After sorting out the problem regarding herb supply, Sam went back to Philip.
"Post a recruitment order. We are recruiting people at all cultivation levels, but people at Nascent stage are preferred. We are getting new employees. Mention in the post that any form of expertise and any skills are appreciated. That might be as simple as cooking, carpentry to a.s.sa.s.sination and arson skills.
Apart from that, call the Architecture Artisan who was in-charge of the city"s construction, do not let that former tower-head know about this. Ask him to come alone and without informing anyone. If he does play any tricks, just deal with him.
Ask Watt to meet me."
With that Sam went back to his room.
After a few minutes Watt appeared and Sam started speaking.
"Recruit every orphan in the empire. I want all of them in the City in a few days, arrange the temporary residence within the inns, they can adjust a bit and place multiple people in a single room. If they are too many, arrange the residence in some of our arenas.
The maximum limit for recruitment is that they are fifteen years old or lesser and their cultivation limit should be Initiation stage. As for the minimum limit, even if they are infants you can recruit them.
Apart from that order some earth and wood element users under us to create a levelled place in the nearby woods.
In a week, it should be good enough for the construction to happen."
Watt nodded and went to execute the task. He doesn"t even have to make a move himself, with the network having this many branches, all he has to do is make a call and that would be it, but he decided he will take care of this task himself.
He kind of understood why Sam wanted these Orphans to come to the city and he felt that it is a great opportunity for those orphans who are suffering in slums.
He doesn"t want anyone of them to miss this opportunity. Even though, he picked up the cynicism from Sam, he still felt like he should handle this properly.
He just went for the earth element and wood element users and made sure to clear enough place in the woods according to Sam"s requirement.
After that, he stood on the Silver Wind as he flew away from the city to accomplish the other job. But before that, he did contact Jack who is the only one out of three without any extra jobs to receive orphans through trains.
With that the new mission began.
After an hour or so, Sam is in a meeting room with the Architecture artisan who is in charge of the construction of city.
It has already been quite a while since they met, but Sam hasn"t spoken anything, he just looked at the artisan as if he was searching the latter"s soul. The latter obviously felt uncomfortable.
After a long time, he picked up the courage to speak.
"Sir Sam. May I know why you called me here?"
He asked nervously. He is a Pre-transcendent cultivator, with a variant of earth element, he is quite strong himself and his architecture skills speaks for themselves, he was able to accomplish the task of building this huge city.
"You are a Rank-6 Artisan. What does that t.i.tle mean to you?"
Sam asked after his long silence.
"What do you mean?"
"I meant exactly what I asked. What does that t.i.tle mean to you?"
He thought for a brief moment and said.
"It is an evaluation of my expertise. Without that no one would acknowledge my skills no matter how good I am."
"I have an offer for you and I am offering this chance to you only because I acknowledged your expertise and skills not because of your rank. Do you want to take it?"
"Please do tell."
"Resign from the Artisan a.s.sociation."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me. Resign from the Artisan tower and join the network truly, I will give you the chance to explore a new world of architecture. Something that is beyond the information and skills you can pick up from the artisan a.s.sociation even with the thousands of years of its research.
I will open the door for that new world."
"You are also an Artisan, why are you asking me to relinquish my t.i.tle?"
Sam took out his badges and said. "As you said, these things are the evaluations which the society follows. I was just a weak cultivator when I explored the Orion and climbed my ranks up. These badges are a necessary hindrance for my enemies as well as a resourceful key for me to open some new doors.
But at my current position they mean nothing to me. They are nothing but sc.r.a.ps of metals."
"Why are you asking me to do this?"
"Because, the professional a.s.sociations are my enemies, there is no war at this moment, but that wouldn"t remain the same in the future. And I do have to mention that four former tower heads just betrayed me and sold all my designs to the a.s.sociations. I don"t know what they got in exchange, but you should know what they will get from me."
The Artisan gulped when he heard this.
He does know how savage Sam can be, in his view Sam is a mad man. Who would construct such a city and even name it after themselves? but Sam did exactly that.
Even though, he felt that way, he did feel glad that he got an opportunity to construct a city like this and the most amazing thing in that process is the things he learned through the blue prints and the design.
He improved a lot.
He felt glad that Sam chose to do business with Artisan a.s.sociation, but now he is going to sever ties.
No, that is not right, it would be more accurate to say, the former leaders wanted to sever ties.
He kind of understood their actions though. They might have thought that with the a.s.sociation"s backing they can take over the whole network, but he has other thoughts.
He felt that the tower heads are stupid. If the a.s.sociation can really take down Sam that easily, why would they even have to contact the tower heads to get the designs, they would have gone to Sam directly and took the designs with force.
From the incident of Old One, he has some understanding of Sam"s strength. He doesn"t have the strongest cards in the world, but he is sure of one thing, Sam would take some people who are at the top of the world along with him, if he was to die.
It is foolish to make Sam an enemy.
Looking at him in deep thoughts, Sam didn"t want to force him and said.
"I will not force you, but I do value talented and skilled people, I will give a chance to all of them, but there will be some cleaning within the city.
So, you better pick your choice. Even if you don"t want to resign, you should know who to keep your distance from and you might have to leave the city. You have a week to decide.
By the way, you should know to keep quiet, right?"
For the rest of day, Sam had many meetings with many people.
He has his eye on many people, as for the rest, they will be dismissed along with the partnership with the a.s.sociations.
Since, he would be able to recruit these people for himself, he doesn"t need the a.s.sociation"s help.
Anyway, currently all the factory workers and other staff are under the network, they have nothing to do with the four towers.
He can easily maintain the network by himself without breaking a sweat. The four tower had outlived their usage a long time ago, but he didn"t kick them to curb, since he agreed to partnership as he wanted to honor his words.
Now they made the first move towards burning the bridges, they set the bridge on fire, he would just add fuel to that flame.
He would show them what it means to betray him.
Meanwhile, Sam has to convince some other person to join him.
He went to the room Sirona was in.
She didn"t come out of this room, since the time they have had that discussion, she holed herself up in that room.
He didn"t disturb her and neither did anyone in the building.
After this long time, Sam knocked on her door.
"Who is it?" She asked in a cold tone.
"Sam."
There is a brief silence and the answer came.
"Come in."
Sam entered the room only to see her sitting a chair near the window looking outside. The formation simulator is placed in front of her on a small table.
He just stood there and spoke.
"What are your plans for the future?"
"None." The answer is almost instantaneous.
Sam could understand the grief behind that one word.