CC 9: Tenacity ~ Thirty-Four

The once-bustling Village Square now echoed with a solemn emptiness. This was all thanks to the departure of a huge chunk of civilians, and a concerning number of the Legion that had marched away with them. Ostensibly the troops had gone as an escort, but by the way each of them was carrying supplies, it was unlikely they’d be returning. Joe looked at the report he'd been handed, wincing as he saw that their overall population, which had been over ninety thousand, was now below forty.

Of that amount, a surprisingly large contingent of humans had remained; nearly twelve thousand of the original twenty. The Ritualist supposed that he shouldn’t be surprised by this fact, as the humans would be returned to the nearest friendly Town Hall if they were slain. Joe hadn't tested this fact himself, but there was a rumor circulating that if they tried to come back and all available Town Halls had been destroyed, they’d be respawned at a random place on this planet.

Joe was fairly certain that this single continent was larger than the entire surface area of old Earth, so had no interest in testing the random respawn mechanic. Momentarily, he debated on if he should create a shrine or a temple, as that would give them a secondary option for a bind point, but right now he had other tests that were more urgent. “Just another reason to make sure this place stays safe.”

The council had awarded him an honorary title of Master Coordinator, not something that would show up on his character sheet, but simply documentation to show their favor and ensure that he could work, requisition materials and assistance, and act in their name as he secured the defenses of this area. They’d even promised him that he'd be allowed to name the Town if they managed to reach that settlement rank. Joe already had an appropriate name picked out: Novusheim. It had seemed appropriate to incorporate some Dwarvish highlights into the nomenclature, and an easy translation would just be ‘new home’.

Taking a deep breath, he surveyed the damage once again, trying to determine where he needed to start. In just under eight hours, they would have yet another Beast Wave coming at them, and two sets of their walls had been destroyed for hundreds of feet in either direction. That would still give them a bit of time as creatures were forced to march through the preceding ones, but it would allow the monsters to enter in a dense pack instead of spacing them out depending on their speed and ability.

Joe had also checked on his ritual towers, finding that over half of them were currently fully out of mana in their Mana Batteries. The ones that still had a charge were on their last legs, and might only get off two or three attacks before failing.

“All of this is bad, but what’s the most important task for me to focus on right now? The walls, or the towers?” He tapped on the paper, pulling out the map and scanning it to see what sort of gauntlet the monsters would need to run through with the current defenses breached. “Over a quarter of the rituals will be flat-out ignored unless we do something about those walls, and there's a good chance that the outer walls are going to fall in the next few waves thanks to those Salamanders.”

When he'd originally arrived in this world, Joe had been appreciative of the flat landscape and the excellent view that it afforded them. He’d initially assumed that this was just an abnormality, but it appeared that the monsters actively worked to flatten the land across the entirety of the world. The Ritualist wasn't certain if that was just so that the wind could blow more consistently, keeping the world cold and icy, or if they simply hated being obstructed in any way. “I suppose I could get the remaining earth Mages to work on the walls, but that’s just slapping a bandage on a gangrenous wound.”

Deciding on his course of action, Joe hurried to request aid from the material manager, Max. That was likely the most highly-visited location in the entirety of Novusheim, and he was sure that he'd be able to request help and send people out on behalf of the city from there. A small smile touched his lips as he moved, realizing that he'd already begun thinking of this Village as ‘Novusheim’. It flowed off the tongue well for him, and he hoped it would someday be spoken of as a beacon of resilience, a shield against the creeping chill of the world.

Joe chanced a glance upward, as he realized that the actual darkness of the night was likely going to start inhibiting the vision of some of the residents. He resolved to ensure that every time there was a Beast Wave, he would switch the sky barrier to daytime so that they had everything they needed for success.

As soon as he arrived at the warehouse, the Ritualist began paying a few people around him to act as criers, shouting out what he needed, and what skillsets he was looking for. It was a slow process, as everyone was scrambling to do what they felt was necessary, just as he was, but he was able to hire a dozen people to get to the towers, retrieve the Mana Batteries, and return them here for charging.

The most difficult part of that was managing to get it through their minds that pulling the battery out wouldn’t cause either the enchanted core nor the tower itself to explode in their faces. He shook his head at the fact that this was a serious concern for them, thanks to the Dwarven propensity to use raw cores as the energy source for their war golems.

Convincing the Earth Mages to do the work he needed was significantly more difficult. Most of them simply wanted to raise another simple earthen barrier, but Joe decided that he wanted singular blocks of stone, almost like massive, oversized bricks. His plan was to leave small gaps between the stone work, so that if one section was destroyed or collapsed, it wouldn't bring down everything else around it; not to mention being easier to replace. The main objection to this was that this required a multitude of spells, instead of a singular spell with a flat mana expense per side.

Luckily, he had a simple and easy answer for their whining. “Do you want to take the easy route, or do you want to be dead?”

Only a few extra salty Dwarves announced that they were ready to give up the ghost, but for all of their grumbling, they still moved out when the others started walking. Joe could only shake his head and hope that they’d do a proper job, or else he’d have to figure out a way to punish them properly. He even knew how he'd do it, all Joe would need to do was to point them out and loudly announce that their work was sloppy and unprofessional. That would be enough to send them into conniptions, as well as ensuring they never again slacked off simply because it was him giving the orders instead of someone they respected wholeheartedly.

With people moving to do the tasks he needed, not on his behalf, but on behalf of their settlement as a whole, Joe found that he had a small amount of downtime. Knowing that time was the most precious resource of all at the moment, he accessed his spatial codpiece and began flipping through the blueprints contained within it until he finally came upon the one he was looking for.

Joe tentatively pulled it out, looking around carefully to see if anyone was going to pop out of the shadows and attack him simply for its possession. He had a history with this particular structure, and could only hope that being two worlds away from Midgard, specifically the Kingdom of Ardania, would mean that he could create it without increasing his ‘Despised by Humanity’ title, or inviting assassinations.

“The city wall of Ardania…” Joe looked over the complicated blueprint that he'd once upon a time used without knowing that it was considered taboo to do so. It had everything he needed at the moment. Somehow, among all of the gear and items that had been grabbed and brought along during the desperate escape to Jotunheim; no one had thought to visit the ancient records vault of the capital and take the blueprints for their majestic, enchanted, practically impervious walls.

His needs were fairly simple at this moment, at least. “Curved wall, modular, plenty of space for enchanting, and can be set up to easily be removed as the city ranks up and better versions are found. Pretty much perfect.”

Heavily enchanted, costly walls would be much worse for this area, as the enormous monsters in the future would likely have a penchant for smashing through them if they were more intelligent. They had been warned that the larger the monster was, the more intelligent it would be. Even the Rhinosealus had shown signs of excellence in combat in the form of  strategic thinking, but had been limited by its form. Something told Joe that the final boss that would be coming in this assault wouldn't be quite as simple to bring down. “Now all I need to do is determine what material I should make the walls out of, so I can rest easy that the cold won't be able to bring it down on its own. Something that won’t degrade on Jotunheim…”

*Burble!*

“Oh. Yes, thank you, AutoMate. A coffee at this moment would be divine.” Joe took a long sip of the steaming coffee, warming his hands on the excess heat of his mug. As he only had room in his thoughts for the current task at hand, he missed the motions that his coffee elemental was making: tapping on the metal sides of its home. It shook its tiny liquid head in exasperation before unsummoning itself. “I should try making a section of this wall next to my workshop. A little bit of extra durability there, and the ability to easily repair it with a ritual, would probably make that the best location to get started.”

He started selecting sections of the blueprint that he would be using, eliminating all gates, portcullis, and other barriers that would simply cause the encroaching hoard to begin smashing their way in. Deciding to go with a simple twenty-foot section bookended by crenellations that he could place ritual towers on, Joe started drawing up a copy of that on another blueprint, so that he could transfer it over to the ritual for rapid construction. Before he reached the halfway point, the first of the runners came back holding a handful of Mana Batteries.

“I grabbed as many as I could, and I'm still first! That means I get a bonus, right?”

“Absolutely.” A sack of Uncommon cores was dropped on the table between the two of them, and the Dwarf peeked in curiously, eyes flashing with avarice as a sly smile graced the space under her mustache.

“Anytime you need more work done, make sure to call for me. Here's my card, it has a mana signature on it. Just send in a point of your own mana, and it’ll act as a beacon for me to find you. Should work anywhere within the Village.” She held out a fist, lightly wrapping her knuckles against his before sauntering away, holding her reward in front of her to showcase that she'd completed the challenge Joe had given them.

He had five of his Mana Batteries, but Joe looked at them with a hint of despair. “Abyss… I forgot to figure out a recharging station!”