The main gate of the compound was fairly big. Large wooden doors with metal strips bracing it and studs built into it. A giant wood bar sat beside the gate for barring it shut.

  The interior of the compound looked more like a castle, rather than just a simple compound. Wooden walls that had platforms, or rather a proper rampart along with it, a watchtower on each corner, and at the center was the main building that resembled a tower.

  It literally towered above us, taking up a good chunk of the courtyard space, being at the center of the compound. The front doors were wide open, revealing a large open area, with an altar at the back. The altar looked like a small shrine.

  Nobody really gave it a second glance as we started the tour.

  “There’s a kitchen over here.” Ruth spoke up, to the left was a side dining area that connected to a fully outfitted kitchen. Pots, pans, and a pantry further back filled with food. None of us were particularly hungry, and I was sure everyone packed their own snacks. The right side had a small lounge area, the second floor had beds for us to sleep on, with the third floor being a library of sorts, and the fourth floor looked more like a lookout with plenty of windows that allowed us to see the surroundings.

  On the third floor, we quickly found a map of the surrounding areas, and congregated back on the main floor, we pulled various furniture out and a table, setting ourselves up in the dining area to the left of the main hall. The main doors were shut as we looked over the map and began making preliminary plans, all the while we grabbed snacks from our bags and ate.

  “So, we’re mostly surrounded by bamboo groves.” Faust offered up.

  “Mm… That’s not exactly great, and from what I saw, they come fairly close to the compound. We should probably plan to trim them.” I say.

  “I can do that easily enough.” Faust offered up. He extended his hand, and a purple ball of energy formed out of seemingly nowhere. It had proper substance and with a flex of his will, the ball swirled and formed into a toothed saw. “See? Easy.”

  I nod to that. “That is a good start. If you can clear the nearby groves, we’ll be able to see when invaders approach.”

  “What if I dug a ditch?” Terra offers up, pointing along the walls. “I can build a moat, though, I’ll need to check over the stability of the land and compact where necessary.”

  “Will you need any help with that?”

  “No, when I received my gold coin back during the first event I upgraded my earth magic. I now have a limited tremor sense, and I can better move earth or compact it. I even have a better sense for what will hold and won’t.”

  “Alright, sounds good… do you think you can make human sized blocks of rock for me? I brought sculpting tools, and I can make some golems to fight for us.”

  “That won’t be an issue. With how much earth I’ll be moving, compacting some for you won’t be too difficult. Moving it though…”

  “I can do that.” Ruth offered up. “I don’t have much to offer outside of a fight. I have metal magic, and there isn’t much I can do to reinforce the place. Might as well move things around.” She finished with a sigh.

  “Can you make metal weapons, for the golems?” I asked.

  She shakes her head. “No, at best I can extend or improve the metal I have, but it becomes weaker and more brittle. Trying to grow or make permanent metal just won’t work. I asked the rabbit about it, when I first got my bat, and she said I needed to modify my magic with a coin or do something special to be able to do so. I have experimented, and I can create small, very minute amounts of metal, but not enough to be of use. It also doesn’t last very long when not supplies with magic.”

  “Ah, well, that’s fine. I will need more rock to form into weapons though.”

  “Shouldn’t be a problem.” Terra offered up.

  “Great, now… Ruth, do you think you could collect the bamboo that Faust cuts? We might be able to use it to reinforce the compound walls or something.”

  “I can do that.”

  “If I may.” Faust speaks up. “I think I’ll be able to reinforce the place quite a bit. I’m not too sure, but since we’re on a ley line, or a power spot. I think I can redirect the energy here and use that to fuel fortification enchantments.”

  “Oh? I didn’t know you could do that.”

  “Yeah, when the event ended, I received a grimoire on the occult. I even brought it with me, along with a few other books.” He showed off the contents of his bag, mostly being books and a few clothes stashed in.”

  “That sounds great… actually…” I take a moment to review my knowledge. “Mm, during the first event, I exchange for Necromancy knowledge. At the time I wanted Occult Knowledge, but I was just shy of what I needed. Do you think you could help me redirect the energy towards a few projects of my own? And would you be willing to let me give it a read?

  “I don’t mind sharing if you got time. I’m more interested in the books on the third floor. Though, what did you have in mind for projects?”

  “Depends on how much you will need for the fortifications.”

  “That…” He sucks his teeth. “Truthfully, I only know the absolute basic enchantments. I can essentially make these wooden walls as strong as stone, even make them regenerate to a small degree, but that’s about it. Truthfully, the biggest issue isn’t the amount of power we have, but if something would be strong enough to overpower my fortifications.”

  “Ah… that makes sense. If you could make stronger ones, would you need more energy?”

  “Think of it as a battery, I guess. The base fortification will drain from the passive energy the ley line generates, but when it gets damaged, and the regeneration portion kicks in, the cost will spike. If I had better fortifications, I could do shields and a bunch of stuff, which is where I would need a huge backup. As it is…” He trials off, but I get it.

  “I get it.” I assure him. “Alright, since you can’t use what we have, I can make use of it. I’m thinking you can help me make a stone soldier parade ground, a simple formation that can be used to animate multiple golems at once. A corpse pit might also be useful, but that depends on what we face.”

  “Corpse pit?” Terra asks, briefly confused. “You mean, a literal pit where corpses are dumped?”

  “Pretty much… If we can redirect energy there, we’ll get some cheap undead fodder for an ace in the hole.”

  Terra looked at me for a moment and nodded. “I can help dig the pit when you need it. Actually, couldn’t we just use the moat I plan to make?”

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  “That would definitely work…Now, what else…”

  “We need someone on recon.” Faust helpfully suggests. “While we’re working, we need someone to keep an eye out.”

  “I… I can do that.” Diva offers up. “I mean, my magic is sonic, voice related, but I also have really good hearing.”

  “Good, that means everyone has a job then?” I asked, everyone nodded. “Great, I’ll go get my tools and we can get to work.”

  Everyone agreed and we went to our tasks. Faust, just like he said, swiftly began deforesting the local bamboo groves. Making for a large clearing. He worked fast and was soon enough back in the compound working to build fortifications. It was odd, he had a disk of purple energy spinning like a lawn edger. With that disk of energy, he was carving lines in the ground and making small marks along the walls.

  I wasn’t sure if his fortifications would help or not, but something was better than nothing.

  Terra got to work just as fast, but her task was far harder. Moving so much ground and packing it so the compound doesn’t fall apart took a lot of work. I did get my blocks of stone rather swiftly, with Ruth carrying them over, along with bundles of bamboo.

  Once I had my stone, I began to work it. Clearly, it wasn’t actual stone. It was more or less compacted into something like stone, but it was a bit softer. Which made it all too easy to work. It didn’t take long for me to have the first soldier done thanks to my newfound talent for sculpting. If anything, working on this pseudo-stone was actually an interesting change of pace.

  I chose ice, due to the natural compatibility of my magic with ice. It wasn’t hard to imagine. The other reason was cost. I couldn’t imagine buying slab after slab of rock, slate, or even marble. Not when I wasn’t even sure if it would work out. No, even looking back, had I failed so many times with actual rock, I might have cried tears of blood.

  Sure, ice wasn’t exactly the kindest of starting materials, but it was nice to have the experience, especially now. I had a lot of options for design, but I chose something rather simple but fitting. The choice I had was closer to what I remember old Ashigaru, or the basic infantry from Japan might have looked, back when they had samurai and all.

  Lamellar type armor, and with a kind of demon face mask on their head, with the horns and smile, just to fit the motif, I guess. Gloves and boots as well. The end result was, okay. They looked a bit… off at times, a bit too angular in some places, but… it was fine. There was a lot more to nitpick, but again, it works.

  With one done, I began working on the next and next.

  As the sun moved across the sky, morning gave way to noon, then evening. We continued to work. At some point, Ruth had decided to go inside and make us lunch, from what we had inside the central building. Something I was grateful for, especially while working in the hot sun while chiseling away at stone.

  By the time the sun began dipping beyond the horizon, I had Faust assist me with making the parade ground and had my soldiers all lined up within. A total of twenty soldiers, with an additional commander type soldier with a more samurai type helm.

  Terra had finished the preliminary work on reinforcing the walls, complaining that preserving the small stream that ran through the rear of the compound, right into a small idyllic pond with a pavilion and all, had been a real pain. Still, it was done, and she was happy to see the pond still lively, and the fish, still, fishy. While I set the finishing touches down on my end, which was me essentially feeding my magic into the prepped area, and letting my ice slowly etch out the various sigils necessary for the ritual while Faust hovered over my shadow, like a kid looking at their neighbor’s answers during an exam.

  Once done, the final connection was made, and every statue I made crackled with frost and ice but remained whole. Each of them thrummed and pulsed. Slowly letting the magic seep into them. With that done, they’d slowly form up without further input. I still needed to make them weapons, but that could be done early tomorrow. Otherwise, I was officially done with the first unit.

  Done, we meandered back towards the main hall. Inside Terra was splayed out on the ground, with Diva sitting nearby, still keeping somewhat of an ear out. The smell of cooking food wafted out from the kitchen, and instead of plopping down alongside Faust, I chose to enter the kitchen and assist.

  Ruth said nothing, her hat and jacket nowhere to be seen, her hair still in a ponytail, while wearing an apron. In this moment, she looked every part a housewife.

  She said nothing as I entered, and the moment I washed my hands and prepped myself, she began giving orders like an experienced mother of five.

  As we sat down for food and dug in, an important question came up.

  “So, exactly what can we do? In a fight, I mean. I can do earth magic, make earth spikes or punch people with spikes of earth, or create ditches and all, but I realize I might not be the best in a direct fight.” Terra asked, strangely more subdued than she had been. Though, it was a good question.

  “Energy, specifically beam type attacks is what I had originally. Cheap, and effective. When I received the gold coin, I used it to modify my magic so that it has mass. So, it doesn’t just laser things, it can cut or bash as well.” Faust answered first before anyone else could. “And, by the way, the foods great.”

  Ruth gave a low huff, as if to say, as it should be. She then spoke up next. “Metal magic, as explained earlier. I used my coin to get a bat. The bat is my weapon, it works well with my magic, but it also has a vibrating component to it, giving it incredible punching and piercing power as I hit. I also have multiple metal weights I wear that can be used to help take hits.”

  “I… I can use sonic magic with my voice and erm… yeah… that’s about it.” Diva informed us, though.

  “Like what you did to kill the heart?” I asked, just to be sure, she nodded, though, hesitantly. “Am I to assume you’ve got something else, but you’re not sure if you can actually use it in a fight?’ Her wide eyes were answer enough, but she still spoke up.

  “Yeah, I’ve been working on, something, like, uh, different applications of my magic, but I don’t know if they’ll work.”

  I nod along and it was my turn. “Ice magic. I can strengthen my body with it, and when I do, I can push myself past my normal limits. I, as explained earlier, have knowledge of necromancy that I exchanged for with coins from the first event. I used my gold coin to get a weapon, a gun, making me more of a ranged fighter. I can also help create supporting fighters, as an example, by tomorrow we should have a contingent of golems aiding us.”

  “How many do you think you can make?” Terra asked. Was she worried?

  “I’ve no idea how strong they’ll be, but I’m thinking, with what we have, I might be able to make three contingents of twenty-one soldiers. Each contingent will be made up of twenty normal soldiers and a single officer. Between carving soldiers and their weapons, it might take some time.”

  “Oh, is the officer any different?”

  “A bit… The officer should be stronger and smarter, the parade ground that Faust helped me make, makes it easy to mass produce low quality golems. I’m thinking the officer might be bronze rank, at least.”

  A round of ooh’s and aah’s followed.

  “Can you do that outside, back in Purgatory?” Faust asked.

  “Not likely. I don’t have access to a ley line like here, and the next best bet is if I make a soul stone. Which, mm… Isn’t that hard to make now that I think about it.”

  “What’s that? And why does it sound so ominous?” Diva asks.

  “It kind of is. A soul stone is like a rechargeable battery, it absorbs the energy beings give off when they die, it doesn’t exactly capture souls, but it takes part of their essence away. I just need a good quality crystal orb and etch the sigils along it. Not too difficult to make. Well, if you have the right tools.”

  “Is that so? Why haven’t ya done it then?” Terra asks, nosy as ever.

  “Time constraints. I’ve focused on making golems out of ice in the past few months, and in doing so I leased a warehouse and all. Last month has been a little hectic back at work, and I haven’t had time to start expanding.”

  Nor did I consider it until just now…

  “What other items can you make?” Faust asks. His interest clear.

  “A soul shard, which is basically a lesser version of a soul stone. It’s made by doing a certain ritual over a dying creature.” Which, now that I think on it… sounds somewhat similar to how bronze coins are made. Mm… Now I want to know what happens if I do the ritual over a dying bronze rank creature.

  “As for higher ranks… My knowledge is wide but lacking in depth. I have a lot of notions on what I could accomplish, but a lot of it is barred behind my own lacking expertise in the occult or alchemy.”

  They all nod. “And what would be a better version of a soul stone?” Faust asks keenly.

  “Mm, I think…” I run over my thoughts. “A dungeon core, I think.”

  “A dungeon core?” Faust wasn’t the only one confused. “You mean, a whole, fantasy dungeon core?”

  “I… don’t know?” I admitted. “Just, it was referenced a few times in the book.”

  I could tell my answer wasn’t exactly what they wanted to hear, but still, everyone was a lot more confident with what was to come. We finished up with eating, and I helped Ruth out with the dishes.

  “I didn’t take you for a home maker.” I said as we finished up.

  “Yes well, you pick up things.” She said. Not really giving an answer. Nor did I continue to press. Everyone was entitled to their secrets, though, something told me, over the course of this event, we may get to know each other more than we’d probably like.