing the soil, then I plant the seed. I place it in the dead center of the square and as soon as it is in the dirt it sprouts. It continues growing and to help it I keep feeding my mana to it until my pool is empty.
By the time my mana runs out the sprout has turned into a two foot tall sapling. Just like the original tree, it has a purple trunk with bright silver leaves. However, so far I haven't felt anything from the tree, it is probably too young to form a spirit.
When I take my attention off of the tree, I find myself surrounded by both elves and beasts. In fact, the entire square is full of people, including the elders and the elven leaders. They are all staying outside the square of dirt, except for Athena who is standing right behind me.
Athena says "Thank you, master! Thank you for keeping your promise!"
"Is this environment suitable for the tree? Is there anything else I can do to improve it?"
Athena says "Very suitable! It will get even better as more people live in the city. I can't think of anything you could do to make it better. The tree's growth will be limited by its age, its situation is different from what mine was. I had the age, but not the environment. That's why you were able to speed up my growth so much."
"If all it needs is time, should I put a time dilation around the tree?"
Athena says "No, please don't. In this case it is better to let nature take its course. Besides, there is no need to force the tree to grow, unless you plan to make another ship?"
"No, I don't. If you think this is good enough, then I will leave it alone."
Athena says "Oh, it is definitely enough. As it is, the tree will already provide its blessing to the entire city."
"Its blessing? What do you mean?"
Athena says "It is a tree of life, there is a blessing just from living near it. No one in the city will get sick, anyone who is already sick will recover quickly. Also, people's fertility will increase by living in the city."
"Its range only covers the city?"