Rugrat had unknowingly memorized most of the information, so he hadn’t had such a big change like Erik.
Erik was just about to go out to order ingredients for the Age Rejuvenation pill when he got a message from Old Hei.
“Meet me at tester room 41A. I got the ingredients but it’s time that we practiced!”
“I’ll be there shortly,” Erik said.
Chapter: Academic Achievement
The council was gathered once again. In the background, one could see the three-story tall cookhouse with smoke coming out of its chimneys. Although there was plenty of room, once the staff learned of the new abilities of the cookhouse, the building turned into a madhouse. Assistants from the cooking department went in, gathering completed meals, and sold them in the food hall, which was actually a large seating area that butted up against the first trading square.
The people from the cooking department, without their cookhouse, had spent their time reviewing the information that had been brought back from the battlefield dungeon. As soon as their facilities were completed and they learned about the new testing facilities, they dove in, testing out their new ideas, without worrying about losing ingredients. Instead of having to wait hours for something to finish cooking, they could speed it up in the test so it only took seconds. This allowed them to test ranges in temperatures and times with regards to their effects on their cooking.
The testing rooms came with an additional power requirement, making the people needing to use them pay Mana stones or monster cores to use them. Seeing as many people didn’t have either, they paid a higher fee in gold to use power from the dungeon. The time and the saved resources were still worth much more.
Since the battlefield dungeon had been active, they had an influx in power and the dungeon’s storage array looked healthier than ever, allowing them to sell some of the excess power to the residents.
The testing facilities allowed people to review the recipes—and even make their own—and test their abilities without wasting ingredients and resources. They even had a playback feature so the crafter could see what they had done wrong in real time and then look to fix it.
The entire system allowed them to improve at a much faster rate, without the loss in ingredients.
Yes, it cost money, but money was easier to get than high-class ingredients. That was another aspect to the cookhouse. It had preparation areas where the different ingredients could be brought in and processed, bringing them to a higher quality, improving the recipes that they were used in. The rough flour from before had all of the chaff and grit now removed.
With higher control over the base materials, the final product could only increase in quality.
“The Zatan Confederation is essentially falling apart. With the combination of old rivalries being ignited and people throwing the blame around, their tribes are no longer staying together. With no leader to rally them and put them in their place, it is becoming worse every day. As they are fighting their internal battles, the countries that they took the land from are moving swiftly through their lines, cutting them down, using the information we supplied to them through Aditya.
“In their eyes, Aditya’s standing has risen, putting him in a place to gather more allies and affirm his neutral position and continued sales to them and others. I suspect that Vermire Trading Outpost will grow in popularity with time,” Glosil reported, his information surpassing just the military matters of what was happening. “The parties and teams are on their way back to us. Chen will remain with one party in Vermire to make sure that the situation is stable before returning to the dungeon. Jen reports that the position of the Alva Healing House in Vermire is now unassailable. It is seen as a pillar of Vermire, not just for the entire city going into a battle against a nation for them, but also for the fact that they were on the front lines, healing people and looking after the wounded. The casualties on the side of the Vermire Trading Outpost were incredibly low. Chen’s observations also substantiate her report.” Glosil, having finished his report, sat back down.
“So, Aditya has won a war for us,” Elise said with a complicated expression.
“Making them look strong draws eyes toward them and away from us,” Egbert said.
“Indeed.” Elise left it at that and turned to look at Jasper. “What of the teleportation arrays?”
“The majority of them have been placed within a day’s hike of several major cities across the First Realm. We can use these to access their Ten Realms totems, or to trade. A number of merchants are asking if they can use these to carry out their trades—at a fee, of course.”
“Make sure that you figure out a fee, but we will not be accepting gold for it. Teleportation is power intensive. We might soon need that power for all of the buildings here, and we are accepting gold and other items instead of cores and Mana stones in too many places,” Elise said firmly.
“I will inform them.” Jasper nodded. “There are also a large number of merchants who wish to head to the Second Realm.”
Blaze raised his hand just as Elise was about to talk.
“If I may—I might have a way to solve this. There are a number of people who have joined with the combat troops and parties to increase their Strength but they do not want to be part of the Alva military. For a time, we have been thinking what to do with them. Instead of thinking up our own solution, I thought of stealing one: the Adventurer’s Guild. They create a headquarters for people from all over; one can register there to issue jobs or take them on. Say a trader wants to head to the Second Realm—they add the mission to the board and then people apply; the traders agree and they go off to the Second Realm. We cannot be sending our people out on trade runs all the time. Scouting missions or to go undercover, it makes sense, but every mission? We would turn into bodyguards instead of soldiers,” Blaze said.
“I also want to propose a Mission Hall for the academy, so that people inside the academy can provide missions or services for one another, or that people from outside the academy can do the same. That way, students can take on paying jobs while at the academy and people can get what they need. Right now, we’ve got a request system with people coming up to the academy workshops and asking for items to be made. It works but I want to move the business somewhere else so we can focus on just working on commissions and projects in our workshops,” Taran said.
“Create a Mission Hall, a Supply Hall, and a Trading Hall,” Egbert said. “As the headmaster might not know, I don’t have that much room in these old bones or time to be handing out goods and items to students, so we need a Supply Hall to give out the various supplies to our students. I have already created a system; it just needs to be implemented. The Trading Hall takes the products from the academy and puts them up for sale, a place where business people can meet. Also, I suggest that we create another school, not one that deals with crafting but one that teaches the basics of mathematics, reading, writing, and so on.”
“I agree, but any expansion must come from the academy. The blueprint office will write up the blueprints and you will hire the construction workers and power the automatons for their time. The cost of the cookhouse has hit our budget rather hard. We are also hemorrhaging money, buying expensive supplies from the people coming from the battlefield dungeon. Have we had any movement on this?” Elise asked.
“Movement might be an understatement,” Egbert said.
“What Egbert means to say is that there has been an explosion of creativity going on within the academy with all of the crafters.” Taran paused, as if searching for the right words.
“And what he means to say is that most of the people in the academy have kind of become quiet because they are spending their time reading the unknown books that have been found in the battlefield dungeon. I’ve had to break up three fights over books so far. Then they are working with the recently available blueprints, formulas, and recipes that they have. It has become something of a tipping point. Before now, most of them were grasping at straws and h
igher concepts that were hard to understand; now they’re getting books and information that bridges the gap between what they know and what they have gleaned from these higher concept items left by the gnomes. It is as if they were stuck on a path that had a beginning and end, but nothing in the middle. Now they are able to see traces of the link between the two, so their ability is undergoing great change.
“It will take time for them to digest the information. With the battlefield dungeon teams coming back with more information and more blueprints, they can practice their knowledge, affirming their theories into fact and advancing. To put it simply, their information before was a big log and a little bit of kindling; now they’re adding much more kindling and putting down smaller logs, growing bigger and bigger, creating an inferno before they drop that big log in.
“In the area of Alchemy, five new concoctions have been created and four new mutated plants created. The farmers have been able to increase their crops’ growth speed by five percent. The blueprint workshop has started to take on weapon planning and manufacturing based upon the weapon system that Rugrat had drawn out and the rifle he left with us. New, updated repeating ballistas are in the works. There have been two more people turned Journeyman level in their skill. Three healing spells have been found and a new path of Mana Gathering Cultivation is being studied. The cookhouse has turned into a sort of holy ground. The tailors have come up with a new way to make leather armor and padding so that its defense is increased by three percent.
“The formation workshop thinks they have a plan to reduce the power needed for each of the buildings in Alva Dungeon. The woodworkers have been working with the tailors, the smiths, and blueprint team to make a new bow that is half again as strong as its original design. Though the reckless bastards want to increase its power. Some of the alchemists and smiths have been working together with the blueprint office to make a poison grenade—really kind of them. So while the bunch of crazy academics might look quite tame, the evil scheming buggers are making weapons of mass and total destruction!” Egbert sounded as if he were complaining, but his eyes were glowing brighter and it looked as though he were smiling.
“Hey, man, watch out for Skeletor over there—looks to be getting one of his crazy ideas again.” Glosil elbowed Blaze.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got my power sword right here.” Blaze tapped his sword.
“I can hear you!” Egbert said.
“Mighty strange with no ears, don’t you think?” Glosil asked, eyes narrowed.
“Yes, quite,” Blaze said.
Elise rolled her eyes at their antics.
“Could you get those plans from the formation workshop and put them to the test? Anything that can save us power is a win in my books,” Elise said. “Though that brings up one more thing that we should talk about—overworking! Our people have been busting their asses to work so hard and there is little that they have here to be comfortable. The kids get a free education until they are fifteen, learning about the available crafts as well as simple numbers to take the strain off their parents and allow them to find friends and socialize. Yes, we have the houses and a few tea shops and restaurants, but we all came from the ground up. We’re used to wide open spaces, places with plants and greenery. So I am proposing that we put in a plan to have a few parks built. Open up part of the growing area, have benches and the like or a few gazebos so people can go somewhere to relax or to play games. Have events for people to join in, like our old harvest festivals, mid-winter festivals, summer gatherings, and such.
“Have places for people to be outside and studying in the academy and a park near the healing house. If all everyone is doing is working, it’s no wonder that they want to go to the other realms or to the rest of this realm because they’re trapped in here.”
The others seemed shocked with her idea at first but then started to nod.
“I didn’t think of it like that but it makes sense to me. Stress can pile up and become a hindrance more than help,” Taran admitted.
“There have been a number of people who have felt so pressured by their jobs and trying to reach for the future that they are forgetting their current needs,” Egbert said.
“So we’ll commission those green spaces. I’ll have a talk with Xuan and see if he and Fehim can come up with some places for people to just relax. Also, Jasper, look at renting the area around the parks, places with food, teas and the like so people can spend more time there,” Elise said.
“And the taxation won’t be bad either,” Jasper said.
“Once a merchant,” Glosil said.
“Always a merchant,” Blaze followed up.
Elise rolled her eyes as they focused on all of their industries and their specialties. They had forgotten to take time for themselves, so having places where they could relax and get together, where they could blow off steam from the week and have something to look forward to would help.
“Also, we have more recruits coming to us and with the traders who are returning, our population will balloon with nearly one hundred new people,” Jasper said. “With the recent fighting that has been going on, not just with Zatan but other places of conflict, the people living there have been displaced. Most of them are from a single village not too unlike our own, where they were attacked by bandits.”
Everyone’s faces hardened.
“Most of them are injured in some way and have nothing left. They’ll be a burden on the system at first, but as they start to enter into our businesses, I don’t suspect it will be long before they contribute much more back to Alva than we gave them,” Jasper said.
“We must be fair, to treat everyone who arrives here the same way. It is dependent upon their ability to improve.” Elise didn’t want to say the words, but it was her role to not only expand Alva but look after the wellbeing of its people. The new and the old both must be treated with fairness.
***
Storbon and Roska waited in the eating hall, looking around at Alva Dungeon. They had only been gone for a short period, but, as with every other time they had left, the dungeon seemed to have undergone a large change. The academy was filled with people talking, studying, and rushing from the lecturehalls, workshops and facilities to the library and then back again.
The library was silent and if any dared to speak aloud, they would soon feel the death glares from others.
In the busy workshops and facilities, one could hear only the sounds of working and discussion between people as they shared knowledge and worked on projects together.
People were running constantly to find Egbert to get supplies or sending runners to the merchants who resided next door in the merchant market.
Most of the money that they had accrued in the last couple of months was flowing to the merchants as the people of the academy increased their knowledge, starting out on new projects and creating new items.
The cookhouse was filled with bustle. The assistants dealt with buying supplies for the students and also running the cafeteria as all of the students had dedicated themselves to increasing their cooking ability with the new testing facilities.
A cask of mulled wine was opened as fall was coming. It would not be long until fall turned into winter, causing the Beast Mountain Range to calm as the beasts went into hibernation and the mercenaries and foraging groups stayed inside the warm walls of the mountain’s outposts. For Alva Dungeon, the temperature would drop outside but the dungeon would never reach freezing, remaining warm enough for people to continue working year round.
Roska and Storbon got some mulled wine and sat down, looking at the three-story tall cookhouse.
“Well, it’s not so small anymore.” Storbon appraised the building.
“Thinking about taking up cooking?” Roska asked.
“I think the best I can do is semi-charred something.” Storbon laughed.
“You and me both,” Roska said, relaxing now that it was just the two of them. Away from the fighting and not in the middle of a life-and-death sit
uation, she had actually learned how to let down her icy exterior when with her team or with the other special teams. They had all been through the shit, dealing with the kind of stuff that few other people could attempt to understand.
Before, she hadn’t had friends, she hadn’t had a family. But now she’d been able to find one. With Storbon, she saw him as a sort of brother. He had been wounded like her, maimed not by his making but he had suffered through, becoming the man she saw now.
When they talked, he talked to her as an equal, searching out her opinion and valuing her insight. It didn’t matter her sex but her mind to complete the mission.
“So I heard you snuck right into the lord’s manor and dropped a pack of explosives into her fireplace?” Storbon grinned.
“Yeah, talk about worst night’s sleep ever. Didn’t have nearly enough Detect Life scrolls, nearly got smoked out being right next to the chimney!” Roska complained, taking a big swig of her drink.
“I heard that it was enough to blow out nearly the entire second floor,” Storbon asked.
Roska rolled her eyes. “I’ll tell you one thing: Han Wu might be good at making explosives, but sometimes they’re a bit too effective. Not long after I left the place, the third floor became the second and it all came crashing down. So I got him to plant explosives in some of the walls, sewers, and stuff—make it a real nasty place to live.” Roska couldn’t help but snort.
“Seems that the kingdom, since the last plague, really updated their plumbing and water works—general bathrooms that flushed out of the city, gutters that did the same. He dropped one package into the main cistern—dud, dropped in water—no way that will go. So he picked one of the runoff pipes—well, several of them—and dropped explosives into those. Apparently water acts a bit strange when you set off explosives in it—it kind of makes waves. So the explosives went off and what was supposed to be exiting the city, shot back up into it then the water inside the city was shot forward, so some poor bastards who were on the toilet got an express wash!” Roska snorted, just thinking of the imagery. “Apparently nearly a quarter of the toilets and sewers in the city turned into shit-geysers!”
The Third Realm Page 46
