When Rick stepped through the Astral Gate he found himself on a coastal beach. Next to a river that churned fresh water out into the ocean behind him. He used his cartography skill of the area and pulled the map out of his inventory to look over.

Spoiler: Map of the Surrounding Area.

It didn't take him long to find what he had come for, just about a mile off the coast was a good sized island. Rick flew up into the air and made his way out to the island while keeping an eye on his mana. He wasn't sure if the Astral Plane had sea monster, sharks or anything else that might want to make a snack out of him hidden under the waves. If he ran out of mana he would fall into the ocean with quite a long swim to any land. When Rick reached the island he made a quick circle around it and then landed next to the northern ring of mountains.

The reason for this sudden trip to the Astral Plane was to test out a couple things and find a remote location like this island. With the use of Move and Shape Stone, he cut out a ten-foot square cube of stone and stored it in his inventory. Rick then opened his inventory and placed the large stone cube he had just cut onto the ground next to him.

That answers my main questions about this land separated from the main game world. The fact that I can cut this stone from the mountain and place it down on the ground means that resources can be harvested from the land and structures can be constructed. This island is also a perfect place to dump the people from those two Houses. Without, any trees growing on this island the only way off it would be to swim almost a mile to the mainland. Anyone I send here will be receiving a death sentence without any food or water available, but for all the lives they have destroyed just to line their pockets with gold it is a fitting end for them. They took everything away from those who didn't have the power to resist so I will take everything from them. Rick thought to himself with a resolute attitude.

He then continued on to cut out ten-foot squares cubes of stone deeper into the core of the mountain. Rick thought that since he had a mountain of stone before him he would harvest it right now for free instead of paying for it later. After he had cut out five 10 x 10 x 10 foot stone cubes he noticed what at appeared to be a shadow on the wall of the tunnel he had made from carving out the stone cubes.

I am over fifty feet inside this mountain and the only reason I can see anything is that I have night sight activated. If there isn't any light in here then that can't be a shadow over on the wall. Rick thought as he approached the dark patch some feet away on the wall.

When he was in front of the darkened area he could now tell it wasn't a shadow but another material. Rick placed his hand over the dark material and used the Identify skill.

Identify!

Spoiler: Astrallium Ore. Astrallium Ore

Astrallium is a [legendary rare] metal only found in the Astral Plane.

Astrallium is black in color and has twice the density of gold.

This metal is known to be extremely hard with a high melting point.

A hard metal with high density that can only be found here. This could mean that the Astral Plane has other resources that are not found in the regular game world. I need to do a little exploring and see what I can discover. Rick considered as he opened his inventory and took out a pickaxe. A few minutes later after chipping the stone out around the metal, he ended up with a good amount of the Astrallium Ore. When he picked up a chunk of the black metal he was surprised at how much it weighed.

Wow, an ingot of this metal would weigh at least fifty pounds. With remarkable density and hardness, this Astallium sounds like tungsten on steroids. Rick thought as he studied the material.

Once the metal was deposited into his inventory he walked out of the long tunnel and checked his mana which was almost close to being completely regened. Having another quick look at his map he spotted what looked like a forest to the south east of him along the coast and decided to investigate it. He put his map away and left the island to fly across the ocean bay and arrive above the forest a few minutes later. As he flew above the tree tops he came across trees that had colorful leaves. Scattered around the forest he discovered trees with blue, red, white, and purple leaves and some with various colored barks.

Rick took out his pair of scissors and snipped off a bunch of six-inch cuttings from each of these trees and circulated his nature elemental affinity through them until they began to sprout roots. Opening his inventory he grabbed a roll of cloth and cut squares. He placed a small scoop of fresh dirt on top of the cloth squares and gently planted each of the tree sapling roots into the soil and tied the cloth up into a ball around the soil and roots. While walking through the forest he continued to collect any plants and flowers that caught his eye in the same way by balling the roots up in soil with cloth and string.

During his exploration, he even encountered some wildlife seeing birds in the trees and small animals running around the forest floor or climbing through trees. As he continued to search the forest watching the wildlife around him gave him an idea. He took out his bow and quiver of arrows looking to hunt one of the larger birds. After a couple of attempts, he managed to take down a bird that looked similar to a small falcon. Rick field dressed the bird not wanting to waste it and also plucked the feathers for arrows then placed the meat and feathers into his inventory along with his bow.

Forming a picture of the bird he just hunted in his mind he used the Shape Shift skill and his body shifted from human form into a copy of the bird. Becoming so small was quite disorientating so he walked around to get some familiarity with this new body shape. When he began to feel more comfortable, Rick tried out his wings jumping into the air and gliding along.

Soon he felt comfortable enough that he leaped up and flapped higher into the air and clumsily flew and glided above the tree tops. Rick found he could still open his menus and examined his status screen to find his mana wasn't being drained in the way the Flight spell always did.

If I can get used to this form and learn how to use it I could provide some great options for stealth and spying. It is nice I don't use mana in this form, but my flight spell is a lot faster for traveling and not as awkward feeling. He thought to himself as he flew along.

As he flew between the trees he spotted a black squirrel sitting on a branch attempting to open a nutshell up ahead of him. Rick gained a little altitude and swooped down to grab the squirrel with his talons. To his surprise, they tore right through it. When he landed there wasn't much left, but some fur and gore. Rick then realized that even in this small body his stats still remained the same. Him trying to grab the small animal with his talons was the same as if he had squeezed it between both of his human hands with all his might.

While he perched on the branch thinking this discovery over, he cast Shape Shift once again and changed his form into that of the black squirrel. Once again he made his way around the forest getting the feel of being a squirrel climbing up and down trees and leaping from branch to branch.

These two new forms might not be very useful in a fight, but I can climb or fly anywhere without being noticed now. He pondered over the ways he could apply these new forms.

Rick then climbed down and shifted back to his original form and had one more thing to test out he opened a portal to the store basement and walked into it. When he was back in the dark basement he re-cast the Portal to the Astral Plane island's tunnel he mined the metal from earlier. He quickly went through into the tunnel and then walked right back into the basement and closed the portal behind him.

The reason for this was to find out if he could use the portal spell to travel to and from discovered location in the Astral Plane like he could in the normal game world. Now finding that it worked without any problems, Rick unbarred the door to the room with the jailed prisoners and turned the wall lights on. It seemed his prisoners had learned their lesson and they all remained quiet and while peaking out of the narrow slots of their doors to see who had entered the room.

"Alright, gentlemen it is about time that I released you all from your cells. Though I will be using magic to teleport you out of here. I can't just open up all these doors and take a chance that you pieces of shit won't try to attack me because that is all your kind knows. I will open a black doorway in each of your cells in turn and you will step through it to your freedom if you don't I will hold down the button by your door and fry you until you leave or die." Rick heard some low grumblings from the cells and just ignored them.

He went down the line of cells and cast portal in each one sending off the naked and unarmed thugs to the entrance of the tunnel he had harvested stone from until he was finally rid of them all.

All you get from me is a cold tunnel for shelter, but don't worry I will send you a lot more company very soon. He said with his inner voice.

Rick unbarred all the cells and began to disassemble them. He took down the steel doors chiseled out the stone block walls and spread cemented over the lightning runes etched into to stone floor. When he had finished you would never know that this room once held eight men in cells.

He had decided to remove the cells in case his store was later searched after making the two Houses vanish. He knew that they had connections at City Hall and had been questioning people about him and his store. If the guard showed up they could search high and low now and find nothing to make them suspect him. On his way out of the room, he removed the barricade bar and bracket that held the bar in place leaving only the steel door hanging. Rick turned off the wall light and went upstairs to check on the carpenters and talk with his spies.

The carpenters continued to work with the glass makers making counters and displays which they added their own touches by making hand carved reliefs in the wood before painting them. This was one of the benefits to having added the Artisan class. As these guys continued to level up the things they built would only improve in looks and quality.

Impressed with their work, Rick praised them all and went upstairs to talk with the spies. He told them to no longer go out to gather information on the two Houses. He didn't want to take a chance now and draw attention towards him. Rick then took out the maps of the house locations and went over how to get there and what the layout of the property was. Going over the layout he began to form a plan and left his men to guard the store while he went out to investigate.

Rick walked into the teleporter room and climbed to the roof through the hatch and locked it and the roof shed door behind him and shifted his form into the bird. He flew off from the roof of his store over the city and soon found the location of House Karn. It had the appearance of an old world villa with an enclosed garden courtyard surrounded by the living quarters. Rick landed in a tree inside the courtyard and observed the activity of everyone for a little while.

Spoiler: Karn House Villa.

He then used Shape Shift to change into the squirrel and activated his stealth skill while sneaking into the house through an open door. Rick went from room to room hiding under and behind furniture learning the layout of all the rooms and listening in on conversations. Rick soon began to learn who the nobles of the house were and where their rooms were through the servants talking to one another about who's room needed cleaning or was currently occupied.

The house, for the most part, was unguarded all he could see of any guards were two that kept watch at the front door and two more at the gate entrance. When he had all the information he needed he snuck out to the courtyard up into the tree and changed back to a bird and flew off to find House Lupton.

House Lupton looked like a cross between a medieval mansion and a stone keep and had guards posted at every entrance to the building. Following the same routine, Rick flew down shifted into a black squirrel and used stealth to search the building for an entrance. With a couple of close calls with patrolling guards, he was able to climb to the second floor through an open window and begin his investigation.

Spoiler: Lupton House Mansion.

After spending over a half-hour searching the house he found out the head of the House was Viscount Ernest Lupton. The servants had all addressed him as he left the building on his way to meet up with Baron Barclay Karn over an urgent matter.

Rick assumed it might have to do with the disappearance of their men and sought out each other to talk about damage control if they had somehow become investigated over their criminal enterprise.

One good thing is I outrank both of them in noble titles so I can't see anyone siding with them against me unless they were paid off. He contemplated as he continued his exploration.

Near the back of the mansion, he found a large room that looked like the Viscounts study. The walls were lined with bookshelves and the floor covered with rich looking rugs. Near a large window at the back of the room was a wooden desk and comfortable looking chair. Rick silently pushed the door shut and shifted back to his original form. Rick began searching the room and found a locked chest behind the desk and had no way to get into it so he opened a portal and brought over one of his spies who unlocked it with a lockpick he had picked up while gathering information.

Rick searched the contents and found what looked like a book of stores and shops that he had been receiving money from. Rick kept the book then had his spy lock the chest to conceal the fact the book was now missing. Rick and his spy went back through the open portal to his store without letting anyone in the mansion know they were ever there.

Back downstairs He gathered up all of the finished counters and displays and went to each section of the store to arrange them. It was now near midday so he gathered up the workers and used portal to take them to the restaurant and left them to eat while he flew off to the Tower Island workshop and went around the stations taking clothes, footwear, furniture, blankets, quilts, tapestries, rugs, locks, and a couple pairs of the modern style glasses.

He took the tools the Blacksmiths had been making with the help of the poleturner and stored them in the tool shed for new workers or replacements. Walking toward the tower he stopped to play with his Tigers. He left the Tigers to continue running around or sleeping in the sun to walk down into the tower cellar. He talked with the Dwarves in Dwarven language and supplied them with any additional materials that were needed while stashing away the custom armor and weapons they had made from his designs.

After the Dwarves were all set up he refilled the forge gem and walked out back of the tower to the Blast Furnace. Rick also refilled the gem on the furnace then loaded it with a good amount of the Astrallium ore and fired the furnace up.

I'm not quite sure how long it will take to melt this new metal so I can just leave in the furnace and check on it later. Rick Thought as the furnace began to heat up.

He then activated Flight and flew off to the west to harvest any hardwood trees he could find. He found a few oak, ash, and poplar trees. He chopped them down with an axe strip the branched and stored placed them into his inventory and flew over to the water wheel sawmill. He unloaded the trees for the sawyers to turn into lumber and walked down to the beach and made a fire pit with rocks next to the water. He took out all the hardwood branches he stripped from the trees and used Produce Flame to ignite the large pile creating a good size bonfire.

He left the fire to continue burning and flew out over the city construction toward the farms to find Daisia. When he found her he told her about all the tree clone saplings, plants, and flowers he brought back from the Astral Plane. Rick brought her along with him to one of the outer odd shaped plots near the walls and took out all the vegetation he brought back and told Daisia to plant them all on the plot to make a farm. When the plants and trees grew more they could take more clones from them to plant around the city.

Daisia was really excited about these new plants that she had never seen before and got to work planting them and using her skills to improve and grow them. Rick left her to it since he was so absorbed in the new task he gave her to fly over to the send the Carpenters back to the store and walked over to the large plot in the center of the planned city.

Rick arrived on the huge center plot where he planned to build his castle and used his Cartography skill to make a map of the city area and brought it out to review.

Spoiler: City Progress Map.

The city now had about seventy-five percent of the marked streets paved a southern farming operation growing vegetables, fruits, herbs, and exotic plants and trees from the Astral Plane. Handil and his construction crew had just about completed the twenty-eighth apartment building allowing the city to house now over three hundred residents in them. The main east/west road now stretched out to connect to Tower Island to allow for quicker horse drew cart deliveries. It seemed that the surveyors had also marked out where the future walls would be built and the southern road that would connect to the limestone and marble quarries.

Rick stored the city progress map while taking out a table and chair from his open inventory to sit down and draw a basic plan for the future Castle. He really wanted to move his operation from Tower Island out to the city to save all the back and forth travel. But, Rick also wanted to begin building Faith's Temple now that the street construction crew had the large square north of the castle plot completely paved that would be the location for the temple. Now that there were more than enough apartments for everyone to live in, he was torn between having Handil's crew begin construction on the castle or the temple.

For now, he decided on making a floor plan and constructing the castle basement and foundation. This way he could make a personal crafting area in the castle basement at the very least.

When he had a general idea of the outer shape and allowed for possible changes during construction of his castle, he brought the survey team over to scale the floor plan to the plot size. When Rick agreed on the size the castle wanting to leave room to build walls around the plot, he had the surveyors use there Groma and measuring ropes to mark out the castle's foundation perimeter.

Spoiler: Castle Concept Drawing.

Spoiler: Castle First Floor Layout.

The floor plan consisted of a large entrance area with wide staircases leading to the second floor on each side. The center of the entrance room opened up into a long rectangle central room that almost spanned the length of the interior. The border of this long central room was lined with evenly spaced doors that opened into good sized rooms that were planned to measure out to roughly a twenty by twenty-foot size.

Connected to the back of the corner outside rooms were large towers that had spiral staircases leading to each floor that would be lined with arrow slots. Rick planned for these towers to have a flat roof with battlements to allow archers not only shoot from the interior arrow slots but to also shoot down at anyone who attacked from the top of the towers flat roof.

He also planned out a huge room off the back of the castle that would serve as a throne room that would have a raised platform with a throne and large stained glass windows set into each wall. While he was drawing up the floor plan and envisioning the look of the castle and how defensible it was, he realized that the stain glass windows could be broken by attackers to gain access to the castle interior so he kept it in the back of his head to dig a deep water filled moat around the outside walls of the throne room so that invaders could not place ladders against the walls to climb through the stain glass windows that he really wanted.

Rick had also planned to have a staircase in the center of one of the towers that would lead down into a basement that would be divided into rooms to be used for storage, a prison, and work areas. This basement area was his main focus for now until he decided on how to proceed with the temple.

Rick thanked the surveyors for the quick and efficient job and let return to their previous tasks. Rick stood near the enormous area that marked out and began to use Move and Shape Earth to carve out the basement area for the castle. He stored all the dirt for later use, and to keep the site clean from piles of dirt as he went along. When the basement shape was finally dug out of the ground, Rick had an idea that he wanted to test out. First, he made a wood crate and like the store water tank used a wood chisel to carve a very tiny water rune in the bottom of the crate and liked it to a switch and a draw rune on the side of the crate.

Rick sealed the wood crate with a lid and used his Wood Carving skill to make a slot to hold a quartz storage gem that was used to power the water rune. Using his hand drill he made a hole in the side of the crate and squeezed a two-foot long length of metal pipe into the drilled hole and sealed around the hole with glue.

When the quick little invention was finished he acquired a recipe that he simply named "Water Box". Touching the switch rune on the side activated the water rune inside and soon after water was pouring out the end of the metal pipe extending from the portable Water Box.

Spoiler: Water Box.

The Water Box was around two foot by two foot in dimensions making it easy to hold and walk around with. Rick picked up the water box and began dousing the dirt floor with water. He took out a four-foot length of a cut plank to smooth out the muddy floor's surface like he had seen concrete workers do on job sites in the real world. When he had a section of the muddy floor looking smooth and level, Rick cast the Druidic Mage spell Transmute Stone and Earth that would change natural uncut stone to clay, dirt into sand, and mud into stone. When he used the spell on the muddy floor it transformed into a smooth three-inch thick slab of stone.

Rick knelt down and felt the floor and was happy with how it had worked out. The stone was all one continuous slab, unlike the others he made with stone blocks that had cemented joints everywhere. Using this new idea of making floors, he continued on repeating the steps of adding water. smoothing the mud. and transforming it into stone. Splitting the basement into sections to be sure the mud would not dry, he soon covered the entire area in one slab of smooth stone.

Rick flew up out of the basement and called Handil on the party chat. Rick instructed him to head over to the central castle plot with his crew when they finished the apartment building they were nearly done with. Rick sat back down at is the table to figure out how he wanted to design Faith's Temple while he awaited on Handil to arrive.

Sticking with the ancient Roman/Greek style of Earth, Rick used his Drawing skill to design a large white marble temple on an elevated stone foundation large enough to hold a few hundred people.

Spoiler: Faith's Temple.

When he was happy with the design he put it away and made some ladders with a recipe. Rick placed the ladders in the basement hole against the wall so that his workers can climb in and out of the basement hole. He then jumped down into the basement and used Move and Shape stone to slice up the large stone cubes he brought back from the Astral Plane into stone blocks and mixed up a large batch of cement. Handil then arrived with the stone masons, stone cutters, carpenters, a few cottars and the plumbers.

Rick left a few big stacks of stone blocks and the cement in the center of the basement and came up to greet Handil. Rick handed over the castle concept drawing and floor plan for the first floor of the castle and while Handil looked them over Rick drew up a simple floor plan for the basement and passed that off to him as well.

Spoiler: Castle Basement Floor Plan.

He explained in Dwarven to him how he wanted it built and how the room marked prison area would need triple thick stone block walls. He told him he would make the jail cells himself later because he planned to make them all out of steel so that it would be impossible to dig through the walls and escape no matter how long someone was held in there. The other rooms he wanted all the walls to be made of stone to support the castle above it, but he wanted the carpenters to encase to stone walls in wood paneling just like his store. He showed the carpenters the wood panel design he had made for the store and told them to reproduce it throughout the basement. The plumbers he told to start running water inflow and outflow lines to every room on the floor plan and had them all get started.

Rick walked over to Handil and passed him the drawing of Faith's Temple and told him to begin working on it when the basement was finished.

"If you need any more workers or specialized craftsman to build the temple let me know and I will get them for you. I know it is a huge project and may require extra hands to build," Rick said in Dwarven.

Rick explained that he had left him enough supplies down in the basement to construct the stone walls and then made a stack of assorted lumber from recipes and took out a bunch of clay pipes and metal pipes and stacked them near the work area.

Rick activated Flight and flew over to the beach where he lit the bonfire and took out a few empty barrels and a shovel. He scooped up all the hardwood ashes filling the barrels up and stored everything away. Since he was right near the sawmill he went over and collected the huge oak tree he had left there a few days back that he told the sawyers not to cut.

When he had deposited the oak tree into the inventory he flew over to the System Gate and spawned in a few more wagoners and Cottars to work together and operate the finished work carts that had been sitting to the side unused. He took them all over to the workshop and explained he wanted them to collect all the furniture that the regular furniture makers create and transport it over to the apartment buildings and arrange it in the empty apartments. He explained to the delivery group what furniture to place in each room.

Rick instructed them also to check in with Handil the Dwarf in charge of the large construction crew often to see if he needed anything and deliver what he needed from the stockpile, sawmill, or the southern stone quarry. Rick told them the other cart drivers took care of pick ups at the stone quarry, but if they ever had the need to travel there to just follow the marked route along the river.

He then sent them off to the stables in search of the animal trainer to equip some horses and hook them up to the carts to begin deliveries. Dismissing the new cart delivery crew, Rick filled the stock pile with more wood, stone, clay, and took advantage of his VIP options to buy some random uncut gems. He placed the gems into his inventory and once again opened the unit buy menu. He spawned in ten Shipwright/Artisans and walked over to the tool shed to give them the usual tool belts, pouches, gloves nails, screws, and hand tools and walked them into the tower and sat at the table. Rick drew up a design for a sailboat and went over how he wanted it to be built.

Spoiler: Sailboat with Cabin.

Rick explained how he wanted the fin keel on the bottom of the boat not to run too deep. He not only wanted this sailboat for ocean travel but also wanted to be able to head up rivers in it.

Even though he called it a sailboat it was still large, measuring forty foot long. He designed it to have a cabin and an upper deck on top of the cabin where the wheel would be located. He had even thought up a few ideas on how to use wind runes on the masts to push the boat along when there was no wind, but that would need to wait until the boat was built.

After explaining his design and what he intended it to do with it, he took the Shipwrights down near the river and used Move and Shape Earth to cut out a hole big enough to build the boat in. Rick told them to build the boat in the hole next to the river and when it was finished he could connect the hole to the river and the boat would float up as the hole filled with water. Rick took out the huge oak tree he was saving and told them to use it to make the ships keel. He then made up planks, beams, plywood, and posts from recipes and left them near the hole along with a few tree trunks for them to work with.

Rick walked back to the tower and found Angelica up in the bedroom reading and invited her to go shopping with him. So they both stepped through a portal next to Mia's inn and went in for lunch before they went out shopping. As was their routine now they ordered the daily special which was beef steak, a potato with butter, and a side of pickled duck eggs and biscuits. They enjoyed the food which was always well prepared though a little more expensive than other places, but as they say "You get what you pay for".

Rick had the chance to catch up with Angelica about her new physical training program. All of the military units were now required to weight train, spar with practice weapons and run along the river to the stone quarry and back every day. She told him everyone struggled with the run, but the attribute gains they got from it began to help make it more manageable.

After paying for lunch they went over to the central plaza where, Rick stocked up on food supplies such as vegetables, fruits, dairy products, eggs, oils, and a good amount of lard that he had plans for. With the food supplies, all paid for they went to the surrounding stores and shops. He stopped in at a shop that made musical instruments and purchased lutes, harps, drums, flutes, violas, and a couple different horns.

Next on his list was to find a flower shop in the city. He asked the person he bought the instruments from where he might find one and learned that one was only a few streets away. Rick and Angelica walked over to the flower shop location and he purchased a bunch of roses and lavender flowers.

Now that he had everything he needed the two of them walked over to his new store. Rick unlocked the door and showed Angelica around and told her his idea of making a department store that sold a little of every type of craft. Making his store a one stop shop for everyone's needs.

Angelica really liked the idea and the look of the store. Then he turned the fountains on and she became fascinated with them, having never seen anything like them. While Rick was at the store he arranged any finished counters or displays around the store sections and told the carpenters to make large shelves along the walls of the warehouse if they finish up before he returned to assign them a new task.

RIck then opened a portal in the store wall and the two returned to the tower and walked back to the System Gate again and spawned in a Siever and a Soap Maker. He walked the two into the workshop and gave them both a workbench. Rick drew up a fine mesh modern style strainer and gave it to the Siever along with a few large coils of metal wire.

Spoiler: Metal Mesh Strainer.

He called the blacksmiths over and told them to help out making any parts for the strainer that the Siever needed help with and sent them off. The soap maker he took out all the hardwood ashes oil, lard, and the flowers for. He told the soap maker to take a few glass bottles from the glass blowers station and place rose petals and oil in some and lavender and oil in other separate bottles. He explained after a few days of the flower would scent the oils and they would use those scented oils in the soap he was to make.

He gave him a few cast iron pots and told him to soak the hardwood ashes in water to make lye water. After the ashes soak for a day or so he was to use the strainer the Siever was making to strain out the ash and debris. and store the lye water in a safe place and be sure not to let it touch his skin. Later when they had lye water they could mix it with lard and flower oil to make scented soap. Rick used a recipe to make a pair of leather gloves for the soap maker and told him to wear them when handling the lye water so it would not burn his skin if he split any.

After Rick had assigned the two new workers their tasks he scanned the room and noticed that the workshop was just about at max capacity.

Spoiler: Workshop Worker Stations.

We really need to begin construction on a few buildings in the craftsman district so I can start assigning shops to all these workers I keep hiring. When I first had this place built I thought it was so big then now a week later I have enough workers to be considered a large village. Rick thought while realizing that there wasn't much room left in the workshop.

Shaking his head with a long sigh, Rick went around gathering anything that was finished and walked over to the blast furnace. He opened the slag pipe and the molten impurities drained out onto the ground.

"Looks like the new metal is melted down now," Rick said to himself and took out his stone ingot casts to start draining the molten Astrallium into. Rick continued to pour out the molten metal into his casts making ingots until the furnace was empty. Rick shut off the furnace and stored all the new ingots away and made his way down into the tower cellar to work alongside the two Dwarves busily turning out the designs he gave them to stock the store with.

Rick placed a few of the extremely heavy Astralillum ingots into the forge flame to heat up while he drew up an idea for another set of armor. He used the heavy black metal ingots to make a cuirass, gauntlets, greaves, and a modern style military helmet. It took him longer than normal to work the dense metal into shape, but the extended hammering and forging helped to increase his skills.

When he finished making the new set of armor he acquired a recipe for it. Shocked to see this he opened his notices to find that his Blacksmithing had leveled up to level 2 Advanced and also upgraded like his Tailoring had. Rick closed the notices and set ownership of the new armor pieces to him and equipped them all. Compared to his other set of armor it now felt like he was carrying someone around on his back from the weight of the Astrallium metal.

Spoiler: Black Astrallium Armor Set.

Rick left the new armor on and made a copy of his battle gear preset, but exchanged the old armor for the new armor and name it "Stealth Gear".

Equip Battle Gear!

Equip Stealth Gear!

He cycled through his two presets testing them out and they worked great he was able to change armor set within a couple seconds. Leaving the new heavy armor on Rick walked out to the Fitness area and grabbed a couple fifty-pound dumbells and walked up and down the stone staircase. With the heavy dumbells and extra armor weight, it was quite a struggle, but he pushed on remembering the Marine Corps saying "Pain is weakness leaving the body".

He called out some Marine Corps cadences to distract himself while climbing the stairs for about a half hour then took a break and reviewed his notices.

Spoiler: New Notices. Attribute Increase: Srength + 25 Attribute Increase: Vitality +20 Attribute Increase: Agility +7 Attribute Increase: Stamina +15

Show Status!

Spoiler: Cedric's Status Menu.

Cedric Crownguard Strength: 75 Level: (31%) 13 Stamina: 55 Health: 750 Vitality: 75 Mana: 1160 Intelligence: 116 Piety: +175 Wisdom: 59 Fame: +10125 (locally respected) Agility: 38 Honor: +11000 Charisma: 20 Allignment: +4000 Leadership: 35 Satiety: 76% Luck: 10 Class: Druidic Mage Health Regen/Sec: 2.5 Mana Regen/Sec: 5.5 Feudal Domain: 2600 Race: Human Feuadal Title: Count Unused Points: 0 Awarded Titles Title: The White Knight Alignment +/- +1000 Title: The Honor Guard Alignment +/- +1000 Title: The Duelist Alignment +/- +1000 Title: Black Hand Interrogator Alignment +/- -1000 Title: Benevolent Leader Alignment +/- +1000

Rick closed out his menus and put two hundred pounds of plates on a barbell and started doing sets of squats and deadlifts. He kept at it rotating through quick sets for another half hour in full gear wearing his armor and weapons then stopped to look at his new gains.

Spoiler: New Notices. Attribute Increase: Srength + 30 Attribute Increase: Vitality + 10 Attribute Increase: Stamina + 15

Show Status!

Spoiler: Status with Gains.

Cedric Crownguard Strength: 105 Level: (31%) 13 Stamina: 70 Health: 850 Vitality: 85 Mana: 1160 Intelligence: 116 Piety: +175 Wisdom: 59 Fame: +10125 (locally respected) Agility: 38 Honor: +11000 Charisma: 20 Allignment: +4000 Leadership: 35 Satiety: 76% Luck: 10 Class: Druidic Mage Health Regen/Sec: 2.5 Mana Regen/Sec: 5.5 Feudal Domain: 2600 Race: Human Feuadal Title: Count Unused Points: 0 Awarded Titles Title: The White Knight Alignment +/- +1000 Title: The Honor Guard Alignment +/- +1000 Title: The Duelist Alignment +/- +1000 Title: Black Hand Interrogator Alignment +/- -1000 Title: Benevolent Leader Alignment +/- +1000

BAM! There it is over one hundred in strength and my vitality took a nice jump up as well! I literally thought I was going to die though half way through that workout. The way this VR capsule sends feelings of pain and fatigue to the brain is incredible. Rick thought as he closed his menus and walked out onto the west footbridge.

He unequipped all his gear and jumped into the river and floated along with the current. The ingame character Cedric never seems to get dirty or sweaty, but it was still relaxing to just lay back and float in the water erasing the stress and strain felt from the weight training. While floating along he thought back remembering the Hold Breath skill he created when building the western footbridge on Tower Island.

Rick took a deep breath and swam underwater slowly swimming with the current while using Hold Breath to explore the submerged world. When Rick activated Night Sight to see into the deepest depths he was surprised to see so many fish swimming around him.

I wonder if I can somehow kill one of these fish so I can try Shifting into one. He thought remembering the idea he had earlier of wanting to try out being a fish.

Rick started to think of how he could kill or catch one of the surrounding fish. When he came up with an idea Rick swam over to the shoreline and took out some metal wire leather string and a pair of pliers. Rick used the pliers to bend a loop on the end of the wire and then bent the other end into a pointed hook shape. Rick tried the leather string to the hook loop and brought out the bird meat he field dressed in the Astral Plane and cut a piece off of it. Rick hid the hook inside the bird meat and put everything away.

He swam back out under water holding his breath and swam along looking for a bigger sized fish. After searching the river and coming up for air a few times he found a long sleek fish with a body shape like a Musky or a Barracuda. Rick brought out the baited hook with a leather string tied to it and a dagger. Rick tucked the dagger into the waistline of his shorts and fed the baited hook down stream toward the fish. When it was a few feet upstream from the large fish he gave the line a few quick pops to make the bait jump around like a wounded fish.

The large aggressive fish didn't waste any time and swam up inhaling the baited hook. Rick waited for the fish to swallow the bait the gave the line a jerk setting the hook. He swam toward the fish while pulling the leather line in hand over hand toward him. The fish felt it self-being pulled by the leather string and began cutting back and forth in the water now aware it was trapped. Rick quickly swam toward the fish afraid it would snap the line and pulled out his dagger when the fish was in range he made a few swipes at it, but it was hard to hit the fish with the water slowing down his swing and it darting around.

He stopped swinging and pulled in more line until the fish was right before him. Rick arced the blade point around swinging at the side of the fish then piercing it behind the gills. He then swam out of the water holding the punctured fish on his dagger. On land now he turned the dagger over letting the fish slide off the blade onto the ground. Rick knelt down with his dagger pushed the blade through the fishes head killing it quickly. Rick carried the dead fish over to the water and used his blade to clean it. When all the blood and innards were washed out he stored the fish meat away and swam out into the water once again.

Now underwater Rick cast the Shape Shift spell and actually changed into the fish he just caught. Then he inhaled a small amount of water and was expecting to start choking, but he didn't. With more confidence, Rick took a deep gulp of water pushing it out over his gills and he felt the burn of low oxygen fade away.

This is awesome, I can shift into a fish and breathe underwater! Rick thought as he swam back up the river with difficulty toward tower Island.

When my boat is finished I need to make a cage and go out into the ocean and kill a shark or something else big and nasty. He thought as he swam along.

When he began to get used to moving his body properly and his speed gradually increased, Rick discovered he had reached the western footbridge from the wood pylons supporting the bridges in the water ahead of him. Rick shifted back to his original form and walked out of the river.

Equip Stealth Gear!

Once he was redressed in his new armor Rick noticed the weight was much more manageable after his one-hour intensive strength training session. Rick flew on over to the restaurant and went into the kitchen to unload the supplies he bought in town for the cooks. Rick made up a plate and sat down at a table with some food to refill his satiety that took a big hit from his workout and opened Party Chat to call Kanna the nekomimi Assassin/Hero Ranger and Garion the Half-Angel Cleric/Assassin. Rick had just finished his meal before they both arrived together. Kanna and Garion entered the restaurant and sat down across from Cedric. Rick proceeded to explain everything that had happened with him from buying the store and the nobles sending hired muscle to scare him off. He told them that later tonight he was going to portal a small stealthy group into each house and snatch the nobles from their beds.

Rick asked them since they both had Assassin classes allowing them to move quietly if they wanted to help him out. They both agreed to come along, so Rick told Kanna and Garion he would call them later and open a portal to the tower. He then thanked them and flew over to the tower and asked Angelica if she also wanted to come along on his mission as well. She agreed to help him and he told her to wait until later when the other two arrived he would bring them all to the store. Rick gave General Sturm a quick call and explained his operation and told him to allow Angelica, Kanna, and Garion to rest tomorrow since they would be out late at night missing out on their sleep.

Rick left the tower and went over to the tavern and went inside. He found Silvana the vampiress who he left in charge of the bar and gave her some of the instruments he bought earlier. Since he provided her with the classes Temptress/Minstril, he thought she would make a great performer. With those two classes, she should be like one of those girls in the classic movie who sing sexy songs in the night clubs in slinky dresses.

Rick placed her on his friend list while he was there and told her if she ever needed anything to let him know. Rick told her if she needed blood he would even let her bite him or extract it somehow. Rick then opened a portal to the store in the tavern wall and walked through it. Rick went around spreading out rugs in the center of each room then began taking out all the stored merchandise he planned to stock the store with. He started to split it all up into groups and carried each group of products to the section of the store devoted to it. He spent quite a bit of time organizing and setting up displays around the store.

While he neatly placed items in displays and glass counters for customers to observe he thought out his plan to strike at the two noble houses. As he began to wrap up stocking the store with all the available merchandise the sun had set behind the eastern mountains as the city streets grew quiet and dark.