In the center of the horseshoe driveway, Ben used the fountain tool to create a large three-tiered fountain with the dragon from his crest raising its head toward the sky to blast out a stream of water that flew into the air about twenty feet before it fell back down into the fountains top tier. The surrounding air was filled with a cool mist and the sound of cascading water gave the area a tranquil atmosphere.
Happy with the fountain and no longer worried about standing out he moved on to make two huge oblong ponds that ran parallel to the fence and road. They could be seen just beyond the fence from the road and they were designed to have a natural appearance. One pond was placed to the left of the horseshoe driveway and the other to the right of it.
Ben also added a few high-pressure jet streams to the ponds that shot up geysers of water into the air. The banks of the ponds were landscaped with plants and rocks often seen close to water. In the pond water, Ben planted colorful lotus flowers from Earth.
To accent these two beautiful ponds Ben added a couple statues of alluring mermaids that appeared to be lounging on small island rock formations at the center of each of the ponds.
When Ben was happy with the two ponds he decided to plant trees. All along the inside perimeter of the fence, Ben a planted row of evenly spaced trees. Using the tree tool he adjusted the brush size and set it to random and began making small groves of trees around the outer perimeter of his property. This helped to break up the huge lawns and gave the property a more natural look. Ben chose to only allow the trees to grow about fifteen to twenty feet tall and would let them grow the rest of their height normally.
It was one thing to have a palace built overnight but to have fifty-foot trees grow overnight could make it a bit more difficult to explain. Ben could always say he had a small army of workers help build the palace, but there was no way to grow trees overnight without people thinking nature magic was used.
As he was finishing up with the groups of trees and deciding on what he could do next the system notified him that the Small Palace was completed. Ben immediately made his way to the front entrance and entered the Small Palace.
He found himself standing in a huge room that opened up all the way to the third floor. There were two large white marble staircases flanking each side of the room and they provided access to the second and third floors that had wood railing all along their hallways that allowed those on the upper floors to look down into the main entrance hall.
Ben walked between the two staircases and found this wide hall had large wooden double doors on each side that opened into the grand staterooms and drawing rooms.
At the far end of the large hall, Ben fond a dining room with a table that must have been over a hundred feet long that stretched from one end of the room to the other.
He couldn't get over the craftsmanship that each room and piece of furniture displayed. When he had originally spent 5000g to build this place he thought it was a bit much, but now seeing the level of detail that went into every inch of the palace he was now satisfied with the money he had spent.
The kitchen was located directly across from the main dining room. It looked like a kitchen that you would find in a large restaurant. He found a walk-in freezer and walk-in refrigerated cooler which were both large enough to fit a horse pulling a cart inside them.
There were stoves, ovens, grills, and fire pits all designed to cook whatever you could come up with. If you wanted to cook a whole pig there was a fire pit with a spit that might even fit a cow over it.
Across the kitchen, against the back wall, he found a long stainless steel counter with a conveyor belt commercial dishwasher. The person who washed the dishes would put the dirty dishes into a plastic rack and push the rack onto the conveyor that ran them down an enclosed stainless steel tunnel lined with high-pressure sprayers that blasted the plates with hot water and soap. They would then arrive clean and dry at the other end of the machine.
Toward the back of the palace was a sectioned off area where the servants living quarters and the servants dining room was located. Even the servants quarters would give most of the fancy hotel rooms back on Earth a tough time beating them in comfort and style.
When he had fully explored the first floor Ben went upstairs and found there were bathrooms evenly staged across each floor that had showers, baths, sinks, and toilets. Each bathroom was decorated in a different theme and they were all fancy enough to actually live in.
The main bedrooms were three times bigger than his old apartment and would be considered a luxury suite. Each of the main bedrooms had a bed that six people could lay on without touching each other. They also had a complete living room and full bathroom in each of the bedrooms.
On the third floor past the bedrooms, Ben came across ten offices which were fully furnished with everything they could need and were ready for anyone who lived in this palace who might do accounting or secretarial work to immediately use.
It took Ben about two hours to explore the entire palace and he began to shudder at what it would be like if he were to build the Large Palace in his Build Menu one day.
Now that he had satisfied his curiosity Ben made his way back outside and continued to plant trees and gardens behind the palace. The statues and fountains combined with the stone paved walkways and colorful flower gardens to create a large oasis that made it hard to believe you were currently inside of a large walled-in city with thousands of people living around you.
When the sun once again cast its light over the horizon Ben left his new property and went over to his store. He unlocked the store and restocked any products which were getting low and greeted his employees when they arrived. Before they all started for the day he told them about the place he was building and if they ever needed a place to live for any reason they would each be welcome to live there even if he would never be around.
Ben also had a sudden idea from earlier that he ran by his employees. He asked Baynard and the girls to begin asking any friends or relatives if they would want to work at the store. If they could fit the role of being knowledgeable about the products and courteous to the customer he might hire them. The store would only continue to grow and it was already getting to be difficult for them to serve everyone who walked through the door.
Not only that, Ben had no plans of spending his every waking minute in this store and needed to move on to other projects as soon as they all had an understanding of everything they were selling. This would only leave them even more short-handed allowing customers to go unserved which was the same as letting gold coins march right out on the front door on their own.
The next day Cordelia brought a friend into the store who had been working at a popular tavern serving drinks. Baynard also brought in his lovely niece who was only seventeen years old but seemed mature enough to handle the job.
Ben agreed to hire both of them after explaining that they would need to learn the products that the store sold and take home the different foods, vegetables, and products to also learn by eating them.
Of course, he would not charge his employees for the food and products he had them take home. Ben simply looked at it as a long-term investment. If they ate his food and used the hygiene products they would only become more attractive.
Attractive women drew men and made other women jealous and left them wanting to use their methods to also become beautiful. This all would bring more businesses to the store over time. The new employees were both given uniforms and were tasked with following around the other sales girls while they watched and learned for a few days.
The other salesgirls upon seeing how the two new girls were hired on so easily seriously began to spread the word around after work and found four more female friends and relatives who were either looking for a job or wanted to leave their current job.
Ben now had twelve salesgirls with Cordelia managing them and Baynard doing books or greeting customers at the door like a well-dressed restaurant Maitre d. It was strange how it worked out that almost all of his employees were women. It had to of been due to the roles women were put into in this era. They were seldom hired into serious jobs and were expected to marry young and depend on a husband. If they chose to work all that was generally offered to them were those crappy jobs his other salesgirls feared they would be forced to work when Remi lost the store.
Each of the original sales girls was assigned a new trainee girl as a shadow to follow them around and learn from them until they felt comfortable enough to deal with the customers on their own.
It was now even possible to have a couple of girls in each department without having them constantly jumping from one department to the next. Ben talked with Cordelia about this and told her to try and find the departments each girl excelled in and to have them work that department from now on. This would help them to have a better understanding of the products in their department if they dealt with them continuously.
It was now the end of the third day since he had opened the store and needed to head back to the fortress to issue his troops their weapons, armor, clothing, and personal items that had now been produced either under the store or by the workshops back at the fortress.
Ben collected the coins placed inside his desk drawer from the store sales and deposited them into his inventory. Before leaving he told Baynard and Cordelia that he had to leave town and might even be gone up to three days.
He trusted that they had the routine of opening and closing the store and Cordelia was familiar with the products enough to answer any questions the sales girls or customers might have.
Inside his office with the door closed, Ben cast the [Zoom] spell and was teleported back to his keep after the one minute cast time was up.
He removed the completed military gear from the Warehouse and went over towards the barracks to distribute it.
Ben decided to make a quick stop at General Victor's home before going to the barracks next door. The general had just finished up with a long day spent using the system-link chair.
The two of them sat down in the general's living room and Ben explained he now had the rest of the troop's gear ready and that they could begin physical training along with their studies.
General Victus said he was already familiar with the [Marine Corps Drill Instructor] lesson and had found many of the Training Grounds courses fit perfectly with the drills he had learned.
This was why Ben had picked out the Marine Corps Drill Instructor lesson. It could help teach his officers how to properly use the obstacle courses and different stages around the Training Grounds.
Ben could have just as easily used an Army Drill Instructor as the lesson but the Marines in your face reprogramming of the recruits was more to his liking. He wanted to know that if his troops were ordered to charge an enemy they would not hesitate and fearlessly charge on command.
After they talked about the recruit's training and assignments the two of them walked over to the barracks. Ben dropped off the remaining gear that each soldier would need and brought a group of them down to the laundry facility. He brought out a tall stack of plastic bottles filled with laundry detergent and began to demonstrate how to use the commercial sized washing machines and dryers. Ben wasn't sure on a few features the machines had and had to ask Athena to explain them so he could relay the information to his recruits.
This group would then be responsible for teaching others how to use these machines. Ben had already talked with the general and had him begin on working out a rotation schedule for the security room and laundry facility. Each recruit would spend some time in each of these two places. The good news for them was that there were so many recruits that they might only spend one or two days a month working in each room.
He began to think as he watched the recruits perform a test run on the washer and dryers why the barracks would not have an option to clean their clothes with the systems help. If it could make food and clean dishes in the mess hall why couldn't it clean the recruits clothes somehow?
He just accepted it and couldn't complain he and his recruits already had so many benefits provided to them that he could only be grateful that at least there was a laundry facility.
'It sure beats the hell out of carrying dirty clothes down to the river and scrubbing them on the rocks.' Ben thought jokingly as he left the general and recruits in the laundry.
Ben left the barracks so that the general and the recruits could relax for the remaining part of the day and made his way to the Armorsmith workshop. He brought out his wooden chair and sat down.
He opened up the Armorsmith custom menu interface and loaded up his armor design and began to make changes to it.
His armor was originally designed to be worn using the system inventory to equip it. If a regular person wanted to put it on it would be impossible. He had an idea to alter his armor so it could be worn by heavy armor troops.
Ben began by making hinging seams in each piece of armor that could be opened up so that the armor could be then wrapped around each body part. The piece of armor was just like a metal locket it looked like a solid piece of metal until you pressed a button on the side. Just like a locket it would then hinge open and allow someone to snap it closed around them.
The armor was designed with small recessed clamp latches that would latch each piece of armors seam tightly together. He had got the idea from thinking about how the lid on his old toolbox could be latched closed seamlessly and even be carried around by the handle on top. Those latches were strong enough to hold the lid and lower part of the box together with the extra weight of all the tools inside.
This design allowed the soldier to wrap the chest armor around them and tightly latch it together leaving an airtight seam which no weapon could penetrate. The seam was designed to be the width of a sheet of paper when the armor was latched shut making it just as protective as his seamless armor.
This design gave the heavy armored soldiers a suit of armor that did not have any openings. Their entire body and their limbs would be encased in armor and with each latch recessed below the surface of the armor, there was no way they could become snagged on anything or be easily unlatched while fighting. The soldier had to actually put their finger into the recessed channel and pop up on the latch handle to remove the armor.
Another option that he improved on was the addition of interior rubber lining. There was now a Rubber Factory which was producing rubber from the sap supplied from his Rubber Tree Plantation that made this possible.
The original design of Ben's ergonomic armor only had layer cloth on the interior to add comfort and provided some protection against the blunt force applied from any weapon that might strike his armor.
The new design would now have a half inch of rubber that had a layer of cotton cloth and silk cloth covering it. Ben also wanted to apply a one-piece rubber heel and sole to the bottom of the armored boot. He at first thought of using a deep tread styled after a hiking or military boot.
One of the main keys to surviving a battle was to remain on your feet. If you were slipping and falling during a fight there was a good chance that the enemy would strike you down at that time.
What he wanted was an armored boot that had a tread which could provide traction in any type of terrain or conditions. Even though a hiking styled tread would work ideal on most surfaces he began to think of muddy or wet battlefields.
This made him begin to think of how snowshoes helped people to walk through snow what would be the best choice for slippery terrain?
After thinking through the many styles of footwear he had seen in his life Ben remembered how athletes would often wear cleats to provide additional traction on slick grass.
Ben looked through the store and found a large selection of cleats but the style that he instantly took a liking to was a set of buckle-on cleats. It was a shoe sole with hard plastic cleats that could be quickly strapped to the bottom of a regular pair of shoes.
He made a variation of these buckle on cleats that would fit the armored boots he had designed. The armored boots were also altered with the addition of metal strap loops so that the cleat straps could be tread through the loops holding them snugly in place.
Ben had still ended up placing hiking tread rubber soles and heels on the bottom of the armored boots but now they had strap-on cleats that they could carry in their backpacks. If they were forced to fight on a slippery terrain his troops could quickly strap on those cleats and have greater traction.
Because his troops might be forced to fight in more chaotic situations than he usually had to Ben decided to make a new helmet for the heavy armored troops. Ben's open-faced helmet was fine for hunting or small skirmishes but was not ideal for close melee battles.
He decided on a visored bascinet helmet with two eye slits. The helmet could protect the entire head, face, and neck. The front latching visor could be flipped up when they were not in combat allowing them to see and breathe easier.
Alright, this armor design should be near impenetrable as long as I use the right type of metal. I have a decent supply of Mythril now coming in from my Mines, but there might be a solution to help conserve the Mythril.
Ben deliberated as he opened his system store and went to the skills section.