Chapter 175: The Beginning
And so, the nameless valley territory was officially named High Tower Territory, the town under construction was named Nightlight Town, and the nameless river running through the valley plain was named the River of Luminous Light.
Leon got his wish and became the Temporary Chief Magistrate. His leadership experience and governance ability were indeed excellent. In just over two weeks, he had directed the crowd to complete the reclamation of the cultivated land north of the settlement.
The reclaimed land was far larger than what was needed for 5,000 people because Ace planned to conquer the barbarian tribes in the central Larr Mountains in batches next spring and move them here to serve as slaves to bolster the population and act as the cheapest labor force.
Therefore, land reclamation was the top priority, determining how much barley could be produced next year, which in turn determined how many slaves they could plunder to work for the territory.
Aside from reclamation, Leon organized all Reserve Citizens to teach the barbarian Freemen the common language to accelerate their assimilation.
Barbarians were indistinguishable from people of civilized nations in appearance. They were remnants of the former civilization. After the last world-ending catastrophe, their civilization disappeared, and they were scattered across the old and new continents. Without the leadership of Divine Descendant Nobles, they gradually devolved into barbarians.
Leon, who was directing everyone to work hard on building Nightlight Town, said passionately:
“Everyone work hard! The work team that finishes first gets meat as a reward!”
At night, after two weeks of effort, Ace had upgraded all the Grimoires while retaining their basic framework, adding functions similar to signal base stations.
The sixth page and the spine of every Grimoire were replaced. The spine made from the small horn of the Triple Horned Ox was replaced with a Lesser Mana Stone, created using the Lesser Mana Stone Creation Spell, which had better Mana storage performance and larger capacity.
“The Grimoires are ready. Tomorrow we can begin a new round of Mental Imprint Network construction experiments.”
Ace looked at all the upgraded Grimoires and said with emotion to the mirror image.
Just then, there was a knock, knock on the door of his mud hut. The mirror image touched “Emberlight” on his back and immediately transformed into Sharp’s appearance.
“Your Excellency the Archon, this is Leon. I request an audience.”
Ace had also discovered Leon outside the door through Insight Perception. The mirror image, transformed into Sharp, went to open the door.
After entering the mud hut, Leon first apologized to Ace, then bowed to both Ace and the mirror image.
“Your Excellency the Archon, I apologize for disturbing you so late, but I have some thoughts regarding the territory that I wish to report to you.”
Ace smiled and said to Leon:
“No need to be so formal. Come in and speak.”
Leon didn’t stand on ceremony. After entering, he said directly to Ace:
“My Lord, the barley reclamation fields north of our Nightlight Town have all been reclaimed. As long as we follow the guidance of your Intensive Farming and implement proper irrigation and composting, we should be able to guarantee next year’s harvest without worry.
However, there are several problems now:
First, we lack sufficient livestock such as pigs, horses, cattle, and sheep. Second, we have somewhat few plant seeds here. Third, our territory has no slaves, and other residents require compensation for their work. However, we have not found gold or silver precious metal mines in the mining area north of the territory, only copper, iron, tin, and other metal deposits.
Regarding the lack of precious metals that can serve as currency, I would like to ask for your instructions: can we pay directly with living supplies?”
Hearing this, Ace realized Leon likely already had a plan. He probed further, and it turned out Leon intended to centralize existing living supplies and distribute them based on labor, temporarily replacing currency.
“Since that is the case, why not implement a Work Point System directly? The compensation for the work of every Freeman and Reserve Citizen will be Work Points, used to exchange for essential living supplies such as food, clothing, housing, and transportation.
Go back and draw up a table listing the Work Points for different positions in detail. Wizard Apprentices will not participate in work, but their Work Points should be listed separately and be at a higher tier.
When we plunder slaves next year, we can try implementing the Work Point System among the slaves. by exploiting slave labor to create more means of production, but we must gradually transform slaves into Freemen.
Slaves can become territory Freemen after accumulating a certain amount of Work Points annually for a total of 20 years.
Freemen, Reserve Citizens, and Citizens will gradually use Mana Stone Currency in the future. We will use Mana Stones produced by magical rituals to replace rare metals as the general equivalent.”
Subsequently, Ace chatted with Leon for a while longer, discussing the issues of livestock and seeds. Ace planned to fell trees and build ships next year, organizing a merchant fleet disguised as pirates to plunder population and supplies along the eastern coast of Salia, while also purchasing population and supplies.
The leader of the merchant fleet, Donna’s father Borg, would be a good candidate.
He also constantly worried about his parents and family. Once construction here improved, he would attempt to send a mirror image to infiltrate the Royal City and contact his parents. Perhaps he could stage a pirate attack on the estate and take everyone away.
While thinking, Ace’s conversation with Temporary Chief Magistrate Leon came to an end. He stood up to see Leon out.
Just outside the door, with a bang, Leon stepped on a piece of gravel and fell face-first again.
“Are you alright?”
Ace found it somewhat amusing but asked with concern on the surface.
“I’m fine, Your Excellency the Archon… Please believe me, I am usually… not like this. This… is all an accident!”
Leon seemed to have thrown out his back again. He struggled to crawl, explaining on all fours as he left.
“Truly a hardworking man with super strong self-esteem!”
Ace watched the Chief Magistrate Leon crawling away like an aberrant species and sighed softly.
Morning came, and the sun rose as usual. Sunlight spilled over the city walls under construction in Nightlight Town. This was the standard wall construction style of Medimus City-State.
Ace did not interfere much with the construction and development of the entire town. His focus was not here right now. The research on the mental network and the possibility of life promotion fascinated him endlessly.
He let Leon build and develop according to the outline first. There was no need for too many inventions and creations from his past life, nor was there a need for massive industrialization. As long as it was stable, and within five years the valley population exceeded 10,000, the town prospered, and the infrastructure was complete, that would be enough.
The Ace Estate Five-Year Development Plan given to Leon already summarized a large amount of experience in the construction and development of planting, animal husbandry, handicraft workshops, residential areas, commercial areas, and roads. As long as Leon governed roughly according to the Plan, there wouldn’t be major problems.
As for the general education school, Ace did not plan to build it immediately. He would wait until the town was basically built next year and everything was settled. Then, he would use the Wizard Apprentices he had educated for a year as teachers to educate the students of the general education school.
All of this required time. Ace was not short on time now. He was only 17 years old. He could wait patiently, using 10 or even 20 years to wait for all this to bear fruit.
After all, this is a supernatural world. Power is the foundation of everything. As long as he could achieve the leap in life level, he would possess both time and power.
Thinking this, Ace finished dressing. He created an Ice Crystal Mirror with an incantation, looked at the handsome and robust young man in the mirror, and nodded with satisfaction.
In the clearing at the center of Nightlight Town, the apprentices had been waiting for a long time.
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