After waving 👋 goodbye 🫂 to the delegation, Damien ordered Jean to call 🤙 a meeting tomorrow morning with Matias, dwarves, and Christoph to start implementing plans for increasing the production output. As for how to do that, he would have to spend a great portion of this night designing blueprints for a machine that could help, and then he would have to study one of his spells, as the time he had couldn't be used on multiple ones. The one he chose to study was dark element manipulation, since that is one of the few elements that could hurt 🤕 anyone with its penetrating effect; it acted like poison. The only known ways to protect yourself from it are either to have holy power, high innate magic resistance, or a defensive talisman or artifact, and those are hard to come by.
Thus the vampire lord 🦇 spent the night 🌃 drawing blueprints for the upcoming expansion of his production lines. At the same time, he wasn't an expert; he just needed to explain the general idea to his team of master engineers, who, with their innate talent for innovation in building new machines, would do the rest.
He then spent the rest of the time summoning his dark knights and trying to command as many as possible at the same time. He found that while summoning them consumed a little mana, he didn't feel the strain from having all his undead summoned. Even if they were of higher quality, he thought that maybe this had something to do with him being a reincarnated person or with him being a vampire 🦇. It needs further study down the line, which makes having a mage tower more necessary to conduct research either on the dark element or his vampire 🦇 blood.
Simultaneously, he trained in a magic spell called Dark Pulse, a common spell used by dark element mages. It consists of firing a concentration of dark element; the higher the mana injected, the more serious the damage.
Finally, he chose to refine some blood both to advance a little on his path toward second grade and then sleep 💤 until they come tomorrow to wake for breakfast and his meeting.
Meanwhile, in the caravan of the delegation that was going back to their territory, two people were conversing: Timothy and his clan member, Christoph.
Christoph: "Lord, do you think that Baron Damien will pull through and deliver the needed equipment?"
Timothy: "From my brief interaction with him, while I can't say I know him well, I can tell that he likes to make money 💰 . Plus he will be using this opportunity to increase his production for free, which he would have needed to do anyway. Don't forget the hanging threat over his head 🗣️."
Christoph was surprised 😯; he thought that the baron had dealt with all immediate threats to his rule, so he asked eagerly: "Lord, could you please enlighten me on what this threat is?"
Timothy chuckled and said: "It's not like they are a secret or something. First, the obvious one: the hyenas to his western border are uniting under one banner. When that unification ends, he will be the target 🎯 of that horde. While we may call them primitive just in terms of living standards and culture 🧫, in the martial arena they are far superior to humans. Every hyena can face up to three or four militia, so you can do the math for the cost of repelling them, and if that weren't enough..."
He stopped a little, then said: "The second threat to his rule is his own success. Before he took over the Tuscany barony, it was just another ordinary one in the fold; it may have been slightly larger, but that's it. But with him taking over, it started prospering faster and richer. While he may have the Pendragon clan's protection, which may stop and intimidate external enemies—specifically the big ones, those on the same level—he has to deal with them himself. But bigger threats are internal ones, like his jealous clan members; some were already dissatisfied with him adding benefits to the mix, and you have a receipt 🧾 for disaster; those he has to deal with. And from what I have heard, he is or was the weakest among them."
Cristoph's mind was bombarded with all the information ℹ️ he got. After a moment he said: "Shouldn't we distance ourselves from him in order not to get implicated with him?"
Timothy started laughing, then said: "On the contrary: as long as he has trouble 😵💫 we can maintain a healthy relationship with him by supporting him. We can ask for concessions in our trade deal. Heck, we may even get him to get us the formula if they push too far. Let's, for example, if he asks for our support against the hyenas, barter with him for a bigger share of his novel products or even for one of the formulas; it's not out of the question ❓"
Then he added: "But all of this is for later. For now, let's concentrate on dealing with the Acosta. Let's hurry home; there is a lot to do."
Many hours later Damien asked Crowley to send word that the meeting will start in half an hour in the study room.
A dozen minutes later Crowley led everyone to the study room where Damien was. They saluted him, then he took the lead and informed them about the deal he had made with the Bright. He gave them a moment to digest what he had just told them, then he said: "I would like to hear your honest opinion about how best to use the available manpower, how to increase production, and how to sustain a bigger army 🪖 without hurting the vitality of the barony."
The first to start speaking was steward Cristoph, who was responsible for agriculture in the barony. He complimented Damien: "Congratulations to Lord Grayman on successfully exterminating the traitors."
Damien: "Thank you."
Cristoph: "I would like to inform you, Lord, that implementation of the agricultural reform is going underway smoothly, so by the end of next month everyone will be following the new method of farming and using steel tools, thus increasing productivity, which will make more manpower available for industrial projects or the army 🪖."
Damien: "It's good to hear. While this reform may not free many able hands, it will increase the availability of food, which will make it easier to raise children, thus increasing our manpower pool in the future. Good job."
Moving to the main topic, Mathias spoke first: "About the deal you have made with the Bright, Lord: while I can guarantee that we can produce all the needed materials like steel and so on, turning them into weapons is another matter entirely. As it's set right now, we can produce four hundred swords 🗡️, one thousand spears, around two hundred and fifty shields 🛡️, and eighty armors."
Hearing this, Damien nodded, then looked meaningfully at Heinkel and asked: "Is there any way to increase production, Heinkel?"
Heinkel hesitated at first about what to say, but considering all the previous conversations he had with the Lord, he seemed to value the truth over flattery: "From my expertise, while manpower could increase output of weapons, since they are new to this profession with zero experience, the amount of weapons that would need to be recast will also increase. If we had time, we could take it to teach them, so the only solution for now, in our opinion, is to locate at each part of the process of weapons making someone from our clan members who will be joining us soon. This way we can double or triple production by distributing all the available master blacksmiths to difficult tasks—unless you have another way, Lord."
Damien looked at the dwarves' chief; he is really smart 🤓. He instinctively knew he had a plan, then he said: "You are correct 💯. I have a way, or more precisely a machine. Crowley, please give them the blueprint. This machine is called the steam 🚂 engine. It can turn the steam created from burning 🔥 coal into mechanical 🧰 movement, so I will be tasking you to make and test it; after you integrate it into those production lines to take over all the time-consuming tasks, I think with this we can get close to our goal 🥅. As for the other blueprints, those are made for agricultural purposes, so I want you to study them. When you are done ✅ with the steam engine, start building a prototype. What do you think? 🤔"
Mathias looked at his lord with admiration—every time he surprised him with something. When he turned to look at his colleagues he found them totally immersed in those blueprints. While he worked with them, he mainly dealt with the management and supervision part of the industrial zone; the rest was done by them, so seeing the design by the Lord like this must be something fantastic.
After a dozen minutes—it took the lords a few moments to stop spacing out—Heinkel and the rest of the dwarves kneeled on one knee with a tone carrying pride and reverence said: "In the name of the Great Mechanicus, god of innovation, we swear fealty to Baron Damien of Tuscany for eternity."
This time it was Damien's turn to be surprised 😯. He didn't think that this would cause such a scene; he really underestimated the dwarves' passion for innovation. He stood and said: "I, Baron Damien of Tuscany, accept your allegiance and swear to treat you and your clan with respect and dignity. Rise until the end of time."
As they made the oath, a strange energy engulfed both Damien and Heinkel, surrounded their hearts, and settled in them. This energy will bind them together; if any of them betrayed the other, he will receive a severe backlash from it.
Then Damien said: "Rise, my loyal retainers. Now tell me, is my plan feasible?"
After that Heinkel said: "Lord, first I would like to thank you on behalf of my entire clan. With this blueprint and the previous ones, I think we can break through and become #high master blacksmith or mechanic#. As for your plan, if that machine can take over the labor-intensive tasks, I believe we can even surpass the production target. It will take us around a week to get a prototype working without a hitch. As for the other ones, I suppose we can let the agricultural machines—such as the moldboard plow, seed drill, and threshing machine—come after we have built enough of these steam engines 🚂 to reach the goal 🥅 you have set, Lord."
Damien thought about it a little. It seemed reasonable and logical to concentrate first on one thing after another: "Okay, we will do as you say. Plus I want you to make inferior counterparts to our firearms—good enough to sell but not good enough to harm us. Is that clear?"
Heinkel: "We can do this by tomorrow evening, Lord. If you will excuse us, we would like to start making this steam engine."
Damien: "Good luck 🤞."
With the meeting coming to an end 🔚, Damien was left alone in his study thinking about what he will do in the next two days. Probably two things: refine blood, as every ounce of strength will matter in that trial, and supplement his army of undead with more spirit animals. Hopefully he can find some humanoid creatures, as those seem to be easier to manipulate.