BlackRockcity

Chapter 12 - Blackrock City.

The castle square that was once a big open space was now filled with small huts made for the families that were sheltered here, the gate was now permanently open, not by choice after all it will take some time to rebuild the iron gate but that doesn't matter the process of cleaning the city was already ongoing, the city walls made from basalt were too thin to withstand the beasts so it was in the process of being torn down, the material would be used to make a thicker wall, smaller in size but would increase our living space by a lot after the people became a little stronger we would be able to get the quarry back running to build a truly imposing city! people were quick to adapt themselves, masons helping to build houses and the new walls and blacksmiths learning under Alfred's care, the amount of metal the castle had wasn't a lot but there were at least 2000 pikes and swords, that would be reforged by Alfred to make something effective against the beast, new bolts we being made and some reforged, the amount of grains on the castle's granary was more than enought for all the 1200 peasents taht were inside the castle, i got up from my chair and went outside, seeing the bustling place with a lot of activity made me smile, there were of course some eyes that looked at me with scorn and the likes but there's always bad apples in the midst of an orchad, you just need to throw them out...

A group of people led by a priest quickly approached me, they were of course the ones that looked at me with scorn if Christianity was already bad when it comes to patriarchy, this worlds religion was twice as worse when it comes to the ruling class as apparently, a Queen was already a taboo as their god doesn't want women to rule, of course, the legend was different but the only guy that could read the language that it was written on was the supposed pope so there's nothing I can do about that.

"So what do you want priest?"

"God will not stand for this! a woman ruling shall not happen!" He spoke loudly but most people were busy with their work to care about that, was the church not as popular in this world as in mine, or is this just a thing in Blackrock city?

"Priest do you really think that matters, a new age on this world is coming, soon enough we will have real gods walking among us, with the power to cut mountains and seas, only the powerful will have the right to rule it."

"And what makes you a woman think that you will have the power to rule?!" He spoke loudly and people finally started to take notice, I smiled at him.

"What makes me think...? how about this?" I raised my arm and cold air started to spread, ice condensed floating around as icicles rose from the ground around him, centimeters from impaling them, a success I smiled to myself.

[You developed a Spell (Ice Spike (Tier 1) Lv.1 - Raises an ice spike from the frozen ground.]

The sweat on their skin freezing solid as their bodies trembled both in terror and cold, putting my hands down the ice quickly melted as it was being supported by my Qi but this was interesting, the way to do a spell, you just need to understand the world, the ice spike magic I made was by condensing the moisture in the air very fast, after using that spell the air was drier than before, I guess next time it will be better to make the spikes hollow to save on Qi and moisture unless I start walking around with a water bag.

"So will you keep questioning my right to rule?"

"N-no..." he said while taking a deep breath and a step back and I smiled, looking around I noticed the fear on the eyes of a lot of people, this will be a problem, then an idea formed on my head.

"As you can see the world is changing, monsters are showing up and people like me but that doesn't mean you all can't have this power too, there's no such thing as a contract, this is not power from some devil, with enough knowledge and training you can achieve anything!" I spoke out loud, most of the people looked incredulously at me without a hint of belief.

"R-Really can we have that power too?"

"Not this one, every person has a unique power, you see by my disciples, everybody here knows Daimos he is the son of the blacksmith Alfred after training with me for only 5 months he is now able to wield fire at will," I answered the little girl's question and someone in the back.

"Yeah, I have seen that! I followed after the extermination group and saw Daimos swinging a big hammer covered in flames, his swings were so powerful that made the earthquake!"

"Really?! that useless Daimos is that powerful now?! if he can do it I can too!" Another one spoke, thank god that those four were completely useless people in the village it's the perfect excuse to make people's morale higher!

"Mistress, how can we become powerful like them!?" A brown-haired girl approached me and I smiled.

"The Academy is already being built, there you yourself or your children can be enrolled to learn."

"Acaddemy? whats an Acaddemy?"

"A place to learn, I will be one of the masters and will help people learn the secrets to this power and of course how to write and read too."

"Will we have to pay it like those tutors the nobles use?"

"No, as I said before knowledge is power, and the more knowledge the people have the more power they will have! so The academy will be sponsored by me, the only thing I ask of you all is to help me protect these lands!" I made a humble bow and secretly looked at the people's faces, the priest's face was black but most of the peasants were looking at me with worship.

"Now if you excuse me I need to go check on how the new wall project is going." I made my way through the ground who quickly parted to make way for me and soon enough I was outside of the castle's broken gate, looking at the still knee-high wall that was being carefully built by a group of old men who quickly took notice of me when I approached them.

"Oh, young miss, you are here." The old man spoke with a smile on his face and I nodded.

"How is everything going?"

"It's going well, we started making the mortar just now and the foundation was laid on the left side but the right side is still in progress, recently we have been feeling a lot stronger than before, it's like the more we work the stronger our bodies get, old man luke over there was even able to lift a 90kg basalt brick all by himself!" The old man with a bald head lifted his chin in pride making me chuckle.

"good this wall is important it will keep everyone safe after the wall is build I will thrust in yall to make the houses for the people, here's how it's going to be." I pulled a parchment that I had drawn earlier, it was a blueprint for the houses, considering the little space we had I decided to make most of the houses doubled, basically, the bottom floor was a house and the upper was another for another family to live on.

"W-What a building drawing but it will be a little complicated to build the houses like this...?"

"Don't worry, the idea is to make the bottom house out of stone and bricks while the upper one will be made of wood."

"But if a storm hit won't the upper house collapse?"

"That's where the important part is, the houses will use each other for support so well need to build the houses interconnected to make it stronger."

"I understand so if a big storm hits then the houses will have each other as support to not fly away! what an interesting idea!" The old man spoke and I smiled.

"But what are these trenches for?" He pointed at the sewer system I added to the drawing.

"This will be the new sewer system that will be directly connected true to the entire city."

"Sewers? like the ones in the capital I don't think it's necessary though?"

"of course it's necessary, don't you know that living in an unclean environment will cause a person to fall sick much more and some very deadly plages can live in human waste!"

"D-Diseases live in human waste?! that's the first time I heard about that..." He seemed surprised and I don't blame him.

"yes, take the capital, for example, the air is clean and there's a complete sewer system there because of that waste is quickly removed from the city and doesn't accumulate, the city is always clean because of that have you ever heard of a plage in the capital?"

"No, I haven't!" he seemed to be enlightened when I spoke that and he shook his head in agreement.

"Now anyways I want you and the others to go to the Academy that is being built by my people when it's done."

"hump, what can I learn there, writing and reading won't help me to build a house." He spoke stubbornly and I just shook my head but by his tone, I was sure he would show up there when it was open, I quickly ran towards the construction site, this was going to be the center of all, the place where I will change this world. I looked at my workers doing their job because they were fighters their bodies were a lot stronger than that of the peasants so the construction would be done in about a day, then it was to wait for the cement to set and dry, so in about 2 days the academy would be open, I decided to build the place like a cathedral with 3 floors, the bottom ones would have the classrooms and the training grounds, the upper floors would be staff rooms and the third for being the smallest would be my office as the director of the Academy.

"Master, almost everything is complete!" Daimos said as he approached while carrying a block of stone on his arms at least twice his size.

"good, take a group and go in the forest later, bring as much wood as you can, make sure to remove the trunk from the ground to turn the area into farmable land, we'll use the wood for furniture."

"Yes!" He spoke as he moved away from working around, now there was just one last thing for me to do, I quickly made my way to the smithy that was now being used by the blacksmiths, ignoring their gazes I entered the back that I was using as my personal smithy, on top of the anvil was a newly created ingot of Invar, a metal with low expansion coefficient based on temperature, I unsheeted Kori and looked at the blade, cracks could be seen on it, I was too strong for her already...

"You served me well even though it wasn't for long..." I spoke as I used the hammer to shatter the blade, trowing the invar, bio-metal, and the fragments of kori in the crucible I started smelting it, pouring it onto a mold a big ingot was cast, with a bluish shine to it, I closed my eyes and prayed for the soul of that blade as I took the hammer and focused, started to forge a new weapon for me, something heavier and more efficient with my superhuman strength, the shaft, the blade, and the spike after six hours it was done...

[You created a masterpiece, please name it.]

"From now own, you will get a new body Shin no Kori (True Ice)" I smiled as The Pole Axe shined with a dim light and a frost-like aura covered the smithy, the flames of the forge were instantly extinguished and I felt like the weapon was breathing.

[Your weapon Inherited Kori's Soul.]

[Your Passion gave birth to a living weapon (Shin no Kori)]

Holding onto the ax's shaft I could feel its breath and a form of basic thought the entire weapon was 2 meters long with a 50cm ax blade and a 15cm spear tip atop of it, the entire weight of the weapon was easily reached 100kg with most of it concentrated at the tip, closing my eyes for a second I smiled.

[Your masterpiece caught the attention of Vulcano the god of the forge!]

[You were awarded the title (Vulcano's recognition) your blacksmithing level was increased by 4]

Images and memories flowed into the mind techniques I never saw before in my life.

[Your skill Blacksmithing became advanced Lv.1]

My eyes shined and I picked a chisel by the side, pulling a piece of armor I had crafted before I heated and carved lines on it, connecting in spirals and straight lines converging in a single symbol, melting biometal I quickly pouted into the carved slots, focusing my Qi into the metal as it filled the carved lines.

[You successfully enchanted (Bio-Steel Armor) With a Defense glyph increasing overall defense by 200%]

I looked at my Qi pool and smiled tiredly, just this simple enchantment took a total of 200 Qi points leaving me with 41, this was absurd but even more absurd was the effect, I was pretty sure that enchanting True Ice with my current Qi pool was impossible, but I liked that, it means that there so much for me to improve, so much for me to still learn, this world is a lot wider than I thought it was... I wasn't able to control my face as I smiled the rest of the way home.