Chapter 3.2 - City Planning

Allister awoke next, 12 hours after Serin's meeting with the Divines. Rachel had left some road rations warming near the campfire. Near him was a comatose Jericho and Lord Koni, preparing what he hoped was not goblin meat. Lord Koni smiled and said, "No worries Master Allister, it is a deer that Rachel felled. I am simply preparing the meat for smoking. We are on our own when it comes to food so it must be rationed. I would hate for any of you to join my ranks, as starvation is a terrible way to go." And with that Lord Koni winked.

Lord Koni then pointed at a bag, "That is full of the shards of magical essence recovered from the goblins, hobgoblins, and Ogres that were unable to be converted to undead. I believe humans call them Ears. Must have to do with the shape, because being located inside the torso and all."

Allister looked and found Rachel and Serin. They stood in front of, Allister couldn't believe it, a request board!

Allister walked over, coughing a bit of a dry cough. "How is there a quest board here?"

Rachel answered, "Its Serin's fault."

Serin then took a moment to bring Allister up to speed on his meeting with the divines, and that should they prepare enough, they should 'expect additional people'.

Serin then said, "This board is a quest board that is populated by Kingdom Advancement quests. Adventurers guild quests will not be posted without an adventurer's guild. And unlike the expected rewards from a normal quest board, these rewards are as odd as the requests."

Allister started to read. The first request he felt he could help with was 'Plot land for Agriculture'.

Instead of explaining exactly what to do, the quest instead gave listed requirements. Other than a minimum planting requirement, and an estimated feeding requirements, nothing was listed. It didn't list specific crops, or how to farm them, or the design of the farm or even the size. And with a spark of inspiration, Allister thought back to his days in his master's medicinal herb garden, how he had created an entire indoor garden complete with complex irrigation and light. Although the entire setup was complex, creating the garden this way allowed him to grow medicinal herbs year round, even in the Northern Kingdom's hardest of winters. It also helped the town by allowing for seedling germination during the tail end of winter and allowed for early planting of the main crops in the spring. Allister then thought, 'what if the entire agriculture system was setup inside?'

Allister thought about it and said "Let me handle agriculture. I have something I would like to try."

Serin looked at him. Since nobody else had any agriculture specialty Serin just smiled and waved for him to pull the request.

Rachel looked at the requests. "One of the quests says it's 'Radiant' or repeatable, and that is to establish livestock. Although we do not have any domesticated varieties of animals there are several species that can be domesticated and bred to lose their more dangerous aspects. Trapping razor pigs can be dangerous. But they domesticate quickly, usually within a single generation. They root for grubs as sustenance and eat kitchen scraps and as long as they are fed, they will not try to escape. There are also many tracks nearby. I can setup an area for getting a pig farm going, as I helped build one for Sten back home when we were kids. Fenris often had us volunteered around the town. However, the other livestock requests are for more complex creatures, such as fae sheep, horned rabbits, cockatrice, fire salamanders, pixies, the list is quite extensive. The request implies they are all located in or around this valley, which based on its size is very believable. But a lot of these creatures are extremely difficult to hunt, and even harder to domesticate."

Allister mentioned, "Since you are starting with pigs, please place their pen downwind if possible."

Rachel smiled at him. "I want it close enough that I can shoot anything that attacks the pigs. Serin, If I bring you raw metal from the goblins shoddy weapons and armor, can you turn some of it into wire for fencing?"

Serin nodded, then looked through the requests. He then saw the shambling undead. Then he had an idea.

"I will take on the infrastructure, but what if we skipped wood and clay buildings and just started with stone buildings with stone floors?"

Allister looked at him, "How would you do that?"

Serin then looked at the undead horde standing there, "Lord Koni can inherently command the undead. With that I have everything i need."

Serin then said, "So besides housing, what do we need to build?"

Rachel pipped in "Food storage. Food doesn't grow in winter."

Allister quipped "Mine does if it has a building and we warm the waterways."

Rachel replied "If you can build your crazy farm. But speaking of waterways, we need access to clean water or we are asking for disease."

Allister followed "And a way to dispose of our dirty water. For the same reason of course. We can ever reuse wastewater into fertilizer. I know they do it with farm animal manure, but if we can process it correctly, we can use it ourselves."

"Otherwise people will get sick, so get a quarantine area, it can also be a recovery area like that guild in Ston had, the Life Cleric Temple."

"And maybe a building for training. Jericho had an idea what he wanted, so maybe wait for him to awaken before you start on that."

"Yes, Training hall. And should we eventually have younglings, a school would be helpful. Something akin to what we had back in our Burb. I feel attendance greatly decreased our Content population, since the spoiled brat of the noble's son was the only one who became content. And he rarely attended school."

"And of course a wall. Best to make it in the curve between the two mountainous areas so it is not visible from the outside. And a continuation of the current mountain. Security by Obscurity."

"Agreed with the coughing king here" Rachel quipped.

Allister then said "For everything we cut down we must replant, so it's probably worth it to build stone housing that flows with the trees. Even if it's more sparse. I firmly believe that the ecologically devastated areas attracted the worst trouble, since we did not encounter many issues in the wilds, but around the burbs and Ston there were always dangers."

"Agreed. But there should be a paved main road that leads out of the mountain."

"But put that at the bottom of the list"

"Right near the governance building at the bottom of the list."

Serin laughed. "So, Initial housing. Food Storage both warm-dry and cold-dry. Irrigation and sewage lines. A hospital. Training hall. School. A Wall that looks like the mountainside. And do it so that it works with larger trees. And has a main road. And a Governance office.

Serin chuckled. He then called to Koni "Hey Lord Koni, when will you be done setting up that meat for smoking?"

Lord Koni responded "about a quarter hour. But it would be nice if there was a proper kitchen and smokehouse."

Serin then laughed. "I will add a kitchen and smokehouse to the list. Any idea how to build one?"

Lord Koni smiled, 'Several hundred of the books in the library we abandoned in Walden Necropolis were on architecture, both pre and post calamity. I memorized them all."

Serin then blinked. How could they miss that small detail. "Then how would you like to help designing a city?"

Lord Koni bowed "Although a bit more complex than a city of the dead, I will do my best to accommodate. I accept the challenge my Lord."

Serin smiled, this will be a bit easier than he thought. "Allister, can you do your planning and also watch the meat and make sure Jericho doesn't roll into the fire?"

Allister nodded.

Serin then looked at Lord Koni, "then we are off to start collecting stone."

***

In three hours Serin had returned. It had taken no time at all to find a natural quarry.

Lord Koni looked excited. "Basalt! This will do nicely. Not a better stone to be found. It's usually hard to work with but with Terramancy it makes it quite doable. Just set the stones to be smaller locking stones and you won't even need to do much weatherizing or sealing, it will seal itself."

Serin didn't know anything about construction. But with Terramancy he could reform any rock into any shape within a certain space. So he initially turned them into blocks with hooks that could be carried by the undead. They lined up near the quarry, and Serin cast and cast. Although the blocks were not very large, there were hundreds of them, and the undead goblins moved quickly under Lord Koni's gaze. Each undead goblin did not carry much weight, but there were dozens of them left after the battle.

Soon a line of laden undead goblins marched back towards the site for the first construction. Serin thought about it, and he decided to make just one big building for everyone to sleep in. 'I should make it big enough for 20 people in stacked beds. That way when we get real housing, this can be used as an audience chamber or meeting room.' Serin thought.

So with Koni's Guidance, he created a foundation for a large room for bunks, a side room for cooking, a cellar for cold storage, and three more side rooms. One as an office, one for general storage, and the third for food storage.

With a single 4 hour trip he had built the foundation and cellar. Serin estimated that it would take 4 trips to build walls. That was when Lord Koni spoke up. "If I might add sir, while you are at it, setting a second floor would not be that difficult with Terramancy. And for roofing I can draw a design that should work all year, even in the snow."

Serin then thought about it. His parents had taught him to use his crafting skill to make glass. He had lost the glassmaking skill, but he remembered their lessons, and was sure that with effort he could create simple glass panes. He might even figure out a way to construct glass using solely magic. If not, he could do it by hand.

Serin then prepared with Lord Koni for another trip.

****

Serin realized this undertaking would take quite a bit of effort. After his second trip, as the sun started to set, he instead took his axe and fell several young trees. Using his superior crafting skill and a bit of terramancy, he made some beds. For bedding, he used spruce. In layers of young branches it was softer than the dirt. And being elevated off the ground it was better for recovery, since no one was kicking dust into a person's lungs.

Serin finished 4 beds just as the darkest part of the night crept in. He then helped move Jericho to a bed and laid down for rest.

****

Allister was impressed by the work that Serin had accomplished. Under Lord Koni's direction, there would be an indoor kitchen capable of both magical and natural ovens. There was a small smokehouse and herb drying station being put in as well. The kitchen would be good enough to setup for banquets of hundreds by its design. Lord Koni had also mentioned there should be a separate area underground for storage of undead that are not needed. "No need to have them milling about and grow sentience. That gets annoying."

Allister had taken his time to sketch out his design. He had land picked out, and with Serin stating he could make glass, he changed his design. "Winter will never affect the gardens I build." Allister had boasted. Serin would believe it when he saw it.

Allister was aware that this undertaking would be expansive, but he figured it out. And should his plan work, it would be the envy of every northern country.

Rachel's task, albeit straight forward, was not the easiest. She had set up an area for the razor pigs. It was fenced off quite well. But when it came to snaring and catching them, the pigs were too quick. If she was trying to take one down, that would be no issue. But taking it alive was another issue. It was then that she thought of something.

Rachel took her bow and fired at a large pig. The shot was a hobbling shot. While the rest of the herd scrambled, this pig couldn't move fast enough. Rachel tied up the pig, removed the arrow, then cast healing and sleep magic. Then she used the auto-cart to move the pig back to the pen and put it inside with fresh food and water.

Rachel smirked at this plan, and deposited the large sow into the pigpen.

This was how she spent her days. Chasing pigs. Catching pigs. Feeding Pigs. Smelling pigs. Her constant grumbling of wanting a place to take a warm bath was understood by everyone, as she smelled like pigs.

***

After several more days, a very irritable Jericho woke up to unfamiliar surroundings. He was in a bunkhouse filled with bunks made of tree saplings, branches, and spruce. Near him as a stone glass of water, some dried meat, and some wild strawberries.

Jericho looked at the meal, then remembered what had happened. He had used his crippling wound as a shield to stay away from life. As he looked at his feet, fresh as can be, he realized it was time for him to grow up and be an adult again. He would stand on his own two feet again.

First he needed to figure out where he was and get his bearings, then see where he could help.

Jericho quickly ate the food and water near his bed, and got up, looked around. He was in a well lit barracks style bunkhouse. He could smell food cooking in a side room he could only assume was the kitchen. He assumed he was in a military outpost. 'Was this place already claimed?' He wondered. Although there was light coming through the uncovered windows, he was more interested in the lights. Small white stones shined on little alcoves illuminating the entire area.

"Like those?" Allister came in. He had a sketchpad in hand "I cast a near-permanent [light] enchantment on them. They are a bother at night though so we had little stone cups made to cover them for sleeping"

Jericho was amazed. "What is this place?"

Allister smiled. "This is our new home Jericho. I feel honored to be the first to welcome you to it."

***

"You see Master Serin, using the design of adding running water in multiple pipes it makes it so that we can create rooms within a building that allow for an individual's washing and sanitary needs."

He was holding up an ancient page, "This design I have always wanted to try. It can be used to move human waste out of a building into a different receptacle. In this way it can be used as fertilizer. And the best part is this can all be processed far away from any settlements so as not to attract rot creatures into the town. Additionally, the physics behind the S bend in the piping ensures nothing can come back up the pipe."

Lord Koni was teaching a class when Jericho walked in. Rachel and Serin were listening intently.

"So Basalt, although great for construction, is no good for winter roofs. The better option is slate."

Allister smiled, "Then why don't we make perma-glass sheets and encase the entire valley?"

Lord Koni laughed, "That would easily take you several lifetimes. Short of a team of enchanters, several glass-smiths, and enough metal to forge weapons and armor for several standing armies, you would also need master level fortification spells. Actually, scratch that. You would have to have a spell mantle built. And those are just fairy tales."

Lord Koni then saw Jericho, "Oh master Jericho, I see you have not expired. A pity. I was truly hoping to add you to our collection" Lord Koni winked.

Serin looked up and smiled. Rachel was looking bored. "So how will we heat the water in the pipes?"

Lord Koni smiled, "As assumed by Allister, the water coming in we have confirmed comes from a portal to the elemental plane of water. Therefore the water rushing out is guaranteed to be pure, and more importantly, it is infinite. It is also coming out at a constant stream and room temperature. This means even in the hardest winters, the water will always flow."

"Yes, but in winter it will be cold when it reaches us." Rachel looked despondent.

"True, but it won't be frozen. We must dedicate at least part of the riverbank as a pump house."

Serin then looked confused. "What's a pumphouse?"

Lord Koni responded "A pumphouse takes in water at a source and then uses the flow of the river to drive mechanics to force the water in directions it was not meant to go. Whether that be into public watering fountains or private bathhouses." Lord Koni then showed a sort of rotatable object made of two pieces of metal. "This is how we can change the water temperature. The water passing through the pipes will be cold, but the pipes will be insulated so that the water never drops below freezing, no mater how cold it is outside. At each point where water can exit there will be valves. The first turns the water on and off. The second rotates this object in a circle. Half of the object is heated to the same temperature as boiling water. The other half is not enchanted. The farther it is rotated into the water's stream, the hotter the exiting water is."

Rachel perked up. "Private bathhouses? With hot water?"

Lord Koni smiled, "Of Course. Enchantment is really about increasing the quality of life. And although I am no longer alive I can remember what a hot bath was like."

Jericho then piped in, "So we are in a foreign land, obviously inhabited by the building style, and instead of defense or offense we are discussing bathhouses?"

Serin then smiled, "Let me catch you up on the situation"

Jericho listened. At first he looked confused, then he looked excited, then apprehensive, then excited again. When Serin was done, Jericho sat for a moment. Then responded, "Do any of those quests involve building a tavern and brewery? Or Vineyard?"

Serin laughed, "I truly think passion is most important here. So if setting up a tavern is what you wish to do, We won't stop you." Serin then pointed to the signpost outside. "If its on that signpost it's up for grabs."

Jericho then asked, "What's everyone working on?"

Allister looked, "I am focusing on agriculture and waterworks. I am making a greenhouse, irrigation plots, running water, and sewage processing. I don't think anyone living would want to work in the sewage processing tasks, so we cans start with skeletonized undead per lord Koni's suggestion, and then move to homunculus when we get the materials."

Jericho then said "We all have vouchers for homunculus, why don't we use those now?"

Serin then answered, "Well we forgot to turn them in, and we cannot redeem adventure's guild quest rewards until we have an adventurer's guild."

Jericho then looked, "What have been the rewards so far?"

Rachel perked up. "Well by making a pig farm I am the only one to accomplish a quest. I received 100 kingdom points and I have no idea which creature to focus on domesticating next. Whenever Serin has spare bandwidth, I bug him for assistance with more delicate pieces that need crafting, as we still have plenty of raw metal from the goblin's weapons."

Serin then smiled, "I am working on roadways and infrastructure. Currently I have built the building you woke up in."

Jericho was amazed, "How long was I out?"

Serin smiled, "about a week. We have a horde of undead goblins to move stone, and I use a few [terramancy] spells to form the stone into the needed shape."

Serin then looked. "I would like to build more beds, but other than the wooden framing, I can't think of what to do for bedding. Or for sheets. Or pillows."

Jericho just laughed. "It's just the 5 of us and 1 of us doesn't sleep."

Serin then said, "Well I don't think that will last long. The spirit said with the perk I selected when we have enough room and supplies for new residents, they shall come to our valley. When we have stockpiled food for the winter, and once we get running water and farms situated, we will be prepared for more residents."

Jericho just looked in awe at the change that had overtaken Serin. A little over a year prior he was a young boy with only his courage versus the world. Now he was preparing to be a leader of a town.

Jericho then smiled, "I better check the board then. "

***

Jericho arrived at the board, and was surprised to see a layout of the future city. Sites had been partitioned off for everyone's current projects. There were also spots for recommended buildings. Serin had included areas for crafters, a central marketplace, a school, and a training yard. Jericho also saw that on the board was a quest to build a tavern. He pulled the quest and used a piece of coal to mark on the map where it was going. "It goes near the signpost of course. Alcohol allows for more courage."

And with that, Jericho started drawing what he would build. Everything was being built out of stone. So he would cut the wood for all of the furniture on the inside.

"Might as well help Serin out and build a few bits of furniture for the bunkhouse."

Although it had been many, many years, Jericho learned woodworking when he was but a youngling.

Jericho started by getting together with Serin. He would need many tools crafted.

***

Serin took a break from laying stone. After building out the first floor of the bunkhouse, he had been building out road guidelines. Even if he didn't fill them in Lord Koni had recommended he figure out where roads go. Figuring out where roads went then then deciding how buildings were laid out. It took several designs, but with input from everyone eventually a consensus was met. Old growth forest was to be implemented into the design plan. Remembering back to the Capitol they just came from, even if the city was built out of stone, it would be well spaced for parks. And districts would be built as they were needed. But they would be partitioned out and designed at a later date based on how residents preferred to live. Because his structure was all stone, he could afford to build up, and did not need to extra space.

However today Serin needed to use his skills to make tools. Although Allister, Jericho, and Rachel were slowly being taught all of the skills and spells Serin knew, it would take its time. And between his magic and advanced [crafting] skills, Serin was best suited. Plus everyone was busy with projects just as important.

So today, it was making tools. Jericho wanted [woodworking] and [textile] tools. Rachel had asked for a few hundred feet of metal wire and rods for fencing. Allister asked for more complex designs, Mostly strange large gearboxes that had to be resistant to water.

"It's gonna be amazing when it's set up."

Serin could only hope. He had trained Allister in [glassblowin], and Allister had used a bit more metal to make a glass press and cutter. With the addition of a little [pyromancy], he was quickly making glass. It wasn't the clearest, and it had some bubbles, but it was consistent in its thickness and when he measured and cut it, it made its shape.

Serin was impressed with the forward progress. Then it sort of hit him. "Allister, we don't have any starter plants or any seeds."

Allister smiled, "It will all make sense when I am done. The reward unlocks seeds in the Kingdom point store. Something you have access to, I believe."

Rachel wasn't having as easy of a time. "I hunt things, I don't make food for them." She had been working on the pigs. They didn't take much work, but they did make a mess. Allister said to make the pig area four times as big as needed and switch the area the pigs were in every few months. And then he said the old pen would have the perfect mix of manure and soil for him to plant additional outdoor crops in.

Meanwhile, Jericho was starting simply. Building beds. He wanted to make one really good bed for himself, and it had been a while, so he started with one and kept building. Part of the dropped loot from the goblins included a [woodcutter's axe], and Jericho had no trouble finding wood. It had been a while, so it took a bit for his first frame to be built. Then he built another. The frames were made of simple thick branches interlocked and braced off the floor. For a mattress he went to the river and pulled cattails and also dried moss over a fire. Then added tanned deer leathers as a comforter, and a few more as hides for when winter came again.

It took him 30 tries to get the frame perfect. It was a good thing he had a bunkhouse to store the beds in. Serin had said something about "expecting company" but honestly Jericho thought that might be something to keep their minds busy.

They were out on their own. In the wilderness. As Jericho saw it this was their guild headquarters, but it was a stretch to call it a nation.

He wouldn't argue with progress. So after the frame, Jericho made mattresses. Then as the deer were felled, he worked their hides.

And as Jericho finished the last bunk, he then went over to start work on his tavern. He decided on making it three stories designed around a spiral staircase, with the 3rd level being a balcony over the city. And so he got to work . The walls and stair may be ok to be stone, but he wanted the floors to be wood. And that would be a lot of cutting and planing of wood.

***

Time went in a flash. Serin was still getting many skill increases, but since combat was non-existent they were mostly limited to a few skills he kept active for advancement and skills for accomplishing goals like [terramancy] spells or [crafting].

Serin was just reviewing his skills. He had steadily increased his intelligence and wisdom, and a bit of agility and charisma, but his other skills had not moved much at all. He was a bit worried because even though his endurance was very high, his strength was not. One extremely well placed blow and he would be history.

So for now he would figure out how to add strength based training into his routine.

'I could dump my remaining level up points into strength. It would give me a significant boost.' While he contemplated this, Allister came over "It's ready".

Serin rolled his eyes. This would be the seventh time Allister said it was 'ready' with something breaking during demonstration. Most of the failures were just non-starts. One had moving water that leaked everywhere, and twice there was an explosion in the pumphouse.

It was Serin's turn to look surprised.

In these months Allister had built greenhouses, plumbing, sewage, and a public fountain. He had also built the facilities with expansion in mind. There was even a bathhouse. However the key ingredient, water, was missing. Serin had built the foundations and structure to specification but Allister had tried and failed several times to get the system to work. And each day he failed he took it upon himself to carry water personally. With an empty promise of a hot water bathhouse, each day that went by Rachel would hit Allister, as she often carried the smell of farm animals home with her.

Today however, fountains poured water for drinking. The bathhouse's stone basin was filled with hot water. And the washrooms that Lord Koni designed moved the sewage to a plant that then began to process it. All of it automated with magic and mother nature. The few undead were given specific repeatable instructions on composting the sewage into fertilizer.

Allister saw that all of the quests he had accepted were completed in a row. He claimed them one by one and was rewarded with Kingdom points for all of them.

With the overload of quests instantly completed, two things happened at once. The first was a notification began to blink on Serin's arm mark for being the current sovereign. He pressed it and saw in the kingdom management screen the notification read "New items unlocked inside the Kingdom Point store".

The second message to appear said. "You have met the current needs of your residents and have met the needs for a group of refugees. Would you like to accept?"

Serin didn't have to think about it. He immediately clicked yes. Almost instantly he brought his defense spells to the ready.

Behind him was a loud blaring sound, followed by the smell of sulfur and black smoke. A gate opened up and the sounds of screaming could be heard. Allister, Jericho, and Rachel readied what magic they had available. They had mistakenly left their main weapons back at the bunkhouse.