On the way back home from school, Rick stopped by the supermarket to pick up food and a few things he was low on back at the apartment. As he drove home from his quick stop he recalled lunch with his friends earlier and how excited Ryan was to be getting his Gate Gear delivered and installed tomorrow morning.

Luke was just as anxious because in three days he would also be the owner of a brand new Gate Gear. Lily not to be left out gave them update on her having reached level six and was becoming quite skilled with her bow.

When he made it back to the apartment, Rick put away the food, cleaning supplies, and other miscellaneous products he bought.

After putting everything away he changed out of his nice clothes into shorts and a muscle shirt and climbed into his Gate Gear.

Connect!

Rick got up from the bed and equipped his formal clothes purchased from Vardon the tailor he had worn yesterday and his custom jewelry. Rick went through the tower cellar, workshop, and island horse stable to double check everything had been moved to their new locations.

After confirming that the building's occupants and equipment had been relocated he ran over to the new crafting buildings and collected all the stock items that were to be sold at the store and used his cartography skill to check the construction progress of his city.

Spoiler: Updated City Map.

Rick put away the map after reviewing the city construction progress and walked south one street and found Jerem and his crew finishing up on one of the crafting buildings. He talked with Jerem using the dwarven language so that he could continue gain higher levels and become more fluent with the language. While asking Jerem in Dwarven how he and his men were settling in and if he needed anything at home or on the job site, Rick began to wonder if it would be possible to learn languages of the monsters of the game world. He remembered when he was in the dungeon that they were calling out to each other during a few of the fights so they must be able to communicate on some level.

He made a mental note to look into when he had free time and got down to business with Jerem. Since they now had plenty of crafting buildings he had Jerem take his crew over to the temple and help Handil finish up construction. Rick followed Jerem over to the temple and told the two work crew leaders to continue building the walls when they had completed the temple.

"Once the temple is finished I want your two teams to continue building the walls. I will feel a little better when I don't have to worry about unknown attackers or monsters walking right in here and killing unarmed civilians. We don't need another repeat of the human tribe attack." Rick then quickly explained what had happened in the past to Jerem when he looked at them in confusion.

"Also don't worry about the gatehouse portcullis I can make those easily and install them. Just have your crews build a tower exactly like the other two on every wall corner and make a copy of the eastern gatehouse on the north south and west exits. Once we have the walls built then I will use my skills to dig deep moats around the walls to prevent ladder or siege tower assaults." Rick explained to the two dwarves.

The two work leaders looked at him confused when he mentioned to siege tower and he explained the concept of the siege tower to them. Being that they were both dwarves of course they loved the ingenuity of the siege towers and seemed to act like it would almost be worth being attacked just to see one in use.

Rick just shook his head and left them to continue their discussion on how a siege tower could be built and deployed.

These guys will lose their minds when they see catapults, trebuchets, and ballistae. He thought while mentally laughing.

He then opened a portal to his office in the store and stepped through. Rick found the store sales book and receipts sitting on his desk and he quickly reviewed them. Inside the sales record book, he found a small neatly written note from Barat informing him that the money from all the sales was in his bottom right desk drawer. Setting the book down he opened the drawer and found a layer of assorted coins lining the bottom of it. He placed all the money into his inventory and took the sales books over to Barat's office and placed them on his desk.

Rick activated his Charming Presence skill and went out onto the sales floor. He was pleasantly surprised to see his staff wearing the outfits he had gifted them. The girls all looked stunning with their hair neatly styled and wearing the same matching dark azure blue silk china dress. Barat was once again at the front door dressed in one of the old school three piece suits that reminded Rick of maitre d' of some fancy fifties nightclub.

"It looks like it will be another busy day around here. I may need to start thinking about hiring a couple more employees already." Rick said softly and began working his way through the crowd.

After checking in with Nellie and Barat he walked around the shop introducing himself to the customers and thanking them for their patronage and even checked in with all the saleswomen to see how they were doing and if he could help them in any way.

He then went around and restocked what he could from his inventory and then placed the rest of what he had picked up earlier in the back warehouse. Now that he had checked in at the shop and knew everything was fine, Rick opened a portal to the Astral Plane and then removed his jewelry and equipped his black armor outfit preset.

As he stood in front of the open portal while switching his gear, he felt something familiar from the portal doorway. When it had caught his attention Rick paused for a couple of minutes trying to figure out what this feeling was. It somehow reminded him of when he trained his fire elemental affinity. Rick reached out his hand toward the portal and placed his fingertips against the black screen and circulated his mana into the blackness.

Circulating his mana into the portal and drawing the mana out from the darkness he made an elemental connection that he continued to circulate until the notification icon started flashing.

Spoiler: New Notices!. Elemental Affinity Increase: Space Affinity Level 7 Beginner 1%

Holy crap, so the portal must work with space affinity somehow? This is a nice discovery I can use this to train that elemental affinity.

Rick closed the notice and stepped through the portal to find himself in the forest where he had taken the tree cuttings from last time he was there. Activating his flight skill, Rick flew up above the trees and flew east away from the ocean. Now that he no longer could buy coal and iron from Hibal in Silver City he hoped he might find more of the Astrallium ore that was on the Island.

Flying out of the forest of colorful trees he crossed an open grassland that soon went from hills to a mountain range of sheer jagged peaks. The valleys and peaks of the mountain range were so extreme that if he couldn't fly over and through them it would be next to impossible to cross them.

Spoiler: Astral Plane East Mainland.

Some of the mountain peaks that he flew around were so high that they had snow on their peaks. Rick continued east weaving through the mountains for a couple miles to come across a large valley with a small forest completely enclosed by the mountain chain. He set down on top of a solitary mountain peak and began using his Iron, Mithril, and Orichalcum Scans. When he did not get a scan hits, Rick flew down off the mountain and circled the valley while still using his scans.

When he entered the forest in the north end of the valley he flew below the trees and had a faint iron scan signal that led him to the entrance of a shallow cave entrance. He did not waste any time and made use of his Move and shape stone skill to cut a tunnel through the back of the cave toward the iron scan reading. He dug into the mountain with Night Sight activated and stored the large cubes of stone he cut out to create the tunnel. Roughly a hundred yards and found the pocket of iron and used his mining pick to harvest it all.

Even if my scan is not picking up any more ores around me there still could be some that I don't have scans for. Rick thought after trying his scans deep inside the mountain.

He figured since he was already exploring the Astral Plane and underground he would mine to try and fill his supplies. Rick used the 10 x10 x 10 cubes he could cut from the stone with [Move and Shape Stone] to begin making a grid of tunnels throughout the mountain.

Spoiler: Astral Mine Grid.

He stayed under the mountain mining for over an hour cutting out tunnels and mining ores that he had found. When he had completed his tunnel mining project, Rick opened his inventory to review everything he had mined.

Spoiler: Mined Ores. Titanium Ore

A [Very Rare] lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength.

Titanium is resistant to corrosion in sea water.

Titanium can be alloyed with other metals, to produce strong, lightweight alloys.

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.

Coal

A combustible black or dark brown rock consisting mainly of carbonized plant matter found mainly in underground deposits and widely used as fuel.

Iron Ore

Iron a [Common] metal is by mass the most common element.

This is the metal used in most weapons and armors in the game world.

Infernal Crimsantite Ore

Infernal Crimsantite is a [Legendary Rare] metal only found in the Astral Plane.

Infernal Crimsantite is a highly heat resistant metal with a very high melting point.

This metal provides extreme bonuses to the fire elemental affinity.

Sparkling Silver Ore

Sparkling Silver is a [Rare] elegant silver of a [Rare] quality.

Sparkling Silver has similar properties of normal silver.

This metal provides a mirror reflective surface when forged.

Copper Ore

This [common] well-known reddish brown color pure metal.

It is soft and easily worked metal.It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity.

I found quite a few different metal ores and was lucky enough to find another new metal that can only be found in the Astral Plane. Even though I had to tunnel through hundreds of yards of stone it was worth it. Rick thought as he closed his inventory and left the cave.

This enclosed valley would make a perfect place for a base I could even build a fortress on that lone peak in the center. I will need to remember this place if I ever want to build a defensible position here.

Rick activated flight and flew up out of the valley and decided to continue flying east to explore the land past the mountain chain he was over.

After flying for a few minutes the mountains turned into foothills and the to flat woodlands. Rick pushed on over the forest and noticed a large smoke plume rising from a mountain ahead and flew towards it.

He was soon close enough to discover that the smoke was from an active volcano that had recently erupted. Rick landed at the base of the volcano that was covered in black rocks and layers of dust. All the tree that once grew around the volcano were now burned black from the heat and initial eruption.

Spoiler: Area Of Volcano.

Rick bent over a picked up a large chunk of black rock that covered the terrain around him and used Identify on it.

Spoiler: Identify! Obsidian

Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock.

It is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth.

So this is Obsidian, I've read that it was used as weapons in ancient civilizations and it can also be melted down to make glass products. I should gather up a good supply of this to experiment. This could turn out to be a good little discovery. Also if I am correct I believe that all of this dust is volcanic ash.

Spoiler: Identify! Volcanic Ash

Volcanic ash consists of fragments of pulverized rock, minerals, and volcanic glass, created during volcanic eruptions.

Volcanic ash is also used as an abrasive in hand soaps, and rubber erasers.

Volcanic ash was also used by the Romans to make concrete. They could pour their concrete under water and it would actually dry and harden which came in handy for making bridges and harbors.

Rick spent some time around the volcano collecting a large amount of obsidian and volcanic ash into his inventory before opening a gate to his store. Rick stepped back over into his office and changed back into his formal clothes and jewelry.

He once again went around and checked on the employees and helped answer customer questions and write sales up. When the sales girls were able to finally help most of the currently waiting customers, Rick tool the sales receipts and money from the sales he wrote up and placed it all on Barats desk so that he could record it in the sales books later. Upon leaving Barats office, Rick went into his own office and sat down at his desk.

I want to make a few more new outfits, armors, and weapons to sell and wear. I love this one that I had Vardon make for me when I first started, but I would bet my tailor/artisans are just as good or better than Vardon already. Rick pondered as he took out parchment, paint sticks, and a charcoal pencil.

The outfits he drew this time were different than the modern outfits he had made last time. These outfits had a more of a gothic renaissance era look to them.

Spoiler: New Outfit Designs.

The new armor designs he made one traditional full plate mail design while the others were similar to old PC fantasy RPG designs.

Spoiler: New Armor Designs.

He then designed a few fantasy themed weapons and new oversized ornate forging hammers.

Spoiler: New Weapon Designs.

Rick placed his new design ideas into his inventory and left his office to check on the store.

He crossed the store with his aura charming presence activated and heard a familiar voice call out his name from a few yards to his right.

"Cedric!"

When he turned He saw Jessica who owned the general store he often shopped at making her way over to him.

"I thought the name on this store's sign sounded familiar! Did you end up buying this place?" Jessica asked with her usual cheerful manner.

"I sure did. A few days ago when I was out shopping I came across this store and the owner was about to lose it to the bank and his employees were going to all be unemployed so I stepped in and purchased it." Rick explained.

Jessica then walked close to him with a concerned look. "Most of the store owner in town know that this place was being targeted by the nobles. You need to be careful Cedric they are ruthless people who don't care who they hurt to make a few coins." She softly whispered to him.

Rick looked around and noticed that there were too many customers around them to openly talk. "Follow me let's go somewhere a little more private," Rick replied quietly.

"I thought you'd never ask." She said with a mischievous grin.

Rick just shook his head and laughed while he led her to his office and closed the door behind them.

"Wow! look at this office! Not only is the store beautiful, but just look at this furniture! Jessica said while examining the room.

"I sell all of it here at my shop if you're ever interested I give you a great deal on anything you want," Rick said

"I'm not sure I could afford it." She quietly said as she sat down on a red velvet upholstered love seat.

"The reason I brought you back here is that I remember you once telling me that the nobles were giving you a hard time with acquiring certain imported products. By any chance were those nobles House Lupton and House Karn?" Rick asked.

"Yes, they are and they are also targeting this store. They also the same nobles that used their power to pressure everyone in the city to not by this store so the owner would lose it to the back and they could buy it for next to nothing from the auction house. That is why you should not have bought this place. They will send people to threaten and vandalize your store until you eventually walk away from it." Jessica explained.

"Well, I won't have to worry about that. I have officially registered House Crownguard with city hall. I am now a Count and outrank both of those houses." Rick was explaining when Jessica popped up with a small yelp.

Jessica jumped up from her seat and performed an awkward curtsey.

"Please don't do that. I want you to treat me like you always have in the past. I consider you a friend and I hope we will continue to be friends. I recently lost a friend over the purchase of this store so I hope you will not begin to view me as a noble and/or a business rival." He said with a sad look.

Jessica smiled. "I'd be happy to be considered your friend and have no problem with you owning this store except that I am worried for your safety now."

"Let me just say that House Karn and House Lupton will never bother anyone else in this city and that includes our buddy House Karns Captain Gabe. Please don't ask how I know, or tell anyone that I told you this. I only told you because I trust you and I know the trouble they have caused you." Rick told her with a serious expression.

"I thought that something seemed strange. Every day there seems to be more merchandise available that I never had access to in the past. I won't ask you about it, but I will thank you if you were the one to make the changes around the city." Jessica said.

Rick just smiled and gave her a wink without admitting to it, but still letting her know that he did have something to do with it.

"I want you to know that if you ever have any problems like you did with House Karn's captain or are ever in danger that you can come to me for help. Think of my store as a place of safety, my men are always on guard here and will protect you until I arrive." Rick said in a serious tone.

"Alright! Enough of all this serious stuff now, let me show you around my new store," Rick said and he walked over to her and held his arm out.

Jessica wrapped her arm around his and they left the office. Rick showed her the different departments around the store and she was shocked to see so many things that were never sold in the city before. When he told her that everything in the store was made by him and his craftsman she just shook her head in amazement.

When Jessica left to return to her store Rick walked her back after introducing her to his guards so that they knew she was a friend of his who was always welcomed at any time. Back at Jessica's store, Rick bought a good amount of the paint sticks made by the gnomes from her since he had given out all the extras he had to the work crews. He also picked up a few more odds and ends and purchased another large crate of parchment paper to restock his inventory supply.

Rick paid Jessica and walked across the central square and stopped in front of the library. He opened his inventory and equipped his gold book badge and entered the front doors. The two guards on duty came to attention and saluted him as he passed and he responded with a salute in return. When he entered Cynthia happened to notice the guards saluting him.

"Hello Cedric, why are the guards at the doors saluting you? They normally stand there like statues all day long without moving unless someone new needs to be escorted inside." Cynthia asked.

"Oh, that has to do with a title I received. When a [Chosen] performs certain actions that are noticed by the gods we can be awarded titles that can impact the way people view us in a good or bad way. I happened to earn one that encourages any military or guard units to show me respect and admiration." Rick explained.

"I have heard of people getting titles before, but it is usually a rare thing that happens maybe once or twice in a lifetime for some people." She replied.

"So are you back again to visit the restricted room today?" She asked smiling without waiting for a reply.

"Maybe, What I am looking for is any studies or knowledge on monster languages," Rick said.

"That is quite the strange subject to study, but I do have some books that are actually written about different monster languages. The best ones would be located on the third floor and there are also a couple on the second floor as well." Cynthia explained.

Rick Thanked her and walked up to the third floor and went to the section she recommended to look. Rick used his PhotoReading to memorize the location of each book as he went from one book shelf to the next grabbing anything devoted to monsters and their language. Most of the books only provided information on monster behavior, where and how they lived, and any information learned about them from secretly observing them in the wilderness or in captivity.

One book written by what may be considered as an old world scientist had mercenaries capture live monsters that he kept caged and study them. He had studies on goblins, orcs, kobolds, Trolls, and Minotaur. He used food and captured monster female companionship to coax them to communicate and wrote down many words that he had learned and thought that he had learned. Rick read through the huge book easily along with a stack of other books that also had useful information.

He learned that the goblins did not have much of a language and seemed to be on scale with a small child on the communication level, which only knew so many words. Many of the monster races might not communicate quite as well as the Humans, Dwarves, Elves and other main races but they did have fairly complex languages nonetheless.

When Rick put the books back exactly where he found them he opened his flashing notification icon.

Spoiler: Show Notices!. New Language Notice!

You have learned a new language.

Harpy Language: Level 3 (Beginner 35%)

The ability to understand a foreign language.

Higher levels allow you to become more fluent and will improve comprehension of this language.

New Language Notice!

You have learned a new language.

Goblin Language: Level 8 (Intermediate 79%)

The ability to understand a foreign language.

Higher levels allow you to become more fluent and will improve comprehension of this language.

New Language Notice!

You have learned a new language.

Orc Language: Level 6 (Beginner 43%)

The ability to understand a foreign language.

Higher levels allow you to become more fluent and will improve comprehension of this language.

New Language Notice!

You have learned a new language.

Troll Language: Level 1 (Beginner 22%)

The ability to understand a foreign language.

Higher levels allow you to become more fluent and will improve comprehension of this language.

New Language Notice!

You have learned a new language.

Kobold Language: Level 1 (Beginner 89%)

The ability to understand a foreign language.

Higher levels allow you to become more fluent and will improve comprehension of this language.

New Language Notice!

You have learned a new language.

Minotaur Language: Level 7 (Beginner 95%)

The ability to understand a foreign language.

Higher levels allow you to become more fluent and will improve comprehension of this language.

I was actually able to learn a few, but will I ever even be able to use them? From what I have seen so far monsters attack first and ask questions later. It may still come in handy when I am stealthily moving around them to gather information or know if they have located me.

RIck then went downstairs and talked with Cynthia and asked how her mother was doing. He also told her about his store and told her to stop by with her mother anytime and he would give her discounted prices on anything he sold. Before leaving he remembered what he had told Jessica earlier about using his store as a safe haven and he stopped to tell Cynthia that even though the library was guarded if anyone ever troubled her or her mother the both of them could alway come to his store for protection until he arrived to deal with whoever was bothering them.

Rick then said goodbye and left the library to walk over to the farmer and butcher vendors in the market plaza and bought meat, vegetables, spices, oils, butter, flour, and eggs. When he finished his shopping he stepped into an alleyway and portaled to the restaurant kitchen and handed over the food supplies for the cooks to place in the cupboards or fridges.

Rick then left the restaurant and walked over to the plot just south of the horse stables. He used his [Move and Shape Earth Skill to remove six inches of all the soil on the plot and began paving and cementing [2' x 1' x 1'] stone blocks across the entire plot. When the cement dried between the stone block joints he went around the outside of the plot and built fifteen foot high [4' x 4'] stone block pillars evenly around the plot.

From these stone block pillars, Rick built wooden roof rafters that he nailed plywood to and then nailed clay tile shingles over the plywood. This new covered stone paved plot would be the location of a new and much larger stockpile.

Rick figured that having a stockpile in the city would cut down on delivery times being much closer to the construction sites from now on.

He flew over to the Tower Island and collected all the resources currently stored on the old stockpile and flew it over to stock the new stockpile.

He also cut up a lot of the stone cubes into blocks that he had cut from the mine in the Astral Plane. He placed quite a few good sized stacks of the newly cut stone blocks on the stockpile for his workers to use on the construction projects he assigned them to.

After transferring the resources to the new stockpile, Rick walked over to the stables and told the Animal Trainer to inform the Wagoners that the resources had been moved to a new stockpile south of the stable and to also tell them to start placing all their resource pickups on the new stockpile as well. After passing instructing the Animal Trainer he then walked back to the new stockpile and opened his Land Management Menu to relocate the System Gate to the new stockpile and found a new option that had been added.

The game had been patched without him realizing during the last update of the Land Management Menu to now allow Land Owners to place a System Gate for buyable resources and a second separate gate for units could now be placed somewhere else. This was a nice addition now units would not need to be spawned in around stacks of stone, wood, and other miscellaneous resources that sat on their stockpiles.

After he moved the [Buy Resource System Gate] to the new stockpile, Rick flew across town to the new officials building that was currently empty. He walked into the center of the building lobby below the stairs that led to the second floor and placed a System Gate.

Spoiler: Officials Building Floorplan and Exterior.

Rick used his woodworking tools and skills to make a desk with drawers and a wooden cushioned chair. Next, he made a vintage style wood file with thin drawers to store future city records and documents.

Spoiler: Office Furniture.

He used the recipes to make enough desks, file cabinets, and extra chairs and arranged them throughout the lower four offices. Rick then stocked each of those offices with charcoal pencils and stacks of parchment.

With each office setup with basic furniture, Rick then walked over to the System Gate and spawned in a female Human Chancellor, a female Human Administrative Assistant, and four female Human messengers. Rick setup the new Chancellor and her assistant in office one and added her to his friend list.

The Chancellor introduced herself as Alexandra and her assistant's name was Irene. Rick told them that their job, for now, would be to assign available apartments to all of the new residents of the city. Rick provided Alexandra with her assistant Irene and the four messengers to help her accomplish this task. The messengers were to keep in contact with the work crews and report back when a new apartment building was available. Rick also told the messengers to figure out which apartments have already been previously assigned.

When they knew which apartments were taken and which were available they were to write all of the gathered information down and save it in the file cabinets. Rick then walked them over to the newest apartment building and let them all chose their own place and then told them where to find the restaurant.

Rick walked the Alexandra and her assistant back to their office while the messengers went around gathering information. When Alexandra and her assistant went into their office to prepare for the messengers return, Rick left them to walk over to the System Gate and spawn in a few more units.

He spawned in a Dwarf Weaponsmith/Artisan, a Dwarf Armorsmith/Artisan, two Elven female Weaver/Artisans, and an Elven female seamstress/Artisan. Rick showed them into Chancellor's office and told them to stop by there later and talk to Alexandras assistant to be assigned housing. Rick then spoke with the assailant and instructed her to tell anyone who was sent over for housing about the restaurant from now on.

He then walked the new units over to the crafting district and found them all their own shops. After he had assigned them to their shops, Rick introduced them to the others in their professions who worked in the same buildings and had them split the work between each other. Rick told the new units to settle into their new shops and have the others show them everything that was currently being made for the store and told them he would return soon.

Rick wanted to change the way that he had to constantly go back and forth between his crafting workers to coordinate them on working together to make new items. He thought that it would be much easier if he could bring everyone together to review all the new designs so that everyone knew what part of the design they were responsible for. This would allow everyone to troubleshoot problems and possibly even make improvements on the designs while collectively reviewing everything as a group.

The problem, Rick faced was that there were no buildings large enough to hold everyone except maybe the worker's barracks which was to out of the way.

I guess if there isn't a place large enough for everyone to sit down and review everything together I will just need to make one that is big enough. Rick thought as he left the crafting shop and walked down the hallway.

He left his workers for the time being and walked to the street south of the crafting buildings. Two plots east of the new stockpile he constructed a large Meeting Hall from limestone blocks. The new building had a large hall with four separate rooms off of it. The main room was large enough for everyone to sit and talk together while the small rooms allowed for smaller groups to split off to discuss and review designs and projects.

Inside the hall he made a long hand carved decorative table that could fit thirty-two chairs around it. He acquired a recipe for the huge table and chairs and then made four smaller tables for the side rooms.

Spoiler: City Meeting Hall.

Rick finished up furnishing the Meeting Hall and called Daisia to meet him at the new Hall. Rick then walked back to the crafting buildings and brought over crafting units over to the meeting hall and they all sat down at the large table he just made. Rick then passed around the new designs of outfits armor and weapons for everyone to look over and went over what resources were to be used to make all of them. He then took out the tapestry of Faith that he had found under the ruined temple and showed it to the spinsters, weavers, and Tapestry Makers and ask them to recreate larger replicas of it. He also showed the House Crownguard coat of arms to the Tapestry Maker and asked them to make black Tapestries with the colored coat of arms insignia on them.

The next group he talked with was the glass blower and glass glaziers. Rick told them that he wanted to make stain glass windows for the temple using faith's image from the tapestry in various different scenes. He then drew up a few example scenes of what he may want them to recreate in stained glass.He told Daisia to work with the Glass Glazier to find plants that could be used to make pigments to color the glass. The glass blower who had been making glass panes continuously was given a wooden crate filled with obsidian. Rick told him to melt it down in the smelter and create sheets of glass from it and keep set aside for him.

Spoiler: Stain Glass Scene Ideas.

Rick had the rug weaver measure the area around the table in the hall to make a rug with a blue border and red infield that would later be placed underneath the long table and chairs. Moving on he sat down with the soap Maker and found that he had a good supply of rose and lavender oils made now so he went over the process of making scented soaps and told him to begin producing it.

When everyone had their new tasks Rick dismissed everyone and walked over to the castle and went down into the basement. Rick recreated an air inflow and outflow system similar to the one at his store. One line drew the heat out of the room near the forge and the other brought in fresh air.

Right next to the large forge he used his recipes to make the parts for six blast furnaces that he welded and engraved with fire runes and switch runes that connected to large Quartz Storage Gems. He then turned on the six blast furnaces and loaded them up with some of the metals that had mined in the Astral Plane.

As the furnaces began to heat up and melt the ores inside them, Rick used the heavy and quite dense Astrallium ingots to make himself a new pickaxe, blacksmith hammer, and axe. He made all three of them without wood handles to improve overall durability. With the gains in his strength and skill, he found that he was now constantly needing to use [Repair] on his tools so that they would not break.

When he had completed the new heavy duty tools, Rick drained the impurities from each blast furnace and poured out the molten metals into casts. He went down the line of furnaces and soon cast all their contents into ingots that he placed into his inventory.

After he shut down the forge and blast furnaces he recharged their storage gems and went into the room next to his workshop. In the center of this room, Rick used a stone chisel and his Astrallium Hammer to carve a large circle in the center of the room. Inside of the carved circle, Rick carved runes for Fire, Ice, Water, Lightning, Wind, Light, Dark, Space, Nature, Wood, and Metal.

Each rune was connected to a circuit and supplied with its own storage gems. The rune circuit was connected to a switch rune that could turn every rune on at once and then he engraved individual switch runes to every elemental rune to allow them to also be activated them individually.

Spoiler: Castle Basement.

This was to become an elemental affinity training room. This was an idea that he had been thinking about for some time and now had the time to make it. Rick sat down in the center of the circle and activated the fire rune and a small flame sprung up from the stone floor were the rune was carved. Rick extended his mana out around him and made a connection with the flame once he was comfortable with his mana circulating in and out of the flame, he reached over and touched the switch rune for the lightning rune.

When the lightning rune activated six-inch bolts of electricity began to arc around the rune. Rick connected to the activated lightning rune while he was also connected to the fire rune. It was the first time that he tried training two elemental affinities at the same time and found it tricky at first to keep the connection between the two separate runes, but after a few minutes, he quickly got the hang of it.

He trained these two separate affinities for about fifteen minutes and then touched the switch that activated the space rune. A small black ball formed above the space rune that looked like a bottomless pit.

Rick had to close his eyes and focus on trying to keep the link between the three affinities and still had trouble keeping a continuous connection. Every few seconds he would lose connection to one of them and have to reconnect again.

He continued his struggle and near a half hour later it became easier to keep the mana link from breaking between the three. Rick closed his eyes and focused on his link while the sounds from the flame and electricity lulled him into a semi trance.

He stayed like this for three hours and then dropped his links and opened his eyes to review the notifications he now had.

Spoiler: Show Notices!. Skill Increase: Demigod Dialect Level 9 Master 88% Elemental Affinity Increase: Space Affinity Level 8 Intermediate 96% Elemental Affinity Increase: Fire Affinity Level 7 Expert 32% Elemental Affinity Increase: Lightning Affinity Level 7 Intermediate 64%

I haven't really been paying attention, but my Demigod Dialect rune making skill is almost maxed out already. It looks like my lighting and space affinities are much higher now, I think it is time to test out the dual affinity hammer again that almost killed me last time. Rick thought as he stood up and closed out the notice windows.

He raised his hands up at looked at them as fire erupted from his left hand and bolts of electricity arced and danced across his fingertips and down his forearm.

Now that is cool looking!

Rick threw two quick punches and a fireball and a bolt of lightning flew from both of his hands and slammed into the stone block wall charring and cracking the block they hit.

Holy shit! I almost blew a hole through the wall! That was quite unexpected I didn't think it was going to hit with that amount of force.

Rick picked up his hammer and stone chisel and cut the damaged block from the wall and cemented in a brand new one while making a mental note not to do that again.

He put away his tools and opened a portal to the tree he struck with his hammer last time and stepped through. Rick removed the hammer and walked over to another undamaged tree and swung the hammer hard with both hands. Just before impact he touched the switch rune on the handle and activated the fire and lightning runes. Rick also released his own fire and lightning affinities into his hands and arms as the hammer slammed into the large tree trunk.

Boom!

A detonation sounded off as the hammer exploded through the tree trunk and toppling the top half of it to the ground leaving a splintered and burning charred tree truck behind.

Rick stood in place unharmed from the exploding elements now that his levels were high enough he had a good amount of resistance to them.

Well, I think I've made the worlds smallest battering ram. This thing is insane! If I were to strike the gates to a town with this hammer there would be nothing left but toothpicks.

Rick put away the hammer and decided to run back to the tower for the gains. He thought about the reports of the monsters and animal in the forest just south of him as he ran back and then began to wonder about his scout that he sent up north to the nekomimi tribe that had not returned yet.

When Rick reached the western footbridge to Tower Island he stopped and looked north. After thinking it over a minute he decided to take a quick detour. He opened a portal to the northern ruined temple and stepped over.

It has been a while since I have been back here. Rick thought looking around at the unchanged crumbled ruins.

Activating Flight he took off through the air toward the west and flew along a valley between the mountains. Past the valley was a large forest with a large hill sticking out above the tree tops.

Rick landed on top of the hill and opened a portal back to the tower.

This should be close enough, for now, to investigate from. He thought as he returned to call his military units.

Rick went into the tower and called up to Angelica that he was going to take a few people out to see if he could find what his scout was up to.

"Okay, I will come along with you. I wouldn't mind getting out of here for some fresh air." She called back while laying her book down and heading downstairs.

Rick called Kanna the Nekomimi Assassin/Hero Ranger, Garion the Half-Angel Cleric/Assassin, his four female Elven Hero Ranger/Druids, and his two Male elven Scouts. When everyone made it to the tower from their apartments or meals he let them all know about the missing scout and that he wanted to find out what was keeping him up north for so long.

Rick equipped his preset Stealth Gear outfit and prepared his gear while everyone went upstairs to the 4th floor to refill any arrows, darts, or replace equipment for something better.

When they had all come downstairs ready to go Rick opened a portal to the hilltop east of the Nekomimi tribe and had his two scouts activate Tracker on the lost scout. They all walked down the hill in the direction of the tribe settlement and soon found a faint glowing trail.

The scouts confirmed it was their tracker skill highlighting the direction the scout took. Rick and his small search party followed along the trail for a couple mile until they had finally found the lost scout.

Unfortunately, the scout lay dead with a white feathered arrow through his heart and his body had been stripped of weapons and his backpack of gear. The horse he rode up north was also missing.

While Rick and the party were examining the dead scout the other two scouts who had been using enhanced hearing both shouted out in unison.

Get Down!!

Whistling sounds suddenly filled the air around them and one of the elven scouts pitched backward with an arrow in his chest and the before Rick could react an arrow struck Angelica and with a muffled cry she collapsed to the ground.

Rick quickly raised a curved wall of dirt around him and his units and ran over to Angelica.

Angelica was laying on her side not moving and Rick turned her over onto her back to see a white feathered arrow buried in her chest a few inches below her heart. Her eyes were open and when Angelica tried to speak she only coughed up blood.

"Don't try to speak! Just hold on a second I have to pull out the arrow and heal you!" Rick said with tears in his eyes from seeing this innocent girl who had been by his side from the start.

Rick placed his fingers on her chest and lightly pushed down while he slid the arrow from her chest. Angelica began squirming from the pain and tears fell from her eyes.

"D-on't wa-nt to lea-ve you," She said weakly between gasps of blood while fighting for air.

"Hang on Angelica! The worst part is over! I only need to heal you!" Rick yelled at her while his heart was breaking over the pain she was suffering through.

As Rick was taking care of Angelica, the female Elven Hero Ranger/Druids had all cast [Wind Wall] around the barrier Rick made that was now pushing back the hail of arrows from reaching them. They also made use of their [Move and Shape Earth] skill to make steps behind the earth barrier so they could return fire from the top of the earthen wall. With the help of their devastating bow skills and the [Wind Wall] adding extra distance to their shots, they began dropping the attackers hidden out in the vegetation and eventually drove them off.

Rick kept tending to Angelica throughout the whole event and was now casting [Nature's Blessing] on her arrow wound. Angelica had closed her eyes for a moment after he had pulled the arrow out and it looked as if he had lost her, but his quick and unrelenting heals brought her back to consciousness and her complexion changed from white to a healthy pink again.

Even after she had recovered and her health points were fully recovered Rick continued to cast his healing spell on her until she raised herself up from the ground and wrapped her arms around his neck and cried.

"Thank you for saving me. I didn't want to lose this life I have here with you and my new friends. I have been so happy this whole time. You have always been so good to me and make sure I have more than I will ever need." Angelica choked out through her tears.

Rick pulled her close to him and whispered. "I won't let anyone ever take you from me. I was stupid to have come here with so few people and not have been on guard for something like this. Please forgive me, Angelica, I promise I will never let anyone hurt you like this again." Rick said while tears ran down his cheeks and mixed with hers.

Once Angelica had calmed down he pulled her up and only then began to look around at his troops. The ambush had ceased and his units were peeking over the wall scanning for any enemy who may return. Garion the Cleric/Assassin walked over and told Rick that the Elven scout who was first to be hit by the arrow was dead. Garion was held back by the arrows and couldn't reach the elf in time to heal him.

Glalin one of the female elven Hero Ranger/Druids sat with her back against the wall crying her heart out after hearing that the elven male scout died.

They must have just started a relationship together the past couple days. The poor girl must have really liked him.

I could have lost Angelica just as easily if that arrow was a couple inches higher she would be gone right now. Rick thought while his anger began to grow over this unprovoked attack.

"I want you all to stay right here for a minute behind cover. I am going to change my form and go out there and look around real fast." Rick said.

"NO! Please don't go out there, Cedric!" Angelica cried out.

"It will be ok trust me. Once I change even if they are out there hidden still they will never know that I am human," Rick said with a smile as he stroked her cheek to calm her down.

Rick then transformed into a black squirrel and everyone gasped.

He couldn't help but laugh at their response but what came out was not a laugh, but a high pitched chatter.

Rick agilely scaled Angelica's armor to her shoulder and rubbed his head against her cheek to reassure her and then leaped to a nearby tree and climbed up and out on its branches. He began leaping through the tree branches toward the direction they were attacked and soon found what he was looking for.

In and behind the thick bushes, Rick found a few dead Nekomimi wearing furs and holding wooden hand made bows with quivers partially full with white feathered arrows.

What the hell is wrong with the tribes on this island? Why can't we just get along? I would have come up here and built them a decent little town with fortified walls and even traded with them. They could have completely changed their lives for the better. Now, their greed that led them to try and kill us for what we have on us, will now be their end after living here for generations. Rick thought angrily.

He made his way back to his units and changed back to his original form and opened a portal back to the tower. Rick walked over and picked up the fallen Scout and brought his body back and laid him on the table and then went back for the dead nekomimi they found before being ambushed.

Back at the tower Rick told Glalin who was crying over her lost love that he would hold a service for him in about an hour. Rick apoligied for what had happened and flew over to the temple with the body. While cradling his dead scout in his arms he walked into the temple and gently laid him on the marble tile floor. He then flew back for the other dead scout and flew him back and laid him next to the fallen Elf.

Rick covered Them with a sheet and then took out his wood working tools and used his [carpentry], [wood carving], and [shape wood] skills to make Two beautiful caskets engraved with flowering tree branches and leaves. Rick sewed together a few long cushions made of white silk and filled them with cotton to line the inside of the caskets and then neatly placed the fallen soldiers inside the caskets.

Using a comb from one of his grooming bags to neatly comb their hair and used a scrap cloth and water box to clean the blood and dirt from their armor.

He then used his recipe to make two Tiger Fang Gladius and placed one pointing down in each of their hands.

He then called Jerem and told him to send all of his carpenters over to the Temple.

He then opened a portal to the store and brought back the other carpenters who had been still carving reliefs on the 2nd-floor walls. Rick pulled out his drafting table and chair then sat down to draw a couple designs. When the rest of the Carpenter/Artisans showed up he explained what he wanted them to make. He passed them a design for hand carved wooden pews and a hand carved wooden podium

Spoiler: Pews and Podium.

Rick took out the needed lumber and set it against the wall in a large stack and got to work sewing the Red velvet cushions for the pews. After he had made the seat and back cushions he received a recipe that he used to make enough cushions for every pew. The Carpenters continued to finish up in the temple as Rick went over to the tapestry maker and collected a couple finished Tapestries of Faith and his coat of arms and took them over to the temple.

He hung the original tapestry of Faith that he had found on the back wall of the new temple behind the podium. The replica tapestries along with the black tapestries with the House Crownguard coat of arms colorfully displayed on them were hung between the windows on the side wall that were all still in need of their stained glass panes.

Rick placed a table on each side of the podium and placed one in front. He used his white silk cloth to cover all the tables and then took out some items and relics he found in Faith's ruined temple and placed them on the tables next to the podium

Then he went over and picked up each casket separately without any trouble and placed them on the table in front of the podium side by side with the casket lids open.

He then scanned the temple and it seemed he did as much as he could for now.

If I had the stained glass I could have this place completely finished, but this will have to do. Rick thought as he opened up his menus.

As the sun began to sink on the western horizon Rick used his party chat and friend list to contact the team leaders and Alexandra to send out her messengers to bring all of his people to the temple for the funeral service.

He then thought of Angelica and worried about leaving her alone after what she had just gone through so he cast portal and brought her over to the temple to sit next to him with his arm protectively around her.

They both sat holding each other quietly in the front pews waiting for everyone to arrive.