It is a warm sunny summer day over Dragonshome. A warm breeze blew over the walls and through the pink and red leafed trees lining the streets as the birds who perched in their branches sung to the bustling people cheerfully walking along.
Ben was enjoying a meal with Mythia at a growingly popular privately owned restaurant that was recently opened by a cook who moved here from Brandomma. They happily ate their lunch while they talked with a few new faces who had traveled all the way from the Ferrama Kingdom to make a new life here in the Avalon capital city.
The newly arriving people were always little shocked to see the Avalon king sit down and openly speak to them but they became used to it over time. Ben always wanted to be close to his subjects and to learn how they were doing and how he might make their lives better.
His caring attitude toward each of them made the people love him even more. There wasn't a soul living in Dragonshome who didn't revere their young King.
As he talked to a family with a little boy and two girls who recently joined them, Chancellor Rayner came jogging down the landscaped street filled with people, bicycles, carts, and carriages obviously searching for someone or something.
Dragonhome population continued to spike after news of the Avalon Kingdom becoming the largest and securest kingdom in the lands. Being able to educate yourself for free and climb the ranks in the kingdom no matter your social status was a huge draw to those who have been only scraping by in life. A freed slave with enough drive could educate themselves and one day become a royal official or possibly a Avalon noble!
When Ben glanced out the window he noticed Rayner frantically running down the street. Ben stood up to excuse himself from the family and stepped out into the bustling street just outside of the restaurant with Mythia and waved toward Rayner who then spotted him.
Chancellor Rayner quickly ran over to Ben out of breath and said, "Sire! The yacht...the yacht has...discovered...a new...continent! They could not...fully explore the coastline...due to being hostilely...engaged by...a wooden ship manned...by cultivators! The captain had no way to deal...with the cultivators...so they returned home to report this discovery. The yacht crew is waiting...at the Naval Barracks for further instructions!"
Ben looked up at the clear blue sky with a crooked smile and said, "A new land? A possible new enemy? It looks like things are about to get even more busy for us."
Mythia looked at Ben with stars in her glowing eyes and said, "Master, please take me with you when you go to the new land! I want to see it with my own eyes and to see how strong these foreign cultivators are!"
Ben looked down at Mythia and laughed, "I don't see any problem with that. You have been working hard and are getting stronger by the day. I will also bring along a few troops and possibly your brother and sister cultivators as well. If this group of foreign cultivators is hostile we might need the extra muscle to deal with them. I would like to explore these new lands before we begin picking a fight with them though."
With a growing sense of adventure as to what they might discover Ben and Mythia began excitedly discussing what they would need to prepare before setting off.
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It has been two months now since Ben has conquered the Trareniel, Brandomma, and Galeran kingdoms.
The Aregard and Ciral kingdoms were a little shocked to hear of this event but they were on good terms with the Avalon Kingdom. They knew Ben King's character, he was the type of young man who would go out of his way to help someone, but if you crossed him it was a different story. They all knew he would not have invaded those kingdoms without a good reason.
The three western kingdoms of Yardom, Gilaith, Ferrama had sent representatives to Avalon and the conquered kingdoms to find out exactly what had happened. For three ancient Kingdoms to suddenly fall under the rule of a newly established kingdom in the span of one month was to frightening. They were afraid they might be next on the list of kingdoms to be invaded!
Ben arranged for a conference in Ciral at the Wolfmere Royal Palace. There he met the three western kingdoms to discuss what had transpired.
He brought along the former Brandomma king Leofric Cosworth, the Trareniel regent Nicholas Shawcross, the Galeran regent Gloria Hamilton, and the Brandomma regent Bernard Fowler.
It was hard for the assembled representatives to accept Leofric Cosworth was once the former Brandomma King because he now looked thirty years younger. He was no longer a slow-moving frail old man. He looked younger and his body was now showing signs of a fit physique.
Everyone was shocked to learn it was all due to a special pill Ben had given him. They had not seen it yet but there were also recent rumors that the Aregard King had also suddenly turned younger looking as well. If they were to learn he had also become a cultivator it might just shattered their outlooks on reality.
Bernard Fowler confirmed he is, in fact, the former king. Regent Fowler had worked in the Brandomma Royal Palace for years and is familiar with his former king from their daily interactions.
Leofric Cosworth outer appearance may have changed but he is still the same caring, kind man he had always been.
During the conference, Ben and everyone he brought with him was able to put the three western kingdoms representatives somewhat at ease. They gave a detailed explanation of the chain of events that led up to Ben invading the three kingdoms. If they approved or did not approve Ben did not care and he left them with one message to take back to their kings.
"The Avalon Kingdoms door is always open to new friends and allies, but if anyone crosses the Avalon Kingdom we will always retaliate."
He was letting the western kings know I don't care if you approve of my ways just mind your own business and stay out of mine or you will be next to be absorbed into my Avalon Kingdom.
Only over time would they learn if the western kingdoms took his warning to heart.
The conference wasn't the only thing that had happened since then. Ben had recruited ten young male cultivators who were also studying magic. There were now forty-nine cultivator/magi living in Dragonshome.
There are the twenty female Fairies cultivators/magi, the ten young female cultivators/magi, Mythia, the former Brandomma King Leofric Cosworth, the seven cultivators brought over from the conquered kingdoms, and ten young male cultivators/magi. Each of them trained in magic and cultivated on a daily basis.
It was getting to the point where Ben had to seriously begin making plans to continue the Sect he had started building just west of the Dragonshome Fortress.
The Aregard and Trareniel region were also stabilizing. Aregard Kingdom's economy was bouncing back with the profits they made from selling the free Avalon ore to the Ciral Kingdom.
Nicholas Shawcross needed to be praised for his actions, he was also doing a superb job of rebuilding the Trareniel region with people Ben had left him.
During all of this Ben had gone as far to use those recent profits to build a business district similar to the one he made in Goldcrest. He built new districts in the cities of Timbershield, Baymeadow, and Oceansong.
Ben had also received another surprise during this time. He had a built a [War Machines] structure near the military training field and made multiple units of everything it offered so his troops could practice using these various contraptions.
He made scaling ladders, wheeled battering rams, catapults, trebuchets, ballista, siege towers, and mantlets for them. They had to practice how to use the Siege Towers before they attacked Timbershield, so Ben thought it would be a better idea to provide them with this equipment so they would be better prepared to use it in the future.
When he had finished producing the last pieces of siege equipment provided by the War Machines structure he unlocked a hidden build!
He had unlocked the [Black Powder & Projectile Factory]!
[Black Powder & Projectile Factory]: Produces black powder and projectiles to be used in rifles, artillery, and explosives. [locked until: one of each siege equipment is produced, mineral mine [consumes: Niter, sulfur, charcoal, iron]
Once Ben had built the [Hidden] Black Powder & Projectile Factory it unlocked two other Hidden Builds.
[Black Powder Rifle Manufacturer]: Produces both muzzle and breech-loading rifles with rifled and smooth bores. Many historic models to choose from along with a custom design menu to upgrade, modify, or create.
[Artillery Breech Loader Factory]: Produces breech loader rifled artillery and rifled cannon pieces. The spin imparted by the gun's rifling gives projectiles directional stability and increased range. Loading from the rear of the gun leaves the crew less exposed to enemy fire.
Compared to the damage a high-level spell could deal these new structures did not impress Ben all that much. Ben was also confident that his Elven archers could completely outperform and army carrying black powder rifles.
It would be different story for any of the other kingdoms to have this technology available to them, it would be a huge game changer for them. Two thousand of their commoners holding black powder rifles would storm across the original eight kingdoms as an unstoppable force.
What did excite him about these hidden structures was he could finally build Warships!
The reason he could not build them before was he did not have a way to make black powder, projectiles, or the breech loader deck guns they used.
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Ben walked north to the tunnel through the mountains. At the end of the tunnel was his hidden harbor which looked like a small village now. There was a system Restaurant, Market, and other entertainment structures built there near the Naval Barracks.
These new places were built to keep his Naval troops entertained when they were not out exploring in the yacht. They could always walk into Dragonshome when they were on leave but these facilities provided them with a closer source of food and entertainment.
Just having received the news of a new landmass and the hostile cultivators, Ben had come here to talk with his Naval Captain and to attempt to build a new Warship.
At the Steam Shipyard, Ben opened its menu and went to the Warships category. This category currently offered four available classes.
There was the [Battleship Class], [Destroyer Class], [Cruiser Class], and a [Ironclad-barge Class]. The Battleship and the Destroyer class were monstrous sized ships which needed a small town of people to run them.
The Battleship Class is 650 ft long and 70 ft wide. It was way more ship than Ben currently needed.
He only wanted a Warship that had the capability to sink aggressive ships and to have the option of attacking land targets. The smallest available class is the Ironclad-barge class.
This class was designed more as a river ship and was too low in the water to use on long ocean journeys. From the description, it was the same type of all iron ship used by the US during the civil war.
They looked like a turtle in the water and have small side hatch doors where guns can shoot from the inside of the ship. Ben remembered a photo in one of his military history books of the CSS Virginia and this Ironclad-barge Class should be a close copy to its design.
[CSS Virginia] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Virginia]
Since the Ironclad-barge Class could not be used in open ocean waters the next option is the Cruiser Class.
Ben clicked on it and began construction of one Cruiser. Ben looked over the ships specs as he shivered over the amount of resources that were just removed from his Warehouse to build it.
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[Cruiser]:
Length: 350 ft
Beam: 50 ft
Draft: 20 ft
Propulsion 4 x 600 psi boilers
2 geared steam turbines
[Equipped with]:
1 mobile Power Plant
1 mobile Water Treatment Facility
1 mobile Waste Treatment Facility
1 mobile Trash Incinerator
1 mobile Warehouse
1 mobile Market
[Armament]:
[10x] Mark 16 5" 54 caliber guns
[8x] Mark 8 12" 50 caliber guns
[Prerequisite: locked until [Artillery Breech Loader Factory]
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'This thing better be impressive! I just dumped enough metal into this damn thing to armor and arm fifty thousand troops!'
This ship was going to take a few days to be built due to the sheer size of it. Ben left the Steam Shipyard and walked over to the Naval Barracks to sit down with the captain he had recruited to command his exploration Yacht.
The captain explained they had found a landmass nine hundred miles northeast of this continent. The Yacht had come up to it from the south and followed its coastline eastward. As they followed the coastline they discovered a large island just south of the newly discovered landmass.
The captain decided to have the Yacht circumnavigate the large island before they continued to follow the larger landmass coastline future west. When the Yacht sailed along the eastern coast of the island a wooden ship came out of a large bay and sailed to intercept the Yacht.
The occupants on the ship claimed to be cultivators and were angered by the Yacht sailing into their waters. They set their eyes on taking the Yacht and made claims it was now theirs since it had trespassed into their territory.
When the captain refused to surrender the boat they attempted to board the Yacht. The captain swiftly left the island to immediately return home to report the aggressive actions of those cultivators.
Ben informed the naval captain he was currently building a warship and they would use it to travel to the new landmass. For now, he told him and his men to relax and he would inform him soon of when they would set out to explore this new land. The new Warship would allow them some firepower to sink any aggressive ships who chose to confront them as they explored the new lands.
For the new Cruiser Warship to be built Ben had to head back into Dragonshome and make a stop at the Artillery Breech Loader Factory. The Steam Shipyard could make the actual ship but the guns that would be mounted on its decks would need to be produced here.
Ben opened the [Artillery Breech Loader Factory] menu and began production of ten Mark 16 5" guns and eight naval guns and eight Mark 8 12" guns.
From there he had to step next door to the [Black Powder & Projectile Factory] to begin production of the black powder, shell casings, primers, and projectile shells to used to make the ammunition for the Cruiser Warship.
'It had been a couple weeks now since I have made my rounds to each of the capitals to check in on my businesses. They should be bringing in money by now I would think? If I'm lucky I may collect enough to finish a few projects I had previously started and still haven't finished yet.' Ben pondered after beginning production of two thousand artillery shells for each of the Cruiser deck guns.
Ben began to cast his Zoom spell to teleport to Goldcrest first and check in on how things were there before continuing to his other places of business across the continent.