Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 73: Foundations of a Capital

Zac and Ogras walked northbound away from the campsite. If they were going to get a compound full of merchant refugees they couldn’t be too close to the future core of operations of the town. As they walked Ogras asked about the shipyard, and when he heard that they had somehow transformed to look like humans he whistled, looking very impressed.

“You didn’t know they could do that?” Zac asked confused.

“Clan Azh’Rezak is a middling family in a D-Grade world. There has never been one of the Creators on our world as far as I know, and all the information about them we have is hearsay. Buying a missive on them from one of the information merchants would have bankrupted us from the expense.” The demon said defensively, looking unhappy that his image of an omniscient veteran of the multi-verse was crackling.

“Well now that they are already hidden, wait here a second. Don’t mention anything about Creators,” Ogras said and rushed into the forest without waiting for a response. Zac stopped confused at current location, hesitantly looking around. It wasn’t a very good spot for an ambush, so he didn’t feel too worried about waiting there. But he did bring out his axe just in case.

After a couple of minutes sounds of footsteps alerted Zac to someone approaching. What made him wary was that it didn’t sound like just one person, but a group. Angered at the betrayal he got ready for a battle as he looked around for a path of escape if needed.

He quickly scaled a tree in order to be able to mount an ambush. His pathways was still a problem so he would have to finish the battle quickly. Ogras should be the strongest demon still alive, and if he managed to quickly execute him then the rest shouldn’t prove too large a problem.

Soon he saw a group of ten demons walking behind Ogras as they approached his location. Soon they were almost beneath him and Zac wordlessly jumped down as he infused his axe with the Dao of Heaviness. With a grunt he swung down toward Ogras’ head, aiming to quickly cleave him in two.

“WHAT THE F-“ Ogras screamed as he desperately brought out a spear from his pouch. Shadows from all around him gathered into it as he swung it upward to block the incoming axe. The collision of the weapons created a huge shockwave at the level of his battle against the other Demon leader, and the group of demons were flung away from the shockwave.

Ogras was slammed into the ground from the impact, but Zac was thrown away as well. The demon had actually managed to defend against his Dao-empowered strike, although not effortlessly, which showed that his title as leader of the demons was not just for show.

Suddenly the demon melded into the ground and appeared twenty meters further away from Zac. He stood up and angrily pointed his spear at him.

“What the fuck are you doing? God damn lunatic!” The demon screamed as he spat out dirt from his mouth.

“It’s better to get the first strike when getting ambushed,” Zac retorted tersely as he approached the demon.

“Ambush? With these fucking civilians?” Ogras shouted as he waved his spear at the other demons. They had managed to scramble to their feet and looked completely shell-shocked.

Zac stopped his approach, and for the first time he took a good look at the group. Quickly he realized that he might have made a mistake. They truly looked like a bunch of weaklings. None of them carried a weapon, and two were actually pretty fat. Every single demon he fought so far had been in tip-top shape, even the mages. Even more importantly, the little demoness he interrogated yesterday was in the group.

She looked like a deer in headlights, ready to bolt into the woods but her legs not listening. As Ogras mentioned she had a pretty comical bulge in her forehead between her horns from where he thwacked her with his axe.

“What’s going on, why did you bring a bunch of people here?” Zac asked a bit embarrassed, but he still didn’t lower his axe. He realized that the last two months made him too primed for battle, but those were also the habits that had kept him alive.

“Damn it, almost shat my pants…” Ogras muttered as he put back the black spear into his pouch. “Crazy natives. These people are representatives of the various departments needed to properly run a city.” He continued as he waved at the group, obviously still quite annoyed. “If you just start throwing out buildings randomly it’s going to look like shit, and problems with things such as infrastructure and sustainable growth will start cropping up as the town grows. These people will help you make a proper town that can be grown all the way into a world capital if needed.”

Zac stared mutely at the demons for a second. They looked back with horror at him, no one daring to move an inch, afraid that he would swing his axe after them as well. Zac inwardly groaned as he had hoped to create a better rapport with the demons now that they were going to work together. But this first impression might have set him back quite a bit in his quest for diplomacy.

“Well. Sorry about that, thought you were here to kill me. I’m Zac,” He awkwardly greeted the group, wondering where his social skills had gone. Had focusing on Strength turned some of his brain cells into more muscles? His greeting got no response as the group mutely stared at him.

“Uh…” Zac glanced at Ogras who rolled his eyes.

“Don’t stare like some country bumpkins! We have work to do,” Ogras snapped, and in the next second he started taking out a wealth of items.

First it was a large mat that covered most of the clearing they were in. Next, he placed a rounded oblong table, large enough to fit everyone present, on it. Next followed chairs, and finally a red canopy covering the whole area from the glaring suns. Clearly the bag in Ogras’ possession was far better compared to those Zac had stolen so far.

Zac hesitantly put his axe back into his pouch and sat down at a solitary chair at one of the short sides. Ogras sat down at one of the two chairs that were the closest to him, and what followed was a discreet but energetic melee for the chairs as far as possible from him.

The small demoness was the loser who could only grit her teeth and take the other chair next to Zac after having been physically bodied away from a more distant chair by one of the fat men. Zac tried to improve the relations by nodding at her, but she stared straight ahead without moving like a zombie.

After everyone sat down Ogras summoned glasses and a few jugs of what smelled like liquor and poured himself a drink. The others poured themselves some as well, but were clearly not as comfortable as their leader. Zac declined the offer, and instead took out one of his canteens of normal water.

“So, now that everyone is settled we can discuss the construction of… uh... what name have you chosen for the town?” Ogras asked as he turned toward Zac.

Zac was completely stumped, as he never bothered about such a detail while struggling for the last month. Now that the incursion was gone and his temporary outpost was turned into a town. He called this place Demon Island in his mind, but he couldn’t name his town that. Maybe something with his name? In case his town got famous and his family heard of it they might come here. Zachary Town? No. Atwood sounded better for a town. Atwoodtown? Atwoodville? Camp Atwood?

“Port Atwood.” He finally said after some hesitation. It had his name and ‘Port’ was a pretty normal addition to coastal cities, so he felt it sounded pretty neat.

“Hm... Ok. The construction of Port Atwood. You have seen the general area already. Remember, it needs to be defensible within 40 days.” Ogras said as he rolled out a parchment. It was a surprisingly detailed map of the general area. It had his camp and the harbor marked, and even the large warehouse was drawn out. After scanning it for a few seconds he knew that it was completely accurate when comparing it to his memories of the area. Of course, the only error was that the details of the harbor were quite indistinct, and nothing was mentioned except the line “shipyard”.

Zac wondered how he could have produced such an accurate map in such short order, but he didn’t want to make a fool of himself in front of so many people, and could only ask later. The conversation was a bit stilted at the beginning, where Ogras had to drag the words out of the craftsmen’s mouths. Zac himself was content to just listen for now, as he realized he had no idea how to build a city.

He had thought that it would be like a strategy game since he possessed the Town Shop. He just bought the buildings and they produced or did whatever they were designed to do. But as the group started discussing everything from plumbing, to district allocation, to traffic flows and congestion points he started to zone out.

Between the hard liquor and the fact that Zac kept mostly quiet the demons started to get more and more animated as they discussed and debated various points, each individual clearly convinced that their specific field was the most important for a burgeoning town’s success. Soon an early blueprint for Port Atwood was starting to take shape, with Ogras pushing things forward.

The general idea for the beginning was to create four Zones. The inner Zone was to be a walled-off area belonging to Zac. It would also encircle the Shipyard, with walls going down to the water a few hundred meters to both sides of it. Another wall would be erected between Zac’s camp and the shipyard. Ogras explained it was to protect the Lord’s manor against naval attacks, but Zac knew it rather was to keep the Creators separated.

Outside the core area three Zones would be established. The first was on the southwest side of the core, expanding alongside the wall all the way down to the water. It would be the trade zone where merchants and craftsmen had their headquarters.

On the other side of the core zone would the military encampment be. Zac was confused as he didn’t have an army, but let them go ahead with the plans anyway. Having an army would be convenient, as that meant he wouldn’t have to spend as much on defensive arrays. And if he became a real Lord there actually might be a time when he had a proper army.

The central area would be residential, with some businesses such as bars, and bathhouses peppered in, and it would be connected with the mercantile zone with a large square. Most space around the square was earmarked for various key institutions, such as an auction house and a bank, which Zac didn’t qualify to own yet.

They even allocated a large space for an academy. After asking he realized it wasn’t like a school on the old earth, but rather to help the students to get a class they wished for and guide them with their cultivation. This was something very interesting to Zac who had just fumbled around when he got his class choices.

He was already getting bored about the discussion about the town construction, and set his eye on the demon who appeared to represent the field of education.