"I love you, Cless!"
Venaris was skipping, frolicking and rolling over the snow without helplessly sinking or even leaving tracks when she declared her feelings for her adoptive sister. Cless was pure mirth. The gnome dove into a tree with [Tree Refuge] and exited it from the other side, also giggling. The last month had heavy snowfall and Cless was up to her knee in the white fluff.
Silverfang jumped over a mound of snow while the two tropical critters closing the line were shivering and complaining even though they were wearing heavy fur clothing.
"This is pure horror, my dear friend. I can't believe we are out here in the snow, freezing our scales, or feathers in your case. And behold, our Queen and Princess are there, laughing as if the cold did nothing to them." Vic analyzed their predicament.
"I agree. Mawarpys don't molt in winter for a very good reason." Kurt joined in.
"We are jungle creatures. Give me warmth, give me that sweet skin-clinging moisture. Not this scale-freezing white world!" The lamiak delivered his conclusion.
"You two didn't have to come!" Cless turned around and shouted at the two tropical whiners.
"We would dare not to leave your Majesty unprotected!" Vic retorted.
"Aughhh!" Cless groaned and kept going on her way.
They kept teasing her regarding her new status. It was a spur of the moment thing but it seems that by stating her claim the world accepted it as true. She glanced at the start of her status and sighed for the umpteenth time.
> Name: Queen Cless Hreidmar of Myrkheim and Infernal Realm (in exile)
Somehow she gained a surname. Yay?
She also unlocked some new classes and professions related to nobility and royalty. That's the story they don't tell you about having a Legacy. You are expected to put in the effort in an equal amount as what you got. Since she got what she did, what did Midgard expect of her?
Right now it better be a bridge, because it is what is on the menu. Cless reached the river and after some back and forth found the spot where the golem crossed last time. She focused on the stone, sensing it with [Tremorsense]. The running icy water generated tiny vibrations as it went under the stone she molded last time. She closed her eyes and imagined the bridge. Made of stone, arched, two support pillars near the margins.
The bridge would stand a good ten meters above the river level and go over some sections of dry land to meet both sides of the valley at the same height. The gap underneath was big but she could tell from the soil how far the last Spring flood reached. The bridge would also have to support vehicles. She was sure the draft animals would be thankful for not having to go down and up to the bottom of the valley. Maybe she should raise the bridge even more for that reason.
Lifting it more would need a thicker section, more arching or a third support pillar. She arched just a bit, feeling for it with the proficiency granted by [Architectural Ingenuity]. Once she got a good image of the bridge on her mind, she chanted the level seventy-five Earth magic spell Josefine taught her.
"Construct!"
Stone Shape could make a bridge but Construct could make The Bridge. The size, quality, and level of detail of the two were leagues apart. She picked this one over Earthquake and Summon Genie so it better be good.
The ground cracked and caved in, creating a hole where the bridge would be on both sides. Stone flowed out of the hole as if it were water in a fountain. It didn't spill though. Guided by Cless the stone on both sides flowed over the river and joined together, melding and flowing around as more stone pumped from the ground and shaped itself as she imagined. Two more holes and the pillars rose from the belly of the world. The process wasn't fast by any measure. Even when forced by magic to move that way, the stone was still sluggish. It moved three times faster than it should because of her [Crafter] Skill.
Four hours later, Cless' mind was pounding inside her skull and the fifty-meter-long bridge was finished. It wasn't wide enough for two wagons to pass side-by-side but wider than a single-vehicle. She imagined that pedestrians wouldn't have to abstain from crossing if a wagon or carriage was going through. The railings felt solid and no spot was entirely flat to avoid snow from piling up.
She gathered her guild and crossed the bridge. The view of the river from up there was nice and she apologized to the trees she would have to knock out of the way. They would either become wood for construction or firewood. The town was low on fuel because the lumberjacks crossed their arms during the time of the orc horde. That was a short-term drawback, one she would prefer over losing the lumberjacks to the orc raids.
The Blind Eye climbed the valley in the direction of the gnome village, marking the path with Kurt's help and knocking down trees where the road would go through. They reached the watchtower hills and Cless used Construct again to make a chamber shaped like a twenty-meter square box where the old wooden watchtower of the orcs previously stood. Once she entered inside, her [Hearth's Warmth] Skill quickly made the room livable. There was no furniture though that could be arranged with a few Stone Shape spells to create a few raised slabs.
They laid their bedrolls and their coats over the slabs and the beds were ready. There was no need for blankets as the room was quite warm. Cless opened her pocket and let her still-unnamed drillmole pet out. The little thing grew and more than doubled in size during the last month. It grew the characteristic crystal-like fur of its species. While it chewed on some crystals she dug on the way, Cless took a look at its status for any changes.
> Name: (no name)
>
> Species: Drillmole
>
> Level: 3 ( 4,214 / 6,000 )
>
> This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
>
> Base Stats — Strength: 8 (+13) — Agility: 13 (+7) — Health: 12 (+11) — Intellect: 5 (+7)
She didn't accelerate its growth rate following Olson's advice. In just a couple more weeks it would be an adult and then she could put it under a training regime. Cless snuggled with her favorite wolf fur blanket and slept like a baby.
The next day was spent working on adding a hearth, the other two floors, stairs, crenelations and machicolations over the box building she made to the create a peel watchtower more than fifteen meters tall at its highest, with a high-slope roof for the snow. She had to dig a cellar to obtain enough stone to raise the tower without taking too much from the hill. She changed the slope of the hills so anyone attacking from the ground would have to walk in a circle around the hill to reach the towers. There were no doors or any wooden furniture. Those would be for later. It was already afternoon when they started on their way back.
"That's not a tower, Cless," Venaris commented as they watched the newly crafted tower under the sunset. "It is a castle even though it is a small one."
Cless showed her tongue to the gnome. "Don't jinx it, sister. You call it a castle, put a Queen inside and suddenly there's a dragon or some raider warband out of nowhere to conquer it."
They laughed and Cless tied a handkerchief she embroidered herself on a peg at the top of the tower.
The third day was spent on the way back to the bridge, collecting the logs and removing all trees in a fifteen-meter wide path and swapping the dirt for the stone underneath to make a road. It was already night when they reached the bridge but that was the plan. Cless made another smaller watchtower on their side of the bridge and slept inside it. By the end of the fourth day, they finished the road leading back to town, moving all the logs they gathered and unceremoniously dumping them on Anders' sawmill.
A big bearded man that might be the patron saint of lumberjacks everywhere was there, arguing with Anders. She got only the end of his argument.
"... and that is why you can't let that girl butt anymore in our business! Things are already bad enough for us without extra competition!"
Facing the front gate of his property, Anders was the first of the two to see her. He opened a smile and called her out.
"Guild master Cless! I see you already returned from your latest expedition."
The golem was carrying two big stacks of logs, followed by werewolf Silverfang with another almost the same size as one of the golem and Cless with a fourth. They unloaded the logs near the wall and Cless joined the lumberjack and Anders' conversation.
"I'm sorry, I overheard your conversation by accident. Sir, I can assure you we are not going to do any more woodcutting, that was only a temporary job while my guild needed to raise coin. The timber we brought today with us is for a series of commissions for our new settlement on the other side of the valley by the foothills."
'We were the ones that cleared the freaking forest of orcs so you could go back to work, you ungrateful jerk'. Cless wanted to say that but she wouldn't. She was a reputable guild master, never mind her new secret social condition. She was glad she wouldn't have to worry about someone snooping it out of her status.
The lumberjack glared at the smaller girl and she let him have just a taste of her [Fear Aura] for a brief instant. She would bet her hat he hadn't enough Intellect or Wisdom to beat her level. The burly man decided to make his best impression of a dog puppy.
Cless sighed. She felt like she had overgrown that town. She wanted to soar on new horizons. But she agreed to only move out after winter. After a month studying magic indoors, she felt too bored and decided to move ahead with the development plans for her parish. It was getting dark, she was out of home for four days already and wanted nothing more than sleeping on her bed.
"And last time I checked, you didn't have a monopoly or an exclusive contract to supply the town with wood. Do we have a problem?" She returned her glare.
She had a Dungeon town to build, a Kingdom to rebuild, a life to live, adventures to be had and a Church to be defeated along with all their Crusaders and Inquisitors. And don't even get started on the war of the Three Realms. Cless tapped her breastbone to calm herself. She was not going to become a haughty bitch. Not too much. But between that and becoming a pushover, she'd take the former.
"I don't want trouble, miss Cless," The lumberjack replied. "But I have a family to feed."
She almost told him that he should be swinging an ax somewhere else and not doing whatever he was doing there but held herself back. She caught herself too irritated.
"I have to go. Mr. Anders, this parchment has the measurements and the list of items we require. We expect them by the end of the next week and we'll settle any outstanding balance then. If that's okay, I'm off."
Anders bowed. "Of course, guild master. I don't think there will be any problem and you are always welcome here."
Mildly disgusted by the greedy and haughty owner of the sawmill, Cless just nodded and went home.
The next morning she called in the minor favor from Shane's guild. Send a small party down the road they made escorting a surveyor with an odometer. The surveyor pulled an odometer, a small wagon with two large wheels and a cog system that dropped beads in a container every quarter of a kilometer. At the end of the trip, the beads were counted and the distance measured. Fractions could be read straight in the main cog through a small porthole. The adventurers would go until they reached the gnome village, collect the handkerchief Cless left on the hill tower and get back. It went without a hitch and the travel now would take a horse-pulled wagon about two and a half hours to reach the former gnome village already considering the terrain inclination. Twenty-one kilometers in total.
Two days after getting her handkerchief back and paying the adventurers two ducats, Cless was at the Beaten Hare studying magic under Josefine's tutelage. She gave up the barmaid disguise and now two new girls nineteen years old were hired to tend the taproom, kitchen, and bar with a maid dedicated to cleaning the rooms. Cless was fired from her job under claims of being overqualified. "I can't pay a Queen's wages," joked Karen.
"You should charge a toll at the bridge," Josefine brought up the subject out of nowhere between lessons of element theory.
"Sorry, what?" Cless almost dropped the book she was reading from. "Why should I charge a toll?"
Josefine looked at her with a 'are you serious?' face. "Because you are the lady of the land and you built the bridge? People usually charge a toll to pay for maintenance, garrison and to cover the costs of the construction."
"It took me only three hours to make that bridge."
Cless tried to diminish the worth of her accomplishment. It backfired. The Great Sage narrowed her eyes and stared at her pupil.
"Do you want us to remain friends?"
"Yes?" What could she say? Yes, she wanted to remain friends with Josefine.
"Why did you say it as a question, Cless?"
"Why are you angry?"
"Only three hours? To make a fifty-meter long bridge?"
Oh. That's why she's angry. "Maybe it is because I have Skills that allow me to craft things three times faster using only four-fifths of the materials. The amount of stone I had to move was lower and the bridge has fifty percent more durability because of a third Skill... Just for the record, how long would it take you?"
"I think I could do it in eight hours."
"Then your magic is stronger than mine. See, without the first Skill, the time would be nine hours, and removing the second it would be eleven hours and a quarter."
"You should charge a toll. That bridge is valuable, even more with the tower. Having a garrison there will improve safety, curb smuggling and banditry, besides increasing your influence."
"Sure, I will. I just wonder where I'll find trustworthy guards."
Josefine rolled her eyes. "Any guard you hire is trustworthy. Just have them swear oaths like they always do. But you are different from every other landlord, you can enforce them."
Cless was chewing on what Josefine said when a notification startled her.
> Your contracts earned you 600 Experience Points.
That was funny.
> Your contracts earned you 800 Experience Points.
That was funnier. What was going on?