Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

The next morning brought a flurry of activity to the Den below Forest Grove. The work on the tunnels was going to be ready to begin with the morning shift change. The recruitment had started for the transfer station at the old airstrip, and the competition among the former soldiers about who got to go was intense. And there was one specific pilot very eager to show off to Wolfe that she could bring him to the far side of the Wastes to drop off the first round of supplies.

All in all, there were people running about everywhere and more shouting than Wolfe had heard in a long time.

"Priya, what is all the excitement about? It's just a transfer station in the middle of nowhere." Wolfe called out when he saw a familiar black braid in the crowd.

"You see, most of these veteran soldiers signed up because they thrive on the adrenaline. But the forest has gotten so safe that nothing is going to attack us here. But in an outpost in the mountains that used to be controlled by the Grand Dutchies and is currently outside the Fae Forest? There is definitely a chance of excitement there." Priya replied.

That actually made much more sense than Wolfe was expecting. Their guards rarely faced a challenge anymore, even on security duty in town, and the game animals were relatively abundant and easy to find, so even the hunting teams weren't having a hard time of it anymore.

The easy life had gotten too easy for them.

"How about we train more of them to fly? If they like an adventure that much, then going outside the protective spells would be the perfect chance for them to have some excitement in their lives, and we will need someone to help deliver all the supplies as I add allies to our network." Wolfe suggested.

Many of the soldiers heard that proposition, and they were all looking at Wolfe now.

"You're not joking, right? I heard that we need Pilots, but I thought that they needed to be among the more powerful." One of the Witches asked.

"No, they just need to be able to keep up the mana in the storage crystals and get along with their copilot. Once you're outside the protective zone around the Forest, you won't be able to talk to the locals anymore, so your copilot will have to, and you can communicate with written notes, the way they did with us at first." Wolfe explained.

The helicopter would take a much stronger Witch, but it also had room for a four-person crew, which would help spread out the mana drain.

Ella came in with a few more members of the design team, all of them with rolls of blueprints in their hands.

"We will be making three more twin-engine planes to start our work. Two to go east, one to go south to Morgana Coven starting today, while the remaining one will either fill in for the others or do extra supply runs to more distant locations. The smaller aircraft will be on local duty, and all of the pilot seats are up for grabs, two pilots and two locals per aircraft, so we have separate shifts and days off." Ella explained over the noise of the crowd.

The witches started to split up to find their teams and their partners for the ones that wanted to fly, while Wolfe followed Ella's gesture to accompany her and the design team to the workshop.

"We spent most of the night finishing the electric cargo vehicles, both the big trucks and the little electric trikes. But we've got something else that you will want to see. We had a bit of time, so we decided to see if we could stop relying on the Mundane Army to attack and resupply us. 

These are the first batches of ammunition that we have created so far. They've been test-fired, and they all appear to be within safe specs. The ballistics are good, the guns don't jam, and the shells load smoothly. 

Our final question is if the fact that they were made with advanced Earth Magic will cause issues with you enchanting them. There is bound to be some lingering magic in them already, and we're hoping that it won't interfere with you putting inscriptions on them." Ella explained.

At the moment, there was only one full case of them. One thousand rounds. But for testing purposes, that was already overkill.

Wolfe pulled one of the bullets out and casually placed the inscription on it for the standard [Fireball] spell, and then grabbed another and added [Wind Blades]. Those were the two standard shells that were distributed to their allies, along with [Cluster Grenade] shotgun shells, so if both of them worked, then they would really be proper arms dealers.

They felt like they both activated properly to Wolfe, but there was only one way to tell for sure. He cast a barrier against the far wall and gestured toward it. 

"Fire one round at a time, first the Fireball, then the Wind Blades, and we will see if they activate properly on contact," Wolfe ordered.

One of the Bear Kin men on the mechanics team picked up a rifle and motioned for the bullets, then fired off the first round at the wall.

The Fireball lit up the room and brought the temperature up a good fifteen degrees for a moment before the ventilation spells began to bring it back down.

"Well, that was a success. Try the Wind Blades. They're less flashy but just as important."

The Wind Blades activated with a green glow as the bullet hit the barrier, leaving a glowing cross on the spell for a moment, and the Bear man nodded happily.

"That's a good gun. To think, we made those bullets ourselves right here in this room. Well, the Witches did, but I like to think our moral support helped." The big man joked in his deep and growling voice.

"Moral support never hurts. Now, we just need to convince the Witches who are going to be at the outpost to make more of these. Or are they Rank Two specific?" Wolfe asked.

"Rank Two specific, and either a strong Rank Two or one that has a talent for Earth magic. If we made the components separately and used Alchemy to make the gunpowder, it would probably be much easier than making them in one piece." Ella informed him.

One of the witches from the research team began to laugh. "So, new make-work project? Fresh graduates working in the munitions factories to make gunpowder to keep our allies fighting in the war effort.

Wait, where have I heard this before? It was an old wartime propaganda film, wasn't it? I'm like 90 percent sure it was from history class." 

The room burst into laughter, as the Witches had all seen the same videos in all three Covens. Many Witches made gunpowder during the war since it was easier for them to do it than for the armies to mine and refine it all the traditional way.

"Well, we can always ship it by boat to the depot. We'll be shipping plenty there anyhow. That reminds me, we need to put some of those enthusiastic Witches on boat duty. The outpost will need daily supplies, even after someone sets up the garden.

But most importantly, I need to run away. Morgana Coven needs supplies. I need to talk to some of the villages along the coast, and then the Eastern Border will be expecting their first batch. I've got a busy week coming up." Wolfe sighed.