While chewing the miner’s words, Arthur kept some hopes up in his heart. Pleasant surprise could mean practically anything. “So what’s the pleasant surprise?”
“We found the source of Foyba goo. The bad news is that it is disgusting.” The miner gave a wry smile while describing the process of finding it. When the miners searched the cave the ratmen occupied before, they found a small pond in which a nest of leeches left the goo in moderate amounts. While Arthur listened to the vivid description of small, yellow leeches shedding the goo in the surroundings in the mornings, he felt a bit nauseated.
“So you're telling me that those leeches actually leave the pond, shed their skin and it then changes the color and becomes the goo? Goddamn that is nasty.” With a slight shiver, he tried to imagine a slippery leech slithering on the ground and leaving a pile of goo behind.
The miner nodded and told the second part of the good news, which was the iron they found. Approximately 70- 80 units of iron were currently being delivered by hand, but with the completion of the heavy duty cart the process would be a bit less painful. It seemed to Arthur that the iron production had caught up to the point where Arthur could build the mage tower. With the previous decision to integrate the hunters into the defense force, the military buildings weighed heavily on Arthur’s mind. There was still a burning need for the other military structures for a balanced distribution, but he was quite certain about the utility value of the mage tower.
Even as he was thinking these things, he somewhat absentmindedly still listened to the narration of the miner about the daily operations to the end before nodding and bidding the miner goodbyes.
The news about the source of Foyba goo was a pleasant surprise to Arthur. The utility value was great as an adhesive and with a stable source of the goo, a few ideas came to his mind on how to utilize it. As he had seen before during the rescue operation, it could be used to restrain a grown man easily. The strategic value was not limited only in day to day life, but even in military operations it could become an extremely valuable asset.
While walking mindlessly along the streets, Arthur pulled up the construction options and saw the requirements for building the mage tower being fulfilled. Clenching his fist tight into a ball, he muttered ‘Finally’ and excitedly ran past the gate of summoning to an empty space near it.
Apprentice mage tower (Tier 1)
Requirements 300 Stone ✔
500 Wood ✔
50 Metal (Durability varies on metal used.) ✔
“Construct mage tower.”
The shadow of a majestic and archaic tower floated in his vision, and he resolutely placed the mage tower in the northern side from the gate of summoning. ‘It would be a waste to not use this as an opportunity to have it act as a vantage point for the village.’
The shadow of the tower seemed to stretch as high as ten meters from the ground and Arthur kept hopes in his heart that with time, it would reach the skies. The ground where the tower was placed started to shift and rumble violently. The nearby pedestrians murmured in wonder with quiet voices filled with astonishment. In mere moments the foundation for the tower had been laid with a veritable mountain of resources and building blocks piled next to it.
“Arthur! Didn’t you promise to let me take care of the new structures?” Charlotte jogged from behind the gate of summoning at a moderate pace while huffing. When she was discussing the layout of the village with a promising newcomer, she felt the ground rumble and immediately ran towards the epicenter.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Oh, Charlotte. I’m happy to see you too.” Arthur smiled and waved at her.
Charlotte looked at the beaming Arthur with a somewhat bitter smile. She had planned to construct a district dedicated for processing goods in the area that was now occupied by a massive construction yard. “Couldn’t you have talked with me about this beforehand? I had plans for this location…”
Hearing the discontent in her voice, Arthur inferred a few things, but kept them in his heart. Only after a few seconds he sighed and gave her a reply. “It's a mage tower and it’s absolutely necessary for our development.” With a slight pause, he looked around the people who were coming to find out what Arthur was up to and he continued with a louder voice. “If I am correct, the mage tower will make our lives easier and safer, so the sooner it is constructed, the better.”
Some of the villagers were curious and expectant and offered their help immediately while some sneakily pretended to be busy and went about their life. Arthur saw this and felt a bit sad. The cohesive and unconditional help that Arthur was used to was starting to vane with the increase of population and time. When he heard about the returning memories, he was absolutely sure that this would happen sooner or later, but he hoped that the good and easy times would last as long as possible.
Of course he couldn’t expect the people to work willingly without any tangible benefits to themselves. Currently the only hard currency in circulation was food, furs and material goods so it made Arthur’s position a little awkward. Arthur made up his mind to order some skilled workers to replicate the heavy duty cart according to the blueprint the system acknowledged and get more iron and solve this problem.
It seemed that iron was the lifeblood of the village currently as it was the only suitable material that he could implement a viable system of currency. Making a special mold for iron coins and establishing the iron coins as an official currency of Stormhold would become the basis for trade. Only when the village had a proper currency instead of bartering, there would be a basis for salary and many other policies.
Arthur got a small headache as he thought about the amount of problems ahead that needed solving, but for now, he had to placate the frustrated blonde in front of him. “Will you help me gather volunteers to build the mage tower around the town? I know that you might be a little upset, but this thing is absolutely necessary to the growth of the village.”
“Fine. I’ll go look for idle people around the town, but please next time can you give me a heads up?” Stomping the ground with her feet lightly, Charlotte pouted and started to gather volunteers similar to a town crier announcing the news in the past.
Arthur smiled jovially while looking at the back of the young, ambitious woman before saying “Yep, yep yep. I’ll try to remember next time.” After instructing the volunteers to proceed with the construction of the tower and reminding them to be careful, Arthur left to gather more workers. When he was some distance from the gate of summoning, the gentle smile got wiped off from his face and started to worry. ‘I hope I'm thinking too much. The mage tower and strengthening has to be built as soon as possible.’
“I wonder how Mei is doing with the beroxes… If we could get one of those things to pull the cart, it would be a massive help for everyone…” Looking at the blue yonder in the horizon, Arthur saw cirrus clouds high in the sky moving slowly towards Stormhold and thought. ‘It seems that a cold front is approaching…’ While looking at the high level clouds, Arthur saw something briefly coming out of the clouds. From what he could tell, it was bright, multicolored and very large. The clouds that were left behind seemed to dissipate in its wake and with even his conservative estimates, the wingspan of that thing was at least some tens of meters.
His pupils widened and his breathing quickened as he realized that if his little village attracted the attention of a hostile creature of that size, they would not even have a chance to survive. The little village politics that he had been worrying previously seemed now so petty and insignificant when faced with the reality that at any time there might be a chance for existential threat to him and his village.
With a slight tremble, he gave a silent prayer to the RNG gods that had been good to him back on Earth and started to search for people who might know where Mei was for an update on beroxes.