CH 44

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Now that there are 100 people and all the major members except for Qubi and Shumer, the real work of building the main base has begun. No, I’m the one who’s going to build it, though, right? It would take years to build a base of this scale by manual labor.

“We can’t rely on Kosuke forever, but we need you to make the first step.”

“Well, yes.”

I don’t want to be the one to do all the work when building the town in the future. In fact, that would be bad in many ways. It’s not a matter of the people’s independence or anything like that; it’s a matter of mass-producing unemployed people.

For the time being, it is necessary to produce enough food to feed about 100 people, so I have to build fields. As for the fields, I plan to build them inside the defensive wall at the time of the first expansion. It will be easier to siege by enclosing a field that can harvest food in the base. The water is inexhaustible, after all.

For the time being, the food can be covered by the 100 people who brought it with them and the amount I have in my inventory. However, the sooner, the better when it comes to the first harvest. I had to spend the whole day working in the fields.

After I planted the seeds in the farm block, the people would take care of the rest. Watering, harvesting, replanting, and so on were all done by hand.

“This area of crops can be harvested in three days… Well, that’s terrifying, isn’t it?”

“The concept of logistics is broken with Kosuke-dono.”

In three days, we can harvest enough crops to feed everyone for the time being, and then we can harvest the same amount in about a week. I think the food storage will be overflowing soon.

“As the number of people increases, consumption will also jump. We need to plan our food production.”

Melty, who was in charge of managing the harvested food, was very serious. As many as three hundred people could starve depending on her decisions, so her responsibility is very heavy. She can’t afford to make any mistakes. It’s painful to be hungry, you know.

“There were no abnormalities in the east. There’s nothing remarkable about it. I’ll try to go a little further tomorrow.”

“There were some decayed buildings in the north. There might be some ruins there.”

“I’ve been looking towards the west, towards that mountain that can be seen from here. The whole area looks like a rocky mountain, and there may be mineral resources lying there. I’ve brought some ore samples with me.”

Of the one hundred people, nearly half were capable of fighting. They form parties of several people and explore the surrounding area. Water and food can be secured at the base, so the search is mainly for mineral resources, ruins, and anything else that might be of value.

“What are the things that might be valuable?”

I asked Sylphy and Isla, who were examining the reports coming in from the exploration team. Me? I was doing that. I’m just taking a break. I’m not skipping work, okay?

“There are ruins around here. The ruins of the Omit Kingdom often lie beneath the wilderness. Most of them are worthless, but there are some rare treasures among them.”

“Besides, due to the disturbance of the spirit power, the spirit power may be unevenly distributed in one point. In such places, special ores can be found.”

“We can use it to trade with the elven villages, and it’s better to keep such supplies for later use. They are useful to us as well.”

“It can be used in alchemy and the making of magical artifacts.”

“I see.”

For Sylphy’s later use, she is probably envisioning a business transaction with people other than elves. Merchants are a tough bunch. If we could get the resources and treasures that lie in the Great Omit Wilderness and the products made by the elves of the Black Forest to trade, even if we are enemies with the Holy Kingdom, there will be some people who will come to do business with us. Maybe.

And so, for about a month, I built the main base.

“Well, I guess things are going well.”

“Thanks for your hard work.”

I looked down at the main base with Sylphy from the top of the defensive wall and muttered to myself. The main base at the time of the first plan was a fortress city covered by a 500m x 500m wall.

In front of us, a stone town ― no, a city ― had been built. The main materials were stones and rocks dug up in the wilderness and stone walls and concrete made by processing gravel and other materials. The buildings looked sturdy, but inside the walls, there was a large field in one corner. Several royal Merinard citizens were working hard in the fields.

The sound of hammering could also be heard from another corner. Looking in that direction, several watermills could be seen spinning. That was the so-called artisan district. Until it took shape, Isla and I and some mages, alchemists, and craftsmen from the Merinard Kingdom had to work together. The city had water, food, and safety, but there was a critical shortage.

“It’s really good to have the fuel problem solved, isn’t it…?”

“There is a limit to how much you can carry from the Black Forest.”

The distance from the Black Forest to this main base is about three days on foot. It would be better to use a carriage or something, but those things are not available with us, and the elves in the Black Forest don’t have them either. And there are no roads. Therefore, we had to carry them, but it was hard work. There was also the danger of being attacked by Gizma.

Fuel such as wood or charcoal is essential for cooking and keeping warm. However, in the Great Omit Wilderness, these are not readily available. There’s nothing but rocks and dirt in the wilderness. Isla, the mages, and the alchemists solved this problem.

“I think we can manage just to cook and keep warm.”

When we discussed the plan to transport firewood, Isla, who was usually relatively quiet, said something like that.

“This city is located at the convergence point of the earth’s veins, or “vein hole.” It’s possible to generate enough magic power from the earth’s veins to cook a meal.”

“The magic power of the earth’s veins, huh…? But is it really that easy to do? That means deploying magic tools in every household, right?”

“With Kosuke’s help, it’s easy. If you can make an alloy of mithril, silver, or copper, it won’t take much effort to make a heat magic tool. The structure is also simple. Absorbing magic power from the earth’s veins is also easy if using an existing warding device. All we have to do is to build magic power accumulators in several places on the ground and distribute the magic power to each facility from there. By processing mithril, we can make a small but large capacity one. The alloy will be a little larger, but it will still be enough for one house at most.”

“I see. Kosuke?”

“If you want to make an alloy, just tell me the proportions, and if the alloy itself has a proper name, then it shouldn’t be hard to make. Combining magical technology with my crafting abilities is also a subject that interests me.”

“That’s certainly interesting. It will also lead to the investigation of Kosuke’s abilities, and the construction of the city should be finished soon. If we succeed, it will also provide jobs for the residents, and I suggest we proceed with the research.”

And so, for the latter part of the month, Isla and the other mages, alchemists, and craftsmen were involved in the development of various tools and processing machines.

”Shall we go to the artisan district?”

“Yes.”

We descended the wall and headed for the artisan district. There is a wide range of products being made in the craftsmen’s district, including household heaters, crossbow arrows, swords, farming tools, kitchen knives, pots and pans, planks made from logs, and woodwork such as tableware. The craftsmen used magical furnaces to extract iron from iron ore and process it and waterwheel-powered processing machines to make various crafts.

“The waterwheel seems to be working well.”

“Yes, it seems to be.”

There are several variations of waterwheel-powered processing machines. There were saws powered by water wheels, lathes for cutting, bellows for blowing air into furnaces, hammers for forging, spinning wheels, millstones for grinding flour, and so on. At this very moment, new processing machines may be in the works.

Incidentally, my workbench could have been upgraded using waterwheel power. Unfortunately, however, I could not move my water-powered workbench from its installation point. That would have caused a lot of problems, so I am now looking for another way.

It is thanks to the infinite water source that we are able to operate so many water wheels. The infinite water source has allowed this base to have a certain amount of production capacity even without me. Of course, it’s faster for me to do the processing of each item.

However, the fuel problem can be solved with the heat magic device, but we still need to be able to procure wood as a material. I wonder if we should plant trees outside the main base. If I use the farmland block, the trees will probably grow at a high-speed rate. I wish I had an abundance of bones so I could try out that cheat item. Gizma’s shell couldn’t be processed into that.

“If we have food, water, a safe place to sleep, and the ability to produce, we’ll be fine for now.”

“Yes, I think we can get by without relying on Kosuke’s abilities. There’s still a lot of things missing, though.”

“Now that the main base is complete, the next step is the front-line base… which is where my true potential will come into play.”

“That’s right. And after that, the operation will finally begin.”

Sylphy’s eyes become sharp. For Sylphy, the future is the critical moment.

The front base was to be built in the heart of the Great Omit Wilderness; two days walk from the main base. Although there were frequent attacks by Gizma, the experience of building several relay bases and strongholds was put to good use in the construction of the front base. Here’s how it went.

・Intermediate Builder ― Installed a total of 5,000 building blocks. ※Unlocked the Blueprint feature.

I didn’t understand it at first. What is the Blueprint function? That’s what I thought. But considering that placing blocks in symmetrical mode was also unlocked at the time of the beginner builder achievement, I’m pretty sure it’s a feature that saves time and effort in the building system.

I looked at the menu from top to bottom and figured out what the hell the Blueprint feature was.

“Hahahahaha! Now I don’t have to worry about setting up a base anymore!”

With a single action, I could set up barracks, erect walls in 10-meter increments, and set up relatively complex gates. There’s no need even to dig a hole to set up the walls, all of which can be done in one action.

In other words, the blueprint function was a function that allowed the registration of building templates and the installation of buildings from those templates. In short, it is like a copy and pastes function for buildings.

By registering frequently built buildings in Blueprints, they can be installed instantly whenever desired as long as materials are available. Once the main base is blueprinted, it can be set up in its entirety in an instant whenever desired, as long as materials are available. As long as you are willing to do so.

“In this way, setting up buildings consumes a lot of materials.”

“So you end up digging, right?”

“Yes.”

Even if the installation is easier, in the end, I still have to dig for materials by hand. The first time I built a building, I had to make it by myself. There are plenty of stones and earth that can be found in the wilderness when digging for building materials. I also wanted to build a moat, so I had to replenish my supply of building materials while building the moat.

Normally, I would dig a hole to build a wall and replenish the building materials in the process, but when I use the blueprint function to build a wall, I don’t need to dig a hole. In this case, the building materials were insufficient because they were installed without digging holes.

“Where is the ground that was pushed to the foundation of the wall…?”

Isla was holding her head as she dug up the foundation of the barrier with earth magic. It’s a good idea to dig, but make sure you do it right.

The front-line defense base is the second largest after the home base at 250m x 250m per side and can be garrisoned by about 150 people. There are three ballistae on each of the four corner ridges, four ballistae on each of the two city gates, and ballistae on the defensive wall at intervals of about 10 meters, for a total of 116 ballistae. When all of them are in operation, the total firepower can be estimated.

“If we can’t get any people to come here, it will be like a papier-mache tiger.”

“It’s true that just three hundred people can’t operate a base of this size.”

Sylphy smiled bitterly at my words. Since the maximum number of ballistas alone is 116, if three people are assigned to each ballista, that alone will be more than enough manpower for 300 people. If we can’t secure enough manpower for the upcoming liberation operation, we won’t fully utilize our defensive base.

“To operate this place properly, we need at least 500 people.”

“That’s right… I hope we can get that many people.”

“But I think we’ll be fine with Sylphy as our leader. Sylphy is a princess, after all.”

“…I hope so.”

Sylphy looked sternly at the direction of the Merinard kingdom beyond the horizon. It’s something that’s hard to feel confident about. Apparently, she doesn’t really like her position as the princess of the Merinard Kingdom or something like that.

The people of Merinard at the Elf Village call her Princess and respect her, but she herself seems to feel uncomfortable being addressed as such.

She hadn’t paid much attention to it until now, but now the time to fight against the Holy Kingdom is approaching. Should we take a step forward and ask about the situation? That’s what I thought as I looked at Sylphy’s profile lit up by the setting sun.