"First, I need some unit of measure. Let's see." She opens the scroll with general knowledge about commerce. "Acha. I remember it right. They have inches, feet, yards, and so on, but can’t agree on standardization. Oh well." She smiles. "Time for something that upset a lot of people. I want an oak bar that is the average length of all the lengths of one yard, excluding the kingdoms on the side of evil gods." Surprisingly, it takes a few moments before it materializes. "Uff. For a moment, I started thinking that I broke something." Next, she carefully divided its length by three, then shorter length by twelve. "Good. Now I have my personal dungeon yard, foot and inch. It should be enough for the first floor."
"Next, I need a map of the oasis." A bird's eye view of her house appeared. In the center was a statue of the goddess, next to it was a pond, and here and there, some palm trees and bushes. Naturally, everywhere was sand, lots of sand. "Nice start. I need a grid based on my yard. Zoom in and out." She trays. "Good, it works. It's time for some simcity."
"Let's see. Underground Oasis is interesting, but it has a Diune vibe. I like this book, but it's a little depressing. The tower is tempting, and I agree with god that it could work like a lighthouse. I know how to build it tall, but it will have the Tower of Babel feel, especially since I will need to build higher and higher. So yes, I will stick with my first plan. "Arabian Nights"."
The first statue was surrounded by a platform in the shape of a circle and a radius of one and a half yards. It was a big raised flower bed, but now, only two desert bushes. Naomi was hoping that they would grow eventually around the statue. The pond of water was also left as it was. Next, she goes big and claims everything in a mile radius. "That was hard." She sits for a moment to catch her breath. After a short break, she continued her work. She decided on a fifty-yard-wide stretch of wild grassland around the shrine. She hopes there will be enough space for religious events and ceremonies. It was full of wildflowers, clovers, and other typical common plants. Around it, she placed a three-yard-wide stone pavement. From there, in four mine geographical directions and four in the middle, she also placed three yards wide stone pavement straight to the border of the land, she claims. Where roads end, she placed towers with typical Arabic domes on them. Towers had multiple roles; there were gates and warehouses where food and medical supplies would be stored for caravans, and it would be a lighthouse. By day, the gold-plated dome will reflect sunlight. And at night, it will be a lighthouse. On the last floor of the tower, she will make a place for a big fire, or maybe she will find some magical solution. Towers were also big, well for her, not much, but for locals, they could be. The base was sixty yards wide and thirty yards high. With a dome and spire, the total height was eighty yards. She made five-yard thick walls because she had a hunch that gods didn't tell the whole truth about the situation in the north. And there was always a chance for some mad emperor wanting to conquer the world. The first floor was nine yards high and was just a big space with two circles of columns supporting the ceiling. The inner has six columns, and the outer has twelve columns with two yards in diameter each. On both sides were stairways and simple lifts. It was a wooden wheel high, almost up to the ceiling. Two humans will be walking inside and moving the platform through a system of pulleys. Gates had six yards in width and eight yards high with an Arabic arch, too. They can be closed by one-foot thick oak gate wings with steel fitting. And they were sliding doors placed in three-foot-deep groves. Under the wings were wheels, so moving them was easy. Three sliding one-foot thick oak bars moved by simple gearing will be as a lock. The gap in the threshold was also covered by thick oak planks for safety.
"Hmm, the gate should be big enough for elephants."
Towers also have four floors, four yards high each. The first three were designed to hold supplies for caravans. The last one was the lookout and lighthouse. The ceiling was supported by three rows of columns one yard wide each. The first row had six columns, the second eight columns, and the third twelve columns. Domes she made from steel trusses with riveted gold diamond-shaped plates. On the spire, she hangs banners. On top was green with the silhouette of a tree representing The Lady, and lower was yellow with an anvil and hammer representing The Smith. Towers were connected by a wall, ten yards tall and thick.
Towers and walls were built from interconnecting stone blocks. They look quite like Lego or those concrete blocks for fast building retention walls. The granite stone blocks were five yards long, two and a half high and wide. The exterior of walls and towers was clad with lapis lazuli tiles. Naomi loves the look of the Gate of Ishtar, and the deep blue color matches perfectly with the sand and golden domes. Next to the walls on the inner side, she built stables with enough space for a few hundred animals. She also includes food for them and water. Beside them, opposite the stone road, she designed a hundred yards wide meadows where people could pitch their tents. They were fountains with fresh water and stacks of wood for fire. Everything between the shrine and camping ground was designed for orchards with every possible fruit tree and bush. She also placed it next to the southern gate, the entrance to her dungeon. The entrance will be classical, with a cave and stone stairs leading down. Designing was easy, but building was another story. Size and almost obsessive care for details forced Naomi to have countless breaks, Her hard work rewarded her not only with a beautiful oasis but also a level up of strength and stamina.
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"That's nice." She smiled after checking her path. "Ok, I need only one more thing, and the floor will be ready." She cleared her throat and said. "This entire floor will be a safe zone, and the champion of this floor will be a tomcat called Bandit. Catch him, and you will be rewarded. The winner will be a barrel of the finest ale, vine, or fruit juice. And you, Bandit." She crouched down and scratched behind the ear, the most normal cat ever. He was black with some white patches. "Be yourself." The cat meowed and ran somewhere. A year later, the cat will be known as the scourge of On-Taram Oasis and one of the few impossible challenges.
"Time for the second floor." Naomi stretched. "Average yard was good upstairs, but I need something better." She declared and went to her benches. "Ok, what I read in scrolls, people of this world have general ideas about the size of their world. They can't agree on how to measure it. Let's help them." Naomi smiled. "I need an oak rod equal to the length measured from the equator to the south pole divided by ten thousand." This time, the rod materializes instantaneously. She compares the length of her average yard with her new unit rod. The new one was three feet and four inches and a little long. Earth one meter was three and a half inches long, but local yards and Theneya cannot have the same dimensions as the Earth. "Great, this will be Theneya meter. I need to mark centimeters on it, and I will have my metric system." She declares, and instantaneously, she feels warm like earlier when she leveled up her stamina and strength. Naomi opened her path, and in titles, she found new annotation:
Watched by the Junos, god of knowledge and secrets. You recreate, from your past life, a standardized measurement unit and the whole system. Your work, when discovered, will help scholars understand the world, and the kingdoms will flourish.
"There's no mention of me doing something wrong, so it should be fine, right?" She closed the display. "Yes, everything is ok." She added confidently. "Maybe I have a free hand, but I'm sure that gods will react immediately if I do something wrong. If nothing happens, that means everything is ok. Let's get back to work."
First, she made a rough sketch of the second floor. Twelve rooms are arranged around the central one with the shrine of The Smith in a grid pattern. She doesn't plan anything fancy, only the usual statue of god and anvil as an altar, and only this room will be without any trap. The entrance and exit will be on opposite sides. All rooms will be connected, but she added doors that opened randomly to make the trek through the floor unpredictable. Naomi, for the moment, was thinking about what she could do extra to slow down adventures.
"Yes, let’s do that." She smiled and added one extra room. It was connected to room number seven through hidden doors in the corner. The thirteenth room, however, wasn't a vault with treasure, it was another trap room specially designed for greedy people. She added a clue to the hidden room by adding a number above the entrance. The number explained which room you were entering out of thirteen. The entire floor was made from steel, iron, and brass, with little gold, silver, or copper for minor details. Naomi wasn't an artist but tried to make her designs look good. Traps were also made of metal and rather generic, but She tried to include some gears and simple mechanisms. Naomi meticulously designed and tested every trap to see if they worked properly. All rooms were lit by lanterns with brightly glowing magical stones. It was the only good option, in her opinion. Torches, candles, and oil lamps leave soot on walls and ceilings. Yes, she can use magic for cleaning, but it will look wrong. Naomi had enough knowledge about electricity to recreate it easily with only a little help from magic. But the lightbulb would be even worse, and she had a feeling that it would be an abuse of the hospitality of the gods. Yes, they want innovation and progress, but new things should be introduced step by step. Otherwise, this world will end like Earth, where the rush for new things makes lives unpredictable. Very few people know how things work, which ends in the alienation of the elderly or other groups of people.
"Yes, this floor looks good too." Naomi decided after creating everything to double-check. "Time for the main boss." Naomi sights. She doesn't like it. She must choose an animal to fight and die for her. No matter how dangerous. She associated it with illegal dog fighting, which was rightly banned. "Maybe I find something in scrolls. Some loophole or forgotten rule?"
