I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm

I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm – Chapter 72

Ruglace stared in awe at the sight before him.

So this is where Oracle Rynn fought... it really is just like the stories!

His eyes scanned across the mile-wide chasm, which seemed to carve a straight path through the towering mountains dominating the scenery. Both sides of this gap were encased by cliffs, halfway upon which sat flat platforms stretching the entire path's length, only accessible through two ramps at the gap's southern end. 

"Wow! That must be where they threw javelins down at the invaders!" a young man behind the Oracle called out to his friend, "Climb up the ramp; I want to see how far you can throw your's!"

Ruglace couldn't help but smile as the crowd of soldiers ran past him and began to fan out to explore the legendary passage before them.

I want to check it out, too-

Just as the Oracle took his first step toward the passage, however, a tired voice sounded in his head.

"Yo, Ruglace- make sure you tell those guys to be careful. It's been 1,000 years since the battle, but there's a chance some of those pitfalls are still dangerous. They can check it out, but make sure they stick near the cliffs where it's safe."

Ruglace froze at the warning, his steps coming to an immediate halt, "Ah- alright."

That could have been bad. I can not even see any holes under the snow...

With a drop of sweat dripping down his face, the Oracle relayed the creator of the world's warning to the excited soldiers, who hastily retreated from the passage.

"So the holes they dug in the stories were real?" he asked, watching some curious ones poking through the thin layer of snow layering the passage.

"Yep. Rynn and his army dug thousands and jammed spears pointing straight up at the bottom of them- honestly, I don't think we would've won without those traps... at least not without losing a ton more lives."

"Wow... so it is like what I heard," Ruglace marveled, "Are all of the stories about that battle true?"

"Uhhhh... most of the ones I've heard Brung talking about were true, at least. There's some exaggeration but it's nothing too crazy," the voice explained. 

"Maybe we should set up some traps, too," he muttered, glancing at the soldiers around him.

I have these soldiers here, I might as well ask for their opinion.

Ruglace moved in front of the crowd, turning back to face them.

"Alright, everyone!" he called out, his divinity-enhanced voice echoing off the mountain peaks, "We need to make something that can stop invaders from getting through this passage and attacking us! Does anyone have any ideas?"

A few murmurs stirred in the crowd before one soldier shouted out.

"My village got tired of wild chickens pecking at our corn after it was planted, so we built a fence to keep them out. If it worked for chickens, it could work for invaders, too! Then when they are all confused on how to get through it, we can just throw stones and javelins down onto them while they are stuck and kill them, just like in the stories!"

"A fence?" A sneer came from the crowd from a soldier with a talon blade at his waist, "Even a mountain chicken could tear through one of those in seconds! How could it work against what Oracle Rynn defeated?"

"Why even compare it to a mountain chicken?" another chipped in, "A fence can not even stop a kid from climbing over it!"

"Right- if a fence is enough to stop the invaders, there would be no point in even bothering to fight them!"

Immediate heckles and laughter came from the crowd at the soldier's suggestion, but the man quickly argued right back at them.

"Obviously, it would not be a normal fence! We have an Oracle here- we can make one with the tallest cherry trees! How could they possibly get through a wall of logs!?"

"With a torch, you idiot!

"Hey! What did you call me!?"

Ruglace could only sigh as he watched the group of soldiers descend into squabbles.

"Be nice, guys!" he called, facing the soldier who had brought up the suggestion, "It is a good idea; if we make it out of stone, no one could burn it down, either."

"A stone fence across the entire gap!?" a nearby soldier gasped.

"Out of stone? Is he crazy?"

"Is such a thing even possible?"

"It looks like the Oracle is an idiot, too..."

Ruglace quickly shot a glare toward the man who made the last comment, causing him to shrink back into the crowd.

"It is possible; it will just take a long time and a lot of effort," Ruglace firmly declared, "Luckily, we have twenty winters and 10,000 men to work with. We should be fine."

Whispers swelled again through the crowd before one soldier hesitantly addressed the Oracle.

"Where would we even get all of the stone to build this?"

"A builder finds things to build with everywhere, but what kind of question is that? It should be obvious," Ruglace opened his arms with a grin, as if holding the mountains behind him in his palms, "There is no need to even look for stone- we are surrounded by it!"

The recently rowdy crowd quickly fell into a stunned silence. As a light breeze blew through the passage and swayed their clothes, the soldiers were all united by a common thought.

Maybe the Oracle is crazy, after all.

.

..

...

Nom!

Ruglace's teeth sank into the fish on the end of his stick; its juicy flavor gushing into his mouth. It seemed to taste even more delicious than usual after his long journey back from scouting the northern passage.

"Ah, fishy~ if only I could bring your lake to the passage with us."

Such an impossibility was almost enough to make him tear up, but not even the power of an Oracle was enough to move an entire lake; let alone the largest one in the valley between the two mountain passages. 

It was here where he first started preparing for the soldiers' arrival a little over two seasons prior, which had since transformed into a small settlement upon their arrival.

When Ruglace first crossed through the southern mountain passage, he was both bewildered and awestruck at how untouched everything was. Once across the passage, he could not find a single person or village anywhere in the massive region. Although he quickly returned to the village south of the passage to inquire about it, they simply told him that the land between the passages had to be kept open for when it was time to defend the world.

I have no idea what they mean by that. It would have been so much easier to prepare for everything if there were at least some villages up here...

The lack of people forced Ruglace to prepare everything literally from scratch- starting with a cornfield. He filled a few pouches with kernels back at the village, which he immediately began working on planting upon finding a suitable area. To at least maintain some sort of sanity during this isolation, he chose to set all of this up near the massive lake in the middle of the valley, which also happened to be the sole source of fish in the area.

Regardless of any fishy factors swaying his settlement decision, the ready access to water made farming much easier, yet the consequences of this choice had now come back to bite him. The Oracle managed to plant and collect two harvests before the soldiers arrived; the first went entirely into expanding his field and the second was saved as food to help supply his new workforce. Now, all of this food, along with the settlement he created, had to be moved closer to the northern mountain passageway- the lake and the passage were simply too far apart to travel between consistently. 

A groan slipped through the Oracle's lips as he glanced at a small stone structure not far behind him, resembling the rectangular clay homes he built in the mudflats- his thoughts wandered to his future plans.

If that alone was so difficult to build, I have no idea how tough this stone wall will be.

After planting his first round of corn, the Oracle made this stone home as a prototype for the permanent stone structures the creator of the world requested near the start of his travels. Although it was an annoyingly far trip from where he decided to set up, Ruglace traveled to the mountains south of the lake to harvest some stone for the build.

At least the creator of the world was right about the stone here being softer than in the canyon. 

He used the same process he developed back when carving into the side of the canyon many years ago to get the stone, consisting of using a wedge to widen existing cracks and an enormous amount of pounding from stone chisels to actually do the carving. The result of this effort were several cubical blocks of stone that he then placed on top of a wooden board and pulled back to his camp near the lake.

It took several of these trips just to get enough stone for one small shelter, which was a pain to build in and of itself. Simply accomplishing this task took a ton of patience to precisely carve, stack, and interlock these stone cubes in a way that left them stable.

I never thought I would say this, but mud is so much easier to work with. 

Unlike the clay which he could effortlessly shape to his liking and stuff into any gaps before baking it with a torch tree branch, a mistake with the stone could sometimes mean an entire wasted brick- especially with there being no way to reattach the pieces. 

This, along with the weeks' worth of traveling required to get the stone, forced Ruglace to give up after building just a handful of these stone shelters.

For the first time in my life, I actually do not want to build something. Luckily, I have an idea in mind...

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"What do you think, creator of the world? It looks like the test is standing strong- this wall design should work, right?"

"Hmm..."

What Ruglace was referring to, and what was currently displayed on my screen, was a stack of stone cubes at the front of the northern mountain passage. It was a prototype to see if the wall idea was feasible- he built an actual section of it.

"Squawk."

"Yeah, it definitely looks a lot stronger than his other attempts," I agreed, patting the head of the penguin who decided to sit on my lap to watch the Oracle work, "Honestly, it's a bit too big to really be considered a prototype."

The test section was 10.5ft high, stretched 10.5ft long, and spanned 8ft wide, built entirely from interlocking stone cubes, each roughly 1.5ft on every side. To ensure stability and even ground, Ruglace also dug a small stone foundation under the wall for additional support.

It was a lot of stone; simply putting together this section took the team weeks, with each cube taking a team of 10 soldiers multiple days to carve out of the side of a nearby mountain and drag to the passage with corn husk rope tied around a wooden board.

"Now that I think about it... isn't their progress pretty fast? Hang on- let me do some math here."

"Squawk?"

I quickly closed my eyes and used domain creation to form a notebook and pencil before quickly jotting down some numbers.

Screw it, let's just go for a rough estimate- I can keep the numbers fairly rounded.

I didn't know enough about how calculators worked to make one using domain creation, but I luckily still had the calculator app on my phone that I could use to save me some effort. 

"Okay, so each of their cubes is about 1.5ft on every side. The mountains are a mix of a bunch of different stones, so let's just run with an average density of 170 lb/ft³," I looked over at Mr. Flippers, who was curiously gazing at my notebook, "Those units might make some people cry, but they'll work much better for this."

"Squawk?"

"Don't mind me. Anyway, the cubes have a volume of 3.375ft... so each would weigh about 575lbs," I paused double checking that number, "Man, almost six hundred pounds for a cube that small? Rocks really are heavy... it's no wonder Ruglace put them in teams of ten."

Well, gravity is a bit weaker in my realm than on Earth, so I guess it doesn't actually weigh that much for them, but that means my humans would be slightly weaker, too, so it kind of cancels out. 

Pushing those thoughts aside, I continued my calculations.

"I'm going to ignore how he made the inner two feet of the width filled with smaller loose stones and just assume it's solid to make my life a bit easier here. I think he'll make the foundation about 3ft deep, too," I muttered as I scribbled down some numbers, "So, dividing the volume of the wall section by the volume of one of the cubes means it took roughly 330 cubes to make the section."

"Squawk!"

"Huh? No, that's not what I was looking for," I gently plopped the penguin who hopped up onto my desk in a victory pose back on my lap, "I just needed that to calculate the next thing."

"Squawk..."

I continued, failing to hide my grin at his embarrassed expression, "So, this wall section was 10.5ft long. Since the gap is a mile wide, that means they'll need to build this a little over 500 more times to finish it."

"Squawk!"

"Yeah, that's a lot, but it really didn't take them very long to make this section," I acknowledged, placing my hand on my chin, "Plus, they're not used to doing this work yet. I really think each group of ten soldiers will be able to knock out one cube a day once they get more experience."

I paused my thoughts and peered back at the screen.

"Hey, Ruglace. What was your breakdown on the soldiers, again?"

"I'm planning to have 2,000 soldiers focusing on getting food and another 1,000 making tools and doing other tasks," he readily answered, "The rest will help me with the wall, but you still did not-"

"Thank you- one second!"

I cut off my Oracle and began scribbling down more numbers, "Alright, so that leaves 7,000 soldiers working on the wall itself; or I guess 700 groups of 10 people. There's 500 sections of 330 cubes... which means 165,000 total cubes. Let's just bump that up to 170,000 since I rounded down both of those numbers. With one group doing one cube a day, that means it will take them... 243 days!? That's it!?"

"Squawk!?"

"Yeah- it's crazy! I doubt it's very accurate, though- the prototype he made is 10.5ftx10.5ftx8ft, but he told me he wants to make the real thing at least 15ft high. Then you gotta factor in breaks and the time needed to dig for the foundation and drag the cubes to the wall... but there's so much wiggle room that it doesn't even matter! Even if it somehow takes five times longer than I estimated, that's still only five years when I thought it would take him twenty!"

"... Squawk?"

"Yes, that's a good thing!"

"Squawk!"

"Pffft-"

I couldn't help but laugh as the penguin once again hopped up on my desk and did his victory pose.

Well, I guess that means I can have him expand a little bit.

"Yo, Ruglace!" I spoke to the screen after a few moments of thinking.

"... Are you finally going to answer my question?"

"Huh? What question?"

The Oracle let out a sigh, "The one about the wall design that I asked like five minutes ago. Is this good to go with?"

"Oh, yeah. It's definitely good. One might even say it's rock solid~ ow!" I bit my tongue as the penguin suddenly pecked my ribs, "Anyway, based on how fast you did this section, you might even be able to finish the entire thing within a few years!"

"What!?" The Oracle took a step back in disbelief, gazing across the rest of the mile-long gap that was untouched by even a single stone, "Are you sure about that? It took us so long just to make this..."

"Mhm, I'm pretty sure, so I have some requests for you-"

Considering how much wiggle room in terms of time he had, I gave him a few adjustments that I figured shouldn't be too unreasonable- all of which he readily agreed to. The first two were simple; increasing the height of the wall to roughly twenty feet instead of the planned fifteen and giving the soldiers frequent breaks since there wasn't a major rush. The third request was a bit more complicated, however.

"I just do not understand. What is the point of building a wall if you want me to make a way to go through it?" he asked, scratching his head.

"Well, you never know what'll happen in the future. I'd just rather have the option to get through it if it's ever needed."

This was the basis behind my third request; I wanted to have the ability to easily move troops through the passage in case I ever wanted to launch an attack, or more realistically, a counter-attack on an opposing Seedling. Having a massive stone wall in the way would just become a hindrance if I ever needed to take quick action.

Sure, I could just have my humans repel down it with rope or something, but it would be difficult to move any heavier supplies that way.

"... You really give me some crazy missions, creator of the world," Ruglace sighed, "I will see what I can come up with."

"Thank you, Ruglace~"

I'm sure he'll figure something out.

Just as I was about to switch my screen to check on other places around my realm, Ruglace spoke up.

"Creator of the world, you wanted me to build some stone homes for people to live in, right?"

"Huh? Oh, yes, I did. It's not too big of a deal, though, so please just focus on the wall for now."

The Oracle smirked smugly. "I will. I just thought of a great way to combine the two."

Combine them? 

Although I wanted to ask what he meant, the Oracle's signature sparkling eyes shining through my screen made me hold my tongue.

You know what? I'm sure he has a good idea in mind. 

"Alright, I'm looking forward to seeing it. Please be careful though- don't push yourself too hard."

Ruglace nodded with a smile, "I will be fine, do not worry!"

"I'm sure you will be."

He's such an energetic kid.

With a smile, I looked down at the penguin who returned to my lap.

"Let the builders build, am I right?"

"Squawk?"

"It's a saying, probably."

Still... I don't really know how much he'll be able to do in terms of making stone houses without mortar.

I threw away my dreams of him building some stone castle or fort years ago because of its absence. The massive wall was one thing; it's extreme size and the weight of the large, interlocking stones would be enough to keep it stable even without a binding agent. Ruglace even pushed on the test section with his Oracle strength and was unable to get it to budge, let alone topple, so I knew it was secure. 

This privilege and resilience did not extend to the stone homes, however, which were much more humble in terms of structure. Even if he were to rebuild a few of the ones he made at the temporary village by the lake, I had no confidence that they would still be standing by the time the next battle phase came around.

He needs something to hold the stone together, but mortar is seriously going to be hard for them to invent.

Cement was the main ingredient in making this crucial compound that could greatly extend the lifespan of these stone projects. The main problem with actually discovering it was that my realm had a critical lack of lime, also known as calcium oxide, which was needed to make cement.

This wouldn't even be a problem if I was able to place limestone when I first made my realm.

Limestone is a type of sedimentary rock formed from a bunch of settled marine things like shells and coral. As the name implies, limestone is an easy source of lime; more specifically, it is a source of calcium carbonate that could easily be reacted to form lime with just a little grinding and heating over a hot flame. These steps make it undergo a chemical reaction that produces the needed calcium oxide and some carbon dioxide as a byproduct. After that's done, the quicklime just needs to be mixed with some aggregate and water to be turned into cement.

It was simple, but this entire process depended on limestone to work; without it, there'd be no calcium carbonate to do the reaction with. Sadly, potentially because of its mainly organic origins, there was no option to add this vital rock when first creating my realm.

It's a stupid reason, but that's the only one I can possibly think of for it not being included in the panel.

"Without limestone, there really aren't many options to get calcium carbonate in my realm. The only way my humans can create lime would be to crush up and heat eggshells, but the amount they'd need would be absurd," I groaned aloud.

"Squawk!?"

"... We're not having this egg conversation again, Mr. Flippers," I sighed as the penguin began frantically flapping his flippers on my lap, "It really might be their only option unless they can find some other source of calcium carbonate to use... wait a second-"

I looked back at the mountains still dominating my screen, scanning over the variety of stones making up these creations.

"I definitely included a ton of marble in these, but isn't marble just metamorphosed limestone? That means it's still made of mainly calcium carbonate, right!? That could definitely work for getting lime!"

Seriously, why would they let me add marble but not limestone? I guess they figured marble was far enough removed from the marine lifeforms or something? That's stupid, though.

Regardless of the reason, I was still ecstatic to have a potentially great source of lime in my realm.

I really should've put more marble outside of the mountains... I'll add this to my list of regrets.

The limited availability of this stone and the semi-oscure method needed to create both lime and cement meant that I wasn't anticipating it being invented for quite some time. Even so, I was still happy that it was at least possible for my humans to figure it out some time in the future. 

"What do you think, Mr. Flippers? Should I squeeze out the last of my Resource Points to throw some chunks of marble everywhere?"

"Squawk!?"

"No... you're right, that would be stupid," I sighed, "I really want more of them, though. Maybe you can use your penguin luck to get us some for our next prize? Actually, scratch that- I'd much rather have pretty much any of the other options." 

While we were chatting, a message on one of my monitors caught my attention.

Looks like Brung wants to talk. What does he... oh shoot.

My eyes slowly looked up at the Oracle chipping away at a stone on my screen.

... It looks like I have a decision to make.