All roads lead to Rome. Anyone would have heard that saying at least once in their life. The expression was coined in Ancient Rome, where countless roads were built that stretched out to the ends of the empire.
Making roads was almost an obsession in the Roman Empire. The Romans adhered to a strict set of construction principles. The roads had to be built in straight lines wherever possible. They connected all corners of their vast domain. They did not avoid drilling through mountains or building bridges over valleys. The Romans built fifty thousand miles of stone-paved roads. That was enough to circle the equator twice.
"That's how important a road is. Do you know what's the biggest factor that affects land value?" Lloyd asked.
"I don't know," Javier replied.
"Transportation. It's transportation."
Lloyd continued to speak while Javier remained silent.
"Let's say you have a house, and the road to the market from your house is very rough. There are mountains and streams to cross, and then you have bungee jumping to do as well. Every time you try to leave your house, your body begs you to just stay inside. Would you want to live there?"
"I think it would be a great training opportunity," Javier said.
Lloyd was speechless.
"Hiking and swimming every day would certainly improve my endurance. The bungee jump… I do not know what that is, but if it pushes me to my limits, I am sure it would be a boon to my sword training," Javier explained.
"I'm not talking about sword fanatics like you. I mean…"
Lloyd cleared his throat. "The road. It's the road."
"The road?"
"Yes. Have you seen any properly paved roads in this estate?"
"No," Javier answered.
"Right? That's the problem."
It was true. Not a single road in the Frontera barony was paved. There were only dirt paths that developed naturally on the bare grass patches of frequently traveled routes. Lloyd thought the time had come for this to change. His goal wasn't just to create conventional roads. He aimed to utilize them for a greater goal.
"But you don't need to know now what I plan on doing. So, can you move? I've got surveying to do," Lloyd huffed. When it came to road construction, the result mattered more than the reason. Lloyd believed he should act rather than explain right now. He waved Javier away and studied the topography of the land.
Asphalt would be the best option, but it won't happen here. Considering the technology available, I think the construction of Rome's Via Appia is the best model we've got.
Lloyd recalled the Appian Way from when he was in university. He had even done a class presentation about it. The Appian Way was one of the earliest stone roads in Rome. Dozens more were constructed afterward. It greatly aided in the empire's conquest of the southern Italian Peninsula. The road remains strong and is still in use today. The Appian Way boasted more than 2,300 years of history. Yet not a single inch needed any upgrading. It provides a window into civil engineering's advances in ancient Rome. Lloyd intended to build his own Appian Way through the central section of his estate.
From here to there.
Specifically, it would extend from the baron's estate to the far eastern mountain — cutting across the fiefdom in a straight line. It had the potential to become the main road once the fiefdom expanded in the future. The plan was perfect. But for him to achieve it, he needed to survey and design first.
First, I need to level up my skills. Lloyd opened his skill window.
Ding Dong.
[Loading the skill log:]
[Basic Surveying: Level 2]
[Basic Design: Level 2]
[Tool Artisanship Skill (Shovel): Level 1]
Hmm… It's just as I thought. I need to invest more in my surveying and design skills. For the past few months, he had surveyed and designed several heated flooring systems, and those skills improved by one point each time. But that wasn't enough for road construction.
I can only survey fourteen square yards at this skill level. And as for design, it's just 1,740 cubic yards of volume. That won't be enough. It's too inefficient. Lloyd furrowed his brow. His design and survey skills were not good enough. A few days ago, he tested out how long his body would hold up before giving away to exhaustion. The result was not satisfying.
Each skill had a limit of ten uses. After that, he suffered from terrible fatigue and dizziness. Of course, the skill got canceled on its own as well. Making things worse, he needed almost a full day of recovery to use the skill again. In other words, he could survey 1,447 square yards of land and 17,408 cubic yards of volume in a day.
That is a problem, considering how far the mountain is from here. I need to hurry if I want to finish construction before the spring monsoon arrives. He didn't have much time. But fortunately, he had saved up a lot of RP.
[Current RP: 659]
He had saved quite a lot.
My, my, I feel like I should bow to Sir Neumann in gratitude. The duel with Sir Neumann made him rich with RP. His approval rating increased manyfold. Twenty points each from the baron and baroness. Two points from Javier. One from Sir Bayern. And six from the people of the fiefdom. Thanks to that, he earned a big sum of 507 RP in a single day. But Lloyd didn't squander the points because he knew they would be useful someday.
With that thought in mind, he had been frugal with his spending up until this moment. But now was the time to use the RP. Let's see. I'll level up each skill to see what happens. Lloyd looked at one side of the skill window. There was a level-up button. He blinked at it twice as if he was clicking a mouse.
Ding Dong.
[Log of skills you can level up]
[Basic Surveying: Level 2 + 3 (Required RP: 10)]
[Basic Design: Level 2 + 3 (Required RP: 10)]
[Tool Artisanship Skill (Shovel): Level 1 + 2 (Required RP: 15)]
I'll start with the surveying and design. He chose those two skills.
Ding Dong:
[Skill Level Up!]
[Basic Surveying: Level 3]
[Area that can be measured at once: 172 yd²]
[Required RP to level up: 15]
[Basic Design: Level 3]
[Volume of structure that can be projected at once: 2,067 yd³]
[Required RP to level up: 15]
[Current RP: 639]
Lloyd noticed a slight increase in his skill level, but he wasn't happy yet. Might as well go all out while I'm at it. Surveying and designing were the very skills that would put food on the table. Being cheap with them would only harm him in the long run. He boldly used the rest of his RP to level up those skills.
The surveying and design skills leveled on and on. From level three to four… then level five to six… Eventually, he reached level ten.
When he used the RP that last time to level up, a message appeared.
Ding Dong.
[Skill Class Level Up!]
Your skill class has reached
[Skills options have been made available following your change of skill class.]
[Intermediate Surveying: Level 1]
[Area that can be measured at once: 1,900 yd²]
[Skill Option 1: Land Appraisal—You can appraise the land you measure. (Error rate: +/- 5%)]
[Skill Option 2: Underground Scanning—You can automatically scan the measured geography as deep as 16 feet. Geographical composition, soil quality, bedrock, underground water, reserved resources, etc., can be identified.]
[Required RP to level up: 100]
[Your skill class has reached
[Skills options have been made available following your change of skill class.]
[Intermediate Design: Level 1]
[Volume of structure that can be projected at once: 83,700 yd³]
[Skill Option 1: Plan Print—You can accurately print out your design on a designated surface such as paper.]
[Skill Option 2: Floor Plan Indication (2D)—You can see the 2D floor plan of your designed output in the actual land. (Note: Only you can see it.)]
[Required RP to level up: 100]
[Current RP: 119]
Wow. This is amazing. Lloyd's eyes widened as he processed the changes. He had invested quite a lot of RP, but that barely mattered to him.
The potential survey area and design volume significantly increased. But there is something even more amazing than that. Lloyd looked at the skill options that were now available as the level of his basic skills went over ten. These options were seriously amazing.
Appraisal? Now that I can see the current price of land, this is no different from a real estate app. And underground scanning? For real? Lloyd decided to put this to the test. He looked at the ground and activated his intermediate-level skills.
Measure.
Crackle! A hazy ray of blue light filled his eyes. At the same time, the landscape changed in front of him. He scanned the square area of 130 feet in length and width. Several data points about the lot popped up. First was the estimated price.
Wow… I had no idea our lands were so worthless. The area Lloyd was scanning was a fairly developed one. There were several shops and taverns. The place was a metropolis in its own way. But for each ten square foot lot, the selling price hardly reached one piece of gold!
Tsk. I guess I should work harder to bump up the price.
That was when it really dawned on Lloyd how small and rural the Frontera barony was. But that was all going to change further down the road. The land value would naturally go up if he kept improving things.
Lloyd turned his focus on other information collected with his new surveying skill. Underground scanning revealed many things.
Hey, this is way more useful than I expected. It was just as it said in the skill description. He could see sixteen feet underground. He saw the way the tree roots spread through the soil and how the underground water flowed. He even saw rabbit burrows dug here and there.
Lloyd gulped unconsciously. This… is glorious.
Until today, his survey skills only rendered information about the ground's surface for him. What was beneath the ground could only be known after the land was excavated. But now that hassle was resolved in one swoop.
It's going to be super helpful when I'm laying the ground for any construction work. Foundations were crucial in construction. Its importance was amplified when the scale of the job grew. For example, if the workers did a poor job of laying the foundation of bridges or dams, the consequences were obvious. Whatever was built would tilt to one side, or its foundation would quickly crack and crumble. And finally, the entire structure would collapse. In some cases, the construction companies had to demolish the whole thing before disaster unfolded. It didn't matter how much money was used up to that point. The spending only doubled from there if you had to tear everything down to prevent further damage.
But that can be prevented by scanning the ground right from the beginning. The construction time would be greatly reduced as well. He would be able to inspect the groundwork in real-time, drastically shortening the construction period. And he'd be able to save money as well.
This design skill option is really something else. Lloyd looked at the two options in the design skill. Printing out the plan and seeing the floor plan… He wanted to put them to use, but Javier was right beside him. He could casually use his design skill, but that would seriously make Javier mistake him for a human blueprint printer.
I'll use the design skill when I'm alone. First up, surveying. Crackle! After that day, Lloyd engrossed himself in surveying the land during the day. He calculated the area of the road and surveyed the route. Over the next few days, he processed the data he collected. And he used the design skill with the assembled data. So, during the day, he surveyed the land, while at night, he focused on the design.
Each night, he rushed to put Javier to sleep.
"A plastic limit (PL) is defined as the percentage of water content when kneaded soil is rolled into a thread of 3.2mm (1/8") in diameter. The PL… is soil… blah blah blah… and it's the same case when the liquid limit is determined… blah blah blah… in case the cylindrical cone with the weight of 240g is used… the moisture content that responds to the entrance of the cone that is the size of d = 20mm is… blah blah blah…"
Snore…
When Javier drifted off, Lloyd could activate his design skills as much as he wanted. He designed the route and the cross-section of the roads based on the information he gathered from surveying. He gathered the floor plans as quietly as possible to not wake his sleeping friend Javier.
Be-beep! He tested printing the plan out on paper. Then, like magic, the floor plan was printed just the way he designed it.
Wow. It works. It really works! Up until today, he had to directly draw the floor plans he had designed by hand. It was unpleasant and tedious work. The accuracy dropped a bit too. But now, things were breezy and convenient. The plan got printed out like he would have drawn it.
The power of the skill options didn't stop there.
One morning, a few days later, Lloyd tested the design skill as he stood in the construction area. He pointed to the area that would be turned into a road as he looked at Javier.
"Hey, Javier. Do you see that?"
"Excuse me? What do you mean?"
"There. Don't you see the lines drawn all over the ground?" Lloyd asked.
"I don't see them. But…" Javier muttered.
"But?"
"I am a bit worried about your eyes and… mental health."
Javier's look was filled with concern.
"Are you saying that I'm seeing things?"
"Yes," Javier answered.
"Baa ha-ha. I see." Lloyd let out a wicked laugh. It was just as he expected. He had come out here the night before to draw the two-dimensional plan on several areas. But it was visible only to him and no one else.
Everything's set. I can do it.
His surveying and design skills had improved much more than he anticipated. Thanks to that, the preparation was completed in a breeze.
Now, it was time to dive into full-scale construction work.
Translator: https://bettertranslation9.wordpress.com