Summoning the Holy Sword

“Alright, explain to me. What is this?”

Rhode knocked on the air — Of course, to everyone else, there wasn’t anything there. Mini Bubble Gum and Gillian remained silent for a while and didn’t speak. Instead, it was Canary who replied to Rhode’s question.

“This is my suggestion oh? Leader, what do you think?”

“It’s fine.”

Rhode rolled his eyes hopelessly. He extended his hand and pointed towards the ‘Fortress blueprint’ before his eyes. In fact, the exterior of this Fortress seemed very similar to the Fortress that Rhode built in game. However, there were many modifications to it — Observing from the top, the entire Fortress looked like a pentagram and with Canary’s design, four of the five pointed-corners of this pentagram linked up ingeniously with the junction of the Misty Mountains peak. Furthermore, the peak of Misty Mountain was steep to being with, and this design extending from the Fortress to the peak acted as a natural barrier. A conical tower was divided into two layers, erecting at the tip of the pentagram and the inside junction, with the purpose of observing the surrounding movements and guarding against potential threats.

On the outer side of the pentagram walls, Canary specially designed a path for the river stream flowing from the nearby mountains. This river stream would lead into a circular circumference around the Fortress as a form of protection. On the inner side of the Fortress, Canary eventually forgo the European castle-style architecture because after all, this place was still a guild Fortress and not a political center. Although players may like flashy objects, the mercenaries wouldn’t have the patience to climb a few hundred steps to report to their leader on their missions results. Furthermore, the white paved floor with red carpet was somewhat too extravagant for these mercenaries.

So, on the center floor of the architecture, Canary unusually chose a simple military design model and designed a square-shaped flat roof fort in the interior of the pentagram. Other than the main fort with four floors, the remaining three forts only had three floors. On the highest points of these forts, each had their own upper-air accesses to the five inner watchtowers. In other words, if there were any emergencies, the mercenaries would only need to pass through these upper-air accesses in order to reach the watchtowers in the shortest period of time. As for the other areas, they were divided into the five sharp-corners with commercial areas, manufacturing areas, living areas and passageway reserved for transit respectively.

Of course, after removing these exterior architectures, it was necessary for a Fortress to have an underground water treatment system or some sort but these weren’t in the considerations of Canary. As a student in liberal arts, she wasn’t experienced in architectures. However, luckily, Canary’s design of the Fortress was placed onto the blueprints with built in foundations in the construction system. The underground water and living facilities were already planned and Rhode didn’t need to trouble over them.

Of course, strictly speaking, this Fortress itself was still lacking. After all, this was only a Fortress at its beginning and according to Rhode’s choice to upgrade his guild in the future, the Fortress would have newer transformations and choices. In the game, after a player guild constructed a Fortress, a pathway similar as the talent tree would appear. The guild leader would need to decide if his Fortress would be emphasizing on attack or defense. As the choices differ, the growth of the Fortress would also be diverse. Moreover, after the guild increased their levels, they could unlock massively different buildings and spaces.

Not only that, if guild leaders were lucky in game, they could even trigger the special guild mission and get their hands on some rare Fortress equipment. Just like Rhode in Starlight Fortress before, he once obtained the ‘Holy Defense Crystal Tower’ and magical beings similar to the Golem Guards. These were the rewards for the guild missions. Some of them were long-lost powerful weapons and protective systems while some were blueprints for certain systems — The latter worthed much more than the former.

However, Rhode didn’t have the mood to be concerned over these things. His Fortress was impoverished and it would be good enough for those patrolling mercenaries on the watchtowers to even hold bow and arrows. With his current Fortress levels, even the most basic defensive weapon like the ballista was still locked, not to even mention other aspects.

However, apart from these deficiencies, this Fortress was fitting of Rhode’s expectations on the exterior. Its practicality was high, solid and strong. Also, the city walls in the form of the pentagram not only provided more turn-around time for the mercenaries but also provided strong protections. Whereas for the shape of the pentagram, any attackers would find it difficult to breakthrough no matter from which aspect. On the other hand, such a gorgeous form definitely fulfilled the maidens’ vanity. After all, a Fortress with such exteriors and accompanied with the upper-air routes connecting the watchtowers seemed beautiful and majestic.

After looking through Canary’s suggestions, Rhode nodded in satisfaction. However, he proceeded to amend a portion of it. He increased the acreage of the living and commercial areas while decreased the manufacturing territory. Not only that, he specially re-planned the city walls and sealed a corner of it. That corner would be for Lapis to manufacture alchemy equipment in the future. The guild’s development would rely highly on this young lady’s mastery on alchemy and since she’s a trump card for Rhode, he naturally needed to protect her well.

“Okay.”

After Rhode completed modifying the blueprint, he heaved a sigh of relief. He carefully scanned through once more to ensure there weren’t any mistakes before nodding in satisfaction.

“So then, what do you intend to name this Fortress, Leader?”

What came next was the highlight.

“Name?”

Rhode was baffled as he didn’t consider this matter before. In fact, Rhode didn’t have much talent in naming things. Just like when he initially named his guild as Starlight, all he did was to lift his head towards the sky and thought of the name after seeing the stars.

“Don’t name it as Starlight Fortress like you did in the game, Leader. I can’t stand that kind of typical name anymore.”

Before Rhode spoke, Mini Bubble Gum was first to grumble.

“Many outsiders said our Fortress’ name wasn’t that nice. I also agree that the name wasn’t suave enough — How about we name it Roman Fortress?”

“… Do you think this is good? Bubble?”

“I think that sounds good, or how about we call it Achilles Fortress? This sounds really cool.”

“… Gillian, what do you think?”

Rhode held his hand against his forehead after hearing Mini Bubble Gum’s confident answer and proceeded to check with the others for their opinions.

“Hmm… If I am to choose. Master, what do you think about Storm Fortress or Thunder Throne? Don’t you think this gives others a powerful vibe?”

“… Forget it. Canary, what about you?”

“I think that maybe Nyere or Miscino sounds better, Leader. These names sound really mysterious right?”

It seemed there’s nothing good coming out from the three of them.

“Forget it. We’ll stop here. I’ll think of a name later. Canary, you can begin building the Summon Gate now.”

“Yes, Leader.”

Rhode helplessly shook his head and shut down the mental communications with them. After withdrawing his thoughts, Rhode stepped out of his room and beckoned for Joey.

“Boss, what’s up?”

“Gather everyone. I have something to say.”

“Now?”

“Yes, now.”

Joey scratched his head but eventually nodded and quickly left.

Got to say, as a Thief, Joey’s movements were really quick. After a short while, the mercenaries that were spread all around were gathered at a spot. Some of them had been patrolling and some were having their naps — Anne was one of the perfect examples. When she stood before Rhode, the eyes on this brat weren’t even fully opened yet.

“Oo… What’s the matter… Leader… Aah…”

Resting her head on Lize’s shoulder, Anne’s eyes were half shut. She was nodding off restlessly as if she was sleepwalking with the God of Dreams.

However, Rhode wasn’t fussing over this. He looked at Anne and hopelessly shook his head before shifting his gaze towards everyone.

“I’ve gathered all of you here not for anything else, but for this Fortress. I guess everyone is aware that this is our territory now and I have decided to reconstruct the Fortress.”

The mercenaries exchanged looks with one another and only after a few moments, one of the mercenaries curiously and worriedly raised his hand and asked.

“Sir, you decided to rebuild the Fortress now? This… would it be too rush? After all, this place…”

The mercenary didn’t continue but the surrounding crowd understood his concerns.

Indeed, no one would object if it was only touching up small areas with some stones or trees, or perhaps wipe out some old pieces of furniture. The mercenaries spent most of their years outdoors and they were all equipped with such common knowledge — However, the damage on this Fortress was too devastating, especially after the explosion that happened from removing the passageway ritual where almost a portion of the Fortress had been entirely blasted upside down. Perhaps even professionals would shake their heads and sigh at the sight of such a large scale. So what could these mercenaries even do?

Moreover, this ghostly place had no bricks, tiles or even mud. What could they even do without them?

“Oh, all of you don’t have to worry about this.”

However, Rhode seemed to read their minds as he gestured for them to not be concerned.

“I won’t let all of you do these work. Just leave them to me. But, in order to avoid dangers, I hope all of you can leave this place temporarily.

“Leave temporarily?”

The mercenaries were astonished, even Marlene curiously gazed at Rhode. At this moment, only Lize’s eyes suddenly brightened, as if she thought of something.

“So then, what do you need us to do, Sir?”

“Very simple.”

Rhode effortlessly answered the mercenaries’ queries.

“For all your safety, I hope all of you can temporarily retreat and safeguard the back of the mountain. I will only need half a days’ time… Of course, for this little surprise, I hope all of you wouldn’t peek.”