Tan Xue and the usually quiet Zhou Heng couldn’t help but smile seeing Jia Feng pulling out her personal treats. They quickly moved to the two seats in front of her desk that was already piled with an array of paperwork.
Zhou Heng took the tea and took in a deep breath. The warm vapor was filled with scents that relaxed his mind and made his body uncoil, as if he had been wound up for weeks.
He sipped on the tea. The infusion of smells, instead of being weaker in the tea, were brought out for greater depth. He rolled the tea around his tongue before swallowing it. A smile appeared on his face unconsciously as his worries seemed further away and the solutions closer to hand.
He opened his eyes to find a notification.
==========
State of Ease
Concentration increases by 10%
Stamina Regeneration increased by +3
==========
He saw that Jia Feng was waiting for them with a smile on her face. He bowed his head in thanks.
“What greater pleasure can a crafter get than seeing other people enjoying his labors?” Jia Feng said.
Zhou Heng and Tan Xue agreed.
“But, now, other matters. With the influx of Mana stones given to us by Erik and Rugrat, they have also passed on orders as to which facilities should be upgraded and in what order.
“The smithy and the tailoring workshop will both be upgraded to tier-three facilities, beginning at the end of this week. So we have some planning to do!” Jia Feng said.
Zhou Heng felt his blood boil, even with the calming effects of the tea.
They would be able to save unknown amount of materials when training new tailors and although there were less tailors, they were one of the busiest workshops. They made all of the clothing for the people of Alva Dungeon, as well as bow strings, rope, leather fittings, sword sheaths, and the vests to hold the armored plates that the smiths created.
With the new sewing machines and the weaving machines, it had opened up new possibilities. The sewing machines allowed them to work many times faster than before when they had to work with just their hands. The weaving machines, similarly, would do what had taken them weeks to do in just days, with needing only one person, who didn’t need to be a trained tailor, watching over the process.
They could test out new threads. Instead of needing to use the highest quality leather hides and stuffing for armor, they could create their own materials, hybrid cloth that would add greater defense onto the armor vests, allow greater mobility than the leather pants, and increase airflow.
Similarly, Tan Xue’s eyes lit up. With the testing facilities of the smiths, she could alloy different metals together, or with enhancers, without worrying about destroying the materials, saving countless gold coins in the process.
“Yes, we do.” Zhou Heng took another drink from his cup and pulled out a pad of paper, sitting forward, ready to listen to the principal of the Kanesh Academy.
***
Matt wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, wiping it on his pants before he brought his pencil back down on the blueprint.
Since arriving back in the Third Realm, he had set the builders to digging out the foundations for what would be the wall and the large villa. He had shown the traders around and let them loose on the Alchemist Association’s Division Headquarters. They were some of the most advanced traders and had been trading for nearly a year. Instead of rushing forward, they took their time, learning and listening to the people of the Division Headquarters, noting the items that they needed and then the prices for different items in the Third Realm.
Matt had returned to a rather large problem.
For the foundation, they only had about two feet of dirt before they reached the stone surface of the mountain. No wonder the damn contractors cost so much here!
Though, when he talked to the builders, they didn’t seem as worried.
“Stone? Well, that should be easy enough. We can just fuse the stone blocks to the ground instead of having to dig down, right?”
It was then he found out that nearly all of the builders had learned the spell Fuse so that they could quickly and easily erect the buildings in Alva Dungeon.
Using this, he had come up with a new set of blueprints. The first was for the wall. He had to draft it out on regular paper a number of times before he attempted it on the magical enchanted blueprint paper.
The first kind would give him a blueprint; the second would create projections of the blueprint on the ground, like when the buildings were bought from the dungeon or upgraded with the same menu.
It would allow them to work faster, not needing to refer to the blueprints in Matt’s hands all the time but to work on the wall, just following the prompts in front of them.
The blueprint had sunk into the ground. Matt checked the placement of the projected blueprint, confirming it as a blue outline appeared and the builders got to work.
With Alva Dungeon’s rapid progression, they had spent plenty of time building all kinds of structures. Their speed had reached the point where they had second jobs to do when they weren’t building.
As they speedily created the foundation, Matt started on his new plan for the manor. Seeing the other buildings in the Division Headquarters and the buildings in Alva Dungeon, now that he had put down the blueprint for the wall and seeing the speed that it grew, he had looked at the old blueprint and found it to be a bit lackluster compared to the other buildings around.
As people passed the plot of ground, they could see the builders working on the wall and then Matt standing in what would be the gateway, working on a large table with a piece of paper lying across it. He would look to the notes and pages that lay to the side of his table.
He was no longer just building a manor; he wanted to build the kind of building that people would talk about, that they would look at in shock and interest.
He had been given full rein and he intended to make use of it.
When entering the gates, one would find a stable to the left, a double-floored stable to hold all manner of beasts. The left side of the stable would be left open, to be developed or to hold carriages or whatever was needed.
The main building would be five stories tall, with a basement.
Entering the building, one would enter an open space. The center of the main building would be turned into a multi-layer growing area with banister corridors on each floor looking down and at the gardens.
Passing through the main area, one would have to pass gates to enter the private areas of the residence. One entered the main garden there, with a garden on either side, creating three open areas at the back of the manor. Each of these would be ringed with living quarters like the main open area.
The basements here were separated from the others as they led down to the dungeon.
The roof would be free floating, with wooden supports and terracotta tile. Allowing one to stand on the roof and look out over the Division Headquarters even if it was raining.
In his blueprints, he had included using enhanced iron to increase the structural strength, using rock powder and the spell Fuse to replicate concrete, leaving gaps in the structures for formations to be placed and water and waste pipes. He was working on a few different prototypes for insulation and drywall. He had contracts with a few glassblowers and had sent off a few people to try to learn from them how to make better clear windows. Thankfully, he had brought a number of blueprint, woodworking, formation, and smithing apprentices and their mentors to give these tasks to.
He’d added in air conditioning and heating vents as well. If he would need them or not, he didn’t know but it would help with air circulation.
Matt made a line on the blueprint he was working on and moved his ruler. He paused and looked at the drawing. His eyes thinned as he felt something was wrong. He looked closer at the blueprint before he found the problem.
“I made the measurements wrong. Off by a foot! Again!” He circled the problem area and pushed it to the
side. A blueprint apprentice took it as Matt put down a new one.
She looked over the blueprint and focused on the problem, adding it to the growing pile.
The blueprint apprentices, when they had time, would look over the different blueprints carefully collected, seeing the mistakes Matt had made and understanding his thought process better. He would give them tips and talk about his errors and ask them to point out where he had messed up as well.
There were a few times that they noticed problems that he hadn’t.
Matt sighed, looking at the blank page. “Damn, I miss blueprint software where I could mock this up then just delete a few things and redo them, instead of having to start from the beginning all over again.” Matt rubbed his hand that had started cramping up from all the drawing.
He let out a laugh as a smile appeared on his face. “Though I bet that Erik and Rugrat weren’t expecting anything like this when they gave me the job!”
Chapter: Down to Basics
Rugrat looked at the report that had been sent over by the beast stables.
They had been hard at work with different creatures, raising them to be tamed beasts for use in battle, or to carry traders across the realm to their destination, whether it be a village, outpost, cities or countries.
Rearing beasts was not easy but thankfully the gnomes had been master beast tamers and Egbert had been able to help them out. The beast stables also gave them buffs when dealing with the chosen beasts, making them easier to tame.
Recently they had been breeding even more beasts to meet the increased demand, and increasing their strength, finding the best breeds for different tasks when they heard of the dungeon monster blueprints that could create monsters under the control of the dungeon.
With Rugrat and Erik’s return, their focus shifted to breeding more beasts to be used in battle and getting them used to wearing armor and the noises and sights one might find on the battlefield.
Although they were not fazed by death, the strange noises of spells and crossbows, and their natural inclinations to eat fresh meat, showed that they needed greater training than regular horses.
They sent over a report with their findings to the academy, which made it into Egbert’s hands and then was sent to Rugrat.
Rugrat looked it over with interest.
Although they were dungeon monsters, when they were summoned, they didn’t outright attack. Egbert could give them orders and put them under the control of others. Dungeon monsters didn’t need to eat, drink, or rest, but they consumed power from the dungeon core. If exposed to Mana, over time they would grow stronger. As they were bound to the dungeon, there was no way that they could go against it.
We have the automatons to assist us though.
Although they hadn’t been able to build any automatons, with their knowledge of formations they had been able to repair a few more of them. They carried out laborious tasks and were then stored in the warehouse district when they weren’t needed, their power cores removed so they didn’t cost anything. The dungeon monsters, once summoned, had a Mana cost every second they were active.
Rugrat’s eyes widened as he read further. “Interesting—using them as pill testers, see what their reactions are to different concoctions and since we can resummon them, the alchemists can study the effects without having to harm ourselves. Although we can make all kinds of concoctions, unless we test them we don’t know their true effects. Use the tier-three Alchemy labs to practice making concoctions, then create them; then, using the dungeon monsters, we can test out the concoctions. They also want to use them in the Alchemy gardens and farms.”
Rugrat’s voice trailed off as he saw reports that talked about hypotheses for how if they used the Earth Affinity monsters, that they could act as roving growing spells. Their bodies naturally gave off Earth Affinity, though, as they ascertained, it might be more useful for the fields than for the Alchemy garden because the balance needed with the Alchemy garden was much higher than the growing fields.
Rugrat looked through the window at the bustle of the training barracks as people headed out to the Alchemy lab and the healing house before returning. Most people were with their families or off in the dungeon to rest, nervous about the coming training. Some had already submitted their name, changing over to the Adventurer’s Guild.
“If it works out how the beast stables think, then the farmers wouldn’t need to use their Plant Cultivation spells as much and could instead focus on the harvesting and modifying the different plants that they had to increase their yield.”
Rugrat sent a quick message to Egbert and put the report away as he picked up another.
The Adventurer’s Guild had grown rapidly. There were already forty members and it looked to grow more in the future. Blaze had submitted plans to create Adventurer’s Guild locations in the First and Second Realm; he was not confident with heading into the Third Realm yet.
Jasper, who had been replaced by Elise, had gone to the Adventurer’s Guild and become Blaze’s secretary. He worked with the traders and others who were looking to create missions, posting them on the mission board and offering contracts to available adventurers or adventurer groups.
The first adventurers were heading out with a group of traders across the Second Realm. They’d accepted some other missions as well and were not expected to return for four months.
Although the rest of the barracks was resting for the coming training, for the leadership it had already begun.
Rugrat pulled his hat from his leg pocket, smacking it against his leg and putting it on his head. He checked his uniform with a few touches. “I didn’t think that I would be wearing another uniform in this life.” He pulled on his tunic and moved to the door, his expression stony as he closed the office door behind him.
He walked down the corridor, looking over the barracks, and made for one of the briefing rooms that had been turned into a classroom.
Rugrat could hear Erik talking on the other side of the door. He knocked on the door.
“Enter!” Erik snapped out.
Rugrat opened the door and entered the room, snapping off a salute. “Captain West, requesting permission to enter the room!” Rugrat called out.
“Permission granted, Warrant Rodriguez.” Erik snapped off a salute back to him.
Rugrat dropped his hand and relaxed, moving to the front of the room as Erik continued talking.
“In conclusion, when you are fighting a close-quarter battle with close-quarter weapons, it is the only time that you should group up in order to assist one another. With just one magical attack or an area of effect attack, it could take out an entire section instead of just one or two people. If it’s one or two people, the section can still operate. Now we’ve talked about it—it’s time we put it to practice! Thankfully Warrant Rodriguez is here to assist us! Down on the parade square, formed up!” Erik checked his timepiece. “Go!”
The leadership rushed out of the room. Erik and Rugrat had made it clear that being late was not an option. If one of them messed up, then all of them would suffer the consequences. No one wanted to be the person to fuck over everyone else, so they made sure to speed up everything that they were doing to reach Erik and Rugrat’s standards.
The classroom cleared out in moments.
Rugrat looked to Erik.
“We’re going through fire and movement, not bunching together when moving across territory, moving into defensive shield walls when they engage the enemy, how to bound to cover and fire,” Erik said.
“Good. It’ll give us something to harass them with when they’re getting lazy,” Rugrat said.
They headed down to the parade square. All of the leadership was lined up in three ranks deep, none of them daring to move, and were totally silent as Erik and Rugrat walked up.
“You will be working in groups of six. These movements can and will be your building blocks for fighting. Learning them will allow you and the people on either side of you to go home to your families inst
ead of being buried in the ground.”
Everyone’s eyes sharpened as they focused on Erik and Rugrat.
Erik waved for Rugrat to follow him off to the side, as they walked in front of the group.
Erik took a knee; Rugrat followed him.
“Bounding—it’s a very simple idea. At all times, one person can kill the enemy and you can advance. I’m the lead, so should I run forward?” Erik looked at the recruits. “Chen?” he called out.
“Yes?” Chen said.
“Are you sure or asking me if we need fucking meat from the market? I’m not your significant other. Give me an answer, man!” Erik barked.
“Yes sir!” Chen barked.
“Well, you’re one dumb sonuvabitch. Pushup position, everyone. Seems being in the classroom has dulled your brains,” Erik said.
“Eyes up here!” Rugrat yelled as they dropped to the ground and looked up at Erik and Rugrat.
“Chen over there is wrong! If I take a bound,” Erik stepped forward a meter, “then Warrant Rodriguez is now two times as far from me. Say we need to enter a village to clear out a building. It will take him precious seconds to get to me. Say I go down and there is a ridge. He can’t see me anymore. I get hit—how does he know? He didn’t see me!” Erik stood and returned to his first position.
“There are two parts to bounding: covering and moving. While I am covering, meaning putting arrows downrange, Rugrat is moving.”
Erik looked forward, putting his hands out as if he were firing an arrow. “Covering!” he yelled out, followed by, “Bang, bang, bang!”
“Moving!”
Rugrat rushed forward and stopped, firing his pretend bow and arrow. “Covering!” Rugrat yelled out and Erik ran forward.
They repeated it once more before Erik stood and walked back.
“From the moment you stand up, think: up he sees me, down. On down, your ass better be down on the ground. Only say covering when you have fired your first ranged attack, to keep suppressing the enemy.”
“Recover!” Erik said.
The Third Realm Page 59