CHAPTER 10: THE FIRST BLUEPRINT
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The great hall of Stonecrest no longer smelled of roasting meat and woodsmoke. Now, it was a hospital's cocktail of blood, antiseptic herbs, and the sweet, cloying scent of decay. Luna moved like a ghost between the pallets, her dress stained, her face a mask of compassionate exhaustion. She didn't lead with commands, but with a gentle touch and a calm voice, and the wounded obeyed her without question.
I stood at the head of the hall, where my father's high table usually stood. It had been pushed against the wall to make space. Before me stood the ragged council of Stonecrest: my father, Baron Conrad, looking older than I'd ever seen him; Cassian, his arms crossed, his expression unreadable; Captain Roric, grim and professional; and Old Man Hemmel, the stonemason, clutching his cap in his hands.
The Dragon Baron had returned. Now, he had to govern.
"We held," my father began, his voice raspy. "Thanks to... unprecedented efforts." His eyes flickered to me. "But we are a wounded beast. We cannot withstand another bite."
"The outer village is gone," Roric reported. "The fields are trampled. We have enough grain in the keep's stores for three weeks, maybe a month with strict rationing. Our weapons are chipped, our armor dented. We have sixty-three fighting-fit men. Twice that number wounded."
"Th' eastern wall stands, by some miracle," Hemmel added, his voice full of awe. "But the west curtain is rubble. It'd take fifty men and a season I don't think we have to rebuild it proper."
All eyes settled on me. The weight was immense. They weren't just asking for a plan; they were asking for another miracle.
I closed my eyes, accessing the Omnarch Bazaar. I had 1,100 Plot Points. A fortune, and a pittance.
[Search: Construction, Low-Cost, Rapid Deployment]
The list populated. I ignored the fantastical [Self Assembling Fortress Core: 50,000P] and the impractical [Earth Shaping Ritual Scroll: 2,000P]. My eyes landed on a humble, brilliant solution.
[Rapid Setting Alchemical Concrete Blueprint: 300 Plot Points]
[Requires: Crushed Stone, Sand, Water, [Catalyst: Purified Lime + Minor Earth Aspected Crystal]]
We had the stone and sand in abundance. The catalyst was the key. Purified lime we could make. A Minor Earth Aspected Crystal... I remembered the [Minor Shadow Crystal] I'd looted from the Stalker in the mountains. It wasn't Earth, but the Bazaar's description noted it could be used as a universal, if slightly unstable, catalyst substitute.
[Purchase Confirmed: Rapid-Setting Alchemical Concrete Blueprint.]
[Remaining Points: 800]
Knowledge flooded my mind: ratios, mixing techniques, the precise alchemical reaction that would bind the mixture into a substance as hard as granite within hours, not weeks.
I opened my eyes. "We're not going to rebuild the old wall."
Cassian scoffed. "So we leave ourselves exposed?"
"No. We build a new one. Better, and faster." I turned to Hemmel. "We're switching to concrete."
"Con-concrete, my lord?" Hemmel stammered. "The Imperial engineers use that. It takes months to cure properly!"
"Not ours." I projected an image of confidence I borrowed from the System. "We'll use the rubble from the old wall as our aggregate. Hemmel, I'll give you the formula. You'll oversee the mixing. We'll build a slimmer, taller curtain wall, curved to deflect siege blows, with integrated firing steps. We can have the foundation laid and the first course set before the sun sets tomorrow."
The room was silent, thick with skepticism.
"And the food?" my father asked, the most pressing issue. "Miracles won't fill empty bellies."
I accessed the Bazaar again. Food was more complicated. Magically creating sustenance was astronomically expensive. But enhancing what we had...
[Search: Agriculture, Yield, Acceleration]
[Verdant Growth Stimulant Blueprint (Tier 1): 450 Plot Points]
[Effect: Accelerates plant growth by 300% for one harvest cycle. Requires a base nutrient solution (compost tea).]
It was a gamble. It would deplete our seed stock for one massive, all or nothing harvest. But if it worked, we'd have food in weeks, not months.
[Purchase Confirmed.]
[Remaining Points: 350]
"Luna," I said, turning to my sister. She looked up from a wounded soldier, her eyes tired but clear. "The herb garden. I need you to think bigger. I have a recipe for a growth solution. We'll use the fallow field inside the walls. We plant every seed we have wheat, barley, vegetables. Everything."
Her eyes widened. "Leo, it's the wrong season. The frost will..."
"It will work," I said, the absolute certainty in my voice leaving no room for argument. "I need you to organize the children, the elderly, anyone who can till soil and plant a seed. We feed the soil with the solution, and we will have a harvest before the first snow."
The audacity of it hung in the air. Rebuilding a wall in days? Growing a harvest in weeks? They were stories. Fairy tales.
It was Cassian who broke the silence. He let out a short, sharp laugh, but it wasn't mocking. It was the sound of a man surrendering to the absurd. "A dragon, alchemical walls, and magical farming. Why not?" He looked at me, a strange, fierce light in his eyes. "Give the orders, Dragon Baron. We're already living in a story no one would believe. We might as well see how it ends."
That was the final seal of approval. My father nodded slowly, relinquishing the burden he had carried for decades. Roric slammed a fist to his chest. "The men are yours, my lord."
As they dispersed to their impossible tasks, a new notification appeared, different from any before.
[Kingdom Management Module: Unlocked!]
[You have taken decisive action to ensure the survival and growth of your domain.]
[Current Domain: Stonecrest Barony]
[Leadership: Recognized]
[New Interface Available: Construction Queue, Resource Ledger, Population Management.]
A complex, transparent overlay now existed in my mind's eye, showing a schematic of Stonecrest. I could see a blinking icon on the western side, with an estimated build time for the new wall: [6 Days]. I saw our resource counts ticking down, and our population listed with tags like [Healthy], [Wounded], [Militia].
I was no longer just a man with a system. I was the governor of a nascent empire.
Walking out into the courtyard, I saw the first stirrings of the new era. Hemmel was already bellowing at a team to start crushing rubble. Luna was leading a group of women to the compost heaps, my hastily scribbled notes for the growth stimulant in her hand.
And perched on the gatehouse, Nyx watched it all. A thought, warm and curious, drifted down our bond.
The small ones scurry. They build. They hope.
Yes, I thought back, looking at the bustling, wounded, hopeful people of my home. They do. And we will make sure that hope is not in vain.
I had spent my Points. I had given my orders. The first blueprints of my empire were no longer just data in a shop. They were becoming stone, and soil, and soul.
CHAPTER 10 COMPLETE
Next: The frantic work of rebuilding and replanting begins. Leo faces the logistical nightmares of leadership and the first external political response to the "miracle" of Stonecrest.
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