Free Web NovelChapter 51: Chapter 51: Foundations of Velaris
The Darkstone Wall continued to rise.
Even several minutes later, the sight remained just as unbelievable as when it had first emerged from the earth.
Massive charcoal-colored blocks pushed upward from the trench surrounding the territory. Soil trembled. Stone shifted. The wall grew steadily higher, enclosing Velaris piece by piece beneath the fading afternoon sky.
Nobody seemed willing to look away.
Caleb tilted his head back until his neck protested.
"Yeah, I’m never getting used to that."
"You’ve said that five times already," Marcus said.
"And I’ll probably say it five more."
Nobody argued with him.
Because honestly?
The wall was ridiculous.
It needed no machines, no workers not even cranes.
Just stone rising from the ground as if the world itself had accepted Iris’s purchase and decided to obey.
A faint smile appeared on Iris’s face before her attention returned to the territory panel floating in front of her.
The excitement was nice.
The wall was nice.
But eventually reality would catch up to all of them.
Walls didn’t build villages.
Resources did.
Her gaze lingered on the remaining numbers.
Four thousand wood.
Two thousand stone.
Ten thousand, two hundred and eleven gold.
It sounded like a lot.
It probably wasn’t.
Not after seeing the prices inside the building tab.
The village center alone cost hundreds of gold.
The warehouse cost hundreds more.
Future upgrades would undoubtedly be even worse.
The brief satisfaction from buying the wall faded almost immediately.
They were going to need far more resources than she originally thought.
Iris closed the panel.
"We’re going to need more wood and stone."
The conversation around her quieted.
Benjamin looked over.
"How much more?"
"A lot."
That earned several groans.
"That’s not a number," Caleb complained. freёweɓnovel.com
"It’s the most accurate number I have right now."
That was somehow worse.
Benjamin rubbed his forehead.
"Define a lot."
Iris glanced toward the towering wall still rising in the distance.
"That thing cost one thousand wood and one thousand stone."
Silence.
The number settled over everyone.
Marcus was the first to react.
"...What?"
"A thousand?" Caleb repeated.
"A thousand," Iris confirmed.
Victor let out a low whistle.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Back when they were still on Earth, a thousand pieces of anything sounded manageable.
A thousand bottles of water.
A thousand cans of food.
A thousand planks of wood.
Now that they knew one unit represented an entire cubic meter, the number became significantly more intimidating.
Benjamin’s expression grew thoughtful.
"So that means future construction is going to be expensive."
"Very."
"And we’ll need a steady supply."
"Exactly."
The atmosphere gradually shifted.
The excitement of watching the wall rise gave way to practicality.
A territory wasn’t something you built once and forgot about.
It would constantly consume resources.
Wood, stone and future materials they hadn’t even unlocked yet.
The realization settled over everyone at roughly the same time.
Elias was the first to move.
"We should start gathering."
Several bodyguards immediately nodded.
Marcus pushed himself upright.
"Better now than later."
Daniel looked toward the distant forest beyond the territory.
"There should be plenty nearby."
Victor rolled his injured shoulder before grimacing.
The movement clearly wasn’t comfortable.
"I’ll stay behind."
Nobody argued.
The injury on his forearm had improved, but not enough to justify unnecessary strain.
"Don’t go too far." Iris told them
"We won’t."
Within minutes, the small group began preparing to leave.
Weapons were checked.
Water was distributed.
Routes were discussed.
The entire process was surprisingly efficient.
After days of surviving together, they had long developed a rhythm.
Soon, Elias, Marcus, Daniel, and several others disappeared beyond the edge of the territory.
The remaining group watched them go.
Then Caleb stretched dramatically.
"Well."
Nobody responded.
Caleb looked around.
"...Anybody else suddenly feel unemployed?"
That finally earned a laugh.
Even Veronica smiled.
Iris shook her head before opening her storage.
A moment later, two large tents appeared on the grass.
The reaction was immediate.
"Whoa."
Caleb stumbled backward.
The tents were far larger than the simple camping tents most people imagined.
One was large enough to comfortably accommodate the entire family.
The second wasn’t much smaller.
For several seconds, Caleb simply stared.
Then he slowly turned toward Iris.
"Okay."
His expression was completely serious.
"Are you secretly a magician?"
Without hesitation, Iris flicked his forehead.
"Ow!"
"You deserved that."
"I asked a reasonable question."
"No, you didn’t."
Caleb rubbed his forehead dramatically.
"I think all the fighting is affecting my memory."
"I think it might be."
The others chuckled.
Meanwhile, Benjamin crouched beside one of the tents, examining it.
"Where did you even get these?"
"The basement."
The answer came so naturally that nobody reacted at first.
Then several expressions froze.
"The basement... remember?"
Veronica repeated softly.
For a moment, everyone seemed to remember the same thing.
The endless shelves. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
The mountains of supplies.
The countless boxes they had spent weeks gathering.
Food, tools, camping equipment, medical supplies, and emergency resources.
The preparations for an apocalypse they hadn’t truly believed would happen.
A complicated look appeared on Veronica’s face.
"We left so much behind."
The laughter faded.
Nobody disagreed.
Because they all remembered it.
Entire shelves.
Entire stacks.
Entire rooms filled with things they never had the chance to bring.
Veronica sighed. "Honestly..." She shook her head. "If we’d known all this was going to happen, we should have bought more gold instead."
Benjamin looked up.
Veronica continued.
"Gold. Silver. Jewelry. Anything valuable."
"We spent so much time focusing on supplies."
A faint smile touched her lips.
"Turns out the system likes precious metals more than canned food."
Caleb slowly stroked his chin.
"Huh."
His gaze shifted.
Then shifted again.
Then finally landed on Benjamin.
The others followed.
One by one.
Benjamin immediately narrowed his eyes.
"Oh no."
"Oh yes," Caleb said.
Benjamin sighed.
"I don’t like that look."
Caleb pointed at him.
"We can’t just sell everything because of a fever dream."
Benjamin covered his face.
The imitation was nearly perfect.
Several people burst into laughter.
"It wasn’t a fever dream," Caleb continued.
"It was apparently a highly accurate prophetic warning."
Benjamin groaned.
"You all sound ridiculous."
"Do we?"
"Yes."
"You called it a fever dream."
"Because it sounded like one."
More laughter erupted.
Even Benjamin eventually failed to maintain his serious expression.
A reluctant smile escaped him.
"In my defense, most people don’t prepare for the apocalypse because someone had a strange dream."
"Fair."
"Very fair."
"Reasonable, even."
Benjamin pointed at Caleb.
"Thank you."
Caleb immediately continued.
"Still wrong, though."
The resulting groan from Benjamin only made everyone laugh harder.
The laughter gradually died down.
Not because the joke stopped being funny.
But because everyone had already laughed themselves out.
Benjamin muttered something about ungrateful family members under his breath and received absolutely no sympathy.
Meanwhile, the sun continued its slow descent.
The golden light blanketing the territory softened, painting the rising Darkstone Wall in shades of bronze and amber.
For a brief moment, everything felt strangely peaceful.
There were no monsters, no running, no fighting, no immediate danger.
Just family, conversation and the distant rumble of stone continuing to rise from the earth.
The moment was interrupted by approaching footsteps.
Several heads turned.
Elias and the others were returning.
Marcus was carrying something over one shoulder.
Daniel had dirt smeared across half his jacket.
The others weren’t in much better condition.
Yet despite the obvious exhaustion, all of them looked excited.
Unusually excited.
Caleb immediately noticed.
"Why do you all look like that?"
Marcus grinned.
"We found something interesting."
That instantly got everyone’s attention.
The group entered the territory and stopped near the camp.
Then, before anyone could ask another question, Elias opened his system.
A familiar translucent screen appeared before him.
Naturally, nobody else could see it.
A second later, something materialized on the ground.
Thud.
A massive block of wood appeared.
Several people jumped.
Another appeared beside it.
Then another.
And another.
Large cubic blocks of timber rapidly accumulated into a pile.
The family stared.
Nobody spoke.
After the wood came stone.
Huge blocks appeared one after another until a small mound had formed nearby.
In less than a minute, they had produced more raw material than most people could move in a week.
The silence lasted several seconds.
Then Caleb pointed.
"What."
Nobody answered.
Because everyone was asking the exact same question.
"What?" Caleb repeated.
Daniel scratched the back of his head.
"We were wondering the same thing."
Iris stepped forward.
Her eyes remained fixed on the resource pile.
"How did you bring all that back?"
Everybody only had one cubic meter of personal storage.
That was common knowledge.
Even if they emptied their entire inventories, carrying this much should have been impossible.
Elias exchanged a look with Marcus.
Then he explained.
"At first, we thought there was a problem."
"What kind of problem?" Veronica asked.
"When we gathered wood, it disappeared."
"...Disappeared?"
Daniel nodded.
"Straight into storage."
That only confused everyone further.
Marcus took over.
"We checked our inventories immediately."
"Nothing."
"No wood."
"No stone."
"Nothing at all."
Benjamin frowned.
"Then where did it go?"
Elias smiled slightly.
"Resource storage."
The moment those words left his mouth, Iris understood.
The others looked lost.
Elias continued.
"Apparently gathering resources doesn’t place them inside our personal inventory."
"It goes somewhere else."
"Somewhere reserved specifically for territory materials."
That immediately got Iris’s attention.
"A separate storage system?"
"Exactly."
Marcus nodded.
"We tested it."
"Several times."
Caleb folded his arms.
"How?"
Daniel looked embarrassed.
"We tried shoving random things into it."
The entire group stared.
"...You what?"
Daniel coughed.
"In our defense, we were conducting important scientific research."
Marcus immediately betrayed him.
"He tried putting a water bottle inside."
Laughter erupted.
Daniel pointed accusingly.
"You tried putting your knife inside."
"That’s different."
"It is literally the same thing."
"It isn’t."
"It absolutely is."
Even Elias looked amused.
Eventually the explanation resumed.
"The storage only accepts territory resources."
"Wood."
"Stone."
"And probably other materials we’ll unlock later."
"Everything else gets rejected."
Benjamin’s eyes widened slightly.
"That’s actually useful."
"Very useful."
Because it solved an enormous problem.
A single cubic meter wasn’t much.
But if gathered resources had their own dedicated storage...
Then gathering operations suddenly became far more efficient.
Iris looked toward the resource pile.
Then toward the forest.
Then back toward the resource pile.
Thoughts immediately began racing through her mind.
If resources could be gathered this quickly...
If people could continuously deposit them...
If gathering had proper incentives...
Her gaze sharpened.
A territory couldn’t grow on goodwill alone.
People worked harder when effort produced results.
Which meant resources needed value.
Not arbitrary value.
Consistent value.
Reliable value.
The beginnings of an economy.
Benjamin noticed the look on her face.
"Oh no."
Iris blinked.
"What?"
"You’re planning something."
"I am."
Benjamin sighed.
"That’s never reassuring."
A smile tugged at the corner of Iris’s lips.
For the first time since arriving in Eldilon, she wasn’t thinking about tomorrow’s survival.
She was thinking about tomorrow’s development.
The difference was small.
Yet somehow it changed everything.
Beyond the territory, the forest remained vast and untamed.
Above them, the Darkstone Wall continued its steady ascent.
Around them, tents had been erected.
Resources had begun accumulating.
And somewhere along the way, Velaris had stopped feeling like a temporary refuge.
Slowly but surely...
It was becoming a village...
