After Ivan gave Milo the notes, he headed down into the valley to enter the entrenchment of camps. He very quickly found Alistair hiding inside of a wagon, where he had an assortment of gear.
“W-what type of weapon do you want?” Alistair stutters out, his hands raised as if he was afraid Milo was going to hit him.
Milo, shrugs. “Something easy to use.”
Alistair quickly sizes up Milo. “Y-you look like you are strong, could use a big heavy weapon.”
Milo responds quickly, “well I would prefer as much armor as possible to keep me as safe as possible, as well as a shield, and again, I don't know about the weapon.”
Alistair nods, and rushes to the back of his wagon, and retrieves a heavy suit of angular armor, spiky, and unfriendly looking, but palatable, as well as a large square shield, which looked like glorified planks strapped together with metal trim. He also retrieves a sharp looking short sword. Milo picks up the short sword, and actually finds it very dense, and heavy.
Alistair starts explaining again. “The shield will be hard enough to move around in tight spaces, if very well defendable, so you should use a smaller weapon, especially inside of a dungeon.”
Milo nods along. “I guess I'll take it, how much for all of it.”
Alistair waves his hand. “I-Ivan said in the note you don't have the money yet, but will pay me back, with Guild credit, so don't worry about it.”
Milo thanked him, and left before quickly looking for Luther.
Luther happened to be a very slim man, lightly armored, with leather armor, but with a wicked serrated knife, and a small buckler strapped to his arm.
“Hello, Ivan told me to come see you.”
Luther glares at Milo, before accepting the note. He quickly opens it, and sighs. “Damn, old fart. Ok, Sit down, let's do this thang.”
1 week later
The process for opening ones core, happening to be not, only very confusing, but very painful, as there are also, basically magic veins running throughout your body, that you have to clean out, and Milos core, was filled with junk, and his veins practically clogged, leaving many painful hours of cleaning them out, bit my bit.
When Milo was finally done cleaning his core, he could view himself, and found himself to be very clean. Part of keeping oneself clean is moving mana throughout your body, called cultivating. There are many techniques for doing so, but Luther said he will teach him later in the dungeon.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Once all that was over, Milo got to view the creation of Ivan fortifications. Apparently a cool process took Ivan a long time to gather all the earth mages, and required material. Luther, and Milo, gather near the basin where Ivan, and the other earth mages stand on the edge, with piles of stone, and something Luther called mana crystals all around them.
The mages begin to do weird things, with beautiful lights flowing all about from each other, but they all eventually lead to Ivan. Unbeknownst to Milo, what they are doing is channeling all their power into Ivan, as he is their most powerful mage, so he can shape the earth for them.
At the center of the lake, the water begins to ripple as a peak of stone pears through, and more is dropped into the water, from the piles of stone around the edge of the basin. Slowly a large squat tower begins to emerge from the water, the walls a gradient of regular stone, and a dark almost obsidian colored stone, but much stronger. The tower quickly rises to half the height of the basin before.
*Thud* The mages around the basin begin to drop, one by one, the weakest first, followed by the low ranking, and then eventually. Only Ivan, and one other female mage remain standing, the construction of the tower slowing to a crawl.
The fallen mages quickly rise, and put their hands on the mana stones surrounding them, and suddenly, they are rejuvenated, and once again, begin powering Ivan, like a man sized 3D printer the power being funneled into him is converted into the growth of the tower.
Once the tower reaches the height of the basin, it is still squat, and thick, losing barely any width during the rising process.
Instead of continuing to grow, bridges begin to stretch from either side of the tower, 2 bridges stretch across the basin, stone, and dark wood, interlinking to create a beautiful bridge with the top of the tower, as a meeting place, or square.
It doesn't stop there. Where the tower meets the bridges it continues to rise, around the bridge, leaving a hole in the tower, which a arch is quickly built over, and the tower quickly continues to rise. It rises enough to create the arch, and about 2 more stories worth of space, and then a slightly curved, but mostly flat rooftop, is place over the left, half of the rooftop, but the tower continues to rise, in the greatly reduced amount of area, that is left, it continues to rise, before copying its earlier form, with a slightly curved rooftop, and then a much smaller tower continues to rise, cresting at a beautiful bell tower.
Every last mage surrounding the basin collapses into a heap, even Ivan. Ivan especially appears to be bleeding, sweating blood from the strain.
Milo rushes to Ivan, and supports the man, lifting him, with an arm over his shoulder.
Ivan grins at Milo, “You technically own that tower, so, you better be nice to me, ya little brat”
Milo chuckles. “Of course, how else would I treat you.”
The people around quickly begin cheering, and thus, the rush. Anyone under the Oats banner quickly rushes in to find a place to stay, apparently every last bottom floor turned into a living space, for people to live in, except for the occasional storage room. The center of the tower, where the bridge runs through, no doubt, when traders arrive they will be vying for a place to set up stalls in that marketplace. The two floors above that, were a tavern, with a dance floor, a kitchen, tons of seating, and beautiful views. The floor directly above it being a suite, which Ivan claimed, and above that a bell tower.
Now, despite everything just said, there are barely any people here other than the Oats Guild, but they only brought 50 something people, and the tower was big enough to fit hundreds, maybe even thousands of people. It was humongous. The Ebonmane people barely have a party worth of people here, but they continue to trickle in. Merchants also slowly trickle in, wagon by wagon, they carry their wares into our valley, to sell to people looking to get their start in adventuring.