Franziska is about to go to sleep when I contact her.
“Hey, Franziska. I have good news for you.”
“Hrm?” She mutters, turning inside her bed.
“I’m going to build your smithy tonight.”
“What?” She exclaims, sitting up straight and jumping out of her bed perfectly awake in less than a second. “Where are you building it? I want to be there.”
“You’re sure? I don’t mind, but why?”
“Because I don’t want you to mess it up.” She says while putting clothes on.
“Of course…”
“So, where is it?” She asks excitedly.
“Fine, follow my lead.”
I agree to her demand. I purposefully told her that I’m building her smithy this night to get her help in designing it after all. Having a craftsman help to design their own workshop is always a good thing for improving relationship as they are the one who knows best about how it should ideally look like, especially when they had time to think about it. And it also allows for a workshop best suited for the craftsman’s specificities. I intend to do that for other craftsmen in the future as well, when any of them become a Citizen, of course.
The smithy will be located in a new part of the upper city. A place where I intend to build the craftsmen quarter. Near the gymnasium, but far away from the bathhouse to not bother the users with the noises and smells from the craftsmen. I’ll let the people plan further city arrangements, but I have to at least place the first buildings so that they can develop the city from there.
When Franziska reaches the location I chose for her smithy, I start by raising the walls of it. I build three rooms. The first is supposed to be for storing the raw materials, so I grow lots of shelves, boxes and barrels in it. A simple room for a simple purpose.
The second room is the front part, it's designed to be the shop part. There I grow some more shelves, boxes and barrels, but they are designed to display finished works as well as storing more of them. I also instal a counter behind which Franziska, or any clerks she hired, will be able to store and display the costlier pieces of her work and deposit the money she will gain. From what I understand, Franziska doesn’t really plan on selling her works herself, she’s planning to hire someone to do that for her. There is also the door allowing access to the back of the building.
In truth, a lot of what she will be making at first can also be obtained in the Maze, but the quality of her work is supposed to be better than the things I make. Moreover, people will not have to enter the Maze to acquire them, hence they will not need to risk their lives.
The third and last part of the building is installed in the back. It is the place where the physical work will be done. The place is open to the air as the roof is not completely covering the room, it’s supposed to allow the heat to flow out of the place. Furthermore, a roof is hardly needed to protect against the rain or sun in a cave. There I grow a furnace and an anvil near it. I also make a crucible as to allow for some alloys to be melted. Following Franziska instructions, I make a bunch of tools for her, and shelves to store them. In time she will have to make them anew to have better quality ones, but for now, she will be able to use the swages, punches, hammers and other stuff I make for her. In the open part of the room, I install a well, at whose bottom is flowing clear water.
There is one thing I can’t really make for Franziska’s smithy that she would have loved to have. It is the bellows. I can make one, but the leather part has to be swapped with fabric, which greatly lower its efficiency. To get around that, I also make pipes to allow Franziska to directly blow into the fire. In a not so far away future she should be able to acquire a piece of leather to make her own and more efficient bellows. At last, when someone starts to do some leatherworking.
Once the building is finished and the tools are put on the shelves. I fill her storage room with a lot of iron, copper, lead and whatever Franziska asks me for that I can do. They are a gift to help her start her work. In the future she will have to buy her materials herself, same thing applies for the coal. Unfortunately for the both of us, I can only make some common metals and lower quality alloys for now as I only found some of them in my Domain or in the Marms’ town or pirates’ possessions. For special metals such as mithril or adamantium and the alloys made from those, we will have to wait for me to first put my metaphorical hands on those.
The finishing touch for this building is the lock. I install it on the front door. It is a copy of the complicated lock which was on the pirate captain’s private room on his boat. It is the most complicated lock I have ever seen, not that I have seen a lot, so I use it to make Franziska’s workshop more secure. Of course, I change it up a bit as to ensure it cannot be opened with the same key as the pirate captain’s. I, of course, instal a similar lock to the door of the back part of the smithy, it would not be good to have a thief enter by there. In the end, I gave Franziska the key to her new workshop.
“Again, can’t you make a second floor with living quarters? I would rather live there than at the other house.” She asks me for the fourth time since I started building her smithy.
“As I said, I will build it for you, but not now. I want something in return.”
“Oh? And what could that be?” She inquires sceptically.
“I need you to make me a full-body armor, a sword and a shield. They have to be tailored and stay a secret for as long as possible.”
“Placing an order before the store is even open, eh? And making secret plans about it. That’s so like you.” She says mocking me.
“You know I can make those myself. But isn’t your work supposed to be better than mine? And, if you want your second floor, you’ll have to make my order or build it yourself.”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“I’m ok with working for you, after all, you just delivered on one of your previous promises. And I will be paid for it, sort of at least.” She starts to talk business, good. “So who am I making this armor for? I need to see the man to make measurements. I assume you’ll provide the necessary materials for your order?” Wow, she’s far more chatty when talking about work. “I don’t want to use the small stock you provided me with.” Small stock? She has hundreds of kilograms of metals in storage. “Same thing for the coal needed for the furnace.”
“Yes, of course. I will provide you with every material needed to make what I want.”
“Good, good, that’s good. When do you need it? And who will wear it?”
“It is not urgent, but the sooner, the better. It has to be done before the pirates come back.”
“Ok, so first I’ll rework some tools and make some works. I need to get used to this place and practice a bit. It’s been a long time since I’ve worked at a forge. And you didn’t answer me, for who do you need those weapons and armor?”
“For Bertrand. Or rather, for what is left of him.” I reluctantly confess.
“Bertrand?! Why do you need to arm him?” She has a hard time believing what I just said. Who can blame her? “And what do you mean by ‘what is left of him’?”
“Yes, Bertrand. I’ve done… things to him. Changed him. And now he… obeys me.” I say, searching for the proper words.
“That’s what you mean by ‘a fate worse than death’ that awaits those who break your laws?”
“Yes, part of it.”
She gulps before talking again. “And you promise you won’t do whatever you did to him to me?” There is a rush of fear that can be felt in her thought streams.
“As long as you don’t break any of my three laws, I’ll stick to our original deal.”
“Th... thanks.” The fear emanating from her is slowly diminishing. She may be brave and trust me when I tell her I won’t do her any arm, but she also knows I can do whatever I want with my Citizens.
“Now, excuse me, but I have other things to do.”
With that, I leave Franziska alone in front of her smithy in the growing light of a new, artificial morning.
In my underground town, people don’t have a lot of occupations at the moment. Previously, they could only dive into the maze, train or meditate in the gymnasium, take care of the few still in comas or gather food for those who work elsewhere, as well as the sempiternel chatting. Now, some can assist Franziska in her blacksmithing work, if she accepts them. But a lot of them are still laying around, doing nothing more than walking, talking, eating and/or bathing. I want to offer those more possible occupations.
Of course, it is something that will have two levels. The first for everyone to enjoy, while the second for Citizens only.
First, I carve a big cave into the mountain, I make it really large, bigger than even the town area. In the middle of it, I make a big and slow river flow between small hills. The river goes into the city bay through a large opening, allowing people to know quickly that I’m working on something, but not on what yet.
I have several groups of birds and bats shit on the ground to deposit guano there, so that I can then mix it with the earth to make more fertile soil than simply mana infused earth, and spread it around the whole area. On the roof I grow one big glowing rock acting as a sun and several smaller ones which look like stars, it results in the same kind of luminous ceiling that shines upon the town, able to emulate a sunny day as well as a starry night. The important part is that the fake sun can shine its light on every part of the cave and nurture the future crops.
Now that the structure of the place is finally finished I get to the next step. I make grass grow on all of the hills and grow a few fruit trees to provide shadows at the top of several of the hills. On several other hills, I grow wheat, hop, rye and other cereals, I don’t have the widest variety but I do have a nice selection. This cave will serve as a farming area.
Now, to encourage people to become Citizens I grow fences around many of the hills, not all of them, but those with the most fertile soil that are also the widest. Only Citizens will be allowed to open the fences’ gates, they will be able to hire people to work their field, but only Citizens will be allowed to claim a piece of my land. I also make some farming tools such as manual ploughs, scythes and hand-carts. They are waiting in the Citizens’ fields, but everyone can see them from the outside.
Against the fences I grow some blueberries bushes with sweet fruits and sharp thorns as to allow people a to gather them and farmer Citizens a better protection of their crops.
Next, I build a total of five mills on the riverbank. They are powered by big waterwheels which turn big grinding stones and provide the users with a way to make flour from their cereals. As I am benevolent, I make one of the five watermills accessible to everyone. Of course, it is the furthest from the way to the town and the smallest. The other four watermills are obviously reserved for Citizens.
With this new area, I hope to have more people doing something else than just idling around in the underground part of my Domain. Once again I’ve built something which will provide everyone with something, but more for the Citizens. I think it will be another thing to encourage people to become my Citizens.
The last thing I do in this cave is to open some airways in the ceiling and walls to allow for birds, bats and whatever else wants to enter the area to do so and fly or crawl around. This way, it will make it a bit more lively. It will also allow for rain to enter the area and better irrigate the crops. Fishes, mollusks and crustaceans have already began swimming in the river.
Once the area is finalized, I open a big hallway linking it to the town area. As it is late afternoon a lot of people are still up and without a lot of activities to do they gather in front of the hallway and, once confident in their number, they go in.
Soon I learn that my new additions to the town are earning me points through the people’s chit-chatting. Being able to have your own personalized workshop or owning a small piece of land to farm without taxes is interesting to a lot of people.
“Really? The Dungeon wants us to farm?”
“I was a farmer, I think I could do it. The problem is that I don’t think we could produce a lot of crops with such small fields.”
“You’re stupid or what? If the Dungeon can make it that there are already crops ready to be harvested, I think the crops will grow faster than you’ve ever seen with your own eyes.”
“And there are always ripe fruits on the trees in town.”
“That’s true. And I think it will grow even faster in the Citizens’ areas.”
“Yeah, that’s the kind of things the Dungeon would do. Always better stuff for the Citizens.”
“Kind of want to be one now, eh?”
“Yeah, but not sure yet about the whole deal.”
“Dunno, but I think I will give it a try.”
I think that tomorrow there will be more people in the meditation room than before.