After the battle, the very next morning, Magnus had instructed one of the dwarves f to fetch the humans that followed him.
Arriving at noon, he gathered everyone inside of the forge. Although it was a bit uncomfortable due to the heat, it was the only room with enough space for everyone.
The 27 dwarves sat on his left side, while the 12 humans sat on his right. A cursory glance and anyone could tell neither sideways doing well.
"Now then, let us begin this gathering." assuming a formal tone, Magnus spoke.
'If you want to have an army, you need three things. Supplies, wealth and loyalty. Though I don't know how different it is for a village, it shouldn't be too different. And the three most important things to humans are water, food, sleep, so I'll need to check for those first.'
"First and most importantly, do we have a stable water supply that will last for everyone?" Magnus inquired, glancing towards the dwarves.
Thorgim stepped out and gave a salute, before he continued.
"Ay. Though the wall is buried in debris leftover by the keeps destruction, we've already finished clearing the rubble. And the underground caves under the walls also have a large river flowing through, so we will not have any issues."
"That's good. Since water is not an issue, how about food?"
"Well..." Thorgim hesitated.
A bad feeling welled up in Magnus.
"The animals we used to raise have been eaten by the orc bastards, and the only food we have is the stored bread, enough for 3 days if rationed. The underground mushroom farms have been razed, not even a single grown bull-leaf remaining!"
Seeing the confusion of the humans, he explained, "Bull-leaf is a mushroom that grows underground. It's filling, grows quickly, and is very resistant to diseases. It also turns into a good brew if you know your way with a distillery and—"
Magnus cut him off, "So how long until mushrooms will be ready for a harvest if you plant now?"
"A month...if we're lucky. And the other crops like cave wheat and earth nuts have also been picked clean."
"Hmmm... What if we split into dedicated hunter squads?"
Volund spoke up, "Orcs like to hunt everything they get their hands on, so there's a good chance there's no wild life left."
"Then, fishing in the underground waters? Would there be anything there edible?"
"I recommend against it, there's monstrous fish hiding in those depths. Even if you're strong, they pull you down, and you're done for." Thorgim spoke.
"...I'll leave that as a last resort then. Is there any other ways we could get food? Ah—how about raiding nearby orc villages?"
"Not worth it, they're not known to hoard food."
"Damn it. I guess I'll need to go fishing sooner rather than later." A sense of urgency rose in his heart, the food crisis looming over him like a blade.
'I need to get this place up and running to be capable of sustaining 1000 people. If I don't solve the food issue, my death is guaranteed!'
Maintaining a calm facade, he continued.
"Next, sleep and lodging. There definetely are enough scraps to make a makeshift bed for everyone. 10 people per storage room, and women get a seperate room."
"Reasonable."
"Agreed."
Both dwarves spoke at the same time.
"We can postpone the reconstruction of the main keep for later when we get more people, not like we're lacking space."
"Next thing... Security."
His words caused everyone to unconsciously tense up.
"First, we need to be ready for any sort of attacks by stray orcs. I know a few stragglers have escaped this place through the tunnels, so they might come here with reinforcements any day."
"We'll station 4 of us to be on alert around the clock, and if anyone comes we're going to—"
"Alert me so that I can take care of them." Magnus cut him off, "No bravado, no heroics, no pointless deaths. I've grown significantly stronger than before, so even if another ogre comes were..." his words trailed off.
Everyone present got a sudden bad feeling.
"Say... Is ogre meat toxic?"
Collective groans escaped everyone's lips.
"Lad, you hafta be kidding me..."
"Please, don't leave me without dignity..."
"Hey, if its about surviving we might have to. And it's either ogre meat or orc meat, the choice is yours."
The two dwarves looked at each other, sighing once more.
"Ogre."
"The ogre."
"Well... That solves the food problem for aa while then."
'When you process an animal you...' he tried to recall the knowledge left from his past life, and spoke after a few seconds.
"Skin the corpse, drain the blood, and then cut it into parts. If we have salt, we can turn it into jerky, so it shouldn't taste too bad."
"Ogre jerky..." while Volund sighed...
"That doesn't sound bad at all!" Thorgim seemed more than enthusiastic about it, which prompted a side eye from everyone, even the dwarves on his side.
"Back to security. You've all heard me loud and clear when I said no heroics, yes?"
"Aye. Well station 4 dwarves to patrol the wall, and if anything comes well alert you."
"Great. Next thing, weapons. From what I've seen, there's plenty of those aro—"
This time magnus was cut off, by both Volund and Thorgim.
"NO!"
Surprised that the other yelled, Thorgim took the lead.
"Those weapons were forged to be as brittle as possible, to trick the stupid orcs into running into battle and dying. They think their own strength could break dwarven steel when it clashes with normal swords!"
"Aye, lad, a proper dwarven weapon could cut through stone without being chipped, even if made by normal steel!" Volund continued.
"What's dwarven steel? Steel forged by your kind?"
"Aye. We'll forge you a set of weapons that will be of incomparable quality compared to the orcish garbage!"
"Hmmm... Can I ask for a favour?"
"What is it? Speak, you saved us, so we have decided to pledge our lives to you!"
"Can you teach me to forge?"
Both dwarves fell silent, before Volund spoke up.
"Hmmm... Lad, don't get angry by me saying this, but..." he hesitated, unsure of how to say it.
"It won't be easy for you to inerit dwarven smiting. And you may not have the talent for it, so better leave it to us who have forged our entire lives! We promise to deliver a fine weapon befitting of a lord" Thorgim zealously spoke, his eyes filled with reverence towards Magnus.
"It's not that I don't trust you. It's a long story, but I have received a lot of forging related knowledge, so I want to put it into practice and see what I get."
"Hmm... We can try to teach you, but forging ain't easy."
"That's fine, If I'm not fit for it I'll leave it to all of you." he smiled towards Thorgim.
He clapped his hands.
"Now then, the distribution."
"Volund, everyone except the women will work on the ogre and it's body. Thorgim, you pick who is going to stand guard. And lastly, we need to clean this place of orc corpses, so me and whoever else is left will be doing that. Any objections?"
"What about us?" Snela asked.
'Oh, I forgot about the girls.'
"Oh, take care of food and if you need help with anything, ask the dwarves help."
"Understood."
After a moment, seeing nobody raise any concerns, he nodded.
"Meeting is finished."
Saying that, he began running around the castle, spending the entirety of the day throwing orc cospes into a pile.
With one final smirk, a torch was thrown onto the pile of corpses. Followed by another 39 torches.
'Easy enough.'