Chapter 788: More Upgrades [II / Bonus - ]

Chapter 788: More Upgrades [II / Bonus Chapter]

Its plain wooden planks split and fused into thick dark beams of ironwood that gleamed as hard as forged steel.

The earth under it hollowed out with a deep muffled rumble and sank two whole levels down into the cool bedrock, opening up big dry cellars lined with heavy stone shelves.

Its outer walls rose twenty feet high, faced with chiseled stone and bound in thick iron braces, and above the wide double doors, a blue grid of runes flickered to life and hummed quietly.

Rowenna stepped forward a little, her blue eyes shining with fascination as she pointed a trembling finger at the glowing runes above the door.

"Those runes over the door, they’ll keep everything inside from going bad... Lord Silas, they’re so pretty."

Silas gave the shy runemaster an easy smile and turned to the sturdy stone smithy with the smoking chimney.

[Upgrade System: Would you like to upgrade Tier 2 Smithy to Tier 3 Emberforge Hall?]

[Cost: 500 UP]

"Confirm..."

A roar of heat burst out of the smithy’s windows as the building disappeared inside a blazing pillar of gold.

WHOOOOOSH!

The little stone workshop swelled up like a waking beast and spread out into a long high-ceilinged hall paved with dark heat-proof stone.

Its single sooty chimney widened into two towering stacks lined with firebrick... Inside the open work bays, three big anvils of solid black stone capped with tempered steel rose up out of the floor, with big bellows beside them that started wheezing in a slow rhythm.

Deep stone troughs of bubbling water lined the main hearths, and overhead, heavy iron pulley tracks crisscrossed the ceiling for hauling raw ore.

"Hmph," Ther’Abella muttered from her upside-down spot on his shoulder, her cold blue eyes rolling toward the sky. "All those fancy anvils and bellows, and not one blacksmith to use them. Typical usurper, putting the cart three miles ahead of the horse..."

Silas gave her thigh another casual swat that earned him a muffled yelp, then turned toward the rise at the edge of the settlement.

Sitting on a gentle grassy slope was the barracks... It was a long low building of rough pine logs, and it looked cramped and drafty.

Before Silas could do anything to it, the heavy plank door of the barracks was kicked open with a loud clatter.

BANG!

A dozen young women came tumbling out onto the grass, scrambling down the path into the open with breathless wide-eyed faces.

They were Aki’s girls, archers with unstrung bows, spear girls in leather armor and a few others still pulling their boots on, all of them looking messy and alarmed.

...They’d clearly felt the ground shaking under their bunks and run outside expecting a monster attack, and now they were frozen in their tracks.

"Lady Aki!" one of the archers shouted, skidding to a stop on the cobblestones. "The ground’s moving! The whole barracks is shaking!"

"Stay right there, girls!" Aki called, waving her arms with a flustered excited grin. "Don’t panic! Nobody’s attacking us! J-just stand by the path and watch! Silas is doing something amazing!"

The girls gathered in a tight whispering cluster along the edge of the grass, their eyes darting from Aki to the tall dark-haired Lord and then to the stunning women standing behind him.

Silas gave them a friendly reassuring nod, then turned his gaze to their drafty wooden barracks.

[Upgrade System: Would you like to upgrade Tier 2 Barracks to Tier 3 Blossomguard Garrison?]

[Cost: 500 UP]

"Confirm..."

The pine barracks gave a huge groaning shudder that echoed across the settlement as a golden pillar swallowed it.

CRRRRRRREAK!

The rough wooden walls cracked open and peeled back as thick interlocking slabs of smooth pale stone rose up from the foundation and wrapped around the building.

The whole thing surged upward, and the low roof lifted into a big two-story hall with tall gabled windows and sweeping slate eaves.

Clear glass slid into the new window frames and caught the light, while a broad covered porch held up by fluted marble columns swept across the front.

Warm amber light started glowing through the windows, and the narrow doors widened into tall double doors that smelled of fresh cedar and polished beeswax.

The girls stood frozen for a full three seconds with their mouths hanging open, and then they burst into wild ecstatic cheering.

"We’ve got our own rooms!" a young archer shrieked, jumping into the air and grabbing her friend’s shoulders. "Look at the second floor! There are balconies! We’ve got real glass windows!"

"No more sleeping three to a cot!" a spear girl squeaked with happy tears in her eyes. "And the draft’s gone! It actually feels warm in there!"

Silas watched them celebrate with a quiet amused smile, then turned his eyes past the settlement toward the edge of the territory.

Far off past the last of the buildings and birches stood the walls of Aki’s Wonderland.

They were forty feet of thick interlocking black steel slabs, lined with runic bevels that hummed with kinetic-dampening fields, with narrow slit windows and raised parapets looking out over the wilds.

Beyond that steel lay the wilds. Silas could feel the chaotic irritating mana coming off the brush out there.

There were snapping trap ferns, thorny strangling vines that crept up the steel at night and spore pods that drifted over the parapets to poison anything growing on the other side...

Even from here, he could see dark green vines clinging to the top of the wall in thick tangles.

The plant monsters out there weren’t just dangerous, they were persistent and genuinely annoying.

It was a good wall, but leaving it as it was while they took the whole group out on a raid was just asking for trouble.

From where he stood, Silas turned his focus to the distant wall, and a bigger golden window flared open in front of his eyes.

[Upgrade System: Would you like to upgrade Tier 2 Black-Steel Wall directly to Tier 4 Thornward Bulwark?]

[Cost: 1,200 UP]

"Confirm..."

A deep booming crash rolled in from the edge of the territory and echoed across the whole valley like summer thunder.

BOOOOOOM!

All the way around the edge of the settlement, a blinding wall of golden light shot up out of the ground, eighty feet into the sky, and burned away the creeping vines clinging to the steel in one clean sizzling flash.

The black steel slabs were swallowed by the light.

The steel groaned and thickened, and huge slabs of pale rose stone tore up out of the earth and locked over it with a deep grinding roar, like a mountain range pushing up out of the ground.

KRAAAACK!

The wall kept rising, past forty feet, then fifty, then sixty, locking together seamlessly as it climbed.

The top of the wall widened into a broad stone walkway with room for archers to run three abreast, guarded by notched battlements with sloped lips to shed acid and spat spores.

Along the outside face of the wall, thousands of thick dark steel spikes sprouted out of the stone and wove together into a jagged apron that crackled with a humming barrier.

’Looks really good...’

All along the top of the wall, the same rose stone and dark steel locked into place piece by piece with a long rolling series of heavy clanks that ran all the way around the territory and came back again from the other side.

KLANK-KLANK-KLANK-KLANK!

Out past it, the creeping vines that had been crawling up the old steel recoiled from the new wall like they’d touched a hot stove, shriveling and curling back into the brush with a dry crackling hiss.

The light slowly faded and settled into the stone as the deep rumbling died away into silence.

Aki stood completely still as her blue hair settled against her shoulders.

Her azure eyes were wide and shining with a bright starry glow as they drank in every inch of her new territory.

She looked at the gleaming rose spires of her Keep, the new kitchen with its three chimneys, the big stone vault, the roaring forge hall, the beautiful two-story barracks and finally the towering wall that now wrapped around all of her people.

She slowly turned her face toward Silas and took two trembling steps closer, her breath catching in her throat as she looked up into his dark blue eyes.

"Silas..." Aki breathed, her hands resting on her chest and her voice trembling with bewildered awe. "T-this is beyond anything I’ve ever read about... You didn’t chant anything... You didn’t draw a circle. You didn’t even touch the stones! You just stood here, and my whole territory grew! I-is that what it means to have a Gold Core? Can a Gold Core really just upgrade things out of thin air?!"

Silas let out a low rich chuckle and looked down at her eager breathless face with an affectionate grin.

He reached out with his free hand and lightly tapped the tip of her nose with his knuckle.

"That," Silas said smoothly, his voice dropping into a teasing playful tone, "is a secret."

Aki blinked once, then twice, and then her mouth formed a soft adorable pout.

She puffed out her cheeks a little in mock outrage, though a bright rosy blush swept across her ears and gave away how happy she was.

"It’s always a secret with you," Aki mumbled, crossing her arms with a small huff, though her azure eyes never left his face.

’He keeps everything so close to his chest...’ Aki thought, her heart racing with a dizzy mix of awe and helpless affection. ’He can change the whole world with a single thought, and he still smiles and teases me like we’re just taking a walk in the garden... He gave my girls a safe home. He gave them warm beds, strong walls and a real hall... How am I ever supposed to pay back someone who gives me the world and never asks for anything?’

The girls from the barracks finally realized this really was their new home, and they came running across the square with bright shining faces, crowding around Silas, Aki and the Blessed Land girls in an excited chattering crowd.

Lupina’s tail was wagging happily as two young archers reached out to carefully touch the steel claws of her gauntlets, their eyes wide with admiration.

Solenne glided among them with an elegant amused smile and let three of the girls stroke the silky tips of her nine fluffy tails, purring softly as they gasped at how soft the fur was.

Morrighan stood tall and silent at Silas’s side, her horns catching the light while her molten gold eyes kept sweeping the area, though her spade-shaped tail gave an occasional contented twitch against her calf.

Aurelia walked along the line of girls with a gentle radiant smile, saying soft encouraging words that made the younger ones beam.

Aki took a deep steadying breath and stepped forward into the middle of the square to speak to her people.

Her poise came back, and she stood tall and proud despite the blush still lingering on her cheeks.

"Listen up, everyone!" Aki called out, her clear voice cutting through the happy chatter. "Thanks to Silas, The Wonderland just took its first real step toward becoming a true stronghold! Our walls are strong, our hearths are warm, and our barracks are fit for champions but a stronghold’s nothing without the girls who defend it!"

She reached into the pouch at her side and pulled out a thick neatly tied stack of ten tickets.

The paper shimmered with a dense silver light that threw tiny dancing sparks across her fingers.

"I’ve saved up ten Troop Summoning Tickets!" Aki announced, holding the stack up high for everyone to see. "And right now, before we go out to clear the nests, I’m going to summon about ten new people to join us...!"

The girls burst into loud cheers, raising their bows and spears high into the air.

"More sisters!" one of the spear girls shouted happily.

"Please let us get some archers!" another one called.

Aki turned and walked back across the plaza to the pearl-white Troop Summoning altar.

She stepped up to the pedestal in the middle and carefully laid the stack of ten silver tickets down on the carved circle in the stone.

She stepped back half a pace and clasped her hands tightly against her chest then she squeezed her azure eyes shut and bowed her head in a desperate heartfelt prayer that carried clearly across the quiet square.

"Please..." Aki whispered fervently, her voice trembling with sweet earnest hope. "Please send us good people! Strong and loyal girls who can stand beside us, but please, more than anything, send us chefs who actually know how to use a hearth! And dwarves! Oh, please, please send us some sturdy dwarves for the smithy so we don’t ruin any more arrowheads trying to hammer them out ourselves!"

Silas couldn’t help the broad grin that broke across his face as he listened to her passionate and extremely specific prayer.

Slung over his shoulder, Ther’Abella let out another faint grumbling snort, though even she lifted her head a little to watch the altar.

Aki took one last deep determined breath.

Her azure eyes snapped open, shining with bright stubborn hope.

She reached her right hand forward toward the glowing window hovering above the pedestal and pressed Y.

A deep ringing hum roared up out of the altar, and a brilliant pillar of many-colored light blasted up into the sky.

VWOOOOOOOOOM!