The legendary Moonlight Sculptor

V55C2P1 - Dragon's Treasure

[NOTE ] Thanks to proofreaders for their work: Armada, Realshady & Idzuwan!

Weed received cooperation from the broadcast stations and made an announcement to all the users.

- Weed: To the dwarven users of Thor:

We are planning to rob Kaybern's lair.

Whether we succeed or not, it may result in significant damage to the Thor region.

This quest will form a critical part of our mission to defeat Kaybern.

Therefore, it is essential that we complete this for the dwarves, but the progress could result in unintentional losses.

I urge the dwarves living near Kaybern's territory to leave the area.

If you come to the Arpen Empire, you will be provided with 100m2 wooden houses, free beer and blacksmith shops.

The atmosphere in Royal Road heated up after Weed's announcement.

"To think that he would actually do this."

"Wow. That's awesome."

"If I can get my hands on at least one item, it would be insane."

Skilled users, without exception, wanted to participate, and with even 1% they were ready to bite. After all, it was worth risking their lives for.

"Is he really going through with this?"

"I'm sure, it is Weed after all. Ah, I want to go too."

Though half-hearted, the dwarven users chose to migrate to the Arpen Empire because of all the benefits that just managed to help them get over their attachment to their homes.

Iron ores and other metal loots from all over the continent were being sent to the Arpen Empire. Enormous investment invigorated the market of metropolitan cities, and the dwarves chose to move.

Dragon's Revenge

The Black Dragon Kaybern was constantly on the move to destroy human civilization.

The spirits and fairies are warning once again.

"Kaybern will head to Castle Bawell in a week."

Kaybern ended up destroying Castle Ukten of Haven territory.

The next target was Castle Bawell.

It was a port city in the western region of Norton and possessed a powerful navy force in the early days. Over time, it went through a repetition of wars and monster invasions which left the people unable to recover the city from ruin.

Even so, it was densely populated with many buildings which were the traces of the enormous trade city it once was.

"Castle Bawell… It is far from Thor and is vast, the conditions are great. Initiate the plan."

Weed contacted the architects, and they headed to Bawell through the teleportation gate.

The skilled architects from the Northern and Central Continent arrived in hundreds every 10 minutes.

"It's so disappointing for such a beautiful port city to disappear so rapidly."

"My art stat went up just by looking around the streets. It improved my construction skills too."

"Seriously. If only I would have come here sooner."

The city had a beautiful port that embraced the emerald ocean and amazing buildings constructed along the hills. The growth of overseas trade led to the expansion of large commercial buildings in the heart of the city and magnificent shipyards near the ocean.

It was located in the southwest part of the continent and far from the attention of users, but in an era of peace, the city had high development potentials.

The architects were mentally prepared for faulty construction as they took a look around the city and gathered.

"Everything seems good, however, there might be a lack of construction materials. The forest is too small, and we cannot build a lot even if we cut down the trees."

"Let's break down the buildings in the castle, or the city. We can cook the sands as well and use it."

"Won't it have poor durability?"

"We only need it to hold for a few days."

"Hmm. It's such a shame to deconstruct the city's historical landmarks…"

"It's the same, whether it gets destroyed by our own hands or by the dragon."

"If you look at it that way, it's sad, but you have a point. Let us begin."

The architects began to extract the materials from the buildings inside the city.

The large buildings would easily be destroyed by the dragon stomp or magic attacks, so there was little purpose in leaving them as they were.

The builders completely deconstructed the buildings prone to destruction and collected construction materials, followed by the removal of the castle walls, along with roads and bridges.

At first, they created a rough square building form, but soon they concluded that there was no need to enforce this principle.

"There is no need to block out the wind, rain, nor insulation."

"That's true. There is no need for living spaces either."

The task was to create empty buildings that would never be occupied!

The architects made a collective decision that they could get away with even more shoddy jobs.

"I might as well try building houses with pointed roofs. Though I feel like it would be very impractical."

"It's not a bad method. You just have to build it up and not think about the rest."

"Even houses with just a single pillar will last a few days. Save constructing so many wally."

"That's one way to save materials."

"As light as possible. Heavy and dense materials are time consuming to transport, so leave them be."

"We just have to put up a show for the dragon, so filling them up with simple miscellaneous items could be another good way. Stuff them with hay and cap off with thin lumber as roofs."

The faulty construction principle was developing rapidly!

The architects constructed homes that didn't follow logic.

They put up the scaffolds with grass or mud and thin wooden panels as roofs.

Rain leak was fine and no matter how uneven the roof tiling was, it constituted completion.

"Why make blueprints? I can build at least ten more buildings instead of spending time on that."

"There's no wood. I'm too lazy to go and get it. Keep building with what's left."

They transcended beyond faulty construction and spent less and less time constructing each building.

A hundred architects working away led to the instant creation of an entire village.

"This village was built by me, Bajo. I welcome everyone to Bajo's village!"

The village with 300 houses of delightful colors was named after the architect Bajo.

It was a ghost town with no residents, but it was still a new village in the corner of Castle Bawell, named after the architect.

The architects became embroiled with mixed feelings, and their hearts burned with competitiveness.

"I'm going to make my own village too."

"It's a good opportunity to test my design."

Overnight work commenced immediately.

Small flaws were endless and the buildings looked as though they could barely withstand a gentle breeze.

Shifted pillars and walls partly crumbled were ignored and the work continued.

On extreme speed mode, a ghost village without residents was formed.

This scene was streamed live on broadcast stations.

- Look at that building. It was built a couple days ago. The pillar is made of stone. Judging from the color and pattern, it seems that the materials were extracted from near the gates of Castle Bawell.

- They raised pillars and thin wooden panels over the top. However, that is the most luxurious house in the area.

- There are more houses further back. There is a house built from paper. What in the world… Can you believe that? That is a real paper house.

- You can see the tracks of someone who barged through it!

- It seems that architects like steep hills. At the start, I think their strategy was focused around expanding above flat planes, and I am not sure if this is the right expression, but it seems that they are now building as if they are hanging the buildings on the slanted terrain.

- Look at architect Elma. A famous user in the Kalamor region. He built a house out of haystacks. In the interview, he mentioned that the material is easy to work with and that you can build houses just by tossing them in the right direction.

- A rabbit is chewing through the haystack. Crumbled houses are now coming into view… but the current plan is to build five more houses instead of repairing those houses.

The viewers watching the stream could observe the city's environment in Castle Bawell changing by the hour.

In the beginning, it was as if slums were forming around outside the castle walls, but moments after, the buildings were expanding out to the open fields.

Roads were not even constructed and obviously, areas were not divided accordingly.

The houses roughly built from nearby dirt, rocks and trees were showing a new paradigm of the construction site.

< You have completed a building that transcended the structural durability limitations.

Construction skill proficiency is increased. >

Even the architects that participated in the project exceeded themselves. Their proficiencies were improving much quicker than when they built gigantic structures.

"How exactly is this increasing my skills?"

"Such ridiculous jobs still enhance my construction. I always tried to build sturdy and artistic structures."

"So it is better to build ten faulty constructions than one well-made structure. This seems so wrong, but it kind of makes sense."

"It's probably because this is our first time building structures like this."

The architects got to freely experiment in the layout and surfaces while building so many houses and diverted away from the boundaries of conventional materials.

***

Lafaye did a lot less work compared to when the Hermes Guild governed the Central Continent.

All he had to regulate was the Haven territory, and even then many users left, and the city became blander.

"The rate of development is declining, so that reduces the chance of being attacked by Kaybern."

Lafaye put on a bitter grin. After they mobilized the Black Dragon Kaybern, all of Haven territory including Castle Aren, became targets of its attacks.

The monsters were being taken care of with ease by the powerful forces of the Hermes Guild, but users were leaving gradually.

The entire region was deteriorating with the economy, population, technology and development on the decline as well.

The Haven territory no longer possessed its proud drastic development in the Central Continent.

Lafaye watched streams related to Royal Road on his spare time.

"A plan to rob Kaybern's lair. This is a dangerous plan. So reckless that even the Hermes Guild wouldn't dare attempt… I guess it's possible because it's Weed."

The broadcasts were being flooded with compliments about Weed.

There was a time when the Hermes Guild too had great influence on the broadcast stations, but now there weren't many users who paid attention to them.

There weren't many programs about the Haven territory and the few occasions where they were mentioned, were only about the bad things.

According to the cast, the Arpen Empire was referred to as heaven, and the old Haven Empire was described as something close to hell.

"Truthfully I don't think it was to that extent."

Lafaye assessed the dwarven village and Weed's plan as he watched the programs.

"They were filled with the illusion of success, but this is just dangerous. What's more, there is a disrupter who will meddle with the plan…"

He wanted to sabotage their plan, but frankly, he believed that they wouldn't succeed anyway.

Even when the force of the Hermes Guild was at its prime, the assassination attempts against Weed failed time and time again.

"Wouldn't it be alright to sabotage just the quest?"

Lafaye was thinking of someone for the job and called Calcus. He had been spiteful since losing the battle in Garnav Plains.

"Please head over to Thor and sabotage their plan."

"Do you want me to try to get Weed killed?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way. However, a big commotion will get you killed by Kaybern."

A few large-scale magic spell explosions in the dwarven village near Kaybern's territory had a high chance of bringing the dragon.

Calcus finally grasped an understanding of the plan and laughed.

"Weed's plan will fail miserably."

"It's going to be dangerous for you and the other guild members. It would be almost impossible to survive."

"I will gladly take that risk. No matter the consequence. If I can bring down Weed to a gruesome ruin."

(To be continued…)