After Siegfried and Cisse’s brawl, the month-long military training concluded with Arthur permitting everyone to leave Mount Militum and spend time with their friends and families.

The break would last three days before they will all be called upon again for an expedition into the nearby forest to raise their tiers and abilities.

Nevertheless, after stepping outside of Mount Militum, everyone found themselves standing large foyer supported by rows of columns. After a momentary pause, everyone realized that the Nerve Center of Mount Militum had finally been built. However, at the moment, it lacked a layout. As for why? The only one who could make a decision about it was training within the mountain.

Regardless, bidding everyone a farewell, Arthur slowly flew into the air. As he gained altitude, gentle streams of air slipped past his head, ruffling his hair and clothes. He also took this time to survey the changes to Avalon while he was within Mount Militum.

Over the month, Avalon had gone through a major transformation.

From the air, Avalon looked like a ring. The Village Manor to the academic zone acted as the jewel while the structures that were encroaching the surroundings of Lake Avalon made up the band.

Though activity was minimal at this time night, the soft glow of runic street lights still shined along newly made roads as some people carried out nightly strolls.

From what Arthur could see, over the month, the main road had been built between the mountains and the lake with axillary roads branching off. And to create a natural aesthetic, there were even fruit trees planted in the middle section of the roads.

There were also more houses than there before, with clusters of them sectioned into blocks. Along with the recently constructed homes, new structures had also been finished and added. In the academic zone, a primary and secondary school building had been completed, with primary school housing children ages five to ten, and the secondary ages ten to fifteen.

As to how Cal could teach so many different classes in two different buildings. It was because the small cubes that made up his body could be separated and remotely controlled. It was also why Arthur put him in charge of teaching and building a template to cultivate talents and passions.

Nevertheless, other than those buildings, the Nerve Center of each of the four resource mountain were also built. They were semi-circular in shape and made of a kind of smooth stone. Strong columns lined their outer ring, supporting the entirety of the structure. Focussing in, Arthur could even see delicate little carvings depicting the symbolic art of their respective mountains.

Moving on from the nerve centers, another structure caught Arthur’s attention, it was a star-shaped building.

“Jarvis, you there?”

“At your service, sir.”

“What is this?” Asked Arthur as mentally linked what he saw to Jarvis.

“It was an idea by Orias. It houses all of the main services and needs of the people. Each prong houses a category of those needs. Each area holds services set for crafts, medicine, grocery, eatery/entertainment, and miscellaneous.”

“A centralized market?”

“Precisely. Though it’s not fully functional yet, the available services are already sufficient. From I can project, it holds a lot of potentials.”

Arthur nodded in agreement. “It might be a good idea to start a centralized bank. It’s never too early to start building the foundations of a strong economy.”

“Senior Myrddin is already ahead of you on that one, sir. There is an auxiliary treasury under construction underneath the Village Hall, whereas I am setting up the main treasury in Mount Prometheus.”

“How long until completion?”

“Four days for both. The hall needs more steel, and I need to gather more energy.”

Arthur mentally nodded as he thought about the wealth he had within the Ring of the Twelve. Nonetheless, It was at this time that Arthur finally reached the Village Manor.

Entering through its doors, a soft burst of light and warmth greeted Arthur, followed by chatter.

Courtesy of Arthur taking his time to reach the Manor, Luna and Aegon had already made their way over and were happily chatting with Cal.

From the snippets Arthur could gather, Cal was recounting his experience teaching. And from his tone and pitch, it seemed that he’d found a new passion.

Nevertheless, leaving them to their conversation, Arthur made his way over to his study to review the various reports that had been left unread over the month.

Walking through the door, a thick stack of papers sat patiently on Arthur’s desk. ‘This should be fun …’

Seated, Arthur took a deep breath before thoroughly reading the reports.

After a couple of hours, Arthur finished the accounts of the things that had happened with Avalon this month.

The first thing of note was that the talent search and placement was going quite well. Those who were suited for specific manual jobs were guided moved to that area (mining, farming, herbology, etc.), and for new areas, they were trained and put in charge of them (baking, cooking, singing, etc.). And thus, each of the resource mountains lost and gained new faces. As for those who were talented in managerial roles, they were still under Jarvis’ training simulations.

For the reports of the resource mountains, starting with Mount Metallum, from the accounts of George and Sophronicus, there was currently a surplus supply of iron, copper, limestone, and marble. Due to this, they were currently storing them for probable use in the future. However, since Mount Metallum’s Nerve Center could only store so much, their current focus was training their people and researching ways to mine more efficiently and effectively. And other than that, there was nothing else of note.

For Mount Villam, Norman simply summed up enlarging the grain farm, creating a berry yard for the energy berries and setting up a few orchards. He also noted that for livestock in the mountain, time seemed to pass for them significantly faster, allowing them to live full lives while maintaining their youthful bodies. And after their time ran out, they peaceful laid on the ground in permanent rest.

For Mount Herba, Elizabeth has also set up a berry yard for the energy berries along with some other herbs from the area. According to her reports, she had finally grasped the makeup of the energy berries and had begun to make modifications to them with varying effects. A modification that caught Arthur’s eye was a reduction of the effects to restore only five percent of a person’s energy.

‘This could be sold. Selling it to foreign factions will turn it into a catalyst and fuel for their aggression towards one another. After all, according to Myrddin, energy restoration, things are rare….Hmm, I wonder if Elizabeth can modify this so that the more a person consumes, the less effective it becomes or possibly creates a build-up of toxicity.’

Arthur smiled.’ Is this what they call softening the meat so it can be eaten.’

It is said that ingrained in every sovereign is the drive to hold the entirety of the realm in their hands. And from Arthur’s train of thoughts, it was clear that his ambitions were in conjunction with this drive.

Nevertheless, the next summary of the reports was by Marie. After about a month of research, they finally perfected the communication system for the identification cards, and the production had passed to Tubal’s team. And since that was concluded, she was now leading their lab’s research towards learning and understanding more runes.

Along with those reports, there were a few others. One was from Tubal, informing his current progress in steel making and Orias informing him of the current population’s talents and their distribution. And with those summaries, the development of Avalon over the month.

Current Village Stats:

[Village Name: Avalon]

[Village Chief: Arthur]

[Village Grade: 2]

[Village Population: 432]

[Civil Index: 2.7 -> 4.3]

- Based on (Village) Growth and Political Prowess

[Millitary Index: 0.03 -> 2.2]

- Based on Internal Security and Strength of military

[Industrial Index: 0.07 -> 1.5]

- Based on Production and Resource allocation

[Economic Index: 0.02 -> 1.1]

- Based on Monetary circulation and Trade.

Village Upgrade Requirements:

[Grade: 3]

Population: 500

Village Properties:

Five Pillar of Civilization: …. / Loyalty Mark (II)

Closing the village’s status. Arthur took a deep breath. ‘Everyone has been working hard. I should do something to reward them.’

With a wave of his, a journal appeared before Arthur. ‘It has been a while. I should make it a habit of reading this more often.’

<>

Journal Entry 3

Day 12

Budding farm? Trampled. Food? Stolen. Sleep? Nonexistent. State of mind? HeHe.

Goblins, Goblins, Goblins. Little green slimeballs. What moronic duo of Hobgoblins thought it was a great idea to artificially clone themselves for no other reason than free labor. And worse, fail at it so badly that they created something more bestial than intelligent. And on top of it, give them ridiculous reproductive abilities.

Sigh…time for a culling.

<>

Just as Arthur reached the end of that excerpt, he felt a mental nudge.

“What is it, Jarvis?”

“It’s 4 A.M, sir.”

“Oh.”

.

.

[Historical Tidbit 1: Norman Ernest Borlaug was an American agricultural scientist and humanitarian. He is considered by some to be the “father of modern agriculture” and the father of the green revolution. He won the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his life’s work.]

[Historical Tidbit 2: Elizabeth Gooking Greenleaf was the first female apothecary in the Thirteen Colonies. She is considered to be the first female pharmacist in the United States]

[Historical Tidbit 3: George Hearst was an American businessman, miner, and politician. After growing up on a small farm in Missouri, he founded many mining operations and is known for developing and expanding the Homestake Mine in the late 1870s in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Also considered the father of Mining.]

[ Historical Tidbit 4: Sophroniscus was by trade a stonemason or sculptor. And is better known as the father of Socrates.]