Jack awoke a long time later. He had slept heavily. Clearly being more mentally exhausted than he thought.
Sitting up in the bed, his nose suddenly twisted and his eyes darted to the burning candle placed on his old bedside table.
'Is this what gives of a strangely pleasant meat odor? An since when did i get a candle?'
These thoughts ran in Jack's head as someone knocked on the door.
"Come in." Jack said, while getting up and putting his trash leather armor back on.
A young and beautiful woman entered the room. She had white, sunburned skin in the light from the candle. A delightful firm body with good proportions, clearly showing through her tight tunic and worn leather pants. Her face symmetric, warm and charming. Looking like a girl who just reached adulthood, full of energy and confidence, as if she didn't have a worry in the world, clearly feeling safe and protected.
"Good morning Lord! I was waiting for you to wake up, your breakfast is ready downstairs."
"Thank you, I will be there shortly." Jack answered and the young woman happily bowed and closed the door as she retreated.
Jack went to the room with buckets to relieve himself. Finding it stinking and thinking it would only be way worse in the future with nowhere to dump the feces, he suddenly had a thought.
'Maybe if I can increase my spirit power, I will be able use my earth - and water manipulation to make some kind of drainage for every house? Channel it through some tiny tunnels with water? I know that once injected with my spirit power, the water continues to flow in the direction I want it to, just like the small pond outside...'
Thinking it was worth a shot in the future, he would need to assign a civilian to attend his needs in the manor. Luckily, such a civilian was already waiting for him downstairs.
When Jack reached the kitchen, he saw more of those strange candles placed at the kitchen table and the dining table. Besides that, he saw the young woman had made a fire in the kitchens large fireplace, where a crude iron pot was currently coming to a low boil.
"What's you name?" Jack asked the woman who was taking the pot off of the fire and poured a mix of blackroot soup and meat pieces into a wooden plate. Probably accessories from the mainsions blueprint.
He sat down on an old wooden chair with a high back support, when she came over with the bowl and a spoon.
"My name is Nisha my lord. Here, please eat while it's hot, I hope you like it, even if it's reheated from last night." She said with a smile, bowed and took a few steps back before standing still.
The basic stew was tasty, and the soup water was thick. The meat was tender and rich, yet overall it carried a hot spicy flavour from the blackroot, and Jack found himself thirsty fast.
"Did you bring some water to drink Nisha?"
"Ichh, I forgot the bucket of water my lord! I will go get it outside fast!"
She hurriedly began to walk towards the door.
"No need Nisha, stay here."
Jack walked to the long bare kitchen table at the working area next to the fireplace. Here he closed his eyes and mentally reached out to the stones beneath the house.
He willed the stone to expand in a 3 centimeter round stone tube, enter the wood of the house and reach the kitchen table before him.
The wood broke before it and a round stone tube appeared and bended nicely as a stone faucet. He continued to hollow out the tube before going to the next phase.
Next he spread his awareness in the mountain below, listening for the whispers of water. It didn't take long as he understood that just a few hundred meters below his house, an underground water river was rushing. He tried to get a hold of the water, but it was fighting back, the flow was fast and Jack had to strain himself to the point of sweating before the water finally gave in, and let him lead it into the previously made hollow tube.
Jack exhausted opened his eyes and Nisha gave a short gasp in surprise.
The water was plashing all over the table, and Jack hurriedly made an alteration to the top of the faucet. With a hand-size lever he could now open and close the faucet with a flat stone fitting into the matching hole in the faucet.
"That is so amazing lord! I have never seen such a thing before!" Nisha asked to try it, she was overjoyed and soon the floor was full of water.
"Remember to boil it before you drink it Nisha. And as you are the one who played with the water, making it spill all over the floor. You get to clean it up. In fact, you will be taking care of everything here in the mansion. Cleaning, cooking, empty my chamber pot and everything else I need."
Nisha, surprised, suddenly turned serious. She bowed deeply, understanding such a priviledge was given to her.
"Thank you my lord! I hope I wont disappoint you! But I have to tell you that Gynda wont be happy with this."
"And why wont she be happy with this? It's only natural that I will need some maids in the mansion after all." Jack was puzzled, why wouldn't she like it? And why did she think that Gynda had any saying at all?
"Oh it's not about that lord. It's just that she already told me to keep making these candles. I just suddenly remembered, or rediscovered that I knew how to make them. I was playing around the stones on the mountain side. There are bushes, vines and the rare occasional blackroot there. When I saw the green vines I was inspired to make rope, and when I saw Gynda and the others melt the fat of the beasts, I suddenly came up with the idea.. You see my lord, those vines are fit and strong enough to weave rope. But splitting them up into smaller fibers can make wicks, and dipping those in melted fat makes the candle.."
She had blurted everything out it a rush, and now her face was deeply blushed and she bowed even deeper again.
Little did she realise that she had just gained an admirer. Jack was currently taken with her, staring at her beautiful figure, her natural lengthy and curly brown hair. Her light brown eyes which seemed to dance with an inner fire, reflected from the candles light.
"My lord?" Nisha asked curiously, as she saw how he was studying every inch of her.
"You will be my personal attendant Nisha. I want you here in the mansion at all times. And as the lords personal attendant you will be busy. The small left-wing of the mansion is currently empty, but there is a small meeting room there on the ground floor. That will be your office. And the floor above it will be your living space."
Nisha was originally stunned but quickly understood all her assignments.
She was to live permanently in the mansion, having a high degree of authority, currently only next to the lord himself. Immediately pushed her to the top rank of the settlement. She would care for every aspect of daily life in the mansion. And besides that, she was ordered to master and oversee the continued production of rope and candles.
After finishing his meal and ultimately drinking some water he manipulated to rid it of impurities, he showed Nisha around before leaving her happily behind.
'Alright. Seems like I slept for ten hours, and the civilians are truly my real recourse! They keep surprising me with inventions and hidden knowledge that makes life more easy'
Reaching the goldmine, Gondo hurriedly came to him with a smile.
"Lord! We are pleased to inform that we have worked tirelessly yet again! The mined bounty for these past ten hours is 527 kilos of gold!"
Gondo showed his lord to a pile of gold nuggets stacked in a corner.
'They deserve a reward. Gondo and these miners make me rich!!' Jack thought while looking at all the gold in the pile.
"I am pleased Gondo. But this wont do. You all look tired, and I can't have you overworking yourselves. Separate the 27 kilos. Those 27kg you will share between all gold miners. That is your pay. The rest I will collect."
"Lord is generous beyond belief!"
"I will forever be your servant!"
"I can't believe we will really be paid so much as this!"
"Yes! I can't believe it, the food, house and security is surely enough!"
All the dwarfs were happy beyond imagination about this gift. They could now directly pocket their own pure gold nuggets!
"And that's not all." Jack continued and they fell silent.
Clearly there couldn't be more could there?
"The rest of the day is off. No one is to mine again before tomorrow morning. And starting tomorrow I expect you to hit a certain quota. If you 30 miners can mine 500 kilos in 10 hours, then surely 50 of you can mine 1500 kilo in a day. Every day in the morning when the sun rises, I want you to deliver those 1500 kilo to the mansion. Drop it into the deposit. Anything you mine beyond that 1500kg, you will share amongst yourselves and also give 20% of that to the stone miners. And the last thing. I want you each to have 4 hours of free time every day. You, Gondo, said you work in shifts. So sleep when you can. Make it work. But remember those 4 hours free time!"
Jack had added that forced 4 hours of free time, thinking that these dwarfs surely had some kind of forgotten skills. Nisha had inspired him. With this free time, maybe the dwarfs could come up with something helpful too.
The dwarfs had a chorus of praise for Jack at this moment. And as he left, he made Gondo the 'overseer' and directly granted him any and all executive power over the gold mine production, with emphasis on strictly honoring the free time period. Next to Jack himself, Gondo's word was now law within the goldmine.
Pleased with himself, Jack went to the summoning portals, and was happy to see the torches had been remade with new candles, and he made it a point to create new 'hooks' on the walls where new could be put, whenever he walked.