Since Austin could not train, he threw himself into reviewing the town’s operations. While he had plenty of faith in everyone’s ability to run the town, he still wanted to make sure the town was in a good place. Especially because he would be leaving the town soon. Another reason he wanted to review the operations was the fact that Drugos’s tribe decided to move into town. He wanted to make sure that everything was running smoothly before he left. Everyone had worked with the orcs before, but they had not directly lived with them.

  Austin decided that he would take Elliot with him. Elliot would not cause much trouble, and Austin thought it would be good to spend some time with him. Not to mention, Elliot could see the different parts of the town. It made Austin think of a classic “take your child to work” day.

  Elliot playfully marched behind Austin through the town. Their first destination was the base of operations for external affairs. They had set up in a building on the edge of town. After giving out assignments, the leaders of each division met within the building. Austin wanted to prioritize their division after the attack from the gnolls.

  Austin knocked on the door of the small building as he walked inside. They had turned the inside of a residential home into their work area. Tables were set up in the house for each person to sit at. They each were reviewing sheets of paper when Austin walked in. Gavin, Brian, and Mike quietly reviewed documents while Zoe and Katie seemed to be discussing something.

  Mike was the first to notice Austin walk through the door. “Well, look who it is. Why did you come to visit us, Elliot?”

  Elliot perked up at the mention of his name. “Daddy said we gotta check on you.”

  “Is that so?” Mike chuckled. “Well, how do you think our work is going, little guy?”

  Elliot placed his hand on his chin and cocked his head like he was thinking. He let out a loud hum for a moment before he finally talked again. “Looks like you are working hard.”

  “So, you approve?” Katie asked with a smile.

  “Yes! Carry on with your work!” Elliot nodded his head enthusiastically.

  Austin gently rubbed his hand through Elliot’s hair. “Good job, but we can’t leave just yet.” Austin then turned to the rest of the group. “I’m sure you have all heard about me leaving town soon. I came by to check on everyone’s status. I just want to make sure everything is going smoothly.”

  “Can’t blame you for that,” Mike nodded. “I have some reports from everyone that we can go over.”

  “That works perfectly,” Austin said with a smile as he walked towards Mike’s desk.

  Mike started to flip through stacks of paper on his desk. Austin could not help but chuckle to himself as Mike flipped through various stacks of paper. So much had changed since the Survival Game, but here they were with reports. No matter what changed, they could not fully escape the office culture.

  “Okay, here we go,” Mike said as he found the reports he was looking for. He then handed them over to Austin. “These detail our current plans along with the current situation of the area.”

  Austin took the sheets of paper and scanned over them. It did not take long for him to review the reports. While he was used to reviewing documents from before the Survival Game, he also had experienced faster reading comprehension with his Essence-enhanced body. While he was not back at his full strength, his body had recovered greatly from the Malis inflicted on it. He now only experienced pain occasionally, and most of his weakness was in his right arm.

  Austin was impressed by the reports. They were somehow both detailed and concise. They had enough information to understand, but not so much that the reports were bogged down. Austin was able to get a good handle on the situation from the reports. The major new plan was to get some repairs to the damaged buildings. Apparently, it was to involve people from both the external and internal divisions. While there were still plenty of buildings left, they wanted to repair the damaged ones to ensure there would be plenty for the future. The hunter section seemed pretty standard. It mostly just detailed the different paths that animals take. The scouting reports gave some interesting information. Ever since the battle, scouts had been seeking out any remaining gnolls. They also discovered that when the conqueror of a dungeon died, it freed up access to the dungeon. Their current plan was to claim dungeons and try to find a way to purge them of Malis. Finally, the protective force report was pretty standard. It mostly discussed being more prepared for attacks, and hoped that the merging of orcs and humans would allow for greater coverage on the borders of the town.

  Austin handed the reports back to Mike. “Well, it looks like you guys have everything handled. I’m very impressed. The only suggestions I would make are to talk with the orcs about the Malis-inflicted dungeons. They have dealt with Malis before our planets came together, and they might have suggestions. We also need to figure out something to do with our metal reserves. Some orcs have experience with blacksmithing. I suggest we take those interested in learning and have them experiment with how to forge the different types of metal. It’ll take some trial and error, but right now they are just sitting around.”

  “Noted on both accounts,” Mike nodded. “I’ll talk with Beth about establishing a craftsmen group.”

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  “That’s a good idea. We can get people more focused on alchemy and enchanting that way as well,” Austin said.

  Brian raised his hand as if he were waiting to be called on. Austin nodded his head in his direction to signal that Brian was okay to speak. “I’ll also talk to my master next time I see him. He could have useful info on how to work the metals we have encountered, and how to deal with Malis. I can’t make any promises on when that will be, though. He tends to be very fickle.”

  Austin chuckled slightly. “They all tend to be that way. But that is a good suggestion, I’ll ask my master when I next see him as well. I can’t make any promises that I’ll have info before I leave, though.”

  “Just let us know if you find anything out,” Gavin said. “I think the Malis dungeons may have long-term effects on our environment. It could be really dangerous in the future.”

  “That’s my worry as well. I’ll try to bug him tonight. Maybe I’ll get lucky,” Austin said. “Is there anything else you guys are worried about or would like me to know?”

  “I don’t think so,” Mike said. “Those were the important things.”

  “Then I’ll let you get back to work. Thanks for everything you guys do,” Austin said to the group with a smile.

  “It’s no problem at all,” Mike said with a casual wave of his hand.

  “Say bye to everyone,” Austin said to Elliot as he knelt down to eye level.

  “Bye!” Elliot smiled and waved at the group.

  “Goodbye, Elliot,” the group said in unison.

  Austin opened the door and allowed Elliot to exit in front of him. Then they started their walk to their next stop. They walked towards just outside of town to see fields of various crops growing. Because of the speed of their growth, Austin always swore there was something new growing when he checked on the fields. Some plants he could identify, while others seemed almost otherworldly. Austin knew that Grayson was experimenting with different plants that were not native to Earth, but Austin was not sure what they were.

  Grayson did not have a building that he operated out of. Instead, he spent most of his time working in the fields with everyone else. This meant that he was hidden amongst the tall plants, and Austin had to find him. Austin carefully moved through the large overgrown plants. He did not want to disturb them, but many of them had grown close together. Austin was not even sure how people could still work in the fields with how tight the spaces were. Eventually, Austin picked up Elliot to make sure that he did not lose him within the plants.

  After walking through the crops for almost ten minutes, he spotted someone working. It was a blonde woman in overalls. She was carefully placing her hand over a group of plants and releasing Essence from her hand. The green light floated from her hands as ribbons and was absorbed into each plant. After she was finished, she stood up and waved at Austin.

  “Are you looking for Grayson?” The woman asked.

  “Yeah, I’m kinda lost. Could you help me?” Austin replied with an embarrassed smile.

  “Sure thing!” The woman nodded with a smile. “I get that the fields can get confusing. I think I know where he is working today.”

  The woman guided Austin through the fields. He was impressed that she knew them so well. What seemed so confusing to him seemed easy to navigate for her. She took turns at seemingly random spots, but she never seemed lost. Eventually, they made it an area with small trees. The trees did not seem to grow any higher than Austin and had thin trunks. Hanging from the trees was an abundance of red fruit shaped like lemons.

  “Here he is,” the woman said as she pointed towards Grayson. He wore jeans and a tank top. His skin had started to turn a deep tan from the constant work in the fields. “I’m going to go back to my work if that’s okay?”

  “Yes, that’s fine,” Austin nodded with a smile. “I appreciate your help.”

  “No problem,” the woman said as she walked away.

  The area was much more open now, so Austin set Elliot down and approached Grayson. Elliot quickly followed behind him. “Working on some strange new fruit?”

  As Austin approached, Grayson was holding one of the fruits attached to the tree. He seemed to be intensely inspecting it and jumped slightly at Austin’s voice. As he released the fruit, he held his chest from being startled.

  “I guess I was a little focused,” Grayson laughed as he caught his breath. “I was just hoping I could talk to you, though. I’m really excited about this fruit.”

  “Really?” Austin raised an eyebrow in confusion. He did not understand why Grayson would be so excited about a fruit. “What’s special about it?”

  “Okay, so I’ll start with the bad news,” Grayson sighed. “I could not figure out how to unroast the coffee beans we had. So, I don’t think there is a chance for coffee unless we somehow luck out and find unroasted beans.”

  “That’s a little disappointing, but thanks for trying,” Austin said with a frown. He was really looking forward to the results from Grayson’s coffee experiments. They were running low on coffee, and Austin was not sure how he would survive without caffeine.

  “But don’t be too upset,” Grayson smiled as he raised his hand forward in a stopping motion. “We won’t be without caffeine, thanks to the dungeons. The nature-aligned dungeons had a variety of interesting plants. The fruit on this tree comes from one of those plants.”

  Grayson dramatically gestured his hand towards the red fruit. He seemed to get more excited as he continued to talk. “These fruits are really cool. They have a sweet-tangy flavor, but, more importantly, they are caffeinated.”

  “Really? Caffeinated fruit?” Austin asked in surprise.

  “Yep! No coffee, but this fruit should at least make up for the caffeine!” Grayson smiled broadly as he pulled one of the red lemons off a tree. “I’ll juice some, and you can try it if you want.”

  “That sounds great!” Austin said with a smile.

  “Good, I have a shed nearby where we can sit and talk,” Grayson said. “On our way, I’ll grab some fruit that is more suitable for Elliot.”