It had been 2 weeks since Frith and the workers had arrived at Guardians Retreat, in that time the construction progress had been remarkable. The outer wall had almost been completed and the remaining gaps had temporarily been filled with wooden palisades, the mines had been completely retrofitted with metal tubing that was designed to carry the smoke from fires out and feed new clean air in. At various stages along the pipes Arthe had made the workers construct bellows, these could be operated if the mines became too humid or the workers too hot. On top of this Arthe himself had cast numerous light spells on the quartz crystals found in the mine, he had discovered by accident one day that the crystals would trap the light permanently without any extra Mana cost, this gave the workers a steady and clean source of light for their work.
Arthe had also asked a couple of miners to dig a shaft that ran from the side of the tower past the edge of the mine and half way down the mountain, he then cast purify earth on the shaft so many times that it actually started to cleanse any object that touched the sides. This shaft would be a sewage line that removed all the waste from both the tower and the mine and deposited it in a pit that was dug halfway down the mountain, once a week the pit was purified repeatedly by either Arthe or a couple of the priests. This innovative waste disposal technique would prevent the spoiling of the surrounding forest as well as the river, when it was finished Arthe received a system notice telling him that he had vastly improved public hygiene as well as a funny message to go with it.
"Ding"
You have created a new type of waste disposal technique, in the future many towns and cities will praise your accomplishment while many acolyte priests will curse your very existence. You have the opportunity to request that the Church of Freya spread the knowledge of this technique, should they do so it will be named after you.
This option has been denied due to the nature of your class.
Arthe sighed in relief after discovering he wasn't going to be associated with feces for the rest of his in game life, then he chuckled at the thought of hundreds of aspiring priests being forced to stand over a pool of crap day after day.
In the tower Frith and some of the female workers had been refurbishing the rooms and had even roped in some of the miners to dig a 2 level basement, this job was still ongoing but so far 1 1/2 floors had been cleared, Frith's plan was to put the storeroom in the lower cellar and relocate the kitchen to the upper basement thus freeing up the ground floor of the tower for other uses. Arthe had decided that the ground floor would now be used as the workshop and that where the forge used to be he would now have an expanded living area, Heimdall had agreed with this plan and had promised that the paladins stationed here in the future would continue with the expansion of the fort until it someday rivaled Vanaheim. Heimdall had also brought along 10 paladins and 5 priests to occupy the fort temporarily and to guard the workers from any monster attacks, Arthe had estimated the average level of these troops at around 220.
The Archer and the Priest that had come to the tower had asked Arthe if they could join him on his adventures but he had told them to think very hard about their decision, this was because he didn't accept a lot of quests and most of his days were spent traveling to random places with no specific goal. Despite this the two, whose names were Merrak and Talis, had been adamant about joining his party. Frith had been a little irritated about this for some unknown reason, Arthe had no idea why as the female archer Talis was funny and good company and Merrak was great at cooking as well as being good at managing money. (A.N. I appear to have turned Arthe into an anime protagonist, clueless about women.)
A week later and the fort was now fully constructed, the basements had been completed and so had the outer wall, Arthe and the paladins had drawn up plans for numerous small watchtowers to be built around the mountainside as well as for the paving of the road up to the Tower. On top of this Frith and Arthe had discussed having a couple of way-stations built on the road leading away from the mountain, Frith had suggested that if Arthe commissioned them she could persuade her father to send troops from the capital to occupy them. The idea was that if the mountain and its surrounding area was made safe then new land might be granted to Arthe in compensation, if this happened he would be able to construct a small village or two and therefore entice more adventurers to visit the area. This would bring in more money from the sale of the Runite, and enable the occupants of the fort the freedom to trade for goods.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
However at this moment Arthe had neither the funds or the time to put this idea into action and so he had given the plan, along with a letter to the king, to Heimdall and asked him deal with them. Arthe and co. spent a day preparing to leave and just before they set off Arthe spoke to the foreman at the mine and asked him to set aside a fairly large amount of the Runite for his personal use, he also issued instructions that prohibited the sale of more than a certain amount of Runite per week. This was to insure that the price stayed high and that the demand always outweighed the supply, Arthe knew that by restricting the supply merchants would have no choice except to pay the asking price. The foreman was a little confused by Arthe's first request but his second made the man grin demonically.
"As you say my lord, in regards to the stockpiled Runite do you want that as raw mineral or would you like that smelted into bars?"
"If you can find someone with a high enough blacksmithing skill to smelt it without any major impurities then do so, if you can't just leave it as is. I shall probably be back in a couple of months at the latest so try not to collapse the mine until then. Oh and if the paladins request some of the ore at a discount price tell them to put in some hours at the mine first, that way they won't take it or you for granted."
Arthe waved cheerfully at the Foreman, who bowed in response, then walked over to his new party. The group shouldered their packs and set off down the mountain path, Arthe breathed deeply. It felt good to be out on the road again, he'd spent too much time indoors recently and the skills progress he had made was to his blacksmithing which was now Intermediate 2.
He then had one last look at the stats window for his Tower:
Property Name: The Guardians Retreat
Inhabitants: 56
Armaments: 300. 100 Swords, 100, Shields, 50 Staves and 50 Bows
Facilities: 1 Forge, 1 Kitchen, 1 Armory, 1 Storeroom, 1 Library and 1 Barracks, 1 Stables, 1 Training Ground, 2 Guard-towers and 1 Gatehouse. Plus 5 Ramshackle Watch Towers
Attached Land: 1 Runite Mine, 1 Small Mountain, 5 Acres of Forest and 1 Riverside Jetty
Available Building Space: Mountaintop 0, Mountainside 6, Forest 10 and Riverside 1
Monthly Income: 500 gold in rent, 2000+ in ore sales (prospective)
Monthly Expenditures: 54 Gold in wages, 47 Gold in maintenance and 0 Gold in security
Military: 200. 11 Paladins, 5 Priests and 25 Militia.
Culture: 50 (beauty of location and beauty of buildings)
Religion: 200 (Church of Freya)
Technology: 100 (New Ore on sale, new techniques used to make mines safer)
Public Hygiene: High, purified building materials and knowledge of proper waste disposal techniques make this fort he cleanest in the land.
Arthe was very satisfied with the updates to his property and was more than looking forward to seeing how it would improve by the time he returned, with that thought the intrepid hero turned and walked over to his party.
"Hey wait up. Oi Frith stop eating all the food before we've even gotten off the mountain, it's only been an hour since you last ate! Merrak will you stop feeding her, she'll end up as bigger than a cave troll and Talis don't just stand around laughing. Help me control these two muppets, seriously am I the only normal person here!"
Authors note: Short chapter this time guys, sorry it's just too bloody hot to stay in my room and type for any longer than about an hour. I'm off outside to enjoy a nice cold cider, I suggest those of you at legal age do the same.