Ch.312Unfinished Western City

The process of building a new city in Grantis can be divided into five major stages.

Wide-area exploration – Mana vein survey – Outpost establishment – City construction – Completion.

In the first stage, “Wide-area exploration,” unexplored regions are surveyed for terrain features and the presence of dungeons to select suitable locations for building a new city.

Essential requirements include stable ground, easy access to water sources, and the presence of mana veins with sufficient output.

Other factors comprehensively considered include the presence of powerful monsters or natives, the possibility of predictable natural disasters, availability of sufficient arable land, and distance from existing cities and small outposts.

Once a location meeting these conditions is found, a survey team consisting of scholars, mages, and escort troops examines the mana vein’s output to select the appropriate magic core for the barrier tower.

Using a premium magic core on a mediocre mana vein would only waste the core’s potential, while using a low-quality core on a powerful vein would mean squandering the opportunity to secure a wider safe zone.

Sometimes, the full-scale city construction is postponed until a perfectly suitable magic core is found.

If, fortunately, the New Continent Development Headquarters has a magic core of appropriate quality, the full-scale city development begins.

The executives of the “Construction Bureau,” which handles the core of the Western Development Project, are mobilized to transport the selected magic core and barrier tower materials to the nearest western city.

After manufacturing and assembly, they are moved to the site, where the barrier tower is installed under strict surveillance, and temporary outposts and provisional walls are erected.

Sometimes outlaw groups attempt to steal the barrier tower, but so far, no such attempt has succeeded, and those outlaws who tried ended up on the gallows, their names erased from Grantis’s history.

Once the “outpost” with its barrier tower, temporary outpost, and provisional walls is established, the full-scale western city construction finally begins.

Not only cities bearing the name of Westend but also distant settlements as far as Mothertown continuously transport people and materials to give birth to the new city.

The flimsy provisional walls are replaced with sturdy ramparts, and various government offices including the Development Project branch, the Adventurers’ Guild, temporary housing, and amenities for construction workers and farmers are built in sequence along the main street.

This is also when self-proclaimed veteran adventurers, who pride themselves on being able to operate without issue even in somewhat harsh environments, begin to gather.

Where adventurers gather, money naturally flows.

Although regular shops aren’t yet permitted to operate and non-commercial population migration isn’t allowed, merchants who want to make a profit won’t miss such opportunities, even if it means setting up tents and stalls.

Travel goods merchants, potion makers, cooks, alchemists, gun technicians, liquor dealers, prostitutes, and more.

Occasionally, troubles arise from wildly fluctuating prices or excessive haggling, but city administrators and sheriffs tend to turn a blind eye as long as these don’t escalate into serious problems.

However—

“…That makes the third person already.”

“The method is the same as before. A single strike to the neck with a sharp blade… It seems no one heard any screams or sounds of struggle this time either.”

At the planned site of the 8th Western City, a “serious problem” that couldn’t be overlooked was currently unfolding.

In a back alley of the provisional commercial district, where proper construction hadn’t even begun yet, lay a man in his late 30s, dead with his throat slit and blood pooling around him.

A crowd had gathered around the two sheriffs examining the corpse, murmuring among themselves.

“The victim’s identity?”

“Name is Dick Hammer, 38 years old. A magical item merchant with a C-grade Frontier License who worked as an adventurer until five years ago.”

“An alchemist, jeweler, and magical item merchant… It’s clearly a crime motivated by money. Check if there are any traces left on his Frontier License card, and have the body moved outside the city for burial.”

“Understood.”

The senior sheriff, after giving these instructions to his subordinate, took out a cigarette and lit it.

In a modern Earth murder case, a body wouldn’t be buried until a thorough autopsy was completed, but this was the otherworld of Grantis, where death always lurked nearby.

People who die outside disappear within hours, and in unfortunate cases, they might even mutate into monsters. Therefore, corpses are something to be disposed of as quickly as possible, not preserved intact.

All the living could do was hope that the soul of the unjustly deceased would find peaceful rest.

‘Plop’

“Hmm?”

The sheriff’s expression momentarily soured as raindrops began to fall.

Not because he was concerned about the cigarette he had just lit, but because of the anxiety that a new incident might occur amid the confusion caused by the rain.

“I hope nothing else happens…”

The construction site of the western city was a veritable melting pot of chaos.

With insufficient sheriff personnel, it was impossible to search and inspect everyone entering and leaving the city.

The only breakthrough in the current situation would be to find clues about the perpetrator and resolve the case promptly.

With that thought, the sheriff slowly exhaled the cigarette smoke he had deeply inhaled.

~ ~ ~ 40km East of the 8th Western City Construction Site ~ ~ ~

“It’s coming down pretty hard.”

“Ancestor could probably keep running without issue, but the road is so terrible that the carriage is shaking a lot.”

“Then shall we camp here for the night, even though it’s a bit early? Since this isn’t the direct route from Westend Seven, we should be fine without going into the forest.”

“That sounds good.”

With everyone’s agreement, I pulled the lever on the driver’s seat hard, and the camping carriage expanded with a clanking sound, transforming into a spacious temporary structure.

After deploying the Repellation Field with Mina’s campfire magical device and securely locking the entrance and windows to prevent rain from getting in, a comfortable and safe temporary lodging was complete.

If outlaws or other travelers approached, the alarm function of the Repellation Field and Ancestor would warn us.

“I wonder if Mom is doing well.”

“Come to think of it, it was also pouring rain like this when we first met Mina.”

“She was buried in a cave, screaming for help.”

“Ah~ I was truly a disgrace to the dwarf race back then. I wish you’d forget about it.”

While crossing a treacherous mountain path after obtaining Ancestor, we rescued Mina, who was almost buried alive due to a landslide caused by a sudden downpour.

Back then, we didn’t even have the Airy Curtain spell, so we were completely soaked by the relentless rain, and setting up camp was no easy task…

Now we can just pull a lever and have a building that shields us from wind and rain, where we can eat warm and delicious food. It’s nothing short of remarkable progress.

“Since it’s raining and we have nothing else to do, shall we test the Purifier before dinner?”

“That sounds good. We should have accumulated some black mana while staying in Technopolis.”

“How do you use the Purifier? In Technopolis, I lay on a magic circle placed next to the black mana and connected to the bio-converter…”

“Yes, like this.”

As Mina approached the cylindrical Purifier and operated the mechanical device at the front, the front part of the Purifier opened sideways like a French door refrigerator.

Inside, there weren’t any exposed mechanical parts or computing devices, just a chair-like structure designed to sit on and a few lens-like objects scattered here and there.

“Sit here, close the cover, and then channel your mana like you did with the magic circle. I’ve set a limit on the output for safety, so let’s just run it for about 30 minutes this time.”

“Understood, Miss Mina.”

As Iris obediently entered and sat on the chair-like structure, Mina arranged Iris’s hair to prevent it from getting caught and closed the Purifier’s cover.

Iris, with only her head sticking out of the cylindrical device…

“…Hey, Mina.”

“Hmm? What?”

“Couldn’t you have done something about this visual?”

She looked like a victim beaten up after borrowing money from yakuza, or like one of those pirate-in-a-barrel toys where a pirate pops out when you stick a knife in.

“Does it look strange?”

“No, it’s just… sigh, never mind. If you’re okay with it, I guess it doesn’t matter.”

I’m thinking of making that toy with a crafting tablet soon and showing it to everyone.

With that thought, I waited as the Purifier completed its startup preparations. When Iris channeled mana into the container, faint black energy began to seep out from the bodies of the other five people and flow toward the Purifier.

It was the sight of the Purifier sucking in the black mana accumulated in each person’s body.

Thirty minutes later.

All of us had to lie down on our beds to rest briefly due to mild mana depletion symptoms. According to Jessica and Mina’s measurements, the black mana in our bodies had been reduced to less than half.

It was the moment when the miraculous device, the Purifier, which would support our journey for a long time to come, achieved its first success.