NOVEL NEXT Volume 10 4
Together with Ruhe, I travelled to Avalon’s new residential district.
My dungeon had two parts: the city floor and the dungeon proper. The dungeon proper was simply the term I designated to all the dungeon floors that wasn’t the city floor. It was originally purely for defense, but it wasn’t limited to just that anymore.
As for the city floor, until recently, it consisted of two [Plains] room—the first of which was where Avalon was first built and the second was an extension of the city where the casino was placed—and a [Mine] room that was hidden from the humans.
For a while now, housing shortage has been becoming a more and more serious issue in the city of Avalon. Between the residents’ houses, the many stores as well as the residence units for the employees of those stores, and more, not much land within the city was left.
And even though I added a second [Plains] dungeon room, it was mostly for the casino, the hotels, and the new stores. Sadly, that also meant that the residence units for the employees of the casino as well as of those hotels and new stores had to be built in the first dungeon room, making the housing shortage even worse.
That was the state of things for now. Of course, sooner or later, there would be others wanting to move here or open their own stores. We were somehow managing with what little space was left, but if we let things be, we would eventually have to turn them down no matter how popular of a store they had or how much they wanted to live here.
That meant a decline or even a halt in Avalon’s population growth, which in turn meant a possible stagnation in my DP income. Such was a luxury I couldn’t afford.
So, before things come to that, I replaced the [Mine] dungeon room in the city floor with yet another [Plain] dungeon room. To be built there was another residential district.
I needed to discard a dungeon room—having another [Mine] room made it easier, but still—as well as pour manpower and other resources to build the new residential district, but if my estimates were correct, it should house more people than the first residential district.
After a while, Ruhe and I arrived at the newest [Plains] room.
Our guides for today were a Dwarf Smith and a High Elf. They bowed upon meeting up with us, so I bowed back.
From where we were standing, which was on a hill, we could see the whole of the new residential district. Upon seeing it, Ruhe was round-eyed with amazement.
"Woow. Patron, I see a whole lot of houses. But wait, what are those? Those three monstrously big houses there."
"Those three are called apartment buildings. Each building could house about two hundred people. Well, so long as those people lived by themselves or with just one other person since each offered unit is not that spacious. On the other hand, each one’s really cheap. I’ll put all the units up for auction, and let the merchants resell or lease it out, essentially making them do the work of finding the tenants. As for the orthodox houses you see, they’ll be generally marketed toward families. Each house is going to be priced according to the market price in Avalon. In other words, they’re going to be cheap."
If I just wanted to attract new citizens, I could simply offer each unit for dirt cheap and do nothing else but wait, but knowing the merchants, they would come up with all kinds of schemes to sell all of the rooms in no time.
The houses and the apartment buildings weren’t all that was prepared though. Through the cooperative efforts of the Dwarf Smiths and the High Elves, infrastructures such as water and wastewater services were also in place.
Thanks perhaps to the knowledge they gained from the infrastructures already present in the city, they were able to prepare all of it without ever relying on Rorono or Aura’s help. The Dwarf Smiths and the High Elves really did a marvelous job.
"Still, I’m surprised it’s built already"
"Yeah, I am too. The Dwarf Smiths and the High Elves really put their backs into it. Though I guess their increased numbers helped too"
I had gained a few more DP, so I decided to create more Dwarf Smiths and High Elves to speed things up. And thanks to the expert guidance of the more veteran ones, work was finished even sooner.
Initially, I planned on selling nothing but plots of land—no houses or building—so that laborers and carpenters living in the city could also prosper, but the pressure of the housing shortage in the city made me give up on such notions.
Not completely though. Because we built only enough houses to satisfy the demand for the foreseeable future, there were still plots of land for the humans to build their houses themselves.
By the way, one of the reasons that convinced me to build the apartment buildings was to lessen the number of houses built for one or two people. If I left all of the construction work to the humans, the new residential area would be full of such small houses in no time.
"With this many houses, all the humans that want to live in Avalon would now be able to, wouldn’t they?"
"Yes, for a time. I expect the already-built houses to last us for a year, while the apartment buildings should last for two."
"...only that long?"
"The immigration boom we’re experiencing is that strong. It depends on what we do with the still-vacant land, but the residential district shouldn’t be full until the five years later."
Of course, it was a different story if we added more apartment buildings, but it was better to watch and see first before doing so.
"But this is the third dungeon room of the city proper, right? You know, where the entrance to the dungeon proper is. Is it really okay to let humans live here? Won’t they be a bother when the Darkness Dragons and such have to deploy?"
As mentioned, even though Avalon was a city, it was still a dungeon.
There were a great number of things in the dungeon proper that I didn’t want the humans to see. In fact, I didn’t even want the humans to know the dungeon proper existed.
"That won’t be an issue. Before that, have you noticed that gigantic building over there?"
"Yeah, it’s hard not to. What is it?"
"I think it’ll be quicker to just show you. Come."
I said so and then headed east.
After a while of walking, a white gigantic dome was in front of us.
It had a diameter of 300meters and could easily accommodate more than 10,000 people.
"If land’s so scarce, why build this, patron?"
"Because it’s necessary. This dome is connected to the dungeon proper, you see. So, without the humans ever noticing, we could gather our troops in there. When we’re ready to depart, the dome’s ceiling will open up, allowing the Darkness Dragons to fly out while carrying the containers we will be riding."
The dome should be wide enough to accommodate my monsters as they were preparing to board the Darkness Dragons.
There should be no risk of humans inadvertently suffering from the Darkness Dragons’ [Fear] skill either.
"But what if a human somehow slips in?"
"Then, they’ll be killed. We’ll make sure they know that this is an absolutely no-entry zone for them. Look there. For their sake, we even have signs saying Unauthorized entry is a crime punishable by death, by order of the city’s lord, Procell"
"You know, patron, sometimes you say such bizarre things. Or is weird more accurate?"
Weird? How rude.
At any case, I had no worries. Avalon-Ritters were constantly keeping watch within the dome. If anyone other than us or those we have authorized were to enter, the Avalon-Ritters were to go into a seek and destroy mode. Not to mention, other defense mechanisms were also in place.
It would be unkind to kill the humans with nothing but some signs to warn them, which they might not even notice, so I planned on properly notifying the public that the dome was strictly off-limits.
It was impossible for them to get inside accidentally due to the very specific method required for entry, so anyone still curious after our warnings would have no one else to blame for their deaths but themselves.
"Yup, they really did a great job."
Looking at the white dome, I couldn’t help but think how marvelous it was.
It’s so like a secret base! The gimmick where the ceilings open is such a nice touch too.
Ruhe still in tow, I entered the dome.
At the center was a field covered with lovely sod. And surrounding the field were rows of seats.
Hey, maybe we can hold some kind of sporting event here.
It wasn’t in the plans, but I just decided to go ahead with it.
"Woah, the entrance to the dungeon proper really is here. Wait, is it me or is the entrance kind of bigger now?"
"Yeah, it is bigger now. I remade it so that the Darkness Dragons would have an easier time passing through. Not only that, I’ve also modified the very first room of the dungeon proper so that it’s wide and tall enough to let the Darkness Dragons pass while they’re flying at a low altitude. Of course, to compensate for the added space, I also added more Mithril Golems to guard the room."
Until recently, the dragons found it a bit hard to go from the dungeon proper to the city floor by themselves.
Once they were in the city floor, they typically stayed in what used to be the [Mine] area and only go back if absolutely necessary. In fact, nowadays, if they did have to go from one side to the other, it would be via Transfer or by being carried in my [Storage].
Hopefully, with these renovations, they could say farewell to those hardships forever and be freely able to go back and forth.
"Are they opening the ceiling now?"
Any of my monsters could open and close the dome’s ceiling by pouring a small amount of their magic power into it. By the sound I heard and the light beginning to pour in, it seemed like some of my monsters were operating the ceiling while we were still inside the dome.
After a while, I saw that it was a lone Darkness Dragon. It looked proud but also in quite of a hurry. As soon as the ceiling opened wide enough, it dove down right away, straight to the entrance to the dungeon proper.
I was able to make sense of the situation thanks to the medal attached to it. The medal was undeniable proof that it won a race, most likely just now. As such, it must be excited to start on the all-you-can-eat feast waiting for it in one of the [Forest] rooms.
A few moments later, a group of Darkness Dragons who were to participate in the next race came flying out from the dungeon proper. Each one was visibly motivated to win that feast in the [Forest]. Yup, the next race is going to be exciting too.
After the last of the dragons came out, the ceiling closed.
"Well, it’s definitely convenient, but for a flashy gimmick, it’s, how do I put it, quite plain."
"We’ll only regret it later if we don’t make these kinds of things simple. Now then, I think that should be enough for our inspection. From tomorrow onwards, we’re gonna be selling the apartments, the houses, and the plots of land. If all goes well enough, we’re about to see another spike in Avalon’s population."
After today’s inspection, I had no doubt that the merchants would be smitten by this new residential area. They would smell the scent of profit right away and pounce on it.
"You know, I’ve been thinking, since we have this dome and all, how about next time, all of us do some drills. We could see how fast it would take us to gather within this dome and sortie outside."
"Patron, I know you have many valid reasons, but I think you’re saying this just because it tickles your fancy. Why do I always have to be the reasonable one?"
"I’m not going to deny I think it’s cool, but it’s productive, right?"
After parting with our guides, I and the somewhat exhausted Ruhe began walking toward the populated part of the city. It has been a while, but I was thinking of using [Divine Revelation] to tell the whole city about the new residential district.
Before we realized it, we were back.
Ruhe was so tired, she murmured something about wanting to sleep as soon as possible.
At that, I decided to tease her a bit.
"Oh, you’re turning in already? We finished the inspection much earlier than expected, so I thought we could go to that one restaurant that offered this rare alcohol made of rice. Even though it’s made of rice, it smells all fruity, you know. And, boy, does it pair well with seafood. But if you’re too tired, I guess there’s nothing we can do about that. Such a shame."
"Eh!? Did you just say alcohol made from rice?! It’s decided then, we’re gonna go drink that! Tired? No, no, you misheard me. Is this the face of someone tired? Definitely not. So, come on, patron, come on! Let’s go to that restaurant and drink that alcohol!!"
Ruhe linked arms with me and urged me to hurry. Not a trace of tiredness could be found on her excited face.
Seriously, she’s such a materialistic girl.
But then again, it was thanks to her that Avalon’s secrets remained safe. There was nothing wrong with pampering her from time to time.
Thinking like that, the two us headed to that restaurant. Tonight, we’re going to drink as much as we want!