It was a rocky start, but somehow, the Orcs managed to keep their temper in check as they worked alongside the goblins. The Goblins were surprisingly agile and useful when it came to more delicate tasks such as fixing the lights or electrical wiring, all dictated by the Empire Building Sub System. Oh and speaking of the Goblins…
A few hours ago, the incoming goblin army who would be aiding in Jin with the construction of the city, were briefed by Dread Reaver and Wyrstriker on the ‘System’. They explained that Jin had employed a wide area magic that would allow commands and instructions to be given within their head. All they had to do was just to follow the orders from the voice in them.
The goblins soldiers who also went through the signing of the contracts thought they knew what to expect until they reached Dungeon City Fortress and noticed two things that made their brains go haywire.
Large floating land platforms above their heads and Orcs. Lots of Military Orcs.
Some of the soldiers kept their wits as they had been warned beforehand, that there would be other races helping with the construction and only placed their hand on their weapon should they need it. However, the goblin footmen, especially the younger ones unsheathed their weapons instantly and were ready to fight at the word of the sons of Goblin Generals… until Wyrstriker came forward and shook hands with the Black Disaster. It was almost impossible and in their eyes, it felt like it was betrayal until Nubwort threw a wrench at them:
“What you puny green noses looking at? Get to work for Master Jin!” The Black Disaster shouted and the Goblins were stunned.
“This is one secret we had withheld from you guys, but until you saw it with your own eyes, you wouldn’t have believed it. Master Jin had graciously healed those orcs and now they are in his debt. They shouldn’t do anything stupid such as attacking you guys. But if they do, you will be protected by us and Master Jin’s miracle magic.” Dread Reaver reassured the goblin soldiers and the craftsmen who came in last.
“Oh, but if you wish to spar against them, there will be a time for that too, trust me, heh.” Dread Reaver added before he left.
On a separate note, the goblin mages and combat engineers had yet to be selected by their battalion commanders and the contracts weren’t prepared yet. Why? Because Qiu Yue was busy sleeping in her room (with time dilation on to match the Goblin World) after spending nearly a day signing each individual contract of the goblin soldiers.
Thus, they were projected to arrive at least a day later in the Dungeon World before they started working on the new customised Sandroku Golems for use in the construction of the Pand-Altantis. Right now, the entire workforce concentrated on creating the foundations for the floating industrial cities which was proceeding rather smoothly.
The work was so simple as stated by the Goblin Generals’ sons. It was basically so idiot proof that the soldiers had no qualm following it to the dot. The monsters only needed to keep up with the orders the Empire Building Sub System had created to build the city up from scratch.
Through logical analysis and based on proven theories, the buildings built by the System would be nothing short but superior. It was made to withstand a certain degree of damage and would be easy to rebuild again, should the need arise. As what it does as always, Modular building. Divide the heavy workload into various small tasks and conquer them individually.
This particular System ensured the least amount of dissent and increased the teamwork between the Orcs and Goblins, as both races had differing opinions on how to ‘properly’ build things.
The Orcs preferred big bombastic kind of architecture whereas the goblins preferred to save and cut costs on building materials. For the Orcs, only the honourable ones were allowed to design or even build, so they used the opportunity to ensure that their building would be extravagant as a testimony of their abilities, and for future generations to try and improve on it.
The goblins, being smaller in comparison and more pragmatic due to their nature, did not need a lot of space. While there was a minority who considered it a challenge to design houses as minimalistic as possible, the majority would not complain about building to have some extra room. The two extremes were forced to change their views when the Empire Building Sub System ordered them to do things the Sub System way, and it was refreshing for both races.
Despite the aforementioned (enforced) teamwork, scuffles between the Orcs and Goblins did happen, but they were quickly broken up by the Minotaurs before any serious damage could be done. The Minotaurs were larger than the Orcs and had more strength than an average Orc soldier which made them ideal to intervene on the behest of their Lord Moloch. (Somehow the cosplay they were wearing made them even more menacing then they should be. The Orcs did not know how to argue or fight against them.)
Although the Orcs could have overpowered the Minotaurs given their massive numbers, they were previously informed by their officers and generals that Nubwort himself would take strict action against any Orc who initiated the scuffles with the goblins. (He knew how prone young hotblooded orcs were quick to anger. Nubwort did not want to lose face by losing his Master’s bet. The looming threat of Kraft was also quite effective)
Hence, when the Minotaurs broke them up, the Orcs were immediately asked to leave the vicinity and work elsewhere to cool off. Unlike the orcs, the goblins were informed by the Goblin General’s sons not to create any trouble at any circumstances with the promise of bonuses such as more gold or a custom made weapon/armour at the end of their work.
It was a valuable learning point for the system to see that the Orcs were more receptive to punishment while the goblins preferred the carrot to the stick.
The craftsman, on the other hand, were not subjected to the strict commands of the Sub System. Instead, they were given general tasks to do according to what they specialised in. For example, the magical clay craftsmen were each given the order to create a sample clay soldier for the Sub System to analyse. The best work would also be awarded an additional monetary incentive.
It did not take long before the craftsmen informed Moloch of the quantity and the raw materials as well as the tools required. Because they did not have a proper place to create their products, the goblin soldiers and the minotaurs assisted them in building a few makeshift workplaces to start working.
However, not all were satisfied with this particular arrangement. Jesta, a reputable Goblin Runesmith, demanded that she and her cousin Hespesta, a Weaponsmith, had a proper workplace to create their products. “I was made to believe that the Half Masked Humanoids have the best technology and you want me to work in the dirt?!” Jesta complained so much that even Moloch gave up calming her down and requested for Jin’s intervention.
Jin, who was in the midst of preparing to design the upgrade of the Recovery instance was interrupted by the System, and came in to see two angry goblins pouting. His mood was not the best, especially when he had felt a sudden inspiration on what to do for the Recovery instance, only for him to lose his thoughts at the interruption.
However, it was also on his behalf that the System was instructed to refrain from using the Enforcement Loyalty Order except for emergency situations. From what he knew, the two craftsmen (Actually it was mainly Jesta) were unhappy that they had seemingly been cheated by Qiu Yue and demanded a suitable and comfortable workplace or else she and Hespesta would not perform anything that Jin’s magic instructed them to do so.
Jin felt a migraine coming up almost immediately when he heard it. He clearly understood that it was important how he handled this. He needed to play this cool. If he allowed those two haughty goblin craftsmen to get their way, others would want similar treatment too. But he also knew that Qiu Yue and the Sub System had chosen the best goblin craftsmen in the kingdom and they weren’t wrong to ask for the best equipment to maintain the quality of products they create or excel even further.
“You are right, all you have is makeshift workshops. Is there anything wrong with that?” Jin, who had entered without his mask, as he saw no reason to continue the farce in the Dungeon World, had decided on the way he would intervene.
“Who the hell are you?! I wish to speak to Jin and not some human trash serving under him.” Jesta snapped at Jin, only increasing the odds of his incoming migraine.
“I am nobody just like you in this place,” Jin answered as calmly as he could while folding his arms. He stared her straight into her eyes while emitting his chi encapsulating the two. She and Hespesta immediately fell to their knees and started to cough a little before Jin released the pressure.
“If you want to play with his toys, you will first need to prove that you can make do with these makeshift workshops.” Jin purposely said it out loud for the other craftsmen to hear.
“Haven’t we proven ourselves enough in Lady Qiu Yue’s examination? Why do we need to prove ourselves yet again?” Jesta replied with a shout though Hespesta was trying her best to calm her cousin down. They were in another foreign land, who knows how far away from home and the Orcs around them were giving them ugly stares of disgust.
“Prove? You call those examinations proof that you are worthy? Don’t make me laugh. All you have proven is that you are worthy of our interest. Don’t forget it is US giving YOU the chance to learn OUR technology. ” Jin was getting irritated even though he knew it might potentially make the situation worse.
“You have the chance to acquire the knowledge you would think its impossible!!” Jin stated blatantly. While he did not like playing the arrogant bad guy, he figured that it would be better, in the long run, to prevent them from getting ahead of themselves.
He snapped his fingers twice, and a piece of inscription charm appeared in his hands. “Tell me, can you even make something this with your runes, Ms Runesmith?” He picked up a stick which a nearby Magical Clays craftsman had just made and slapped the inscription charm on to it.
After which, Jin walked a few metres away from them and ensured that there was no one in front of him. In less than a second, he activated the inscription charm with his chi. Suddenly a burst of fire engulfed the stick without burning Jin’s hand in any way. Jin turned his head to make sure that Jesta was seeing the result of that and he was quite amused at her shocked expression.
Previously, Jin had asked his three goblins to tell him more about Runesmiths and they confirmed that they were similar to inscribers in every way except for the medium they used, which in turn resulted in one particular aspect that separated them from the inscribers. The runes could be activated by anyone, even a goblin baby. Since no chi was involved, even a non-cultivator from Jin’s world could use it.
Instead of chi, it used the magic that was within the rune itself so it was not wrong to consider a rune something similar to a magic battery. The task of the Runesmith was to create a rune and its corresponding magic he or she wished to insert.
With more proficiency, a Runesmith could ensure a higher quality of magic within the rune or an increasing number of uses in it. Naturally, the most proficient Runesmiths were able to ensure both. Jesta was one of the geniuses belonging to the particular category. She was hailed as one of the Kingdom’s finest and able to insert any Grade four equivalent magic into a basic rune.
This exceptional ability clearly put her on top of other runesmiths. The knowledge and expertise to create runes of that power weren’t secret so all it came down to was ability. It was easy to imbue an elemental type into a Rune corresponding to Grade one magic, but even the ablest could at most execute a Grade two magic on a basic rune.
If they wished to make a more powerful Grade three or four, those runesmiths would need higher quality stones or minerals which were hard to find in their world (but exceedingly common in the System’s market)
Jesta did not know how exactly Jin performed his show though she realised straight away that it was similar to her runes just that it was in paper form. She could sense a bit of foreign magical energy or some kind of energy transfer into the paper that was already embedded as symbols on the clay stick before the burst of fire appeared.
“You think this is it?” Jin asked after he had given her time to analyse what he had done. He slammed the clay stick down to the ground, and an immensely large fire blast was emitted out of the clay stick which scared the hell out of the goblins behind Jin, thinking that the fire blast was going to backfire at them.
“If you are smart enough, you will get what I mean.” Jin came out of the fire, without suffering any injuries as he threw the clay stick to her and she looked over the symbols on the clay stick, still glowing for a while before they went out.
It was a direct challenge from this human and a show of power to signal the others not to mess with them especially not to harbour any intentions against the human in front of them, thinking that he could be taken advantage of. However, Jin was not going to leave without giving them something to ponder about.
“We do not expect things to be done fast from you craftsmen. We understand items of quality take time to make. But for now, we want to see what you are capable of, without access to rare or high tier products. Show us decent results as ordered by the voice in your head, and you might just earn yourself a brand new luxury workshop and a wealth of knowledge that you’d never have the chance to touch upon otherwise.” Jin saw that other goblins and orcs were looking at him from above the floating platforms and he nodded at them too.
“That includes all of you out there! If you think that you deserve better treatment, prove it through your actions!” Jin stopped and looked around him once again since it was addressed to all of them. As if a switch had been flipped, all the goblin craftsmen began to work with that goal in mind. Even Jesta kept her peace and decided to work as instructed…for now.
In the meantime, Nubwort and the Orcs had witnessed Jin’s show of strength and they respected the way he managed the situation. It proved once more that Jin stood above them all.
“Heh, that kid. He understood how to handle both Orcs and Goblins at the same time.” Nubwort thought to himself before he continued to ‘urge’ his fellow orc comrades to pick up the pace.
