Too Many Lists II

Not just a model, role type. Civilian is probably for taking care of places like I thought X Lights were for. X lights are just the quality and craftsmanship of it, there could be an X Heavy that would just go around working on a farm. I've been using civilian models to fight! Oh god, none of them have gotten into melee combat yet, do they have anything other than accuracy? If I had walked into those caves with civilian model Supers and goblins came to fight back… for all I know they don't have combat programming beyond point and shoot, reload, dodge. No wonder they're so good at taking care of me! Doing the laundry, cleaning the house, cooking. Those are skills for a servant! The security models are probably for holding the walls and defensive emplacements, military or MILSPEC is probably fully combat capable, Honor Guard is… probably fear on legs to protect me from anything hostile, and Special Forces is… something no one will want to see in a dark alleyway.

A sigh escaped her lips as she looked at the timer again for research. The civilian models were doing pretty well at holding the line due to the traps and auto turrets, but if she wanted to do other things out there, she'd need security models at the very least. "There has got to be a way to speed this research up… damned stations… can I link you?" she built multiple automatons and shoved them into the other research stations, trying to make them share data amongst themselves in hopes of it producing faster on the current universal project. No dice. "Great, ok… so… I have to wait two more days to get this up to Special Forces model… fine… gives me time to get the Medium quality tier up and running, along with everything else. I'm ok with this. I… I'm ok with this… somewhat…" This meant while the research was being done, she would need to find things to do. Going to Gold Pine was an option to help heal anyone with newer spells and bandages, with maybe helping Giles fix the place up a little more beyond what she did. There was no telling if someone wanted to expand a little bit of their farm, which would give her a little more of the action bar. She couldn't tell if she was just being selfish for the actions or really wanted to help them.

"I was wondering why the ornithopters looked like helical screws with almost nothing else…" she muttered to herself. In her eyes, the dev figured it might show up as a helical screw system to keep in the air, but that was all they really had beyond a repeating crossbow attached to the bottom. It seemed to Selene that if she wanted all the bells and whistles on these things, she'd need to get up to the highest model tier, which might be overkill, but she didn't care. In the enclosed tunnels of that cave system, she wanted to make sure any goblins that came at them could be dealt with quickly. At best, she would be an observer given their levels above her, at worst, she'd be in the way. As long as she stayed in the back her "team" once she made it would be her pavers to that treasure.

As she checked the time, almost noon, it was decided she'd head to Gold Pine right now. She rode Asterion there, with the other research stations that were working on sample projects all completed. She checked the results and received some decent quality of life bonuses. While they didn't count as perks or special abilities, there was a bonus to yields for gardens and farms by ten percent from the soil she tested, along with a ten percent less usage of fertilizer due to her research paper. While that didn't sound like much, if she ever stopped using Growth Spurt on the plots, they would be easier to maintain. The grass oddly enough provided an enzyme that could be added to the lubrication oil for the automatons, changing maintenance requirements from once a day, which was provided by her own automatons amongst themselves, to once a week.

Copper Ore had provided a boost to electrical conductivity, allowing less energy to be used from generators to power lights by ten percent. Zinc provided corrosion and rust protection for iron and steel, further dropping maintenance required for everything. Lead provided limited damage increases to projectile weapons, which seemed to be the only combat effect provided by the research. Tin provided a similar protection as Zinc does. Iron provided a boost to how quickly it could be turned into steel, which seemed a little useless now. Steel gave a bonus to how much torsion or bend damage it could take before stress fractures would appear and it would fall apart, allowing even less maintenance for steampunk items and equipment and stop gears from shearing teeth very often and needing replacement. Although it didn't sound like much, most of that was an improvement in her eyes. Less wear and tear on anything she had was a good thing, with less need to watch anything like a hawk so it wouldn't fall apart. Even algae was found to craft crude oil, allowing gasoline. The Teosinte could be grown and adapted to allow biofuel. Given it was weird science, this was a jump in certain places almost on par with modern technology.

This meant, provided she left food in the fridge for the wolves, that she could leave for long periods of time without needing to check on the place to see if everything is in shambles, or she would get reports from the drones via Communications is Key. The wolves were indifferent to the automatons, so as long as they were fed and kept themselves busy inside the fortress, things would be fine if she ever decided to spend the night at Gold Pine or the "adventure" she was planning took more than one day to do. There was no guarantee that she and her team would make it through all of the tunnels by the end of a day, unlike most dungeons in games which lasted at most one to two hours, or raids which could last four to eight if it was practice on a boss. This was a new world, with no time limit on how long you could be underground, or no schedule to keep. Adventurers probably disappeared for days trying to find treasure, and either succeeded or failed, potentially dying in the process. For all she knew, casualty rate for adventurers was probably pretty high, but she'd need to converse with Giles and Abby about that.

"I… I think I should be leaving some food to spoil… I just realized…" her thoughts were swapping to other points of research she could perform for the next few days now that the samples were complete. Leaving food to spoil would cause mold and maggots, allowing her to study them and then research both. She was already certain what she'd get her hands on. Penicillin would be an incredible thing to have, despite already knowing the standard schematic to produce it. Maybe it would give a steampunk version? Gaining steampunk antibiotics and vaccines would be a big step in the medical direction, allowing less usage of magic to heal all wounds. It could be useful for small villages to get access to easier healing methods without relying on high priced magicians and or wizards to show up or traveling long distances to big cities. Maggot debridement and for that matter maggot secretions was useful in medicine for cleaning dead tissue and keeping infection away, but also to help suppress the immune system for anti-inflammatory usage and helping with stronger antibiotics.

If spell casters want to cost a whole lot and only allow the rich to survive, I'll bring the old-fashioned medical science back from the grave at a cheaper price. I could potentially provide the services for a cost of exotic materials provided, or services provided to someone else as a time share deal. That way money isn't the only way to pay, or maybe community service in exchange for universal health coverage? Wait, I don't own anything beyond that fortress yet! What am I thinking…?

As she neared the village and observed the people working on their farms or moving to and fro from one building to another, they saw her trotting Aster in and waved. Even if she didn't know most of their names, they all certainly knew hers. Aster stopped just in front of the general store with Selene hopping off quickly, entering through the front door and hearing the bell ring. The owner walked out from his back room and saw her standing there. "Ah, the hero of Gold Pine! How can I provide you with my humble service?" he asked. "I'd like to see if you own a calendar I can buy. I need to know the seasons for this area and the names for the months in your year." He blinked in surprise as he rummaged through a crate of assorted nick knacks before finding one and blowing dust off of it. It looked like a large book, with inside columns and roman numerals, looking like it was made by a church. In college she remembered there were three main names for days beyond Sunday to Saturday, which was Kalends, Nones and Ides. Each column allowed the reader to figure out what each day was, along with what needed to be done each month. This was where Shakespeare's line "Ides of March" came from for warning Julius Caesar his life was in danger. Most of the book was gibberish to her, which wasn't that bad given she could shove it in her inventory, and it would translate the whole thing to something useful.

"I didn't expect anyone to not know about our calendar, but I seemed to be wrong. Do you need help with the numbers? That there is a two, and that is-" She looked up at him with a little annoyance. "Again, I'm not stupid, I just don't know your language or how deep you people are in science and astronomy. I highly doubt you know how to do calculus or trigonometry." He coiled back in worry that he offended her. "How much."

"Um… uh, my apologies, uh… three silver?" he asked meekly. She put the coin on the counter and shoved the book into her inventory, not a care about him seeing her hand slip into nothingness as she walked out of the building. "Please come again soon! Our stock is improving with the new-" the door closed as she hopped on Aster and headed to Giles, noticing more traders lining the side of the village, this time with what looked like normal wares compared to some snake oil salesman. Giles was working on some metal in his master forge right when she pulled up and dismounted, with her leaning against the wall and waiting. He glanced back for just a moment and did a double take, pulling off the rag he was wearing around his mouth. He was glistening with sweat as he put the hammer down and stepped forward. "Hey lass, how are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm doing good, just checking in to see if anyone needed some healing or a health checkup, maybe help with some repairs." He laughed as he sat down at a counter to chat with her. "If you do that, everyone is going to come running and drop what their doing, with not much food stockpiled for the coming winter." She opened her character sheet and checked if there was a new tab to open for the calendar. Sure enough it was there, with updated information on what month she was in. October. That was middle fall, heading towards November. No wonder it was getting a little bit chilly outside, though she couldn't tell what season it was from the evergreen trees nearby. An amusing thought popped up in her head as she listened to Giles talk and saw the calendar months were full.

I'm not about to pray to the saints I see on these days. Given that your church is probably corrupt and unwilling to help the poor, I'd sooner tell them to go to hell. They'd probably try to flog me for acting in such a manner, but that's what the automatons are for.

"How many ingots you got for me today lass?" he asked. "Um… I can give ten of each, sound good?" he chuckled and nodded. "I'll go get my bag, hold tight." He got up and went inside the house, with Selene watching the traders hock their wares. Most of it didn't look anywhere near what she could make, but there were some silk rolls there that interested her, along with some animals, potentially bugs. Her feet started to carry her over to the wagons as the traders showed the villagers just how soft some of the materials were. "This comes all the way from Salunbal, the jewel of the East. Feel how smooth this fine silk is!" there was a lady touching the silk with worry on her face. It looked like the alewife she had helped before. "Is there a problem?" the dev asked her quietly. She looked up with her eyes brightening as she saw her. "Oh! It's you! I… I just don't know. Some of these wares none of us can afford. That silk roll is worth more than most of us make in a year miss."

Selene looked at the silk carefully and touched it a little bit. "Are you looking to buy some miss? I can assure you, it is of the highest quality." The trader flipped the silk back and forth to show just how good the weave was. "Do you have access to the production of this? Specifically, the animal or bug that produces the material." That caught the trader off guard, along with the alewife. "Miss, um, creating silk is no easy task… I highly doubt Gold Pine has the capability to-" "I'm not from Gold Pine. Do you have access to the animals or bugs that produce the raw material?" she asked again, annoyed. The trader glanced between both women trying to keep a smile on his mouth as he blinked. "I… may… have access to the creature that produces it, yes. Do you wish you buy some?" he asked. "Yes please. I take it they're silk moths?" the dev questioned. He was shocked that someone around there knew about that. "Why… yes! How… nevermind, um… would… here." He pulled out a small wood slat cage with thirty silk moths flitting around inside.

"I'll take them." The trader's eyes widened. "The cost for this miss, they're… I highly doubt you have the coin to buy all of them… how about three? Four?" "I said I'll take all of them." His mind was reeling behind his eyeballs. "That's going to be… be… thirty gold for these little creatures." Everyone hushed as they watched her pull thirty measly gold from her inventory, shocking the trader even further. She easily had the funds with her mine now allowing her to mint gold constantly. What she didn't tell anyone was that she had well over a thousand gold pieces to use to buy whatever she needed. However, she didn't want the finished products, she wanted the capability to make her own.

The trader bit one coin to see if it was real, which it certainly was, then handed the silk moths over. "Be careful, they are fragile. I believe they are reaching their time to lay eggs." Selene looked into the slats and noticed some bumps attached to the leaves. "They already have. Thank you." Her hand disappeared with the cage into her inventory to place them in stasis for later. She already knew the way silk was gained, by killing the moths. It could be done without killing them, but the fiber was usually torn due to the emerging adult. Thankfully, she had simple spells to fix that. Lesser Repair, Repair, and Greater Repair would mend the fibers together as if the moth had never left the cocoon, allowing her to have a constant supply of silk without killing the little things, to keep an almost endless loop. "You have the mulberry that these things eat?" she asked. "That will cost you some more. Five more gold to be exact." He was primping himself up as if he knew she'd never afford that, but another hand pushed into her inventory and pulled out five more gold coins. Everyone gasped. "Has she already gone on an adventure?" some whispered. "Here you are." The trader grumbled as he foraged through his items as Giles walked up behind her.

"Hey lass, what are you doing? Buying things?" he asked as he looked at the trader turn around and hand her some seeds. "Good luck, you're going to need it, he he." The trader grinned as he dropped the seeds into her hand. She sighed and looked at them. "Did you really just sell me poisoned seeds so the moths would die?" she asked, raising her eyebrow. Everyone gasped as they looked between the two of them. The trader's eyes widened as he began to sweat. "Ladies and gentlemen, it seems this man needs to realize not everyone will just walk away with delusions that a trader could be a swindling thief." She stepped up to his face and stared him down. "Now now! You have a good eye there! I can see you are a woman wise beyond her years!" He tried to defend himself as he looked around. "Fresh ones. Now. Free of charge." The trader pulled at his collar and took a deep breath. "Or?" he squeaked out. "Or she'll end your sorry life and take your wagon, that's what she'll do you bloody moron! She's the reason Volgo's bandit army is defeated!" Giles shouted at him.

The trader stared at her with awe. "I… I… I am terribly sorry! So sorry! Here, here's the seeds, no charge! May you have all the luck in your endeavors!" "I want the silk roll as well, for her." The alewife looked at her, bringing her hand up to her chest as she watched. "Oh, miss, you don't have to-" "The silk roll is worth ten gold! I can't just-" Selene had a good two inches height advantage over the man. "I'll give half that and you'll like it. Be thankful they don't run you out of the village." He sighed and agreed, handing the silk roll to Selene. The alewife was almost in tears at her kindness. "I don't know how to sew that well though, it could make a fine bed sheet." The dev stepped back a bit and smiled at her. "I can sew it up for you if you want. Just tell me what you need made and I'll bring it tomorrow, sound good?" she nodded with tears building up in her eyes. "Yes, thank you, you're a saint beyond saints."

"Now, you. Cause anymore trouble for these people and you'll have me to deal with. Understood? You've just fixed your reputation, barely, but don't push it." The dev brought her hand up and balled it into a fist. "I understand! I understand! There's no need for violence! I'm a simple a trader, I won't do that again, you can trust me, truly!" she nodded and walked back with Giles to the smithy. A few other traders were selling birds, cats, some jewelry of low quality, a few different foods and some hides. None of them were with the first one. "Good on you lass. I guess you can throw those poisoned seeds away then." As he sat down again at his counter, she dropped the poisoned ones down on it as well and cast Cleanse Lesser Poison. The debuff she could see in her Hud disappeared from the seeds. Giles's eyebrows raised. "Now you have twice the seeds to grow… what did you buy before that? I didn't see." She pulled out the cage for a second to show him the moths. "You want those? Those filthy things?"

"Those filthy things are silk moths, the very ones that produce silk from their cocoons. I'm going to make my own silk." He gawked then laughed. "You're making your own emporium, better than Silvinholm! Oh, it is a joy to have you around lass, I can tell you that much. Are you growing any vegetables or bringing any high-quality cattle as well?" he chuckled out as he pointed at her. "Not quite yet, at least the cattle bit, but I don't want to put the farmers here out of business with my stock." Her brain was already working on ways to research the tree seeds and then use them in the alchemy station to warp the evolution into meat trees, milk trees, fruit trees that she didn't have yet. While she didn't have one yet, crafting a molecular converter system would useful. There was a basic one used in Yggdrasil to change one material into another, but this one wasn't a storage chest, but a full building that could mass swap whatever was required due to steampunk. It would require lots of electricity to function but being able to change things in bulk would be highly beneficial. While it wouldn't work so well on organic objects without lots of alchemical ingredients to stabilize the change, it was possible. There was no way to change living creatures into another, however, or create life. That's how Love Craftian abominations are created. She didn't want those in her fortress.

Giles counted out sixty silver for her, which she put her hand on his and shook her head. "Wait, not this price?" he asked. "Cut it to thirty. All of you are trying to get back on your feet, and with traders taking some of your savings, it wouldn't be right to charge that much. The price can go up once the economy here has stabilized." He got up and gave her a bear hug. "Ugh, Giles… can't breathe…" he stopped and clapped his hands on her shoulders. "My friend, you amaze me at your kindness." "Uh, Giles? I don't know how to say this but…" the smith chuckled. "Say what now? You are my friend after all! Don't tell me you disagree?" She smirked and looked away. "Ok, as your friend, you… you… you need to take a bath…" he stared at her blinking while she coughed a little. "But… it isn't that time of the month yet…" he muttered out. "Month? As in you bathe once a month? Oh Giles, bathe every day, you'll feel better and cleaner and it's… it's… do it for Abby, she'll love you for it."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I… alright, if you say so, but… the bath houses were located in Glass Dale… and… well…" She opened her mouth in acknowledgement as he nodded. "Ah. So, when you visited, then came back… and there's no bath house here?" she asked. He shook his head. "No one cared to make one. Besides, not many people want to sit in cold water just to feel clean. No one wants a man-made lake to wash in."

Wait! Your bath houses aren't heated?! Romans did that! Oh, guys and gals, have I got a special treat for you…

"Cold water? Oh no, that's just… oh I need to fix that. Are there any plots of land open in the village? Any near here?" the man brought his hand to his chin and looked out the front of the smithy. "You could ask the mayor if he would give you the land just down this road, past the fences. I doubt even for a second he'd stop you if you're about to do what I think you're about to do." She nodded and walked down the street with Giles following, others nodding in acknowledgement to the hero. As they both cleared the fence, she focused and built up the foundation, built the walls and finally the roof. It looked similar to the inn, with separate rooms for people to bathe in by themselves or communally. Plumbing was installed right after, with the pipes stopping just outside the building. "Where is your water well?" He pointed just down the street and up a tiny hill. She walked up to it and took twenty steps back, looked down, and started digging with Molecular Reformation. The villagers were watching in awe as she just kept looking down, the hole getting deeper until it hit water. Then she dug deeper. "Usually if you have water there's an underground spring of some capacity. It might not be clean water, but it probably has ample supply. I'm going to pipe that into boilers outside the building that will then need wood to keep hot. Filters will need to be replaced and cleaned every two to three weeks." Giles had no idea what the hell she just said, but he nodded in agreement.

"Now, go take a bath. I'll even provide you some lemongrass soap I have, free of charge, plus a towel." He barked out a laugh as he tilted back, clapping her on the back of her left shoulder. "You keep amazing me every day. Selene, you've done more for us than the kingdom ever did. I think I can give thanks from everyone here." She looked at him oddly. "All I did was make sure you guys can bathe and keep clean. It's not like I own the village or anything." He raised an eyebrow with a smirk on his face. "If you asked for it, I don't think anyone would say nay, not even the mayor. Being left alone to fend for ourselves by a kingdom that doesn't care about us, or founding a new kingdom under your watch where we actually get noticed and provided help when we need it? Not much choice there." She rolled her eyes and pulled the soap and towel from her inventory along with a comb and brush, handing them to the man. "Go get cleaned up, stop dreaming. Here, here's a comb for your hair too, and a brush." He took the toiletries from her and chuckled, walking towards the entrance of the bathhouse as others gathered around wondering what it was.

She started to explain to them what it was for, what to do for heating the water, turning the valves and using the faucets on the baths. She sold some soap for cheap, gave some linen towels she still had even though there were cotton ones available. Selene wanted to ease them into normal civilization, not throw massive piles of brand-new tech at them and cause problems. Scientists had theorized that if a middle ages peasant was brought to the future, they'd either die from a heart attack from seeing all the modern technology, die from new diseases, die from trying to worship the electric automated cars driving around at ninety miles an hour, or die from scaring the local populace into calling the cops, then getting beaten due to fighting back. In general, they'd just die.

Probably wouldn't be a good idea to advance their technology too much, I'm not about to start selling civilian model automatons to them after all. That's my only edge right now in this world. Besides… If I was going to sell them, not even the rich could afford even one. I don't want to be a bitch, but those things, regardless of my Crafting Cost stat, would normally be pretty expensive and hard to maintain.

She set some wood in the boilers and heated up the water fast, while everyone enjoyed the hot baths and cleaned up. Even the mayor joined in, happy to have her around. Once everyone was clean and smelled infinitely better than before, the dev turned off the boilers. There were a few awwws from the crowd. "Hey hey, it's very simple, just put wood here, set a fire, turn this and this. Go inside, turn this valve here. Done. Free bathhouse. Everyone should stay clean and healthy. Agreed?" she informed them of the workings of the building so that anyone could go and clean up from a hard day's work. Then she provided light healing to those who needed it, at a cheap price.

"Better than any of those magicians out there luv" Moira giggled out as she healed her fingers from a broken mug. "Ok, I've been meaning to ask all of you about this. How many magicians are there normally? Wizards? Mages?" Moira looked at all the other villagers as she started to answer. "Most of the towns tend to have at least one magician, maybe a few. Usually a large town will have a small guild of them. Any city like Silvinholm would start to have wizards, or basically magicians that went to the magic academy. A Large city would have a wizard's guild, with the capital having the wizard's academy near the palace."

"So… no magi?" The dev asked. "I haven't a clue what that is luv. Is it a stronger wizard?" the innkeeper asked.

Mages don't normally exist, probably a synonym for wizard anyways. For the most part I always thought wizards specialized in a school of magic, while mages learned all magic equally, they just weren't the best in any one field. It seems magicians here are like the corner shop spell caster, do a little enchanting on the side, heal some wounds, sell some cigarettes, maybe sell a porn mag or three of two-dimensional women.

"So, do these magicians do any special magic? Not normal spells, like… I dunno what I'm saying, creating something from nothing?" Moira looked around at the other villagers. "They make salt and sugar, spices… some create food and water. I don't know what you mean by special." Selene gawked at that. "Wait, they can make all of that with magic?!" One man walked up and started to speak. "The food… it… it doesn't taste very good… but the water, well… I've heard stories of some rich nobility that have a never-ending faucet."

A never-ending faucet. That's got to be magic. Only some rich nobility would have it, so that means it's rare. Huh. I wonder if I could make one of those, attach piping to the back, enchant the hell out of a water silo with that capability. The food is either tasteless or tastes like crap, so I can see that used as a last resort. Except… you know, I remember there was a spell for Arcanic's Wizardry that's supposed to add flavor to anything eaten for a person's avatar, regardless of the player not tasting it. They'd just get a pop up saying their character enjoyed that and get a buff for some such thing. I now have to check my spell list to see if I can learn all of these quality of life improvements. Constant water, free food with good flavor, sugar and other condiments with just mana usage. Probably doesn't make other materials, but still…

"Thanks for answering the question, appreciate it." Moira winked at her. "Anytime luv." The day was starting to fade as she packed up her little hospital and started heading home, getting the request from the alewife on what to craft with the silk roll she bought. She leaned in to talk to Giles a little before she would leave. "I got a question Giles." He nodded at her. "Tell me lass, I might be able to answer." She exhaled as she figured out what to say. "How often do adventurers succeed at quests around here?" He looked surprised for a few seconds before calming down. "You… are you thinking of going out to…" she stared at him. "Right, of course. To tell you the truth lass, I… I've heard the death toll reaches fifty percent in some cases." That was a somber answer coming from him, but it at least told her the chances if she went to those caves before she was fully prepared.

The villagers waved goodbye as Aster trotted off towards the fortress, a Light Orb hovering in front of the rider as she left Gold Pine. She almost freaked out in excitement once she looked at her actions bar. Building, working, and supplying for the bathhouse had given her twenty-five percent of the bar, with other actions including healing the residents adding another twenty percent. Selene was almost at the halfway point for getting to Colonial Era. If she started earlier, added a few more things to the village, there would be a tech up by tomorrow if she continued with her workout. She just needed to figure out what to do for the next two days to reach special forces models for the automatons, then head after that treasure. The research was taking twelve hours each, with security models being available as early as 2 am.

Once she entered her fortress, she got to work building a small sanctuary for the silk moths to live in. There would be no need to boil any of them to get the silk, as now Lesser Repair would probably just fix the cocoon easily. All she had to do was plant the mulberry bushes, which was easy enough with a new garden plot, cast Nutrient Replenisher on it, cast Growth Spurt, and she had her mulberry leaves. She was officially producing silk, or at least growing the worms that produce it. Once some cocoons are opened, she'd have even more. There would also be a need for a greenhouse enclosure in the future, now that she knew it was October.

"Where the hell is Salunbal…" she whispered as her map opened. It was near the East Coast of the continent she was on, towards the South. It was practically on the other end of the world for all she figured. Getting the silkworms was a steal then, given she'd be the only one crafting silk on the west coast. Unfortunately, there was no information on any of the towns, villages, cities or capital that she hadn't entered, which was all of one.

Mwa ha ha ha, I will have a monopoly on these materials on the West Coast! Which means I can do whatever the hell I want with them… like selling them for affordable prices to the low-income people in the area and piss off the rich nobility.

Now, all she figured was to get some sort of kombucha growing with a "mother" or bacterial growth with yeast that provides healing and cleansing benefits to the body. She didn't necessarily want to drink it, though that was an option with no flavor issues due to adding berry juice or other things, but to grow leather out of it. Tea along with vinegar, which should be easy with the mother bacteria and some alcohol from her still, and bam! She's got organic leather not harvested from animals. She read about it in a science website one time, but she never expected she might get a chance to make use of it. It was originally going to be used to replace real leather for handbags, gloves, clothes and shoes.

The interesting thing to help with this endeavor was the new spells she chose, "Dry," and "Separate." The Dry spells allowed any liquid to simply evaporate, which didn't sound all that useful unless someone needed to walk across a river, as it didn't work on living creatures as a combat spell. Separate would take apart all materials from a certain object into its constituent resources, whatever those would be; salt, sugar, vitamins, minerals, cellulose, all of that would be sorted and placed in little piles. What she wanted now were all those creation spells. If she could get the ball rolling on all of that, she could revolutionize the trade to Gold Pine, keep them going as a massive benefactor without being cheated by other traders. Vitamin pills, healing, quality of life buildings, top quality materials for Giles. People would flock to the village to live there, turning it into a town finally. She'd just have to be careful what was installed, or she could accidentally uplift them too far for their brains to handle.

As she looked up the spell list and started sorting, she found them. Salt, sugar, different spices per spell, "Food of Ash," that was probably the food spell, "Unending Flow" was probably the water one to enchant, "Flavor from Nothing" was the spell from Arcanic's Wizardry. She honestly wondered if she was even learning Yggdrasil spells right now or if these were modified Arcanic's Wizardy spells, beyond the Flavor from Nothing. As the time reached close to 8 pm, she had learned all needed spells, crafted a water silo that was now enchanted for unending water, which was actually false information. It produced a certain amount of water per size of the object enchanted, which meant a faucet might create only so much, while the water silo… there was probably no way she'd go through that much water in five years if she just opened the valves and let it rush out. With the village attached to it, maybe a year, but then she'd just make more silos. The difference between the magicians and her was she had a quality tier for those spells, making them more powerful. She also had a research station to throw spell scrolls into, to figure out other creation spells that didn't exist yet. Maybe there was an iodine spell? An aspirin spell? Dietary supplements? Makeup? In her mind, she was giggling like a mad scientist.

I need my best maniacal laughter and sneaky serpent voice for this… ahem…"I can make all of you thin… for a price… also what horrible eyeliner that is… you should buy mine…"

The remainder of research stations were filled with magical scrolls to see what would come of it. The only thing she truly cared about right now was getting those automatons up to special forces models. While that wouldn't be all automatons in the future, given they filled certain niches for different jobs, that would greatly help going into the caves. Having a special forces team working with her, potentially honor guard waiting outside to help, military team on the other openings to meet up with her, security models back at the fortress with civilian models sweeping the floor.

As she got into her house, she was met by her butler drone that took her clothing to wash while she walked upstairs to her bed room. Selene realized she had forgotten to go out and tranq the gryphon, but tomorrow would be the start of operation "Sleepy Bird." There would also be chances to research materials she didn't normally have due to the Crafting Cost stat. Given that the bonuses were just to make sure she didn't have to worry about things so much, it stood to reason she'd work on those quickly, so things didn't pile up. This was going to be her schedule for the next two days, along with visiting Gold Pine often with Aster. The wolves were going to come along next time, as they seemed to be getting restless now that they didn't need to hunt; they also needed attention, as the easiest way for them to get that was let them get some pats from the villagers and a few table scraps from the inn. The dev had thought of learning some summoning spells just to give the pups something to chase, but that might be cruel to the summoned creature that were loyal to her.

"I could add tranq darts to the ornithopters… a giant net to catch it attached to… helibots?... take the samples… leave the gryphon someplace nice…" her mind started to think of things she could do to help speed up the Colonial Era. That's when she knew there was something she hadn't made yet, a camera. It was so simple, she'd take pictures of animals and other creatures to attach to the research papers she was writing. Two percent action gain no doubt about it. Experiments might keep her occupied as well, maybe five percent? Three percent? She could settle for three percent if it didn't take too long.

As she set her stations up for the next day, the time slowly moved to 9 pm, which given her sleep schedule now meant go to bed. Her hunter gatherer routine was still engrained into her. "Madam your clothes are clean." She thanked the butler drone, requested the drone to enter her inventory, dismantled him, built a new Light with a personality core, dropped him out of her inventory and knew what his name was going to be immediately. There didn't need to be any model upgrade for him. "Your name is Jeeves," with that, the new butler bowed to her. "I am proud to serve madam!"