Chapitre 102: Chapter 102
Ben set off toward the north at sunrise. The landscape was blanketed with a layer of snow but the concrete road was clear making travel easy. He walked to his Mines which were built at the edge of the northern mountain chain and opened the Build Menu to the Infrastructure category.
He selected the Tunnel tool and drew out a straight line through the northern mountains. He allowed the tool to work its magic and as the minutes passed a long rectangular tunnel was cut cleanly through the stone mountains.
The tunnel he made cut through the mountain toward an ocean inlet. The inlet ran south from the northern ocean shoreline creating a sheltered narrow bay protected from the open ocean.
Just as he had done with the previous village tunnel, Ben laid a concrete road along the floor of the tunnel and built electric street lights along the tunnel walls to illuminate the way.
He activated Whirlwind Maneuver and quickly sped through the wide tunnel until he had reached the opposite end. He climbed out of the opposite end of the tunnel to investigate the ocean inlet and found it was deep enough to be of use for his next project.
For some time now he had wanted to construct a harbor and to build an exploration ship but he had to always worry about his location being discovered by passing trade ships. Now he had the military strength to defend his newly established kingdom he no longer had to remain hidden.
Ben went back into the mountain tunnel and began to sculpt out an enormous room inside the mountain. At the ocean water level, he carved out a room three hundred yards wide, three hundred yards deep, and one hundred foot high ceilings.
It looked like a gigantic underground cavern with a stream of light spilling in through the tunnel exit near the edge of the inlet.
The entire perimeter of the cavern was then lined with electric street lights and it wasn't long before you could see every corner of this stone subterranean room. Once Ben had the money he planned to turn this room into a small indoor ship harbor.
Before he could do that he needed to build Steam Engine Factory which would cost 10000g and after that he assumed it would unlock a Steam Ship Shipyard. Instead of dumping money into a normal shipyard that could only build wooden sailing ships he wanted to go straight to the steel steamships.
There were so many expensive projects on the horizon that he wanted to begin but his funds could not keep up with his spending. The Trareniel border closing and the winter snow did not help him either. It was getting to the point where he needed to expand his operations.
Since the winter was going to slow down economic progress he decided to right there and then while standing in that cavern to begin creating a chain of stores across the continent.
For the next couple of months, Ben used Zoom to teleport to the capitals of each kingdom. He followed the same satellite branch store plan he had used in Goldcrest. Each store was far away from his build zone so he had to purchase land to build a store and an outlying farm.
Under those stores, he built the needed workshops and infrastructure needed to make each store self-reliant. Every store had the typical third-floor community apartment where his team of merchants and managers would live.
The free food to passing shoppers plan they used in Wolfmere was employed in front of each of his branch stores to quickly establish a customer base. Money was tight for those months and he had to often sell off resources to keep the plan rolling.
He had eventually built a store in every kingdom capital. The stores he built in Trareniel and Brandomma were built under an alias merchant name which the Ciral Kingdom graciously arranged for him. Ben was unsure of which way Brandomma planned to go still so he played it safe and hid his name from them.
If his employees were ever questioned by Trareniel or Brandomma about why the products and food were the same as his other stores they were told to say it was all purchased through Ben King's store and resold there. If the employees denied any affiliation with Ben then they could not prevent the new stores from doing business.
Three months into the winter the snow still covered the ground and Ben's chain of businesses were beginning to bring in profits. He was now the owner of eighteen businesses across the kingdoms and his money woes were improving by the day.
Over on the backside of the Military Training Field, Ben began construction of the hidden structure he had unlocked when the system had reached level fifty.
It was time to build the [Steam Engine Factory] and see what it would unlock for him.
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[Steam Engine Factory]: Produces steam engines for industry, ships, locomotives, and vehicles. It is possible to use a custom menu to design or improve steam engines. [locked until: built steel mill-water treatment-research center-engineers guild - system lvl. 50][consumes: steel] [requires: stone, wood] [Cost: 10000g]
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Once the new Steam Engine Factory was constructed a series of automatic notices open for Ben to review.
[Auto_Notice] [You have unlocked a hidden structure now available in the build menu!]
[Auto_Notice] [You have unlocked a hidden structure: Steam Automotive Manufacturer!]
[Auto_Notice] [You have unlocked a hidden structure now available in the build menu!]
[Auto_Notice] [You have unlocked a Category: Rail Lines!]
[Auto_Notice] [You have unlocked a hidden structure: Steam Train Manufacturer!]
[Auto_Notice] [You have unlocked a hidden structure now available in the build menu!]
[Auto_Notice] [You have unlocked a hidden structure: Steam Shipyard!]
Three new major building had been unlocked that would shock this world when they were introduced to what they can produce.
Now in Ben's Build Menu, he found a [Steam Automotive Manufacturer], a [Steam Train Manufacturer], and a [Steam Shipyard]! There was a new Category called Rail Lines that offered Train Track Tool which works like the road tool. There were also options to build Train Stations and Train Repair Depots along with other options to be used in connection with train routes.
Ben being from Earth was now tempted to build the Steam Automotive Manufacturer. He was curious to see what type of cars and trucks he could manufacture and what was needed to make them.
He decided to hold off on Steam Automotive Manufacturer in the end and went back to the large cavern he had excavated out of the mountain next to the ocean inlet.
Inside the cavern, he used the Tunnel Tool to make what looked like a huge empty swimming pool in the center of the room. As the deep square hole was being eroded away, Ben used the Tunnel Tool to cut away the tunnel entrance to below the ocean water level.
Thousands of gallons of seawater began to flood into the hidden cavern from the inlet. It was would now be possible to steer a ship out of this cavern into the inlet and out into the ocean.
Ben opened his custom menu as the room filled with water and began designing to one hundred foot tall doors. These two doors were designed to slide sideways on heavy-duty tracks. Ben did not want to leave the entrance to his cavern harbor open.
It would be too easy for others ships to sail down the inlet into his hidden harbor where he planned to dock the ships he built. These two massive doors were connected to large electric motors that would open and close the doors to seal off the cavern entrance and prevent outsiders from accessing his harbor.
These doors would constantly be subjected to salt water and this would corrode most metals. His best bet without making alloys was to use gold or platinum. Ben had a good amount of unused platinum so he decided to make the doors out of steel but to apply an thin outer platinum surface to them.
When he was satisfied with the door design ben started building them and moved on to the Steam Shipyard.
The Steam Ship Yard had to be built half in the water and half on land. The section on land looked like a stone warehouse without any doors or windows. The section which was in the water resembled a massive boathouse about two hundred yards long.
[Steam Shipyard]: Produces steam-powered ships from small personal vessels up to large steam turbine propelled battleships. [Unlocks after a steam engine factory is built and the first carriage is produced] [consumes: steel, glass, rubber, plastic, water] [requires: stone, wood, steel, glass] [costs: 5000g each]
As the new Steam Shipyard was being constructed Ben used the remainder of his current funds to construct a [Naval Barracks].
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[Naval Barracks]: A large fortified five-story military dormitory. It provides your Naval troops with a place to eat, sleep, and bathe. Houses 960 troops
[First Floor]: mess hall, security room, recruitment room, weight training gym, laundry
[Second Floor]: thirty rooms with four bunk beds, two desks, eight closets per room, men and women's bathrooms and showers
[Third Floor]: thirty rooms with four bunk beds, two desks, eight closets per room, men and women's bathrooms and showers
[Fourth Floor]: thirty rooms with four bunk beds, two desks, eight closets per room, men and women's bathrooms and showers
[Five Floor]: thirty rooms with four bunk beds, two desks, eight closets per room, men and women's bathrooms and showers. [Locked until: built armory-water treatment-waste management-power plant] [requires: wood-stone-iron-glass] [costs: 1000g]
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Ben watched as the Naval Barracks was built and it looked just like the Ground Forces Barracks. Athena explained the two building are identical inside but the recruitment room menu offered completely different types of troops.
With only a couple of hundred gold coins remaining Ben went back to the fortress and met up with Mythia and the other female cultivators. They stopped by the Wizzardy School and brought the twenty Fairy Magi along with them to the Restaurant.
Ben had an informal meeting with the thirty young ladies and Mythia to see how everyone was progressing along. In the past two months, Mythia and the other female cultivators were now in the mid-stage one levels.
He took out eleven Impetus Advancement pills and gave one to Mythia and the other ten female cultivators. This was the pill he had given Brom Duven and Alessandra Sletten to advance their cultivation by a whole stage.
[Impetus Advancement]: A cultivation stage advancing pill with a one-time use only. A cultivator will experience an instant breakthrough of a full stage after using this pill. This pill will lose its effect after one use and any further ingestions will be a wasted effort.
There were approximately two months left before the sun began to melt so Ben wanted to give them all a little boost before they set off to war. He did not want to leave out the Fairies so he handed out a Magic Magnification pill and a Perspicacity Portal pill to each of them.
The Fairies had already used these same pills earlier but from the description, it seemed they could still be useful. These two pills would only be less effective than the original two they had consumed
[Magic Magnification]: This pill can increase a person's intelligence. An increase in intelligence will provide more Mana while also increasing magic damage. Loses potency when reused.
[Perspicacity Portal]: This pill can increase a person's wisdom. An increase in wisdom will provide smoother more natural use of magic. Spell cast times and expended mana will decrease for each spell. Loses potency when reused.
He also gave each of them a large leather coin purse filled with Mana Infusion pills to help them in their training and during battles.
[Mana Infusion]: This is a high-grade mana recovery pill. It can replenish large amounts of mana in a short amount of time.
The Fairies who made excellent Magi had continued to work hard and had raised the firebolt and lightning bolt spells into the upper Adept Stages and the two new spells were now trained into the upper Apprentice Stages.
They all had an enjoyable meal and Ben was enjoying being surrounded by so many beautiful women. Being in the company of so many young ladies was a nice mental break for a change and Mythia seemed to enjoy the company as well. The older girls all talked with her attentive without looking down on her. Each one of them was powerhouses in their own fields and one day they would be counting on one another learn how to cultivate and use magic.
Ben explained at one point in the future he would send the Fairies to learn cultivation and Mythia along with the ten cultivators would be sent to the Wizardly School to learn magic. It would cost him more money in the end, but in the end he would have thirty-one female cultivators who could also use magic just like him.
Just thinking about what that type of force would be like a couple years from now made him excited for the future. It would be like having thirty copies of himself and this wasn't even counting the other cultivator/Magi he might train along the way.
Everyone went their separate ways after dinner. Ben was getting close to breaking through to the next level so he decided he would spend the night in his Qi Chamber.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone