All roads lead to Rome.
Everyone has probably heard that saying at least once.
It also originated from the countless roads constructed during the ancient Roman era.
'The Roman Empire was truly obsessed with roads.'
Roads should be built as straight as possible.
They must connect every corner of the vast territory.
To achieve that, they didn't hesitate to tunnel through mountains or build bridges over valleys.
Rome was the empire that adhered most rigorously to that belief.
Thanks to that, they paved a total of 85,000 kilometers of roads.
They constructed roads long enough to wrap around the Earth more than two times along the equator.
"That's how important roads are. Do you know what factor affects land prices the most?"
"I'm not sure."
"Transportation. Transportation."
"..."
Lloyd's words continued amid Haviel's silence.
"Suppose you have a house. But the path from that house to the market is incredibly treacherous. You have to climb mountains, cross rivers, and even do bungee jumps. Every time you go out, your mental state screams 'starting eleven!' Would you want to live in a house like that?"
"It seems like it would be excellent training."
"..."
"If you climb mountains and swim every day, your basic stamina would become solid. I don't know what bungee jumping is, but if it's an extreme experience, it would make for great swordsmanship training."
"Tch, forget someone like you with a sword fetish. Let's talk about regular people."
"Hmm, that might be difficult."
"Right?"
"Yes."
"Now we're getting somewhere."
Lloyd satisfyingly curled up the corner of his mouth.
"It's not just houses. Territories are the same. Do you know what the biggest problem with our territory is?"
"In the past, it was you, Lord Lloyd."
"..."
"I don't know now."
"Ahem. Roads. Roads."
"Roads?"
"Yeah. Have you seen any properly paved roads in our territory?"
"No."
"Right? That's exactly it."
It was a fact.
There wasn't a single paved road in the Frontera Barony.
There were only rudimentary dirt paths where grass hadn't grown along frequently traveled routes.
He thought it was time to change that now.
Moreover, roads weren't just for ordinary transportation.
Lloyd had a far more important plan for utilizing roads.
"Anyway, you don't need to know what I'm planning right now. Could you step aside? I need to do some surveying."
He could show the reasons for building the road through the results anyway.
So now was the time for action, not explanations.
He waved his hand at Haviel.
He surveyed the terrain for the road placement.
'Laying asphalt would be best, but that's impossible here. With the technology available locally, the Via Appia is the most appropriate.'
Lloyd recalled the Via Appia from his liberal arts lecture.
It happened to be the topic he had researched and presented for a group assignment.
'The initial Roman road. The prototype and starting point of all the roads Rome built. Thanks to the Via Appia, Rome successfully conquered southern Italy. And that road is still sturdy even today.'
It was a road built over 2,000 years ago.
Yet it was still in perfect condition without major repairs.
It was a glimpse into the terrifying civil engineering prowess of ancient Rome.
Lloyd planned to construct such a Via Appia along the central area of the territory.
'From here to over there.'
From the entrance to the lord's mansion, straight through the territory to the distant eastern mountains.
It was the perfect section to serve as the main artery for the territory's future growth.
But before starting construction, there was work to be done.
Surveying and design.
'First, let's raise the skill levels a bit.'
Lloyd opened his skill window.
Ding-dong.
[Loading your possessed skill list.]
[Basic Surveying: Lv 2]
[Basic Design: Lv 2]
[Tool Proficiency Skill - (Shovel): Lv 1]
'Hmm, I need to invest more in the surveying and design skills.'
He had surveyed and designed a few ondol rooms so far.
Thanks to the accumulated experience, both skills had each risen by 1 level.
But this wasn't enough to survey and design roads.
'The surveying skill only covers 121㎡ per use. The design skill handles a measly 1,331㎥ in volume. Efficiency is too low like this.'
Wrinkles formed between Lloyd's brows.
It was true.
Just recently, he had tested how many times he could use skills in a row.
The result was less than satisfactory.
Ten times each for surveying and design was the limit.
Beyond that, extreme fatigue and dizziness hit him.
The skills naturally canceled out.
It even took nearly a full day to recover enough to use skills again.
In other words, at the current skill level, he could only survey 1,210㎡ of area and 13,310㎥ of volume per day.
'That's no good. The distance from here to that mountain is huge. To finish before the spring rains, I need to hurry even a little.'
Time was limited.
Fortunately, the RP he had accumulated was considerable.
[Current possessed RP: 659]
...No, it was enormously stacked.
'Sir Neumann deserves a gratitude ritual or something.'
It was thanks to the duel with Sir Neumann and dealing with him.
Favorability with many people had improved.
20 each from the baron couple.
2 from Haviel.
1 from Sir Bayern.
Plus 6 from the combined territory residents.
Thanks to that, he had raked in a whopping 507 RP in just that one day.
Even so, he hadn't spent RP recklessly.
Saving it would lead to a useful day.
With that belief, he had been thriftily hoarding RP until now.
And finally, the time to use the saved RP had come.
'Let's test by raising them one level each first.'
Lloyd shifted his gaze to the skill level-up button on one side of the skill window.
His gaze blinked toward the skill level-up button like a mouse click.
Ding-dong.
[Level-up possible skill list]
[Basic Surveying: Lv 2 → 3 (RP cost: 10)]
[Basic Design: Lv 2 → 3 (RP cost: 10)]
[Tool Proficiency Skill - (Shovel): Lv 1 → 2 (RP cost: 15)]
'Surveying and design first.'
He selected the two skills.
Ding-dong.
[Skill level-up!]
[Basic Surveying: Lv 3]
[Surveyable area per use: 144㎡]
[RP required for next level-up: 15]
[Basic Design: Lv 3]
[Designable structure volume per use: 1,728㎥]
[RP required for next level-up: 15]
[Current possessed RP: 639]
He could see the skills' effects had slightly improved.
But this wasn't enough to satisfy him.
'Might as well invest properly since I'm upgrading.'
Surveying and design were his lifeline.
No room to skimp on investment.
Lloyd boldly poured in his remaining RP.
The surveying and design skills rose steadily.
From Lv 3 to 4.
From 5 to 6.
Finally from 9 to 10.
Investing RP once more raised them to 11, and this time a slightly different message appeared.
Ding-dong!
[Skill grade up!]
[The surveying skill grade has risen to intermediate.]
[Skill options unlocked due to grade increase.]
[Intermediate Surveying: Lv 1]
[Surveyable area per use: 1,600㎡]
[Skill-exclusive option ①: Land Price Appraisal - Appraises the current land price per unit area of the surveyed terrain. (Error rate +/-5%)]
[Skill-exclusive option ②: Underground Scanning - Automatically scans the surveyed terrain up to 5 meters underground. Grasps all elements such as ground composition, soil quality, bedrock, groundwater, buried resources, etc., within the range.]
[RP required for next level-up: 100]
[The design skill grade has risen to intermediate.]
[Skill options unlocked due to grade increase.]
[Intermediate Design: Lv 1]
[Designable structure volume per use: 64,000㎥]
[Skill-exclusive option ①: Blueprint Output - Accurately outputs the designed result onto blueprints (designated paper, etc.).]
[Skill-exclusive option ②: Floor Plan Display (2D) - Displays the designed result as a 2D floor plan on the actual land. (Feature: Visible only to me)]
[RP required for next level-up: 100]
[Current possessed RP: 119]
'Whoa, jackpot.'
His eyes widened at the changed skill contents.
The massively consumed RP didn't even register.
'The surveying area and design volume have skyrocketed. But there's something even more amazing.'
Lloyd's gaze turned to the surveying skill-exclusive options.
Options created as the skill level surpassed basic Lv 10 and rose to intermediate.
The contents of those options were truly groundbreaking.
'Land appraisal? It literally lets me check the current market value of land, like a real estate app. And underground scanning too.'
Let's try it out.
Lloyd cast his gaze into the distance.
He activated the Intermediate Surveying skill.
'Survey.'
Tssst!
A faint blue light settled in Lloyd's eyes.
At the same time, the scenery he was looking at changed.
A 40m by 40m square area designated by his gaze.
Several pieces of information were added within that range.
The first was the estimated land sale price.
'No way... Is our territory's land this cheap?'
The area he was scanning now was the closest thing to a central district in the territory. Where the tavern and a few shops clustered together—a real gem, relatively speaking.
Yet the estimated sale price per pyeong was less than 1 gold!
'Tsk. Gotta step it up.'
He truly felt how rural the Frontera Barony was.
But that was just now.
As he developed the territory, land prices would naturally rise.
Lloyd focused on another piece of information from the surveying skill.
This time, it was the result of the underground scanning.
'Way better than expected?'
It was exactly as described in the skill option.
The underground up to 5 meters within the surveying range was crystal clear.
He could see how tree roots intertwined underground, the paths of groundwater flow, and even rabbit burrows scattered here and there.
Lloyd unconsciously swallowed.
'Amazing, seriously.'
Until now, the surveying skill only showed surface information.
He had no way of knowing what was underground without digging.
But that was resolved in one go.
'Especially useful for foundation work.'
Foundation work on-site is absolute.
Especially for large structures, foundations are even more crucial.
If the ground is a mess when building a large bridge or dam?
If proper foundation work isn't done accordingly?
The structure will soon show problems.
It tilts, cracks, or sinks.
Eventually, it collapses.
You might have to tear it down with tears in your eyes.
Spending a fortune to build something, only to pour more money into demolition to prevent further damage—a total disaster.
'But with automatic underground scanning, that happens way less. Foundation work time shortens too.'
He could check foundation progress in real-time.
Construction time drastically shortens.
Saving money on construction in turn.
'The design skill options are no joke either.'
Lloyd's gaze now turned to the two options created in the design skill.
'Blueprint output and floor plan display.'
He wanted to try them right away.
But Haviel was beside him now.
Spitting out blueprints with the design skill would make him look like a human printer.
'I'll try design when I'm alone.'
For now, surveying first.
Tssst!
From that day on, Lloyd devoted his days to surveying.
He calculated areas and surveyed paths for the road.
Over several days, he compiled all the collected info into data.
He transferred the data to the design skill.
If daytime was the stage for surveying, nighttime was for design.
When night came, he first put Haviel to sleep.
"The plastic limit (PL) is defined as the water content percentage when rolled dough-like soil into a 3.2mm (1/8 in.) thread shape until it crumbles. The plastic limit is the soil's... blah blah... and... just like determining the liquid limit... in detail... using a similar conical weight of 240g... the water content corresponding to d=20mm cone penetration... blablabla...."
"...Snore."
Once Haviel was completely out, he activated the design skill.
Based on the surveyed info, he designed the road route, cross-sections, etc.
And quietly output the blueprints so as not to wake Haviel.
Tzzzt!
He tested outputting blueprints on paper.
The designed blueprint from the skill printed perfectly onto the paper.
'Oh, it works. For real.'
Until now, he had to manually draw the skill-designed blueprints by hand.
It was tedious and laborious.
Accuracy dropped slightly too.
Now, outputting like a printer made it incredibly comfortable.
The skill option's power wasn't just that.
"Hey, Haviel. Do you see that?"
"Yes? See what?"
A few days later in the morning, Lloyd tested the skill option on Haviel at the planned road construction site.
He pointed to where the road would be built.
"That. Aren't there lines scribbled all over the ground?"
"I don't see anything like that. However..."
"However?"
"I'm a bit worried about Lord Lloyd's eye health, or perhaps mental health."
"You think I'm seeing things?"
"Yes."
"Huhu, got it."
"...?"
Lloyd laughed slyly.
Just as expected.
The result of last night's skill design.
The 2D floor plan engraved all over the site.
It was visible only to him.
'Perfect. I can do this.'
The surveying and design skills, far more powerful than expected.
Thanks to them, construction prep proceeded smoothly.
Now it was time to dive into full-scale construction.
(End of Chapter 20)
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