Tec Mage Chapter Forty Nine: Love, Respect And Gold

Two weeks had passed since the king of Ledern had escaped and the new rulers had taken their place as ruler of the city.

Within those two weeks, a lot of things happened. Lords were chosen from the player and some of the old lords that had helped the invading army were granted their old titles and land.

Tax had gone up by 15%, and mass changes happened with the army and defences of the city.

With a new city under the control of players, a new influx of players began their journey at Ledern kingdom. Even some higher level players come from across the lands to see what benefits they could revive. 

The once empty streets were now as busy as ever. More money poured into the kingdom.

The army was being trained and more people were being recruited.

New players started their adventure at Ledern kingdom, and some of those chose the new race that had been unlocked.

The greatest change was with the police force.

The police force had a new surge of wealth pumped in to it. It wasn't the rulers who did this but Baron Merek.

The land he had received from the ex king allowed him to pump massive amounts of gold in to the police force. Old buildings were repaired and more people were trained. Soon the police force was able to cover the whole of the city.

As one of the benefits of being promoted to Baron, Merek was given farm land and a chunk of the south slums.

Merek's land was transformed into farming land, with the help of the four war golems, the land transformed quickly. Rent was collected from the slums and then pumped back into the police force.

Baron Merek also had a massive mansion. In his own words "this is too much for me" and so it was turned in to barracks and headquarters of the police force.

The many criminals in the city soon went into hiding. They weren't willing to chance a crime when there was a chance that they would be chased by golems and a Baron.

The criminal aspect of the city went in to a all time low. People felt safe, and this was all due to Baron Merek. The people knew of Baron Merek's rise to noble hood. At first they felt proud and a bit of jealousy but now that they had seen what he had done with his new found power and wealth, they all felt respect.

The police force wasn't the only thing that changed. The land that was given to the owners of the four shops were very substantial. Mines and dungeons were given to Atlas, Dracken, Mary and the gnolls but the biggest piece of land was the west slums. The whole of the west side of the slums were given to Atlas and his crew.

The property portfolio of Atlas and his crew consisted of The Four Jacks shop, A restaurant, a grocery, the giant bunker, the west slums, mines and dungeons.

The wealth of Atlas party had increased incredibly. With so much land, Atlas went straight to work.

The bunker was transformed in to many buildings. A bath house took one quarter of the bunkers space, while half of the bunker's space was turned in to a school. The last quarter of the land that was turned in to a warehouse.

The school was mostly for the Tutors guild. individual tutors were expensive, and so a school was built. This allowed the tutors to bring down their prices. Any person who wanted to learn would only have to pay a small amount of gold. With many players entering Royal Road to study in this school, the tutors guild had a massive and continuous supply of cash coming in. Of course Atlas collected rent.

The players who had cram school, would come here every day. It just made sense to them. A little bit of cash and they were able to study for six hours, every game day. 

All of the work was done by the gnolls and golems. With the gnolls expertise in crafting and the massive strength of the golems, all of the work proceed with amazing speed.

When the Four Jacks Shop was built, it had taken about a week. This was because Atlas and the gnolls did most of the work. everything from heavy lifting to carpentry, but now the gnolls were even better at crafting. While they worked with construction, the golems did all of the time consuming jobs, like lifting and carrying.

With the power of the golems and the skill of the gnolls, Atlas started to improve the slums. Just like the flats above the four jacks shop, the same design was used.

When the first building of flats were made, the surrounding slums people moved in. The rent was the same but with the building being three storeys high, a lot more people could live in a smaller area.

With more people vacating their old homes to live in the new advanced homes, that had heating, running water and ovens, more land was freed up to make more flats.

The cost of the buildings were small. The stones had already been mined by the gnolls and the expertise was handled by the gnolls as well.

It wasn't just the building that were having a massive upgrade, the streets were being renovated.

The muddy roads were dug up and replaced with giant flat stones. Every so often a tall metal moonstone lamp was placed to keep the streets in the light.

It was easy to see which parts belong to Atlas and his crew. The road leading to each property was smooth and well lit. 

The rebuild brought a lot of attention from the players. It wasn't just the new buildings that grabbed the attentions of the players and NPC but the fact that the ex king had mentioned the Four Jacks shop.

The Four Jacks soon became the place to buy anything and everything. Due to the three year tax relief that the ex king had bestowed on the shop, the prices stayed the same as before the 15% increase in tax.

It got so busy that new wooden market stalls were made and placed out side, so multiple lines could buy what they needed. An armour line, weapons line, potions line, repair line. Everyday new stock replaced the empty space. It went so fast that at closing time the shop looked like it had been striped clean.

Thankfully the work the gnolls did would restocked the shop and kept the gold coming in.

Changes in the gnoll underground village also was vast. Each gnoll had their own workshop that doubled as their home. Each gnoll had worked on their one and only crafting skill and with power tools that sped up work, each gnoll was now a expert in their field.

For instance, the gem polisher gnoll had a power tool that moved in a circle, like a wheel. With interchangeable cloth and sand paper being able to fix on the wheel. With this tool a job that would take an hour could be done in 5 minutes.

The skill didn't just go with polishing gems but was able to use it on wood, stones, armour and weapons. With all these different resources to polish, the gnoll's skill climbed like mad.

Being an expect in one field was almost useless. Being able to repair a sword but not make one wouldn't be enough to start a shop but it wasn't just one gnoll working on a item.

When a gem was cut, bleached, coloured, polished and finished with, it would be left out side awaiting a different gnoll to use it in a new work, like being placed in a sword hilt.

The work on items extended to everything in the gnoll's village. Wooden beams that held the buildings up, were carved into delicate pattens, varnished to a deep brown and then polished to a mirror shine. Everything in the village had been work on.

When Atlas first saw the difference, he question if it was the gnoll village. The village was completely different, everything from a tiny storage hut to the mighty Colosseum looked different.

Beast, the alpha and leader of the crafting gnolls met with Atlas

In Beast mouth was a pipe but as soon as he saw Atlas, he removed it. Meeting with Atlas, Beast grabbed him in a bear hug.

The mission that Beast had given Atlas was to do as much as he could for his clan. Now his clan was extremely wealthy and was excepted by the country. They would no longer be hunted like monsters and could hold positions of power

More gnolls spotted Atlas being bear hugged by beast and wondered over.

Each gnoll patted and hugged Atlas, soon a hug circle of gnolls were surrounding Atlas.

Beast put Atlas down after the bear hug and patted Atlas on his back with the rest of the gnolls.

"I don't know how you made the king give us citizenship but from all of the crafting gnolls, thank you" said beast

All the gnolls surrounding Atlas lifted their heads and started to howl.

The howl was mournful and deep but with happy tones in it. The gnolls were happy and content.

Hope for a better day, a future, that wasn't full of death and fighting, a belonging that couldn't be taken away. These were the things that the gnoll pack wanted the most. Like all living sentient creatures, all they wanted was peace.

Atlas's face burned red, he wasn't familiar with this kind of attention. As he stood there while beast patted his back, Atlas felt a strange mixture of happiness and embarrassment.  

The howl was long but when it ended Atlas was let go by Beast.

"What can we reward you with. All i can offer you is everything we are" said Beast.

Around Atlas, many gnolls nodded in agreement. They would do anything Atlas said, all he had to do was ask.

What could Atlas ask for. His needs didn't extend in to the game world. The game world was fun and exciting, with plenty of things to do and many adventures to go on, but ultimately what Atlas needed was to study and get the knowledge he needed to pass his exams.

"There's isn't really anything i need. I helped because you wanted it" even though Atlas had helped the gnolls because it was part of a quest to free someone, he didn't regret it and was happy that his apprentices could have such a wonderful support as the gnolls. After all, Atlas wouldn't be around forever.

With the gnolls, Dracken, Mary, Forge and the many people that had been picked up on Atlas adventures, he was happy that they didn't really need him any more.

"That won't do" said Beast.

At this point Beast was tugging on the beginning clothes that Atlas was wearing.

"Such cheap clothes for our benefactor to be wearing is wrong" Beast clapped his hands to grab everyone's attention.

Raising his voice, Beast called out to all the other gnolls.

"What is our clan" asked Beast.

A single gnoll voice called out "Crafting gnolls"

"Correct, who is our benefactor" asked Beast.

This time all the gnolls called out "Alpha Atlas"

"Yes, what shall we make for him" asked Beast.

This time there wasn't a single word spoken. What could they make that would be equal to the time and effort that Atlas put in to making the crafting gnolls what they were today.

Then a small voice said quietly like what he was about to say could be wrong "anything he wants?"

"Great answer, lets get to work" said beast.

With Beast in charge, work started on Atlas reward.

It wasn't a secret what the crafting gnolls was making. The very first thing that was made was a mannequin that was the very same shape and size of Atlas.

This mannequin was placed in the middle of the underground crafting gnolls village. Soon, different materials were slung over the mannequin.

The gnolls were going to make Atlas a set of equipment. While material was used on the mannequin, it was soon removed and worked on by other gnolls.

Black leather from the giant lizards found near the core of heaven was treated, cut, shaped and worked on by many gnolls. 

After many gnolls had worked hard the first piece of Atlas equipment tuned up on the mannequin.

It looked like black leather armour but was in fact a double layer armour that held tightly packed springs in between the layers. This was an upgrade of Atlas coiled spring suit.

When Atlas made his spring suit, it was only a piece of cloth was spring draped over it. When Atlas wanted more resistance from the suit, he would have to individually tighten each spring.

The new upgraded spring suit had only one place that needed to be tighten. Where the heart was a small circle like mechanism was placed. When ever Atlas needed to decrease or increase the resistance of the spring suit, all he had to do was turn the circle.

After a while boots turned up followed by gloves. Again, they were removed and worked on by other skilful gnolls.

Even Princess the rainbow spider joined in with the creation of Atlas gear. unlike the rest of the gnolls her skills were poor and so, she only donated her special silk to the gear.

Many spools of silk was made by Princess and then offered to the gnolls to treat and make something form it.

The silk from Princess was a high class ingredient, this was because of Princess was able to make a copy of a single stat from her. Anything from strength to agility could be copied in to the spools of silk.

The gnolls treated the silk and put it in to a loom. When a silk shirt was made it was placed on the mannequin but was almost immediately removed so a new gnoll could sow a patten of a spider web in to the cloth.

Many different pieces of gear was being made at the same time. Some pieces were removed and never saw the mannequin again. When a flawed piece was made it would be placed in the four jacks shop and sold. Only the best would be good enough for Atlas.

It wasn't just the gnolls and Princess who was making the gear, Atlas also had some ideas.

With his power over the elements, Atlas made a rough shape of a spiders body out of obsidian. The basic obsidian spider was then handed over to the gnolls to work. Soon the obsidian spider was returned, but now it was more defined and looked like a real spider. Atlas placed a golem core in the black obsidian spider.

The black obsidian spider golem shook as it came into existence.

While the gnolls and Atlas was working, a group of mana mouses ran up to Atlas with a package. The package was a new magus hat, especially made by Alison. She was Atlas master and had strange magic that Atlas didn't have. 

A small note mention that Alison had noticed that Atlas hat was gone and a new replacement was made for him.

Atlas didn't wonder how she knew, she was after all a magus. A class that could learn any magic, she most likely had a spell that was watching him or the gnolls.

The magus hat was taken away and worked on as well. The magus hat was a piece of gear that could be freely upgraded with out problems.

The whole village worked hard on Atlas gear, even the building of flats were put on hold.

The next day, A pair of black boots was placed on the mannequin. Atlas identified them.

Incomplete 

Part of an incomplete set of gear

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This armour is part of a set that hadn't been made yet. Until the complete set has been complete, all the information will be "incomplete"

It was like when a sculptor started to make a statue but took a brake. Only a complete statue would give buffs and info when identified. Just like the set gear that was being made, only when the set was complete would the armour show it's stats.

With that Atlas put his own touch on the boots. The bottom of the black boots had a gem in them. The gnolls had place gust spell gems in the bottom of the boots. 

The gust in his boots would allow for him to travel fast in water. Atlas had invented jet boots so he could fly but they didn't work well and so they were used in water where his weight was lighter and the boots could work.

On the tip of the black boots Atlas fixed obsidian in to a sharp small spike. With magic he could make the spike longer or completely flat, that was the strength of Atlas magic, flexibility.

The next piece of gear was the gloves. Black gloves made from the black giant lizards skin. Again Atlas modified these gloves. Just like his Alchemy gloves, Atlas placed the the springs and enchanted test tubes on the left glove, all of it was fixed into place using obsidian, instead of metal. On the right glove, plates of obsidian were placed on the gloves, on the back hand of the gloves, spikes of hollow obsidian were fixed into place.

The Alchemy gloves that were destroyed by the flaming god slime had been reborn. Instead of metal, obsidian took their place. The blackness of the leather and the purple blackness of the obsidian went well together.

At the end of the day, most of the pieces for Atlas gear turned up on the mannequin. 

What surprised Atlas was that the gnolls hadn't just worked on the gear that Atlas would be wearing but also had modified Atlas Magnificent Flying Machine.

It was no longer made from wood but obsidian. It still had the same design but almost every bit was made from obsidian. It was beautify caved and swirls of clouds pattens covered the flying machine.

The whole thing was too big to carry around, until Atlas was shown that the flying machine could be folded up. The short wings, noise and tail could be folded up around the soft cockpit chair.

Now it looked like a giant herb basket, that could be carried on the back. The folded flying machine had now taken the place of Atlas backpacks.

The final piece was placed on the mannequin, the hat that Alison had made from cloth had been transformed in to a black giant lizard leather hat, a small ribbon of tattered green was sown on to the bridge of the hat. The green ribbon was part of a master level alchemy robe. The ribbon wouldn't give too many stats to the hat but it was a respectful nod to the master Enchanter and Alchemist called Dr Alberich.

Atlas looked at the mannequin that held the complete set of Atlas gear. The boots had already been modified by Atlas, as well as the gloves. Every piece had been made with the giant lizards leather that Atlas had brought back with him from heavens core. Atlas modified the rest of the gear using obsidian.

In the hat a thin layer of obsidian was placed in side of the brim of the hat. The trousers had spiked obsidian knee caps.

The silk white shirt, spring suit and black button vest was left alone. The open chest robe was modified with obsidian plate inside of the robe and on the right side of the shoulder was a obsidian shoulder pad but on the left was a metal silver wolf head.

The metal silver wolf head was in fact the living metal called Harken. In the jaws Atlas placed a perfect moonstone. With the jaws closed, the light wouldn't escape but with a thought, the jaws would open to revel a concentrated beam of blinding light.

On the back of the robe, the obsidian spider was placed. The long legs wrapped around the robe and would protect the ribs. The black obsidian spider golem would become Atlas assistant. Long reaching legs could stab out if Atlas was in trouble or just hold something Atlas was working on. The old saying "many hands make light work" was what inspired Atlas to make the golem spider.

It was complete. Atlas and the gnolls had made a set of gear by concentrating on Atlas skills and inventions he had made in the past.

All the gnolls surrounded Atlas waiting for him to put it on.

Atlas reached out to the set and identified it.

Atlas Amour Set Of Growth

A set of armour made for Atlas. With the help of a village of expert crafters and advance materials, this set of armour is greater that the sum of it's parts.

It's imposable to say what lead to a growth item being made. It could be the love from the crafters to try their best, or the fact that many unique skills and material were used, but one thing that can be said is that this armour is only for the player known as Atlas

A thank you gift from the crafting gnolls.

Special effects.

Can't be dropped on death.

Only Atlas may wear it.

A growth item

Level 1 

For the best results, the user should start from level one and level up with Atlas Armour Set Of Growth. When the set of amour levels up, new and more powerful bonuses will be added. Depending on what the user does, the armour set of growth can change.

A growth item depended on what the user did, to grow. There were soul weapons that held the power of the elements and would increase in elemental power when used and gained experience.

These weapons used the power of a defeated monsters soul to increase in power. Atlas gear had been made from the same clan and had the clans feeling in it.

Many artisans working for one suit of armour, pouring their feelings into their work and creating something greater than the sum of their parts was a different way to create a growth item.

When Atlas wore the gear it fit like a glove. Like a second skin Atlas could move easily with out resistant.

"Not bad"

"Looks good"

Many of the surrounding gnolls mentioned Atlas appearance. With a complete set of armour made from the same material and the same clan, Atlas looked like a high class NPC.

Players would mix and match their gear to get the best results. This gave the appearance of a hobo, but Atlas, with his new set, looked like he was a native of Royal Road.

Atlas felt like a king with his new gear on, with so much attention directed at him, he started to blush.

It would be safe to say that only kings would be granted this much attention just for wearing some clothes.

Atlas quickly made his excuses and left the surrounding gnolls. He had a lump in his throat and felt like if he said anything it would come out cracked and broken.

It was odd that while Atlas could fight an army with just the smallest amount of jitters, this present had made him more nervous than the whole blockade and attacking army ever did.

The gnolls spotted Atlas nervousness and went on with their daily choirs. They didn't need a thank you for the gear that they had created for Atlas. They lived with gratitude in their hearts for what Atlas had done for them. Not one of the gnolls would deny Atlas requests. This was the power of friendship that had been earned though sacrifice and hard work.

Atlas was sitting on the Colosseum wall and looking out, he was watching the gnolls capture the blind fish men for food. At this point, Atlas was confused.

What he had felt just a moment ago was real, he felt happy and embarrassed that so many people loved him and respected him, but he also knew that none of this was real. The gnolls were just computer program's and didn't exist in real life.

Was he wasting his time with the gnolls and his apprentices, if ultimately they were just a computer program. It confused Atlas to no end, because he felt real emotions. Was it wrong to feel happy that a program had excepted him, was it wrong to say that "i respect a character" that doesn't exist.

Royal Road had opened a new way of thinking.

This was to much for Atlas, he had no past experience that could help him.

The program was too real. Gnoll children passed by while eating treats. Their laughter and actions were perfect. Even when a gnoll child drooped their treat on the floor and quickly looked side to side to make sure no one had seen and then quickly picking it up again and eating it. Their reaction was one that Atlas had seen in real life.

The game felt like a second life. It wasn't just Atlas who thought this. With the time difference, people were more happy than they had been in years. They would go to work and return satisfied that they could spend a whole day in game.

Peoples happiness soared as they were no longer a slave to work.

The confliction in Atlas would only be solved with time. At this point of time, Atlas decided to take it one step at a time. As long as he reminded him self that this was a game, then he could keep his emotions in control.

Atlas decided to focus in what he had first came to do, education.

With a new player controlled city, a massive increase of new players started in the Ledern kingdom. This boasted many factors in the city, and one of those was the new school that had been built.

This school was rented to the tutors guild where they in turn could charge less cash to individuals but at the same time could teach many more people at the same time. Atlas spent most of his time here.

The gnolls didn't have to be looked after any more, in fact it was the opposite. The gnolls looked after Atlas interests. They would build more and create more equipment to be sold in the four jacks shop.

Atlas apprentices were the same. Each one had their own plans that they could attentively do them selfs.

Dracken had his information network, Mary had her revenge and blacksmithing. Atlas didn't need to take care of them any more.

The only thing that Atlas had to worry about was the golems. Having a big force that could be used as a army, made the players who now ran the city, jumpy.

Atlas fixed this problem by starting a new business.

"THE GOLEM EXCHANGE"

The bunker had been sliced up and different places built in it's place. One such place was the golem exchange.

It was just a warehouse were the golems were stored when they weren't being used. This was a place were players could go and hire golems to follow them on adventures.

The golems wouldn't fight but instead picked up all the loot and carried everything. The added benefit was that if any player died and drooped a piece of their gear, then the golems would pick it up and store it.               

The golem exchange became very busy. There was hardly ever a golem being stored in the warehouse. Having a massive golem following you around stopped even the most hardy of bandits and player killers from attacking.

Merchants that invested in a golem was sure to have their stock make it's destination, even if they them self were killed.

The price in hiring the golem was more than NPC could afford but not a lot to what players could afford. This was to stop the golems from taking jobs from porters and goffers, who only charged a couple of silver.

It wasn't all smooth sailing. Some people wanted to find out how the golems ticked. A bunch of mage's hired a golem just for this reason.

Golem did what ever they were told, and so when the mage's strapped down the golem to a table, it didn't even resist.

Only when the mages started their probing in to the golem did the golem start to resist.

The chains the mages used were top quality and thicker than a tree but even with these the golem didn't stop trying to free its self.

Finally, when the golem knew it couldn't free it self, it opened it's mouth. Out jumped a little mana mouse. With great speed the little mana mouse disappeared before any of the mages could notice.

Trying to dismantle a struggling golem was hard work. The mages didn't want to get too close to it, as the last mage that went close to the golem had his arm crushed by the golem.

When the mages built up the courage to start their experiments, a thumping sound could be heard. It started off low but soon filled the room.

Before any of the mages could ask "what was that", the walls blasted apart and in came four golems. With out hesitation the golems freed the captured golem and stood to one side.

From the hole in the wall a person walked though the dust, this person was just an employee of the golem exchange.

Standing with five golems by his side the employee felt confidant. Unravelling a scroll, the employee cleared his throat.

"urm.. Due to tampering of the golem exchange's golems, you have broken the agreement with us. Your deposit has been forfeited and you will be band for life from the golem exchange"

With that said, the employee left though the same hole he came from. Behind him the golems followed.

One mage was about to say some thing about the hole the golems had made but a second mage stopped him

"Are you crazy, we're in a cellar surrounded by five thick walls, do you think that we would stand a chance against golems in close combat"

The mages that had tried to dismantle the golem would just have to keep quite about it.

There was a couple of other events like the one's with the mage but soon none wanted a chance encounter with the golems. The golems were great help and passive but if you broke your agreement with the golem exchange, many powerful golems would walk over fire and hell to reach you.

With the added business, more gold rolled in to Atlas treasury.

Money poured in when the golems were hired, then when the players had finished their adventure, they would go and have their items repaired and sell their loot, and seeing as Atlas four jacks shop gave the best price, this was the shop to go to. After that they would go to Atlas restaurant or take a bath from the bath house. Basically most of the gold adventure's made would end up in Atlas treasury.

It wasn't just the gold but also experience. The golems stole a small part of the experience from the adventures and that was transferred to Atlas.

With so many golem out adventuring, absorbing experience and transferring it, Atlas experience bar never seemed to stay still.

Every time Atlas levelled up, he would make a new golem core and with a new golem, meant more gold and more experience.

Atlas and his group was set for gold, they were rich.    

End Of Chapter Forty Nine