Chapter 112: The Wealthy Modo City! 【Request for Recommendation Votes】
2016-09-01
Author: Floating Tower
Perhaps it was because Soren agreed to their request.
The goddesses all seemed to be in a good mood; after all, Soren was a guest from afar. The Agricultural Goddess thought for a moment and decided to hold a banquet to entertain him. It was very easy for deities to host a banquet, not needing to trouble mortals at all. With a gentle clap of her hands, a group of adorable flower fairies flew out of the flourishing woods in front of her. Each was only the size of a palm, resembling miniature fairies, bringing with them honey and fruit. Meanwhile, the River Goddess blew into a conch shell by the riverbank, and more than a dozen beautiful water spirits emerged, holding elegant shell plates filled with various seafood. The Spring Water Goddess lightly tapped her snow-white toes on the ground, instantly creating a clear and sweet spring water fountain that glimmered with rainbow colors under the sunlight. The New Sprout Goddess called forth a large group of colorful birds that sang a melody with their various chirps.
Soren watched, a bit dumbfounded.
In fact, although he was the lord of Modo City and a deity of medium divine power, he had never experienced the luxury of divine-grade enjoyment. Many nobles lived far more extravagantly than he did, and as for hosting a banquet using divine power, he had never studied a similar spell. Seeing the skillful actions of the goddesses, it was obvious that they had performed similar spells many times before.
It seemed that the rumors were not wrong; the gods of this world really knew how to enjoy life.
It was said that some deities had even developed a “banquet technique,” requiring only a sixth or seventh ring spell to automatically conjure a massive quantity of fine wines, foods, seating, and even a garden square out of thin air. Soren thought that if he had the time, he should also learn about “dimensional mansion technique.”
…………
The banquet did not delay Soren for too long.
The Agricultural Goddess was quite proactive. That afternoon, she delivered a divine decree to the church, and many priests and druids from the Southern Duchy were summoned. The Agricultural Goddess had a large number of priests and agricultural druids under her. They were skilled in cultivating plants and were experienced gardeners and farmers. These individuals originally served many nobles and merchants, some of whom were estate owners themselves. Following the divine decree, many of those who served as advisors to nobles came to the City of Harvest, and under the church’s arrangement, they began to head towards Spearwind Hills.
Pious believers would not go against the divine decree, so that very day, over a hundred druids and priests set out.
At this time, the southern dukes quickly got the news, and upon hearing it, they became a bit restless. Their harvests relied completely on the assistance of these priests, and now many had left their estates, making them worry whether the Agricultural Goddess was discontent with them. Consequently, they planned to pay a certain price to retain these priests and druids, but they were quickly rejected. After all, the gods’ covenant was no joke; since the Agricultural Goddess agreed to Soren’s request, it was useless even if they were willing to pay a greater price.
Spearwind Hills, Maple City.
The light of a portal appeared.
The first to step out was a mature and elegant white-robed priestess, with the Agricultural Goddess’s emblem on her chest. She was a legendary-tier archbishop.
Greeting her was Adele Isabella, and behind her was another noblewoman who bore some resemblance to her. Adele nodded slightly towards the archbishop and warmly said, “My lord has made all the arrangements. Please follow me; we have prepared temporary accommodations for you at the lord’s residence.”
“The temple is under construction and should be completed in about a week.”
The first wave of priests consisted of twelve members, all high-level priests, led by an archbishop. There were also three independent druids; many of the Agricultural Goddess’s priests worked part-time as druids and were experts in plant control.
The archbishop nodded with a smile, saying, “No rush. Can you show us around?”
Adele Isabella smiled and replied, “No problem at all. Let’s first go check out the temple area.”
The archbishop’s purpose was simple; she needed to see Modo City’s sincerity and strength. Although the goddess agreed to collaborate with the Lord of Shadows, the specifics of the implementation pace and the number of priests to be dispatched had to depend on the actual situation. A church operates under its own rules, and unless the value here was incredibly impressive, she did not advocate for the large-scale dispatch of Southern Duchy priests to Spearwind Hills.
Temple Area.
As a city that wasn’t too large, Maple City’s temple area had only a few temples, and all of them had been modified. The most prominent was the temple of the Lord of Shadows, followed by the temple of his subordinate, the Whip Maiden, then the temple of the Goddess of Wealth. The other temples were not visible, and the temple of the Agricultural Goddess was currently under construction. A group of half-elves was responsible for the temple’s construction, among whom were several witches; they were handling more than twenty clay golems, completing most of the physical labor. The main structure of the temple was built from pristine white marble; currently, it was just a skeletal framework, and many nearby spaces had not yet been renovated.
“This temple occupies an area of five thousand square meters, and we have currently utilized one-third of it.”
Adele smiled as she introduced the group of priests behind her, saying, “We are only responsible for the main framework. The specific layout and renovation of the temple will need to be completed by you. After all, every temple has its unique characteristics.”
The archbishop gazed at everything in astonishment.
Just one glance told her that this temple was quite expensive; just the marble alone had consumed a significant amount of resources. Such a temple would require at least a bishop or higher-tier priest to oversee, even in the Southern Duchy.
After observing for a while, she furrowed her brow.
She felt it was necessary to gather personnel quickly, as the temple built by these half-elves did not align with the Agricultural Goddess’s aesthetic, lacking the harmony of nature and humanity. She spoke a few words to a druid behind her and then told Adele, “Since this is the temple serving our lord, it’s best that we send some people over to help.”
“This is Master Ka’ali; he knows how to arrange this temple. The many constructions you built are fine, but some places do not meet our lord’s preferences.”
Modo City’s characteristic is grandiosity.
Therefore, the standards for building the temple were also set accordingly; however, the Agricultural Goddess’s temple was quite exquisite, which led the archbishop to believe that people should be dispatched early to participate, or it would be too troublesome to renovate later.
“No problem,” Adele smiled.
Immediately after, she took the group to the commercial and residential areas, ultimately arriving at the outer gate’s refugee shelters, where many refugees had already gathered.
“Currently,”
Adele pointed at the refugee shelter in front of her, “we have taken in approximately six thousand refugees, all of whom come with families, making them easier to manage. These populations will be used for land reclamation, and all tools and seeds will be supplied by Modo City. However, they need you to send people to manage and teach them.”
“There are many wastelands nearby; as long as they are reclaimed, they should be self-sufficient by next year.”
“According to our calculations, this city can expand to a population of fifty thousand. Currently, the population is over eighteen thousand, so we can still accommodate about thirty-two thousand more refugees.”
A city with a population of fifty thousand.
The archbishop exchanged glances with others, looking somewhat surprised, because other cities would typically only house about thirty thousand people, and fifty thousand was considered a large city. The ability to project such a scale in Modo City implied they had confidence in their urban management, believing they could handle the material distribution and defense even in a relatively small city. At the same time, the archbishop noted that many areas in the city were being renovated, the most notable being the sewer system and ditches, with the roads near the market being repaved.
“Hmm?”
The archbishop observed her surroundings and suddenly said, “Why are there grey dwarves here?”
Not far away, what appeared to be a blacksmith shop had about a dozen grey dwarves busily working, drinking while hammering away, often taking swigs from their flasks after a hard hit.
Adele smiled and said, “They are residents of Modo City.”
“They are skilled blacksmiths responsible for making the farming tools for the displaced. In the future, the city guard’s weapons will also be provided by them. These grey dwarves will not stay in the city; they will return to Modo City after completing their tasks.”
“After all,”
At this point, Adele chuckled, implying, “Such excellent blacksmiths are rather scarce in Modo City.”
The grey dwarves forge exquisite iron items.
Modo City seemed to have abundant steel resources. The archbishop merely took a glance and noticed that the quality of these farming tools was excellent, with most made of steel rather than wrought iron. A priest picked up a weapon, looked at it, and couldn’t help but exclaim, “Truly a masterpiece!”
Grey dwarves do not like to deal with outsiders.
The bearded grey dwarf at the forefront merely grunted, looking as if it were obvious, then continued with his work.
Were it not for the demands of the great Lord of Shadows, they would not have been willing to come to this run-down place, lacking fine wines and large furnaces, a far cry from Modo City.
“Maple City plans to recruit an army of three thousand men.”
Adele glanced at the archbishop, smiling as she said, “Given the current extraordinary times, we hope the Agricultural Church can also provide some personnel. Of course, we will supply all the weapons and equipment.”
In a word.
Wealthy and extravagant!
Each of Adele’s sentences implied the financial strength of Modo City, as if they were not concerned about this expenditure at all. In fact, they indeed weren’t, as Soren’s plan for the Bottomless Abyss had already begun to yield results. An endless supply of steel and rare minerals was flowing into Modo City from the Bottomless Abyss, and this expenditure was merely a drop in the bucket.
…………
(PS: First update.) (To be continued ~^~)
