After a few days of reckless spending, I slowly started making my purchases closer and closer to my main goal, the builders guild. I was never a good architect, I was decent, but for the builders guild, their whole lifestyle revolves around it. And the main thing I want from the building guild is their city blueprints.
I’ll be the first to admit, even with unlimited resources, I could not build a city without help. I want city blueprints, as well as blueprints for every necessary building. I mainly want the high density buildings, because my area to work with is rather small, being the basin, and I can’t go down or out, but only up.
I finally made my way into the builders district after passing the craftsmens district. There are tons of warehouses, and one giant administrative building, the builder’s guild. I slowly made my way to the guild and walk inside, and they seem already prepared for me, a young gnome lady is manning the counter with a few stacks of planks besider her.
She smiles brightly to me, “Welcome to the builder’s guild sir, you have a very large reputation, we here at the builders guild have already prepared everything for you, everything from basic to advanced, we would also like to sell you masterwork blueprints, but we are not authorized to do so.”
Piles and piles of blueprint planks, each at least 150 planks thick. Many are probably really close in design, and probably barely qualify as a unique blueprint. There is everything from bed frames, to city blueprints. After I acquire these, I could single handedly build a city, although I will only do the important stuff myself, then sell out some plots of land.
Also, another thing that catches my attention, the books of runes for the various blueprints. With these I will be able to roughly judge the advancement of runes in this kingdom from when I was alive. If they are more advanced than my time, all the better, if they are a little behind, I will have to do a lot of work to change it to my standard.
I did not get a chance to properly study the blueprints from the craftsman's guild, which probably has some minor intersect with the builders guild. I then make my way towards the mages guild, which was more enthusiastic than the rest, research cost a lot of money. And they did have three skill books! Something that no bookstore had. I hope the warriors guild has some too.
But it is getting late, and most shops are closing. I make my way back to the inn.
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An ordinary group of adventurers made their way into the city, occasionally signaling with their hands, as they are walking they overhear some people talking, “Sue, I heard your potions shop was ransacked by the big magnate, oh how I wish I took the storekeeper class back then as well.”
They stopped and turned their heads in that direction, before continuing on. As they made their way closer and closer to the nearest inn, they heard more and more rumors about the ‘Big Magnate’ Their footsteps noticeably increased, hoping to get to a secure location before they can report their findings.
The walk into the inn and pay for two rooms, one for men and one for women, as is usual for adventurers. They filed into one room and a woman, the ‘thief’ of the group took out a communication orb, a man, the ‘Tanker’ of the group, starts speaking into the orb, “Delta One, reporting in, we arrived at the city closest to the incident.”
He then taps the orb before continuing, “There have been vast amounts of rumors of a ‘Big Magnate’ who is buying out everything money can buy.” He taps the orb again and says, “Awaiting orders.” He taps again and waits. Eventually the orb lights up and a voice sounds out, “Investigate his purchases, stay away from direct contact for now.”
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My Sixth sense was picking up trouble, I faked going back to the inn and jumped the walls at night, I heard there was an auction in a neighboring city. The city also has access to a large branch of the Adventurers Guild. The Adventurers Guild, unlike any other guild, spreads across almost the entire world, in every humanoid kingdom.
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Now, they may not be liked everywhere, but they have a lot of clout. The adventurer's guild has two separate ranking systems, One that is based on strength and contribution, the metal ranking system. The other is meant for merchants and other non-combat classes, the number ranking system, there are 10 number ranks, and you earn them by paying coins.
There is a few days before the auction starts, and at least a day or two of walking to the city, because I have to prepare more gold coins. I also just got tons of things to try out in my new land. And that next city is just barely within range of my skill.
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The first thing I do is immediately level the ground completely, removing the grass, animal dens, trees, etc. I also block the view from the river with large stone walls, making it look like the basin here never existed. I replace the dirt all the way down to stone with quartzite that I just recently acquired, even managing to change the riverbed to it as well.
I make the slope of the land 1 degree facing the river. I make 1 meter of basalt gravel, then two meters to top quality soil. Now, I use a type of grass called five elements buffalograss. This is a fast growing hardy grass that is resistant to fire and is magic resistant. I also chose it for another reason.
With one seed, I can cover the entire basin by supplying mana to the seed, once it grows large enough, it will evolve and be a plant monster that is easy to control for me. Once it gains sentience as well, it can be my eyes and ears for the whole town, no one will suspect the grass. It also purifies the air extremely well.
I toss in a grayish purple seed the size of a fist, and start supplying it with mana. It starts slowly at first, before rapidly spreading, it crosses under the river, while also tapping into it, before popping up on the other side, before long the roots cover the entire basin, I am manually controlling the growth of the seed right now, because it only has basic plant instincts.
Once everything is covered, thick green grass grows up from the ground before stopping at three inches tall. My dungeon is constantly replacing the nutrients in the soil during this process. Now that everything is grown, I still keep feeding it mana as it strengthens itself, finally a limit is hit and no more can be fed. Soon, it will gain sapience, but it will take a month or so.
I rummage through the acquired blueprints, these blueprint planks are amazing items, with the use of runes, it projects a realistic 3d image, that can be broken down and shown piece by piece, as well as the order to build them and everything. I rummage through a few city designs, none of them I really like, but I do get good inspiration of what a city needs.
I need four main things before I do anything else, a town hall, roads, sewers and lastly docks. I decided to build the town hall first, and center everything around that. Most of the designs I got from the builders guild is based upon different types of stones quarried in the plains. I decided instead to use steel reinforced ultra-high performance concrete.
I make the steel framework, a 4 stories and a basement. I then do something that would be called extravagant and stupid by anyone who knows runes. I start weaving anti-divination and shield runes throughout the framework. If this was a normal town, the runes would destroy the steel within a day, luckily it is not.
I then place a meter of concrete in all the walls. I then build the interior and exterior according to the design. When I became a dungeon core, I gained the ability to remember old and mostly forgotten memories. My first few years of college I tried HVAC and electrical engineering, and although I did not stick with them, I still remember the earlier classes.
Instead of making complicated rune systems that I will have to pay people to repair without looking suspicious. I decided to use my accumulated knowledge, I built an electrical framework through the building. Lights and light switches, an HVAC system, and in my personal room, I fit out a modern kitchen, something I have wanted for a long time, it is hard to cook with runes.
I build a second basement below the current one and build some electrical generators using runes. As I build more and more I debate building a bio-computer. I do not have the special lab grown brains as I did in my first life, but if I could procure a mind type monster, I could probably make something similar…
As I am in deep thoughts I finish the town hall, and start roads, a sewer system, and the docks, I made a stagnant lake that can take in ships, that won’t be affected by the river. All of these are done quickly.