Town Builder

Chapter 41: What You Have, Others Will Want

The trader had returned to Malcum. I looked around at the people searching his wares and saw Zion grin as he inspected a small flock of mismatched sheep with a grin. I decided I needed to handle this first, so I approached Zion. Zion spoke first, “Lord Tallis, quite the little flock you have here. Think you will be competing with me on the markets for goat cheese and wool?” He was all smiles and clearly knew that I had doubled up on his quest.

Best not to make it too easy for him to get the sheep, “Master Zion, I do, in fact, plan to start my own wool and goat cheese business. I used your quest as a baseline to determine what varieties I needed to start with.” I smiled at him, and the dwarf barber grin was fading. “But perhaps you would be interested in buying out your competition before it starts?” I offered with a smile on my face.

It took Zion just a few seconds before he nodded, and his smile returned, “Aye, Lord Tallis. I will offer you a fair price for these fine animals. Let’s say 30% of the wool from all my stock for the next year.” He looked expectantly at me for an answer.

I knew he sold meat, wool, and cheese from his sheep, so I was only getting 30% of one-third of his products. But I needed to factor the sheep I had here would only expand his flocks by 20%...so doing the math. Ugh, fuck the math. “Agreed, Master Zion, if you will give me a haircut free of charge when requested.” He nodded, and we shook on it. Zion was beaming the entire time at his fortune while bringing his new sheep home.

I moved to the trader and waited for him to finish with the townsfolk. I checked out his goods, and there were many non-magical household items. It appeared he was doing well, though, as the tables were slowly emptying. When it slowed, he turned to me, “Lord, I see you have taken care of your sheep. I also have the other item you requested, but it was a few more coins than expected.” He went to his wagon, pulled out a scroll, and handed it to me.

The scroll wasn’t very fancy, and I unfurled it.

Common Small Auction House Plans, 5000 Health, Requirements Woodcraft Carpentry 7, Portal Stone, Range 1,000 miles

The building was fairly simple in design. It was 40’ by 40’ and had two dozen alcoves inside, which I assumed were terminals for players to access the auction houses within 1,000 miles.

“The plans were hard to find since only players can utilize them,” The trader interrupted my contemplation. “I had extra expenses and had to call in a favor from a friend.

“And how much will your extra effort cost me?” I asked while still perusing the plans.

“25 gold,” he said without hesitation. I nodded and produced the coin. It is best to stay on good terms with the trader. The plans had some building materials that I assumed were magic-based. It required 24 tier 1 dimensional essences and 24 tier 1 space essences. I could task Mad Dog with getting the material. I planned to make the structure out of stone instead of wood. My internal building sense told me that wouldn’t change the functionality of the building, just its base Health Points.

Being such a simple structure, I went to the town portal and planned to put it next to the Guard House. I dropped one summoned stone slab and jumped when a voice barked, “What are you doing?” I turned to see Breda, my city planner. The dwarf woman did not look happy.

“Lord Tallis, you can’t just go throwing buildings up willy-nilly. I have been working on a plan for the city that requires minimal building relocations and street adjustments. Come with me.” She said in a softer voice. It didn’t sound like a request, so I followed.

We went to her office; over half the room was a large table with miniature buildings with labels on them. I picked one up, General Store, and marveled at the detail. I didn’t notice the dwarf’s hard stare, but when I did, I put the piece back down. The look made me feel I was playing with her dollhouse furniture without permission.

“Now, Lord Tallis, you can see I have created districts within the city. I did my best to keep buildings where they are currently located, but these and these will need to be moved here.” She used a pointer stick to indicate the buildings and spots. I noticed something, “What is this district?” I pointed to the shoreline where my house and the inn were located.

“This will be the upper-class district. When we expand the footprint of Malcum, it will include both sides of the river. We will build the small estates and luxury housing along the banks as there will only be docks south of the city and fresh water from the mountains passing the estates,” she said as if the matter was already decided.

“What about the docks and the shipwright?” I asked, seeing those structures on her model.

“We will be moving them downriver, just outside the walls. Most industries will also need to be moved west outside the earthwork walls. We will encompass them in that structure when the city is large enough to build a second wall. But for now, the only industry allowed within the city will be industries with low noise pollution and material waste.” She seemed self-confident, as she explained.

I was slightly confused. This was a video game…what was with material waste and noise pollution? I was afraid to look at the game updates. I did, anyway. Oh shit! Literally. The need for sewers was less than 40 hours away. Breda was still talking, but I was looking at her model. Yes, everything she had planned made a lot of sense, but it would slow down the town’s development.

“So, we are moving all these buildings?” I asked, leaving the question open for an answer.

“I talked with Sanso. A powerful mage, that one. And he thinks he can relocate three buildings a day,” Breda supplied. I did the simple math for the 27 buildings she wanted to be moved…so I would be without Sanso for nine days! I paled in comparison to Sanso when it came to generating stone and manipulating it for a new building construction. He was worth five of me easily. Losing him for nine days? Nope.

“I can’t spare Sanso for that long. You can direct him every third day. It means your changes will take a month, but they will happen.” I tried to sound all Lordly, and it seemed to work as she nodded. Maybe I would spend every third day off, and try to gain some levels? If I got to level 25, I could get myself a class. I should be trying to level as much as possible before I got locked out of leveling by the game’s launch, but there was so much to do around town to prepare as well.

“That is doable. So you have new building plans and an auction house? You should place it here.” She indicated a spot just twenty feet from where I had started my construction. “If you look,” she said patiently, “by placing it here, it won’t obstruct the roads and will be close to the road containing the player’s guild houses.”

She pulled out some blocks simply labeled guild house. “These are plots you can sell to players so they can build buildings to house their populations. Each plot is 250’ by 250’. I think a reasonable price for each plot is 2,000 gold and a monthly rent of 200 gold.”

My jaw dropped, and Breda smirked. “The players are what will fund your city, Lord Tallis. Have you looked at your balance sheet recently?” Panicked, I opened it and was shocked to see I only had enough funds for three more weeks of operations...but that didn’t include the arrival of the garrison for my barracks!

My heart was thudding as I looked at all my new expenses. The master NPCs were killing me financially. Whose idea was it to get so many so early in the town’s development? It was only DAY 112. The game launch was DAY 181. And even after the game launch, I would have to wait for players to accumulate enough wealth to build guild houses! So, even with Breda’s projections, this wealth wouldn’t be available for some time. I needed to start making serious coin!

Seeing my panic, Breda spoke, “Lord Tallis, there is no need to fret. Things will be fine if we solidify Malcum’s economy and begin steady exports. Look here.” She handed me a sheet. It listed several items made in Malcum. “All you need to do is establish trade for the surplus of these items, and you should be able to generate a handsome monthly profit.” She seemed smug, but I was thankful to have the list in my hand. I went to my interface and copied her worksheet there.

“Ok, Breda, so my biggest concern right now is the shit hitting the fan in two days,” I said with attempted humor, but Breda didn’t get the joke. “The sewers, Breda, they become functional in two days.” She finally smiled at the joke, a little late, but oh well.

“Lord Tallis, that is one thing you are well ahead of the game on. The sluice purification back to the river is complete, according to your enchanter Persephone. I gave her two additional locations within the city to add two more in the future. Sanso has my new network for the sewer and water lines for the entire city, and his golems will be working on them.” She smiled confidently. It did look like she was worth the money.

We talked for another hour, and by the end of our conversation, Breda was no longer talking down to me but to me as we hashed out the order of buildings for construction. The priority was to increase housing and industry so our exports could increase the treasury. The second priority was changing the earthen wall around the town to a stone wall. The third and final priority was increasing the aesthetic beauty of Malcum. I felt the weight come off my shoulders as Breda would be the guiding hand of the town’s development and ensure we didn’t make costly errors…well, no more expensive errors from now on.

I walked down to the general store and was intrigued as Savanah was outside the alchemist yelling about the wares offered inside. I approached the girl, and she had a massive smile on her face, “Lord Tallis, come inside and buy some revitalizing cream and hair growth salve! I brewed them myself!” She still acted like she was in charge, and I followed the lively elf girl inside.

Tonna was talking to a villager, and Savannah dragged me over to another counter and put two small tubes on the counter. “This one is the hair growth. Since you are not bald yet, you can use it to grow a beard.” I applied the salve and took a mirror to avoid dissuading the girl from her new profession. A healthy beard grew from my face. But it was off-red in color, so it didn’t match my black hair.

Savanah was still smiling, so I said, “You will be a mighty alchemist one day, girl! Do you have something in black?” I asked, pointing to the red beard.

She initially didn’t understand the question, “Oh, to match your hair? No, but I do have a red dye to use on your hair to match your new beard!” She placed another vial on the counter.

“Hmm, I think I like the contrast.” A lie, but why burst the girl’s happy bubble? I escaped the shop shortly after, and before, I found myself trying all of her brewing concoctions. The little whelp even charged her Lord two silver for the two potions! A future alchemist and trader!

I found Sanso, and he did not look happy. Breda had twenty-eight pages of notes for him of things to work on. It was a lot different than working for me. I gave him the good news that he only had to work with Breda one out of three days. On the other days, he would work with the two new construction workers and me. I sat with Sanso and the builders and found that our new workers could handle many of Breda’s notes, so we divided up the tasks, much to Sanso’s relief.

We were all going to head toward the lumber mill north of town when my notification pinged.

Quest Completed: Eliminate the threat of the Darkskull Goblin Tribe in Shiverwood forest. Reward: Logging Outpost, 10,000 Experience

The experience was extremely welcome, but more importantly, I could now harvest lumber safely on the other side of the river. I checked my notifications, and Mad Dog had, in fact, told me they had just defeated the goblin chief and were returning to celebrate! I told him I was putting together a shopping list for him in the city.

Instead of working on buildings at the lumber mill, we all worked on building a large and wide stone bridge across the river. Even though I didn’t see many ships going upriver, I still gave it ample clearance underneath. The bridge spanned 60 yards in one long arch and looked impressive. Tomorrow, we would widen it so a wagon could easily cross. I would also take down the narrow bridge by Manto’s tower for defensive reasons. I got a message from Mad Dog and read it aloud to my crew.

The new ale is fantastic, mate! Where the fuck are ya?

That was all they needed to hear, and we headed to the inn in town to sample our newest town commodity.

A big celebration was in full swing, and the inn was packed with over 150 people. I noticed many children also present, and we had a semi-band going from a collection of odd instruments. The person who had the best time by far was Fareth. She came out from the kitchens every five minutes with large trays filled with food. The ale was also flowing heavily. My fellow builders moved into the crowd to join their families and get food. I noticed Jaesmin sitting with Manto and moved to sit with them.

As I sat, a mug was placed in my hand, and I sipped it. Wow, it was good! It was slightly nutty in the aroma but cold and went down smoothly. Manto raised his own mug and spoke, “The enchanter made some cold barrels for the ale at my suggestion, of course.” He sipped again. “So, Lord Tallis, you have a good thing going here.” He sighed, “But the more successful you are, the more people want to take it. I have friends in human lands to the south. When your success reaches their ears, they will send someone to claim your little village and collect taxes from you.”

He sipped again, groaning happily, as I digested the info. So, I not only had to worry about players, but I also had to worry about NPC cities. “How long do I have until they come? Can we stop them?” I asked for advice from the powerful mage.

“Oh, you have time. How much, I do not know. But they will come with the tax collector first. They will say something like, ‘these lands have belonged to us for a hundred years, and we have come to collect our rightful due for protecting the lands from great evils.’” He sipped again. “This is really good ale. Well, you can pay the man, and they will return and ask for more taxes in a year, or you can tell them to fuck off.” He sipped again.

“If you tell them to fuck off, he will run back to the court, and it will take them a few months to send either a diplomatic party or a small military force to subdue your little town. You must be strong enough to tell them to get lost.” He raised his mug again and seemed peeved that it was empty. “So that is the advice of a drunk who was an accomplished war wizard. Take it as you will.” Manto stood shakily, went to the bar for another mug, and sat with Manarag’s family at a table.

“He has been teaching Manarag’s eldest some air magic. Just the basics,” Jaesmin said from across the table. A long pause occurred. “So what are you going to do?” She asked. I looked around the room at all the diverse races getting along so well. I had built this diverse community from next to nothing; it was just the beginning.

“Oh, we will not let anyone take this away from us. All will be welcome here, and we will be strong in the face of any adversity.” I said it with conviction. In the back of my head, I knew it would be a battle to keep the idyllic existence we had created. Whether it was the human NPC courts or the influx of players, we would fight to keep our independence.