Chapter 2064: Sanctum of Constructs
A/N: Had too many meetings/presentations for my day job lately! 2ch/week resumes tomorrow! Sorry sorry
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The next was the Sanctum of Constructs, which was a beautiful dome-shaped building located in the middle of its own park. It was not often used even in Bleulle, so it served a lot like a landmark instead.
Very few actually chose this special building as its use was limited. How many people had access to blus and created legitimate aether blueprints?
Most would opt to choose the other special buildings, such as the Garden of Eternal Bloom or even those left behind in town level, like the Trade Hub and the Enchanter’s Guild, both highly sought-after buildings, but oftentimes unclaimed because there were no building slots remaining.
Among the cities, a very small fraction bought the Sanctum of Constructs. It was not only extremely expensive, but to maximize it, one had to have a number of Aether Blueprints first. How many could have this? Even if they did have it, how many times would they be able to do so?
Bluelle did not have this problem.
Bleulle had the materials. The rarest one, the Blu, was harvested in their own land.
The other materials could get extracted from nearby territories, all of which could be taken from subsidiaries or allies. Even if it weren’t, they’d just find a way to take over that territory, as they had done many times over the past hundred years.
Another limitation was the fact that it had to be a Class A aether blueprint for it to have a high chance of getting copied. Class B blueprints also had a chance, but it was more likely to fail and waste precious raw material and a rare successful blueprint.
However, Class A and Class B Architects had always been rare and expensive, and they could definitely only be found in cities.
For a time, Bleulle had the highest number of Aether Architects among cities. It had greatly reduced now with the reduction of Blu supplies and Bleumrick’s increasingly annoying tactics, but until now, it was still the preferred territory of anyone who awakened the architect profession in the region.
(Of course, this was already beginning to change due to Alterra, though at a slow pace because Alterra didn’t have much raw materials, either).
As for those who did not have the Sanctum but wanted to use it, they would just head to the Bleulle and pay another exorbitant amount of money to ’copy’ it to the system.
This was also quite lucrative. One had to know that the profit from buildings like this was not just on each transaction, but there was also a small royalty fee for each purchase in the system. If the building was upgradable, a portion of the upgrade cost also went to its associated creator.
Basically, Bleulle had the winning hand in terms of bleuprints. Sadly, after so many decades, it did not manage it well.
Had Bleumrick been smarter and had a wider breadth of thought, Bleulle would’ve risen to much greater heights by now. As it was now, it was barely considered a City. Once the Blus had completely run out and they couldn’t find a new industry to replace them, then the City would only decline further.
The disguised couple continued to walk around, observing the place, taking note of possible development directions as well as taking notes of negative examples, that was to say, things to avoid.
For the most part, Bleumrick’s mistakes were: He failed to establish more industries, and he failed to keep important talent. He had no one to blame but himself in this fall.
As for other things, it was bustling as one would expect it to be.
Cities had dense populations per square meters and had much higher average levels, so even the commonfolk had higher standards of living than their counterparts in lower territories.
This was why the streets were cleaner, fortunately. There were more people to clean a smaller per ratio area, and more people demanding it.
There were also a few extra aether buildings in Bleulle, built a while back at their peak, and these were the primary purpose of going around rather than heading straight to the Mercenary Hall.
They were mostly residential or commercial use (whether shop or hospitality-related), just that they differentiated the size and appearance of the buildings. The unit configuration should also be different.
She felt it was a bit of wastteful of good aether buildings, but she could understand. Innovation would’ve undoubtedly wasted huge amounts of raw materials and not everyone was willing to do so. Besides, if their minds weren’t open they naturally wouldn’t think about other avenues either.
They received an overview and list from the Golds before, but it wouldn’t hurt to see them in person.
In terms of aether buildings within a short period of time, there had been none who had done more than Bluelle. Once again, it was a pity. The territory could’ve been much more prosperous.
It was especially a pity now that caravans from here were heading to Alterra. Didn’t the lack of tourists in Bleulle mean there were lower new tourists in turn.
There were about five types of aether buildings in Bleulle, some of which was duplicated many times each.
Three types had relatively basic uses but were convenient. Other than that, there were few notable things.
This wasn’t a surprise as the locals had a relatively high number of aether blueprints back then but limited amount of ideas.
One of the buildings was their version of the Hotel, which gave a small passive of increasing status recoveries. The design was a bit quaint, though just a bit more intricate than the usual style of buildings here.
Alterra did not have this, but they could do something similar with their furniture alone.
For example, Baron’s woodworking shop had now expanded operations and could make tens of furnitures each day, many of which had effects. They invested in something like a homestay and used beds with effects, mimicking the effect of aether buildings.
The other two were a type of residence with four stories and another with six. There were several copies of the same one. Other than the large villas and palaces available in the system, these were the more expensive ones.
These buildings were registered in the sanctum, so they were also made available for purchase in towns and cities. As mentioned, the blueprint had to be Class A for the most part, which was the only reason why Bleuelle hadn’t had more options listed in the system.
Sadly, the architect who could make that level had already perished more than a decade ago. The person left was just a Class B architect (which was also very rare), but the chances of his blueprint being absorbed in the sanctum were so low that trying to use his blueprints was like using toilet paper—wasteful.
With the blu dwindling, might as well use the blueprint on their own turf.
The more interesting ones were the last two aether buildings, created a few decades ago and years apart.
One was a resort of sorts, which had a self-cleaning pool. It only cleaned to a certain threshold, though, so there was still a dedicated cleaner. The establishment was very exclusive and was only for nobles, understandably so.
It was similar to the bathhouse, but it was more open to the public, unisex, and clothed. The children could join their parents, so there were three pools with different depths and styles.
The other building was similar to the Training Hall, but naturally not as magical. Bleuelle didn’t have the Training Hall because they did not have enough slots to give to this building when it was available, but through the years people just forgot about it.
Bleulle was one of the fastest-growing territories, after all. The people here, at the time, were already preoccupied with the mobs and the wars.
By the time someone noticed that it was a useful building, all slots had been used, so they had no choice but to make an aether blueprint instead.
Sadly, it could not compare to the one already in the system, which was rumored to have been designed all the way during the elves’ time. It also required an aether crystal to power for a while, making the operations quite costly.
Still, this alternative was still used by teenagers and younger nobles to train, especially for those who were below level 10.
As for the other buildings available at City-level buildings, there was the Arcane Tower, the Defender’s Bastion, and the Garden of Eternal Bloom, among others.
Bleulle did not have them, which was natural due to the limited building slots. Fortunately, they were heading to another city. It would hopefully broaden their horizons further.
They still had time before they upgraded again. They truly wanted to see these buildings at work first.
There were also some conditional buildings, like the Barrier. Sadly, the inner circle was too guarded. Who knows when they’d be able to see it at work?
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