128 I Feel Like A King

Dom arrived at the Town Hall, feeling slightly intoxicated from the small amount of wine that he had drank, but at the starting jolly part of the intoxication and not further down the line. The ancient wine was much stronger, even when watered down, to what they had in modern times and Dom did not have much experience with drinking.

Sat outside the Town Hall was Meritamen who saw sat on the Stone Benches eating some fruit, looking in to the small pond which now had some Red Carp and lily pads in that had been transported from the small lake beside the Ancient Underground City. The pond was thriving and it brought a lot of life to the centre of Riverside.

"I think we should plant some plants and trees." Meritamen commented as she looked up at Dom as he arrived, "It would make the town more beautiful and appealing to the eyes."

"One step at a time." Dom said as he sat beside her. "Not that I disagree, it would be a nice addition."

"Have you been drinking?" Meritamen said, as she leant in very close to Dom's face, her mouth practically touching Dom's.

"A Little." Dom replied, gulping as he she was there. She leant back and laughed, a large smile on her face.

"We have Wine and you haven't shared it!" She said in fake hurt, "Where did you get it?"

"The Tavern that we have just spawned." Dom said, wondering if he was about to be in trouble.

"Amazing!" She replied excitedly, clapping her hands. "I shall be taking Tomoe and Tomyris this evening as a reward for all of their hard work, you men are too serious and us ladies need some fun."

Dom rolled his eyes at her comment, realising that he had been duped by her. He was more than happy for his Heroes to enjoy themselves, hoping it would increase their happiness and loyalty levels.

"I need to head inside, I have some more cubes to use." He stated, standing up and preparing himself to walk inside.

"More?" Meritamen questioned, "You seem to have a busy day ahead of you, I hope you are not too tired after last night."

"Nothing happened!" Dom protested as he walked off and headed inside, listening to Meritamen laugh behind him.

He soon reached his chest and saw that inside was a Wooden Box, as well as a Green Cube, Orange Cube and Blue Cube. Dom first grabbed the three cubes and checked their information.

[Ranking Reward - Green Cube of Choice - Green Cube that will give you a selection of options depending on the Towns needs.]

[Ranking Reward - Blue Cube - Elite Military Spawner, that will spawn an Elite Unit from one of your Warriors Halls of choice]

[Ranking Reward - Orange Cube - Special Hero Spawner - Will give you an opportunity to Spawn an Hero, via a minor special quest]

Dom was expecting the Green Cube and the Blue Cube comments, yet the Orange Cube information shocked him. Normally an Orange Cube would allow him to choose a Domestic or Military Hero and give him a couple of questions that would direct him to the Hero that would spawn, however this time he had a special quest due to it being from the Ranking Rewards, and he wondered what that quest and situation would lead him to.

He decided to open the Wooden Box, before heading downstairs and using the Cubes. He hoped that the special quest would take him most of the day so he didn't need to train with Pullo, he much preferred games where he could gain stats through skills and levelling up, rather than having to manually train to see any improvements.

He took out the Wooden Box, that was almost as large as his chest, it seemingly grew as he pulled it out and placed it on the bottom of his bed. He unlocked the small catch on the front and lifted it open. In side he saw the armour that he had been rewarded from the World Conquest Online Player Rankings. The armour was jet black, with a silver trim that adorned the different pieces on the armour. The armour was segmented in to different sections and Dom realised that it would take quite a bit of work to put it all on alone.

He quickly headed downstairs and shouted for one of the Cooks that was downstairs to head outside and grab Meritamen, telling her that Dom needed her for something. The Cook laughed, believing that Dom wanted his wife for some unsavoury reasons, but little did they know it was just to put on his new armour that he was excited about.

Dom headed back upstairs and pulled out the rest of the armour pieces, including shoulder guards, full upper arm greaves, thin black wrist guards, a black belt with a silver Sabre Tooth Tiger face as the buckle, armoured boots that covered his feet up to his knees, black pants and an armoured skirt that was flexible but would cover his his thighs. All together Dom was shocked and impressed by the quality of the armour and the amount he had received, he knew that once he wore it he would look like a real Warrior. At the bottom of the box was a large package that was wrapped in red fabric, which Dom pulled out and slowly opened, it revealed a black helmet, with silver wings and a red horse tail that flowed down the back of it.

"You called for me?" Meritamen said with a giggle as she saw that Dom was stood their in just his Toga and not his light armour as usual, the black helmet still in his hands as he gazed at it in awe.

"Yes! Please help me try this on!" Dom replied excitedly.

"I thought you finally wanted to spend some time with me alone?" Meritamen moaned, before heading over and looking down at the armour that was on the bed. "Oh wow, this looks impressive."

"Doesn't it!" Dom exclaimed, "Help me out!"

Meritamen did, and after a few minutes Dom was fully dressed in his armour. He stood in front of the mirror and looked at himself, clad in a full set of black armour with silver trim. The Sabre Tooth Tiger buckle and his Red Horse tailed helmet both being the stand out pieces of his suit. He wanted to grab his Slaying Spear and pose, but Meritamen stopped him.

"One more thing." Meritamen said, grabbing the red fabric that the helmet had been in, pulling it behind him and clicking it in to the silver shoulder pieces that he had, revealing a long flowing red cape. She took a step back and asked him to turn and face her. "You look like a King."

"I feel like a King." He replied, genuinely excited by how light and thick the armour was. He felt like he didn't want to fight in it in case it got damaged. He could imagine himself in the middle of a battlefield of thousands of people, commanding troops in his armour, directing the flow of the battle with his Slaying Spear in hand and looking like a real Hero in the middle of it. He could see Andrew and Kai at his sides, whilst Alice lead a charge on his flanks with some battle crazed Warriors.

"Are you going to continue your tasks in this, or return to your lighter armour?" Meritamen asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"Erm, I should probably put on something lighter." Dom lamented, the armour was light and easy to move in, but the heat was hot outside and he didn't know how long he would be stood around. He did however decide that he would put it back on before he used the Orange Cube.

Dom had left the Town Centre and Meritamen, who was now putting together his armour on a manakin in his room so that it was easy to put on in future. He had also told her not to tell anyone yet so it could be a surprise for later, but if she wanted to grab one of the lead Blacksmiths in secret to look it over then that was ok. He hoped they could recreate the armour, which was slightly more advanced than that of the Forbidden Guards, and role something similar out to their forces if they had the right materials.

"System, please show the Green Cube choices." Dom requested.

[Rolling for Choices....Choices Selected]

[Arena - A place for Duels and Battles to take place for the entertainment of the Citizenry

Temple - A place for Worship of Gods and Ancestors

Bathhouse - A place to clean your bodies, relax and socialise]

Dom was impressed by the options, and would like all three of them if possible. He decided that what ever he didn't choose today he would prioritise getting the schematics for as they could all have a big impact on the growth of Riverside as a location and a Kingdom. The Arena would be a great place for entertainment, as the only current entertainment for the nearly two thousand Citizens was the newly spawned Tavern, however an Arena would mean having to have contenders and he didn't want to risk his current forces. He would speak to Crixus the Town Guard when he had chance and see what his thoughts were on opening an Arena in the future.

A Temple would be a good option as well, a place for people to worship their Gods or Ancestors. Dom himself didn't have a particular faith but supported the opinions of others, especially his Warriors who were all from very different cultures. Ideally though, if he built one Temple, he would soon need to build another, and then another, for the many different faiths that people had.

His final choice was the Bathhouse, which would allow people to have a separate place to bathe. Currently everyone was using the River, which was common in the Ancient times, but a separate Bathhouse would increase the cleanliness and reduce the risk of disease. It was also a great place to socialise and was a staple of many ancient civilisations in both the Western and Eastern sides of the globe.

"Bathhouse." Dom replied, before selecting the Merchant Area as the place to place it. Dom wondered how the water would travel to it as he hadn't yet installed any form of water management system yet, bar what had been given from the Sanitation Office. Dom realised that they would need to build some form of Aqueduct to move the water around and he added it to his ever growing list of things for Sostratus to work on.

There was a slight shake as a large grand building appeared in the Merchant District, slightly to the east of it. The grand building had a large dome on the top and was made from white stone, as well as pillared entranceway that looked like it had come straight out of an Ancient textbook of early Rome or Greece.

He wanted to head to the Bathhouse and explore it, but decided against it for now, knowing that as soon as he headed there he would be accosted by someone and end up wasting his afternoon in there. Suddenly the idea sounded quite good as he could avoid training with Pullo for a while.

"One down, two to go." Dom mumbled as he held the Blue and Orange Cubes in his hand, turning and heading towards the Military district with his guards in tow. "Then a visit to the Bathhouse."