Butcher of Gadobhra Chapter 450 (Patreon)

"And you are sure that the lateral move of 153.2 yards to this new location is accounted for in your calculations?"

Vladimir sighed heavily, Damien had asked this question nine times now. "Yes, Damien." He knew that Damien wasn't worried about an error. He loved errors and sometimes made them on purpose just to see what happened. What he wanted was for Vladimir to give him the secrets of his calculations for calibrating the stone. Which Vladimir would do if Damien would reciprocate by revealing his formula for transmuting Gold into Iron. Vladimir suspected that the formula didn't exist and Damien had been bragging about it last night as they walked through the ruins of Gadobhra drinking heavily before getting back to work as the sun came up.

"I should check your work. After all, we can all make mistakes.

"I'm not explaining my methods to you, Damien, unless you give me the formula you promised to me. It's a matter of my twisted pride and overbearing ego.

"Fine. We'll just have to have fun watching this thing explode or send us all to prison cells in the Empire or someplace else fun."

"And I'm OK with that."

"Are you sure? I could check your math?"

Vladimir made one last adjustment, lowered and locked the stone in place, and handed the control rod to their new apprentice. He was a little young to be handling a Tier 5 stone, but Barky was made of stern stuff and had survived being tortured by winter, abused by a dragon, and pushed through an unstable teleportation device. He'd be fine, and everyone was supporting him by shoving new knowledge into him as fast as they could and erasing the habits instilled by the last college.

"You have command of the stone, apprentice. Fire it up and let's see what our friends in the Empire do. That's the red button, by the way."
No one had any hope of having the new stone connected to the Imperial system without a huge fight. This was only the opening salvo. They would request a connection, and the Mages of the Guild would laugh themselves silly, say something rude, and turn them down. They would let the Baron and Baroness know they had done their best and let them take over the fight. Baron William was getting ready to put pressure on the Guild in several ways and call in every favor that was owed to him. It would be a long fight, but he was determined to gain both a Bank and a Teleport Stone for Gadobhra, bringing the larger marketplace to his doorstep. Already, several buildings had appeared overnight that would become mercantile shops for buying and selling items from the dungeons and supplying adventurers with what they needed.

Barky clicked the button, happy to be appreciated. He was warm, his frostbite was clearing up, and they had coffee here that made his head spin. He could deal with a set of strange professors. If he worked hard, he could earn a dual degree in Experimental Magic and Engineering, with a minor in Magi-tech. His parents would be proud of him someday when he was able to tell them he was alive. For now, he was enjoying life and learning new things. Seeing a teleportation stone created right in front of him was amazing, and opened his eyes to so many new aspects of magic. His new professors had graciously allowed him to take part, heating the molten metal needed for the runic channels. Almost dying twice in the process was a small price to pay for the experience he had gained! And now they were letting him take charge of the stone itself, a position of honor that would normally go to a much older Mage.

With the click of a button, the control screen became active, and he signaled the main stone in the capital, sending a small personalized note along with the request. "Requesting final connection. Our stone is charged and ready to get to work. Have a nice day. -Barky"

In the capital of the Empire, teleport mages were working triple shifts to reconnect all of the Teleport Stones that had been taken out of the system to preserve them, and fix those damaged by the mana surges. There weren't enough mages to do the work, and sending repair crews overland was going to take forever. Their focus at this time was restoring as much of the system as fast as they could and dealing with the trouble spots later. 

Mana was slowly trickling into the system, supplied by Guild Mages and anyone else willing to make a few extra coins. Numerous adventurers used the downtime while they couldn't travel to sell their mana and then enjoy themselves in the taverns and shops in whatever town they might be currently located. One of the few places they could go was to Rowan Keep via the stone in Wolfsburg and then on to Sedgewick and the Dungeons of Gadobhra. The Guild was frustrated by that. Baron William and Rowan Keep were generously supplying a steady stream of mana to Wolfsburg. They'd even requested that they provide mana for anyone traveling to visit them. The Guild responded by charging the adventurers anyway, at a reduced fee for 'Traveler's Insurance' and sent them on their way. Many Mages felt it vastly unfair that somehow, the Baron had a stranglehold on mana just when the Empire needed it the most. They were tired, overworked, grumpy, and unloved. Blaming Baron William was a natural outlet for them.

But with so few people to do the work and so few hours to sleep, it was understandable that a senior Mage would be angered when a junior Mage brought a problem to him that wasn't a problem. 

"Sir, I have a request to connect a stone to the system."

Mage Argyll turned and he stared at one of the new apprentices brought in from the academy. "Smithers, is it? Has it occurred to you, Apprentice Smithers that our job right now is to do exactly that!"

"Yessir, but some of the paperwork doesn't match."

"Is their stone in working order, Smithers?"

"Yessir, they confirm that."

"And charged? Do they seem crazed or using too many apostrophes?"

"Yessir. Charge, and no, very sane and quite polite. They were kind enough to send us wishes for a nice day."

The Senior Mage looked at the Apprentice, stared until he was uncomfortable (and his blood pressure had gone down), and asked, "Then what in the Seven Hells is the problem, Smithers?"

"Well, I don't have the paperwork for a few hundred years of inspections and their numbers are slightly off, indicating a shift of a small amount."

"Fine. Hook them up."

"Sir?"

"Let me explain this to you, Smithers, so you don't do this again. Paperwork goes missing. No one cares as long as everything is working fine. The Mages in the field do their work, but paperwork is a hassle and doesn't always make its way back here. Sometimes a stone needs to be moved. The fact that his stone is in working order indicates everything was done correctly. In the time we've wasted here, we could have added seven more locations to the network! So go to your station, and add this perfectly good stone to the network, immediately, then add another and another, working until you fall asleep at your post. It's what I'm going to do!"

Smithers didn't approve and resolved to file a complaint at a later date. Weeks of overwork would cure him of that habit and help him develop the thousand-mile stare of a veteran Mage.

In Gadobhra, Barky looked down at his screen and called out. "Approved! We are online and ready to teleport anywhere in the system. Oh, and the city has hooked us into the mana storage system already. This is so amazingly efficient. I'm not sure why they complain. It was a brilliant idea to put two of the Golem Charging Stations next to the stone."

Damien looked at Vladimir, "I had 1 year and 9 months in the pool, you?"

"Oh, I thought you were optimistic and overestimating what the Baron Could do. I had three years. I think Titania is the closest. She guessed just 11 months."

Damien looked at the stone. "What the hell do we do now? I must admit, I'm quite astounded and unprepared."

Vladimir looked to where Barky was standing at attention. "Well, we have our candidate for Teleport Technician already at work. I say we set him up with a lovely awning and comfortable chair. We can pay Rory to supply coffee and snacks and leave him to his job. Meanwhile, someone needs to report this to the Baron, take credit for a job well done, and deplete his wine rack."

"For Science!"

"Yes, depleting his wine rack, For Science! Carry on Mr. Barky. We'll be setting up your command post later today." As they walked to the ACME building, they heard the screams coming from the building and were met by the Baroness with bottles of wine and the Baron put cigars in their mouths. 

"Time to celebrate. Damn, I have no idea how you guys did that. I was betting on a year, at least."

 Corporate Announcement

ACME Corporation is the first group to gain the ability to do real-world sales from their stores in the City of Gadobhra. Items from the World of Genesis may now be sold in Gadobhra for real-world money, using a secure Data Net transfer. Please contact Baroness Layla about leasing opportunities, restrictions, and the cost of doing business.

Baron William has gained 7500 Building Points for expanding the Teleportation Network in the Empire. 
The village of Sedgewick has gained 2500 Building points.