Dead Tired - Volume Four - Chapter Four

Chapter Four

“Ah, I see, so this is the place?” I asked.

“Indeed, your boneliness. After conducting a full geological survey of the region as well as calculating distances to and from Yu Xiang proper, and of course testing the ambient magical energy in the air, this location was determined to be the best. Further surveys conducted at greater ranges may yet discover a better location, but then range would become an issue.”

Captain Seventeen seemed quite pleased with himself, or as pleased as a skeleton could look. I could understand why.

The location was some three kilonecrometres from Yu Xiang. The nominal capital was slightly to the south and east of here. 

The entire region was atop a plateau, one with a hard break in the terrain that was situation some ways to the west of here.

That had to be the result of some prior geological event. A massive earthquake, perhaps, a shifting of fault lines. In any case, it was some time ago, because much of the ridgeline had been worn out by wind and sand, and there were a few places where the jagged cliff face had turned into more of a sad slope.

This area here, that Seventeen had picked out, was atop a low hill, a low but quite massive hill. It meant a near-constant wind which I imagined was quite warm, and there was a dusting of sand and dust over everything, but it also afforded a nice view of the surroundings. Yu Xiang was atop its own hill of course.

I glanced at the distant city. It was far, but not so far that it was over the horizon. Someone could easily walk from here to there without it being too much of a chore. With a well-built road between the two it would even be enjoyable. And yet the city would be far enough away that the distinction between the two would be clear.

Yes, this was a good choice for a location.

“I suppose we ought to start building this arena and surrounding city, hmm, Captain?”

“Yes, my lord,” Seventeen replied.

Obviously, we were not alone here. Seventeen had brought a platoon of undead, including several officers. There was a squad of ghosts hovering above as well, ready to serve as aerial reconnaissance and some undead carried poles with flags atop them, to mark out what would go where.

“Construction can be amusing, but the initial stages, where all you’re doing is digging holes, can be quite... boring. Oh! But let’s start with something a little more... concrete, shall we?”

“Fantastic wordplay, my lord,” Seventeen said.

“Why thank you. It’s unfortunate that we’re building from stone and not timber. I wood have so many puns then that even I’d grow board of them! Oh-hah!”

Now, a less-astute and long-lived person than I might have wanted to start with the crowning jewel. After all, this permanently-temporary city would be built around a grand arena, and so it was only natural that said arena be the first thing to go up.

I, of course, had millenia of experience under my belt and a lot more above it. I knew better now. “We’ll start with the roads,” I said.

“As you wish!”

I did, so we got to work. Or the undead did, I merely stood around and watched as the foundations of a city’s roadworks were laid out.

It took a few hours, and some time spent in the air using a flight spell, but eventually we had a decent layout.

The arena was to be the centre of the city. It was long and rectangular, and so we surrounded it with wide lanes on all sides. There was room for large buildings all around. I imagined that some would be healthcare, others more administrative, and perhaps we could erect a nice museum or some sort of attraction for the tourists.

Past that, a ring for more commercial buildings. Shops, restaurants, places of trade and small industry that like of which could be contained within a city.

Finally, four large roundabouts.

I liked them, and with the city having a certain square symmetry to it, four only made sense.

Then the housing. A multitude of smaller lots along more narrow roads, all of them spread out from the middle. I made room for larger housing blocks, but I imagined that the more wealthy would desire their own modest homes with a small yard. Space wasn’t missing here, and so we could build quite large.

Then the exterior roads. Four sufficed. It meant four entrances and exits into the city, with the main one, facing Yu Xiang, being slightly larger. We left a wide berth for the city’s outer walls.

I didn’t think they’d be necessary, but if the recent attack proved anything it was that being ready for war wasn’t a terrible idea, regardless of how possible that eventuality might be.

The walls were going to be relatively short but thick, with lots of room to walk across them and angled parapets, as well as rounded towers on the four corners and smaller towers over the gatehouses. 

I wasn’t designing an impenetrable fortress here, but if we were building something meant to last several human lifetimes, then it would make sense to build it well.

“I’m quite pleased with this layout,” I said as I scanned over a map that one of Seventeen’s officers had drawn. “That’s four sectors with some two hundred and fifty modest homes and two dozen larger apartment blocks. A thousand homes total and a hundred larger housing units. Enough to comfortably hold fifteen thousand.”

“That’s quite small, all things considered,” Seventeen said.

“Yes, but this city isn’t meant to house so many. We’ll allow the participants and staff to remain here, but the vast majority of the audience can merely be funneled into the city every morning. I imagine a large part of this area will be occupied by a temporary camp in the near future.”

“That will be difficult to police,” Seventeen said.

“We’ll have to create several sites with space between them, and keep an eye on things, but if people misbehave then we’ll add their corpses to the policing force,” I said before clacking my hands together. “Now! Let’s see if we can make a nice home to start with, shall we?”

Building a small domicile in an instant was far from impossible. First, I ruminated on the design. I’d want something a little open, with a primary entrance at the front and a secondary exit at the rear, perhaps with some small fencing around the sides but with an open front. 

A two-story building was easy enough to construct. And a basement was easier still. It would also help the building remain cool. 

I, obviously, didn’t mind a bit of desert warmth, but I knew that some couldn’t handle it was well. So, these homes would be open, and the rooms would be laid out so as to maximize airflow. The basement being deeper in the ground would allow for some amount of natural cooling as well.

Stone would be the easiest material to work with. Magically moulded stone was difficult to repair, but easy to create. 

Seventeen and I walked over to what was marked out as the first of the housing lots while I considered the order to cast spells in. 

“First, Mold Earth,” I said.

It was a cantrip, easy enough to use, though I put a bit of power into it.

A square of earth plunged downwards into the stoney ground. 

“Next, Wall of Stone, combined with Fabricate.”

A fifth and fourth level spell, respectively. Walls of solid, melted rock rose around the edges of the hole I’d made, then continued to rise upwards. They moved in, then up some more, creating a small balcony above the entranceway. Then hundreds of stone tiles clicked into place with a very satisfying staccato sound.

The final touches were doors and rounded glass windows built on a hinge that would allow them to crack open a little.

The home was complete, and it seemed... actually, quite nice and inviting.

“I left holes in the washroom for plumbing,” I said. “But didn’t create the equipment itself.”

“We can arrange for that,” Seventeen replied. “Will we have a singular water treatment system?”

“Oh, might as well,” I said. “We do want to appear civilized, and there’s nothing more civilized than running water and working washrooms.”

Now, if we could get working magical lanterns up on the streets. And nice walking spaces, then we might have something halfway decent here. 

“This is... going to take some time, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Yes, my lord,” Seventeen replied, though it was entirely rhetorical. 

“I might have to cheat a little. There’s not enough of me here, and certainly I’m not patient enough, to build some thousand homes like this. I’ve got more interesting things to do. Hmm... I might have a solution. But it would require some effort.”

Ironic, that being lazy almost always took so much effort.

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