Akira gathered over 100 warriors that were free without anything to do and ordered them to deconstruct the log cabins on top of the hill.
“Put the logs off to the side so we can either rebuild the log cabins somewhere else or use them in some other project,” said Akira before returning to his own cabin for a few moments of privacy.
After closing the door he sat down on his bed and opened the blueprint creator tool.
His vision immediately blanked out and returned to once again be hovering over the temporary village that consisted of several hundred log cabins.
He could see the thousands of people exiting the ships, reaching the shore, and walking to the new cabins. He could even see Mileena searching for him. It was a good thing he escaped while he did.
Ding!
A new building has been added to the list of things that can be built.
On the sidebar above the other buildings was a new blinking icon with the title castle keep. He reached out and pressed it to see what it looked like.
Thump!
An extremely large stone building appeared on the ground where the cabins were.
But unlike the other times when he had placed down cabins and outhouses, the castle keep was now colored red with a blinking message above it that read [Unable to place keep. Uneven/no foundation/blocked area].
Akira moved the keep towards the top of the hill where all but two of the cabins were currently being dismantled. The one the Grand elders were using and the one Akira was in.
The blinking errors disappeared and the color of the keep returned back to that of white stone.
“It's bigger than I expected. I'll have to clear out all the cabins and the snow wall surrounding the area,” said Akira as he looked at the keep on top of the hill.
He positioned the keep so that it overlooked both the village below and the lake behind the cabins. While he was inspecting the keep's final position he found a similar snowbank inside of the planned building path. It looked like the one he had stubbed his toe one only a short time ago.
“Don't tell me another hot spring?” asked Akira.
With the keep positioned properly, Akira confirmed the position and exited the blueprint planning tool.
Since he had only placed one building the blueprint was automatically named Keep #1 and added to his list of blueprints.
When Akira exited his cabin he made sure to take a roundabout path to dodge Mileena and escape outside of the snow walls.
It was almost impossible to sneak around with several guards following beside him but somehow he managed it.
He took out several poles with yellow flags on them and activated the keep #1 blueprint and started placing the poles as quickly as he could.
He was done in under 5 minutes.
His breathing had gotten heavier from the use of the blueprint skill and running around but he wasn't going to faint. He felt that by repeatedly using the blueprint skill he was building up mental strength. It was as if it was less stressful than before but he could not really tell if it was just his imagination.
The guards near Akira watched him closely wondering if he would collapse again.
Akira who could see their questioning gazes felt sad that they thought he would faint again.
After catching his breath he walked over to the snowbank he had seen from above and found it was indeed a pile of frozen rocks.
The pile was far smaller than the one at the bottom of the hill.
“Looks like I'm quite lucky. With this, I should be able to make a bathroom that has its own hot spring!” Akira muttered to himself as he poked at the stones.
“Let's go find some more people to start clearing this place,” said Akira. His guards silently followed behind him.
“I found you!” shouted a voice from behind Akira.
He looked behind him to see Mileena running towards him with a gaze a lion had when it was hunting its prey.
“Can't talk, I'm busy working!” shouted Akira as he took off in search of other people to help him clear the hill and build the castle.
“Get back here!” shouted Mileena and thus a wild chase ensued as Akira ran through the log cabin village below trying to escape Mileena.
***
It took over a week to build the keep with the help of over a thousand warriors split between the mines, transporting the stones from one island to another using the large ships, and the rest building the keep.
Akira had to stay with the warriors that were building the keep so he could direct where to place the walls, stairs, doors, and other parts of the keep that had not been fully marked out before.
During that whole time, he had been shadowed by Mileena who had followed him everywhere he went along with his guards.
She had cheated and quickly caught up to him by using her new blink skill and latching onto him and would not let go forcing him to give up on trying to escape.
“Akira, your skill in building and planning things is truly amazing. Doing all of this with no blueprint! If you weren't the chief of the Darkmoon you could be a first-class constructor,” said Carl as he praised Akira.
The four Grand elders along with their guards had come to watch as the last stone was placed down at the very top of the Castle keep.
“Thanks... I think?” said Akira, not sure if that was a good thing.
“Of course Akira would be great at something simple like this!” said Mileena who stood next to Akira.
“I'm truly surprised, judging from your past drawing skills, I would have thought you would not be suited for something like this,” said Àaron who had seen the Ocean maps Akira had drawn.
The castle keep was square and several stories high with a flat roof and stone walls on top to allow archers and other soldiers to defend the keep from above.
There were no castle walls or towers around the keep but Akira was thinking of future plans to add them.
“With this, we can use one of the many rooms in the keep as an office for our meetings,” said Seoc.
“That is if it is okay with you Akira. We don't want to be getting ahead of ourselves and bother you since this will be your home,” said Carl.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“It's fine if you use any of the rooms on the first floor. My living quarters are on the third floor, so there should be nothing to worry about,” said Akira.
“You sure?”
“Yes, I think all the important city sections should have their own office on the first floor as well, and I will go even one step further. I hope that you will accept my invitation to live on the second floor. There are several large rooms that you can choose from and decorate how you see fit,” said Akira.
“Truly a good idea, it is best to keep the offices in one place,” said Seoc.
“I guess we should go pick the room for our office and choose which room we'll be staying in,” said Carl as he hurriedly walked into the keep passed the sturdy wooden doors.
“Hey, you crafty old codger! Don't think we'll let you have the best room!” said Àaron chasing after Carl.
Hegir and Seoc followed behind him along with their own guards leaving Akira and Mileena outside to look at the new sturdy Castle keep.
“So this is our new home?” asked Mileena.
“Yeah,” said Akira.
He did not correct her as she seemed to have already made up her mind that she would be staying with him and Azura on the third floor.
Chack, Varbu, and Delgar had all received their own smaller log cabin house that was ideal for a small family. The cabins had been built during the week using the logs from the old cabins that they had disassembled.
“I have to go inspect the hot spring bath. Don't worry I'll make sure to thoroughly check if it is safe and of a high enough standard for you to use,” said Mileena as she happily skipped into the keep.
“You just wanted to use that as an excuse,” muttered Akira after he was sure she was out of range.
Ding!
Castle Keep completed!
Please design a flag for the Castle keep.
This flag will represent your village and those who live in it.
Your flag can be brought to the battlefield and will give a 10% boost to the warrior's morale. If the flag is captured by enemy forces morale will decrease by 30%.
A blank rectangle flag appeared before Akira's eyes with different colors to choose from on the left and several pictures on the right.
He quickly grasped how to use the new tool and started to create the flag after scanning through all of the images and picking a color for the background.
What he ended up with was a flag that had a dark blue cloth with a white moon at the top and a howling wolf head underneath.
Satisfied with the final results he pressed the complete button.
Ding!
A new incomplete village has been established!
The city planning tool has been upgraded, the village overview status has been fully unlocked. City planning can now see the cost of resources to build something.
Please give your village a name to complete the process of village creation!
“Should I ask the Grand elders' opinion for something like this?”
Please stop wasting time and pick a name.
“Alright... I'll pick something... How about something related to this area... Kodria!”
Ding!
The village of Kodria, a 3rd tier village, has been founded!
Requirements met for 2nd tier village. Would you like to upgrade the status of the village?
“Yes?” said Akira, having no clue what was going on. He was just following along with the prompts from the system.
Starting scan!
A light appeared above the keep and grew bigger and brighter as it hovered in the air causing several of the warriors and civilians to start worriedly pointing and chatting about it.
When thirty seconds had passed the hovering light exploded outwards without a sound sending out waves of light passing through the Castle keep, the village below, the ships on the lake, and even the mine on the other island.
Ding!
Scan completed! Beginning to implement upgrades alongside first-time updates...
Another flash of light blinded Akira and everyone else that was outside.
Ding!
Completed update!
2nd tier Kodria information has been updated. New buildings have been added to the planning system.
Requirements are not met for 1st tier village.
When Akira opened his eyes again in front of him were two flags on each side of the keep's door and as he looked above he saw a flag at each corner of the keep's roof.
He looked down at the village and found that there was now a large flag with a white banner underneath that had 'Kodria' written on it in the central square.
Even the large ships had their flags changed to the village's new flag. He could also see from a distance that there was also a flag appearing at the stone quarry.
Several other messages started to pop up all at once as they tried to vie for his attention.
But Akira's attention was not on them as he was looking at a group of 100 warriors who had just exited the keep and were all wearing full plate armor.
They were being led by a man who appeared to be in his late 50's to early '60s.
Akira's guards immediately transformed and jumped in front of Akira, their weapons and shields ready to fight even though they were outnumbered nearly 10 to 1.
They let out several threatening growls at the approaching elderly man. Fluffball stood alert next to Akira watching the old man.
The elderly man ignored the hostile actions of the guards and came within a few steps of them before kneeling down in front of Akira.
The 100 guards behind them all did the same.
As he inspected the warriors he could see that each of the warriors was wearing a coat of arms over their armor, a dark blue cloth with a white moon, and the head of a howling wolf underneath.
“Sire, we have answered your call! We recognize you as the lord of this castle,” said the old man loudly.
Akira's guards looked at him as if asking him for an explanation. Several other warriors from the village were rushing up the hill to see what was going on.
Akira raised his hand and stopped everyone. He was just as clueless as them but he could not show that right now.
“Umm..so I called you...?” asked Akira.
“You did indeed sire, ” said the old man.
“Uh..who are you?”
“I am Samuel. The village adviser that you have hired,” said Samuel, still bowing his head to Akira.
As Akira looked at the old man, information appeared above his head: Werewolf Samuel, City adviser.
“And they are?” asked Akira.
Samuel looked to see who Akira was pointing at.
“They are your loyal castle guards! There is no need to worry about their loyalty as they like me are one with the keep!” said Samuel.
“One with the... wha...?”
“Sorry, you can stand,” said Akira after a minute trying to digest everything.
Samuel slowly stood up and brushed off the wet snow from his legs.
“Sire, there is no time to be dilly-dallying outside. There are over a hundred things that require your attention. If you do not take care of them now it will cause problems for the village and even more, work will be piled up for you to take care of.
Seeing as you are quite young I am sure you have many questions, but you'll have to wait until we are finished with sorting out the village then I can answer any questions you have. Please follow me to your office.”
“My office? Wait, what about them?” asked Akira pointing at the castle guards that were still kneeling.
“Just give them an order and they will fulfill it to the best of their ability. Ah, just a warning, but they can not leave the village, so using them to do something outside is impossible,” said Samuel.
“Um... please diligently guard the castle for now,” said Akira.
The guards all stood and smartly saluted Akira letting out a loud howl from inside their helmets.
They parted ways making a clear path to the door of the castle to allow Akira and Samuel to pass.
When Akira's personal guards tried to follow they were blocked by the castle guards.
“Move aside you brainless mutt,” said Dolph as he tried to push past one of the guards.
Seeing Akira's troubled face Samuel spoke up, “You need to let them know who is allowed to enter the keep.”
“Ah, so it was something like that?” said Akira.