Chapter 17 Day Two, Part 5. Quest.

We reached the village quickly. The racial ability worked well. So it will be necessary to work on improving it. The hamlet was not particularly impressive, with six farms and a population of approximately thirty humans, including the elderly and kids. Moreover, no one in the village could help with herbs or make tools. There was not even a well here! In general, it was a small village where you could only take taxes. So, by this, I puzzled the head of the hamlet. He thought for a long time and looked at the archers behind me, and if they did not exist, I doubt he would have accepted my proposal. I set a weekly tax of only five percent from the farm and a man to work for the needs of the crown. I did not even begin to remember the headman's name, for the village was of no interest to me. Although I lie, it was interesting, but not now, but in two or three weeks. It was not called Wade by chance, because there was a ford on the other side of the river. It was only two or three hours away from my town. We went back along the river, intending to expand the open map. Besides, along the river, we can find many fascinating things. By the way, what is the name of the river? I did not have time to ask a question because we heard the squeak of an animal, and Gal immediately became alert.

- Our ranger? - I asked him quietly.

- Yes, lord, the signal is attention.

- Girls, stay back! Gal and Dirthiel get the bows ready. We are moving forward with a fan.

With bows in hand, we retreated to the side and proceeded to cautiously approach the source of the signal. Soon, I saw our ranger sitting by the thick bushes that stood in our way like a veritable wall. He gave some signs to Gal, so I did not even see half of it, but the bottom line was that something interesting was ahead. I clenched my curiosity into a fist, bent to the ground, crept to the bushes, and quietly parted them.

Before me appeared a vast meadow of tall, waist-high, dark green grass of rich color, on which massive but graceful snow-white horses strode leisurely. No, not horses — unicorns. Four adults and two foals. At some point, one of the stallions seemed to sense us, turned in our direction, tensed himself, and began diligently drawing the air, examining the bushes. I did not hide and wait until they thought we were a threat. Therefore, I parted the branches and walked out of the bushes. The stallion immediately neighed softly, and the foals ran to the adults and hid behind their bodies. The parents, on the other hand, stood in a row, pointing their heads adorned with horns almost half a meter long, obviously preparing for an attack.

- Elen sila lumenn omentielvo! - I spoke the only phrase I knew in Old Elvish, taking off my baldric with weapons. ("The star has shone upon our meeting!" Quenya, Tolkien)

Children of nature, like unicorns, pegasus, and others, are especially fond of this dialect. So now, they changed their minds about attacking, but they did not change their fighting position and squinted at me suspiciously with their eyes. I approached cautiously and slowly reached out my hand to the enormous stallion's head, showing my peaceful intention in every possible way. The animal snorted in warning but still touched his nose to my palm. I closed my eyes and imagined elves with bows riding unicorns, killing predators together, and little foals living in the shelter of the walls in the company of little elves, halflings, and dwarves. I imagined there were always food supplies, not herbs, but delicious grains. Not only that, but I showed them being washed, scraped, and stroked, children braiding ribbons in their manes, and climbing on the powerful back of my interlocutor. The stallion snorted, first approvingly, then plaintively.

And before my eyes appeared a fantasy projected by the magic beast in front of me. First, they showed me how two couples were walking in the field, playing and rubbing their noses, and what warm feelings took hold of them when they were near. I saw how each couple had two wonderful babies and how funny they started to explore the world and turned over with their not-yet-strong legs. And how numerous skeletons and zombies appeared in the meadow. However, adult unicorns crumbled them into dust and decaying parts. How several shadows stole two foals at great speed, and the stooped figure of a necromancer who, as he walked, covered the tracks with a kind of smoky magic.

His unblinking gaze, framed by a horizontal pupil, posed a questioning stare at me.

~ Suggested Quest: 'Dead Menace'. A necromancer is wreaking havoc in this district, kidnapping Unicorn foals. It is necessary to destroy the necromancer and his servants.

Reward: 500 experience. An external dwelling will join you—a meadow with unicorns.

Penalty for failure: No

Optional task: Save the cubs before they die.

Reward: Two baby unicorns will join you

Penalty for failure: The units' output from the meadow with unicorns will be delayed by one week for each dead cub.

Accept: Yes / No ~

It's like I'll give up! I'll destroy this necromancer! I hate those who kidnap children… Damn, this got me hooked… This is a game, and this is a task... Why am I so wound up? I need to accept the task, reassure the unicorns, and move on…. That's hooked, huh!

Already on the way to the castle, I regained my composure and caught up with the blood slave, who was executing the rhythm of the mechanism, which did not respond to our presence. But he nonetheless continued to fulfill his task of reaching the castle with charge. When there were still a few hundred meters to go, the ground shook noticeably, and a loud bang announced that the castle was finally built.

Now, the castle is a kind of three-story keep, only in the majestic, noble elven architecture, with the famous elegance of lines. Some fat cats have bigger cottages, but Rome was not built immediately. Give me time, and I will build up it. But even now, it can be used as a defensive structure. And what the windows are narrow and placed high, so they provide additional angles of fire. It looks both beautiful and functional. The first floor has been converted into storage rooms, the second into the wizard's private quarters, the reception hall, the kitchen, and the servants' rooms, and the third into the heart of the castle, my bedroom and office.

The first thing I did was unload all the resources I had in my bag at the warehouse. There was no free space in my bag at all. Therefore, this has already begun to strain. I immediately checked out what the attachments looked like live. They were presented as side rooms for storing weapons, armor, treasures, and other little things. Nothing special, just the convenience of storage and retrieval. This storage is a practical thing. It shortens building, buying, selling time, and the like. It is not necessary to carry resources somewhere. It is worth activating the function of building or buying and selling, and the consumed resources immediately disappear from the warehouse. So, the construction or purchase is executed as if all items had been delivered. After checking out the warehouse, I went into the wizard's private room and distributed 85% of the mana flow to studying new spells and 15% to accumulating mana. I don't have enough spells right now. Therefore, I need to fix that. At the same time, I went into spell trading, there is such a function, similar to an auction, only for spells. It's a pity that only the spells that the players have set out are sold here. That's a small selection. But at least I bought three life spells and two mind spells. 'Healing', 'Strength', and 'Purification' from the Magic of Life, 'Kindness', and 'Stranger Eyes' from the Magic of the Mind. I immediately felt like, if not a wizard, at least a student. Too bad, there was nothing from the combat spells, although the same healing can be used against the undead, perhaps even with greater efficiency than the Magic of Matter.

I'll take a look in a week. Perhaps something new will appear, and even now, the private quarters of the wizard will open a spell every day. The next step was to examine the room where the Heart of the Castle was located. A space from which I can manage the entire castle and the land under my control. In the center was a table with a model of the palace and its surroundings, where I immediately sat down. The platinum account could allow me to queue up several buildings, provided I had enough materials in the warehouse to construct them. Not only that, but I began the process of laying out the city, taking into consideration the arrangement and location of the structures and altering them as needed. In the end, the layout of the city turned out to be circular, with four primary streets that went off almost straight on four sides. The fifth main street was a ring, which will have to become a canal filled with water and encased in stone. A total of four bridges will be built over the canal. From the inside, the road, which will be a canal in the future, will be adjacent to high stone buildings, on which it will be possible to safely place archers. Closer to the castle, I will place buildings for summoning units, barracks, and strategic production facilities such as a forge, a mages' guild, a library, and the like.

Some buildings are convenient because they serve several purposes at once. In the same Fairy Garden, not only can up to ten fairies be summoned each week. Moreover, there grows tasty and nutritious fruit. It is also aesthetically beautiful, thanks to which I plan to put it opposite the main entrance to the donjon, just behind the broad platform in front of the gate. I've always liked fairies better than their relatives, the pixies. Pixies are comparatively small female beings with wings, measuring no more than thirty centimeters in height. Because of their small stature and ability to fly, they are practically invulnerable to most enemies, but they can't do much damage. Fairies, on the other hand, are much taller, between one and one and a half meters, but they are usually between one hundred and twenty and one hundred and thirty centimeters tall. Charming, slender girls with butterfly wings, which they can hide because they come partly from their bodies and partly from their magic. Fairies possess a hasty and childishly naive disposition, just like pixies. However, they possess greater wisdom, are more disciplined, and possess the potential to evolve into formidable entities. However, it is extremely difficult to develop them to such a quality, given their low health. At least, I never played long enough to evolve them to the maximum level. But the main thing I value them for is that they all have the magic ability. Combined with the books of magic handed to them, they can have full-fledged mages within the first few days of the game. Although this is a substantial investment, I'm prepared to expend funds to establish a worthy army within three weeks. Another important aspect of their activity is that they are the ones who grow the grove, which is the place where the elves are summoned, and they are the ones who can make the resource tree inexhaustible. It is enough to send them to the sawmill, and they begin to extract wood. But only in the sawmill, in any other place, unfortunately, their ability does not work — a game convention. They don't cut down or uproot trees, so the trees stay in place. The girls fly among the trees, sing something, and at the end of the day, two measures of wood appear in the sawmill warehouse. This helps keep the morals among elves high, as extracting wood doesn't employ barbarian methods. Moreover, these cute creatures can grow several live buildings, and although this is not fast, this can be done in parallel with the construction of buildings by the castle itself. In general, they are excellent girls in every way. And their garden has been under construction for half an hour in front of my castle.