I wiped the sweat from my face as I leaned against the wall. I checked my ring for the gold ore I mined before smiling. I still wasn’t sure how tons of ore translated to gold bars, but what I did know was the more, the better. Especially since my mine was 99% pure. The only issue was that we had pretty much nothing to spend it on. We also lacked a safe place to store the gold. Thankfully, no one had tried to steal from me or us. I still wasn’t quite sure how that part worked. Officially, this was an absolute monarchy, something I realized a few days ago when a woman nearly stumbled over herself to apologize for her daughter spilling some seeds all over the ground. Thankfully, Amara could help me clear up the situation. I placed the pick axe down and pulled up my status screen.
Name:Darterrius Solomon Maximilian
Level:11,30% Age:26 Species: Altazian Alignment: Neutral Good(0/1) Languages: All Renown: Curiosity(2500) Characteristics Health:254 Magic:381
Regen/min 18
Stamina:220
Regen/min 10
Attributes Agility:10 Charisma:26 Endurance: 20 Intelligence:30 Luck:20 Perception: 11 Strength:15 Vitality:20 Wisdom:30 Skills
(Level, Experience, Affinity) Crafting Skills Cooking: 4,0%,92% Mining: 12,30%, 85%
Magic Skills Dual Casting: 12,0%,100% Lumos:15,50%,100% Pyro:9,30%,100%
Spira: 8,45%,100%
Martial Skills
Riding: 6,20%,70 Tracking: 1,20%,70 Utility Skills Governance: 5, 55% 100%
Statecraft: 1,10%,80% Abilities Arcanum Infinitum: You always have 100% affinity with every magic. You are immune to the adverse effects of casting magic. You can teach any magic that you know.
Eidetic Memory: You have an enhanced memory. The effectiveness of this ability increases with the user's Intelligence attribute.
Erudite Mind: Your skills Progress 30% faster.
Soul Bond: Represents the connection between you and your soul familiars
True Speak: The user can speak and understand any language. Emblems Mark of the Suzerain Resistances 5% Emotional 5% Mental 25% Radiant
25% Umbra
The last twenty-one days had been pretty good. I reached for my connection to Sanaa and Tenebris. When I felt our minds connect, I spoke. “Where are you two?”
Tenebris was the first to respond. His mental voice filled a predatory air that was becoming more comfortable. “Hunting Master. There are more of the creatures you call ‘bugs’.”
I shuddered at that. “Come back for now. Both of you, I have to get the council together and I would like for you to join me.”
“Do we have to see the loud one again, Master?” The slight irritation in her otherwise majestic tone made me chuckle.
“We do. It won’t be that bad this time, I promise. We have some business to tend to. After that you we can do a bit of hunting together.”
I wasn’t sure how she managed to communicate silence through our bond. It wasn’t just not answering. I could tell that she had heard me and was choosing to not answer. After a long moment of silence, she replied. “Of course Master.”
With that taken care of, I made my way out of the mine and to the banks of the lake. I dipped my face into the warm water for a few seconds. It was close to a hot tub. It was also the only water source we had at the moment, which was a bit concerning. Once I was ready, I made my way back into the town proper. It took nearly a day for Amara and me to organize the town. When we first started, we were a collection of very large tents and tarps. Even after having everyone with the Construction skill working eight-hour days, we had only managed a handful of tenement buildings.
I smiled and waved as I made my way to the center of the town. Over the last few weeks, the citizens have become a bit closer together. I wouldn’t call everyone a happy family, but we were working together. I reached the command tent just as Tenebris and Sanaa arched through the air above me. I held out both arms and, like a trained falcon and falconer pair; they flew down, grabbed hold of my wrists, and crawled up my arms. Both dragons wrapped their tails around my neck. I caught a handful of people watching as they settled in.
“Looks like you two are gaining some fans.” I laughed as I entered the tent. Amara was already waiting alongside side two of the members of the unofficial council. One was a male procidean named Todii, who had lost one of his tusks. He had the Smith Job, which was a kind of class, apparently. The second one was a human with tan skin. He had a curved blade on his hip and bronze armor.
“Hello Tamu,” I smiled at him before taking my seat at the head of the wooden table. It was a far cry from the Round Table of King Arthur, but it had a certain feeling to it. It was simple and so were we. Once I was settled in, Tamu and Todii took their seats.
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“My lord, now that we have a moment before the others arrive, do you mind if we go over a few things?” Amara asked while showing me her tablet. The image of the town, or rather what the town could look like, was displayed. When I nodded for her to continue, she zoomed out on the image displaying the entire town.
“Our current plan seems to be to divide the town into five sections. With the innermost section being at the base of the wall with your seal. If we are going to place the governmental buildings there, we should consider building an inner wall.” I opened my mouth to reply, but Amara continued. “I know you aren’t thrilled at the idea, but if I am understanding your plans, the seat of your power and every other building or item of importance will be there. It would be foolish of us not to add additional security.
In truth, the argument made a lot of sense. The wall could even act as a last bastion that the people could hide behind. There was just something about a wall that seemed stupid. I mean, I knew dragons existed. My familiars were proof of that, which meant there should be aerial creatures and even people who rode them into battle. Wouldn’t I just be putting everyone inside a bowl with only one way out if I built the wall? I mentally debated it for several seconds before giving my answer.
“Have the builders draw up a plan for the wall. I want to know how much stone it would take, as well as the potential durability values.” She nodded and made a note on her tablet.
“I will see to it at once.” The builders also believe they will have the next tenement house up before the day is over. I nodded before pulling up the most irritating quest to date.
You have been offered the Quest: Homes for the Homeless
Your people need places to lay their heads. Because of the amount of citizens you have added you have been given a grace period by your people. Their patience will not last forever.
Success Conditions:
Build enough housing for each of your citizens. The housing must be of at least Acceptable comfort.
Housing Available: 18/50
Reward: Unknown
You Have Already Accepted This Quest.
Each Tenement could fit 60 people if I was aiming for an Average. I could finish it in about three more weeks. Since I was aiming for the minimum amount of people per building, I would need to build another 52 or 51 counting the Tenement that would finish today. That would take around nine weeks. I wasn’t sure if the quest would automatically end once we reached 35 or if I could choose to continue it beyond that. Either way, it didn’t really matter.
“We smiths have finished putting together the forge M’lord” Todii’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.
“You could do that without the builders working with you?” I asked. If some buildings could be built without them, we could start making progress on things besides housing.
“Aye, not quite M’lord, we could bribe a few of 'em to help us out and filled in the rest of the workers with the uh ‘light drones’ you can summon.”
“Oh, alright, that’s fine. Is the forge up and running? Do you need anything before you can start smelting down larger amounts of gold ore?”
“Yes, M’lord. We can start smelting immediately. We are gonna need some other ores soon. We can’t make anything useful out of gold.”
I nodded. “I am going to go down and clear out the next floor of the mine soon. For now, focus on smelting the gold. We are going to have to rely on the tools and ore we brought from Afrium.” What I was going to say next was interrupted as the tent flap opened up and three more people entered.
The three people who entered were an Elf, a Human, and a Gnuvin. The elf was a broad-shouldered man who carried a hammer on his hip. He did not have a war hammer or anything fit for combat, though I was pretty sure he could do some serious damage if he wanted. The elf was the town’s official engineer. His name is Tariku, and he was a hard worker, but he was also as stubborn as an ox. The human was next and had a slight belly. Not quite fat, but not skinny either. He had a bundle of scrolls under his arm that he promptly dropped onto the table. I haven’t had the time to spend with him, but from what Amara has mentioned, he has been very useful in organizing her notes and calculating information. His name is Amon. Lastly, was the Gnuvin. I still wasn’t sure if the Gnuvin had genders, but they looked like a woman to me. They were slightly taller than Amon. Their body was made up entirely of vines and spike plants. She looked a bit like a humanoid cactus.
Apparently, she could control the spines to not hurt anyone, though I wasn’t in a hurry to test that. Their name was Osenda. Once each of them took their seat, I began. “Hello everyone, glad that you could join me. First, I would like to say good job. I have spent most of the last four weeks in the mines. Which meant that I left you all to deal with your areas of expertise. I am told the builders are doing really well.” I nodded to Tariku. “I am told that Amon has been doing great work with Amara.”
Amara smiled and nodded. “He has My lord. Gathering data would have been much more difficult with him.”
“Good, good, and from what my familiars have noticed, the farming has been going just as well.” I let everyone bask in the compliments for a moment before getting to the point. “I have called you all here for something different, though. There are two things I need to go over. The first is that I plan on completing the quest to unlock my next ability. I won’t tell you what it will be, but I believe it will help us deal with all of our current issues.”
Amara was the first to speak. “My lord, I agree that you should move to unlock all of your abilities as fast as you can, but don’t you think it’s a bit soon? We have yet to build enough housing for everyone. It might not help morale for you to leave. Do you know how long it would take?”
I shook my head, and before I could continue, Tariku spoke. “Ah well, of course, it’s your decision, My Lord but I would advise caution. Things are very delicate and it might be best to exercise caution. Extreme caution.”
“Bah! We can handle ourselves for a few days. We aren’t children who need to be supervised. I am fine with the idea, M’lord.” Todii’s voice filled the tent, making everyone look toward him.
I held up a hand to stop further questions and comments. “I understand the concern, but I believe I am going to be more useful doing this. Right now, our focus is on building Tenements. After that, I want the Hall of Knowledge constructed.” That drew a round of ‘Ums and My Lords’, but I raised a hand to stop them. I was about to continue when a thought came to me. I turned toward Tariku.
“Are you able to build the ‘Seat of Government’ building?"
Tariku smiled and nodded eagerly. “I uh yes, My Lord I intended to ask you about that. It’s very close to my current level, which means constructing it would grant me a nice boost to my skill level. I would like to be allowed to build it as soon as possible.”
I nodded and went over my choices. I had no idea what either of those buildings did, though I could assume. The “Hall of Knowledge” assuming this worked like a grand strategy or 4x game, then it should generate research or science points. Assuming that was true, then my goal of helping everyone learn to read would be best served by going for a science victory. The real wild card was the “Seat of Government” building. I wasn’t sure if that meant it would just act as the town’s base and that losing it would be bad or if it would actually do something. If it opened some special government options than building, it might be worth it. There was also the chance that any options it gave me might be completely useless until we built other buildings. I pulled myself out of the spiral of what-ifs and made my choice. Ultimately, I could build both buildings with enough time.
“Change of plans. Once the housing requirement is met, I want you to build the ‘Seat of Government’. If I am not back by the time that building is, finished, then I want you to move on to the ‘Hall of Knowledge’. I should be back before that building would be completed. I could tell that there was still some disagreement, but they were nice enough to not protest. Instead, there was a round of ‘Yes, My Lord’.”
“Now this next part can’t leave this room. I am told that it would be risky to talk about, but I don’t know enough to decide how to proceed on my own. If there is anyone that does not feel like they could keep a secret, now would be the time to leave.” I leveled my eyes at each one of them, but no one moved. After a mental five count, I placed my hand on the table and flexed my will. First came the arbor heart. The room filled with the scent of a deep forest. It was that early morning dew and dirt smell that seemed to just fade away with time. Before I could move to free the next item, Osenda leaped from her seat. They reached for the heart like a person possessed. A moment later, she caught herself and reluctantly sat down.
“I my apologies, my lord. I wasn’t expecting to see one of these. I had been under the impression they were all gone or well-defended.”
“What do you know about it? Based on the item’s description, I should be able to plant it and some kind of tree. Is that correct?”
Osenda nodded. “Yes, though it wouldn’t be ‘Some kind of tree’, it would be a very potent one. Gnuvin cities are usually built inside of such a tree. I am afraid I don’t know how to do something like that.”
I waved that away. “Can you handle the planting of this, though? I don’t have any skill relating to plants or taking care of them.”
Osenda nodded rapidly. “I yes! I would be honored if you would let me tend to the tree. It would take some time to plant it and it would be best to do so based on the needs of your land. I can not be sure, but your Place of Power seems to be solar-related. I believe it would be best to plant it at high noon. When the sun is at its peak.”
Amara spoke up next. “I believe there is a classed Animus mage in the town. I can speak with them to see if they know anything that would help.”
“Would it be better to use magic of each type? For my Place of Power, I mean. I am not sure if there would be any kind of special benefit to doing so, but if there was, it might be worth giving it a try.” Both of them shrugged at that, and I let out a deep sigh. Not having the answer was really, really irritating, but there was nothing I could do about that right now. “In that case, ask the mage if there is anything they can do. Please ask them to do so. I won’t force anyone, though. I will ask a friend about it as well.”
I turned and faced Osenda. “When do you think you could do the planting?”
They went bug-eyed and stuttered out several unintelligible sounds before taking a breath. “I think I could do it within the week.”
I nodded. That would make it difficult to get to the Ifrit and back, but I should be able to pull it off with Rex. “Get everything you need. I am going to visit a potential ally. I believe they could help us and they have been very good to me so far.”
I raised a hand to stop everyone from leaving. “There is one more thing we need to discuss.” I placed a palm on the table and summoned the Arcane Matrix.