Upon entering the village, Vicente and Rory were soon faced with a very different place from the one they had left when they moved to Millfall.
Previously, only the center of the village had been paved, while the surrounding streets were dirt, which meant there was a lot of mud and dust in the village, depending on the weather.
But that wasn't the situation now. All the built-up areas of the place had been paved over, and new buildings had been constructed, greatly increasing the villages's size.
The village was practically becoming a city and had not yet become one because of bureaucratic issues.
However, this place wouldn't become a city because Vicente didn't want that to happen.
Much of the local growth was due to him, so he didn't intend to open the doors of this place to people who weren't committed to his group.
He currently had 12 warehouses here, and everyone in the village either worked for him or had a close relative who worked for him.
The teachers at the only local academy were all under his influence. At the same time, even the guards of the Duke of the Province's family were committed to following Vicente's rules.
The same went for the subordinates of noblemen with livestock farms or plantations near the village.
As such, the place was very different now compared to then. When Vicente and Rory entered it, people in the streets greeted them in respect, seeing the area leader returning to the village after a long time away.
The people greeting them in the streets would not get in their way. They would do so while keeping their distance to avoid getting in the way or disturbing the local leader.
Vicente and Rory would enter the old estate that had been home to the core of the Fuller family before their trip to Saltstar City.
Vicente clenched his fists as he entered the building, feeling several memories flash through his mind.
The fact that he had taken revenge for his mother's death couldn't help but make him different as he entered it.
But he would soon pull himself together and move on, soon arriving at where Benson and the other blacksmiths he had sent here were.
Arriving there, Vicente was greeted with smiles and words of welcome from the men, and his master couldn't help asking him if the king had caused them any trouble.
Vicente explained to his staff. "The king just wanted to make me an offer. We made a partnership agreement, and now I'm back... Anyway, how are you? Have you studied the area so we can go ahead with our tests?"
Benson let out a sigh of relief and said. "We're fine. We've managed to study the Crow Woods area and define the best route for the railroad we're going to build to Millfall.
We've also defined what the metal alloys for the tracks and train carriages will look like and where we can extract the ores that will form part of these metal alloys.
There's almost everything we'll need nearby, but some special metals we'll need to buy."
"That will make things easier."
"I've gone ahead with our plans and already bought as much of this material as I thought we'd need," Benson said with a smile on his face.
"That's even better." Vicente liked what he heard.
"I believe if you stay here for a month, we can build the entire railroad line to Millfall and test our project, Vice," Benson added. "You'll be able to stay here for that long?"
Vicente didn't think long and nodded in the affirmative. "Yes. That was my intention."
"Should I stay here with you?" Rory asked.
The future metal city was near Millfall, so Rory had come to Martell Village alongside Vicente. But he wasn't needed for Vice and Benson's plans.
"No. You'd better return to Saltstar City. Finish preparing the group that's going to Diamond Province. When I return to the city, we'll talk about your departure for that new post." Vicente said as he tapped one of his friend's shoulders.
"All right. See you in Saltstar City in a few weeks." Rory said before saying hello and goodbye to everyone there.
He intended to stop by his mother's house first but would be leaving the village in the next few minutes.
The journey to Saltstar City would take a few days, even for someone of his level, so he intended to leave as soon as possible.
As soon as Rory had left, Vicente, Benson, and the other 3rd- stage blacksmiths on that estate would go together to a site in the village, which was on the main street there.
"Vice, we believe this will be the best place to build the station in the village. The location is privileged. From here, we are less than a kilometer from all the warehouses in the village. Also, there's enough space here for us to build a place big enough for unloading and loading resources from the area." Benson explained as he showed a plot of land on which two warehouses owned by the Fuller family were located.
"Hmm, the place looks good. But where would the rail line go through?" Vicente asked, seeing that behind that piece of land, there was a street and houses on the block across the street.
"We can do it on the street. The properties on the block by the train station have an exit onto the village's main street. As for the street where our railway line will be, we can close off half of it and the pavement on the side of our land. The properties on the other side of the street will still have access to one lane of the street, so it won't harm their owners."
Another blacksmith said. "We'll still have space in our warehouse for storing resources and space for handling resources brought in and sent out from this station."
"We can change what we do now a little later. If it works out, we can expropriate some property in the surrounding area and build something better."
"All right. Let's get on with these plans," he said as he walked towards the Crow Woods. "I want to see the route you've chosen. Are there any beast problems along the way?"
"Yes, that's the biggest problem we've encountered," Benson said. "For powerful magicians, these beasts are no big deal. There are, at most, Acolytes in the area. But I don't know what the defenses of our train cars will be like, so I don't know what could happen with Acolytes traveling through the area."
"Our trains will be very safe. I intend to have Mages become the drivers to provide mana capable of running the trains. So the beasts you mentioned will hardly cause any problems for the train.
The problem would be the tracks. We can't allow beasts to put things on the tracks or even cross our tracks at the wrong times."
"If the boss can put his magnetic characteristics on the rails and make them work continuously, we can create something capable of driving away beasts and beings from even the beginning of the 3rd stage with ease, even using a method of collecting mana from the air." Suggested one of the blacksmiths as they moved along.
There were two methods of energy source for magical devices: the mana of a magical being and the free mana in nature. In a way, using mana from nature was almost like using light from solar energy on Earth.
It could be done, but it wasn't a method that worked perfectly all the time or that could cheaply create enough energy to sustain many operations.
In the case of using free mana in the air, devices were generally unable to perform very complex and powerful operations when using this alternative.
So even if Vicente could create things capable of imitating his 4th stage powers, by using this option, the products he created would be much weaker, as suggested by that blacksmith.
"That's a good option... But let's see the terrain you've chosen first." Vicente said.
After analyzing the terrain today, he and this group will start building the railway line between Millfall and Vila Martell tomorrow!
