Plans to utilize golems must take into account what you wish to use them for. They consume a lot of mana to stay functional, and while they’re great for labor intensive tasks they are terrible at harvesting mana. Largely because mana is stored at random in various things such as tree amber or coral reefs. The lakes of the north are geological anomalies in the abundance of it they provide, which is why we live here. If you do seek to utilize such automatons, keep in mind their detriments at tasks that require a precise eye and the costs it will put on our mana income. Since nalkas are better harvesters normally, obviously you’d leave warm bodied peasants to do the mana harvesting to fuel the golems working on some farm or regular metal mine. Historically golems made for popular soldiers though, fearless warriors that you really only had to put mana in once you had something for them to fight so they make for a good reserve force.

Coastal expansion is the current target though it might be a little while before we are prepared to do so. Territorial expansion in the north is harder then other places due to the environment making people less willing to walk any given distance, resulting in very dense populations within the city. That and the monsters out here are big.

The workforce census yields that the actual problem with our number of laborers for resource exploitation stems from an abundance of people who consider the labor beneath them. We house many elderly as well as scholars, not so many ‘manual labor in the freezing snow’ types. Our technology and magic is advanced for this but we could definitely benefit from some more peasants with fewer options. Maybe raise college admissions to start cycles of poverty if you would like more people trapped within the mines, it’d help my paycheck at least. That or slaves, though if we’re going to go raiding for slaves may I remind you that I have been very proficient in my duties and am deserving of the second most beautiful one we should capture. You can have the first but don’t take the second third and fourth too, that’d be a dick move.

That being said our population is increasing at a steady rate via native births but not picking up many immigrants like the Fukuchi manage to do. Not many people want to live up here and like Katara we have a bit of a…reputation. With plans to establish a new colony certainly in motion to siphon some of our populace to get it up and running, encourage more child birth.

As another bit of census, we as nalkas are exceptionally proficient in harvesting mana, and the mana lakes are easier to harvest from then anywhere else in the world. More golems in labor intensive positions would free us up to harvest more mana, and that is actually a decently favorable job since we build our city right on top of the lakes. I can literally throw a rock from my office window and hit the lake. So people are more comfortable in that line of work then remote mining. So there is value to that plan as well though yields might come closer to balancing out then you might hope for. Though laborers would find it favorable.

Hiring Oda peasants to assist with coastal mining will require the expansion of our territory so we can place nearby docks, roads, and transportation to the main city line effectively without it getting eaten by monsters. So that plan will have to wait for a little bit.

In other news Jonne’s trip around the coast has yielded the find of a village of primitive folk. Clothed in the most basic of fur and leather, their town is made from wood and the area near them devoid of foliage they must have used to build their palisade. It’s actually amazing they’ve survived as long as they have out here. Jonne is looking into the matter.

Sakki’s work as an observer has come to an end now that the construction of the colony is under way he has been keeping busy trying to keep people safe from the abundance of monsters at the location. The downside is at least 15 of our warriors have fallen to the raids. It will be a tough battle to secure the colony from them, though as progress continues it will become safer once some siege weaponry is added to the defenses.

Also our chef is quite good, the undead raven was wonderful with proper herbs and I am not dead. Though I have been experiencing strange cravings for brains lately.

 

I should advise that you leave Kairi and her army, or Tallis, to the defense of those constructing the bridge and subsequently the new village plans. We know the area to be dangerous and until proper defenses are established we cannot consider our workers as safe.

As for the source of the monsters, if we knew where to find such a thing we would have made that a priority long ago. I imagine every denizen of the world would. Not all remember the times before they roamed the land but we do, and we know they came only after the dying night.

Also work on both the road to join all of our allies, except the Fukuchi, and the docks have been completed. The fishing sector of our civilians has never been better since the docks have no boats in them yet. Even if we don’t build any ships it turns out to have been beneficial enough on the economy to make back what we spent soon enough. We have the ability to build some rudimentary boats at least, though for the cost they’re not terribly efficient. With some experimentation perhaps better naval options will appear.

Road tax is profitable as well, especially in the initial boom considering general interest in checking places out. Travelers visiting us have been female dominated as might be expected given our reputation. Though of interest a handful males from Oda came here to…retire. Though to the chagrin of some, Kazehaya wasn’t one of them. We’ll get him yet.

Tallis sends back reports of finding evidence of civilization in the direction she is moving but it tends to elude her. There is likely some sort of city nearby hidden within the forest if she could find it. Also she has apparently lost ten troops to the monster attacks thus far.

Areti has similar findings of people. The long lost and fabled “elves” were found by her. By found I mean she saw some of their hunters in the forest and then interrogated them. Unfortunately they are unable to guide her to their city since they soon found themselves… victims to the hungry monsters that lurked in the forest. Apparently their city is due south of her. I think Tallis outright passed it, we could have them converge on it, or send one of them alone while the other continues exploring.

 

 

Suuup. Kurisu is off being an envoy so I’m taking over while he’s away, he should be back for the next meeting or the one after that, depends on travel time.

Anyways, Shime’s investigation into the isolationists proves to be a bit of a difficult thing as they don’t even desire to let her into the city. She is also a dark skinned elf with white hair and bright clothing or lack thereof at times, she sticks out a bit. From observation she has noted that other then hunters who travel towards the woods for game, no one seems to leave or enter the place.

The mining has begun in the mountains, as well as construction of a watchtower to keep control of the area as well as allow us to keep track of what happens beyond the mountains that seclude us from everywhere else.

Iwanagi has taken off in a boat headed south along the coast looking for…generally anything of interest. There are some small frozen landmasses rich in mana southwest of Sybaris but something is off about them. Namely that they are to the south of us and frozen. The abundance of mana indicates there is something fishy going on there.

He spotted a foreign ship flying a gilded green and gold flag sailing south wards, he hasn’t had time to catch up and say hi. Though its the first evidence in some while we’ve seen of anyone else out on the high seas.

Also our fleet, with a bit of help from Iwanagi passing by, have managed to map the entirety of the island’s coastline to the west of us. However, one of our ships was lost to a giant tentacle monster. After sinking the craft it retreated into the waves, so that thing is still out there to keep an eye on.

A peculiar new design was made by some of the shipyard architects upon hearing of this thing. A hunter class ship designed to hunt monsters instead of other naval craft or land bombardment. It is especially equipped to strike beneath the waves thus vastly improving its ability to fight off the nautical beasts. The design was refined so expenses are roughly the same as a standard warship, though its capabilities against other naval craft are suspect.

The diplomatic envoy has been prepared to visit the island city though we will need to bring the fleet back to pick them up and take them there. I volunteer to go while Kurisu is away. I am an apt naval commander when time calls for it. Please send me…ever since that road was finished a bunch of katara have been visiting and there is no tree in this forest that can hide me from them. I don’t really mind the adoration of women but it takes supreme willpower not to give in and become cursed to die in a couple of years. I’ve had to keep a monk with me at all times to keep my undisciplined dick in check.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, less disciplined men then I have been resigning from their posts to either head south and I’m pretty sure the local drunk Takota’s sudden untimely demise may be related to these visits.

Also as requested, preparations for a festival to welcome our potential new village have been arranged for pending news upon his return.

 

We’ve pretty much run the town dry of the mana they’re willing to part with. Some of it they were less then willing but it was acquired none the less. Reportedly the badlands use mana as the preferred form of currency over gold due to its scarcity out there. In theory if we take mana to them to trade and bring their wares back for gold the net gains should be helpful.

Ryo comments that his gun is quite weak specifically against enchanted armor. Once you hit a second tier of enchantment the projectile fails to punch through all that effectively. For all its effectiveness in general at killing people, once it stops penetrating through it loses a huge amount of its threat more so then normal weaponry. The strength of it comes from its small size that is highly likely to go through, once it fails to a chest plate effectively renders the spread of its impact into being near useless.

Atop of this, fireball still hits a much larger area. His weapons take precision which can be difficult against moving or small targets. Whereas if I just use a pillar of fire I’ll wipe out a whole unit regardless of size. In the end mages can deal much greater damage but it takes them a little longer to get set up and their range is more limited.

The caravan is prepared to part ways as requested at any time you should tell them to do so. Though I will remind you that the caravan will continue to move at the same speed it always does. If you send Kaiba with just the army he can cover much more ground for purposes of scouting.

Also we could just send our agents to poke their heads in. They’re much faster by themselves and less likely to draw attention or get into too much trouble.

Finally, we encountered a strange creature out here where the forest meets the badlands. In this green but unforested terrain we found something the fishers refer to as “horses”. We saw their use as beasts of burden for the fishers, they may be worth capturing to bring with us.