Chapter 72 Major Constructions

Chloe and I stayed inside as we waited for the night to pass.

My Minions were suffering large amounts of damage but I hadn't had any casualties yet. It was a long night as the two of us listened to the sound of violence outside. The noise filled our ears, keeping us up, however, once the fighting started to die down, I decided to get some much-needed sleep.

***

I was woken by the feeling of someone's hand hitting my head.

"William, get up now."

"Eh...?"

My eyes slowly adjusted to the light as I looked up at Chloe who was standing beside me.

"It's morning."

I gradually pulled myself up and dragged myself over to the door. It seemed that the fireplace was running all through the night, I guess I placed quite a lot of wood, although the fire was beginning to die down.

Before I opened the door, I decided to add some more wood to the fire. Eventually, I slid open the door, being splashed with a wave of cold air. I looked out to see my Minions standing around, from the looks of things, I didn't take too many casualties.

I decided to look at my Advanced System Controls.

-

<Advanced System Controls>

~

[Resource Division] (113 Minions)

- 3x Woodcutter Minion

- 11x Miner Minion

- 22x Scout Minion (Mining)

- 25x Scout Minion (Woodcutting)

- 33x Scout Minion (Resource Gathering)

- 6x Scout Minion (Hunting)

- 1x Scout Minion (Farming)

- 12x Scout Minion

~

[Combat Division] (77 Minions)

- 1x Advanced Warrior Minion

- 1x Warrior Minion

- 16x Scout Minions (Swordplay)

- 22x Scout Minions (Archery)

- 7x Scout Minion (Combat)

- 30x Scout Minions

~

[Utility Division] (26 Minions)

- 13x Builder Minion

- 10x Scout Minion (Utility)

- 2x Basic Scout Minion

- 1x Minion Manager

!

~

In total, I lost 13 Minions, which wasn't as much as I had expected. After looking through the menus, it seemed that they had healed up for the most part. With that, I decided that I'd begin construction of a barricade around the border of the settlement.

I needed to make sure that I'd actually be able to defend the wall, once it was built. Last night, my Minions were forced to pull back in order to buy time for the archers to shoot the zombies down. If I spent a large number of resources and then wasn't able to effectively protect the wall, I'd just be wasting the resources that I spent.

It was also worrisome in terms of the fact that I wouldn't be able to construct the entire wall in one day. So it would be quite a struggle in terms of defending the small section.

I looked through my crafting menu to see what I'd do.

After looking through some of the crafts, I decided that I'd start with a relatively weak wall around the perimeter. The cheapest and easiest one I could find to craft was something called a [basic wooden wall] which had the cost of 5 wood per metre. I estimated that the length of the border was around 200 metres in total if I wanted to cover all the sides.

The main issue was that I didn't really have an easy way to attain wood. Whilst I could buy it off of the Grand Exchange, I found that it'd be easier to build the wall out of stone, which was something I had a lot of.

-

<Inventory (Mining)>

[109x] iron

[52x] gold

[5x] diamond

[2x] platinum

[76x] rocks

[14x] ultra-hardened stone

-

It was possible to turn [ultra-hardened stone] back into [rocks] although it only converts to 900 rocks instead of the 1000 needed to craft one. However, that would mean that I'd have around 13000 rocks in total. The easiest stone to craft was a [basic stone wall] at the cost of 20 rocks per metre.

I decided to craft one metre of the stone wall first to see what it looked like. After spending the 20 rocks, a blueprint appeared in my hand.

[Build time: 5 minutes]

I guess I'd need the Builder Minions for these walls. However, I could see approximately what it looked like just from the blueprint. It was around a metre high, which was around about the height of my stomach. It seemed relatively sturdy, since it was made out of stone and all, but I doubt that it'd be able to really sustain much damage.

It was also at a height where zombies could easily climb over. The only really benefit it would provide would be the fact that it'd slow them down a little. But only once I've built this first wall around the border will I be able to buy enough time for me to improve on it in the future. I'd hope to stages or towers of some sort for my archers to stand upon.

I made my way outside into the freezing cold and walked over to the border between the settlement and the forest. My body was quivering as I huddled myself with my arms. I called some of my Minions over to surround me and give me a tiny bit of protection from the wind. As I stepped onto the dirt, I crafted a few [basic stone walls] and began placing them along the border.

Before long, several of my Builder Minions began making their way over and began construction.

Shit, it's cold.

I ran back toward the hut and slammed open the door and dived inside. It was like jumping through the gate to heaven. It was like going from the inside of a freezer to a warm desert. Well, it wasn't really like a desert, it was more like lukewarm, but it felt like a desert in comparison.

I spread my body out in front of the fire and caught my breath.

I wanted to build the entire wall by tonight, this way I'll be able to effectively make use of it. I considered making an entrance where I could funnel the zombies through to allow them to be more easily controlled, although the wall was technically short enough for them to climb over.

I guess I'd make some more decisions as more of the wall got built.

According to my calculations, with 13 Builder Minions and 5 minutes being required for each metre of the wall—it'd take around 80 minutes for the 200 metres.

Well, at optimal efficiency.