The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 450: Competent Help

Two hours later, Dominic and Amie found themselves in the middle of a stone covered field, looking at the location that the Infrastructure team had identified as the best spot for an airship factory and repair shop.

It wouldn’t interfere with the working docks, it was far enough that it wouldn’t endanger them if an incoming vessel was in danger of fire or explosion, and it wasn’t workable land that someone would want to work one day.

"Alright. I don’t know what needs to go inside, but I can certainly approve of the location. Is there anything that we need beyond the building? I’m not an expert in airship manufacturing." Dominic asked the team leader.

"Not much. They’ll need a gantry for the construction, and we will need to arrange shipments of raw materials, especially the cloth for the envelope. Treating it to hold air, or using a synthetic plastic are the usual ways, but I’m also not an expert." He replied with a shrug.

"Well, I’m sure that we can get it all sorted out once the team is here. I will have a shipment of clay sent over, and then they can work out the transmutation spells.

Getting the spell gems might not be easy or cheap, but it’s certainly not impossible."

Amie nodded. "We have people with connections for that. If we need more transmutations, we can get them. Aluminum, copper and steel we have for sure. But anything rare is going to be a special order from another Sect."

Those were the basics that most sects would have, but many of the airships were covered in brass, which was either made in house by the smiths, or with magic by a sect that specialized in it.

Dominic didn’t see the reason, it was mostly cosmetic. But that was hard to argue against.

The sort of people who could afford an airship cared about appearances.

"Alright, let’s get at least some walls up today." Dominic announced.

The infrastructure team nodded. "No worries, Your Grace. We will stake it out and get the building shell up today. If you have other matters to deal with, you can work on them."

Dominic frowned. There were too many things to do today, and even more that he likely hadn’t thought of yet.

"Why don’t we go see the farmers? The whole area was trampled, so there is certainly some repair work to do." Amie suggested.

The trolls that had followed them nodded eagerly. They were happy to help rebuild gardens.

They had only sent ten trolls for this outing, as they thought it was only security, but they could get more if they needed them. Ten men also patrolled the Manor walls at any given time, but they could call at least another ten out.

Twenty Mountain Trolls was enough for them to repair entire farms at a time, but the damage didn’t look as bad as they had feared. This side of town was trampled, and the monster corpses were still being cleared out and piled for destruction.

But the fields were only starting to sprout, and even where they were trampled, many of them were starting to stand back up again.

The trolls revived the resilient young plants as they passed by, and the farms began to look better within seconds. All that Dominic was going to have to do was check for building damage, so he knew that nobody was going to be stuck with a leaky roof.

The Sect and the other craftsmen in town who could use the [Transmutation] type spells were doing the same all over the territory, but Dominic had the trolls with him to fix some of the gardens while he checked to see how much had been lost from storage.

"Morning young Miss, is your mom home?" He joked as an elderly lady opened the door to the next farm house.

"In fact, she’s stepped out for a moment. No suitors today." The old lady replied with a grin.

"I have come to see how the storage fared before the wet season. The trolls are helping with the field damages, but I wanted to check if anyone had heard of families who might have taken heavy losses, either to battle or to their storage." Dominic explained.

"Well, this side of town is pretty good. We were further from the majority of the fighting, and there aren’t even a lot of farms here to attract the monsters.

The only section that fared better was the other side of the river, and I don’t recall that they got any portals at all.

If you head off in that direction, though, the Jones family lost three sons in the fighting. They might need some help." The old lady insisted.

"Alright, I will go check on them. Thanks for your assistance."

Dominic followed her directions, stopping at a few more farms and getting the same response. They were alright, but the Joneses had lost three boys.

So, it was no shock when the matriarch of the Jones family was waiting out on the porch by the time that they arrived.

"Your Grace, to what do we owe the honour of this visit?" She asked.

"We came to see who had suffered heavy losses, either to the farms or to the family. We will help where we can, but I am told by the neighbours that you lost three boys."

The woman, who was in her later middle years, and just starting to turn grey in the hair, nodded sadly.

"Aye, my five oldest are all in the militia, and three of them took up spears to defend the farm until the army could get here.

The rest of the family evacuated into town, but they were last to retreat and fell to Ogres." She explained.

"I can’t bring your boys back, but I can help you with supplies if you’ve lost them. There is a death benefit for militiamen as well. It will be out soon, though it’s little consolation."

The woman gave him a sad smile. "You would know, I suppose. Your family was at Wistover when it fell, were they not?"

Dominic nodded. "They were. I still owe Dagos and their allies for that.

Soon, we will settle accounts.

But first, I want to see Wistover stable and happy again."