Chapter 103 Grade 2 Village
[Elsisn Stele: Wood]
[Grade 2 Village: Last Saint Village]
[Lord: Ikaris (Commoner)]
[Title: none]
[People's Well-being: 60>56]
[Security: 1>3]
[Administration: 0>1]
[Culture: 0]
[Military: 1>5]
[Magic: 1>2]
[Technology: 1>3]
[Territory population: 226/500]
[Spawn rate of immigrants: 5-15>8-19 / day]
[Territory area: 4>25 square kilometers]
[Territorial characteristics: Territory Crop Output+1.5% (1>1.5)]
[Treasury: 499 gold coins]
[Territory Resources: 38500 food units, 126 wood units, 3689 iron units...]
[Territorial army: 1 Tartarus Enforcer, 14 Werewolf Warriors, 3 Wolf Daemons, 21 Infantry Beastmen, 1 Oni ect...]
[Territory Industry: None]
[Existing Buildings: The Lord's Wooden House, Tents, Pavilions, Village Latrine, Basic Logging...]
[List of basic construction buildings available: Basic Cottages, Tents, Pavilions, Village Latrine, Basic Logging...]
[List of Special Buildings available: Basic Temple of Elsisn. Basic Prayer Hall*2]
[New Stele feature unlocked: Duplication. A basic building that has already been built in the village can be duplicated wherever the Lord wants for a certain cost. Number of daily uses: 1/1]
Ikaris was stunned when he discovered the new interface changes. On the surface, the Stele's key properties had improved slightly, such as the Spawn Rate or Territory Crop Output, but that was nothing compared to the new feature the Stele had just unlocked.
With this Duplication feature, extremely time-consuming and repetitive projects could be condensed into a mere fraction of a second if one could afford the cost.
This kind of feature was not all that attractive for a tent that a human could pitch alone in a few minutes, but that was if the tent was already prefabricated.
If they had to with the starting raw material (beast hides, canvas or any other strong fabric) craft it from scratch, producing a proper tent could take several hours and that was assuming they had the dexterity and knowledge required to complete the assignment.
But before getting overly excited, Ikaris first opened the tab for the list of basic construction buildings available to ensure that the costs remained affordable. If building a tent via the Stele required ten times more resources than its actual cost, the value of this new feature would drop radically...
[List of basic construction buildings available:]
[Cottage: A rectangular thatched cottage of 20 square meters. Cost: 40 wood units, 5 thatch units...]
[Tent: A rectangular tent of 3 square meters. Cost: 1 beast hide/canvas unit, 1 wood unit]
[Pavilion: A circular pavilion of 4 meters in diameter. Cost: 4 beast hide units, 4 wood units]
[Village Latrine:...]
Ikaris was pleasantly surprised when he saw the costs. Doing a quick mental calculation he came to the conclusion that this was more or less the actual cost of making these buildings.
Of course, it depended on the quality standard, but overall these prices seemed fair enough. What pleased him most was that his Lord's Cottage was now considered a basic building he could duplicate at will.
The usefulness of this Duplication feature is restricted to these basic buildings, but it will be different in the future if it includes more complex buildings, he reflected calmly.
If the Stele continued to evolve, building huge skyscrapers with the snap of a finger might someday become possible. When he reported the changes to Magnus, the latter echoed,
"As expected from an Elsisn Stele. Other Lords also managed to trigger these functions from time to time, but they had the greatest difficulty in choosing the location of these buildings. Their construction was mostly random and often interfered with their initial expansion plans. Unless they have no choice, they avoid using it."
Ikaris could indeed imagine the kind of trouble this could cause. If a latrine appeared in the middle of a road under construction, not only would it be an inconvenient setback, but it was also totally wasteful.
A tent or a latrine could easily be taken down, but what if it was a huge castle? Demolishing and disposing of the rubble of such a building would potentially take weeks, if not months. For this reason, few Lords would intentionally use these functions.
"What about you, Magnus? Were you using it?" Ikaris asked with a hint of curiosity.
"Of course I was." The old Vampire snickered. "I may not have been using a System like you, but my Soul is still that of an Archmagus. At my level, I can easily understand the Stele's unclear intentions and communicate with it proficiently. But I inherited my father's empire and there was already little left to build. The number of times I've used the Duplication function can be counted on one hand."
Ikaris then turned his attention to the three special buildings available: the Temple of Elsisn and the two prayer halls. Similar to his Lord's Cottage when he established his village, the construction cost was free.
"What a nice Saint..." The teenager sneered. "When it comes to building a temple to worship him, he's conveniently very generous..."
"Don't complain." Magnus grunted. "It's an Elsisn specialty. Not all Saints would let you freely build facilities to worship their rivals. Don't forget that these free special buildings evolve with the Stele just like your private residence."
It made sense, Ikaris admitted. As he was about to walk outside to build the said temple, Malia and Ellie suddenly sauntered inside the house. When they discovered the fully furnished interior, their jaws dropped to the floor in amazement.
"H-how did you do that?" Malia stammered in shock, her heart pounding.
Ellie was also impressed, but for her, it was just another demonstration of magic, albeit far more spectacular than the previous ones. On the other hand, Malia had something to be upset about. She had been a Stele Holder for a long time but such a phenomenon had never happened.
"I simply fulfilled the Stele advancement requirement." Ikaris answered truthfully. He had nothing to hide from the two women and it wasn't exactly a big secret. "Two hundred or more inhabitants and that's it."
"That's it?" Malia repeated open-mouthed.
Now that she thought about it, Karragin's population record was something around... 180? When she realized that she had come this close to getting such a house, the tears immediately began to flow.
It was just too frustrating!
"Erm..." Seeing the Vampire Kitsune silently crying, Ikaris suddenly didn't know what to do. In the end, he chose to be direct. "Now that there's enough room for the three of us, I'll move back in with you. I'll take the first room on the left."
Malia immediately stopped whining and hurried off to explore their new home with Ellie. A moment later, she returned less enthusiastic and looking at him with a sulky pout she grumbled,
"Why do you get a room to yourself and I have to sleep with Ellie?"
There were indeed only two rooms and each of them had only a double bed. Unperturbed, Ikaris retorted shamelessly,
"So what? You want to sleep with me instead? No big deal, I have a big heart. But I warn you I sleep naked."
Malia gnashed her teeth as she noticed his teasing smirk and barely restrained herself from drawing her sword to teach him a lesson. For a moment, she had visualized the scene of the boy sleeping naked in the moonlight.
Ellie who was caught between these two, jumped in and stuttered anxiously,
"I-if you don't want to share the bed, I can sleep in the living room or even in another tent."
Malia's anger melted away at once and she breathed a sigh,
"Hmmphf, sharing my bed with you is not a problem for me..." She gave Ikaris one last huffy look and left the house, slamming the door.
That's right, the hallway now had its own door! It was probably the biggest change between the tiny thatched cottage before and the wooden house now.
Ikaris then remembered what he was planning to do before he ran into the two girls and exited the building as well. As he stepped outside, the villagers gave him respectful and slightly fearful looks. Undoubtedly because they had seen the thatched cottage transform before their eyes.
Their surprise was not yet over. After receiving confirmation from Magnus that it would be possible to move these special buildings in the future, he placed the three places of worship just behind the Transportation Portal with the Temple of Elsisn in the middle.
The positioning of the temple went smoothly, but for the two extra prayer halls he received a notification from the Stele,
[Choose a Major Saint, Minor Saint, or any other Godly Spirit as the deity for each of these prayer halls.]
There was no list provided and Ikaris was momentarily caught off guard. After briefly conferring with Magnus, he settled on Faulch, known as the Night Saint, and Kinah, the Knowledge Saint.
The first choice was obvious. As the Angel of Faulch he would be a fool if he didn't capitalize on this advantage. The second choice was less obvious and it was only after careful consideration that he made the final choice.