As Ben sat on the grass below the tree the profound beast was hanging from the woman and her children gathered up enough courage to peek outside their broken door. When she saw Ben just outside the village with the dead creature hanging in the tree beside him she rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
This creature had shown up a few months back out of nowhere and had continuously attacked and killed the people of this village. There was even a group of ten of the villages strongest men who waited to ambush it and four of them were killed and the survivors ran off all injured from the fight.
The men of the village could not stop this beast and they were all forced to lock themselves in their homes to hide from it. They could not farm or hunt due to the frequent visits from this profound beast. From the lack of food being gathered, it wasn't long before the food reserves were nearly depleted. A good number of the villagers were withering away on their beds now too weak to even walk.
It was at the point where it was everyone for themselves and people hid away what food they had left from the others. Those who had saved more food were the lucky ones who could still function like the woman and her children Ben had saved. Her husband was one of the better hunters in the village so they had a decent amount of dried meat always on hand. Unfortunately, he was one of the men who was killed fighting this creature.
The woman after watching Ben for a few minutes under the tree noticed the doors open on a few of the surrounding wood huts. Her neighbors had obviously heard the beast had returned from the fight. The loud roars of the dying beast and the woman's screams made them fear for the worse and thought the beast had killed and eaten another one of them.
Now it was quiet once again they thought the creature had eaten its fill and left. The woman left her home and began telling her curious neighbors what had just taken place. It wasn't long before everyone who could still walk were standing on the edge of the village watching Ben skin the beast who had turned their lives into a living hell.
Ben kept the Shaggy black fur and the profound core in his inventory. He left the carcass hanging from the tree and approached the villagers who were quietly watching him.
An old man barely holding himself up with a walking stick stepped out from the crowd and began to thank Ben for saving their village. The old man who seemed to be the village elder began to explain everything that had happened over the past few months. They were thankful but the way things had turned out they did not think they would make it through the winter.
There was no food in the village and everyone was too weak to farm or hunt. Even if they could it was too late in the season for farming and the profound beast had scared off or eaten most of the remaining game in the valley.
For now, Ben opened his Warehouse and brought out a large stack of stone blocks and began making a long narrow fire pit. He placed large pots over the fire and dumped over a hundred cans of beef stew into the pots.
While the food was cooking he took out a table and filled it with bowls and spoons. The people watched as he took out these stone blocks and food from thin air. These were simple people separated from the rest of the world and they had no idea what spatial rings were so to see Ben make food simply appear they began to wonder if he was a young god.
He killed the beast and he could bring these foods and things into existence. When the food was finished he had everyone eat and then he told them to take a bowl to the others who were bedridden.
By the end of the day everyone had eaten and the spirit food was working to repair their deteriorated bodies. Ben walked over to the Elders home and sat down with a few of the villagers in his wood hut.
When he sat down at looked at the elder he said, "From the sounds of it you all are out of food and will not make it through the winter here. I killed the beast but it will begin to snow in a few weeks. I do not see any firewood in or around your homes so you all will either freeze or starve to death if you remain here. I do have a proposition for you all. I have a large settlement not far from here in the grasslands to the south if you want to leave this village you can come to live there. You will have large warm homes and all the food you need. I am sure this village holds many memories for you all but if you stay here you will not survive and even if you make it through the winter who knows when the next profound beasts will come around. I will let you talk it over with the others and return in the morning to hear your decision. I will also leave the beast carcass out there and if you chose to stay at least you will have the meat from it to help you out."
Ben stood up and cast his Zoom spell and returned to his castle. He did not mind if the villagers saw him use his spell and figured it may help impress them a little more. He wanted them to move to his fortress to increase the population so the stronger they thought he was the more faith they would put into him being able to provide for them.
Ben took Mythia to the Restaurant and ate dinner with her and then stopped by the WIzardry School to purchase a few more spells to add to the Fairy's lessons. They had already mastered the simple fire and lightning bolt spells so it was time to increase their spell collection.
[Chain Lightning]: After the lightning strikes a target it will arc to a number of secondary targets in the proximity of the original target. [As the spell level increases it will arc to further targets and deal more damage.]
[Lake of Lava]: Create a 10x10ft area covered in lava for 30 seconds. This lava will ignite or melt clothing, metal armor, and weapons. Cause severe fire and burning damage to anyone who enters the lava lake. [As the spell level increases the spell radius and damage increase]
Once the new spells were added to the school Ben went back to the castle with Mythia and played the arcade games with her until she went to bed. He left the castle and to enter the Qi chamber in the keep. For the rest of the night, he cultivated and gained another level before the sun rose.
[Notice] [You have advanced in cultivation! Cultivation Stage Six: Level Four!]
Over at the Barracks Ben went to the rooms the fairies were living in and informed them about the new spells he added to the Wizardly School and what they could do. These two spells were different from the original spells they learned. The first two spells they were given were used to attack individual targets. The two new spells were perfect spells for the battlefield which could take out large groups of enemies at a time.
Ben left the Barracks and opened his Build Menu and decided he would build a road toward the west. He wasn't sure if the small village would join him but if they did he would need a road to transport them to the fortress. If they did not join it would not hurt to have a road leading west. If he ever wanted to build out that way or connect with the western kingdoms this road could be used then.
As he tried to build a long straight road across the grasslands for some reason he kept getting an error. After a couple attempts, he noticed a river on his map which was flowing south out of the northern mountains. Ben built the road up to the river's edge and used Whirlwind Maneuver to quickly run to where the road stopped.
Up until today, he had never used the bridge option in his Build Menu and he figured this was why the road was giving him an error. He would have to build a bridge across the small river and continue the road on the other side. Just like the defenses the bridges could be made of wood, stone blocks, or concrete and rebar.
He chose the concrete and rebar option to give the bridge the best long-term durability. A wood bridge could rot and collapse after a couple of years whereas concrete would outlast a normal person's lifetime.
The bridge was built after a few minutes of waiting and Ben had no problems continuing the road west. The new road went west and hugged the top of a large lake and eventually stopped and the western forest edge.
It was getting late in the morning by now so Ben chose to directly teleport to the village. He arrived at the border of the village and saw a couple men were butchering the profound beast hanging from the tree.
One of them came over and walked with him to the elders home. Like the others living here, this man was very thin and Ben could see he must have lost a lot of weight. Ben introduced himself to the man and found out his name was Arvu.
Apparently, Arvu is the son of the village elder and he was one of the village hunters who provided the people with meat. He had not gone hunting in a few months though ever since the profound beast had wandered into their valley and found them.
They entered the elders home again and sat down to talk.
"I have spoken with others and everyone agrees we should leave the village but they do not want to leave behind their loved ones who can't walk yet. It will be a difficult journey to cross the southern mountains even for a strong healthy person and we are all so weak now. It will be impossible for us to carry them with us."
Ben smiled and said, "You do not have to worry about that, we will not leave anyone behind. If you all agree to move I have a way to easily move everyone. I will go back to my settlement and return with some of my people and transport everyone in the village to your new homes."
The elder looked at his son and they both nodded. If they did not have to leave anyone behind then there was no reason to stay here. They had raised countless generations of their families in this village but times were changing. Even before the profound beast had shown up after centuries of hunting the area the game was beginning to get harder to find in the mountains and the soil wasn't suited for farming. It was time to move on or sit by and watch as their small community withered away from starvation.
Ben asked the elder to have everyone begin packing everything up on the edge of the village that they wanted to bring along with them. He would return to the village in five or six hours and they could take off then.
He cast Zoom to teleport to the Stables and took out nine carriages and placed them along the road. He told the Stable Master to have the Stable Hands begin to hitch the horses to the carriages. Ben had to purchase a few extra horses because the Cavalry had already come by to saddle them for the days training.
Including himself and the people working in the Stables, they had enough Coachmen to lead the carriages west so Ben did not bother to bring any knights along this time. The nine carriages left as soon as they were hitched and ready.
He led them at a fast pace west along the new concrete road. When they passed a beautiful large lake Ben wanted to stop and check it out but he did not want to keep the villagers waiting. As it is, it would be near the end of the day by the time they left the village.
Ben brought up his Build Menu as they traveled further west and went to the tunnel tool. It would be impossible to make a road over these steep mountains so he used his Tunnel tool to draw a line from the grasslands, through the mountains, and into the valley, the villagers lived in.
The tunnel cut through a few hills and one huge mountain after it was built. When he received a notice the tunnel was complete Ben used the road tool to lay concrete roads along the route and through the tunnels.
When the carriage convoy reached the entrance of the tunnel Ben had them stop to rest the horses. He brought out vegetables and fruits and had the Stable Hands feed them to the horses.
While the horses were eating he placed down a level five [Power Plant] that would provide the area fifty miles around it with electricity. While the Power Plant was being built he began to evenly place electric street lights inside the tunnels.
Without any light, it would be difficult to see in the long tunnels and it might spook the horses. They were right on the border of the build zone so he could not build the road all the way up to the village but the valley was flat enough that the carriages wouldn't struggle to cross it.
The villagers were amazed when they saw the line of carriages pulled by these huge animals stop nearby. They had never seen anything like this before these carriages looked like little mobile homes to them.
Ben used the System Store to purchase twenty rescue stretchers and showed the villagers how to use them. He had them use the stretchers to carry the people too weak to walk and lay them down inside the carriages.
A half hour later everyone was loaded into the carriages along with their belongings. Some of them wanted to bring their crude furniture along but Ben told them it wasn't necessary. Their new homes and the Market would have everything they would need.
It was nice to see children of all different ages boarding the carriages. Mythia was the youngest one at the fortress settlement and now there would finally be more children there. Ben went from one carriage to the next and passed out an assortment of fruits for everyone to snack on to keep their strength up.
They all looked on with sad faces as their small village disappeared in the distance. They had all been raised in this valley after their ancestors had moved here and now they were heading off to the unknown.
After they crossed the valley and came upon the new concrete roads everyone began looking out the windows wondering where this flat stone had come from. Most of them at one time had walked around this valley and this was never here before. Then they entered the series of tunnels and became even more confused.
There was a series of tunnels which cut directly through the mountains and hills as they traveled along. They all could only assume it had to have been done by this young man who had saved them. Just what type of power did he have? He could cut holes through stone mountains, wave his hand and food would appear and even kill a creature that their strongest hunters were no match for!
Ben remained in the coachman cab guiding the convoy south and had no idea how amazed the villagers were and what they were discussing in the carriages.
By the time they reached the grasslands the sun was setting and it was becoming difficult to see the road so Ben built electric street lights along the road leading back to the fortress.
They could not return to the fortress as fast as they traveled to the village due to the weak people laying inside the carriages so it would take them much longer to get back. The convoy continued forward throughout the night and did not reach the fortress until just before sunrise.
Ben had pushed everyone forward and he was sure the drivers were all dead tired but they could finally see the walls of the fortress in the distance.
It was only a couple more miles and they would be back at the fortress and the villagers could see where they would live from now on.