Ben helped the sales girls deal with customers for most of the day and went to speak with Baynard before leaving the store. He told Baynard about the party he was going to hold at his new estate and he needed to find someone who would deliver his invitations.
Baynard informed Ben of a place called the Messenger Union which was used for such deliveries. The Messenger Union would be comparable with Earth's Post Office. They would deliver verbal and written information along with packages up to a certain size.
Ben thanked Baynard and announced he and his family were welcome to attend. Of course, Cordelia and the sales girls were also invited to the housewarming party. Ben informed his employees that in the next couple of days he would make his household noble badges with his crest for each of them to wear.
Anyone in the city who wore a badge of a noble would be considered a part of that noble's house. These badge holders would be treated differently from normal commoners. They were permitted to enter the noble district and other restricted areas a commoner would generally be barred from entering without question.
The sales girls were just about jumping around in excitement when they heard Ben's news. Not for just being invited to the party but to be given a noble house badge was a big deal. That badge would provide them a higher status in the kingdom and people would treat them with much more respect.
Everyone knew that if you caused trouble for someone who wore a noble house badge it was the same as causing trouble with the noble. Disrespecting the badge was disrespecting the noble family and this was not something a commoner or most nobles could afford to do.
Ben walked over to the Messenger Union and gave them the envelopes which had the address of each noble family they were to be delivered. He paid the amount for the delivery and went outside to find a deserted alley to cast his [Zoom] spell and return to the fortress.
He appeared next to the Boyer Guild near the south central part of the fortress and began building a couple more guilds. From his Build Menu, he chose the
[Musicians Guild] and the [Performers Guild].
[Musicians]: Increases the popularity of your concert halls. Musicians of any type are available for recruitment. [requires: stone, wood] [cost: 200g]
[Performers]: Increases the popularity of your performance establishments. Actors/Actresses, Comedians, and slight of hand magicians are available for recruitment. [requires: stone, wood] [cost: 200g]
[Auto_Notice] [The system has advanced a level! System Level 21!]
While these two guilds were being built Ben went up the street near the workshops and began construction of a [Musical Instruments Manufacturer] and the [Carriage Manufacturer] which had just been unlocked
[Musical Instruments Manufacturer]: Produces musical instruments of any kind from both Earth and VIctus. [locked until; research center-Mine-toolmaker]
[requires: stone, wood] [cost: 200g]
[Carriage Manufacturer]: Produces enclosed carriages of any type. A design menu is also provided to create custom carriage designs.
[unlocks after ten carts are produced] [cost: 200g]
When the Musical Instruments Manufacturer was built he found the instruments were divided by worlds and sections. Ben opened Earth's orchestra section and chose to make six of each of the main instruments.
Ben would need musicians and instruments for the ball he was going to hold after the dinner at his new Small Palace. He also had ideas of purchasing another property in the city in the near future that would have concerts and plays.
As far as he knew there wasn't a theater or a music hall in Goldcrest. Ben thought that if he were to open one it should become a popular place with the people. Now that he had built a Musician and Performers Guilds he had the ability to recruit talented people.
From what Athena had once explained guild recruits were different from military recruits. A guild recruit's talent would be dependent on their level during creation. A level one musician would be a beginner and a level five musician would be a master at their chosen instrument.
Ben held off for now on recruiting the musicians, he decided to wait until later when he would actually have instruments for them. His plan was to have them practice in the keep for a few days and then bring them to Goldcrest before the party.
WIth the money, Ben had from his store and what he had made in the forest he thought it was a good time to build a few structures around the fortress. The northern Mines had been bringing in a great deal of iron, nickel, copper, and cobalt but the precious metals took longer to recoup due to their low percentage gathering rates.
It was time to put an end to this by building more Mines. Next, to the other four level five Mines and his original Mine which were located north of the fortress, Ben built five new level five Mines. This gave him a total of ten level five Mines not including the Mine under his store.
[Mine]: Produces nickel, cobalt, iron, gold, silver, copper, platinum and mithril. Production amounts depend on the Mines level [requires: stone, wood]. [cost: 200g]
Once these five new Mines were built Ben estimated he could bring in large amounts of silver, gold, platinum, and mithril ore. This increase of precious ores wouldn't go to waste with the armor, weapons and various projects he had planned he would definitely need it.
I just spent a 3500g on these five, level five Mines but at least I won't have to wait for a week after I use up my mithril reserves.
After checking the Armorsmith workshop Ben discovered the full body armor for the troops was now being produced at a rapid pace so he went over to the foundry to create more of the lightweight black hued Magnesium Mythril alloy ingots.
Seeing how quickly the armor would be produced he decided he should also begin production of the mounted knight's weapons.
'With this much Mythril now available I no longer have to use it sparingly. I should just make the knights weapons all with pure Mythril.'
Ben decided to go in a different direction with the materials used for the soldier's weapons. His first thought was to use steel for their weapons and there was nothing wrong with this steel was a great metal for melee weapons.
Even if steel was a great material Mythril was far more superior. How could you compare a real-world metal with a fantasy metal? Mythril had twice the tensile strength of steel and half the weight.
The lighter the weapon was the longer a soldier could swing it before getting fatigued. Not only that, the extra tensile strength would allow them to smash through wood shields and armor without damaging their weapon.
The swords were exact copies of the XVI type pointed blade longsword Ben had made for himself. The only difference was these swords did not have the Hemic core or the Hemic fangs that he had integrated into his sword.
Along with the longsword Ben also made two types of spears. One spear had the traditional leaf blade tip and the other was made with a lance point tip. The lance point tip was just a long thin pointed tip which was ideal for puncturing through plate armor.
Ben had not seen or heard of any military using full plate armor thus far. So the lance point would be more of a backup or special purpose spear. A mounted knight could always carry the additional spear strapped to their saddle and use it if he lost his leaf blade spear in battle.
These spears were made with thin hollow Mythril shafts and both the lance point and leaf blade tips were also made of pure Mythril. If one of Ben's soldier were to block an incoming blow with the Mythril spear shaft the enemy's blow would be deflected away without breaking or being cut in half like a wood shaft spear.
As an afterthought, Ben thought of how he had outfitted Sergeant Stokes with two daggers and thought they would make a nice addition to his troops arsenal.
Ben was always thinking about how a soldier could drop his sword or have it become lodged in a wood shield while fighting. If he gave them a set of daggers they would have other options to defend themselves.
With this in mind, he used a medieval dagger design to begin production of daggers that had a one foot long black Mythril blade and hilt.
'I can finally stop worrying about the knights now. Most of their gear is ready and by the end of tomorrow, their armor and weapons should also be finished. Before I build anything else I want to go and try out the Carriage Manufacturer. I am curious to find out what I can build with it.'
Ben strolled over to the Carriage Manufacturer and opened the menu to see what type of carriages were available. There were twenty popular designs from Earth to pick from along with a custom design menu to make his own designs.
Designing a carriage was more advanced than making a simple cart. Ben enjoyed creating custom-made products over using what was available but he did not have any idea of where to even start with designing a carriage.
He did have his new skill [Photo Reading] that allowed him to glance at a page of information and remember every detail. Photo Reading gave him a photographic memory when it came to reading and it was a perfect cheat to permanently learn something.
This allowed him to purchase a large book from the System Store that provided everything you would want to know about building various carriages. Ben sat down and read through the book in a matter of minutes and learned everything it offered.
His first carriage model was fully enclosed even the coachman could sit in an enclosed cab at the front of the carriage. The design would also have windows so that you could see your surroundings as you rode along the road.
Instead of using glass Ben used a blend of plastic and nylon and made two inch thick sheets to be used as the window panes. After a test with his bow, he found a two-inch thick sheet of this plastic and nylon blend was solid enough to stop multiple arrows.
The second test was to be performed on sheets of steel. Ben made a few sheets of steel which he also tested against a closely shot arrow. He picked the thinnest sheet which could stop an arrow and used it to line the inside of the doors, walls, floor, and roof of his carriage design.
Basically Ben was designing an armored carriage with the appearance of a normal carriage. If you saw it roll by you would never know that sandwiched between the high gloss painted wooden doors and walls was a sheet of steel. the walls were also thick enough to encase the two-inch thick plastic and nylon blend windows.
If anyone shot an arrow at this carriage it would never penetrate the doors, walls, roof or windows. The only way it would be possible to stop the carriage would be to kill the horses pulling it.
The interior of the carriage was designed for luxury and comfort. The two large cushioned bench seats would seat eight men comfortably. If you wanted to pack as many people as possible into it you could seat another two or three people. In the center of the carriage's interior was a open space were gear and goods could be loaded. There was also a storage compartment on the back of the carriage and a rooftop luggage rack which provide additional storage options.
The carriage was design with a separate space for the coachman who had his own cab upfront which was separated from the back. The coachman's cab and the carriage both had deadbolt locking doors to keep out anyone who attempted to attack the carriage. If you stopped along the roadside you could lock the doors and sleep securely inside the carriage all night.
Ben had designed a secure carriage but the people inside of it had no way to drive off enemy attackers. This gave him the idea to create arrow slots around the interior of the cabin. These arrow slots had a metal plate you could slide to open or close off the arrow slots.
Anyone with a bow could kneel inside the carriage and shoot arrows out through these arrow slots in any direction and close them with a sliding steel plate that locked into place when needed.
With all of the additions to his carriage design it would have more weight than a standard carriage so Ben made custom wheels. The wheel frame and spokes would be made of the lightweight black hued Magnesium Mythril his troops armor used and they would have a solid rubber tire to absorb jarring bumps on rough roads.
The last addition would be to also use the lightweight black hued Magnesium Mythril to make the carriage axles. He was afraid with the extra weight and having ten men and their gear in the carriage a wood axle might snap under the stress.
'This carriage should act as a mobile fort now. I only have one final weak point that will need to be addressed.