Chapter 5.30 Gifts from Foreign Lands

Winter turned into spring. Other than another successful winter celebration, the only thing of note is during the plating ceremony, the next group of Gole plated. Serin was prepared this time and had them asleep for the process. Shurik stood by and watched as those who were once his follower class became adults. He smiled at the younglings that were born from his class, albeit he was a bit disheartened to know that they required special care and still needed magic to endure the elements.

It seemed that the mass immigration had replaced the aid provided to King Jeffrey in almost perfect time. Serin had provided King Jeffrey with a few stable floating greenhouses. The waters of which were ingeniously collected from the fog by Shurik. With the greenhouses built and a few spells provided to King Jeffrey, the greenhouses were put on 'Permanent loan' to the kingdom of Thul. Dana had said that this way, should another country try to strongarm the greenhouses away, they would have to do so with Haven and not Thul.

It was almost a blessing that Serin had worked with Jorvik and Lord Koni to ramp up housing and food production prior to the mass immigration. Because of it they were able to house and have food available to feed everyone. Since the greenhouses were staffed by homunculi they only required minimal effort to cart the goods to market and sell. This meant that even though the food was abundant, those that took up the job of managing the greenhouses were paid a normal wage.

Serin liked the setup. His original greenhouses were still manned by the Demis Simone and her mate, But their wealth was earned from all of the additional work that they put in, as well as the mana the donated for quests.

In an economy that was a balance of skilled labor, mana, credits, and capacity for violence (or care), Serin's town was flourishing.

With the influx of immigrants there was a bit of culture shock. Immigrants being given the right to their produce was a shock, and most still grew produce on rooftop or balcony gardens. Others volunteered as teamsters for the Dungeon or fulfilled roles in childcare. Some were merchants and took up work in that trade. A month after they had arrived, most of the people had found their niche and were blossoming into productive citizens.

That was to say there were still some issues. A few fights here and there, a few that showed disdain for the other races, and some that had issues finding work. For these one off cases, they were brought up at the council meetings.

Not many of the immigrants were keen to join the protectorate initially, and Serin decided to give them time.

Finally as Winter turned to spring, there were 2 events of note within the Nation of Haven. The first was the forest elves finished their grove, and although apprehensive, enrolled their younglings into the Academy. Serin had given them a bit of time because Isil had said they needed their entire tribe to summon a grove. And when Serin went to visit it, he was shocked. The final snows of winter coated the trees of the grove, but when he entered it was a forest in summer. Most of the houses were open to the air, and it was very humid, despite the air outside the forest being dry. Isil showed how the homes among the trees seemed to be built to house people, and not the other way around. When Serin asked about waterworks and sewage, Isil pointed out that there was a communal hot spring for the residents, and as for sewage and waste, it was absorbed overnight into the ground. Isil laughed and said, "just look for the small rooms and buildings with a crescent moon and surrounded by wildflowers."

Serin laughed. After the technological ingenuity of his waterworks, seeing a natural equivalent was quite the surprise. Although Isil had prepared his growing grove to include housing for non-elves, not many were apt to give up the creature comforts of living in the capital.

The other thing of note was Serin had finally received his gifts from the announcement. The first was who was supposed to be 'Magus Rarron', the Sarween citizen who approved the terrorist attack on haven. Although Ansar said his blood was a match, Ansar also said 'it isn't him, and I have lost the scent. This broken soul is not Magus Rarron." Although this disappointed Serin, he wanted to know what magic and sorcery made it possible to switch someone's soul out of their body. It would take some investigating.

The Grand Woods Alliance sent a document stating that they had agreed to end slavery in their country, and that the plan to do so would phase out the breeder program 'over the next 200 years'. Serin was angered at the note, that it had met the gift's requirement, it did not help. Dana laughed as she hadn't thought of such an impetuous loophole as to simply push the problem off on another generation.

Finally a box arrived from the Northern Kingdoms. Jericho was the first to open it and he smiled when he saw. Inside were jars, each with a small piece of skin preserved by time in magic. Jericho smiled at Serin.

"Finally, I have found a few strong allies for us."

***

In the distance of the Northern Kingdoms, in the middle of the night, a rather nondescript man walked through the aisles of the Jay Brother's Silent Auction.

Sculp smiled. They had heard rumors that the document he sought was being auctioned here, and under direction from Dana, Sculp smiled as no-one was bidding on it. Instead the bidders were bidding on spellbooks of extremely powerful spells that Sculp had added to the auction last minute. So while most of the bidders were in a flurry to outbid each other on the dozens of powerhouse spells added to the auction, Sculp silently bid an astronomical 300k credits on a small book. A chapter from the fabled User manual called "Manual of Piety". No one knew who put it into the auction as all buyers and sellers were anonymous. Sculp smiled as the was going to be able to return most of the discretionary fund back to Serin. It was then that Sculp saw another item with a single bid. It was a skill stone called 'Harvest'. After reading the description given, Sculp saw the bid and quickly spent another 100k. Sculp was sure this would be worthy of time for Serin, and with the two bids put in Sculp simply watched and waited to outbid anyone. A smile crept on their face, as the ability to out maneuver humans was too easy. Their lust for power blinded them.

End of Chapter 5