He did such an effective job at distracting himself that some time later, he felt someone shake his shoulder pulling him back to reality. He looked upwards to find Dylan wearing his signature smile looking down at him, "We're heading out now, boat's just to the south, shouldn't be too far."
Felix rose from the ground and found almost a hundred people around him.
That is way more than I was expecting. I suspect some of them are probably just looking for a vacation though, not necessarily moving.
He followed the crowd to the south and towards the ship. It took them a couple hours and Felix didn't even try to push this many people with a Gust spell. The ship was a large wooden vessel with two masts and two stories. It was docked at the end of a dock that appeared brand new meaning no landing crafts were necessary. The crowd boarded the ship one by one, each one shaking Sean's hand to transfer the flat fee as they boarded. They all looked at the ship in wonder as they ascended the plank. When Felix approached, Sean and Dylan simply nodded and waved him aboard, as he had already paid. The deck of the ship was a simple affair with railings around all sides which people were now leaning over.
Once everyone had boarded the ship, the boarding plank was lifted and the sails were dropped. A voice boomed throughout the deck a moment later "Welcome aboard Hope. Our journey is a simple one to the south east however, the winds are not in our favor in this direction so the trip will take a little longer than it did on the way here. Not to fear, it should take us around 20 hours or so to make it back."
Oh god, I should have swam.
The boat began moving, slowly to the east. After about 15 minutes, the passengers were mostly settled with some napping and others just chit chatting. Felix walked up to the quarterdeck to speak with the captain. The captain manned the wheel with a wind sock a few meters behind him.
"Good morning, I was just wondering, if we did have a tail wind, how long would the journey be then?"
The captain nodded in acknowledgement then tilted his head back a bit, "Oh… with a normal tail wind it would take maybe 15 hours, with a strong one maybe 10. With something really strong, the likes of which I don't think exist in this tutorial, it could be even less."
Felix nodded, "Thanks." Then walked back down to the deck. He leaned against the railing and tried to appear as casual as possible as he slowly constructed two massive Gust spells, one behind each sail. He also created a small spell and placed it behind the wind sock on the quarter deck directed to the south-east.
The spell's themselves were relatively small compared to the sails, but he made sure they spread and directed the air outwards in a cone so he didn't poke a hole in the sails. The spells were very far from him but he realized back when he fought the Macerodos that as long as he constructed the spell near himself, he could simply move it far away and maintain it with some concentration. He could not construct them that far away just yet though.
At first they helped, but didn't do much, it was lucky that there wasn't much of a competing wind. The captain did however slowly turn the ship southwards with a confused expression on his face after triple checking the wind sock.
Felix sat down and began meditating, focused on maintaining all three spells from a large distance. With the increase in his mana regeneration, he increased the flow of mana to the two behind the sails. He was blowing through mana rapidly so he started to draw in mana to regenerate his pool as fast as he could. He pictured an ever spinning vortex of mana centered on himself, pulling all of the ambient mana inwards. It resulted in turbulent, low affinity mana but the effects on his spells were negligible considering their wide area of effect.
He managed to strike a balance where he was maintaining the spells without losing mana and still had half of his pool as a buffer. The amount of mana flowing into him varied so he adjusted the flow of mana to the spells on the fly.
He was rudely interrupted by the ship stopping fairly suddenly, causing him to lurch forwards. Worried they had hit something, Felix jumped to his feet and looked around.
"Sorry about the rough landing folks, or docking. The wind was a little faster than we expected around the dock. We didn't expect the wind to pickup and blow south all of a sudden… it never does that, but lucky for you folks it cut our travel time down by quite a bit. Welcome to the Tri-Peak docks."
Felix sighed with relief and caught Benjamin looking at him. Once Felix's eyes met his, he winked and offered a slow nod which Felix ignored, instead he just smiled politely back. He didn't want to acknowledge having done anything, even if Benjamin knew. Checking his map, they were just north of where he was first dropped into the tutorial, buck naked. Puzzle Dungeon C was almost directly south through some small mountains and Tri-Peak lay to the south west.
The docks were way more impressive than Felix was expecting. There were 5 docks total with just the one they were at being occupied. They were all the same size, capable of holding a massive ship like the one they were on. The passengers all exited the ship and there were caravans traveling to Tri-Peak and Tiki-Kahuna with a forest fort on the way. There were also signs planted in the ground for those that wanted to walk.
Felix ignored the caravans and simply jogged down the path labeled "Tri-Peak." Once he was well out of sight, he began running at full speed.
I remember something about docks and ships in the expenditures but I wasn't really paying attention, I was more focused on making sure none of it was being stolen. This is way more than I ever expected. Also what is up with the auction house and marketplace, that is super annoying. I guess it makes more jobs for sailors and guards and whatnot. Still, annoying.
Felix made it back to Tri-Peak in less than an hour. The fort hadn't changed too much from the outside. There were many more farms that were much more developed with both crops and livestock as well as large caravans to transport goods back into the fort. There was also a new addition with a stable housing caravans and boars that sold trips to Tiki-Kahuna and the local dungeons.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
The wall was fixed up with the collapsed areas repaired and the bridge inside had no more pot holes or missing bricks. The repairs were obvious with a different color of stone, but they were still better than the gaping holes. The gates were open, exactly as expected and Felix strolled inside. Inside, the changes were much more obvious.
There were no buildings Felix could spot with holes in the walls or missing roofs anymore. Each and every building in sight was functional and enclosed. As he walked down the street, he passed by shops with goods on display and stores with wonderful smells wafting out. Had he not eaten on the way, he would have stopped, as it was he resolved himself to come back for his next meal to sample the wares.
There was a massive variety on display with armor, general goods, weapons, magical goods, raw and refined materials, clothes, and even specialty shops. Felix continued onwards to the university eager to see if they had qualified for the upgrade to a City.
He passed through an industrial district with similar upgrades though less exciting for the average person. Finally he arrived at the university which had way more people than Felix was expecting, coming and going as well as simply loitering around. It felt like an actual university to Felix, and not the empty transformed castle it was when he had left. He bolted inside and climbed the stairs to his office before sitting down at the desk and opening the upgrade screen. He had to dismiss tons of notifications but he persevered, reading not a single one of them.
Major University Town Upgrade
Your town has met all the requirements to be upgraded to Minor City (Tier 4).
Requirements:
Population of 12500+ [26102 | 209%]
50%+ of population at profession level 25+ [78% | 156%]
15,000 total profession levels gained since choosing upgrade path [429318 | 2862%]
Leader Level 50+ [87 | 174%]
25,000,000 Tutorial Credits (Consumed) [159,105,206 | 647%]
Would you like to upgrade now?
Yes.
No.
Yes.
Major University Town Upgrade
Option Select
Please select a combination of two either new buildings or existing buildings to be upgraded as a reward.
Warning: This choice will affect future town advancements.
Possible Options:
[E - Special] Auction House (Existing)
[E - Special] Wall (Existing)
[E - Special] Warehouse (Existing)
[E - Special] Stable (Existing)
[E - Special] Docks (Existing)
[E - Uncommon] Dorms
Oh shit, I have to actually choose? The Auction house is soon to be useless with the tax rate, maybe the upgrade changes that. The wall seems fine, not sure what that would do. The warehouse? Seems to be fine to me. Stable is interesting, could be useful I guess. Docks? They seem good enough to me. Not building dorms.
Shit, I really should have asked Noah about this shit. Let's just start eliminating things, Auction house is risky, could still be useless after the upgrade, Docks seem to be completely functional for what we need, maybe even a little overkill. Dorms are a no. Warehouse seems fine, but we seem to be focused on trade more than storage.
That leaves me with the wall and the stable. Stable sounds good, not sure if we need a wall. Is there any chance of us getting attacked? I guess it's a good safety measure in general. Meh whatever, we're only here for another two months. Wall and Stable.
Felix took a few moments for his eyes to adjust before looking up at the university. He wasn't expecting the building to be upgraded so he wasn't expecting being moved and apparently neither were the hundreds of people that were inside it either. Around Felix was a massive crowd of confused faces in half poses, some tripped as they had been ascending stairs others stared at their hands as they had been reading books.
Felix ignored them because he felt guilty when that he hadn't even considered them. He assessed the building in front of him, which was impossibly even bigger. The three towers were taller and wider and the buildings that were a single story were now the same height as the rest of the building at four stories. The building also now looked cohesive as the stone was all a uniform light grey color and the marble accents were complete. The building looked like it was designed like this now, instead of before where it looked like it was a repurposed castle.
He looked around and saw that the walls now peeked over the buildings of the city now standing at about 10 meters high. I was also entirely uniform with the repairs having been perfectly integrated into it's structure. Felix couldn't tell if it was thicker or more functional from here so he simply turned back to the university. He couldn't see the stable from here but he didn't even bother going to evaluate it's upgrade.
Felix pushed through the crowd and ran into the building and back to his office, leaving the crowd in their confused state. He sat down as quickly as he could and opened up the upgrade screen, once more dismissing all the notifications that appeared.
Minor University City Upgrade
Your town has met all the requirements to be upgraded to Major City (Tier 5).
Requirements:
Population of 25000+ [26102 | 104%]
50%+ of population at profession level 40+ [53% | 106%]
30,000 total profession levels gained since choosing upgrade path [429323 | 143%]
Leader Level 85+ [87 | 102%]
100,000,000 Tutorial Credits (Consumed) [134,105,206.60 | 134%]
Would you like to upgrade now?
Yes.
No.
Yes.
Minor University City Upgrade
Option Select
Please select a designation for the Major City.
Warning: This choice has lasting impact outside of the tutorial.
Possible Options:
[E - Epic] Place of Learning
[E - Epic] Bastion of Knowledge
[E - Epic] Sanctum
[E - Epic] Cultic Sanctuary
Outside of the tutorial? Shit. Show me the first two.
Minor University City Upgrade
[E - Epic] Place of Learning
This Major City is focused on collecting and sharing knowledge with those who seek it. Knowledge is provided at low or no cost and any knowledge provided to the city, is paid for. Come one, come all to the Place of Learning.
Would you like to upgrade now?
Yes.
No.
Minor University City Upgrade
[E - Epic] Bastion of Knowledge
This Major City is focused on collecting and hoarding knowledge. Knowledge of all kinds is acquired through sale or through the use of spies and is kept within the Bastion. Some information may be sold or traded but all knowledge can be dangerous, the Bastion of Knowledge protects it from the wrong hands.
Would you like to upgrade now?
Yes.
No.
Oh man that second option is way cooler. I feel like I want something in the middle. I like the idea of sharing knowledge, but not all knowledge, some is dangerous. I'm also a pretty secretive guy, paranoid and untrusting, so the second one fits me a lot better. Considering it has impact outside of the tutorial, I don't want to be too selfless. Agh, at this point I'm just justifying the decision I already made. I mean it's not like the description of the second one precludes me from sharing all knowledge.
Felix let out a long sigh before saying aloud, "Bastion of Knowledge." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .