Rick had displayed and arranged all of the crafts He and his workers had thus completed and his new store had begun to transform from a large empty room into a classy well-stocked department store. His store now had numerous sections devoted to Armor, Weapons, Furniture, Jewelry, Men and Women's Clothing, Housewares, Art, and a section upstairs to display his new carriage models that he would bring over later.

The Carpenters had done a beautiful job on the counters and displays while working with the glass workers. The counters had been carved with exquisite scenes of wilderness landscapes, wild animals in their natural habitats and also people in different activities of work and everyday life. Rick was quite impressed with their desire to express their artistic talents that he gave them free reign to also carve similar scenes and decorative patterns into the wood panel walls.

As of right now, the Carpenters had split into two squads that took turns building large shelves to hold excess merchandise in the warehouse and carving wood reliefs into the wood panel walls. Inspired by the reliefs the Carpenters were carving Rick sat down to copy a few of them for future concepts.

Spoiler: Wood Relief Drawings.

(A Section of carved Paneling)

If I ever run out of things for these guys to build I can always have them make wood carving reliefs to sell as wall decorations. Rick thought while admiring the Carpenters work.

Rick stored away his drawing and sat down thinking about his plans for tonight's mission.

Right now I have Angelica for backup just in case things go south. Then Garion with Cleric/Assassin classes who can heal and remain quiet. Then last, but not least Kanna with Assassin/Hero Ranger classes who can instantly kill any unsuspecting foes without ever being seen or sit back at a distance and snipe them down. The way I am planning this mission it shouldn't have to come to that. If I open a Portal to each bedroom we can snatch them from their beds and toss them through the portal. My only concern is someone will more than likely wake up from being moved and may have time to alert the guards. I may need one one more person with a class I haven't used with any of my units yet since it is not very combat oriented.

Rick opened up a portal and phased through to end up in front of the System Gate. He opened up the buy unit menu and spawned in a Male Aquatine with Illusionist/Assassin classes. Rick thought the Illusionist class would fit well since Aquatine were natural psionics that could use powers of the mind and had Truth of Magic knowledge.

Spoiler: Illusionist Class & Aquatine Race Menus. Illusionist Class Illusionists specialize in the art of trickery and deception, using their target's senses as mediums with which to display their abilities.

They can disable and confuse the senses, inspire action through fabricated thoughts, and even create apparitions which walk about the world.

"You are correct. My illusions are indeed fake. But the fear? The torment? The trauma? I'm afraid they are very real."

Spells List Spell Name Spell Description Mana Cost Recharge Time Ventriloquism Allows you to project your voice or a sound to a targeted location. 25 mp Two Minutes Mirage Mantle Allows you completely change how you and your gear look or to mimic another person. 50 mp Two Minutes Deceptive Obstruction Allows you to create the illusion of a wall, floor, ceiling, or similar surface. Can be used to hide traps and doors or mislead. 50 mp Two Minutes Emulate Entity Allows you to create and control an illusory duplicate of any being. Its appearance will be exactly the same as the original. 50 mp Two Minutes Substanceless Silhouettes Allows you to form terrifying shadow creatures. Anyone they attack is deceived into thinking they are being injured. 75 mp Two Minutes Lifelike Illusion Allows you to create an illusion of an object, being, or force, as visualized by you. The figment includes visual, auditory, olfactory, and thermal elements. 75 mp Two Minutes Mystic Message Allows you to imbue an object or creature with an enchanted mouth that will recite a message the next time a specified event occurs. 75 mp Two Minutes Nightmare Allows you to send horrifying and unsettling phantasmal visions to a specific person. This prevents that person from sleeping leaving them fatigued and drowsy. 75 mp Two Minutes Unwaking Slumber Allows you to put a living being unaware of your presence into a sedated sleep for 10 minutes. 75 mp Two Minutes Suppressive Domain Allows you to create a completely silent Domain. All enemy and/or Ally sound, Conversation, and verbal spells are silenced. No noise whatsoever issues from, enters, or passes through the area. 100 mp Two Minutes Dominating Domain Allows you to combine several elements to create a powerful protection from direct observation. You can dictate what will and will not be observed in the Domain’s area. 100 mp Two Minutes Instinctive Knowledge Daggers Allows you to use a Bow and Arrow. Level determines bonuses to damage and technique. Staves Allows you to use a Staves. Level determines bonuses to damage and technique. Magic Allows you to wield magic. Light Armor Allows you to wear Light Armor. Skill level determines protection bonuses. Medium Armor Allows you to wear Medium Armor. Skill level determines protection bonuses. Reading and Writing Allows you to read and write you racial and Lord's language. Aquatine Race

Aquatines have skin which can vary in shades of light blue. The hair color of Aquatines ranges from blue to teal.

Aquatines have thin gill slits on the back of their necks that allow them to breathe in water.These gills are usually unnoticed when on land, as the slit skin seals tightly closed to keep out foreign contaminants.

On the back of each arm and leg, they have small ridges that act as fins to better maneuver in the water, as well as having slightly webbed fingers and toes.

The Aquatines inhabit the shorelines of both fresh and salt water building settlements that are partially submerged in the water.

Male: (4.6 ft.– 5.5 ft. ) (100 – 130 lbs.) Female: (4.0ft.– 4.6 ft.) (75 – 105 lbs.) Racial Traits [Amphibious]: You can breathe normally, both on land, and in water. [Fast Swimmer]: Your movements in the water are very fast and agile. [Aquatic Combat]: You can easily fight underwater without any difficulties. [Naturally Psionic]: You are born with the ability to use various forms of psychic, mental ability and powers Instinctive Abilities

Psionic

[Mirror Mind]: Allows you to reflect psionic attacks directed against you.

[Mindspeak]: Your racial psionic aptitude allows you to communicate through mental contact with other psionic.

[Psionic Weapon]: You can imbue your melee weapon with additional psionic damage.

Weapons

[Blunt Weapons]: Allows you to use Blunt Weapons. Level determines bonuses to damage and increased technique.

[Daggers]: Allows you to use Daggers. Level determines bonuses to damage and increased technique.

[Polearms]: Allows you to use Polearms. Level determines bonuses to damage and increased technique.

[Magic]: Allows you to wield magic.

Armor

[Light Armor]: Allows you to wear light armor. Skill level determines protection bonuses.

[Medium Armor]: Allows you to wear Medium armor on land. Skill level determines protection bonuses.

Knowledge

[Truth of Magic]: You have learned to manipulate spells beyond their normal capacity.

[Reading and Writing]: Allows you to read and write your racial, and Lord's language.

[Brawling]: Allows you the knowledge of how to fight unarmed to win by any means necessary.

[Foraging]: Allows you the knowledge to acquire food by hunting, fishing, or the gathering of plant matter. Edible plants, fish, and animals.

Rick took his new recruit up to the Tower fourth floor and equipped him with weapons and armor. When The Aquatine was fully equipped they met up with Angelica and the three of them sat down at the table on the first floor. Rick called Garion and Kanna with the Party Chat. When they arrived and sat down Rick went over the Aquatine's Spell list to help him make the final plans for the mission.

Rick decided once he was familiarized with the Illusionist spell list. He would open a portal and send Kanna through using [Phantom Pace] which would make her almost invisible and [Shadow Step] which would allow her to move silently to recon the room and make sure the person was asleep. If the room was quiet and the noble was sleeping she would come back and bring the others through.

The Aquatine who's name is Reef would step through and cast [Unwaking Slumber] on anyone sleeping in the room and then cast [Suppressive Domain] creating a domain of silence. If there was any sign of trouble Reef would also cast [Dominating Domain] and make everyone in his party invisible. If everything went smoothly they would transfer the noble through the portal to the island in the Astral Plane. Once they had been transferred Reef would then cast [Emulate Entity] to make an exact copy of the noble sleeping in the bed. This way if anyone happened to look in the room before they finished emptying all the bedrooms it would appear that the noble was sleeping soundly in their bed still.

Garion, Angelica, and Rick would concentrate on moving the noble through the portal, while Kanna would wait by the door with [Phantom Pace] and [Shadow Step] still active and ready to pounce on anyone who opened the bedroom door.

After going over the plan they went through different scenarios that could happen and found the plan to be solid enough to stand up against them all. They sat around the table talking and discussing the mission to kill time until late into the night. Rick then decided it was time to make their move and he opened a portal and followed the plan sending Kanna through to recon the room she came back right back and waved them in. The room was quite dark so Rick activated Night Sight and opened another portal about 100 feet away from the tunnel on the island. Rick, Garion, and Angelica gently grabbed a limb of the guy sleeping in the bed and hauled in through the portal and laid him down in the grass on the island.

Rick waved Kanna away from the door and opened a portal to the next room. Once Reef had made an illusion clone of the man they just abducted they stalked through the portal to the next bedroom and repeated the process. The stealthy party continued from room to room getting quicker as they developed a routine. Around fifteen minutes later they had moved eleven nobles of House Karn to the island along with Captain Gage who Rick thought about strangling while he was sleeping. Rick decided against it in the end thinking that would be too quick of an end and wanted him to suffer for what he had put Jessica through and the countless other women of the city who had no one to rescue them from his degeneracy.

With House Karn's nobles completely cleaned out, the party waited at the tower for a few minutes allowing their mana to regen and then went on to House Lupton. House Lupton was a bit more established than House Karn and had twenty-two nobles under their roof. Even with the extra security that House Lupton had they kept to the perimeter of the mansion allowing Rick's party to easily portal from one room to the next and snatch up every noble out from under their noses.

Rick's party transferred the House Lupton nobles some distance from the sleeping Karn nobles to avoid waking them. When both houses were clear of anyone other than guards or servants, Rick took them back to the tower and thanked them all for helping him out. He then explained that they could take the day off tomorrow to sleep in without worrying about training. Rick sent them all off to get some sleep and then made one more portal jump to the Royal Courts Constables office. He left the book he stole from House Lupton sitting on his desk and wrote a short note with his opposite hand explaining what the book was. He thought that if his handwriting was ever compared to the note it would look so much different by using his weak hand it came out shaky and messy.

Rick bounced back to the tower and removed his gear to climb into bed with Angelica. They talked quietly for a few minutes trying not to disturb the group of Tigers sleeping on their mattresses along the wall. When Angelica fell asleep Rick disconnected from the game. After using the bathroom Rick laid down to get some sleep after a long day.

Rick woke up after a few hours of sleep just after 1:00 PM. He drove up to the college and studied for a couple hours in the library before returning home to work out and take a shower. He had eaten on campus before coming home so he sat down to relax and watch TV while returning missed calls and texts. Lily had sent him a text telling him she was enjoying the game and chose to be an elf. She said the elven forest and tree top homes and shops were beautiful and described the forest gardens filled with exotic flowers and plants.

She told him she was currently learning how to shoot a bow and fight with a short sword. Rick updated her on everything going on with his store and city construction. He didn't tell her about the problems with the nobles though not wanting to taint the game so early for her since she was having so much fun. He then relayed again that when she felt like moving on later he would come get her somehow. For now, she should stay there and learn as much as possible and just have fun with it all.

Rick then put his phone down and went to connect to the game. He woke up in his bed still next to Angelica who also stirred awake as he climbed out of bed and used his Stealth Gear preset to prepare to head over to the workshop.

"Sorry I woke you up. Go back to sleep and get some rest I need to go check on the all the worker's progress and take care of a few projects." Rick told her quietly.

"Okay, I'm going to get a little more sleep then. I'll see you later." Angelica said with a sleepy smile.

Rick left the tower and went over to the workshop and had the Cartwright help him disassemble the two new steel framed carriages. The two of them broke them down into three parts and Rick stored them into his inventory. For some reason when he tried to store the whole carriage the inventory wouldn't allow him to do it. but when it had been slightly disassembled it, he could then store it without any problems. He assumed it had to do with preventing players from abusing the inventory. If a player could load up a hundred catapults into his inventory he could walk up to city walls and quickly drop them all and have his units run up and start pounding the walls without any warnings at all.

When he was able to store both carriages he left the Cartwright to return to work. Rick made his rounds to the worker's stations picking up locks, eye glasses, artisan furniture, rugs, tapestries, Quilts, blankets, clothing, and footwear. When Rick stopped at the poleturner he had min spin out a dozen wood cylinders about eight inches long and a half inch thick. He tucked them away and made his way down into the cellar of the tower where he collected the finished armor and weapons.

Rick sat down at his workbench and brought out his hand drill and the wood cylinders. He used his drill to drill out the center of each cylinder and set them aside. Next, he pulled out some charcoal from the beach fire that saved along with the hardwood ashes. He ground the charcoal in a cast iron pan then added a small amount of clay and water to the charcoal. Rick mixed the clay charcoal and water into a peanut buttery consistency and used a piece of wire to ramrod the mixture into the drilled out hole of the wood cylinders. When all twelve cylinders were packed tightly with the mixture he used his fire elemental affinity to slowly heat the wood cylinders without burning them.

After a few minutes of this, the center mixture of charcoal and clay dried out and became solid. Rick acquired a recipe after making his newest creation that he named "Charcoal Pencil". Rick used his knife to cut a three foot long sections of fine white cloth off a roll from his inventory and then sharpened on of the charcoal pencils. He then made a sheet of plywood and cut it into two foot by two-foot cuts that he stretched and tacked the cuts of cloth around.

Now that Rick had a few makeshift canvases, he used his charcoal pencil and drawing skill to make a few large drawing to frame and sell at his store. He had made an area to sell and display artwork that was looking empty with only a few wood sculptures and quick drawing on parchment he had made. If he could make money on his artwork for little to no investment he could always add later, but for now, he decided to make a few test run drawing to see if there was anyone interested.

Spoiler: A few of Cedric's Charcoal Drawings.

When Rick had made twenty pencil drawings he used carpentry and wood carving to make ornate wood frames for them and used his paint sticks to paint the frames a golden brown color. He packed all the painting into the inventory and got up and walked over to the forge He placed half a steel ingot mixed with the Tiger blood into the forge flames along with three Astrallium ingots and sat back down again. While the ingots were heating up he took out all of his uncut gems and began cutting them all using his gem cutting skill. When he had cut all the gems he had in his inventory he then used identify on each one and sorted them into piles.

Rick put away his gem cutting tools and pulled the half steel ingot from the flames and split into sections on his anvil. Rick hammered out a rough ring shape for every cut piece of steel and carried them over to the workbench. With the help of his metal sculpting skill, he carved and notched the rings into decorative shapes. When he was happy with the ring shapes he used his fire elemental affinity to set the stones into the rings and hold them in place with tiny cuts of heated steel wire.

He cut a piece of red velvet from a roll in his inventory and placed it inside a small wooden box. He arranged the rings on the velvet inside the box and set them off to the side for now.

Spoiler: New Ring Designs.

I need to make these rings I am going to sell really stand out. It isn't enough that my designs are different from all the other Jewelers. The steel I used to make them has the Tiger blood mixed into them so that should provide some small bonuses, but if I enchant them then I will have jewelry that can't be bought anywhere else. Rick thought as he picked up a dragon head shaped ring with Padparadscha gemstones.

Rick imbued the ring with the strength attribute and used his identify skill on it.

Spoiler: Enchanted Steel Dragon Ring. Enchanted Steel Dragon Ring

A Steel Ring mixed with Variant Tiger blood. This ring has seventy-five small padparadscha gemstones.

This is an original design crafted in the shape of a Dragon head by Cedric Crownguard.

Bonuses: +8% to swing speed Enchantment: +5 Strength

Wow, that is a nice ring. If I wore one on every finger I could boost my strength to +50 and improve my weapon swing speed by 80%. Rick thought as he examined the ring.

He placed the dragon ring back into the velvet lined box and went through the rest of the rings enchanting them with random attributes and then stored them away to display later at the shop.

Rick talked with the Dwarf weaponsmith about an idea he had for a weapon. Rick thought the weapons he had been crafting of late were beautifully done and truly showed off his Artisan skills. After discussing the design, Rick thought the smith had some great ideas and began to alter the weapons look in the drawing to accommodate them. When Rick had a completed the drawing of the new weapon he worked together with the weaponsmith to craft it with the Astrallium ingots that he had placed in the forge earlier.

Spoiler: Astrallium Weapon Design.

Rick and the weaponsmith used Orichalcum to break up the solid black color of the hammer by adding an Orichalcum handle, pommel, and wrapped Orichalcum accent straps on the hammer shaft. Even though this weapon was made with two rare metals and was extremely heavy there was one other thing that made it different than any other weapon. In the center of the hammer head above where the shaft connected was recessed circular indentation on each side.

Inside both of the two indentations, Rick had socked quartz storage gems and sealed them with two platinum engraved runes that fit flush with the side of the hammer head. On one side of the hammer was a fire rune on the other side he had attached a lightning rune. Both runes were on an engraved circuit that connected to a switch rune on the handle. When Rick and the weaponsmith completed the new hammer he placed it in his inventory and flew off to the west.

Rick took out the hammer and swung it at a tree and touched the switch right at impact. A ball of flames and electrical bolts arced around and into the tree. The moisture in the tree was instantly heated to a boil and the tree trunk exploded as if it were hit by a bolt of lightning.

The tree was not the only thing that took damage Rick had trained himself to have resistances to fire, but lightning was a different story. The hammer had worked like a giant lightning rod and channeled the electricity right down into his hands He was thrown through the air and landed on his back. He had lost over three-quarters of his health and his arms had long gashes with smoke tendrils rising from them.

When the pain hit him he ground his teeth to stop himself from yelling out. Rick remembered the ring on his finger "Faith's Blessing" and activated it. The healing power of the ring circulated through his body restoring the damage he had received. Now that the pain was fading and he could move his arms he began casting his Druidic Mage spell [Nature's Blessing] that could restore 100 hp per cast until he was fully recovered.

Rick stood up and walked over to grab the hammer and stored it away.

It seems metal conducts electricity in the game just like the real world and very well at that. That shit fricking hurt. I almost feel sorry for anyone who gets hit directly by that damn hammer. Though by looking at this destroyed tree here I don't think they will feel much. Before I can use that hammer again I need to train my lightning elemental affinity so that I have a resistance to it.

Rick performed a few stretches and made sure he was fully healed and everything was where it was supposed to be and then flew towards the city construction area. As he approached the city center he spotted Handil's crew laying the foundation for Faith's Temple in the enormous stone paved square just north of the castle plot. As usual, many of the workers stopped to look up as he passed over with looks of astonishment. Rick would just chuckle at their reactions and wave as he zipped past.

I guess I would act the same way in the real world if I saw someone always flying around my neighborhood. I think of it as being normal since this is a game, but to them even though there is magic in this world it isn't normal to see people flying around faster than anything they have ever seen.

Rick landed on the castle plot and found that Handil and his group of workers not only completed the basement they had covered it with the wood plank floors and laid a row of cemented limestone blocks as the start of the Castle foundation. You could now clearly see the shape of the castle that the limestone blocks outlined.

Walking toward the back tower he found a rectangular hole cut in the floor below the hole was a spiral staircase that he descended to the dark basement. Rick activated his Night Sight and walked from room to room admiring the work they had done. The walls were not as detailed or artistic as his store, but this castle basement looked as good as any modern real world finished basement. The floor was covered in white marble tiles and they had painted the wood paneled walls white with black borders to match the black swirls in the marble tiles.

Rick went through the basement after exploring it and hung wall lights in the hallways and rooms. He then created a forge much bigger than the one in the tower. He made workbenches, a metal roller, and a pedal lathe and arranged them around the work room. He set out a long table and chairs and placed a lamp on it.

I need to make or buy smelting pots and anvils now that they are all being used. I could always have the two Dwarves working in the tower cellar transfer over here all of the equipment, but it is still convenient having a crafting area over there. I guess I will just leave it for now. When I move those two out of the basement I want them to have their own buildings. I want to make a crafting district when the temple is finished so that the workers can all have their own shops. It would be nice if I could one day make them all independent. I would need to come up with a way that they can make money, hmm.

I could sell them materials for their crafts then buy the finished products and also charge them for rent. The restaurant could make a menu and charge the customers like a real restaurant so the cooks could earn money and the farmers could sell their fruits and vegetables in a market to those who wish to make their meals at home. I could always put it to a vote to see if they are happy with the way things are now or if they want to change. Rick contemplated the city's future changes as he left the castle basement and set off to the plot he gave Daisia to raise the exotic trees and plants he harvested in the Astral Plane.

When he reached the garden, Rick discovered the half-dryad had been quite busy. Daisia had transformed the empty plot into an incredible fantasy garden. He saw trees with blue leaves some had red others purple or yellow. He found small clustered gardens of rainbow hue flowers in different shapes and sizes. She had even used her move and shape earth skill to carve out natural looking ponds that she filled with her [Create Water] skill. With her [Vegetation Shape] skill she had made arches and tunnels from exotic multi-colored bushes and plants.

Rick just stood in place frozen as he took it all in. Everywhere he looked there was something neat to see. around one of the ponds she had shaped vegetation to look like a group of deer leaning down to drink from it and the ends of tree branches had their leaves shaped to look like birds were taking flight from them. Daisia had been walking around her garden making changes and helping plants grow when she discovered Cedric had arrived. She walked over to him barefoot and scantily dressed making it hard not to look her up and down.

Rick shook his head and spoke up as she approached him. "Daisia this garden is incredible I just expected you to make a farm with all the plants and trees I brought back for us to harvest, but you went and made a garden that would make an elf weep with joy."

Daisia laughed at his comment. "fufu. I am a half dryad elves may be good with nature elementals, but they have nothing on me. Then these two classes you gave me Druid and this Landscape Architect have spells and skill that fit me perfectly. If you wanted I could make you a city out of trees and plants instead of stone." She replied with a proud smile.

"Haha. You don't have to build me a city what I do want is when a district is finished is for you to make all the land around the building to look like this garden you created here. After seeing this I will have to even leave some open plots in each district for you to create parks and gardens that everyone can enjoy. In my world, the big cities are full of streets and building so the people enjoy going to parks on their time off to run around and play in nature." Rick explained.

"Oh, before I forget to ask have you had any luck finding a latex tree?" Rick asked.

Daisia gave him a small smile and wagged her finger at him to follow her. She led him to the tree with deep purple leaves that he had brought back from the Astral Plane. Daisia unsheathed a dagger from her hip and cut a groove into the smooth tree bark. All most instantly a white liquid substance began to drip out of the cut.

Rick walked over and put some on his finger and used identify.

Latex

Latex is a milky white fluid found in plants that serves mainly as a defense against herbivorous insects.

The latex can be processed to produce many materials. Natural rubber is one of the main products created from Latex.

Latex is used to mattresses, clothing, footwear, latex paints, and many other modern products.

"Yes! This is it!" He exclaimed.

Rick pointed to the land between the street and where the city walls would be. "I want you to turn all that land across the street there into a farm of these trees. You don't have to do anything excessive I just want a straight line of evenly placed trees. Then I can cut the bark and hang buckets to collect the latex and turn it into rubber." Rick explained.

Daisia seemed ecstatic to have a new strip of land to play with and ran off with a smile to get started on the tree farm. He shook his head with a smile and flew off to the tower and went back downstairs with an idea he just had.

Rick took out his drill and wood workings tools along with a wood post. He used his [Wood Carving] and [Wood Shape] skill to create an adjustable wood armor stand that could be used to display complete armor sets.

Spoiler: Armor Stand.

Rick received a recipe for the new wooden armor stand and opened a portal to his store and stepped through. In the armor and weapons department, Rick displayed an iron plate armor set with a two handed sword to see how the new armor stand looked.

Spoiler: Iron Plate Armor Displayed.

He liked the way the armor looked displayed on the stand. It would allow the customer to see first hand how the armor would look on them before purchasing it. Rick made more armor stands to display the different types of armor he would be selling and arranged them around the weapons and armor department.

Rick went to check on the carpenters and found them continuing to carve reliefs on the paneled walls. He instructed them to move upstairs when they had finished the warehouse shelving and cover the walls with wood paneling. He then went upstairs himself and took out the sections of the carriages and assembled them to use as display models.

When he had reassembled them, Rick went back to the tower and laid down on the bed and disconnected to take a break and grab something to eat.

Disconnect!