Once Rick had made dinner and finished eating, he cleaned up the kitchen and went right to bed. Even though he did not have any classes tomorrow morning he wanted to get an early start on preparing for his first quest. He still needed to find out the location of the orc clan that he needed to attack and also figure out a strategy of how he would defeat them.

Rick was awake the next morning before his alarm clock even had a chance to ring. He decided after waking up to get a quick workout in and then Rick took a shower when he finished his lifting routine. When he was dressed he ate breakfast and went back into the spare bedroom and sat down at his computer. When the computer had booted up he networked with his [Game Gear] capsule And used the software it came with to edit a video of the dungeon he discovered.

The video started when he was inside the entrance and began walking down the stairs into the darkness below. It showed how he went from room to room fighting on the first floor and he used the different camera options to show his fights from a first person view to full room panning shots. The video showed his journey all the way through the dungeon and his discovery of the orc camp in the distance. The video ended with him fighting and killing the Orc Warlord with a fade to black that read "To be continued."

The only parts that he left out were any spells or recipes that he acquired, the trapped treasure chest, and what the outside of the dungeon looked like. When he was satisfied with the edited video he uploaded it to Kingdoms Online Forums and did a little subtle advertising for his store to bring in more customers.

He shut down the computer when his file was uploaded and climbed into his Gate Gear capsule.

Connect!

Rick woke up next to Angelica and it was still dark in the room. He activated sneak and stood up and equipped his clothes and opened a portal to the store. Inside his office, he activated night sight and reviewed the sales book and collected the thick layer of assorted coins in his desk drawer. Before he left, Rick made sure to recharge all the storage gems for the lights, alarms, and fountains. He also went upstairs on the roof to refill the water tank and then went into the basement to activate the fire runes in the buried septic tank to burn off all the collected waste. Rick then went back upstairs and relocked the basement door behind him and stocked the store with any missing merchandise.

When he had readied the store for his employees that would soon arrive he opened a portal to the castle workshop and cast a [fast domain]. He then sat down at the table and drew up a tower shield like the Romans used in the past.

Spoiler: Tower Shield.

This was going to be a shield that he would at times have all of his units carry on the battlefield so he decided to use his large supply of Mithril to make them strong and light. After Rick had hammered out the shield and attached the leather arm straps, he used his paint stick to color the shield solid red and also painted his House Coat of Arms on the shield face. When he acquired a recipe for the new shield he made a hundred of them and left them in his inventory.

His next project was to make a multi-layered spider silk black ninja suit. He had sewn six layers of the spider silk together so that he could test out if what the description told him was true. When the ninja suit was finished he laid it over the top of his arm that rest on top of the table and tried to pierce his dagger through the suit into his arm. When he slammed the dagger into the suit it did stop the dagger from piercing his arm but it still gave him some blunt force damage.

Rick examined the suit and only the first two layer had been cut while the other four remaining layers stopped the dagger point from piercing his arm. It seemed it was true that if he made multi-layered Spider Silk clothing they could work as an armor. He used the rest of his large spider silk cloth roll in his inventory to make male and female under-armor and two attractive multi-layered dresses for his battle dancers who could not wear armor due to their class. He took a minute to then change all of his outfits presets under-armor for the new spider silk under-armor giving him, even more, protection from damage.

He was able to make the shields and clothing in only five minutes game time thanks to his [Fast Domain] that made time progress 12x faster. It was still early and most of his workers were probably just leaving their apartments to head out to work. Rick decided to go next door to the elemental training room to train his Fire, Lightning, and Space affinity inside the [Fast Domain] when the five-minute spell timed out he deactivated the runes and left the room.

As he walked up the spiral staircase, Rick opened his flashing notification icon.

Spoiler: Show Notice!. Elemental Affinity Increased: Fire Affinity Level 4 Expert 08% Elemental Affinity Increased: Lightning Affinity Level 3 Advanced 37% Elemental Affinity Increased: Space Affinity Level 8 Intermediate 15%

Nice, I am starting to get some real gains now with the new elemental training room and the Fast Domain combined. Hmm, I should take a peek at my skills I can't even remember the last time I even opened them now.

Spoiler: Show Skills!. Skills List Archery Level 4 Advanced 78% Artist Level 6 Expert 11% Blacksmith Level 8 Expert 46% Blocking Level 1 Intermediate 85% Carpentry Level 2 Master 38% Cartography Level 4 Expert 69% Cooking Level 3 Master 70% Demigod Dialect Level 10 Master MAXED Digging Level 9 Intermediate 57% Emerald Scan Level 1 Intermediate 03% Enchanting Level 8 Advanced 88% Far Sight Level 3 Intermediate 34% Field Dress Level 6 Intermediate 79% Forging Level 4 Expert 23% Gem Cutter Level 1 Advanced 28% Goldsmith Level 4 Intermediate 19% Hammering Level 8 Master 77% Hold Breath Level 4 Beginner 94% Identify Level 7 Intermediate 08% Iron Scan Level 9 Advanced 18% Knives Level 9 Expert 68% Lumberjack Level 2 Advanced 54% Marble Scan Level 5 Beginner 62% Masonry Level 7 Master 90% Metal Sculptor Level 2 Intermediate 26% Mining Level 5 Advanced 74% Mithril Scan Level 4 Advanced 15% Night Sight Level 8 Expert 89% Orichalcum Scan Level 1 Advanced 55% Photoreading Level 6 Advanced 33% Raise Earth Level 2 Beginner 02% Repair Level 6 Intermediate 72% Ruby Scan Level 4 Intermediate 83% Shield Bash Level 7 Beginner 21% Ship Wright Level 4 Intermediate 63% Sixth Sence Level 5 Beginner 52% Smelting Level 5 Master 73% Sneak Level 8 Advanced 94% Swords Level 7 Advanced 40% Tailoring Level 2 Advanced 10% Taming Level 1 Advanced 86% Wood Carving Level 7 Expert 27% Auras Aura Level 9 Expert 67% Aura: Calm Animal Level 1 Intermediate 74% Aura: Charming Presence Level 8 Intermediate 57% Aura: Intimidation Level 3 Intermediate 09%

My Crafting and construction skill are great, but my fighting skills could use some work. Rick thought as he came up out of the castle basement and closed the skills menu.

Rick flew off toward Tower Island and landed next to the smokehouse where he dug a couple holes and cemented to thick poles into the ground and bolted another post horizontally between them. The poles looked like a big letter H cemented in the ground when he was done. Rick took out all the big game that he and his units and shot while walking through the forest yesterday and began hanging it from the letter H pole rack.

He went along and drained the blood and field dressed the assorted carcasses. Rick stored the skins and furs in his inventory and quarter the meat into different sized cuts and carried them up into the smokehouse 2nd-floor room. Rick went down to the first floor and made a wood fire in the fire pit and the smoke slowly rose up to the 2nd floor to fill the room with all the cuts of meat.

Once, Rick, had the Smokehouse all fired up he cleaned up the gore and stripped carcasses by placing them into his inventory and flew down the mouth of the river where it dumped into the southern ocean. Rick while hovering over the water emptied out all the animal entrails and skeletons into the ocean to feed the fish and then looked up at his quest compass.

He now had two red dots on his compass one that pointed southwest towards the forest and the other one pointed in the direction of the temple.

This red dot pointing to the southwest should lead me right to the hostile orc faction and the other one is pointing at the temple to where I can end the quest with Faith. I definitely do not want to end it yet, because that will only delay the orcs from eventually marching out of the forest. I need to head over and find where their camp is so that I can figure out how to go about attacking them. Rick thought as he turned to the southwest and flew on.

Rick crossed the ocean bay and followed the red dot while flying high above the forest. With all the flying he had been doing his flight skill was constantly leveling up. He was using a lot less mana now and moving two or three times faster than when he first acquired the skill. After crossing the forest for about fifteen minutes, Rick noticed that the red dot began to move and give him a more accurate direction to travel towards.

It wasn't long after he saw what looked like a large clearing up ahead in the forest. The red dot continued to lead him toward the forest clearing and when he flew out above it even at the height he was above the forest he could make out crude huts all built together in a disorganized clump in the center of the clearing. Rick decided to use his Cartography skill of the area and brought the map out to review the area below him.

Spoiler: Hostile Orc Camp.

The area surrounding the camp was mostly flat terrain and beyond the clearing was endless trees. Rick was hoping to find a defendable location near the orc camp, but it looked like the only choice was to attack it from the northeast. From the number of huts he could see on his map he was guessing this camp would hold anywhere from 300-500 orcs.

I have about 70 military units back at the city right now if I buy a few more and get my numbers up around 100 we shouldn't have any problem beating this clan. I would think that the majority of them are just regular orc minions with tattered armor and crude weapons. It's a shame I don't have a crate of hand grenades right now I could do a little tactical bombing on this place to soften it up. Rick thought while laughing at himself as he flew back toward his city.

As he flew back home he opened his spell list to take a look at how his spells have been progressing.

Spoiler: Show Spell List!. Spell List Astral Door Level 7 Beginner 72% Acid Bolt Level 3 Beginner 14% Flight Level 6 Advanced 89% Mana Bind Level 4 Beginner 38% Portal Gate N/A N/A N/A Project Image Level 3 Intermediate 13% Read Maagic Level 8 Intermediate 77% Reverse Gravity Level 8 Intermediate 23% Elemental Affinities Earth Affinity Level 2 Intermediate 22% Fire Affinity Level 4 Expert 08% Lightning Affinity Level 3 Advanced 37% Nature Affinity Level 1 Advanced 58% Space Affinity Level 8 Intermediate 15%

Rick landed outside the Cartwright shop and pulled out his drawing desk to make a couple quick sketches with his charcoal pencil on a sheet of parchment.

Spoiler: Wheeled Mantlets.

He then packed his table up and walked inside the shop and instructed his Cartwrights to discontinue making carriages and to start making the wheeled Mantlets he drew up. He explained how the top one needed the angled roof to be high enough to stand under and push forward at the same time. The top Mantlet was designed so a small squad of troops could stand under it and be protected from arrows as they moved forward. The second and third Mantlets were used to provide mobile wooden walls that could also protect units from ranged attacks. Rick was unsure if he would need to use these mantlets in the attack against the orc clan or the Nekomimi tribe, he was having them made so if he did need them they would already be available at any given time.

Even though this was a little different than making carts and carriages the designs were simple and easy to reproduce. He then walked behind the shop leaving his Cartwrights to begin the new designs and entered the Meeting Hall. He found Nezera helping some of her people who appeared to be weak or injured. Rick walked over to her and asked her to point out anyone with injuries or who was still feeling weak and followed behind her healing each person in turn.

Apparently, Nezera's clan did not have a mage or healer because they all acted as if they had just witnessed a miracle when Rick easily healed over thirty people who had internal and external injuries that should have taken weeks to months for them to heal. Rick smiled at Nezera and told her if she thought that was incredible to follow her and see what he did next. Before they left together Rick spoke up to all of the Half-Orcs and told them that the restaurant should be open now and they were all welcome to head over and have breakfast or even explore the town while they were out.

Rick then led Nezera outside and across the city over to the officials building where he stood before the System Gate and opened the buy units menu. He browsed through the available mage classes that he could assign units and opened the Electromage class that he had not had the chance to assign to any of his units yet.

Spoiler: Electromage Class Menu. Electromage Class

Medium-strength Spellcaster with a touch of melee The Lightning Mage is a spellcaster who uses the very essence of nature's energy to strike down their foes.

Lightning Mages are granted powers from an elemental demigod with permission of your deity.

Spells List Spell Name Spell Description Mana Cost Recharge Time High Voltage Enhancement: Your lightning spells do 25% more damage and cost 25% less mana to cast. Active until canceled. 100 mp Five Minutes Lightning Rush: You use electricity to temporarily enhance your muscle reactions. You Move 3x faster for one minute. 5 mp One Minute Lightning Blade: You create a longsword made of lightning that will remain until you deactivate the spell. 25 mp Two minutes Celestial Lightning: Allows you to call upon the heavens to rain lightning down 30 feet around you. Will not harm allies. 50 mp Two Minutes Lightning Bolt: A bolt of lightning forming a line 30 feet long and 3 feet wide blasts out in a direction you choose. 50 mp Two Minutes Lightning Orb: Allows you to summon a lightning orb at a targeted location that detonates and throws out chain lightning over a 30-foot area. This spell has a 50-foot range. 50 mp Two Minutes Chain Lightning: Allows you to shoot-out a bolt of lightning that can jump from one foe to the next if they are within 5 feet of one another. A maximum of 20 enemies can be struck by one bolt. 50 mp Two Minutes Electric Eagle Allows you to summon an eagle made of electricity that will fly above the battlefield and send down blasts of lightning on your enemies for 30 seconds. 50 mp Two Minutes Zeus's Domain: You checker weave lines of lightning across the ground in a 40-foot circular zone electrocuting all who step inside. 75 mp Two Minutes Instinctive Knowledge Swords: Allows you to use Swords. Level determines bonuses to damage and technique. Daggers: Allows you to use Daggers. Level determines bonuses to damage and technique. Magic: Allows you to wield magic. Staves: Allows you to use a Staves. Level determines bonuses to damage and technique. 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. Shoot on the Move Allows you to accurately hit targets while moving regardless of terrain. Close Quarters: Allows you to be far more effective when compressed with two soldiers or more allies. Reading and Writing: Allows you to read and write you racial and Lord's language.

Hmm very nice, this class could come in handy when we don't want to burn an area to the ground with the pyromancers. From the description of these spells, the electromage class seems to be just as effective as the pyromancer class. I am going give it a try by making a few Hero Knights that can wield lightning. That could be badass to have heavily armored units who can wield offensive magic. Rick contemplated as he closed the class menu.

First, he spawned in twenty-five Male Human Hero Knights/Electromage. Then he spawned in twenty Male Elven Mounted Archer/Mounted Spearmen. While Nezera was standing there with her lower jaw on the ground in shock at seeing all these human and elven males suddenly appear before her. Rick walked into Alexandra's office and had them scramble the messengers to take the new forty-five military units to their assigned apartments.

When the unconsciouses units opened their eyes, Rick quickly explained where they were and what was going to happen. Rick told the messengers to first show them where the restaurant was and then their apartments. Rick then instructed them to all meet at the restaurant after they received the key to their new apartment and were shown its location.

Rick looked over to Nezera and she still looked stunned so he grabbed her hand and led her out of the building over to the restaurant. While he explained that this was a power gifted from his goddess that allowed him to create people for his clan. Which seemed to put her in an even deeper state of shock.

When they reached the restaurant quite a few of Nezera's people were sitting at the tables enjoying their breakfast in higher spirits now that they were far from the dangers of the previous day. They sat down at an open table and Rick called Sturm and Angelica over to meet him. While he was waiting he took out a couple sheets of parchment and a pencil and drew a few sketches.

Spoiler: Roman Formations.

When General Sturm and Angelica arrived he passed over the drawing to them and explained that they were effective formations used in his world's past against ranged attacks. This was the reason he made the Roman tower shields this morning so that they could be used with the Testudo and shield wall. Rick took out one of the tower shields and showed it to them. They were surprised at how light the shield was because of Rick having used Mithril to make them they weighed next to nothing and were as hard as steel.

All of the new military men began to slowly trickle in from being shown their new place and when they had all arrived, Rick led them over to the tower. He took them up to the fourth floor and equipped them all with armor and weapons. He then walked everyone over to the stables and outfitted twenty horses with armor, saddles, reins, and stirrups. Rick had the male elven mounted archers/mounted spearmen mount the horses and begin riding them around outside the city on the plains. He even set up a few hay bails so that they could practice firing their bows on the move while riding.

When the mounted units were all set and started their practice, Rick flew over to the fitness area where all the other military units were currently at and had them meet him at the eastern bridge in front of the old worker's barracks. Rick then flew back and landed near Sturm, Angelica, and Nezera. When he landed poor Nezera yet again just about lost her mind as he flew off and flew back as if it were nothing. Rick just shook his head and chuckled at her reaction and explained that he and his units would be training to fight the orc enemies and that it may get boring to watch them, but she was welcome to watch them. Nezera told him that since they would be fighting her enemy she thought the least she could do was watch their training exercises.

He then stepped off to the side as he opened his inventory and took out the one hundred tower shields. When all of the military units were at last assembled Rick explained the purpose of the Testudo Formation and had everyone grab a shield. He knew the general principles of this formation but had never actually done it before so they all had to work together and figure it out. Rick stopped before they began to cast [Fast Domain] so that they all could get a good practice in without it taking a whole day to make any progress.

When he explained how the fast domain worked to Nezera she was curious and stepped out of the zone to watch them and had trouble even following their movements inside the domain. Even though they were walking around and figuring the best way to hold their shields it looked like they were all sprinting at unbelievable speeds to her. Nezera then took a few steps forward and entered the zone and everyone went back to a normal speed.

Rick wanted her to see all these spells and the things he could do because he figured when the quest was over the half-orcs would be more than happy to come join his city instead of returning to the forest to live in dirt floored wood and animal skin covered hovels. Rick continued to practice the different formations with his troops for roughly three hours until they all began to have a good feel for how they needed to move as one and where to hold their shields for maximum protection.

As the group became comfortable moving in all directions while in the Testudo, Rick began the second phase of his training exercise. The troops would move forward some distance in the Testudo and then they would quickly break formation to make four lines. Once the four lines were formed one of two things could happen from there. The first option that Rick had them train was to send the front heavily armored lined forward at a charge to directly assault the enemy once the lines were formed. The second option was to form a solid shield wall that they could stand behind and attack from.

The first line would kneel down on one knee and brace against the enemy attack and had the option to also attack from between their shields. The second row would hold their shields above the head's first row and interlock the shields to create a tall angled shield wall that protected against ranged weapons. The third and fourth line of mages and ranged units would shoot and cast over the shield wall at the enemy.

Rick would have like to create a three tiered shield wall like in the drawing he made, but at the present time, he just didn't have enough troops to make it possible. Even though they had spent four hours practicing these formations only twenty minutes of game time had passed thanks to the Fast Domain.

He then called over the cavalry and practiced moving in the Testudo with the cavalry keeping pace on their left and right flank. As the infantry marched forward in the Testudo formation, Rick had the cavalry then begin to gallop forward of them and unleash a barrage of arrows and then circle back around the Testudo to gallop forward on the opposite side and release another swarm of arrows.

With this tactic, the cavalry was constantly on the move making them a hard target to hit and the volley of arrows they continuously released forward would keep the enemy on the defense so they would not be able to return fire on the approaching Testudo.

They practiced their tactics until everyone felt comfortable with what was expected of them and then Rick had them all gather around him. He told all his military units to take the rest of the day off and get to bed early tonight because he wanted to be in the woods just outside of the orc camp tomorrow before sunrise. The warring orc clan was going to have a very unpleasant wake-up call early in the morning.

Before everyone headed off Rick used his spider silk under-armor recipe to make under-armor for all of his units. Even though the spider silk they had collected from the forest wasn't weaved into cloth the recipe still recognized it and used it to make multi-layered under-armor. Rick assigned ownership of each piece as he handed out to them so that the smallest dwarf and biggest half-giant all had their personal fitting spider silk under-armor. He also gave everyone with an assassin class a multi-layered spider silk ninja suit and gave his two battle dancer/battle mages the fancy layered spider silk dresses.

Rick then went back to the stables with the elves who were headed there to return the horses and he informed the Animal Trainer that they would need the horse ready to go an hour before sunrise tomorrow morning. Rick told him he would send him a couple people to help him out from now on and he then walked with Angelica and Nezera back to the officials building and stop next to the System Gate. Rick figured since laborers and craftsmen were only one gold piece each he would purchase a few more to help pick up the slack.

He spawned in Two Animal Trainers, two Human female Horse Trainers, five female elven Fletcher, a human female Shepherd, a human female baker, and a human male confectioner. He assigned one animal trainer that was a male kitsune to look after and feed the Dire Wolves and he instructed him to clean out the old stables on Tower Island for the wolves to sleep. He assigned the other animal trainer that was a male nekomimi to take care of his Tigers and feed them and also keep the Tiger stable clean. The two human female horse trainers were sent to the stables to work with the first animal trainer while the human female Shepherd was sent to Tower Island to tend the sheep with the original Shepherd who had been watching them alone all this time.

The five female elven Fletchers were assigned a couple shops and Rick gave them all the feathers he had collected in his inventory and told them that they could get wood delivered by cart and ask the blacksmiths to make barbed arrow tips. RIck used his pedal wood lathe recipe to make a lathe for every Fletcher and showed the women how to make wooden arrow shafts with them. Lastly, the human female baker and human male confectioner were sent to the restaurant to work in the kitchens alongside the cooks. While he was thinking about the restaurant he decided to also spawn in six human female servants to clean dishes and pick up dirty plates from the tables over at the restaurant.

Rick sent the messengers along the with the pack of new workers to assign them apartments and show them to their work areas afterward. He walked Nezera back to the meeting hall to check in with her people and sent Angelica back to the tower while he set off to install the three Gatehouse's portcullises. He made good use of his Fast Domain so that he could quickly install them all.

When he had put each portcullis he also installed wooden drawbridges using the plans he had previously drawn up. Now the north, west, and south gatehouse were secured against enemies or wild animals that could just wander into the city. His next project was to begin working on the moat. Using his Move and Shape Earth skill he dug out a 20' ft. deep x 20' ft wide moat that wrapped around the entire outside of the walls to prevent ladders and siege towers from gaining access to the walls.

When the moat was all dug out, Rick then made a deep narrow canal along the outer western road that connected to the river. The street construction crew had already paved the streets in and around Tower Island. For Rick to be able to make the canal that connected to the river he had to carefully dig out under the paved streets and brace them up with stone blocks. He lined the canal floor, walls, and ceiling with cemented stone blocks under each paved street to support them from collapsing over time and also to prevent water from eroding away at the soil which could then cause the upper street to collapse.

Soon the water from the river was filling the canal and emptying into the moat to slowly fill it up all around the walls. While Rick was digging out the moat that surrounded the city walls, he had noticed that the street construction crew had already paved the outer streets that lined the walls outside the city, So, he now decided to make a map of the region with his cartography skill to figure out how far the streets had progressed once he had completed the moat and connecting canal.

Spoiler: Map of the Region.

The street construction crew isn't messing around they have already finished just about everything I had originally assigned to them. We have a paved road that connects the city to the southern limestone and marble quarries. The paved road now run across Tower Island and the once smaller wooden bridges have been replaced with the now wider stone block and cement bridges by building support arches across the river exactly like we used to make the aqueduct.

It seems that Handil must have sent some of his stone mason and stone cutters over to help build these bridges. They were the ones who I had originally taught how to make the arches with the supporting keystones when I had them construct the aqueduct. I have had plans to make a military academy to teach my troops tactics and strategies along with introducing them to new technologies that I create, but I wonder if I should also build a place to teach building techniques? I will have to sit down later with Handil and Jerem and find out if they would be interested in the idea.

I better go find the street construction crew that has been working with the surveyors and assign them the next stage of roads before they are done and sitting around with nothing to do. Rick put away his region map after contemplating over how his city was progressing and walked over the newly built bridge that spanned the river just south of Tower Island. The bridge was quite impressive it was paved flat with stone cemented pavers and was wide enough for two lanes of horse-drawn cart traffic to pass at once. It also made use of evenly spaced arches that supported the weight of the wide spanning stone bridge. When Rick curiously looked over the side rail of the bridge he discovered that the arches had been built on small patches of land.

He went over to talk with the men who were finishing up the western side of the bridges stone railing and found out that Handil did indeed send them over to build this bridge. Now that he had Jerem and his crew helping build the castle, Rick was told that there were almost too many people over there. So when the road construction crew had asked Handil of a way they might build a bridge across the wide river Handil had sent over the men who worked on the aqueduct arches and he also talked with General Sturm to provide some help.

Spoiler: New Stone Arched Bridge.

When Handil had come over to investigate the river, he used the western footbridge to examine the area and discovered how Rick had raised the land instead of directly spanning the entire river. Handil then expanded on the idea by having General Sturm send over Silandra who is a Hero Ranger/Druid. Handil asked Silandra to use her Druid skill [Move and Shape Earth] to raise small sections of land that they could build arches on. Handil did an excellent job coordinating the military, road construction crew, and his men to build this bridge. There was only one problem that Rick could see that missed Handil's attention. Each section of land that the arches now sat on did not have any breakwater walls around the soil.

Without some way to protect the soil from the river's current over time it would erode away the soil and this would cause the arches to collapse along with the entire bridge. Rick then opened his chat menu to call Handil and congratulated him on an excellent job. Rick told him he was quite impressed with how he had brought everyone together to build the bridge. Rick then explained the problem with the land that the bridges sat on. He did not try to scold Handil or make him feel that he had screwed up. Rick only wanted to further educate him so that in the future he would be even more knowledgeable in how to build on or span water.

Rick walked down to the shoreline and unequipped his clothes and waded out into the river. He then used his Druid skill [Shape Shift] to turn himself into the large fish he had once caught in this river. Once he had made his transformation, Rick swam around the raised sections of land and tried something he had never done yet. While he was swimming around as a fish he used his druid skill [Transmute Stone and Earth]. The sides of the raised soil columns were very muddy from being submerged so when he used this skill on them all the soil that had absorbed water instantly turned into solid stone.

After he had encased all of the raised earth in stone he left the water and examined the each section of raised columns of earth and found they all had about nine inches of stone encircling each of them. Rick then redressed and went to the far end of the western road that reached past the bridge where took out his drawing desk and a chair. He sat down at his desk with the map of the region he made earlier and began marking out where he wanted streets to be built next with his charcoal pencil and a makeshift ruler.

Once he had drawn out the next stage of his street system, Rick walked over to the road crew and discussed this new plan with them and the surveyors. The surveyors left then to immediately begin marking out where the new streets would be built while the road crew finished up ending the western street until Rick figured out where it may lead to someday.

He decided to fly back toward the city after talking with the surveyors and the road crew to land on the west main street in the crafting district. Rick walked from shop to shop gathering all of their finished items and found that the glass workers had completed half of the stained glass windows for the temple. They had stored them in the backroom of the shop, so Rick went in the back to store them in his inventory. When he found the stained glass panes they were stacked on a large table and covered with heavy blankets to protect them from damaging one another. He pulled off the blankets and was quite impressed with the work they had done. The stained glass panes all had different scenes with their goddess Faith represented in each of them.

Rick stored all of the Stained glass panes into his inventory and sat down at the table. He took out a few sheets of parchment and drew up some new furniture to be sold at his store.

Spoiler: New Furniture Designs.

Rick left the glass workers shop with his new designs and went to hand them off to his furniture maker/artisans and called his spinsters and quilt makers/artisans to go over the cloth types and patterns that would need to be made for these new upholsteries, blankets, and pillows needed for the new designs. He then went over to the castle basement workshop and activated [Fast Domain]. He placed a few ingots of Sparkling Silver that had a highly reflective surface just like a mirror into the forge fire.

When the Sparkling Silver ingots were hot enough to work with, Rick hammered them flat and then put them through the metal rollers to make one eighth thick metal sheets of Sparkling Silver. Once he had run the sheets through the metal rollers a couple times he had a perfectly smooth sheet that he used along with his Metal Sculptor skill to make the mirror designs he drew up earlier. Rick received six recipes for the six mirrors and made a few of each of them.

He opened a portal to his office and went out on the floor to display the new mirrors on the store walls and placed the rest of the extras behind the counters and in the warehouse to restock any that were sold. The mirrors that were currently being sold in the city were made of polished brass and silver and were not very smooth or reflective. People could get a general idea of how their hair and clothes looked, but these current mirrors offered no real detail. These new mirrors that Rick just put on display were similar in reflectiveness and quality to that of modern mirrors. Not only could some see their exact crystal clear image in one of Rick's mirrors they were also made of better materials and they all had very artistic designs.

Rick called over Nellie and showed her the new mirrors and explained the differences to her. He then proceeded to pitch them to every customer who passed by him. Even if he did not immediately sell these new mirrors, he knew that they would become one of the new talks of the city like his carriages. This would bring in people to either view or buy them and once they were in the store he was sure they would find something that they would just need to have.Nellie watched as Rick describe the mirrors and how he approached the customers so that she could pass on his sales techniques to her sales girls. The way he always approached the customer and interacted with them was so foreign, but yet effective.

Even though he was never a salesman, Rick had been around and dealt with many salesmen in the real world who used more advanced sales techniques than they were used to in this middle age type world.

One of Rick's techniques was to get the customer to answer simple questions that he knew they would answer with a yes and once the customer had continuously answered his questions with yes for so long it became hard for them to say no because the customer would have subconsciously developed a bond with him. Rick also used humor to disarm the customers and put them at ease so they were not on guard against being sold something.

He would even mention the ranks of nobles who had come to his store to buy certain products the customer was currently interested in. This would make a lower social class person think it must be a great product for such an upper-class person to want it. The customer may also think that it would make them look good by owning the same product that the nobles were buying. Rick soon wrapped up his sales lessons for Nellie and headed back to Tower Island.

Even though they were going to battle with the orc camp tomorrow morning, Rick wanted to improve himself as much as he could with the remainder of his online time. He walked back to the fitness center and began weight lifting and stair stepping in his heavy armor with the runes turned off. As he did all of this, Rick had cast a Fast Domain around the area so that he could get a long workout in.

During the first hour and a half he could hardly walk up the stairs in his armor with the runes off, but as he gradually made gains it started to become an easier process. After he had worked out for over three and a half hours in the domain he was able to move around in his armor and climb up and down the stone stairs without much trouble.

He began then hopping up the stairs and soon began hopping up and down them while carrying dumbbells. Rick continued to lift weights and climb the stairs for over four hours and then walked over to the tower. He opened his notices on the way to the tower to check on his gains.

Spoiler: Show Notices!. Attribute Increased: Strength +55 Attribute Increased: Stamina +29 Attribute Increased: Vitality +34 Attribute Increased: Agility +21

After looking at the attribute gains he checked on his status menu as he climbed up the tower stairs to his bedroom.

Spoiler: Show Status!.

Cedric Crownguard Strength: 187 Level: (41%) 20 Stamina: 137 Health: 1710 Vitality: 171 Mana: 1330 Intelligence: 133 Piety: +175 Wisdom: 68 Fame: +37,000 (locally respected) Agility: 96 Honor: +32,000 (village hero) Charisma: 38 Alignment: +4000 Leadership: 57 Satiety: 64% Luck: 15 Class: Druidic Mage Quickness: 10 Class: Space-Time Wizard Health Regen/Sec: 8.5 Mana Regen/Sec: 6.5 Feudal Domain: 5760 Race: Chosen Human Feudal Title: Marquess Unused Points: 0 Awarded Titles Currently Displaying: The Adept of Refinement 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 Title: Explorer of the Unknown Alignment +/- -none- Title: Oath Breaker Alignment +/- -1000 Title: Honorbound Alignment +/- +1000 Title: Reviver of the Ancient Beliefs Alignment +/- +1000 Title: The Adept of Refinement Alignment +/- -none-

Rick closed his status menu and unequipped his gear and laid on the bed to disconnect from the game for a little while.

Disconnect!