Chapter 2
The silk soldiers, or the silk sluts as many of the girls called them, moved all of the snow, four square miles and however many cubic feet of it, to a corner of the warded kingdom.
That snow would eventually be melted to fill our reservoir, but right now, Abby had the ward temperature set to below freezing to protect the snow.
The towers were decorative, but we would make it known that they powered the city’s barrier, and we would guard them as if that were true. An enemy would have to go to great lengths to damage them, and if they succeeded, they would discover it accomplished absolutely nothing.
The shelter housed the original teleporter and was attached to our invisible tower.
That crystalline structure would be torn down and built over eventually, but for now, that teleporter was convenient for tower runs.
Finishing the climb to access the heavens was yet another objective critical to my survival, so those runs would continue in spite of construction.
As soon as the connection was made, the silk soldiers went to work, moving massive blocks of stone out of the dungeon to lay the foundation for Sanctuary South. At one DP per block, I was in no danger of running out of materials.
Abby, Drae, Stacey, and Solara oversaw construction.
They followed the plans the scholars provided, but we added a subterranean level that no one outside of my party would know about.
Not only would that give us a secret network of passages for moving about the kingdom, but I planned to fill that level with an army that never needed to eat or sleep.
My army would always be ready to protect me, waiting right beneath my feet, while being wholly unknown to my enemies.
According to Solara’s calculations, if we stored nothing but silk soldiers in that secret level, we would need approximately 16 million constructs to use all of the space.
I didn’t have the dungeon points to do that right away, but little by little, I would grow my army in secret, and silk soldiers were only one type of unit I intended to create.
My final army would be as versatile as it was overwhelming, even if I needed 200 years to fully realize that vision.
I spent 300,000 DP to summon a few hundred silk soldiers at the start of this project. When they were finished with construction, I could repurpose them for any number of tasks, so I didn’t mind the investment.
Work went swiftly with golems as laborers. They never tired, never complained, and were far stronger than humans. Viewed from above, my kingdom looked like a growing anthill as the lines of constructs moved across the ice and assembled my new world.
When the foundation was set, the golems built the frame for the reservoir out of the same foundation stone and continued to layer upward across all four square miles.
They established sewers that used enchantments to cleanse water before feeding it back into the reservoir.
They ran waterlines that could deliver hot or cold indoor plumbing with the touch of a rune.
And they layered wards to protect and alert us if anyone tried to access or sabotage these vital resources.
On a slightly more paranoid note, these same wards would alert us if something tried to come at us from below as well. The moment a foundation stone was disturbed, we would know exactly where.
Since we couldn't move the gates once they were set, the gate into the Grubiit dungeon stayed on the glacier level, the lowest layer of our build. That meant bringing materials out of the dungeon required moving them up a ramp that steadily grew longer and taller as construction progressed. Human laborers had proven that they could overcome a challenge like moving a city’s worth of stone uphill, but constructs made it so much simpler.
I had worried that this challenge would slow our progress, but it ended up being a non-issue.
Once the street level was in, the massive project of filling 2 square miles with 40 ft of soil began, all dungeon-generated.
Some of the soil went inside the city for parks and whatnot, but the majority was intended to support farmland outside of our walls.
Half the constructs wheeled load after load of dirt up from the Grubiit gate, and half continued to assemble the city.
It was at this moment that the unique character of Sanctuary South started to come to life.
The whole city was based on the Gothic style of the Ice Temple, which was originally built by the Cult of the Glass Heart.
That meant a liberal use of arches, spires, and stained glass.
Since our city would never see weather, slate tile rooftops were unnecessary, so every structure had a flat roof to maximize usable surface area.
Because we could, we added tall arching frames over those spaces to give the cityscape more variety.
Some of those elements looked like the bones of domes, while others formed more spire-esque points.
In all cases, no actual roof was attached, only frames that outlined their shape, giving the whole city the character of ancient, mysterious ruins.
The majority of Sanctuary South was built from what the dungeon core called silverstone, a granite-like material that was pale gray with flecks of quartz that caught the light.
The roads were made from oceanstone, which was as blue as the glacier the city lived on top of, and bricks of onyx accented walls and arches.
When the waterways on the surface level of the city were complete, and all the dirt had been hauled to the proper places, Abby raised the temperature to a permanent 72 degrees Fahrenheit.
The snow melted into the reservoir, where it was automatically cleansed with Prestidigitation enchantments.
We could have filled what the snow couldn’t with Create Water, but growing blocks of ice with the dungeon core and dropping those in the water to melt was faster than having mages stand around casting and recasting for days.
As the finishing touches went into the city, like planting trees and grass for the parks, I gave Solara my blueprints for my castle design. Once the castle was built, then we would finish the walls.
My castle. I enjoyed watching the idea come to life.
The ground floor was the first public church for the Order of the Silk Noose. All were welcome to visit that level, and it looked like a far larger version of the Ice Temple chapel. Stained glass was used throughout, depicting scenes of my party members posed like divine figures.
The next level up, which was about 50 ft because I liked tall ceilings, was my throne room and other administrative offices. This floor was also designed after the Ice Temple as well, so it matched the aesthetic of the first floor.
From there, I got artsy.
The third level was open to the air, like one giant rooftop deck, which was a significant amount of space, as it was as large as the footprint of the entire structure.
Each corner had its own tower, and the space in between towers was filled with grass, flowers, and trees.
The statue garden at the center became our new teleporter hub.
Eventually, my followers would be able to teleport to every major city in the kingdom, but for now, they had access to the Capital, Flowst, Grubiit, Borja, and Zaglis.
We liberally used teleporters in general, actually. The only way to access anything above the second level was to have the mark of an official member. If someone hadn’t earned Freeze Brand by becoming an initiate, the teleporter didn’t function.
Two of the four towers were styled like dormitories in the spirit of the rooms in the Ice Temple.
The other two towers were for apartments, full living spaces meant to feel like permanent homes.
The girls would still be encouraged to keep roommates, but this luxury space would be a gift to loyal followers and keep them close.
Multiple penthouses topped each tower. My party would claim 4.
High Priestess Yuni and Queen Ashley would both get their own as well.
The twin rogues Lala and Lila would have homes here too, as would their old party member Kierka.
The demon sisters Abby, Stacey, and Drae had their own apartments too, of course.
My personal space was above those 4 towers.
Columns of stone rose out of their tops and climbed high in the sky.
Near the ceiling of our barrier, perched on those columns, was a platform.
My private quarters had the most magnificent view in all the world.
I could look out over my kingdom. up at the stars, and across a frozen wasteland–when it wasn't snowing, that is.
Like my rectory, no one on the outside could see into my space. To the citizens far below, it looked like stained glass with no way for any normal human to access.
The absence of stairs as a defensive measure was also how we secured access to the invisible tower standing at the edge of our blossoming city.
Anyone who couldn't access the statue garden couldn't access the tower.
Other than the doorway into the vertical dungeon itself, the staging area had no other entry points.
Not a single door or hatch. I was not going to risk someone finding my biggest secret by accident, and what room was more secure than one without doors?
For some time, I debated going to great lengths to dispel the illusion that made the tower invisible to human eyes. I imagined its enormous size would further humble visitors to Sanctuary South, and that pleased me.
“Do not feed your vanity at the expense of your strategy.”