“And how are you planning on pulling that off? They aren’t machines, so hacking won’t work.”
“The same way the mayor of ancient Mean Truk did,” the boy replied as he sent his dragon in ahead. The golden creature immediately grabbed the attention of the enormous spheres, all three forgetting what they were doing and dashing off after the new target. Catch and eat. What could be better than that? Once he was sure the trio had their sights set squarely on the dragon, Tailyn looked around for a large boulder he could use to take out the guards if it came to that. He pulled out telekinesis and eased his way in. Focused completely on their chase, the guards didn’t pay him any mind, the dragon’s monster target passive ability leaving them no other choice but to chase it.
“Get your cold ready—we’re going to improvise,” Tailyn said as he sent a stone flying at the nearest guard. “Hey, I’m over here!”
There was no reaction, so the boy had to take a shot at the monster with Valkyrie. And while it didn’t do much damage, the creature skidded to a halt and stared over with interest at the new target. The dragon flew at the mental order of its master rather than stopping to reacquire the third guard. Tailyn was left alone with a level 150 monster.
“Freeze!” he yelled as he threw his palms forward. At the same time, the Tailyn in the virtual mountains practically hugged the cold elemental to absorb its strength. The guard dashed forward a few meters only to suddenly find itself trapped tightly in an iceberg growing out of the ground. As Tailyn stepped closer, he had to suppress the urge to jump backwards—the tip of one of the guard’s tentacles was still outside its icy prison and doing its best to wiggle free. As soon as it noticed the enemy approaching, it forgot about the ice and reached out in an attempt to catch the boy. Squeezing him to death would have been almost as good as eating him.
Tailyn took a step forward and managed to grab hold of the tentacle such that it couldn’t hurt him. With plenty of experience speaking mentally with Valia, he imagined the guard’s mind and did his best to reach it, speaking aloud as well. He had no idea how the creature communicated.
“I’m the head of Mean Truk! My city needs guards, so I want to hire you. Mean Truk needs protection from the steppe beasts. Again, I’m the head of Mean Truk. The city needs your protection!”
That continued for quite a while as the other two monsters went right on chasing the dragon. Tailyn maintained his grip on the tentacle and did everything he could to reach his fearsome opponent, Valia spending the time bored up at the edge of the dig. But it had to come to a head sooner or later. Suddenly, the boy heard her calling over to him.
“The ice is cracking! Get out of there!”
There was nothing for Tailyn to do but let go of the tentacle and roll off to the side. The head of Mean Truk hadn’t been able to pull off his trick, so all he could do was grab a bigger boulder and raise it over the monster before it got out of its icy cage. Leaping to his feet, he activated telekinesis, found the boulder he’d been eyeing earlier, and—
He froze, mouth gaping, as he read the message:
The guards accept your offer.
The dragon howled in annoyance when it realized the game was over. Meanwhile, the enormous hulks wheeled around and made their way slowly over to their new master, the ice cracking away at the same time to free the third one. All three of the elephant-like beasts stopped in a semicircle facing Tailyn as they waited for new orders, though there were none forthcoming. The boy was too busy wishing he could turn back the clock. In that moment, all he could think about was how Forian was going to eat him alive the moment he got back to the city...
The number of Mean Truk Guards increased to 5 (1 commander, 4 subordinates).
Mean Truk level +1 (4).
Your city was named a Safe Zone.
Defend the Safe Zone local event will begin in four days. Prepare for battle!
“Wait here,” Tailyn said gloomily as he called his dragon. “Li-Ho-Dun, we need to go take care of something. Hopefully, it’ll work this time...”
It did, in fact, work. As soon as the dragon flames hit the spot where the pool of red liquid had been, a notification popped up to tell the boy there was one less reservoir of dragon’s tears to worry about. But that didn’t cheer him up in the slightest. They needed to get back and batten down the hatches in preparation for the upcoming fight, and Forian was definitely going to kill him. Valanil wasn’t going to stop him, either.
Chapter 12
JUST A COUPLE HOURS after they headed out, Tailyn realized the trip back to Mean Truk was going to take three days. And that was the best-case scenario. Despite how fast they were, the guards couldn’t keep up with the lizard. They had a five-minute rest period built in every hour, part of their energy-saving mode, which meant they couldn’t just up and spend the reserves they’d built up over the millennia. Refilling them would have been difficult—the lixes had eaten everything left alive, and the guards didn’t touch the food from the store. But the worst part was that they had to make a long loop around the mountains since the guards definitely weren’t going to squeeze through tunnel even if they could get through Tartila Mine. They didn’t have a shot.
But there was an upside, too. From his spot astride one of the guards, Tailyn felt like an emperor—it was an incredibly smooth ride. Nothing jolted him, the visibility was great, and the feeling of invincibility was intoxicating. He set the beast to follow Valia and pulled up the city management functionality. As it turned out, quite a bit had changed, starting with the general table.
Management of Mean Truk, level four city
Parameter
Quantity
Description
General information
City development points (CDPs)
1
Reward for Safe Zone status
CDPs generated per week
7
Base value (2) + unique objects
Population
220
Humans: 82; lixes: 130; managers: 8
City property
Guard commander
1
requires 250 coins per week for food
Guards
4
requires 150 coins per week for food
Architect
1
requires 200 coins per week for food
Builder
1
requires 200 coins per week for food
Mentors and Students sculpture
1
requires 50 coins per week for upkeep
Finances
Treasury (coins)
1754862
Weekly expenses (coins)
7440
Food, salary, city upkeep
Commitments (coins)
140000
Due to the Architect for the city plan
Most importantly, weekly expenses had shot up. While level three cities were perfectly fine with all kinds of creatures living in them, safe zones apparently entailed providing sustenance, repairs, and an allowance. The line items for the architect, builder, guards, and even sculpture made that much clear. And sure, the sums weren’t too bad at first glance, but a few more buildings would have the coin leak turning into a gushing river. They were going to have to do something about that. Additionally, the table said nothing about what a safe zone was. All Tailyn could do was guess what was hidden behind the cryptic designation, one that had the city up against a mysterious enemy once a month.
But the newcomer to the picture that had the city head most excited was those city development points. Focusing his gaze on them elicited an explanation:
City development points are a bonus awarded to Safe Zones. The number of bonus points received depends on the number of unique objects in the city as well as its base value (city level minus two). Development points can be spent completing or generating city missions, accelerating construction, new hires, or boosting the city level.
After that, there was a description of what “unique objects” were.
Mean Truk had the architect, the builder, the sculpture, the priest, and the legendary guard, the four simple guards not counting. Tailyn swiped the explanations away, but the god continued to surprise.
You have an initial city development point. To demonstrate what Safe Zones can do, you’re able to spend it completing any mission.
List of current missions:
— Create a city master plan (time to completion: 68 days).
Would you like to spend your city development point?
Tailyn swallowed hard—he hadn’t been expecting that. It was going to take some time to figure out what the new bonus was about, of course, but he knew in the meantime they couldn’t waste time on the master plan. Starting construction was the priority.
5 CDPs earned by completing a Master Plan for the development of Mean Truk.
You paid the Architect 140000 coins.
A new table appeared, and a smile spread slowly over Tailyn’s face. Life was certainly more interesting as the head of a safe zone.
Use cost for city development points
Use
Cost
Description
Accelerate the construction of 1 building by 1 day
1
Generate a skill upgrade mission
10
The mission can be accepted by up to 50 creatures
Generate an attribute upgrade mission
100
The mission can be accepted by up to 20 creatures
Generate a player level-up mission
500
The mission can be accepted by up to 5 creatures
Generate a design mission
200
Only for players
Complete a mission
50
Only for design missions
Hire an ordinary creature for 1 day
1
Calculation: 1 creature level = 1 CDP
Hire a rare creature for 1 day
4
Calculation: 1 creature level = 4 CDPs
Hire an epic creature for 1 day
10
Calculation: 1 creature level = 10 CDPs
Hire a legendary creature for 1 day
100
Calculation: 1 creature level = 100 CDPs
Boost the city to level 5
100000
The city didn’t have any free CDPs, but that was fine—they were going to earn enough in a year to try out that “generate a design mission” option. For whatever reason, that was the one that really caught Tailyn’s eye.
The Treasurer paid a 30% advance for the construction of a temple.
The Treasurer paid a 30% advance for the construction of an outer wall.
The Treasurer paid a 30% advance for the construction of a tavern.
Forian had accepted the news with his characteristic implacability. Tailyn had pulled off yet another miracle; it was up to him to make the best use of it. According to the master plan that had suddenly been dropped on him, building the temple was going to cost the city 1.5 million coins and seven months of work, while the numbers were two million and nine months for the outer wall and 200,000 and two months for the tavern. Those were all the missions the builder could accept for the time being. But after putting down 1,110,000 coins and committing Mean Truk to another 2,590,000 paid out over the coming nine months, Forian wasn’t done. He had a resource available that he needed to put to work.
The Treasurer paid 17000 coins to the Architect to develop blueprints for a platinum smelter. Timeline for completion: 35 days.
Forian had checked the store to make sure there wasn’t a blueprint there first. With a deposit right under their feet, it would have been silly to sell the ore unprocessed. A platinum ingot was worth three to four times more than a chunk of ore weighing the same, and that made the investment a wise one. The only thing worrying the treasurer was that the treasury was down to 489,000 coins—they weren’t going to last long. That trip to the empire had to happen quickly. The miracles were in the past, and it was time to work.
Tailyn and Valia arrived three days later. The legendary guard accepted the new “recruits” without a second thought, immediately sending them off to patrol the territory. The integration was simple—the enormous hulks went right about their new jobs. But Tailyn saw none of that, his complete attention occupied by the wall being built. The boy had never seen anything like it. The builder was making the wall out of metal, connecting lots of thick wires together, surrounding them with wood, and pouring a gray, oatmeal-like mass over the whole lot.
“That’s called concrete, and it’s made out of cement, sand, stone, and water,” Forian explained as he walked over. “It’s a thick liquid that fills in the space between the reinforced fittings and the wood, setting after a few hours to turn into the stone the ancients used. Arcane dust and a few platinum plates around the whole perimeter let us place protective spells on the wall, which will make it difficult to get through with magic. Climbing over it will be hard, too—an alarm will be triggered. That’s how the ancients built their homes.”
“Where did you get the materials?” Tailyn was having a hard time pulling his gaze away from the builder.
“They’re included in the cost—that’s why it was so expensive. The architect’s next mission is to design a cement workshop. According to the estimate, we’ll have to spend tens of millions of coins on the powder since we have to make it ourselves.”
“Do you know what a safe zone is?” Tailyn asked hopefully only to be met by a quick frown from his treasurer.
“We were counting on you explaining what you got us into this time. All we were able to figure out is that there will be a local mission generated every month, something similar to the lix attack on Culmart. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. Anyway, do you need any rest? Or are you ready to get right to work?”
“What work?” the boy asked, only then noticing that Valanil had already grabbed her sister by the arm and pulled her off in the direction of the mountains. Practice was practice.
“Your only focus right now is learning. Management, writing, manners, dancing...being a city head brings with it all kinds of responsibilities, Tailyn. There are plenty of people out there who won’t evaluate you based on how you manage your responsibilities; they’ll look at the way you carry yourself in public, how you dance, and even how you write. Every detail counts. Take ten minutes to get yourself presentable, and then come find me in the pavilion. We’re going to turn you into a real leader instead of a village kid hungry for power.”
The next morning saw Mean Truk turn into an agitated beehive. The noncombat lixes and numericals grabbed their few belongings and rushed chaotically deep into the city, doing their best to push through the crowd closer to the safety of the wall. For their part, Motar and his fighters, not to mention Ka-Do-Gir and his, stared gloomily out into the steppe in expectation of their opponent. Even the builder stopped work on the outer wall to focus on the temple. It was farther from the Gray Lands.
And the reason for all that was simple: a divine message had popped up for everyone in Mean Truk:
Local mission Defend the Safe Zone will begin in 30 minutes.
The guards cannot participate in the coming battle.
Everyone had been hoping against hope that the guards would take the brunt of the attack, only the System had other plans. The five hulks patrolling the city perimeter left no room for doubt—as soon as the action started, they were going to desert their posts without a second thought. It wasn’t their fight.
As the most powerful mage there, Tailyn headed up a small group prepared to head off the enemy outside the city. Valia was next to and a bit behind him. Mu-Ro-Din was, as well. Everyone else stayed back behind the partially built walls.
Tension built with each passing second. It got so bad, in fact, that Tailyn found himself just wanting to take on the opponent, whoever it was going to be. That would at least offer some clarity. But instead, time began to slow down, each second stretching
to last what felt like minutes. That enraged the city head still further, though all he could do was stare with bloodshot eyes at the seconds as they melted away.
Attention! Local event Defend the Safe Zone is beginning.
Evaluating the current status of the Safe Zone...
Population: 220. Average level: 8.
Status change: combat.
Isr Kale's Journal (The Alchemist Book #4): LitRPG Series Page 18