Chapter 419: Thirty Days [ 2 ]

The Grand Guild Hall rose at the heart of the complex, positioned beyond an enormous public plaza connected directly to the main avenue.

Its footprint alone dwarfed Greyvale’s Guild Hall. Multiple wings extended from the central structure, each designed for different functions Sage hadn’t yet explored in detail.

The entrance was broad enough to handle crowds that would overwhelm most buildings in Evergreen, while the interior supports suggested several enormous halls occupying the lower levels.

By Day Eighteen, the main façade had taken shape. By Day Nineteen, upper sections were appearing behind it. On Day Twenty, Sage arrived in the morning, stared at a section of scaffolding and genuinely wondered whether he had remembered yesterday’s height incorrectly.

He hadn’t.

The Capital’s curiosity turned into serious attention.

Property brokers who had shown Sage unsuitable estates or tried to inflate prices after learning the Guild was interested, began appearing near the garrison under excuses that fooled nobody.

One broker approached Pax asking whether the Guild intended to purchase neighboring land. Another wanted to know whether Sage might sell portions of the district after redevelopment. Merchants became more direct.

Several requested information about future commercial leases despite Sage not having announced any. Suppliers offered contracts.

Construction firms asked about later projects. Inns near Western Crownway raised room prices as skilled workers arrived from elsewhere in the Capital.

Mercenary organizations were quieter.

Pax identified observers from at least three companies during Week Three.

None trespassed or interfered. They simply watched, asked questions in nearby taverns and tried to learn what facilities the Adventurer Guild intended to operate.

Sage didn’t need Pax to explain why. A large Guild Hall was one thing . A complex capable of handling thousands of adventurers was another.

The Guild hadn’t recruited a single Capital adventurer yet, but its intentions were becoming difficult to misunderstand.

Minor noble Houses also began asking questions. Some approached the Bureau of Crown Lands to confirm the sale.

Others sent representatives through property brokers or merchants. One noble household requested a formal meeting with Sage without explaining why. He postponed it. There would be time for Capital politics after the Headquarters existed.

The Bureau itself proved harder to postpone, inspectors arrived repeatedly.

The first group came because the demolition schedule seemed implausible. The second examined underground infrastructure. A third reviewed the road work, drainage, building foundations and compliance with the conditions attached to the deed.

By Week Three, inspections had become so frequent that Boren started recognizing individual officials.

Every inspection ended the same way.

No serious violations.

The materials met required standards. Foundations exceeded minimum requirements. Drainage plans matched approved connections.

Crown underground passages remained accessible exactly as negotiated. Magical infrastructure was properly isolated. Construction boundaries respected public roads.

Fire lanes existed. Structural plans had been filed. Even the ridiculous speed of the project violated nothing because Capital regulations cared about whether construction was safe, not whether workers were building too efficiently.

One inspector stood with Sage beneath the shadow of the rising Grand Guild Hall and finally asked what everyone else seemed to be wondering. "How are you doing this?"

Sage looked toward the crews. "We planned well."

The inspector stared at him.

Sage kept a straight face.

Pax walked away before anyone noticed him smiling.Week Four changed the project again. The noise didn’t disappear, but the work moved increasingly indoors.

Exterior walls were completed. Roofs closed. Windows arrived by the wagonload.

Formation Masters began installing permanent arrays throughout finished structures while craftsmen moved furniture, counters, equipment and fixtures inside. Roads received their final surfaces.

Drainage covers disappeared beneath clean paving. Trees and landscaped sections appeared along public avenues, not enough to turn the Guild into a garden but enough to prevent the enormous complex from becoming nothing but stone.

At night, sections of the district began lighting up.

Mina made Sage come outside the hotel on Day Twenty-Five because she had discovered that the tallest structure under construction could already be seen from several streets away.

Sage initially assumed she meant the Grand Guild Hall.

She didn’t.

Far beyond the surrounding rooftops, an enormous tower was climbing into the Capital skyline.

Sage knew what it was from the Kingdom Construction interface, but he deliberately didn’t open the facility details yet. He wanted to see the finished Headquarters before burying himself in menus.

Mina stared upward. "How many floors?"

"A lot."

"I can count them."

"Go ahead."

She made it to thirty-seven before losing track.

By Day Twenty-Seven, the construction crews had begun removing temporary structures. Material yards shrank.

Scaffolding disappeared from completed buildings. Debris wagons were replaced by carts carrying furnishings, equipment and decorative fixtures.

The repaired outer boundary no longer resembled the ruined garrison wall. Multiple controlled entrances now connected the complex to surrounding roads , with the main gate facing Western Crownway.

On Day Twenty-Nine, Sage deliberately stayed away.

Mina complained.

Boren approved because he claimed every visit somehow generated another invoice.

Sage simply wanted to see the completed result at once.

The following morning, they returned together.

Their carriage slowed before anyone spoke.

The Old Western Garrison was gone.

Where abandoned barracks, broken roads and collapsed warehouses had stood one month earlier, an enormous planned district now spread behind the reconstructed boundaries. Broad avenues could be seen beyond the main entrance.

Completed buildings rose on both sides, some several stories high, others large enough to occupy entire sections of the complex. Farther inside, the Grand Guild Hall dominated the central plaza, its enormous façade facing directly toward the entrance.

Beyond it rose the tower Mina had tried counting, now complete and stretching so high that people outside the property had stopped simply to stare upward.

Sage stepped down from the carriage.

Mina walked several paces toward the entrance before stopping, her head moving slowly as she tried to take everything in.

Construction workers were still leaving through secondary gates, but the great movement of the previous month had ended. Wagons no longer formed endless lines along Western Crownway.

The temporary offices were gone.

The main gates stood closed before them.

Sage approached.

For thirty days, he’d watched ruins become foundations and foundations become buildings. Yet standing here now, he finally understood that the System hadn’t built him a larger GuildHall.

It had built something closer to a city.

A familiar sound rang inside his mind.

[ DING! ]

The translucent interface appeared.

[Thirty-Day Construction Period Complete.]

[All primary construction objectives fulfilled.]

[B-Rank Kingdom Headquarters successfully established.]

[B-Rank Kingdom Headquarters Construction Complete.]