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Equipped with their new weapons and barrels loaded with pamphlets and gifts, I made the climb back down the mountain a part of their training. To hide the fact that I was taking the easy way out, I displayed my Agility by producing a thin wooden board and surfing the river down the fall. Behind me soon followed Sili and the original largest of both cave terror species that I had bonded.

More than a few moments in this life were worth experiencing even from a non-magical standpoint, but around the top of that list was just added the experience of surfing down a mountainside and flying out over a small lake. I did not even call out my wisps to catch me but used a simple burst of air and kinetic energy to propel myself further forward and onto the next descent.

The slope was about fifty degrees gentler here than the initial fall down the mountainside which made it easy to catch the next current while maintaining forward momentum to sit on the surface.

Catching and maintaining my balance after that was a struggle that covered a hundred yards of river but after crouching and leaning into the first bend in the river I was able to stabilize myself on the other side. There were only two more falls and then another bend down into the ravine before I finally switched to riding my wisps. Even though my wisps did most of the work, riding them was an excellent training for my balance.

The old gentlemen were the only people out on the ravine when it finally came to view. As a testament to how early it was their boats were right by the falls where they would idly drift back toward home throughout the day. They for the second time got to see me leading a procession of magical creatures.

This time, however, the serpents were comparable in length to Sili's enormous body and tail.

Grimm and shade as a hoverboard was the same sight as last time, though, so I simply smiled and waved everybody to row over after Sili had entered the ravine. By the time the boats reconvened by the top of the ravine the serpents had all arrived as well.

To these elders who had nothing but time I offered the fully matured water terrors as well as fifteen minutes of shortened story followed by ten minutes of questions and answers. Because of their experience and stats they were expected to serve in the same lines as the younger generation. However, their lifestyles and age meant they only had to train in elemental and healing magic.

Their jobs were naturally to guide the next generations so after emphasizing and dignifying their places in society I personally bonded out half of the water terrors I brought with me. For weapons they were only given short bows similar to those the children would be raised with and swords. The first members of the militia were already carrying knives to everybody.

After dealing with the elderly I went back on my way with the serpents across the ravine and down to the village where I simply walked up through the air from the river and to the bridge. Along the way, I told the young fishers on the bridge to go and gather the other children and their adults. It was time to make some introductions.

Because the people remaining in the village were those who often looked after the children or those nearing the retirement ages I had no qualms against offering this lesser number of people the adult females while giving the children specifically male serpents.

The males were smaller than the females but stronger to compensate for nesting while the females were bigger to carry more eggs. Breeding season for reptiles was actually coming up after the warm season finally settled. In a year, there would be an estimated ten times as many snakes overall as before. With an enshrined waterfall feeding the ravine, it would only be a few months before blessed fish could meet the dietary needs for quick growth and evolution.

What I did with Sili in a few weeks will be spread to the surrounding areas in a few months and then as far out as the water reaches.

This intent of abundance and proliferation I used on the shrine will affect all of the local wildlife to varying degrees, but this village and through it the neighboring settlements will be armed and prepared for those side-effects.

I made a show of bonding the parents to serpents myself first before explaining Sili's taking over as stronger power to compensate for what the children lacked. Then the children picked out their preferred specimens from the adult males and were bonded one by one by having their heads touched together by Sili's snout. The fact that she was capable of doing it with humans at all with her levels of strength, control, and time showed she had some talent.

Bonding snakes and humans was only a part of my excuse for visiting the lumber mills. The primary part, but still just a part. My secondary goal was to examine the mill structures and waterwheels to get a feel for how industrialized this world was.

In terms of industries and trades and societal development they were basically everything right before gunpowder and steam engines. There were some things similar to magic motors but these were costly and only saw private and independent use. They were often massive alchemical combinations of materials that stored mana with runs for consumption and control and used in making floating islands.

The mills here were all wooden buildings and mechanical parts for replacement while the joints and security were metal. This was surprisingly efficient on the level of self-sustainability but nothing surprising. Their organization of smaller wheels reaching out into the river was only slightly troubling for boating or serpents as well.

As long as everybody was careful, no serpents should die while working in the mill as long as they were kept to ferrying logs out into the river from further down.

After this I sent the remaining dozen-plus serpent and Sili to go sunbathing in the empty side pool I had made. Surprisingly, there were a few fish who had gotten trapped in the pool during tide changes. Now there were none.

While these guys enjoyed their down time I went off to work. The villagers had been asked to stay together either in the center of the village or offshore outside the lumber sites. This allowed me to almost freely transmute reinforcing pillars under the bridge away from the waterwheels.

These pillars were marble made from the granite rocks surrounding the river and to these I welded raw granite shelving that reached up around to the top side of the bridge and then stretched out from the bridge to extend the width of the bridge by ten feet.

The extension was then supported at the outer edge by a few more pillars across the middle of the river where the most activity was intended to take place. Even with such basic designs the basic granite alone would have lasted at least fifty years and the imbued energy from transmutation no less than doubled that. With inevitable mining profits and land rights to consider, the bridge itself would not even be here in fifty years.

My intent for the outcropping was just to make it impossible to climb up onto the bridge from anywhere but the land. From their I had to inconvenience the once open ends of the bridge with a ten-foot stone wall. The inside half of the wall was four feet shorter than the outer half and there were sets of steps every fifty yards. The walls themselves stretched out enclose not just all of the acres currently cleared by lumbering but also ten acres more of forestry to keep them busy.

Because the village's main industry had covered much of the land they could grow into I had little trouble closing the walls back around to the river on the opposite side of the village's lands. The bridge itself was the main body and center point of the wall so on the far side I simple placed the frame of a future portcullis.

While the temple could foot the fees, they would have to handle the work themselves. I had already drank six of my better quality mana potions today. Next I STILL had to see about leveling the land within the walls and clearing obstacles.

By evening that day, I had already started turning the soil on the innermost plots of land that I designated for farming. In the middle of these farming plots on either side of the river were three square acres of mostly empty and level ground. The perimeter of one field was turned into a simply running track and the ground inside was made into an unforgiving stone obstacle course with varying degrees of difficulty and requirements.

The basic ones were just jungle gyms for adults.

The second field was encircled with wooden targets for archery training from all angles while the inner land was left open for various forms of dueling and drills. With this they had all they needed to maintain themselves as reserve militia forces. I had even done half the work for moving everyone off the bridge, now they just needed to build the houses.

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