For the first time in what felt like a lifetime, Kyle crawled into a snug feather bed. Even if he was only going to truly sleep for an hour or two, his medical nanites could fully clean his exterior and remove the minuscule plaque buildup of a few day’s activity.

  He had a few plans kicking around. One was to start a miniaturized Industrial Revolution in the Altrai region using his knowledge, wealth, and Nanofactory.

  He also wanted to do some adventuring. See the world and all its supernatural phenomena. Visit the Veskayan capitol. Destroy all religions. All in all, a rather normal bucket list.

  First, in terms of advancement, Kyle wanted to attract as many migrants as possible. The Magocracy could help here, no doubt. If he had to, he would buy slaves in the thousands. He could feed them due to his agricultural knowledge and through manufacturing fertilizers.

  Actually, that was a really actionable and effective plan. Buy thousands of slaves from across the empire, free them to gain their loyalty, and then put them to work farming and operating industries. He was sure the Elnomagans could put out the word for him.

  First, he had some infrastructure to build. Apartment blocks for days, stone roads, public wells and fountains, a sewer system, and the warehouses and factories that would make the whole thing viable.

  The construction mages would arrive the next day.

  ————

  The leader of the 100-strong company of mages was a grumpy old man named Albicdas. He and his troupe had arrived at a northern cities teleportation array and moved down on horses and carriages.

  They were going to stay for about two weeks, and would leave to acquire the dragon corpse before returning to the Grand Academian Hall of Harvesting. A fancy name for a magical butchery.

  Throughout the first week, they laid out the basic construction. Most of the villagers had been temporarily displaced to Altrai so as to not disturb the construction.

  Roads of compacted stone were formed from the surrounding ground. Sewer tunnels were laid out by circles of mages and huge runic arrays. General districts were laid out as well.

  Then came the habitation. Huge 5 story apartment blocks of uniform dark gray stone arose from stone harvested at quarries and brought in by innumerable bags of holding.

  Each individual apartment held a family of 7 comfortably, and could easily stretch to ten. A single one of the magically formed buildings would hold up to 1000 people easily. And he’d asked for 25 of them.

  In the last three days, the mages laid the foundations for warehouses and factories. Kyle had doubted that they could do the factories correctly, so they focused on all the structures that accompanied them instead. Warehouses, coal bunkers, and large areas for loading carriages all arose in the final stretch.

  Stolen story; please report.

  The way the mages actually functioned was quite interesting. The most experienced of them would stand in the center of a general circle of younger mages. They would channel the magic into manipulating matter, while the novices provided the energy for the spell. Kyle didn’t pretend to understand any of it; magic was beyond him.

  ———

  On the final day, the most experienced of the earth mages accompanied by several elite adventuring groups left to acquire the corpse. It had obviously been under incredibly heavy guard to prevent theft by another faction, surrounded by layers of wards and an army of golems and warriors. The route itself was still plagued by the monsters common in the mountains.

  Kyle had considered requesting a small group of volunteer novice mages of all colors, but decided against doing so. They would probably be spies in every way possible. Kyle decided it was time to use up the rest of his brownie points with the Magocracy to buy those slaves.

  He’d learned a lot about the Veskayan Empire through his discussions with Centrous, the representative. The Magocracy of Elnomaga was a sort of independent satellite state of the empire.

  They provided nearly a third of the continent-spanning empire's mages, and nearly half of their magical products. They rivaled the imperial crownlands in development, but the capital region pulled ahead in population and wealth.

  They also contained the main hub of the economically critical enchantment industry and were globally renowned for their academies. They had a local mages guild in nearly every major city across the world, except for the Continental Union and Cascetta, the empire's rivals.

  Magical talent was apparently genetic, and could theoretically appear anywhere. They wanted to cast as wide a net as possible to catch future mages.

  Kyle hoped to actually open a mages guild in his soon-to-be burgeoning town, but that was a plan for another day.

  It was time to free some slaves.

  ———

  As the days passed, the Magocracy spread the word of Kyle’s demand for slaves across the empire and beyond. Veskaya was known for its huge slave population.

  After hearing the premiums Kyle was willing to pay for workers in bulk, entire towns of slaves were emptied at the end of a spear.The slums of some less scrupulous cities were emptied by force.

  The Magocracy must really want that corpse. I would have kept it if I had any way to process it and not lose hundreds of thousands of Deacons… a shame. I can always kill another one, I suppose.

  Overall, nearly 20,000 slaves from across the southern empire and the far southern vassal states of Maduwan and Cusson were loaded onto wagons or marched in chain-gangs towards Altrai and Kyle’s manor a few miles from the city.

  The Magocracy had a lot of political influence in the economic scene of the empire. Motivated by the dragon corpse, they had directed hundreds of slave merchants and other dealers to his address.

  Many politicians and nobles from across the empire suspected that he was building a new town to rule over, and thought little more of it. Organizations prepared new chapters to establish in the new city-guilds, cults, political clubs, and churches among them.

  Kyle was already making waves, even if he didn’t truly know it.

  The first wave of slaves would arrive soon, and Kyle had ordered the Steely Blades to help him organize them. The nearly 2,000 strong population of villagers would be helping as well, along with 250 administrators and enforcers he had hired.

  I should rename the mercenaries. Maybe just “the guards” will suffice for now.

  Ahh, here comes the first group now…

  His mercenaries, hired workers, and villagers readied themselves to process the first load, and they would continue to do so for nearly 4 days straight.