Running Solo

As Grant walked through the town heading for the dungeon room, he looked over the document that Jerrod had passed on too him.

The 'council' as Grant had dubbed them after spending the past few hours with them, had asked for a few specific things and made suggestions / requests about a few others.

The first and most difficult thing that the council had requested was a massive 2000 acre area for farm and cattle rearing.

Grant had no idea how expensive it would be to create such a large area, but he knew it wasn't going to be cheap.

He had told Jerrod that it may not be feasible to execute all their plans immediately and that he would go by the order in which they had recorded their requests and that he would fulfill each of them in order until he had ran out of mana.

The second highest priority that the council had, surprised Grant.

They had actually requested an area of about 200 acres to be set aside for their apocalyptic Vegas plan.

Of course it wasn't going to be purely gambling and other sordid activities, but more of a night life / 'vacation' spot for the towns inhabitants to visit on their days off.

The council had agreed that prostitution would remain illegal at the current time but would revisit the topic at a later date.

At the current moment, the settlement was well enough off that people didn't need to go to such great lengths to get food or other things necessary for survival.

Of course, the town had people that didn't want to contribute for various reasons, but they hadn't been completely ignored.

Grant had initially planned to leave those people to fend for themselves, but the council had actually voted to help them for the time being.

Some of them were merely suffering from depression due to losing loved ones or were overwhelmed by fear of the current circumstances of the world which they didn't feel warranted any more suffering.

The council had committed to developing some sort of rehabilitation facility to assist people who were suffering from mental distresses or conditions so that they could overcome their difficulties and contribute to the town.

Grant was surprised that even in these dark times, their were people who were still willing to do whatever it took to help their fellow humans.

Of course, the town itself was an embodiment of that very mentality but Grant hadn't really paid much attention until that moment.

For the first time, Grant was truly proud that he had not abandoned the people of his town to their own devices.

Sure, it was a lot of work to maintain and care for a growing town and it's people, but he finally started to realize it was truly worth the effort.

As Grant arrived at the dungeon core, he scanned over the rest of the list.

It was an assortment of plant seeds and animals that they were hoping the dungeon could provide.

Everything from cows, chickens and pigs to horses, fish, and deer.

Many of the seeds were a variety of your typical farming products like corn, beans, wheat, and cotton.

The list was extremely detailed and Grant was once again impressed by the thoroughness of the council.

{Welcome to the Dungeon Editor for the Earth side of the Earth & Renrarth Dungeon.

To view any of the following options, simply speak their name out loud or focus on them:

Dungeon Interior

Dungeon Layout

Dungeon Defenses

Transfer To Renrarth

Mana available for dungeon modifications or transfers: 10475}

Grant was surprised to see the mana available had topped 10 thousands but he figured that one of the expedition teams had probably ran into a fortuitous opportunity and managed to down a few Enlightened Tier monsters.

Grant quickly navigated the menu and pulled up the menu to create new dungeon area.

{You are about to spend 5000 mana to create a 2000 acre farming area, please say yes if you agree.}

With a slight pause at the reasonable price point, Grant said, "Yes."

{Process has begun. Land will be available in 24 hours.

Would you like to change the topography of the area?}

"Yes, change to soil."

{Understood. That will be 250 additional mana. Do you agree?}

"Yes"

{Topography changes will be completed when the area is built. Would you like to continue making adjustments to the dungeon?}

"Yes"

Grant spent the next hour going through all of the lists and making the necessary purchases based on the list the council presented.

Thankfully he was able to afford all of the changes to the space but began to run out of mana when he got to the livestock and seeds that were requested.

He had looked at what it would cost to create a lake but it the cost was astronomically more than expanding just the land itself.

Grant figured that was probably because the dungeon simply needed to encroach on the surrounding area to absorb more land, but to create water from nothing probably needed more mana.

The cost of the water meant that fish and other wildlife that could only survive in a water environment were out of the question.

Of course, all the wildlife would need water to survive but they didn't need to live in water to survive so the council probably had an idea of how to get them the amounts they needed.

Eventually, Grant bought 4 of every animal on the list that could survive in the existing environment and then spent the rest of the mana on seeds to be grown in the upcoming farms.

Why four of each animal? Well, wouldn't that expedite the breeding process? What if the two animals he received didn't get along and never procreated?

After being satisfied with his purchases, Grant returned to the Town Hall and informed Jerrod and the council of what he had been able to purchase.

When they received the large sack of seeds they were surprised. They honestly had expected to have to wait until the next round of spending before they received them.

They were even more surprised when they realized that the animals would be delivered by the dungeon into the new area for farming.

Grant had been able to designate their spawn location when he purchased them which turned out to be super convenient.

The council immediately got to action when they received the news.

Grant smiled at the looks of determination on everyone's faces.

Rather than linger any longer and delay their work, he turned around and walked out of the Hall and towards the dungeon entrance.

[With all the administrative stuff momentarily handled.... it's time to train!]

{Are you not going to be bringing anyone along with you?}

[What are you talking about Sherlock? I got you and Maximus with me all the time!

I'll never be running solo again!]