Chapter 19. (2) All roads
lead to Rome.
All roads lead to Rome.
It’s something everyone must have heard at least once.
It is also a term derived from numerous roads built during the time of ancient Rome.
‘The Roman Empire was truly a virtue of roads.’
Roads should be made as straight as possible.
It must be connected to every corner of the vast territory.
For his sake, he does not hesitate to dig a hole in a mountain or build a bridge in a valley.
Rome was the empire that kept such beliefs most thoroughly.
Thanks to them, they paved roads for a total length of 85,000 kilometers.
They built a road that could loop around the earth more than twice around the equator.
“That’s why roads are so important. Do you know what factors have the biggest impact on land prices?”
“I don’t know.”
“Traffic is traffic.”
“….”
Amid Xaviel’s silence, Lloyd’s words continued.
“Suppose you have a house. But the road from that house to the market is really rough. You have to jump over mountains, cross water, and even bungee jump. Every time I go out somewhere, my mentality automatically shouts the departure dream team. Would you like to live in a house like that?”
“I think it will be a great training session.”
“….”
“If you ride a mountain and swim every day, your basic stamina will be strengthened. bungee jumping…I don’t know what it is, but if it also gives you an extreme experience, it will be great swordsmanship training.”
“Tsk Then, not someone with a fetish for swordsmanship like you, but normal people.”
“Well, that must be a bit difficult.”
“Is that right?”
“yes.”
“I can talk a little bit now.”
Lloyd raised an eyebrow in satisfaction.
“It’s not just the house. Youngji is the same. Do you know what our estate’s biggest problem is?”
“You were Lord Lloyd in the past.”
“….”
“I don’t know now.”
“Hmmmm. Road, road.”
“You mean the road?”
“okay. Did you see a properly paved road in our estate?”
“I didn’t see it.”
“yes? That’s right.”
It was true.
There is not a single paved road in the Barony of Frontera.
It’s just that the grass doesn’t grow along the road that many people walk, so only the naturally occurring dirt road is clumsy.
I thought it was time to change that.
Besides, the road to the usual role was not the end.
Lloyd had other, more important plans to utilize the road.
“Anyway, you don’t have to know what I’m about to do right away. Could you please move away? Let’s do some measurements.”
The reason for the road construction can be shown in the result anyway.
So now is the time to do rather than explain.
He swung his hand at Xaviel.
I checked the terrain to put the road.
‘It would be best to lay asphalt, but that’s impossible here. As for the technology that can be mobilized here, the Via Appia would be the most appropriate.’
Lloyd recalled the Appian Way he had encountered during his liberal arts lecture.
It was also a topic that was researched and presented in the group assignment.
‘Early Roman roads. The matrix and starting point of numerous roads built by Rome. Thanks to the Appian Way, Rome was able to successfully conduct conquests in southern Italy. Even the road remains strong to this day.’
It was a road that was built over 2,000 years ago.
Even so, it was still running without any compensation.
It was a cross-section of the formidable civil engineering technology of ancient Rome.
Lloyd planned to build just such an Appian Way along the central section of his estate.
‘From here to there.’
From the entrance to the manor house, straight through the manor over there to the far eastern mountains.
It was a perfect section to use as the aorta for the future growth of the manor.
However, there was something to be done before construction could begin.
It was measurement and design.
‘Let’s raise the skill level first.’
Lloyd opened the skill window.
Ding dong.
[Load the list of skills you have.]
[Basic Survey: Lv 2]
[Basic Design: Lv 2] [Extended
Mastery Skill – (Shovel): Lv 1]
uh.’
In the meantime, I have measured and designed several ondol rooms.
Perhaps thanks to the accumulated experience, the surveying and designing skills rose by 1 each.
However, this was not enough to survey and design the road.
‘The surveying skill can only grasp an area of 121㎡ with one use. With design skills, the volume of 1331 cubic meters is at best. This is too inefficient.’
A wrinkle formed between Lloyd’s brows.
It was true.
He had recently tested how many skills he could use at once.
The results were not as satisfactory as expected.
Measurement and design were limited to ten times each.
If I tried more than that, extreme fatigue and dizziness set in.
Of course, the skill was automatically canceled as well.
It took almost a day to even recover enough to use the skill again.
In other words, with the current skill level, it meant that you could only measure and design an area of 1210 m2 and a volume of 13310 m3 per day.
‘Yeah, no problem. How far is it from here to that mountain? I have to hurry up a bit to finish the construction before the spring rainy season arrives.’
I didn’t have much time.
Instead, fortunately, there were quite a few RPs gathered during that time.
[Current RP: 659]
…No, it was huge.
‘Should I at least give thanks to Sir Neumann for this?’
It was thanks to having a duel with Lord Neumann and punishing him.
My affinity with many people has improved.
20 each with the baron couple. With
Xaviel and 2.
Sir Bayern and 1.
Incorporating Yeong Ji-min, the favor rating went up by 6.
Thanks to that, I was able to pack a heap of 507 RP that day alone.
Even so, he didn’t waste RP hastily.
If you keep it, the day will come when it will be useful.
With that belief, I’ve been keeping my RP frugal until now.
And finally, it was time to use the RP that I had been saving.
‘Then let’s see. As a test, let’s raise it one level at a time.’
Lloyd moved his eyes to one side of the skill window.
There was a skill level up button.
His gaze flickered towards the skill level up button like a mouse click.
Ding dong.
[List of skills that can be leveled up]
[Basic survey: Lv 2 → 3 (RP consumption: 10)]
[Basic design: Lv 2 → 3 (RP consumption: 10)]
[Extended mastery skill – (shovel): Lv 1 → 2 (RP consumption: 15)]
‘Start with surveying and design.’
Choose two skills.
Ding dong.
[Skill level up!]
[Basic survey: Lv 3]
[Areas that can be surveyed at once: 144㎡]
[RP required for next level up: 15]
[Basic design: Lv 3]
[Structure area that can be designed at once : 1728㎥]
[Required RP for next level up: 15]
[Currently possessed RP: 639]
It was seen that the effect of the skill increased slightly.
But I couldn’t be satisfied with this.
‘Let’s properly invest in seaweed.’
Measurement and design were his lifeline.
It was never a time to save money.
Lloyd poured out the remaining RP boldly.
Surveying and design skills rose steadily.
From level 3 to level 4.
From level 5 to level 6.
I finally rose from level 9 to level 10.
From there, I invested RP once more to raise it to level 11, and a slightly different message came to mind this time.
Ding dong!
[Skill grade up!]
[Surveying skill grade has risen to .]
[Skill options have been opened as the skill grade rises.]
[Intermediate survey: Lv 1]
[Surveyable area at once: 1600㎡]
[Skill Dedicated option ①: Appraisal of land price – Appraisal of the unit price per land area at the present time of the surveyed topography. (Error rate +/-5%)]
[Skill only option ②: Underground scanning – Automatically scans the surveyed terrain up to 5 meters underground. Identify all factors such as soil composition, soil bedrock, underground water, and buried resources within the range.]
[Required RP for next level up: 100]
[Design skill grade has risen to .]
[Skill options have been opened as the skill grade rises. .]
[Intermediate design: Lv 1]
[Structure area that can be designed at once: 64000㎥]
[Skill-only option ①: Print drawing – Design results can be accurately printed on drawings (specified paper, etc.)]
[ Skill-only option ②: Display floor plan (2D) – Displays the design result in a 2D floor plan on the actual land. (Special: only visible)]
[Required RP for next level up: 100]
[Currently owned RP: 119]
‘Wow, that’s awesome.’
My eyes widened at the changed skill contents.
The amount of RP consumed was so much that I didn’t even care.
‘The measurement area and design volume have increased tremendously. But there’s something even bigger than this.’
Lloyd’s gaze turned to the options dedicated to the surveying skill.
An option created when the skill level rises from beginner level 10 to intermediate level.
The content of those options was truly amazing.
‘Land is appraisal? This is a complete real estate app because you can literally figure out the current market price of the land. Besides, it’s an underground scan.’
Let’s try it.
Lloyd cast his gaze into the distance.
Intermediate surveying skill was activated.
‘survey.’
Tsutsutsu!
Lloyd’s eyes lit up with a faint blue light.
At the same time, the landscape he was looking at changed.
The area of a square 40 meters wide and 40 meters high, specified by the line of sight.
Several additions have been made to the information displayed within that scope.
The first was the estimated selling price of the land.
‘omg…Was our estate this shit?’
Currently, the place he scans with surveying is at least a place that can be called the main street in the territory. It was a yolk of its own, with a tavern and a few shops huddled together.
However, the estimated selling price per pyeong was less than 1 gold!
‘Shit. I guess I’ll have to work harder.’
Once again, I realized how poor Baron Frontera was.
But that’s just the story for now.
If you take care of the manor, the land price will naturally go up.
Lloyd focused on other information that appeared to be a surveying skill.
This time, the information he paid attention to was the result of underground scanning.
‘Is it much better than I thought?’
It was as described in the skill options.
The underground within the measurement range was clearly visible up to 5 meters.
I could see how tree roots were entangled in the ground, how underground water flowed, and even rabbit holes made here and there.
Lloyd involuntarily swallowed his saliva.
‘It’s awesome. Seriously.’
Until now, even if you used surveying skills, you could only see information on the surface of the earth.
There was no way to know what was underground until you dug yourself.
But that was resolved at once.
‘Especially when doing ground work, it will be extremely useful.’
Ground foundation work on site is absolute.
Especially when building a large building, the foundation work becomes more important.
What if you are building a large bridge or dam and the ground condition is open?
What if the proper foundation work was not done properly?
The structure soon reveals its problems.
It tilts, cracks, or sinks.
eventually collapses
Before that happens, there may be a situation where you have to hold back your tears and go ahead with the demolition.
At best, a catastrophe occurs in which a large amount of money is spent to build something, and then the money is wasted on demolition to prevent further damage.
‘But when underground scanning becomes automatic, that happens much less. The foundation construction period will also be shortened.’
The foundation construction status can be checked in real time.
The construction period is much shorter.
That’s how you save money on construction.
‘The design skill options are also formidable.’
Lloyd’s gaze turned to the two options created in the design skill this time.
‘Show floor plan in drawing output.’
I wanted to try it right away.
But now, Xaviel was by his side.
It was just right to be misunderstood as a human printer when drawing out blueprints with design skills.
‘Let’s use the design when we are alone.’
First of all, from measurement.
Tsutsutsutsu!
From that day on, Lloyd was obsessed with surveying during the day.
The area for the road was calculated and the route was surveyed.
All the information collected over several days was made into data.
Moved data to design skills.
If the daytime was the stage for surveying, the nighttime was the time when designing took the lead role.
When night came, he put Xaviel to sleep.
“The plastic limit (PL) is defined as the percentage of water content when a kneaded soil is rolled into a thread 3.2 mm (1/8 in.) in diameter and broken. The plasticity limit of the soil…blah blah…and…As in the case of determining the liquid limit…Mijoo Algojual…Using a similar conical cone with a weight of 240g…The water content corresponding to the cone penetration of d = 20 mm…Blah blah….”
“…Kuuul.”
When Xaviel completely fell asleep, the design skill was activated from then on.
Based on the information obtained from the survey, the route and cross section of the road were designed.
And I printed out the drawing quietly so as not to wake Xaviel.
Chizuzuzu!
As a test, I tried printing the drawing on paper.
Then, the blueprint designed with the skill was stamped on paper.
‘Oh come on. It becomes real.’
Until now, he had to transfer and draw by hand one by one the blueprints he had designed with his skills.
It was an uncomfortable and difficult labor.
There was also a slight drop in accuracy.
Then, as I printed out the drawing as if I was drawing it out, it became more pleasant and comfortable.
The power (?) of the skill option wasn’t the only one.
“Hey Xaviel. Can you see that?”
“yes? What do you mean?”
A few days later in the morning, Lloyd tested the skill options for Xaviel at the road construction site.
He pointed out where the road would be built.
“that. Lines are just drawn on the floor, aren’t they?”
“I don’t see anything like that. but….”
“but?”
“I’m a bit concerned about Mr. Lloyd’s eye health or mental health.”
“You think I’m looking at something?”
“That’s right.”
“Whoop, okay.”
“…?”
Lloyd laughed sinisterly.
Again, as expected.
The result of designing with skill last night.
So now, the floor plan engraved in 2D throughout the site.
It was visible only to himself.
‘It’s okay. I can do it.’
Surveying and design skills much stronger than expected.
Thanks to this, preparations for construction were carried out in an instant.
Now was the time to jump into the real work.
