-I’ve got the ear of more than a couple legislators,- Briggs /admitted. -A couple have kids working for us who naturally rave about how awesome their jobs are... and they might have clued in their folks on the fact they’ve got some working magic, oddly enough. Add in those who’ve started attending our school, and the impact the Earthhouse has had on the local economy, and yeah, we’re darlings even if we are weird bloody-handed no-magic mercenary Hunters.-

-I was kind of thinking more like Fuzzy riding Babe right up to the Capitol’s steps, there informing the legislators that Babe wanted to undertake a grand project to benefit the whole state, and he was hoping to get their help to get started,- Sama /grinned cheekily.

Briggs, Babe, and I glanced at one another. “Works for me,” I shrugged. “We need more press, although I have to say the number of people we have applying who actually work for others is only rising.”

-They are getting really cheesed you are pointing them out, too,- Sama /grinned. -It does prevent me from having to deal with them, however.-

“I’m sure the gravediggers appreciate the lack of overtime work,” I murmured, and she just beamed.

-Let me set up a suitable public event. Babe, you have any problem making a bit of a public splash?- The Blue Ox just huffed in amusement at Briggs’ question. He’d been making public splashes everywhere for years! -Then we’ll make this a grand spectacle of a project for Babe, completely hiding what is actually going on, right out there in the open,- Briggs /continued cheerfully.

-Really gonna have to step up recruitment to staff all that,- Sama /observed happily. -And Artifice up the core machinery, and Level them up!-

“The reward for doing hard work is more hard work, you assholes,” I said without force, and even Babe laughed at that one. “You know, I bet Sunny might be able to get some of his flock to lair in the new towers. All that Fire and Light Mana has to go somewhere, right?”

-Oh, hey, good idea.- Babe whuffed agreement with Briggs. The disappearance of Sunbreasted Robins from the state was something the Blue Ox had long considered one of his minor failures. He enjoyed having Sunny around, perching on his horn and chattering away. -That leaves a lot of Water Mana sitting around on the table...-

We all looked at the map, and Sama /pointed out, -Odd that we’re building all these White Mana Zones right on the water, too. So, say, a big Fish or Turtle could get right in close without too much problem...-

They all looked at me, and I just whistled innocently. “Hey, nobody’s using the Lightning Mana out there, either. It’s like a decent place for a baby Thunderbird to play, too.”

I was pelted with mental pebbles. Hey, someone had to be thinking ahead about all this stuff!

-Queen Gichigumi can even use the Ice Mana,- Briggs /agreed in admiration. -Have to let her know, however. It’s a bit of a drag to swim the whole distance regularly for a sip of Ice Mana, regardless of how Heavy it is. We could build a capacitor of some kind, but if it’s not drawn off, it’ll just dissipate, given time.-

“Or can be used to Energize materials?” I prodded him with an eyeroll. “The Frost line of Isotopic Gases is never low in demand. It’s like people enjoy their air conditioning and refrigeration and super-coolants and everything.”

-I have a feeling the expert in Energizing shit has been thinking a lot about this topic, Fuzzy,- Sama /whispered loudly to Briggs.

I flicked a finger, looked away, and Wind Towers popped up at the Refractory Sites.

-And we can disguise it all as a byproduct of the Wind Towers, especially in winter!- Briggs /laughed despite himself. -Have to ask, Fae, how would you normally handle it? Obelisks?-

“Too limited. I’d build a Pyramid,” I admitted. “But there’s no way a Pyramid is going to be anything but very honking obvious about what it does. Anyone with any feel for magic can detect one from literally the horizon.”

-Something of a drawback. Useful as a Ward for settled areas, I imagine?- Briggs /theorized.

“It would easily sub for an Earth Pistil, only it would need to be constructed, not just found and emplaced properly.” Earth Pistils were the natural crystalline Formations filled with Earthpower that powered the Wards that defended Human territories from Beasts. The continuous need to hunt for and grow Earth Pistils was one of the things that constrained Human territories. Settlements outside the Wards all too frequently died to Beast Tides, often brought on by competitors and rivals of the founders, or just by Beasts happy to gobble up all the free meals moving into their territories.

-Damn, that’s pretty impressive. Does it wear out?- Sama /asked sharply, even Babe watching me alertly at that claim.

“I have no idea how it would interact with the Manafield,” I admitted. “I’m pretty sure if you want this Geomantic Salt Formation to work, you probably don’t want a Pyramid Power Field hereabouts. Those things require a major ley line, as they draw a LOT of juice.”

-Still, the ability to raise a new Ward wherever and whenever without need for Earth Pistils... that is also worth a lot of money and influence,- Briggs /considered. -Back-burner it, but it’s another way to win friends and influence people, Fae.-

“Wasn’t planning on making anything that major. A small one can also be used to condense Seeds out of Fire Nodes, using basically all the flowing Mana in the area. That happens to disguise the Node at the same time, which is a win-win,” I reminded them, bringing up what I’d done in the Firelands.

Briggs tilted his craggy head. -But that would totally conflict with the Refractory Towers and the Formation, so we can’t do that with Salt Seeds unless we want to shut the Formation down... or at least slow it down.-

“Which is probably not a bad idea after Babe is through with it, and we’ve regenerated the farmland to a stable level. We can always shut them down if we need more, but pumping them up extravagantly is a luxury. Although I imagine Babe could manipulate the Manaflow some and start spreading it into a larger and larger area, slowly and stably. I imagine there’s massive areas of clay that could be slowly converted to better land.”

The holo flickered, and soil quality overlaid it all in hues of green to brown and gray. There were definitely clay-heavy areas all over the Palm and the Thumb that could use some major work.

Babe’s huge ears flapped excitedly. He loved farms and farmland. Clay soil was something that was waiting for a grower to come along and convert it to something better, be it farms, fields, or forests. Old-growth forests didn’t have any special attraction for him, other than serving as anchors for deep Plant Mana productive zones. Young forests and fields thrived with more vigorous Plant Mana, but if harvested regularly the plants naturally didn’t have the time to absorb and concentrate the various types of Mana.

It was why specific sections of the Fingers were cut down and replanted with rigorous timber management practices, while other areas were left to grow, and grow, and grow, yielding Herbs, Spices, Roots, Flowers, and other Magical Plants over time in a steady and consistent manner.

There’d been plenty of would-be lumber barons over the years who had defied Babe’s decrees, even calling for him to be put down, as he was interfering with Human expansion by limiting the areas that could be cleared.

Some of those people had ended up meat patties under a big hoof, especially if they got flagrant or violent about it. Usually, Babe showing up was enough to get the entire workforce to withdraw quickly, as the treecutters were virtually always out-of-staters who nevertheless were told stories by the Unions of what was about to happen. After they ran away, therein would follow complete destruction of the operation and anyone who remained behind.

If they brought in mercs, funnily enough there’d be a lot of Wolverine Hunters in the area willing to pitch in to help Babe, too...

It had been a couple decades since anyone had tried testing to see if Babe had gone soft on things, although he’d been attacked at least once. Books and tales spread through Michigan about how Babe’s antics had helped the state in so many ways had taken root at the children’s level. Now all those kids were adults and they all believed in Babe, companion to his beloved master and friend Paul Bunyan, and still carrying Paul’s work proudly forward.

Yay, Michigan!

Still, some people weren’t happy with the steady pace of growth, considering all that land mostly free of wild Beasts to be territory to claim and plunder and enrich themselves, and so Babe’s reputation at the national level was ambiguous at best. Humans seconding themselves to the whims of a Blue Ox was something of a joke to the feds, and then the jokesters learned what it meant to come, not from the Blue Ox State, but the Wolverine State!

It was for that reason that Illini and Michiganders were often fast friends, as nobody respected the Illini for appreciating the oversized Pig who protected them, either. Out-staters took it as a great sign of weakness, even as they chomped down on the bulging loads of corn and vegetables from the bountiful Illinois fields that were sent all over the country.

Michiganders and Illini thus tended to consider people who came from areas without a friendly Totem Beast as being ignorant rubes and fools who didn’t know what was good for them and their homes. After all, it went beyond just believing in Babe and Bunyan and Husker and the goodwill they’d shown working together all these years. There were mounds of evidence on how their states were better off with the Totem Beasts, so they naturally played it as everyone else actually envied them and were trying to cut them down to make themselves feel better.

Michiganders didn’t like taking any of that shit, however, and so the pugnacious reputation of the Wolverine State continued.

----------

Initial tempering by schools and Mana, approximately four minutes per Star, a little slower at Mage Tier. The Stars were more energetic and harder to capture, then settle down into nice little Startrails of the seven standard types... cross-linked if I needed to do some non-standard stuff.

Pointedly, I needed to do more work on my 343 Stars as a Typeless Mage. The double Elements required to wield Dark, Light, and Dimensional Magic meant that I needed Stars that could change their own innate characteristics to at least one of the other Elements, which required another seven rounds of Tempering to accomplish, at two minutes per additional round... if I was sitting under a Refractory Tower in the Cracked Mana chamber, with the extremely useful Heavy Elements around.

Imbuing the Mana and secondary Tempering could be done outside a Cracked Mana chamber, using my Matrix output and my Heavenbound Pact, as long as I wasn’t doing any other Casting. One of my thoughtstreams was dutifully following up on this all the time I wasn’t Casting, which helped my progress.

Primary Tempering, four minutes per. Three Tiers of Star tempering, plus three Tiers of Soul Crystal Tempering, two minutes per. Six Tiers of Mana infusion, two minutes per. Six rounds of Elemental Tempering per Star, at two minutes per.

x 4. 294 x 6 x 2. 294 x 6, x 2. 294 x 6, x2.

Added all together, and it was 11,760 minutes of work needed to upgrade my Typeless Nebula to the degree I wanted it, or approximately 196 hours of navel-contemplating work.

I considered the additional 2058 Stars coming when I finally got a Nebula, noted my supply of Soul Crystals, and how the Agglomeration Engine was working around the clock now. The Boonies were generating us a constant supply of Soul Crystals now, and the Novices and Adepts naturally loved them. Checking the price of the Soul Remnants they were equivalent to was a very common thing now, and a big reason why nobody complained about their compensation in the slightest.

Of course, everyone else considered the speed of my rising cultivation to be pretty damn unnatural, as it simply went up and up and up. Even if they didn’t have as many steps to go through as I did, it could take them ten times as long to finish a single Star, courtesy of much lower Meditation and Concentration synergies, and the fact I could basically Waking Meditate all the time, albeit at a MUCH slower rate.