“Next, please.” Qiu Yue yawned in between the interviews of the professional goblins. It was not going as smoothly as she’d expected.
“Maybe I have too many expectations on them…” Qiu Yue thought to herself when another goblin craftsman came to showcase his work.
“Milady, we feel that your selection is a little too strict. We barely managed to find anyone to your liking.” The Goblin Finance Advisor whispered to her. He, together with the other two goblin advisors sat on the panel of judges (though their votes were not as important as Qiu Yue’s). So far, the number of approved goblins could be counted on one hand.
“But I feel it’s not like I am asking for anything impossible. The only requirement was to produce a list of their work experiences. Anyone in their line of business should have at least some sort of notable achievements. Present some sample of what they created or have a letter of recommendation.” Qiu Yue remarked casually.
It was not her that was cruel, but her Sub System that had been secretly rating each of the goblin professionals and most ended up on the lower side of the scale.
At the same time, it also filtered out anybody who lied about their resume or achievements. Qiu Yue didn’t know how it was able to do that. Her best theory was that the Sub System had been cross referencing some raw data it had received from the various goblin advisors about a few days back when they were touring around the various bureaus.
Suddenly, a portal appeared during one of the interview intervals and out came none other than Jin himself. Qiu Yue immediately understood it had to be something urgent enough to warrant an extended break between the numerous interviews.
The advisors agreed upon seeing Jin, who still held the title of Special Royal Advisor, and decided to break for half an hour. “I’m sorry to disappoint. In the end, there were only a few that stood out, and even they weren’t as fantastic as I hoped. A magical clay…craftsman, a stone mason- Oh, we surprisingly found a weaponsmith and her cousin, a runesmith.” Qiu Yue noted.
“However, that was the one who stood out among the most. If I am not mistaken, the goblin runesmiths are something similar to our inscribers. Instead of paper charms that would merge with our weapons or bodies, they place their magic into rocks and metals and imbue these runes into the weapon or use those stones directly.” Qiu Yue explained while drinking the bitter tea the Goblins provided.
“If I had known that she was one of the few exceptional ones, I’d have asked her for more details. We had limited the interviews to a maximum of 5 minutes per goblin, but I will definitely get back to her soon… After I finish looking through this next batch of goblins.” Qiu Yue commented which Jin acknowledged.
He loved her hardworking nature and appreciated that she was doing her best. After her report, Jin told her about the purpose of him rushing here and the dire circumstances that were revealed by Moloch.
“I see, in that case, we will have to hurry with our plans. Have you already made a decision which of those layouts you’d like to choose to implement the city foundations? We can work out some more, each with their own pros and cons.” Qiu Yue asked as she took out her phone, ready to show Jin the various city templates they have added.
“The first one we’ve shown you is the most balanced, but if you have any special preference, like focusing on industry or agriculture, we have some prepared. All of the city layouts use up the same amount of allocated land, so that won’t be a problem.” Before Qiu Yue could pass her phone to Jin, he suddenly refused and asked the System a very simple question right in front of her.
“System, since you are partially the owner of the Dungeon City Fortress, is there any limit how high we are able to build the city up or how low we are allowed to go?” Jin asked. Qiu Yue noticed that Jin had a certain glint in his eyes, which could only mean he had come up with another one of his weird crazy ideas.
“Please wait…” The System remained silent for about ten seconds before it replied to Jin once again. “There are no height restrictions if User wishes to build skyscrapers, there won’t be any problems. The same holds true if User wishes to dig deep.” The System replied.
“It will be impossible to reach anything like the core of the planet, but there is nothing preventing User to go as low as technologically possible. Nevertheless, certain restrictions still apply. Most notably, the allotted acres of land by the Dungeon Core cannot be extended. If User has planned to build an underground Kingdom, he won’t be able to stretch it out beyond his own confines of the allocated land.” The System replied.
“Thank you, but that was not what I had in mind. Again, are you completely, 100% sure that as long as we remain within our borders, there is no sort of depth restrictions?” Jin asked for an affirmation, and the System replied affirmatively. Jin quickly turned around at Qiu Yue as his face turned wide in glee.
“That…is a rather terrifying expression. You briefly looked like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.” Qiu Yue’s shoulders stiffened and Jin’s grin got longer and wider as if to prove her point. “Alright, Mr Cat, colour me curious. What exactly do you have in mind?” Qiu Yue asked as she offered him a seat at the table.
“Nah, I think it’s best to return to the Dungeon Maker for this. It should be easier if I illustrate it to you.” Jin sniggered as the System created a portal for them. Upon reaching the Dungeon Maker, he used a pen provided by the System. (Though he called it Creator Pen or sometimes the Doraemon Pen since it reminded him of the blue cat robot that brought changes and wonders to his human friend’s world.)
A virtual whiteboard console came out, and he began to draw out what he had envisioned for his new city. All along the System, Qiu Yue and even Moloch had only ever planned about what kind of city they should build to achieve the highest productivity, highest efficiency while ensuring that they would be able to defend themselves from external threats.
Jin had been wrecking his brains every now and again to think how best to overcome this bland idea. That was why he created the Escape City Dungeon Instance to have a feel how City Building felt. Because it was a dungeon instance, the System was giving Jin all the tips and reminders on creating the city instance.
But the more he build the Escape City Dungeon Instance, the more unsatisfied he felt. There was something missing and the novelty of a modern city was boring to him. He saw how mature cities like London tried to incorperate futuristic modern buildings in their old and traditional landscape. It felt foreign, surreal,but somewhat dull too. However, as Jin enjoyed a break after the release of the Escape City Dungeon Instance, a small idea had been grown out of his mind.
He was happy that he could use New York as a template for his Dungeon City, even though this somewhat limited his imagination. However, why shouldn’t he create something as fun as the dungeon instance for the Dungeon City Fortress? Who exactly stated that they had to follow a certain standard for their city? Wasn’t the Dungeon World full of unexplainable magic, monsters and mysterious beings living in it? Wouldn’t a city defying all norms add to that charm?
“It’s like we were being too constrained by the fact that we want to follow the best examples from this world. But you’ve seen how the goblins still can go on with their lives in their unique slow medieval world setting. Yet without their expertise and our help, we wouldn’t have created something as unimaginable like the Sandroku golems.” Jin started his pitch as he continued to draw the city layout for Qiu Yue to see.
“We have a freaking Fiery Demonic Queen Sage, a Legendary Battle Saint, the Strongest Swordsman in our century, an Original Bellator with the powers of nine…,well currently eight other former bellators under his command and the most versatile family heirloom backing me up. Let’s not forget a Red Panda Cutie and a Sweet Penguin Ninja Queen Chef. So why are we limiting ourselves by being so conventional in our thinking?” Jin asked rhetorically as Qiu Yue finally saw the outline of the city Jin was painting.
“You must be kidding me.” Qiu Yue placed her hands on her head as she pulled her hair backwards in disbelief. Now she understood why Jin would need the Dungeon Maker to lay the concept out for her. This thing before her would be impossible by any modern standards. “I think I might fall in love with you again. You never cease to amaze me.” Qiu Yue blurted out loud and Jin laughed. (Although the System took Qiu Yue’s statement very seriously)
Qiu Yue went closer as she observed Jin’s drawings on the three dimensional whiteboard. The layout slowly came to life with the Creator Pen with each stroke from Jin. To her surprise, the Empire Building Sub System was already analysing and imposing its results and marked the most ideal locations for various buildings, colour coded by industry on the layout itself.
At the very end of the rough draft, both the System and Empire Building Sub System concluded that it was indeed feasible to create this magical city Jin made. Qiu Yue took some time to have a good look before exhaling a deep breath out. The threshold between Insanity and Genius only differed by a hair’s length.
“The city will be broken up into many various floating platforms, each platform will be split into modules of their own according to their designated purposes.” Jin began to explain his concept. “That way, we can concentrate on each module separately while splitting up the city platforms based on how much percentage we wish to allocate them for their purpose,” Jin added and Qiu Yue became very excited.
“But our previous city models were based on trade, commercial businesses, agriculture, scientific research and military. There was no focus on residential areas, so we were planning to incorporate housing in every sector like shophouses or underground flats. With your new model, there seems to be nothing left for residential housing.” Qiu Yue felt the need to point it out, though she suspected the bottom part of the layout was the answer. And she was correct, as Jin pointed a laser from the Creator Pen at the bottom of the drafted plan.
“That is where we will build our Underwater Sea City Rapt… Pand-Atlantis. Its main purpose is going to be for residential use. Without any depth limit, we will be able to accommodate a quasi unlimited number of people. It should also prove to be much better than living underground. With an underwater sea city, we can also utilise inscriptions or perhaps…runes? To make people able to breathe underwater. That way they wouldn’t even feel too claustrophobic as well. ” Jin replied as he expanded the 3D layout.
“Besides, I think we all prefer fishes swimming around out apartments than insects crawling in it right?” Jin giggled as he imagined a large whale hovering above the sea apartments.
“So basically you have a floating sky city for work purposes and a residential underwater sea city for this concept?” Qiu Yue tried to confirm Jin’s ambition for the Dungeon City Fortress.
“Yeap! The floating city platforms can be equipped with cannons and fortress like defences even though we said we did not need them initially. This way, we already drive our enemies to divide their forces. Not only will they have to handle the sky city platform, but they also have to watch out from our retribution from below. ” Jin pointed at the entrances and showed how they could disrupt an incoming invasion almost immediately.
And that also means the invading army requires not only sky force but an equally good underwater sea fleet to be able to attack our cities. The nature of our cities alone should hopefully discourage most enemies from trying to assault us directly.” Jin explained proudly and Qiu Yue was unable to find any fault with this plan.
“And see here, all those statue models at the entrances of the ‘dungeon’? When you told me about your magical clay craftsman, it reminded me of THAT Qing Emperor’s tomb where he had those battalions of clay soldiers as part of his grave. What if we were to replicate that idea? But on a much larger MAGICAL scale.” Jin started to smirk in evil delight and Qiu Yue understood where he was coming from.
“So thousands of replaceable magical clay soldiers that could be activated in a moments notice when the invading army will mistakenly assume it’s just part of the dungeon’s interior décor? Oh! Oh! That is interesting!! Hey! How about…say we put a gigantic clay Chinese dragon here trying to take off and surround itself around the floating cities too? You know, the big crazy ass one from Dragoonball Y.” Qiu Yue suggested.
“That is fantastic…and let’s make it look like it is trying to fight with…hehehe Pandajilla near the seashores!” Jin added and Qiu Yue was tingling with excitement at the kind of ideas they could think for their defences.
“I am not waiting, I am going back there and employ as many magical clay craftsmen, masons etc… I will also get the goblin army as soon as possible from the King too.” Qiu Yue said as she asked the System to create a portal to return to the Goblin World.
“But what about loyalty issues and such?” Jin brought up a valid question which Qiu Yue winked at him.
“Don’t worry about that. Look forward to a bunch of eager goblin workers.” Qiu Yue’s show of confidence relieved Jin as he now entered the guest instance of the Sanctum of Worlds where he had been keeping the Orcs.
It was time for the Orcs to earn their pay and place.
