novelraw Chapter 238: The first road of Goldenveil’s baronage
Chapter 238: The first road of Goldenveil’s baronage
Soon, under Ethan’s command, Goldenveil sprang into full swing, taking full advantage of the summer weather to get straight to work.
Groups of laborers, escorted by the guard, set out on a massive logging operation, venturing deep into the forest, gathering every log and every stone they could carry back.
Ethan’s goal was simple: eight hundred houses a month.
It would be a hellish task, demanding not only the relentless clearing of the forest but also the dedicated effort of a good portion of Goldenveil’s men and women.
Still, he was confident.
Unfortunately, the plan also meant delaying food production in the fields a bit, even after applying all the bonuses that boosted the harvest by a wide margin.
Luckily, plenty of women had no interest in construction but had hands well-calloused from farming.
With their help, Goldenveil’s harvest fields remained bustling with life, making the most of that enhanced fertility.
Ethan juggled all these development fronts at once, but his real focus rested on a single task: founding a settlement around the iron mine eleven kilometers away.
Naturally, before founding the new town, he would need a road. So he spent much of the morning poring over a carefully drawn map, marking the best route to the mine.
Standing outside the gates of Goldenveil, he took a deep breath, focused his mind, and activated his instant construction ability.
At first, he had considered saving that month’s use to erect the headquarters of Ron’s chamber of commerce, but upon further reflection, he realized there was no need.
His construction improvement skill, which granted him three uses per month, functioned identically to instant construction. The only difference was that it had to be applied to structures already erected.
In other words, all he had to do was build any commercial building, even if it were falling apart, and then use the improvement ability as if he were building something from scratch.
Having made up his mind, Ethan focused first on the road, sparing his men the grueling task of clearing miles of forest by hand.
Narrowing his eyes, he scanned the various available options until one in particular caught his attention.
[Name: Basalt Road with Heating System
Description: A high-level basalt road, created by a wealthy empire of the past to cope with harsh winters. It is ten meters wide and features arrays powered by mana or aura cores, capable of preventing snow accumulation during the winter.
It can withstand loads of up to one hundred tons.
Maintenance cost: 1 mana/aura core per month per hundred kilometers.
Price per km: 500 gold coins]
On the one hand, Ethan was quite pleased with the width and efficiency of the heating system; on the other, his heart sank a little when he saw the price.
Still, he forced himself to confirm the purchase, spending a little extra to replace Goldenveil’s current streets with the new, improved ones as well, connecting everything to the arrays at his mansion.
It would be a heavy expense for now, but the way it would streamline the transport of goods between the two cities made the investment worth every coin.
After all, the new city he planned to create would only mine the iron, refine it and forge it into steel.
Once extracted and refined, the metal would be transported back to Goldenveil.
There, it would be distributed among the city’s now three blacksmith shops, not to mention the guard’s exclusive forge, run by twelve dwarves.
Without further hesitation, he mapped out the route and finalized the purchase.
The guards at his side and those stationed above the gates watched in awe as a beautiful road, paved with dark basalt bricks, joined the streets of Goldenveil with millimeter-perfect precision, extending beyond the gates and plunging deep into the forest.
Centuries-old trees were uprooted with absurd ease, entire trunks toppling and disintegrating into tiny fragments of light that flew toward Ethan, absorbed by his system and converted into refined wood at thirty percent efficiency.
That alone was enough to fill his inventory with a few hundred more tons of refined wood, drawing a wide smile to his face.
A few minutes later, a wide road of carefully aligned bricks stretched out before him, a thin layer of mana glowing softly around its surface.
He stood up and turned to a woman beside him.
It was Elena.
She wore a beautiful white dress that gently hugged the curves of her voluptuous body, and her brown eyes sparkled with awe as she admired the newly built road.
"I’ve seen this ability used so many times, but it never fails to impress me, haha..." Elena let out a soft laugh, shaking her head.
Ethan just smiled, approaching her.
"What do you say we go take a firsthand look at the site of the new settlement? I know you’ve already received many maps for urban planning, but it would be good to see everything with your own eyes before the final decision, don’t you think?"
At his words, Elena nodded in silence, feeling Ethan’s warm hands glide over the smooth silk of her dress until they settled on the curve of her hips.
To her surprise, before she could even react, he gripped her firmly and hoisted her up onto his lap in one fluid motion, the hem of her white dress fluttering against her thighs from the abrupt movement.
"Ah!~"
A sweet, high-pitched squeal slipped from Elena’s lips as one of Ethan’s hands settled firmly beneath her thighs to steady her.
The other coiled around her back and glided forward along her side, the silk of her dress whispering softly beneath his palm, until it came to rest fully on one of her massive, chocolaty tits.
His fingers sank eagerly into the plump flesh, the heavy, full weight of her breast spilling around his fingers as it molded into his palm and pressed snug against his chest.
Cradling her in his arms like a princess, savoring those soft tits against his palm, Ethan let out a satisfied smile.
He would certainly enjoy that brief journey.