Chương 69: Chapter 69
Ben walked over to where he had built his followers homes and built ten more small homes.
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[Small House]:
[2 bedrooms]: double bed, nightstands, lamps, closets
[Kitchen]: trash disposal unit, electric stove-top oven, hot/cold running sink, electric fridge, cabinets, ceiling light.
[Bathroom]: flushing toilet, hot/cold running sink, bathtub, shower, mirror, towel closet, ceiling light.
[Living room]: sofa, coffee table, end tables, reading chair, ceiling light.
[Dining Room]: dining table, four chairs, dining hutch, ceiling light.
[Laundry Room]: electric washer machine, electric dryer, linen closet, ceiling light.
[A small charming home that provides baseboard electric heating in every room]
[Locked until: built waste management- water treatment- power plant- glass maker- trash incinerator] [requires wood-stone-glass] [costs: 50g]
[Auto_Notice] [The system has advanced a level! System Level 22!]
While the homes were being built Ben went over to Chancellor Rayner's home and found he had just finished his breakfast. Ben explained they would have a few more new people and he needs him to help them get set up.
The two of them walked down past the Barracks to the area where Ben had built the guilds. He opened the build menu and chose the [Equestrian Guild]. Ben and Rayner watched as the Equestrian Guild was built.
[Equestrian]: Increases the stables capabilities. This provides improved health and stamina of your stabled mounts.
[Auto_Notice] [The system has advanced a level! System Level 23!]
Ben opened the Equestrian menu and went to the recruits section. He purchased a [Stable master], a [Head Groom], and eight [Stable Grooms].
Once he had everyone he turned to the stunned Rayner who whispered something along the lines of "As expected of my lord" after he saw these men appear before him.
Ben smiled and said, "I need your help now Chancellor Rayner. I have a few things I need to get ready before I leave with the military for a few days. I need you to take these men over to the Market and show them how to use it. They need the usual stuff cookware, tableware, clothing, footwear, food and anything else I may have forgotten. Once they have everything just behind the row of houses you live in are ten brand new homes have them all pick a house to put their stuff in and then bring them over to the Stables for me."
"Not a problem my lord I will get them settled right away." Chancellor Rayner led the new crew off like he was asked and Ben went over to the Stables.
Outside of the Stables, on the side of the street, Ben began placing out the thirty-eight carriages they would need. He then began placing the carriage tack gear next to each carriage.
Before he had laid out all the gear Rayner had returned with the Stable crew wearing proper clothing.
Ben thanked Rayner and let him leave to go and return to what he had planned for the day. Ben took the new guys through the Stables and showed them how everything worked. Their jobs here would be pretty boring for the most part because the stable took care of everything.
They did not need to feed, groom, or clean up after the horses all Ben wanted them to do was exercise the horses when the knights did not use them and saddle or hitch them up to the carriages when needed.
The Stable Master was obviously the one who would delegate orders around the Stables and the Head Groom was second in charge. The Head Groom would work with the Stable Grooms to take care of the horses and attach them to the carriages or saddle them.
Ben had them lead out a couple horses and he showed them how to attach them to the carriage which they seemed to have already had this knowledge when they were created.
Ben only had to show them once and they were able to perfectly repeat his movements and were even quite skilled. It seemed the recruits from the guilds would be created with skills related to their jobs and the level of that skill would be dependent on the level you purchased for them.
Even though the Stable Grooms were a level one they were still proficient at their job. If Ben had purchased them at Level Five they would be a master at any skill related to the care of horses and the stable.
"We will be leaving with the military in a few hours and we will be taking these carriages. I need you all to attach two horses to each carriage and saddle fifty-one horses. You will all come along with us so and take care of the horses while we are on the road and in Goldcrest City." Ben explained.
"We will get it done right away my lord." The Stable Master said and turned toward the others to get them moving.
Ben had to place out one more carriage and tack gear for the Stable crew to travel along with them before heading off to practice magic.
He had been curious about his Raise and Lower Earth spells so he went into the valley in the direction of the southern forest. Ben was unsure of how his practice would turn out and he didn't want to mess up the flat land around his plateau.
With some practice, he began to learn it was possible to control how much land he could raise or lower. He could pull up a long strip or raise square 2 ft x 2ft columns.
He continued to experiment with sizes and thickness as his levels increased. When he had familiarized himself with the spells he began to attempt to make walls and ramps.
Ben soon had a small dirt-walled in area with ramps to walk up onto the walls. The small dirt castle was about 50 ft x 50 ft with ten foot high walls.
'This is awesome if we ever need to stay out in the wilderness for a while I could build a small fort out of the dirt. I bet I could recruit a few more magi and have them learn Earth magic along with these spells and we could build decent sized defenses right on a battlefield.'
The sun began to set toward the western trees so Ben walked back up into the fortress while reviewing his notices.
[Notice] [Spell: Raise Earth has increased! Apprentice Level: 6!]
[Notice] [Spell: Lower Earth has increased! Apprentice Level: 4!]
The Stable Grooms only had four more carriages to prepare so Ben went over to the Barracks and found Generals Justinus and Victor in the security room. They had their troops already preparing for the trip and some of them were already coming downstairs in full battle gear.
The soldiers were wearing their armor with their backpacks that held their extra clothes and gear. They had compasses, canteens filled with water, and their KABAR knives on their web gear around their waist.
Ben went upstairs to make sure the Fairies were also getting ready and instructed them to join everyone downstairs. They only had to wait a few minutes because everyone had begun packing before Ben even arrived.
The large group assembled outside and Ben hit the room alarms and intercoms to let any stragglers upstairs know it was time to go. When they did a head count and found everyone was present Ben led them over to the Stables.
The Mounted Knights were split into two groups. Fifty would ride horseback and the other fifty would be the coachmen for the carriages. Even if they didn't have any experience with carriages they knew how to use reins to steer a horse and stop a horse.
The twenty female Fairies were also split into two groups of ten and each group was given a carriage near the front and back of the carriage line. The stable crew was given their own carriage and the male and female elves began to break up into ten person groups next to each carriage.
The troops placed their packs on the carriage rooftop racks or in the rear storage compartments and climbed up into the comfortable seats.
Ben climbed up on one of the saddled horses and realized he should have asked the generals how they wanted to travel. He had just assumed they would ride in the carriages.
"General Justinus and General Victor you can travel in the carriages or if you prefer you can ride one of the saddled horses. It will be a long ride so it is your choice."
The two of them chose to ride horseback with Ben and sent two of the knights into the carriages to take their seats. They both wanted to be outside to see what was happening along the road so they could react to danger quicker and lead the troops if needed.
They had a group of fifty fully armored and armed knights riding mounted along with the carriages so Ben didn't think any of the bandit groups would attempt to ambush them.
It would be a nasty surprise when they saw 300 armored Elven archers pour out of the carriages and rain death down on them along with twenty fire and lightning mages.
Ben rode alongside the carriage line and checked to see everyone was loaded along with their gear and then returned to the front of the line.
"I believe we are all ready to go generals. General Justinus let get them on the road." Ben said as he turned toward the generals.
"Let Move out!" General Justinus roared so the entire line could hear.
Ben opened his system menu and raised the two steel plate portcullis and lowered the steel drawbridge so the line wouldn't have to stop at the Gatehouse.
It was a couple minutes before every carriage was moving from having to wait for the carriage in front of them to begin to move.
Ben had them take it slow there was no rush and coachmen needed to get used to the carriages. Another reason was Ben did not have a horseback riding skill. He had ridden a horse for recreation a couple times back on Earth so he knew the basic commands but he was a beginner at best.
He still could remember one of the horses he had ridden once was afraid of everything it came across. If it saw a shiny beer can along the trail it would get spooked if it saw a plastic streamer blowing in the wind it got spooked. Ben couldn't even enjoy riding this horse it wanted to bolt at every damn thing it saw. The entire ride he had to constantly keep holding the reins to one side to keep it in a circle so it wouldn't bolt off back to the barn on him.
Ben found the horse he was on a pleasure to ride even when he crossed the drawbridge and you could see a forty-foot drop on each side and his horse didn't even blink. It happily walked along down the sloped road and past the farms with cattle, chickens, and pigs looking on as they all passed by.
Now that Ben was no longer on foot and he had the carriages behind him he was glad he had extended the road to the edge of the eastern forest.
As they rode along he opened his Build Menu up to the road section and decided he would continue the road from where it ended into the eastern forest. He drew it out so it would stop around one hundred yards from the western Aregard Kingdoms road.
This way the road would remain hidden unless someone decided to walk into the forest at this spot.
Ben wasn't worried about it, because most people were scared to death of this forest and only a few brave people would hunt along the forest perimeter.
By the time the line of carriages made it to the forest the cement road was built and they were able to easily ride through it, unlike the time Ben had to maneuver the cart of slaves around the rocks and vegetation.
Before they made it to the end of the road Ben had an idea. He built a dirt road up to where it almost left the forest. Once it was built he then removed it.
It was just as he had thought the road while being made had cleared everything away. The rocks, bushes, trees, any dips or humps were all flattened out. When the road was removed there was now a bare earth trail clear of obstacles. This bare Earth trail would over time grow grass and weeds on it. It would then be a smooth hidden road for them to travel.
Ben used his map to make sure no one was on the road traveling near them. When he saw the area clear of people he had the Mounted Knights and carriages come out of the treeline and onto the dirt Aregard road to travel east toward Goldcrest.
They began to trot the horses along for three-hour intervals and then walk them until they were rested and could continue to trot again.
It wasn't long before it began to get dark out so Ben found a decent place to pull off the road and had the carriages form a large circle. While they were preparing Ben checked his flashing notification icon.
[Notice] [You have learned a new spell! Mount Riding Level 1!]
[Mount Riding]: You can guide your mount with your knees so that you can use both hands in combat. You can react by hanging alongside your mount and using it as cover. Your balance in the saddle increases allowing you to remain in the saddle. You can quickly mount or dismount with minimal effort. [As the skill level increase you will become a more proficient rider.]
Inside the circle of carriages, they put up tents and made cooking fires. Ben took out five hundred cans of stews, cooked meats, soups, sliced vegetables, and the MRE "Meals Ready To Eat" he had begun producing for the soldiers.
Everything was already pre-cooked so they just had to dump the canned food into pots and heat it over the fires. They all had plenty to eat and sat around talking before heading off to get some sleep.
Most of the troops slept inside the carriages while Ben the generals and the mounted knights who rode horseback slept in the tents encircled by the carriages.
The horses were unhitched and tied to the carriages for the night on rope lines so that they could move around and graze.
Ben sat in his small tent the same one he had bought in Goldcrest when he had first arrived. His map was open so he could occasionally look down for approaching enemies.
'Athena, please mark any people or creatures who come within a mile of our camp and warn me once they are marked. We have a large group and they may be mistaken for a big merchant caravan during the night. I want to have enough time to prepare the troops if anything tries to head our way.'
*Ding!* [I will be sure to remain vigilant and warn you if necessary.]
Ben had already told everyone he would be awake all night and would know if they were going to be attacked so they did not set out any guards to keep watch. With Ben and Athena watching the map even a rabbit entering their area wouldn't go unnoticed.
Ben cultivated until dawn and went to rouse the stable crew. They began to re-hitch the horses to the carriages while the camp woke up and had a quick meal from the food they had left out.
The tents, garbage, uneaten food, and dirty cookware were placed into Ben's inventory after they ate breakfast.
Ben mounted once again now led the carriage line back out onto the road to continue on toward Goldcrest.
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