172: Chapter 172 Road Repair

The Lionheart Merchant Guild gave him such a precious item for free, so it was understandable that Drus became a loyal supporter of the guild.

In fact, due to the emergence of the Lionheart Merchant Guild, many people’s lives were changed, and Drus was just one of the most prominent among them.

People like Prince Hart, weren’t their destinies also changed by the arrival of the Lionheart Merchant Guild?

Additionally, the Lionheart Merchant Guild truly selling so many precious items completely attracted the attention of many people.

Including the Lia Kingdom, the other five major kingdoms with Lionheart Merchant Guild branches all experienced enormous changes and became turbulent due to the appearance of the Lionheart Merchant Guild.

Arthur was unaware of these things, but he didn't care either.

He established the Lionheart Merchant Guild simply to make money; as long as it didn't affect his earnings, Arthur wouldn't do anything superfluous.

At this time, he was still busy building the Lionheart Kingdom and had no free time.

After all, in Arthur's eyes as a modern person, the former Kate Kingdom was too backward.

Although constrained by the overall environment, Arthur couldn't change its fundamental feudal system, he could still implement measures beneficial to national development.

After completing the construction of the new army and new government officials, Arthur had completely taken control of the entire country.

He was now thinking of repairing the roads across the kingdom.

As an old saying goes, if you want to get rich, first build roads.

The road conditions in the kingdom before, except for the main roads between major cities which were barely passable, all others were bumpy dirt roads, greatly affecting transportation efficiency.

Therefore, people in the past had also thought about building roads, but ordinary road construction methods were too costly and slow.

Unless Earth Elementalists were hired; they were professionals at this.

Earth Elementalists could build cities with ease, so building roads was a piece of cake.

By directly casting the 'Mud to Stone' spell, the original dirt roads could instantly become stone slab roads comparable to solid rock.

An Earth Element Master could change the terrain within a few hundred meters with a single spell; this speed was much faster than in his previous life.

If the road was too narrow, it could be widened directly with magic, no digging required.

The idea was good, but mages also had the title of 'Grandfather Mage,' and inviting them to build roads was even more expensive than ordinary road construction methods.

This also led to most of the roads in the kingdom remaining bumpy.

However, while hiring Earth Elementalists to build roads might be difficult for others, for Arthur, who could purchase Earth Element Masters...

As long as he was willing to spend the money to buy them, their subsequent use would be almost free.

The cost was greatly reduced.

Arthur now even had the idea of directly building highways, after all, digging tunnels and building bridges were also specialties of Earth Elementalists, and winding roads wasted too much time.

Thinking of it, he acted. After arranging the affairs of the Lionheart Merchant Guild, Arthur began to arrange matters concerning road and bridge construction in the kingdom.

First, he needed to determine how many Earth Element Masters were required.

The Earth Elementalists Arthur could purchase were Magister-level. With full mana, they could cast about thirty 'Mud to Stone' spells. Considering that one spell could affect an area of about three hundred meters...

That meant, under normal circumstances, an Earth Element Master could build nine kilometers of road after exhausting all their mana.

Then, their mana recovery might take three to four hours.

Considering physical fatigue, allowing an Earth Element Master to recover mana three times a day meant one person could build twenty-seven kilometers of road.

In his previous life, one province had approximately six thousand kilometers of highways, and Arthur planned to follow this standard.

Currently, the kingdom had six provinces, which meant thirty-six thousand kilometers of highways.

If one person built it, it would take about three years.

But if a hundred people built it, it would only take about two weeks.

However, roads couldn't be built however one wished; they also needed to be surveyed to determine the construction plan.

After all, Arthur wanted to build highways, which would certainly be different from the kingdom's old road routes, requiring new planning.

So Arthur set himself a deadline of one month.

After determining the number of Earth Element Masters he needed, Arthur was ready to purchase them.

An Earth Element Master corresponds to a Knight-level Earth Knight, costing one million gold coins to purchase.

For Arthur now, this was a trifle; the Lionheart Merchant Guild could probably bring him billions in profit in a month.

So he quickly spent one hundred million gold coins to purchase one hundred Earth Element Masters.

Then he summoned the current new Chancellor, France, one of the Mermaid Legend Mages Arthur had summoned before.

Speaking of which, ever since Arthur reformed officials and replaced important positions in the kingdom with thousands of people he summoned, Arthur had completely become a hands-off manager.

As Chancellor, France had been constantly busy.

After calling France over, Arthur saw a hint of fatigue on her face.

One must know that France was a Legendary Mage, and for her to show a hint of fatigue, it seemed managing a country was truly not an easy task.

Now he had to add more burdens to France, and Arthur felt a little embarrassed inside, but in order to make the Lionheart Kingdom develop better, he still had to trouble France.

Thinking of this, Arthur directly explained the situation to France, who had already arrived before him.

“France, you've worked hard recently!”

“It is my honor to serve Your Majesty!”

Hearing Arthur's concern, France's already beautiful face immediately filled with smiles.

Even that hint of fatigue had disappeared.

Seeing France's strong reaction to his praise, Arthur couldn't help but sigh inwardly again.

The Portable Shop is truly wonderful! It’s truly fortunate to have a subordinate like France!

After a brief moment of emotion, Arthur returned to the main topic.

“France, today I suddenly realized that the road problem in the Lionheart Kingdom is urgent.

Most of the roads in the kingdom are bumpy dirt roads, which severely affect transportation efficiency and the normal lives of the people, hindering the kingdom's economic development.

Therefore, I have specially summoned one hundred Earth Element Masters for you to command. I hope you can re-plan and construct the roads in the kingdom within one month.

What do you think?”

“Road construction is indeed a big problem!”

At this point, France paused slightly, glancing over the hundred Earth Element Masters neatly lined up in the hall.

She suddenly understood what these extra hundred Earth Elementalists were for.

“However, with such great support from Your Majesty, I believe I will definitely give Your Majesty a satisfactory answer within a month!”

Seeing France's confident appearance, Arthur felt relieved, but the roads he wanted to build were different from the usual roads, so he couldn't help but remind her:

“The roads I need to build should be as straight as possible, so that travel between two places will be faster, instead of changing routes due to terrain as in the past.

Build bridges when you encounter ravines or rivers, and bore tunnels when you encounter mountains. Do you understand?”