Lux pinched the bridge of his nose. He was convinced he had a permanent bruise there from the number of times he squeezed it each day, now that Twiggs was gone. Everything had slowed to a crawl without Twiggs to help with construction.

  Take the roads, for example. If Twiggs were here, all he would need was a map, his abilities, and a smooth surface would be ready for a sealed road in no time. Without Twiggs, it took multiple workers painstaking hours to mark out the road’s dimensions, dig up shrubs, remove rubble, and grade the ground until it was level.

  After a day of watching this, Lux decided to put the roads on hold until Twiggs returned. It wasn’t the only project he had placed on the backburner, the farms outside the city boundary were also waiting for Twiggs. The only thing he’d pushed ahead with was anything to do with the winery.

  Thankfully, Constance and Grace had come up with an excellent design in just three days. The best part was that Constance had managed to save on some of the materials by using wood and earthen clay for the building’s structure.

  Twiggs had given Ruby a large supply of clay before he left, and the Large Worlders, who had started stripping the land of trees, had provided a huge stockpile of wood. Lux would only have to dip into his funds to pay for the destemmer-crushers, wine press, wine tanks, wine pumps, and bottle machine all needed to produce a finished product.

  Through the design process, he’d learned how to make wine. He also realised he would need to hire a manager for the winery. While he understood the process, he wasn’t foolish enough to think he could run the place himself.

  There was another glaring problem, a lack of monster cores. Each of the machines in the winery would run on those pesky orbs. As Lux massaged his temples, Novgar suddenly appeared in his field of vision.

  His eyes lit up. Novgar might be able to help with one of his problems! Lux jogged over to the man and gave him a beaming smile. “Novgar, I’m so happy to see you!”

  He had barely seen the large green man all week. Novgar had been busy managing all the Large Worlders. Thanks to Novgar’s hard work, the land inside the magical barrier was now bare of most of the trees. The Large Worlders had even started clearing the land of trees for the new farms.

  Lux really wanted to keep all the green giants, but he knew that wasn’t possible. When he asked Novgar how he’d gotten them to come, Novgar told him he’d made a bet with every single person in the battle royal.

  When Lux found out the terms of the bet, he was shocked by Novgar’s confidence. If Novgar won, they would come and work for him for a week. If Novgar lost, he would become each person’s slave for a week.

  Lux asked Novgar if he would really spend a week with each person, but the man had just shaken his head. “Novgar would never lose in a fight! Novgar would not have become anyone’s slave!” That was the answer he got.

  Novgar was blinded by pride, the thought of losing hadn’t even crossed his mind. Lux had to sit him down and make him promise not to make a bet like that ever again. It took a while to get the large green man to agree, in the end, Lux had to use Silver as a threat.

  Lux’s thoughts returned to the present as Novgar replied, “Novgar is happy to see Lucky Charm!” A female Large Worlder was standing beside Novgar. Lux recognised Papka from her first day in Silver City. He greeted her, but she just stared back at him in silence. She hadn’t changed since their first meeting.

  “Novgar, Papka is leaving.” The woman didn’t wait for a reply and walked off. Novgar shouted after her, “Bye Papka! Novgar will fight with you again when we next meet!”

  Lux suddenly looked around. He couldn’t spot many Large Worlders. “Novgar, is the week up already?”

  “Yes, Novgar’s workers will be leaving today. Lucky Charm should not worry. If he needs more Large Worlders, Novgar will fight!” Lux sucked in a breath. He had a feeling Novgar had forgotten all about the promise he made.

  “Novgar, you promised not to do that again!” Lux seethed, he could feel the pulse in his temple thumping.

  “Novgar will not promise to be anyone else’s slave! Novgar will just beat them into submission!” Novgar flexed his arm and puffed out his chest. Lux let out a sigh. He guessed that was the best answer he would get from Novgar.

  “I won’t need them again, all the trees are almost cleared. But Novgar, if you feel like fighting, I do have something for you to do.” The twinkle returned to his eyes. “I need some low-level monster cores for the machines in the winery. The ones in the magical logging machine will also need replacing.”

  Novgar sucked in a deep breath and his expression turned serious. “Novgar will bring back many monster cores! Lucky Charm, which way should Novgar go to get the monster cores!” Lux had forgotten about Novgar’s ridiculous belief that he was a real lucky charm. He did the only thing he could do, he randomly pointed in a direction!

  After Novgar disappeared, Lux decided to head over to the winery. He wanted to see how it was progressing. He looked around to see if there was anyone to escort him. Outside the city boundary was still dangerous for Lux, so he’d been going there with Trella’s team each day.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Ruby would escort Trella’s workers, since she was currently a main part of the construction crew. Lux had been delayed by Magenta whining about having to go to the labour’s guild once again to source materials for Trella.

  As Lux walked through the now bare fields, he looked over at the lake. From outside his house, he could see all the way to the water. He figured he might find someone there and started walking. As he got closer, the farm, town hall, mill and granary came into view.

  A figure with short blond hair was fishing at the water’s edge. “Morning, Violet,” Lux greeted cheerfully.

  Violet turned her head at the greeting. “Oh hey, Lux. What brings you here? Do you want to fish as well?” She gestured to her fishing rod rested between her knees.

  Lux shook his head. “Could you take me over to the winery, please?”

  “Sure, I have nothing better to do.” Violet packed up her fishing gear and soon they started walking toward the farm. “How is the city planning going?” Violet asked casually as they walked.

  The simple question made Lux sigh. “It’s not going as well as I hoped.” He had been constantly changing his city plans after he had a good look at the blueprints on Constance’s tablet. This was because he found out the price of building a simple temporary apartment.

  Just one low-budget, ten-story apartment would cost him over five million gold coins. He’d been wracking his brain to lower costs but also improve the comforts.

  The only plan he’d come up with so far was to build a complex. He planned to have six temporary apartment buildings arranged around a bathhouse, park, and canteen. This would allow for more creature comforts connected to each apartment without sacrificing rooms in the buildings.

  A large bathhouse could be much more glamorous than a cramped room stuffed at the end of a hall. A park would give residents an area to relax or meet with companions. Adding a canteen that would provide three meals a day to the residents for a small fee would boost the appeal. People were often loath to cook if it was only for themselves.

  He was hoping this would create retention in the people that came to Silver City. After seeing the other crappy apartments and their lack of good facilities, these would look very appealing in comparison.

  Lux still planned to have a restroom built on each floor. If people urgently needed a toilet, they wouldn’t want to be running outside, it would be better to just walk down the hall. The only problem with this plan was, obviously, money. Lux blurted out all his concerns to Violet.

  “That actually sounds appealing. Even I would stay there if I had a nice place to bathe and someone to take care of all my meals.” Violet looked wistful as she gazed at Lux. “Can I see your map?” Lux handed over his latest design and Violet’s eyes roamed over the buildings.

  “Lux, are the apartments you’re planning to build all ten stories?” Violet was pointing at the apartment complex on the map. Lux nodded in confirmation. “I see why it would cost so much, then. You need different materials besides wood to build apartments that size. That’s a pity, considering all the wood you have stockpiled.”

  Violet studied the map. “If you reduced the number of floors, you could use the wood to build the apartments.” She tilted her head. “If you want a certain number of rooms, just build another complex next to this one.”

  Lux stopped in his tracks at Violet’s simple solution. Then he realised the mistake he’d been making, he was thinking too far ahead. He was planning for a grand city to be built immediately, but what he built now could be torn down later to make room for bigger structures.

  It wouldn’t matter if he built these complexes all over the land he had mapped out for temporary accommodation! Lux couldn’t stop himself from hugging the short-haired woman. “Thank you, Violet! This is why it’s good to talk to other people about problems! You just solved one of my biggest stumbling blocks!”

  He couldn’t wait to get to Constance and Grace. As his mind raced with possibilities, Violet threw out another remark. “But Lux, where is the city jail?”

  “What?” Lux asked, dumbfounded.

  “Fights naturally break out around dungeons. Disagreements about who will join a party or how loot is distributed start arguments all the time. You’ll need a jail to hold people, or you won’t be able to control safety.” Violet explained patiently.

  “You could set the magical barrier to transport people out of the city, but then if you need compensation for damages, it will be hard to collect. You would also miss out on the revenue from fines,” Violet finished.

  Lux quickly added a jail to the list of things he needed to add to the map. “You’re right, Violet. Thank you for the advice.”

  He drifted off into thought as they walked. Violet left him to his musings, and soon they arrived at the construction site. A smile tugged at his lips when he saw the half-completed winery. The skeletal frame was in place, and earthen clay was being packed in between planks of wood.

  Grace waving her arms caught his attention. He made a beeline for the mechanical engineer. “Thankfully you came. I needed to talk to you about the machines. I just got the quote back for the construction.”

  Lux’s hand automatically went to the purse on his belt. He felt his fingers tighten around the rough fabric. He had a feeling his purse was about to become lighter.

  A parchment was placed in his hands. As Lux unfurled the document, his eyes sought out the total at the bottom. A whopping two hundred thousand gold was needed for all the machinery! Lux felt his throat constrict. He couldn’t force any words out.

  “You’re shocked silly, right! I can’t believe we got such a good deal too! Brison said he gave us a good discount because we would be ordering so many machines at once. He can have them ready for delivery in a week. He is absolutely amazing! Way better than most machinists!” Grace was glowing with praise for the man.

  Lux forced himself to swallow, lubricating his throat. “Grace, take the money.” He swallowed all the curses he wanted to say and handed over the funds. He plastered a big smile on his face. “Grace, you did well getting such a good deal.” He forced the words out.

  She was right. Most of the money for the logging factory construction had gone to the magical logging machine. Paying only two hundred thousand for five machines was a bargain. Luckily, the other expenses for the winery were minimal.

  He only had to pay for labour, doors, windows, surface finishing, and furnishings. All up, it would cost him two hundred and twenty thousand gold to complete the winery, including the machines.

  He really needed Twiggs to come back! The caravan had returned from selling the last of the harvest and given him two hundred thousand gold. He still had roughly three hundred and fifty thousand gold left. This would not last long if nothing came in to top up the funds!