B2 Chapter 6: Fortress

[Year 22 Month 4: Four Months Later]

[Blessed: 3747 – 11 + 12]

[Marked: 2500 – 3 + 3]

[You have gained 2 levels]

[You are now level 56]

[Crystal Blooms’ skill has gained ten additional charges and gains additional effectiveness.]

Hm. Not very useful, at the moment, but maybe later.

Despite the tremendous amount of progress being made, there had been no monster attacks nor major accidents on the surface; considering the population was just able to stay stable, that was a relief, as any massive death toll would send progress back by months if not years.

Construction had always been considered a rather dangerous gig back on Earth, but with my forges restored and my golem labor force increasing, it meant that people had little heavily lifting to do, and were more focused on their skill development.

The average level of craftsmanship was also shooting up, as more and more requests were made by me. Considering my many mistakes and lessons learned, I thought it would be best to invest in the long-term quality of my citizens. The golem factories were certainly useful for mass producing basic items, and on average were considerably better than those of the sapient artisans. Still, there was a tipping point—a scale of efficiencies.

At level thirty and beyond, the artisans started gaining abilities that enhanced products beyond their natural limits, as well as the limits my golems were constrained by.

Before the miasma, I had requested orders and shipments from these craftsmen, but I hadn’t thought of something. Giving all of the highest-level workers even more work dramatically limited the amount of experience the ‘worse’ craftsmen could gain, and such focus would only weaken the city in the long term, an unacceptable outcome, as in all likelihood I would live to see said long term.

So, without completely sabotaging our current selves, a few things had to change. My golems would mostly supply the basic construction materials, but people would do the labor, requiring an additional touch or an appropriate skill and giving even the lower-level craftsman a chance while freeing up the more advanced for other tasks.

One of which was a massive improvement to my underground forges. One bored individual pointed out that my overheating problem could be solved with pressurized water. While I had run into the issue of the water boiling off before it could do much good, it turns out that I had missed a piece of thermodynamics, and if I were to pressurize said water, the excess heat could be vented.

If we end up creating electricity, it’s a strong possibility I could use these as a temporary geothermal power source. Even if mana is such a powerful tool, there’s a lot of potential for both magic and science to come together.

There would probably be some clashes with cultural norms or religion when introducing another form of energy, but with me becoming the religion, the issue would be minimal.

A singular catch stopped me from continuing the idea, and it was quite a big catch. I needed to have a city, before anything else, and as of a few days ago, no progress had been made.

Technically speaking, there was housing on the surface, but it was extremely temporary and had been the base of operations for all of the restorers in the last few months. It was easier just to build an outpost here than have them walk all the way back and forth every day. It also meant normal people could occasionally see the sun again, much like the lottery system we had when the miniboss had rampaged in Runehold.

As I was not a city designer, it would have taken me forever to come up with a viable city, even with my assistants. Conveniently, there were classes such as Architects or Drafters to fix my inability.

The idea was to make it like a bastion, circling my main body, we would maximize the proximity to me so there would be the least mana drop off possible. Truthfully? The proposed structure looked similar to the Pentagon. There would be a large courtyard-like area, able to be used as a recreational space or for agriculture if needed, surrounding the central obelisk.

Such a design would prevent any damage my (hopefully) future evolutions could cause when growing, while taking advantage of every ‘field’ skill that I generated.

The rest of the city would clump together around it, and instead of being individual buildings, become a very, very large castle with plenty of exterior exits and lights. Basically, a hive centered around me.

Constructing it all at the same time wouldn’t be feasible considering the massive scale of the hive, so the architects and builders came up with a solution that would allow people to quickly move in during its construction. Make it in layers.

The first ‘floor’ would be the foundation, and it would need to be huge. Even in a world of magic, bedrock supports were necessary if we didn’t want it to collapse. So almost immediately, I had my golems begin to dig the large pits, which would be filled in later with a cement-like liquid that would harden quickly around a steel core. Once it was done setting, the next floor would be made, and this would be where everyone moved in during the hive’s construction.

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There would be better accommodations built later, with access to exterior platforms and green spaces, but for now, the citizens would be fine with whatever they could get, as long as it wasn’t underground.

We were still in the process of collecting the stone and pouring the cement needed to fill the deep support holes, and once that was done, it would likely take several more months to get everything else around.

With some free time on their hands, Codex and the local enchanter worked together to decode Fal’el’s somnipod, with very cryptic input from the dwarf himself, who was still trying to get around his bindings.

The [Analyze] skill was just as useful for runic purposes as anything else, and gave a better base understanding for the more complex rune language the dwarfs used, allowing us to translate their written language and better navigate the Engarien Ruins safely.

There was still the issue of people in proximity to unexplored areas, but once the first layer of the city was completed, I could freely expand into the dwarven area as my heart desired and pillage, cough, learn everything they had to offer.

Considering the efficiency that living people had at breaking through the walls, maybe it was time to look into some sort of exoskeleton, which probably wouldn’t be too hard to do with [Animate].