The group of Elven archers followed Ben over to the market as the sun began to rise. The sound of three hundred barefoot walking down the street drew the attention of the people who were just waking up in their small homes.
Ben waved to the anxious faces peering out of the windows and doors to let them know everything was fine. His original followers did not know that he had returned while they were sleeping so the large group of scantily dressed tall beautiful people walking the streets shocked them all.
When Ben saw Chancellor Rayner step outside he waved him over. While walking to the Market, Ben explained the people following him were newly hired troops that would be a part of their new military forces.
Ben asked Rayner to go house to house and explain the situation to the fortress residents so they would not be worried about the new large group outside their homes.
Rayner then left them to inform everyone of what was going on and that Ben had returned during the night.
The group soon stopped at the Market and Ben once again gave instructions on how to use the Market interface menu. Once they all had the hang of the new technology it didn't take long for them to pick out the items Ben told them they should have.
Everyone had shirts, pants, jackets, socks, and footwear. He had them all put on the new clothes that they choose and had them exchange any clothes that did not properly fit them.
They all returned to the Barracks and Ben began with the Barracks Cafeteria on the first floor. He set up the Cafeteria to have the same menu as the fortress Restaurant and was even able to add a few new selections of new foods being produced now.
They all sat down at the long cafeteria tables and ordered a meal. Since Ben had just created these Elves their stomachs were empty and even if they were not feeling hungry yet, he thought they should have some food in them.
After their meal, they returned their plates and utensils back to the interface menu which would clean them for a later use. After Ben had seen the system use mana to erode rocks, trees, and earth he knew it would have no problem properly removing food scraps and from the plates.
They all made their way up to the second floor and the men were made to stand on one side of the hall and women on the other side. Ben arranged the new recruits into groups of eight by gender and assigned each group a room and had them enter their room until the last group was assigned their own room.
The last male and female groups were then led into the bathroom and Ben showed them the sinks, toilets, and showers. Thankfully they were all created with some understanding of how the Earth style plumbing fixtures and appliances were operated.
This saved Ben the embarrassment of explaining to them how to wipe and clean themselves. He told the female group to show the other Elven women in the bathrooms and gave the male group the same instructions to show the men.
The remaining 30 men and 30 women were taken up to the third floor and assigned rooms. With thirty rooms to a floor and four bunk beds to a room, only 240 people could live on each floor.
Now that everyone was settled in and had their assigned rooms, Ben told them that they would not have to worry about doing anything today and could relax in their rooms or go outside and freely explore the fortress and all the open interior buildings.
As for now, he told them to stay within the fortress walls. Once they were properly outfitted and had more training they could go beyond the walls on patrols.
Ben left them to decide on what they wanted to do with the day and made his way back to the classrooms and training grounds.
Inside the first classroom, Ben opened the classroom lessons interface that only he had access to. This interface displayed purchasable categories that he could buy and add to the lessons of the classroom.
"Haha, it figures everything around here costs money. It wasn't enough that I had to spend money to buy the building now I have to purchase the lessons as well." Ben grumbled under his breath as he opened the Archer category.
He was starting to get low on funds already after building all the expensive military buildings and buying three hundred archers.
He started off buying [Combat Archery Tactics], [Forest Warfare Tactics],
[Ancient Military Formations] that taught famous formations like the [shield wall], [Testudo], and the [infantry square].
Ben also added lesson that explained using the vegetation as camouflage and how to use the terrain to your advantage when moving, defending, or attacking.
Once he had a decent amount of lessons arranged, Ben used the same lessons arrangement in nine more classrooms. This way all three hundred archers could attend classes together without having to wait for a classroom to empty.
'That should be good enough for the Archers for now. I need to recruit a general to lead and train them and I should also set up lessons for the general as well.'
He at first considered turning one of the barrack's upper rooms into the general's room. After some thought Ben decided against having the troop's leader live alongside his soldiers. The leader should have better quarters and live separate from his men.
Ben decided to build a Small House next to the Barracks. He placed one of the classroom system-link chairs into his inventory and brought it over to the generals soon to be home.
There were two bedrooms in the Small House so Ben cleared out the smaller one and placed the system-link chair in it.
With the chair in place, Ben began to load up a few lessons for the general with the help of the system he downloaded them into the chair. There was a list of lessons that included [strategy], [tactics], [maneuvers], and [formations]. Ben even found a [Marine Corps drill instructor] lesson that would give the general knowledge of Marine Corps boot camp training.
The general would learn everything needed to train the troops how to run the obstacle course, rappel, climb, march, hand to hand fighting, physical training, along with all the other modern lessons used to train recruit Marines.
In the recruitment room, Ben went through the interface and chose the [Elite Dual type Soldier]. He chose [General] as the first class type and the [Mounted Knight] as the second class type.
The general was a six feet, five inches tall human and he was built like a bulky muscular NFL linebacker. This would be the man that made his troops charge into battle so Ben was sure to give him an intimidating physique.
He named the human general "Victor" and as he had for the Elven archers, Ben took him over to the market and introduced him to using the interface menu.
When the general was fully clothed they went over to the restaurant. Ben informed him of how many troops he currently had and that they had the day off. The general was told about his new home and the lesson chair he would need to use daily along with using the knowledge he learns from it to physically train the troops.
Ben told him that he wanted him to create a schedule for the troops that would have them spend a couple of hours every day in the classes and out on the training fields.
For now, Ben decided on letting the general take a week or so to absorb the drill instructor lessons before he attempted to train them out on the field and courses.
For the first week or two depending on how quick they could all absorb the information given by the system, they would spend their time in the classrooms.
When they had a rough plan worked out the two of them went to the general's house to show him where he would now be living.
Ben liked the fact that the new recruits were all familiar with modern appliances and plumbing fixtures. This saved him a significant amount of time explaining what everything in the house was used for.
Ben led the general over to the Barracks next and showed him the mess hall, weight training room, laundry room, and the security room. The security room had a row of monitors linked to cameras on each floor and a couple of cameras outside that showed the barracks perimeter. There were also intercoms that allowed you to project your voice throughout the entire Barracks interior and exterior.
Ben used the intercoms to call the new Elven recruits down to the first floor and had them assemble outside.
When the Elves who had stayed behind walked outside the Barracks, Ben spoke to them.
"This is general Victor he is second in command after me. As of tomorrow he will be your leader and will instruct you in your duties and training. When you hear the alarm sound throughout the Barracks in the morning you will come downstairs and assemble outside. Once everyone is assembled outside the general will then take you to the classrooms where you will learn advanced military lessons. He will also show you how to use the classroom system-link chairs. I want a couple of the women to relay this information to the other women when they return and the also for a couple men to also inform the men when they return about everything you have just been told."
Ben looked over the group of about one hundred Elves to see if they had any questions and then dismissed them when he was sure they all understood their orders.
Ben told the general it might be a good idea to make shifts for the recruits to man the security room during the night. The fortress was almost impossible to get into unless a high ranking cultivator or mage happened along. Still, since there was a nice modern security room they should take advantage of it just to be on the safe side. It was also suggested to have a couple archers stationed on the towers around the fortress during the day. If they spotted any trouble they could run back to the Barracks and report it.
The general was then dismissed to go and familiarize himself with the system-link chair.
Ben walked over to the Pharmacist and removed the pills he had bought in Goldcrest from his inventory and began to place them into the pill decoder one at a time.
There were nine pills in total and even though they were of poor quality more than likely due to insufficient talent by the pharmacist. Just like cultivation and magic, Ben figured that pill cultivation was still in its infancy and these pills were made by a tedious process of tossing ingredients together until something useful was created.
When the pills were all scanned he found out that his assumption was right on. A good portion of the ingredients used in the pills he bought was not even needed.
The problem was that whoever made the pills had come across a recipe that made a useful pill would be unsure of which were the true active ingredients and would continue to use the previously used spirit plants and herbs to recreate the pills.
While the last pill was still scanning Ben left the fort and went down into the valley to the Spirit Farm to also scan the spirit plants, herbs, and fruits he had bought. He began to grow them once they were all entered into the farm's database for future use.
On the way back into the fortress he stopped to take a good look at the work that his followers had done while he was away. The road that now led up to the gatehouse looked like a giant motorcycle stunt ramp now.
There was a narrow road that inclined at about 45 degrees leading to the gatehouse with sheer cliffs on each side that dropped down around forty feet to the valley floor.
You could drive two carts side by side up it or have around eight men walk up shoulder to shoulder. Compared to before the inclined road was more defendable and would limit the enemy's numbers that could attempt to attack the Gatehouse.
Even if they made it up the narrow inclined road there was still a gap between the Gatehouse and road that could only be crossed when the drawbridge was lowered.
Ben made time to talk with everyone who had just shown up to begin working on the road and was told they should be done working on it within a week.
Many of the former slaves questioned him about the steel tools he had provided for them. These people had always worked with bronze or if they were lucky iron tools and had to gingerly use them so as not to bend and warp the soft metal tools. These new steel tools though could take any type of punishment and allowed them to work quicker and more precise than before.
Ben attempted to explain the basics of folding metals and metallurgy, but most of it went over their heads. He just left it as they were designed to be much harder than other metals.
He said goodbye to them all for now and returned to the Pharmacist. Ben found from the nine pills he scanned he could reproduce two of them with the current ingredients he was growing.
There was a body enhancing pill that seemed to increase strength. Without any side effects, it could be taken once every few weeks to continuously improve your body.
Flourishing Domination: This is a low-grade muscle growth pill. It can increase the strength of a regular person over time. This pill is not effective for cultivators above stage three.
The system explained it would not be of much use to Ben due to the low potency, so he decided he would give them to his soldiers to help with their training and possibly sell them in his store.
The other pill that he could make was useful to him. It was a Mana recovery pill and it would help him regenerate Mana at about twice the speed he could now.
Mana Infusion: This is a high-grade mana recovery pill. It can replenish large amounts of mana in a short amount of time.
He had the Pharmacist begin production on these two pills and saved the recipes of the others for when he found the proper plants and herbs to make them.
'Now I need to design military uniforms, and training clothes. I need to also decide if I want to make battle fatigues in the Earth-style with camouflage or go with a uniform like those worn here by the natives? I plan to outfit them with armor soon so the armor and uniforms should match so as to not look like they are a bunch of half-ass mercenaries.' Ben contemplated as he walked toward the Tailor structure.