A few days later, a few things were completed. One, the floor tiles, totalling 200 pieces. Another was Tumble’s farm project, wherein a wooden elevated farm was placed on the [Garden].
Since the garden’s effect worked vertically, this was meant to maximize the small area since there was a purchase limit to it. The shelf was above two meters above ground, to allow for natural sunlight to reach the plants below.
This way, despite the limited number of magic [Gardens], he could still plant a lot more. Eventually, maybe he’d try underground planting, too, but that’d be for later.
The current stock was more than enough for the staff to splurge on, especially since they only had a few customers at a time. For now, he needed to find ways to get more customers!
Which just circled back to the pathways.
After a few trial and errors, they found a decent formula to make relatively sturdy floor tiles.
It was using the mane of theas fibre reinforcement, which was quite sturdy in its own right. Durgan tested it by mimicking the strength and weight of a typical awakened monster, and stepping on it repeatedly, and it really held on for a while!
This was really good news. The way for an empire to get rich is to build roads. This was common sense to anyone who studied some history. Well, Finn hadn’t, but even he knew of it.
He obviously wasn’t planning on paving the whole way (yet). He simply didn’t have the manpower for that (yet). What he could do was to use it as a wayfinder. He could place them about a meter or two away from each other, and the potential customers could follow them to his inn.
Ideally, this pseudo-path would be connected to the existing roads.
Throughout the past decades, there had been some paths that had been cleared out bit by bit due to their use. Through the years, it became one of the main pathways that hundreds, if not thousands, of caravans go through every year.
At some point, there were even a few ’avenues’ that had been used so much that a pathway that could fit two carriages formed. He did not remember seeing this, though, but the kids (Ren and Aaron) mentioned that it should be nearby.
It seemed like the nearest existing road was somewhere about a few hundred kilometers South or Southwest, which was actually quite near the lake where he landed. It was a shortcut in level 1 connecting the Northwest to the Southern areas.
This made sense since it was on relatively flatter lands or far from the more difficult and inclined parts of the mountains. According to Durgan, there were no paths developed directly connecting each dungeon because no one would do it, and there wasn’t that much traffic heading there every month.
Because of the system’s ’death timer’ telling him he had less than an hour to find a place to establish an inn back then, he hadn’t been able to study the terrain much. He just followed the stream and the slopes.
After rushing, he got to this spot, so it was safe to assume that the way to the existing roads would take a few hours at a normal trekking pace.
He reckoned the pathway would just be them clearing some shrubs and vegetation and adding signs accordingly. The tiles they made were about the size of a foot, and he decided to space them every two meters at the farthest. The distance would gradually reduce to every meter or less as one got closer to the inn.
That said, for the tiles to actually be visible, they’d need to clear the vision.
People actually had to see the tile for it to be useful, yea?
"What’s the next step, boss?" Durgan asked as they stood at the edge of the barrier on the Southwest side (which was on the right side if one was heading out of the inn).
"We have to clear a path and walk through that, until the roads," Finn said, though still with some worries. He looked at the forest, which was dense with vegetation.
How long would it take to clear such a long path?
It was around this time that he heard the distant roar of monsters, and Finn smiled, an idea brewing in his mind.
At this, he looked at Durgan with sparkling eyes. "We might lack customers and there are only a few of us, but what do we have in excess in this place?" he asked, a sly smile on his face.
"Monsters, of course!"
.
.
"What?"
"We can use their manicness to help clear a path for us," Finn explained.
"What?"
Finn sighed. "The mobs can step and create a path, we’ll just have to clean it up afterward.
In theory, this might work. The most difficult part was to push away all those shrubs and trees. With just a few of them, doing so on their own would take a long while.
Of course, this was assuming the monsters would actually go through set paths rather than just go after them.
Well, he’ll think about that later; his ideas were overflowing, and he’d revise the plan later.
Next, assuming that the path was flattened and would then be cleared, they would then add the tiles as well as the signs. When it’s done, while it wasn’t a fancy road, it was at least a clear road that people could follow. Even if they didn’t see the signs or tiles, if one was lost, they’d definitely follow even the slightest trekking paths.
Even if it only helped a few in its lifetime, Finn thought all this effort was worth it.
Next up, he needed to figure out sustainability. Although more and more people would pass through there, he’d still want minimal maintenance.
Another, after clearing and placing tiles, they’d be plantingspores to grow the ferns that thrive under sapsurge trees. When they grow up, they’ll have partial effects of the sapsurge tree. It wasn’t as effective, but it could be of help.
Definitely better than nothin!