Interlude - The Administrator Generals (Patreon)

[Skippable Interlude]

Interlude - The Administrator Generals

[Administrator General] Euris Jewel considered himself to be a fairly normal dwarven guy, with a fairly normal job in the city of Freshka. He had a wife, a half-elven that came from the coasts of Marrisad. She had a brother who somehow dabbled in piracy and ruined everyone’s life, and so she detested life on the coast, and all the petty crime that came with it, and moved inland, to Freshka about five decades ago. The two met while working together, married a good thirty years ago, and since then had five beautiful children.

Euris tried to the best of his ability, to work normal hours. That meant waking up before the sun rises, going to work in his office located deep in the Valthorn Keeps, and trying to get home for dinner before the sun sets.

But life as one of the few [administrator generals] was not one about dealing with normalcy.

His life involved the administration of the vast, ever growing interplanar network of the Valtrian Order.

On one such early morning, he woke up as usual, and felt his spiritual familiar’s connection gradually open the taps. Notifications about the activity overnight began to come in, one by one, sorted, ranked and quantified.

The Order’s activities never slept, and the twenty-or-so [Administrator Generals] worked shifts in order to ensure that a team would be there to grease the Order’s hinges.

An express beetle, one of the few unique beetle designs meant for moving people at speed, waited just outside his door.

“Goodbye daddy.” A young eleven year old half-dwarven, quarter-human, quarter-elven boy gave him a hug. The boy had his features. They often said elven-dwarven combinations resulted in strange children, but thankfully it wasn’t so.

“Goodbye, son. Have a good day in school.” The boy frowned, he didn’t look forward to going to school. Few children did. “I’ll see you- probably before you sleep tonight.”

“Oh. Again?” The boy frowned.

“Yeah. I’m going to have a long day.”

“It seems to happen so often.” The boy was sad. His mother was probably still asleep. He had an assistant, a maid that helped get the kid ready.

“Yes. It’s a busy time at work. Daddy’s got to go.” Euris gave his son another hug. “Tell you what, I’ll take you to the punching halls tomorrow, alright?”

The boy nodded, and Euris got on the express beetle. The beetle zoomed into the restricted underground tunnels, meant specifically for military use, and he was swiftly ushered into his workplace.

The Central Command. Often referred to as Central.

Three of his colleagues came in soon after, while two others were already there. They’d finish their shift in perhaps another four hours.

“Hey. Morning.”

“Hi Euris.” They all greeted, but was soon back staring at the crystalline screens and the displays provided by the augmented wooden suits.

Euris went to his own, custom chair, and sat on it. Each of the chairs in this room was a slightly lesser version of the mind-augmenting device used by the Void Lady Stella. When the device was first constructed, it was initially meant to enhance the mind’s ability to cope with the void layers and the madness that came with the void sea.

Command discovered that the same device would massively benefit the [administrator generals], and set out to equip the administrator generals with a similar contraption.

The vines linked to the spiritual familiars, and the connection was immediate. His mind felt wider, bigger, deeper. The knowledge of the night before came in, and Euris got to work.

An organization the size of the Valtrian Order required bureaucrats. Someone had to be there to make all the small decisions, and to pick up the pieces as the [domain holders] set out on the field.

The linked minds of the administrator general had to grapple with a big, big problem.

“We have a massive crystal output crisis.” Euris repeated to himself, as he reviewed the data provided through the mind-augmenting wooden structures. Each one a few artificial minds stitched together, each sharing his mental load, and each fed him data as his mind requested it.

The battle against Multipus and the Demon Comet severely depleted the crystal stockpiles and veins across Treehome, Mountainworld and Threeworlds.

Crystals had many sources. Mines were the largest. Crystals could be grown. Crystals could be made. But the Order consumed Crystals a lot faster than all of the sources put together.

Each battle with the demon king required a large stockpile of crystal bombs. Then, crystalline-core computers, crystalline golem cores, crystalline batteries all sapped crystal demand. Cities demanded crystalline batteries to support the various enchantments to sustain their new modern life.

Central Continent’s crystal mines were already at maximum output, and some.

There were crystal mines in the Eastern, Southern continents of Treehome, and orders have been made to mine them.

Another administrator-general, Cowanhurk, was a treefolk with an exceptionally large head, sat opposite him. “Looking into the crystal issue, Euris? I’ve got orders for 54,000 units of DK-grade crystals from the peripheral worlds project, and an additional 60,000 units of DK-grade for the next DK on Mountainworld and Threeworlds.”

Euris frowned. The mines on the central continent produced 2,200 units a month. One unit would usually be made into a single bomb, each unit about the size of a human head. It took about 20,000 to 25,000 units worth for a single DK bomb mine.

In short, it took a lot of crystals to weaken the demon king.

The recent Demon’s Comet came up to a staggering 940,000 units of DK-grade bombs consumed. That was pretty much the last three decade’s worth of DK-grade stockpiles, and that was when some of the veins were producing twice to thrice of their current output.

Natural crystals once mined, they’d take centuries to regenerate.

Euris acknowledged. “Got it, I'll put it in the queue.” There was a long list of requisitions for DK-grade crystals, and below that standard military grade crystals, or ML-grade crystals. ML grades were far easier to find, and the central continent produced about 12,000 to 18,000 units a month. These went into conventional use, like golem cores, warship cores, armor, enchanted gear and so forth.

Euris looked around briefly. Cowanhurk worked on managing the demands of the other worlds, mainly the Branchhold and Threeworlds.

Soldiers needed to be fed. Military institutions needed to be stocked with supplies. Projects needed to be supplied with materials. The movement of resources from place to place was their job. Things needed to move, quickly, fast.

It would take some time for the DK-grade crystals to be ready, and he quickly reviewed the next week’s output of DK-grade crystals. The artificial minds assisted to populate where they should be sent to, but ultimately, Aeon wanted someone to review the artificial mind’s resource arrangements.

The artificial minds were very good at their jobs, so, no tweaks needed. So Euris approved the shipment.

He went down his list and looked at requisitions from the Order’s weapons manufacturing centers.

“8,000 sets of Anti-magic weapons.” Euris tapped his linked artificial mind and commanded. “List of planned portal openings to the antimagic world.” The list appeared instantaneously, and then a list of available mining teams opened up next to it.

He assigned five teams to head back to the antimagic world to collect the antimagic sand. The linked staffing and outfitting requirements would be handled by one of his other administrator generals.

This went on for the entire morning, up until three of his colleagues were about to end their ship.

“Overall daily review. 30 minutes.” One of the administrator generals tapped one of the devices, and they were mentally linked and sent into [dream academy].

***

Euris loved this part of his job. It was something no other institution across the known worlds had. An almost real-time overview of all the major movements across the many worlds.

“No major events in Treehome today. Seven known minor events affecting resource outputs, one impacting steel and armor production. Farming outputs are stable.” The artificial mind recited.

“Two wars started on Mountainworlds.” Euris listened as the artificial mind narrated events on Mountainworld. The wars were between two of the native kingdoms, so didn’t affect Branchhold directly. Still, as administrator generals, their job involved assigning and allocating resources, and they needed to know where and what was happening. What campaigns were started. What happened in the faraway worlds. What threats were present.

Aeon didn’t care about the minute details, and the delegation came here.

Central. On holiday trips, Euris often heard people refer to Central as this all-seeing, all-knowing eye. It was amusing how mystical the commonfolk found them to be.

If only they knew there was an entire department of bureaucrats to make it happen. Spies. Administrators. Bureaucrats. Data had to be collected, and the artificial minds made it happen.

Next was the development updates on the faraway worlds. Again, a high level overview. Tropicsworld, Lavaworld. Numbers. Food. Metal. Wood. Steel. Crystals. Weapons. Homes. Defenses. Overall mana level.

Resources needed to be made. Technologies created and invented. Weapons. Euris’s focus was mainly on moving materials, but the human [administrator-strategist] on the other side focused on soldiers and weapons. Dungeons.

She oversaw the assignment and use of dungeons by the various mid-tier and high-tier Valtrian Order soldiers. She didn’t go there personally, but someone needed to ensure each and every slot was used, to maximize growth. She kept tabs on weapon developments. The power levels needed to update their latest computational models.

More resource movements.

“I think we need more logistics-focused [administrators].” Euris stated. His working hours were getting quite long, even with the small army of sub-administrators under him that worked outside of this room.

All the administrators present agreed, and one of them sighed. “Graduates from the colleges are being identified for the role. We have 1,450 regional administrators. We have identified three and they are undergoing training for full promotion. One should be ready to join us in two months. Please hang in there, Euris.”

Euris nodded.

They have ample space in the room. There were six vacant mind-augmenting chairs that would be later customized for their new users.

***

“Lunch.” Cowanhurk tapped Euris on his shoulder, and he snapped out of his report. Three other administrators came in to start their shift.

Euris shook his head momentarily. It was common to feel disoriented after reading many reports and listening to so many updates. Euris got out of his chair, and stretched. The aeonic familiar injected his body with healing fluids, and reduced the body aches from being seated for too long.

Strangely enough, the female [administrator-strategist] got up. “Can I join you?”

Cowanhurk nodded at the human lady. “Yes, Lady Zhul. Come.”

The three had lunch at keep’s many central kitchens, and this one had a beautiful view of the valley around them. The sprawling buildings and homes of Freshka seemed to stretch into the horizons, though each of the four giant institutions commanded their own sections.

The treeology priests, the Valtrian order, the Freshlands Treetiary College and the Universitree all had their own section of the wider valley.

Older members of the Valtrian Order often shared memories of how it used to be all empty land between them. These days, Freshka was very densely populated, and affluence meant larger homes. Mansions. Mansions meant land was quickly snapped up. There were racial enclaves too. The treefolks liked the area closer to flowing water, the elves liked the tower trees, the dwarves liked the fortified homes along the slopes, the lizardfolks liked the areas around the few lakes in the valley.

“Rough day.” Lady Zhul said, as she picked up what seemed to be a large slab of meat. It was probably from some monster-boar from one of the monster ranges.

Cowanhurk’s food was a platter of fermented bugs. Treefolks didn’t need to eat, but some treefolks enjoyed the process of eating, and when they did, they could eat anything. Euris frequently ate with his colleague, and Cowanhurk generally preferred foods that were already partially disintegrated.

Each race’s unique preferences and requirements only added to their job scope. Food supplies for an army of treefolk would not be the same as food supplies for an army of lizardfolk.

“Tell me about it.” Euris smiled as he sipped a mug of plain, iced water. He normally preferred to drink at night, and his job required him to be sober. “My son asked when I could take him to the punching halls.”

Cowanhurk grinned. “Dwarven boys enjoy punching halls.”

Euris nodded. “They have aggressive energies that needed to be released. Centaurs have the simulated running fields, why can’t dwarves have our punching halls.”

Zhul shook her head. “I’ve never been to one. Do you just punch stuff in there?”

“Well, not anymore. It used to be just different types of stuff you could punch. Nowadays they have wrestling artifacts and various other tools. It’s more like a gym than a punching place.”

“Why don’t they call it a gym?”

“I don’t know.” Euris admitted. “It’s probably tradition and appeals to us dwarves better. But I’ve seen some humans and lizardfolk too, so you can visit one.”

The strategist shook her head. “I would rather not punch stuff. Look at my skinny arms, I think I’ll just hurt myself. I’m better off in one of the game yards or gambling joints.”

Cowanhurk nodded. “It is not good to hurt yourself. We would be shorthanded if you were injured.”

“Eh. Aeon will patch her up in a sec and she’ll be back to work.” Euris smiled. It was a sad fact of life that they didn’t really get sick leave. They worked, and if they fell sick, a healer would drop by and fix them up.

That wasn’t the case in the private sector, where guilds wouldn’t fund the full cost of healing and recovery, so most workers just rested at home.

Zhul rolled her eyes. “I can’t wait to use my rest days. It’s stockpiling!”

“I have one hundred and two unused rest days.” Cowanhurk said without a hint of bragging. Euris knew the treefolk never used his rest days ever since he became a Central administrator.

Euris shook his head at the treefolk. “You should use your rest days. Find something to do outside of work.”

“I have not decided what to do.” The treefolk said. “I will consider using my rest days when it is decided.”

Euris smiled, and ate his fried potatoes. “Alright. Lunch’s up. Back to work.”

***

The rest of the day flew by, and Euris was tired. The next shift was already in, and his replacement patted his back. “Thanks Euris. I’ll take over from here and cover you tomorrow. Enjoy your day off.”

“Thanks.” Euris stretched, and mentally realized he reviewed almost eight hundred shipments that day. “It’s going to be rough.”

But he didn’t have the hardest portfolio. The one that often stayed the latest was a slender woman with sand colored hair in the corner, responsible for the promotion, supplies, and education of the mages across all the worlds.

Attempts to standardize magical education across the Central Continent did not yield satisfactory results, and so, each school of magic created their own unique syllabus and programs.

Each school also accepted a wide variety of students, with unique skills and talents. Central had to ensure each of them were adequately funded, provided resources to allow them to grow, monitor their performance, and identify any unique individuals that deserved promotion into the next level.

The resources requirements of the schools had to be paired with the stockpiles across the worlds, and she had to arrange beetles and movers to ensure the resources got to where they needed to be.

If there were shortfalls, she’d have to request the various herbal farms produce those desired herbs, or post bounties and requests to the adventurers’ guilds, or ping the Valthorns going through the dungeons to harvest the necessary resources. She needed help, but administrators familiar with magical herbs and resources were harder to train, even with the power of the artificial minds and the stored memories behind them.

But Euris didn’t say much, because he knew she enjoyed the job. He heard she was a fairly competent mage and even wanted to set up her own school. But somewhere around fifteen years ago she decided being a mage wasn’t the best way forward.

“I’m going off for the day. Don’t stay too late, Alix.”

Alix looked up, and nodded. There was a little lizard on her shoulder. “Yeah. I should be done in a bit. Bye, Euris.”

Euris knew she lied. She’d probably stay for a few more hours and only take a little bit of sleep. His colleague took the role of supplying the schools seriously.

***

“Dad.” His son wasn’t asleep yet when Euris got home. He was in his room reading what appeared to be a book about the Threeworlds.

“How’s class?”

“It’s okay.”

Euris nodded, and gave his son a hug. “Good. Sleep well. Do you have school tomorrow?”

“No. Are you really taking me to the punching halls tomorrow?”

“Yes. Yes, I am.”

He thought he had a fairly normal life.

[Author Note : Yes. This is a random interlude]