After Ben had prepared Pricillia for her new job, he returned to the fortress with the funds he had collected from Goldcrest and the past few days sales from Wolfmere.
His Zoom spell had teleported him into the Barracks recruitment room. Ben operated the recruitment menu to choose the Half-Giant template he had previously saved.
He altered their individual facial appearances so they would look more human rather than a cross between an ogre and a human. For some reason, the random faces this recruitment menu generated made them look more monster-like than human.
Normally Ben would only choose the "enhanced strength" dual class for his generals but this time he gave each Half-Giant a dual class. Each of them would be a Heavy Infantry Swordsmen and a Heavy Infantry Axemen.
This small squad of ten Half-Giants cost Ben 10000g to create but they would be an unstoppable force on the battlefield. Standing at nine feet tall and weighing around seven hundred pounds each. Their frames looked like massive bulky bodybuilders and he felt one of them could easily throw him across the room.
Ben thought the template he made looked impressive in the menu screen but when he saw these ten guys towering above him it was an intimidating sight. He began to wonder if his generals had the strength to hold off ten of his normal recruits, then how many recruits could these Half-Giants hold off?
Even though, these Half-Giants towered over Ben they still showed him the same respect as the other troops. Each of them showed unquestioning loyalty and Ben could only thank Athena for that. He was confident he could put these guys in their place but it would not be a pleasant experience.
The big guys followed him on a tour of the Barracks and the fortress settlement. Ben had to bring them around to let the people meet them so they would not shit bricks when they suddenly saw them walking down the street without him around.
He was pleasantly surprised at how everyone treated them. He did not think they would be rude but Ben was surprised to see the majority did not show fear either. They were actually thrilled to know they had these enormous sized men would be protecting them.
The Half-Giants were given a crash course on everything in the fortress settlement. He even added an oversized table and chairs to the front corner of the Restaurant for them.
After their tour, they went to the custom home Ben made them. He had them try on their military clothes, gear, and armor and was glad there weren't any size issues. Before he forgot about it he also placed a large assortment of the enormous sized weapons he had designed for them in their house.
The Half-Giants were also instructed on how to operate the System-Link chairs. Ben had to place a metal table against each of the System-Link chairs so their long legs would not dangle off the end of them.
The Half-Giants did not have a general and would mainly fight under Ben's command in battle. This meant they would not have anyone to work with them on the training field.
Everything on the training field was scaled to be used by normal sized people. These guys just couldn't use the obstacle courses or other stages around the field so there wasn't a point in having a general to train them.
They would not be used like normal soldiers who would need to know how to walk in formations, make defensive lines, and fight in unison with the other troops.
Ben planned to unleash the Half-Giants on the battlefield as if he was summoning a natural disaster. The Half-Giants would be sent out to run amok and create chaos in the enemy lines.
For now Ben gave them all one Indigo Iron Fruit to eat and a few hundred Flourishing Domination pills each.
[Flourishing Domination]: This is a low-grade muscle growth pill. It can increase the strength of a regular person over time. This pill is not effective for cultivators above stage three.
From the effects, these pills had on his other troops they seemed to work like a low-level natural steroid. They helped build muscle and strength without any side effects. The Indigo Iron Fruit would increase their bone density making them less prone to broken bones.
Ben created a rotating schedule for them. The Half-Giants were instructed to do weight training in the morning, attend classes around noon, and run around the inside walls in the evening.
Then the following day they would do weapons training in the morning, attend classes around noon, and run around the inside walls in the evening.
Ben had them remove their armor after trying it on and to use the System-Link chairs for today. As of tomorrow morning, they would begin their rotating schedule.
Right alongside their home, Ben made a large single room building to the oversized specs of the Half-Giants house and began construction. While this new building was being built, Ben walked over to the blacksmith and opened the custom crafting menu.
Through the Blacksmith menu, Ben created various weight training bars, steel plate weights, benches, and racks which were also to scaled for the Half-Giants size. Everything needed to be made on a larger scale so it is comfortable for them and solid enough to support their massive frames.
When the building beside the Half-Giants home was finished Ben filled it with the custom weights, benches, racks, lifting bars, and dumbbells. As an afterthought, he lined the walls with large mirrors and left weight training exercise diagrams and recommended beginner workouts on a table by the door for them to review.
He had no intention of making them perform difficult workout schedules to follow. This was only to help them increase their strength and keep them in shape. As it was they were so strong that he had to leave behind hundreds of free weight steel plates to make sure they had enough to just lightly weight train.
One of the benefits with Ben's military recruits is they could all read and write. This way they could review the information he left them on their own. He also left a note in their home informing them that he built a weight training room for them next to their home.
The 10k Ben had spent on the Half-Giants took a large chunk out of his current funds but he still had enough to recruit a few more troops.
Now with the clothing, gear, armor, and weapons being to the new Human male body template size the new recruits could be issued this gear which was directly stored in the armory.
Ben could simply recruit troops now and hand them off to their generals who would provide them with the clothing, armor, weapons, and gear they would need.
Just to round up some of the divisions numbers Ben recruited fifty Elven archers and one hundred and fifty Human Heavy Infantry Spearmen.
The recruitment menu gave him a total of how many troops he currently had under his command.
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[CURRENT TROOPS]
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400: Elven Archers- General Victor
200: Human Mounted Knights- General Justinus
600: Human Heavy Infantry Spearmen- General Kaeso
600 Human Male Dismounted Knights- General Decius
100 Javelin Cavalry- General Cassius
10 Half-GIant Male Heavy Armored Swordsmen/Heavy Armored Axemen
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[ 1910 Total Troops]
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Now with a grand total of 1910 troops, he was approaching the numbers that most of the other kingdoms could field. If you were to compare troop quality, Ben guessed his troops would be equivalent to three or four of their drafted citizen soldiers.
Ben decided to teleport to the ruined Druid town he had found in the forest. There were a few more facilities he wanted to build while he had the money before he quit for the day.
Now that his build zone just about encompassed the entire Wayard Woodlands he could now build here.
Ben started by taking down the outer crumbling wall with his deconstruction tool. The outer wall was replaced with a thirty foot high by five-foot thick concrete and rebar walls and a Gatehouse. The new concrete wall and Gatehouse was encircled with a twenty foot wide by twenty-foot deep moat.
There currently wasn't a Water Treatment structure so the moat remained a trench for the moment.
Ben placed a steel plate drawbridge on the Gatehouse and used Raise Earth to narrow a small section of the moat so it was close enough for the drawbridge to rest upon.
He went inside the ruined town and began to remove the crumbling building and added concrete stairs to make it easier to climb from the lower tiers to the upper tiers.
He had to laugh as he walked around this ruined town it reminded him of a certain town with a nuclear bomb in the middle of it from a game he had once played. The entire town was built on a tiered crater in a similar way. Except in this town, there wasn't a nuclear bomb in its center. There stood a towering tree whose canopy spread over the entire town like a giant umbrella.
Each tiers ground surface was covered in stone paved roads to prevent any more soil erosion and to keep the place cleaner looking and free of mud during the rainy seasons.
The tree helped protect the ancient town from snow but Ben decided to install Heating Coils under the stairs and on each tier to ensure sure the town's walkways remained snow free.
On the lower tier closest to the tree ben built a keep like the one he used to live in on top of the ruined building's foundation that he discovered the underground library inside.
It was still possible to use the ancient basement by cutting away the floor in the keep to expose the staircase leading down to it.
On the third floor of the keep, Ben built a few structures.
[Power Plant]: Provides a power grid for ten miles in every direction at level one from where it is placed. Upgrading can further extend the grid's coverage.[locked until: built Research Center] [Costs: 200g]
[Waste Treatment]: Disposes of all human waste inside a pocket dimension. [locked until: built Research Center] [Costs: 200g]
[Water Treatment]: Provides clean purified water from the surrounding atmosphere. [locked until: built Research Center] [Costs: 200g]
[Warehouse]: The warehouse holds all the gathered resources and products created by the many structures that can be built. Structures can deposit or withdraw from the warehouse depending on their purpose. [Costs: 200g]
[Trash Incinerator]: The trash incinerator is directly linked to all trash disposal units in its radius. Every 12 hours the incinerator will collect trash from the nearby disposal units and burn it inside a pocket dimension like the waste treatment structure. [costs: 200g]
Even though they were less expensive structures they still cost him 1000g. By having these structures it would allow him to turn this place into a proper town in the future. There was no rush to build this place and he wanted to start building it up a little at a time.
As a finishing touch, for now, Ben built electric street lights around each tier and a concrete road that ran north through the forest to connect with the roads near the cemetery on the west side of his fortress plateau.
This new road was lined with wooden walls and outer moats to prevent profound beast from accessing the road.
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Ben returned to the fortress and spent the remainder of the day and night in his Qi chamber after he went out to dinner with Mythia at the Restaurant.
The next few following days he would stop in at the Wolfmere store to help teach Priscilla more about the products and foods and return to the fortress to train.
He allowed his businesses profits to accumulate over the next four days and then went around collecting them. Once again with his funds enriched so he left the fortress and ran west to the walled-in Sect Headquarters.
Ben went directly into the Sect Headquarters recruitment room and opened the menu.
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[SECT RECRUITMENT MENU]
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Random Male Cultivator...…[Costs: 5000g]
Random Female Cultivator…...[Costs: 5000g]
Custom Creation Cultivator…...[Costs: 5000g]
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'Ouch, these prices are expensive. If I wanted to make a large SECT of cultivators it is going to take a long time to save up this much money.'
*DING!* [They are expensive but they come with a perfect cultivation technique which is custom tailored for each of them. This at least saves you from having to spend 1000g to find the idea cultivation technique for each of them.]
'Oh? Well, that's a plus, at least I do not have to worry about finding a technique to match them. I guess I can't complain though. To have the ability to purchase a cultivator is a huge option given to me. It seems most of these kingdoms only have at most five cultivators and most of them are low staged. I have enough money to buy three of them right now and if I sell some ore off I could get four of them and have a little money left over. That should be a good start, for now, it isn't like a need an army of cultivators if I had even ten higher staged cultivators it would be plenty.'
Ben made up his mind and sold off the large surpluses of ores, stone, wood, and other assorted products his workshops were making which were just sitting in his Warehouse. With just over fifty thousand gold coins he could now create a small squad of cultivators.
He opened the Sect Headquarters custom creation cultivator option and found It was the same menu as the Barracks creation menu that allowed you to create and tweak every part of the person as if they were a game character.
He thought about how he was away from the fortress so often and Mythia was only able to see him for an hour or two most days. It would be good to have someone for her to hang around with similar interests.
So he decided to make ten female cultivators and gave them the ages of around eighteen years old. Just as he had done with the Fairy Magi, Ben used beautiful teen models and celebrities from Earth for the female cultivator's faces and bodies.
Ten gorgeous young ladies were soon created and each was wearing a long all white cheongsam. Each of them looked like young brides in their traditional Chinese dresses.
They may look stunning but their dresses weren't suited for cultivation and training.
Ben walked them over to the seamstress and made custom fitting black and red tai chi uniforms just like the one he had made for Mythia. While the uniforms were being made he escorted the four young ladies over to the Market and had them pick out a decent sized wardrobe, along with multiple pairs of footwear, and any accessories they needed.
Ben placed their clothes into separate slots in his inventory and continued over to the Intermediate Education For All school Mythia was attending. When she finally came out from her lessons Ben introduced her to the young ladies. She was a little shy at first but as they walked around the town Ben followed behind and let Mythia introduce them to all the local attractions.
The small group then made their way over the Sect Library and Mythia showed them how to use the System-Link chairs. Before they began using them everyone went up to the castle penthouse to assign the young female cultivators each their own bedrooms from the ten unoccupied ones they had.
These young ladies were given the same schedule as Mythia was currently following. Each of them could already read so they would attend the Intermediate Education For All school with Mythia and then cultivate until sunset after their lessons.
This way Mythia would now have these ten older teens beside her all day long. It was as if she now had ten older sisters to hang around every day.
Mythia had already learned the Whirlwind Maneuver from the Sect Library so her bike had sat unused for the past few days. It was much quicker to use the movement technique to travel across the fortress. This meant these new female cultivators would also need to learn this technique to keep up with her as they traveled from one end of the fortress to the other.
Ben explained to Mythia that they already had a cultivation technique so she should take them back to the Sect Library so they could learn the Whirlwind Maneuver.
Before that they had to hang up their new clothes and change out of the dresses they were wearing.
He left the girls to help one another organize their rooms and went downstairs to build ten more QI Gathering Chambers.
[Qi Gathering Chamber]: A small room which has a Qi gathering formation located under the floor. Five times more Qi can be accumulated inside each chamber. The large amounts of Qi allows for sect members to increase cultivation gains at an accelerated pace.
'That's about all I can do for today I am officially broke yet again. I guess I can continue cultivating and leave the girls to get to know each other.'
Ben closed the door on the Qi Chamber and activated the QI gathering formation before sitting down to cultivate for the rest of the day.