“Alright so i've heard the basic plan for this town and I've gotta say this is the first time I've built a town like this. I've heard of towns being centered around an event like the Lunar festival in the town of Moonglaive or the Taming festival in the town of Rexar but this is a town based on... everyday capture the flag fights? I gotta say I'm quite excited to be a part of this cos this really could work guys.” Hermes said after he heard the basic explanation from me.

“Well we got some time so why don't you introduce yourself to us for abit? We would want to know what sort of architect Loki sent us anyway. He has a way of making things interesting if you know what I mean.” I asked as politely as I could.

“Of course. Well I started off as an architect the normal way. I just wanted to earn some coin here in Royal Road which I can sell in real life for money you know and architecture seemed like a quick way to get some cash. I also have an architectural degree in real life so I picked up the skills fast. However for my first project, the person wanted me to build a curvy house which looked modern and I took up the challenge knowing how hard it was. I started making it round straight from the base and proceeded upwards, making it a three story house for him, admiring the curves I made for him throughout the building and upon completion, the owner said my house looked like 2 gigantic balls with a penis that had both a left and right curvature at the same time.”

“Looks like someone failed to erect his reputation properly.” M1 said.

“He poked himself right in the ass there.” M2 replied.

“Guys give him a break even though his name rhymes with herpes I'm pretty sure he made a perfectly healthy house.” Breadtalk chipped in.

“Sick.” Slick said.

“Can all of you give him a break. He's showing us a delicate part of himself.” Soup chipped in giving us a wink.

“Did the house have a garden? Or was it cleanly shaven?” FuzzyWuzzy asked.

“Guys. Stop coming at him so fast.” I retorted.

“Not exactly helping Jinx, coming is a good word to use during our foreplay.” Beathoven hummed.

All of us couldn't handle the level of penis jokes anymore and burst out laughing and Hermes was by far the loudest one of us all.

“This town is going to be a monstrosity of fun isn't it with all you jokers running it. Okay moving on with my story yes sadly to an untrained eye my building might look like a huge crotch but it really did hurt my reputation. No one dared to ask me to build anymore buildings until Loki came along. He loved my building. He called me the upcoming visionary architectural dicksigner of the 22nd century.”

Damn Loki was good with penis jokes as well

“He asked me to design a church for him and I did but this time at a much straighter level. No curves, no inner eye shenanigans, no dicks. When I finished, he was genuinely pleased as well so ever since then, Loki made me his go to man when he needed churches to be built. So yea thats basically my story.” Hermes completed.

“Round of applause guysssss”

*Applauseeeeeee*

“Alright now for the serious stuff. Hermes how long does it take for you to construct buildings?”

“Depending on the size, a standard house would take about 1 hour using my advanced Architecture mastery. Slightly larger buildings would take slightly longer.”

“Alright that's plenty fast enough. I want you to start with the west spine. Soup has always been straightforward and efficient. He submits his homework so fast because when he doesn't know the answer he just hands it up using 'Because Jesus said so' on his papers and trust me that accounts for like 90% of his answers. So Soup you can start designing the West spine and start building it with Hermes. We will do it by days. Day 1 is Soup and the West spine. Day 2 is me and the Town Square. Day 3 is Beathoven and the South spine. Day 4 will be Breadtalk and the East spine. Day 5 will be the residences which we will let Hermes decide on his own. The rest you have 5 days of free time. We can just sleep in the castle in the top floors where the beds and rooms are prepared. I recommend us to train up during our free time. The mines are still open as well so M1 and 2, Slick, FuzzyWuzzy, would you get your minions in the area in the meantime to mine the ores in them for us to use as resources? Okay now the plan is settled. Now we just need to address the payment and process. How much will your services cost and what materials will you require?”

“I'm Hermes. My payment is in reputation points Loki gives me. I figure that reputation points with one of Big 3 (Freya, Odin, Loki) is worth more than money and as for materials, don't worry about that. I wont need stuff like cement and clay or steel and iron. I'm a master level architect. I have a skill that can use the resources I have in a certain store and smelt them immediately into the picture of the building I'm about to create. The store is of course replenished by Loki so no worries. Just tell me how to help and you got it.”

An entire town from scratch at the cost of 0 copper. How about that. Let's make millions from this town.

“Well, let's do this. Oh and Hermes, no penises in Carnival alright.”

We split up immediately and each of us hurried to do what we wanted. The elites (M1 & 2, Slick & FuzzyWuzzy) went to start mining for ores. The four of us decided to go to our assigned areas and brainstorm of how we wanted the town to be. Carnival in its essence was going to be a town all about fun. Even though the town square is the most important economical and political landmark of the town, it had to reflect that. I chose the town square because this was the only part of the town which couldn't screw up. No matter how ridiculous the spines looked, they just needed to be functional. The town square needed to be perfect. Plus 4 different designs into 1 city would make the city look exactly as it should. Mashed up, imperfect, ridiculous, like 4 drunkards designed the town and it would basically scream “BUNCH OF TARDS WERE HERE.” I was sure this was the best way to create this town.

After 3 hours of serious brainstorming, I decided on the positions of the landmark, respawn point, shops and town square and designed them in my head thoroughly. Overthinking would be useless so I was done for the day. I just needed to wait for Hermes to come find me to start. I went ahead to start on my training Jörmungandr left me with. I quickly split my minds into two parts and experimented with different shapes of darkness and water magic in each. I tried tornados, waterfalls, condensed balls, letters, numbers, and tried to change the aura of each magic type into these different categories. Because it used a small amount of mana, I could also store mana into my Ouroboros seal as I was doing this as well. After 5 hours, it seemed like I could not store any more mana into my Ourobors seal. There seemed to be a limit of 12000 mana. However I realised the skill level increased to beginner level 3 and I figured the higher the level, the more mana it could store.

Wait storing mana increases the skill proficiency but what about using the stored mana?

I used the stored mana to unleash a huge pillar of rock from the very centre of where the town square should be and made it about 3 stories high, perfectly circular like a rod with a radius of 1 meter shooting up from the ground in perfect, highly condensed rock. The stored mana was diminished by about half so I used the other half to summon a glacier which surrounded the base of the huge rod of earth I just made.

Perfect. This should be good enough for the preliminary preparations for the town square.

I checked the skill proficiency. Using mana from the Ouroboros seal also increased its proficiency. It was almost beginner level 4 now. I then proceeded to repeat my training and by nightfall, I could manipulate my aura to write words in English on my palms and I proceeded to make the word HELL in my left hand with water aura, YEAH in my right with darkness aura and then changed the words simultaneously and swapped the elements so that in the next instant it read I'M with darkness aura in my left hand and AWESOME with water aura in my right hand. I'm done with splitting my mind into two parts.

I returned to the castle in order to prepare dinner for all of them and when I was walking back, I could see what Soup has done with the West spine. It was so Soup. It was like someone spilled Soup all over that part of town.

Barbaric was the go to word people would describe it. Soup has always been a fan of up right manfighting so he really liked Orcish and Barbaric designs and he couldn't have made it clearer. The pathways of the West spine were lined up with spears and the pavements were all classic rubble. Sand and stones. The buildings were vastly made of iron, with fire lanterns hanging from the buildings to provide the lighting at night. Doors all had a door knocker, the way the old medival times had it. Majority of the markings and signs were all grey background to complement the colour of iron with blood red markings. It was quite a scene. Well constructed buildings some of which were huge all grey and red. The only exception would be the guilds which were all extremely noticeable. The warriors guild had a huge golden sword behind a silver gleaming shield reflecting the moonlight at the roof of the building. The thieves guild had a pair of silver daggers with green droplets of poison from the tips at the roof of the building. What do you know even Soup knew how to use reference to Breadtalk's weapons. Of course lastly there was a golden bow and arrow for a guild which if you need me to tell you which class is it for, you would need to stuff Hermes' first building up your ass.

The training hall was of a reasonable size, perfectly round and was one of the rare buildings made of straw indeed. Soup must've made it a point to make it made out of straw in order to show newbies that they needed to train up before they deserve to be part of the more well built buildings. It was a pretty interesting concept that I knew Soup was capable of because I knew him for so long. This meant that here had to be a building which only the worthy could enter. For Soup would always make it a point to have the noobs suffer first and make something for them to look forward to. It was how he motivated himself. True enough, in the centre of the West spine, I found a building made of dark white marble. It was an incredible contrast. After so much grey and red, a dull white building in the shape of the Pantheon. I'm not sure if there would be an copyright issues but at the triangular roof, 3 words could be seen.

“HALL OF FAME.”

Typical Soup. Nothing better to fight for than a place in the hall of fame in the heart of all the strength and dexterity based classes in RR huh. I'm pretty sure there were more buildings which Soup had put his effort into but I figured I had more than enough time to be familiar with the town I was going to build with my friends. First I should make dinner for the party.

“YOU'RE LATE. WE'RE HUNGRYYYYYYYYYYYY!” Screamed Breadtalk as he ran out of the castle the moment he saw me.

My ouroboros seal was again fully maxed at 15000 mana at beginner level 6 so I figured why not?

I used all the mana I got to firstly make Breadtalk as light as a feather, secondly to blast him with all the mana I had left in the Ouroboros seal in the form of a water jet upwards.

“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeee-”

“Someone catch him when he lands please I don't want a PK mark at the top of my head.” I casually said as I went to the kitchen to prepare the food.

It took me about 2 minutes while I was cutting the meat brought back by some of the elites before I heard a familiar voice.

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.”

*BOOM*

HOLY SHIT BOOM?!

I ran out of the kitchen screaming “DIDN'T SOMEONE CATCH HIM?!”

FuzzyWuzzy was holding onto Breadtalk and I saw what caused the huge sound. FuzzyWuzzy's paw print was clearly imprinted on the forest floor with cracks all over it. He must have stomped on the floor in order to make me think Breadtalk landed on the floor. FuzzyWuzzy smiled so wide it was like he was the wolf who dressed as grandma when little red riding hood walked in.

I quickly went back to the kitchen to finish up the meal and then it was just a usual night. Everyone enjoyed their food. More penis jokes were flung around the table. Breadtalk started a foodfight. I flung him up towards the ceiling. Beathoven played some songs for us. Soup drank some beer to celebrate his competion of the West spine. Elites were all laughing at the antics. M1 and M2 tried to perform a twin breakdance which actually went pretty well. It looked super cool and awesome until they literally broke each other's neck. Slick fixed them up pretty quick by constricting their bones together and Hermes looked like he was going to die from laughter anytime. Even before Carnival was anywhere near completion, it was obvious that this was the type of town it was going to be no matter what.

We went to bed after that and early in the next morning, I couldn't wait as I charged my ouroboros seal to the maximum in my sleep and waited for Hermes at the huge earth rod and glacier I've made in the center of the town.

“Well what do we have here?” Hermes asked as he approached me.

“This my dear, is going to be the fountain of the town square and it isn't going to be just another fountain. Help me construct a perimeter of shiny black marble around this glacier and rod and give about another 3 meters allowance from the center of the rod as that is going to be where the water will be.”

“Very well.”

After the black marble perimeter was constructed, I went to build what I thought of when I first gained the mana manipulation skill.

I filled the perimeter with water of about 1 meter high. Then, I lined the perimeter of the water fountain with a lining of dark magic. I realised dark magic could be manipulated to have a flammable property and that was the famous fire of the hellhounds. Dark magic floated on the surface of the water randomly and I cast fire magic to light it up on fire. The dark magic was just a medium which enabled the fire to burn. I then used some wind magic to create a current of wind flowing upwards before it would go back down and flow upwards again.

“Hermes could you construct a clear glass dome for this whole structure from the top of the rod till the bottom reaches the perimeter.”

“Easily done. Here.”

I created a mini sun in the dome itself and used gravity magic for it to float. Basically what was left was a huge towering rod of earth surrounded by glaciers in a pond which on the surface had dark magic and fire ignited on it, with wind blowing upwards that kept the mini sun made of light to drop and for the final touch, I added lightning aura into the dome. All this was done in specific amounts of mana I used the ouroboros seal for help. A total of 16000 mana plus 12000 mana was put into this fountain. 28000 mana. Why did I create this fountain which looked huge but so unique and queer? Hermes looked puzzled as well.

I asked him to create a white plaque on the black marble and carve this onto the plaque.

“Fountain of Carnival. This fountain was made by one of the founders of Carnival. It's purpose is to highlight to the citizens of Carnival the importance of self sufficiency and evolution. Water in the pool will slowly erode both the glacier and the rod of earth. They will grind together to form a unique debris that will give the fountain a blue colouration unlike any other. It will be the bluest fountain you will ever see under sunlight as light reflects off the mixture of earth and glacier (true story look it up on google it's found in New Zealand). Water will be evaporated into the atmosphere inside the dome by the fire sitting on dark magic which consumes a tiny bit of water for it to retain its flammable property. Wind will carry the hot water vapour up where it will condense into clouds. Lightning mana will merge with the clouds to form thunder clouds which will recharge the sun in the dome of it's light energy. Rain will then pour down and erode even more of the rod and glacier. During the rain, a rainbow will be formed due to the artificial sun in the dome.

This beautiful, 100% natural fountain uses the 9 types of magic; Fire, Ice, Water, Lightning, Earth, Wind, Dark, Light, Gravity in order to create an entirely self sufficient fountain. The only limiting factor here is when all the glacier and earth rocks erode entirely. I have made this fountain self sufficienct for an exact time of 3 years. When this fountain finally finishes its life span, the water will run out, the fire will die, no rain will fall, the sun will come crashing down but then, the fountain will have new life from all the remaining mana combined together, becoming a pool of element X. Carnival will become a town unlike any other. Greatness awaits you in Carnival and this is our timer. Be part of us. Here in Carnival, the fun is self sustaining, the money will be too and eventually, we will become like this fountain, self sustaining, natural, beautiful and above everything else, a calling for change, evolution after our time is up.”

Hermes looked at the huge, beautiful, self-sustaining fountain made of nothing but nature.

“By blackened body of god. Are you the Creator? But seriously this is a self sustaining fountain which also functions as a town identity and a countdown timer for you. How did you even think of this. Thank god you're not an architect or I would be out of a business.”

Created : Fountain Of Carnival

You've created a masterpiece from nothing but nature and mana. This piece of architecture will give bonuses to people who are near the fountain or have seen the fountain for the past hour. It will give double the amount if they are citizens of Carnival because this is their pride and their landmark.

Mana +1000

Mana Regeneration +10/s

Fighting Spirit +50

Wisdom +20

Affinity to Nature +2%

You have gained a new Stat : Art

Wow I too can get an art skill even though I don't have a crafting class. Might be useful... HOLY SHIT IT STARTS AT 1000 LOL.

“Hermes if i may ask how high is your art stat?”

“It's about 10000 now why do you ask?

“How long did it take for you to get to 1000?”

“A year or two...”

“I just got the art stat and it's already at 1000.”

“Fuck off.”

“I'm serious.”

“Well hopefully you'll find it useful. Some classes have additional damage or perks from the art stat so I recommend you go fin a profession that helps you make use of that.”

“I will. Thanks for the advice.”

Hermes explained to me that the fountain I just created was without a doubt a masterpiece. From the materials I used to the story I wanted to explain to the very idea of creating it was all master class. That was mainly the reason why my art stat was already at 1000 even though I just received the stat.

Well now that the landmark is done, let's concentrate on the rest of the town square.

I used the rest of the day to guide Hermes to create the town square I've pictured for Carnival. I trained while guiding him using the usual mana manipulation and ouroboros seal training. I've split my mind into three parts now and I decided to embed light as my next element because my affinity to light is as high as my darkness and water while the rest are 5% behind. After one whole day, work was finally done.

The town square was a sight to behold. I incorporated many aspects of nature into the town square to complement the immensde fountain which was our landmark. The respawn area was around the fountain so when they came back from death they would get the buff from the fountain. The town square was a piece of land about 50x50m large with the fountain in the dead centre of it. I made the town square completely white marble for maximum contrast with the fountain and created a podium in order to facilitate events.

Surrounding the town square was the marketplace which was the heart of the economy. I stuck with my earlier plan, to make the NPC shops closest to the exterior of the town square as possible where the player shops would be closer to the interior of the town square which was where the fountain and events center was. The player shops which were closer to the town square were all black for maximum contrast against the white floor of the events center but not with some golden flourishes as well. Grey bricked pavements lead from player shop to player shop and I used my mana manipulation to decorate the area. I used holes in the ground which were filled with dark water same as the ones inside the fountain to light up as a source of fire and light when it gets cold or dark. There would be one in between each store. The town square is in the dead centre of the town so there was to be a main path which was identifiable with silver bricks leading north to the castle, east to the east spine, west to the west spine, south to the south spine and southwest and southeast for the residences. Due to all these paths I could only create stalls where these paths didnt exist as the road branches off from the areas to the events center.

The NPC stores were made white for contrast with golden flourishes as well for some consistency along with the grey bricked pavements for people to walk on. For their light source I decided on something a little more different. I made a lantern with many holes out of earth from the ground and linked it to a power source.I then made a link from the power source to a huge pond between the southeast path and east path to make maximum use of the small space and asked Hermes to build a few windmills and turbines there. I used mana manipulation to create a small waterfall and supply wind, water, electricity in the pond to power the windmill and water turbines underneath the pond surface. The light sources were both self sustainable for the NPC stores as well as the player stores with what I call the firewells. Looks like I was also attracted to the idea of an ouroboros, a self sustaining infinity. Thus, after more minor decorations such as flowers along the paths and electronics such as a PA system for the events square, it was done.

Now only the south spine where the Carnival wars will be and the East spine remain. I can't wait to see what Beathoven and Breadtalk would bring to the table.

End of Chapter 17

Author's note : Hey guys I'm back! Sorry for the long hiatus. Was really enjoying myself in New Zealand and Sydney! (Any Kiwis or OZs here?) i've brought back some knowledge I could even use for this fanfic :grin: but I've also missed writing for you all. I will try to keep this arc as entertaining as possible while enhancing the plot in subtle fashions. Look forward to the completion of Carnival!