Town Builder

Chapter 35: The Brewery

That evening, I started working on some brownstone-style houses for the townsfolk. Jaesmin stayed up with me for quite a while, giving me an ear full. She didn’t want the responsibility! She was too young and too inexperienced! After a while, I told her to go and talk with Kytalia tomorrow. Kytalia was the wife of the Kahn of the orcs, and she should have had a good management style. Kytalia had been my second choice to be Master of Guilds, but the fact was I just didn’t know her well enough.

After my first draft was finished, I reviewed the plans.

Rare Apartment Building, Requires Masonry 23, Masonry Structures 23 (Bonus Morale +5% if all apartments are filled, +10% recovery to stamina)

The three-story structure housed a family on each floor. It wasn’t overly impressive, but I drew a lot from my past life and thought I would get better bonuses. I delved into town morale in my interface. It ranged from -500% to +500%. It had effects on village productivity and revenue, as well as attracting new inhabitants. Wait…each brownstone apartment building gave +5% to morale…could I build 100 of them and get my morale to 500%? Maybe this was a cheat the admins hadn’t discovered yet. Best not to tell Simba…I actually missed the little feline and hoped to see him again soon. My current morale was 165%. Some quick checks, and I found I had lost 20% with the death of Gwen.

I went upstairs and tucked myself in next to Jaesmin. I had been hoping for a little sex, but she was still upset with me for promoting her to Master of Guilds. I just lay there and paged through my screens. I guess I could spend some time reviewing game updates till morning.

I found two interesting things in the updates. Both items are related to town management. The first item was the announcement that the final sensory input stage would coincide with NPC’s complete bodily functionality. Basically, the NPCs would need to eat, poop, and piss. Thankfully, I already had a semi-completed sewer system.

A player could change their individual sensory settings to full or muffled. But even in the muffled setting, they would still receive debuff effects. As for the need to shit and piss for players, the update was listed as pending. I had 11 days before this massive new update hit – Day 114 of my day in the game, as today was Day 103.

I had really been in the VR for 103 relative days. The game launch was on Day 181. I definitely hadn’t made enough progress. I had 77 days to build the town into something that could withstand the player migration to the game.

The second interesting update I found useful was the diplomacy tab’s streamlining. It had been very confusing; all I had was a simple trade agreement with Barrista, an NPC town 15 miles south. Now, I had three tabs: one for just trade agreements, one for faction relations, and one for diplomacy. Under the faction relation, I had three listed.

Relationship

Type

Barrista

56

Town

Stillwater

-5

City

Cleardusk Orcs

-29

Clan

Relationships ranged from -100 to 100. At -100, the population center, kingdom, or clan was likely to treat you as hostile on site. At positive 100, you were considered an ally, and they would aid you if requested. It was very basic, and the notes on the update said the interface would evolve with time. The programmers were just rushing to put structure for game mechanics in place. Mad Dog had mentioned investors were pressuring them to launch the game. All this tweaking of the game did make it better, but even in its current state, it would be a worldwide phenomenon.

When morning finally came, I went with Sanso and Jaesmin to the brewery site. Manto was counting the days the brewery would start to produce ale. He had been hard at work creating weather patterns over the crops to increase yields. Our build took most of the day to finish, much longer than expected, but the final building made it worth it.

Uncommon stone brewery warehouse, 145,000 health, bonus +11 to brewery skill

I didn’t get the +12 to the brewery, but +11 was still a massive boon. I checked my NPC auction and found an expert brewer still there. No one had outbid me on my other NPCs, either. Once I finished the town hall, I should get two more bids in the NPC auction. I checked and didn’t get any new levels to my masonry skills.

Jaesmin spoke, “Well, Tallis, I have about a thousand things to do today. I don’t think I can build anymore.” Her tone was irritable. With her new role as Master of Guilds, she planned to talk with each guild master every day. She even planned to talk with the shipwright, alchemist, and enchanter today. Kytalia, as I had suggested, would join her. She told me outright that she planned to add all three guilds. I think she wanted me to object and then throw a hissy fit, but I just said that was a fantastic idea. It only got her more angry, and she stormed off. I understood virtual women about as well as I had understood real women.

Sanso tried to explain, “Lord Tallis, you have put her in a role for which she is not suited. All of her skills are related to building. She has no free skill slots, so she can not grow into the role.” Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.

“Who should I appoint then?” I asked, seeking advice.

“I do not know. Your village doesn’t have a large population…you may have acted too rashly in naming a Master of Guilds. Gwen did a marvelous job, but your village didn’t need it. Maybe if you had ten or more guild masters… I am sorry I overstep. I am not well versed in administration.” He held up his hands and stepped back.

“No, thank you, Sanso. Never be afraid to offer advice. I think you should work on the sewers today.” I said, and I was about to head out with Titan.

“The sewers are mostly completed for all the buildings in town. The main outlet still needs Persephone’s enchanting work. That waste sluice to the river needs the water purification enchantments.” Sanso said. “I had planned to spend my day making copper coins for the village. My golems have been mining a large surplus.” I nodded, thanked him, and Sanso retreated to his tower, which was two miles to the north. Sanso really was a godsend. He was by far the most compliant NPC I had interacted with in the game.

The elvish sisters saddled up Titan, and I was off to spend my evening grinding scorpions. I made the best speed to the Azul desert to hunt. There was a monster update. They no longer chased me endlessly while I cast my spells. They just returned to their starting location once they were about 100 yards from it.

It meant I needed to do smaller circles, and I could not get as large packs of the scorpions as I grinded from Titan’s back. When the sun was setting, I was 70% of the way to level 19. I hadn’t harvested as much today from the scorpions as I was hoping to rack up the kills to level. At least I was certain that tomorrow I could achieve level 19.

When I returned home, I found Jaesmin buried in paperwork. She gave me an unhappy look. I was probably losing points with her and needed to make a change. I sat next to her and put my arm around her. “Jaesmin, this job is only temporary. Just eight more days, and I will have a replacement for you.” A hopeful look in her eyes sparked, and I kissed her. I didn’t want to use one of the two slots I would gain in the NPC auction house on an NPC for the position, but it was obviously necessary.

Jaesmin gave me an amazing reward that evening in our bedroom. As we were laying together after the passionate sex, she started to tell me about how miserable her day had been. Numerous requests for buildings, village funds for research, and requests for pay raises went on and on. Just listening to her made me want to shoot myself. Eventually, I quieted her by kissing her and snuggling her to sleep.

The next morning, Mad Dag and company returned. It was no surprise I found them eating in the inn. I told them about the updates for NPCs and the sewer system. I was a bit smug as none of them had read that updated information yet. I finally knew something they didn’t.

“Tallis, we got your soul gems but couldn’t find auction house plans. The gems cost a bit more than planned, but the sale of your loot and plans covered it,” he said as he shoved a mouthful of spicy chicken and rice into his mouth. After swallowing, he continued, “Your plans went for 128 gold and 152 gold,” he said nonchalantly. He smiled when my reaction was a look of stunned bewilderment.

Grinder said, “Yeah, the building buffs on your plans were better than those found from dungeon rewards. Only common plans can currently be found in city shops. So right now, you can sell your plans for what the market will bear. Only three parties were bidding on your plans, so you can probably sell at least two more plans for each. Once the game launches, you will be in an ideal position to earn thousands of gold! That is, until the player population catches up to you with their drafting skills. Also, we expect the higher level dungeons will also have exceptional building plans.” He nodded over to Black Beauty to continue.

She said, “We had our friends start getting you legally alive again. It is not going to be simple. It is going to cost more than $100,000 you have. Probably two to three times as much. Lawyers are sharks,” she muttered. “Well, the paperwork is being prepared anyway. The firm we are paying wants full payment before acting though, $250,000.” She said with sadness on her face. “They said additional fees would be around $20,000 but may be higher…”

So I needed to make another $200,000 just to get my rights to my body back? And then I had to pay millions of dollars on top of that to pay back the company for keeping me alive? Now, I know what it felt like to be under an avalanche of debt.

Mad Dog broke my consternation, “I suggest stockpiling your building plans, Tallis. When the big dogs join the game, you should be able to sell your plans for thousands of gold each. They will throw around coins like there is no tomorrow to try and stay on top.”

Black Beauty spoke next, and it seemed she was the one who always gave the worst news, “We have your medical profile from before you were transferred custody. It is not good. Burns on half of your body, both eyes…unusable, your right leg was shattered in the fire as well. The good news is that modern medicine has come a long way, and everything can be repaired or replaced!”

My aged body was a piece of mangled, burnt toast…don’t think like that, I scolded myself. I forced a smile, “That is good news. I hope to return to it and meet you all in the real world one day.” At least I had goals…maybe impossible goals.

“So Tallis,” Mad Dog started with a smile, “We have all decided to help you. Not just us but our entire guild. We are here for you, mate. We don’t have the money, but you can profit from this village. If you grow it enough, there might be a whale out there to buy it for a few million, mate!” They were all nodding.

This seemed a little too good to be true, and Mad Dog continued while grinning, “We will benefit as well. Not just from selling information but also streaming our game POV when the game launches. We are altruistic, just not that altruistic, mate.” He patted me lightly on the shoulder reassuringly.

After a few more minutes of supportive talk from the group, they left to hunt goblins. I went with my soul gems to complete my guard house. I found out quickly that I needed an enchanter to finish the work. I wasn’t sure why the plans didn’t have that in the requirements. I asked Persephone, and she said you just needed an enchanting skill of 7 to embed the soul gems…so no big deal. Yeah, no big deal…what if I didn’t have an enchanter?

I talked with the enchanter for a while about her projects in town. She was working on setting up an alert system on the earthen walls for the guards to respond quickly to trouble. This was more to alert if players crossed them as monsters naturally stayed away. She was also working on the sewage purification but was waiting on supplies. Other than that, she went to individual homes and installed ‘modern magic’ enchantments to improve the lives of the citizens. It all sounded good to me.

With Sanso on copper coins and Jaesmin doing admin work, I was free to go hunting again. I started my morning with Galana and six militia. Apparently, either Tanguin or Galana now stayed in town. One weird thing I noticed is I still received a tiny amount of experience from kills, even if Galana was close… Apparently, NPCs didn’t have the same restrictions as players for experience. So, could I get Galana or Tanguin to power-level me in the dungeon? Only one NPC could join a party, and it was currently more important to level up the militia, so I would experiment later.

The remainder of my day was hunting scorpions. I managed to get to level 19 and about 40% to level 20. I was so close! When I returned to town, I talked for a long time with the townsfolk in the inn while they were eating dinner. According to the townsfolk, Jaesmin was in a foul mood, so I was hiding here rather than going home. I had mostly positive feedback from the townsfolk, and Manto was even excited when the brewery was finished. I told him just seven more days, and our brewer would arrive!

I returned home late and thankfully found Jaesmin asleep. I decided to quietly draft tonight and not disturb her. I was going to take Mad Dog’s advice and start stockpiling building plans to sell. At least I was not going to have to worry about financing my village…that is, until the administrators started increasing upkeep costs to ridiculous amounts. Maybe they wouldn’t do that…

I left before Jaesmin awoke. Getting on Titan took till late afternoon before I finally reached the level I wanted…level 20! The six stat points went straight into magic, and the skill points finally got my masonry skill to the level I had been chasing for so long!

Masonry

41

Masonry: Foundations

34

Masonry: Structures

43

I even had one extra skill point. I could now finish the town hall. But first, I wanted to select my level 20 trait…